Ai confini tra Sardegna e Jazz 2008: Viva La Black
Recorded in Sant'Anna Arresi (Cagliari-Italy), Piazza del Nuraghe on tuesday 2 September 2008
OU: I have had many doubts on how to title/credit this torrent: too many musicians involved. The official record "Viva La Black Live at Ruvo" (ogun CD 020, 2004) is credited to "Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Louis Moholo-Moholo & Canto Generàl", but in this concert a (slightly) different orchestra was used. Also note that when Ottaviano introduces this show (track02), he names this project as "Viva La Black": here is a partial translation "Viva La Black, this project was born in 2004, due to a meeting of a group of italian musicians with Keith Tippett and Louis Moholo". We should note that it would be incorrect to call them simply Viva La Black, because none of the original musicians (except for Moholo) or repertory (now based mainly on Tippett's tunes) are now present.
Keith Tippett, pianoforte, conduction;
Pino Minafra, trompet, conduction;
Luca Calabrese, trumpet;
Vito Mitoli, trumpet;
Roberto Ottaviano, soprano and alto saxophone;
Sandro Satta, alto saxophone;
Carlo Actis Dato, tenor saxophone;
Rossano Emili, baritone saxophone;
Lauro Rossi, trombone;
Gianpiero Malfatto, trombone;
Beppe Caruso, trombone;
Livio Minafra, keyboards;
Giovanni Maier, bass;
Louis Moholo-Moholo, drums;
Vincenzo Mazzone, drums;
Valentina Casula, voce;
Sylvie Ah Moye, voce;
Sandrine Seubille, voce
Julie Tippetts, voce;
=====tracklist is identical to official cd "Viva La Black Live at Ruvo" (ogun CD 020, 2004)
I left an interesting radio introduction in ITALIAN as track00, with bio notes - it runs for 6'08".
t00-radio intro by Pino Saulo 06:08
t01-Mra [Dudu Pukwana] 05:21
t02-introduction by Ottaviano 01:57
t03-Thoughts to Geoff [Keith Tippet] 09:30
t04-Dedicated to Mingus [Keith Tippet] 04:47
t05-Mongezi Feza [Keith Tippet] 04:38
t06-Four Whispers for Archie's Chair [Keith Tippet] 04:24
t07-Traumatic Experience [Harry Miller] 07:14
t08-Cider Dance [Keith Tippet] 03:34
t09-A Song [Keith Tippet] 03:53
t10-Dancing Damon [Harry Miller] 03:57
t11-Septober Energy [Keith Tippet] 11:15
t12-band's intro by Ottaviano 01:24
t13-You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cause You Think You Know Me [Mongezi Feza] 05:52
t14-'ncosy sikeleli africa [Enoch Sentonga - South African National Anthem] 04:09
t15-bands intro & greetings 00:51
t16-radio outro 00:14
running time (including radio intro): 79'09"
FM radio broadcast by "Il Cartellone - Radio 3 Suite Jazz", Radio 3 RAI [third channel of Italian national radio], on monday 5 January 2009, 20:49 hours.
Lineage: ITT HiFi4060 Tuner > Audacity 1.3.5 Beta via C-Media CMI8738/C3DX soundcard > 16bit flac (level 8)
Some history…
So, you think this is a performance by the band Viva la Black? Close, but no cigar.
Louis Moholo-Moholo has been flying the Viva la Black banner since at least the mid 80s when Moholo first formed a group with Sean Bergin, Thebe Lipere, Claude Deppa, Robert Bellatalla & Steve Williamson, releasing the debut eponymous Viva la Black album in 1988 (Ogun OG533 LP, now out of print and sadly never reissued on CD). The core group of Moholo/Bergin/Lipere/Deppa continued on in this form until the mid 1990s with the likes of Frank Douglas, Paul Rogers, Toby Delius, Jason Yarde and Pule Pheto also passing through the ranks at various times. One other studio album Exile (Ogun OGCD 003) was released in 1991 before the group saw Louis make his triumphant return tour to South Africa in 1993; almost 30 years after his self-imposed exile began. This tour was later documented on the superb Freedom Tour album (Ogun OGCD 006) a collage of cleverly crossfaded best takes from a variety of performances mixed together to give the impression of one continuous joyous riot of sound. Another studio album was laid down in 1995 with Francine Luce also joining the group, however for reasons never made clear this album was shelved, only finally seeing release as Bra Louis, Bra Tebs in 2006 (Ogun OGCD 017/018, packaged as a two CD set with the long overdue reissue of Moholo’s exceptional pre-VlB 1978 album Spirits Rejoice!). Additionally, for this release the VlB name was retired in favour of the simpler Louis Moholo-Moholo Septet.
