Lenox Avenue Breakdown- Arthur Blythe (Columbia)
Blythe. a saxophonist who's done time with drummer Chico
Hamilton's group and the New York jazz scene is the most interesting player of
the instrument around. Where most saxists make the choice of the kind of music
they want to play and seldom, if ever, stray to other styles, Blythe's sound is
an engagingly eclectic mixture that he bonds together with the self-assurance
and personality of his playing. His tone is as firm and spritely lyrical as
either Joe Farrell or Phil Woods, yet he can, when need be, brandish the
pyrotechnical verve of Sonny Rollins, the gruff, full-bodied harmonics of early
Pharaoh Saunders of Gato Barbieri and the sweet-natured lilt of Charles
McPherson. One shouldn't think that Blythe sounds like any of these players,
though. Blythe sounds like Blythe alone, and the different ideas he uses to assemble a perfectly coherent style. With Blythe on Lenox Avenue Breakdown are
drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Cecil McBee, guitarist James Ulmer, and several
others. They provide the firm yet malleable bottom that Blythe requires for his
extravagant solos, with their own sorties adding distinctive color and
contrast. The title track is the best example of this, a wildly shifting
terrain of rich sounds and multi-leveled rhythms interspersed by Blythe's
brilliant gymnastics. Lenox Avenue Breakdown is rough, raw, bristling with ideas, and should be bought by anyone tired of the oversweetened contrivances branded as improvisational music.
Electric Dreams
- John McLaughlin and the One Truth Band - (Columbia)
When last seen and heard in concert in San Diego. guitarist
McLaughlin had assembled a unit called the One Truth Band, and from the
evidence, there was little reason to feel hopeful. The performance was atrocious.
A poorly mixed and badly played din of electronic flash. With McLaughlin and
the band undertaking a pointless, random cacophony of speedy riffs that never
jelled. The concert lacked even the callous cleverness McLaughlin has become
known for. Well, surprise. Electric Dreams, the One Truth Band's 'first release
with McLaughlin, is everything their concert wasn’t. The six musicians -
McLaughlin. L. Shankar on violin, Stu Goldberg on keyboards, Fernando Saunders
on bass, Tony Smith on drums, and Alyrio Lima on percussion - have consolidated
their skills into a fully integrated unit and display a distinct musical
identity.
McLaughlin, the principal composer here, has taken on a new
maturity as a composer as well. Where much of his writing in the past seemed to
be little more than tricky unison parts. employing Indian and neo-classical
modes with little substantive guts underneath the dizzying dexterity, Electric
Dreams material cuts a wider swath. The band's unified character gives the
variety of approaches -Basie blues, poly-tonal funk, Coltranish chases - a
coherence that last year's recipe hodgepodge, Johnny McLaughlin: Electric
Guitarist lacked. Unlike Electric Guitarist, a session where McLaughlin
employed different musicians on each track, Electric Dreams has a central
character. This album is by recipe hodgepodge Johnny McLaughlin. Electric
Guitarist lacked. Unlike Electric Guitarist, a session where McLaughlin
employed different musicians on each track, Electric Dreams has a central character.
The high points on the album are many, but especially exciting is "The
Dark Prince," a fevered stretch of extended bop acceleration, where McLaughlin fuses
the melodic sense and chordal strategies of Coltrane and Parker with the quirky meters of his Mahavishnu period. Though the purist elements of the jazz
audience might dismiss this track as mere facile Clash and showboating for its
own sake. McLaughlin’s solos are nonetheless crisp. Concise. Elegantly phrased
and to the point. The closing guitar keyboard shootout between him and Goldberg is an enthralling example of
two musicians pushing themselves to their respective creative limits. "Miles
Davis " (so named. as a return compliment to the trumpet player who named
one of his songs "John McLaughlin" on his Bitches Brew is heartburn with musical notation after a delicious but over-spiced
meal. At this point, I turn off the music and walk into the sunlight
of the spirit.
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