Featuring the jazz-dance classic Life Is Like A Samba… a Rinder & Lewis production from 1979.
‘Experimental jazz, chanson, bluesy folk and various strains of outsider music permeate a rich layering of music boxes, walkie-talkies and plastic straws, plucked charrango and banjo, kazoos, flutes and snake-charming ocarina, accordion and melodica, found percussion and traditional tuned drums. The moods switch from child-like and epiphanic (Tarzan en Tasmanie, Madrigal for Lola) to babbling (Pocarina), mysterious and dark (Septième Ciel, Rugit Le Coeur) to tender and simple (Rainbow de Nuit, Chevalier Gambette); from murky, suspenseful melancholy (Levy Attend, Eno Ennio) to pensive psychedelia (Un Cercueil à Deux Places). A world of echoes. A tale of tales. You’ll be whistling and humming along on first listen.’
Ornette brought the pianist to ESP in 1965.
With Milford Graves and Gary Peacock.
LP from Alt. Vinyl.
‘Stands out in Davies’ discography in that, at an hour long, it is the most expansive of his recorded solo improvisations. Listening to the piece, one is struck by how he structures the overall trajectory of the improvisation. Utilizing a full arsenal of extended techniques, preparations, and bows Davies conjures up a wide string palette across the full sonic range of his instrument eliciting the sounds of everything from harp to prepared piano to groaning bass to guitar to string group. But for all of the technical mastery and timbral breadth, there is an overarching sense of structure and pacing which never flags for a moment’ (Michael Rosenstein, Point of Departure).
‘Revisiting the scordatura tunings found on Telyn Rawn but this time played on the lap harp that he plays on An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance. Acoustic harp, played with no amplification, preparations or distortion. A sunburst of multiple voices and interwoven melodies and rhythms.’
Recorded over two days — dwa din, in Polish — in January 2021.
Mono LP from Music On Vinyl.
‘A transcendental new music,’ wrote Lester Bangs, ‘which flushes categories away and, while using musical devices from all styles and cultures, is defined mainly by its deep emotion and unaffected originality.’
His neglected 1970 masterpiece.
The first side brings into focus the best things about Bitches Brew, with lethal menace; the second lays out a blueprint for Ambient and Fourth World.
Hotly recommended.