Due to the up-front presence of Lipere’s percussion and vocals Viva la Black was always a very African sounding jazz group, fusing Xhosa music forms with exuberant jazz orchestrations and a healthy dose of unbridled spontaneity. A further Africanised Brotherhood of Breath if you will.
Material-wise, a great deal of the original VlB songbook was made up of original Moholo material, traditional folk forms arranged by Moholo and songs written by his compatriots in exile. The band would also occasionally mix in standards such as What a Wonderful World and Roland Kirk’s Volunteered Slavery with their usual set, though the VlB signature would always ensure these standards never sounded tired, and often sounded totally original in themselves.
When Moholo relaunched the Viva la Black banner in 2004 it was as a very different beast. Gone were all of the musicians involved in the original era, as was the bulk of the material. Instead it would be a new collaborative venture with Keith Tippett and Julie Tippetts, drawing most of the material from Keith’s back catalogue, along with a handful of adapted arrangements carried over from each musician’s time with the Dedication Orchestra. The only remnants from the original VlB era are an adaptation of the South African National Anthem, and a few of the “compatriot” tunes that were common to both Dedication Orchestra and the original VlB group. Sadly, none of Moholo’s own original compositions, nor his arrangements of traditional tunes made the cut.
Keith Tippett’s chosen material for this project is a virtual greatest hits package, mixing material from across his broad career. As is usual with Tippett, themes are likely to pop up in unexpected places, and in the wrong order. I’ve long been under the impression that Keith considers his entire catalogue as studies for his next projects. Never is any piece of Tippett music totally finished and done with.
Instead of recruiting a new band to join the trio, a decision was made to hire an existing one to play under the VlB banner; enter Pino Minafra and his group Canto General (along with the Farualla Singers), and later (as on this recording) the smaller Minafric Orchestra. As Minafra was running the Ruvo festival in 2004 he missed out on playing with the band at that event, something he had the opportunity to rectify with encore performances this year at two festivals in France. Last year’s release of the Live at Ruvo CD (Ogun OGCD 020), the only official document of the group in action, is sadly lacking this key member’s musical contributions. It is fortunate then that this new recording exists (albeit only as a bootleg at this point) to give us the opportunity to hear Minafra take his place on the stage beside the group he was instrumental in forming.
In the Italian trumpeter’s ensembles Moholo and the Tippetts have found the perfect complement to the spirited music presented here. Both Minafra-led groups are capable of embracing the type of rambunctious expressionism essential to make this music work, and which is so often lacking in many recordings/performances.
So, it’s a different Viva la Black at Grenoble for sure, but by no means is it a lesser Viva la Black.
links require copy and paste to browser
rapidshare.com:
http://lix.in/-691593
or
http://lix.in/-6f300d
http://lix.in/-70b6ae
http://lix.in/-62fb0f
http://lix.in/-6481b0
http://lix.in/-660851
http://lix.in/-678ef2
or
http://vkkkcz.link-protector.com
http://vkkkcn.link-protector.com
http://vkkkcc.link-protector.com
http://vkkkcr.link-protector.com
http://vkkkcs.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrx.link-protector.com
megaupload:
http://lix.in/-70b6c2
or
http://lix.in/-6481ba
http://lix.in/-66085b
http://lix.in/-678efc
http://lix.in/-69159d
http://lix.in/-6a9c3e
http://lix.in/-6c22df
or
http://vkkkrw.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrv.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrk.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrm.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrz.link-protector.com
http://vkkkrn.link-protector.com
Comments welcome.