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The commanding, concussive first LP of the Voice of Thunder, from 1976, chanting psalms and prayers over tough Lloydie Slim productions, mostly with the Aggrovators. (Plus a seemingly random Upsetters rhythm.)
‘Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.’
It’s a must.
Their first LP, released in 1973 after six years together, with the first drummer Pierre Guyon having been replaced by Christian Rollet in 1970. Brilliant, roiling and free, with a celebratory lyricism to its grapplings with Cecil Taylor, Gary Peacock, Milford Graves and co, and a wheeling melancholia straight from Ornette.
With the arrival of clarinettist-saxophonist Louis Sclavis in 1973 (and the departure of trumpeter Jean Mereu in 1975), the Workshop De Lyon was born of the Free Jazz Workshop.
A warmly accessible, beautifully performed, joyous mixture of wailing improv and propulsive, rootical preparations, this second album derives its upful, digressive theatricality from the Arts Ensemble Of Chicago, and its urgent sublimification of vernacular rhythms and melodies from Albert Ayler. Wild and free, but grounded in stuff like Bechet, Monk and George Russell.
Terrific.
Ska And Jump Up For Your Happy Dancing And Listening.
Ebullient Sonia Pottinger showcase out on Doctor Bird in 1966. Oswald ‘Baba’ Brooks and his group backing The Saints, The Techniques and co.
The 1969 High Note LP, on the cusp between rocksteady and reggae. Three of the former, with backing by Lynn Taitt & The Jets; nine of the new thing, featuring Sonia Pottinger’s in-house Soul Rhythms band. A great lineup of singers includes Delano Stewart, Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson.
Thirty-four verses of expanded duets, the prototype of Delusion Of The Fury, thrashed out with the Gate 5 Ensemble over a three year period starting late in 1962, in a too-small space within an abandoned chick hatchery in Petaluma, California.
Plus a section of a rehearsal session, with HP himself giving direction, ending with a fine performance by Danlee Mitchell and Michael Ranta.
And finally a previously unreleased recording of Partch playing Adapted Viola, in one of the Verse 17 duets excised from the final opus.
The GRM don letting his hair down, in this 1982 soundtrack to the film Rock, performed on a TR-808 drum-machine, Synthi AKS, and Farfisa organ and clavinet. Nineteen shots mixing together electro, Radiophonics and John Carpenter. Bracing, brilliant, highly accessible; warmly recommended.
‘Primarily the work of Southern born bluesmen who immigrated to Chicago before the Second World War, but whose careers endured into the postwar era,’ this was the first Nighthawk release, with the label taking its name from a Robert McCoy recording featuring Big Joe Williams and Sonny Boy Williamson, included here. (‘I have prowled so long / Till it made my knee bones sore.’) With Big Bill Bronzy, Tampa Red, Washboard Sam, Johnny Shines and co.
A second volume of ‘the best and rarest Chicago blues of the early postwar era.’ Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Sunnyland Slim, Floyd Jones, Snoooky Pryor, Roosevelt Sykes… all present and correct.
You need it for Johnny Shines’ Living In The White House, about setting society to rights, over the rocking saxophone of J.T. Brown. ‘I want to live in paradise, make servants out of kings and queens / Now don’t shake me please darlin / This is one time I want to finish my dream.’
Genius dubs of Barrington Levy’s Robin Hood set.
By now aged 20, Scientist had got his break mixing the singer for Jah Life: ‘When I first met King Tubby I always been telling him that ‘I can mix, I can mix’. And he always telling me, ‘Well, kid, first of all you should be in school. You’re smoking too much weed. Several big men try to do this. You’re a kid. Nobody not gonna allow you to mix.’ I would keep on bugging him, bugging him, bugging him. But he always just had me doing TV repairs, fixing the amplifiers and stuff for him. One day when Jammy failed to come — like he always do most of the time — Tubby’s made me a bet. He said, I bet if I send you around there to work, you wouldn’t know the first thing to do. And he pretty much lost on his bet. The first record I mixed went number one.’
‘Gainsbourg’s most elusive, coveted soundtrack studio recording — co-written, arranged and orchestrated by Jean-Claude Vannier (the genius behind Histoire De Melody Nelson), at the creative apex of their partnership — this LP crystallises the inimitable psychedelic, funky pop brilliance of collaborations like La Horse, Cannabis and Sex Shop. Thick, plucked bass-lines, close-miked drums, biting clavinet, subtle Gallicisms, eastern strings and percussion…’
Joyous, uniquely Arkestral renditions of songs from Disney films like Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, and Mary Poppins.
Ra loved this repertoire, faithfully re-visiting it over the decades. He once had his band billed as Sun Ra & His Disney Odyssey Adventure Arkestra.
All previously unissued; drawn from concert performances, 1985-1990.