Charles Mingus - Mingus At Carnegie Hall

barabara sounds sez:

The great great Mingus jamming live with an all-star cast featuring five — count them — top sax players (Hamiet Bluiett was in the Mingus band at the time; the other four were guests), not to mention the greatest stritch player that ever lived... Enjoy it! You can tell the musicians themselves did!

AMG sez:

Atlantic Records, somewhat perversely, chose to release two performances from this concert that had the strongest aura of "jam session" about them. But the show included a solid opening set by the working band of the time, as well as a freer finale, all of which remains unissued. This is a fun 45 minutes, particularly for the jovial interplay between saxophonists Kirk and Adams, but in its released form, only hints at the strength of The Jazz Workshop in 1974.

an amazon reviewer sez:

This live recording captures the essence of Mingus' larger band excursions and is somewhat more improvised than many of his other larger band dates. For one the inclusion of Hamiet Bluiett adds a free sense that is not usually evident in a Mingus recording. Also the ever changing Rahsaan Roland Kirk equally adds color to this Mingus' lineup. The band takes Duke Ellingtons "C Jam Blues" and changes the whole texture and face of the song turning it into a partially improvised tour de force that features Bluietts baritone sax work and kirks tenor and stritch. The other tune is a masterfull take on "Perdido" and it is equally exciting. The amazing thing about this date is Mingus' ability to assemble the best players in jazz in one band and come up with something as good as this. I only wish that I had been there to witness this incredible live performance.

Track listing:

SIde 1. C Jam Blues (24:32)

Side 2. Perdido (21:53)

Personnel:

Charles Mingus bass; Georges Adams tenor sax; Hamiet Bluiett baritone sax; Don Pullen piano; Dannie Richmond drums

Guest artists: Jon Faddis trumpet; John Handy alto and tenor sax; Rahsaan Roland Kirk tenor sax, stritch; Charles McPherson alto sax

Recorded January 19, 1974 at Carnegie Hall, NYC

sunny murray's untouchable factor - "apple cores"

barabara sounds sez:

Spiritual, righteous, rare. What more can you say about this album? Just look at all the people involved... This is ripped from the CD reissue of the Baystate album (though the cover art was lifted from the philly jazz imprint which I found here on Discogs). Enjoy... I think you will!

If this is your bag, then go check out Charred Earth, which Sunny Murray recorded with a very different, smaller version of the 'untouchable factor' aggregation, also for Baystate. It's available over here...

dusty sez:

One of the hippest, tightest sessions ever recorded by drummer Sunny Murray -- a large group set recorded with his Untouchable Factor group -- a great ensemble that includes Frank Foster on soprano sax, Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe on alto saxes, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone, Don Pullen on piano, and Cecil McBee and Fred Hopkins on bass! The sound is somewhat straighter than Murray's free jazz of a few years before -- almost in the mode that Foster was exploring with some of his large ensembles of the 70s -- a platform for righteous jazz expression, but in a way that's still tied together strongly with a sense of rhythm. Other players on the group include the enigmatic Youseff Yancy on a host of instruments, including theremin -- plus the under-recorded Monette Sudler on guitar. Some tracks are a bit more outside than others -- and titles include "Past Perfect Tense", "One Down & One Up", "Applebluff", "Apple Cores", and "New York Maze".

Sunny Murray: drums; Frank Foster: soprano sax (1, 2, 3); Oliver Lake: alto sax (2); Jimmy Vass: alto sax (1, 3); Don Pullen: piano (1, 2, 3); Monnette Sudler: guitar (1, 2, 3, 4); Cecil McBee: bass (1, 2, 3); Fred Hopkins: bass (4); Hamiet Bluiett: baritone sax (4); Arthur Blythe: alto sax (4); Abdul Zahir Batin: flute, whistles, percussion (5); Youseff Yancy: trumpet, flugelhorn, theremin, various electro-acoustical sound manipulating devices (1, 3, 4, 5); Sonny Brown: drums (5)

Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender

dusty sez:

Lester Bowie's no pretender here -- as he really sounds great as a leader on his own, away from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago -- really finding his voice in music, and dipping into a full range of styles and expressions! Bowie's keen wit and sensitivity both come into play here -- and the album's a bit more open and free than his Brass Fantasy years -- almost hearkening back to elements of his St Louis scene, but with a bit more dynamism overall.

amazon sez:

Bowie stretches the title tune to over 16 minutes with an artful and witty exploration of trumpet sounds, from brassy declarations to low blasts to half-valve techniques that sound like muttered asides. With backup vocals by Fontella Bass and David Peaston and a raucous baritone saxophone interlude by Hamiet Bluiett, the Platters' doo-wop classic becomes suspended between kitsch and concerto. On the rest of the CD, Bowie is backed by a very creative rhythm section of underrated players, Donald Smith on piano and organ, Fred Williams on acoustic and electric basses, and Phillip Wilson on drums. Together they range skillfully from the camp of "It's Howdy Doody Time" to the free jazz of "Doom?" to the Latin funk of "Rios Negroes."

barabara sounds sez:

Amen.

Music Revelation Ensemble - Knights of Power

barabara sounds sez:

The Music Revelation Ensemble make a righteous funky noise, propelled as ever by James Blood Ulmer who has a great line-up with him here: Amin Ali and Cornell Rochester as the rhythm section, with Arthur Blythe and Hamiet Bluiett sharing sax duties. The tracks that grab me are Noise And Clamor and Father Of Flame – but they're all kick-ass (as TJ says in his review). As far as I know this excellent album (1995) was only released in Japan and is well OOP.

On ebay I've seen this offered for substantial bucks: here it's yours for the price of a comment. [And remember no comment is in itself a comment :–)]

More info on the Music Revelation Ensemble here...

allmusic (Thom Jurek) sez:

James Blood Ulmer's sporadic and ever-evolving Music Revelation Ensemble has featured at one time or another everyone from David Murray and Roland Shannon Jackson to John Zorn and the late George Adams. The results have been spotty as well, but when Blood is on in this band, his true jamming unit, there's none better. This disc is one example of that power with a rhythm section consisting of Amin Ali on bass and Cornell W. Rochester on drums, and two guests saxophonists who go by the names Arthur Blythe (whose landmark Lennox Avenue Breakdown facilitated Ulmer getting a Columbia Records contract in the 1970s) and Hamiet Bluiett, splitting the eight tunes between them. Funk is the root key of everything here, slipped grooves and underhanded bass riffs kick the tunes off before a melody line gets stated played jointly usually by Ulmer and either Blythe or Bluiett, and then it's off to the stratosphere while never losing the groove. Ulmer's guitar work on this disc is truly astonishing as he plays lead and rhythm at the same time, chasing the train and keeping the groove. Standouts on the set are "The Day Of" and "Confusion," as well as "Father of Flame." On each of these selections, Ulmer and his rhythm section create wide spaces for the horn players to move around in. Once the saxists are established in their improvisations, Ulmer will stab through the mix with another idea of dimensional scale and either Blythe or Bluiett will be given the responsibility of opening that up. Blood eventually comes in for his solo and understates it while introducing yet another length of the harmolodic lyrical chain. In each case, it's amazing that the band finds its way back to the root, the groove never having been absent. Along with No Wave, this is the best of the Music Revelation Ensemble's recordings; it kicks ass.