Jah Wobble & Evan Parker: Passage to Hades

Credits:
Jah Wobble - Bass, Producer
Evan Parker - Tenor Sax
Clive Bell - Flute, Pipes, Harmonica (tracks 1, 3, 4)
Mark Sanders - Drums
Jean-Pierre Rasle - Bagpipes (tracks 1, 4)

Tracks:
1. Passage to Hades
2. Giving Up the Ghost
3. Full On
4. Finally Cracked It

Recorded in Sept. 2000 at Intimate Studio, and released in 2001 on 30 Hertz Records.

With the exception of "Full On" (which clocks in at just under nine minutes) the tracks run about 13 to 14 minutes each, allowing the musicians stretch out and their ideas develop. This one's all about the groove. Parker responds brilliantly in this context. Fans of Wobble will know what to expect. Evan Parker fans should be in for a pleasant surprise. Well-worth seeking out.

Download Passage to Hades

Pharoah Sanders: Message From Home

Pharoah Sanders came back in a big way during the mid 1990s, proving that he was still quite capable of the fiery playing that made his reputation in the 1960s and early 1970s. AMG reviewer Richard Ginelli remarked:

The world music-minded producer Bill Laswell gets a hold of Pharoah Sanders here and lo, the sleeping volcano erupts with one of his most fulfilling albums in many a year. Message From Home is rooted in, but not exclusively devoted to, African idioms, as the overpowering hip-hop groove of "Our Roots (Began In Africa)" points out. But the record really develops into something special when Sanders pits his mighty tenor sound against the pan-African beats, like the ecstatically joyful rhythms of "Tomoki" and the poised, percolating fusion of American country & western drums and Nigerian juju guitar riffs on "Country Mile." In addition, "Nozipho" is a concentrated dose of the old Pharoah, heavily spiritual and painfully passionate, with a generous supply of the tenor player's famous screeching rhetoric, and kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso shows up on "Kumba" with a touch of village Gambian music. This resurrection will quicken the pulse of many an old Pharoah fan.

Pharoah was working a bit with Bill Laswell at the time, appearing on such Laswell-produced joints as Jah Wobble's Heaven and Earth for a couple tracks, as well as performing with and composing music on Maleem Mahmoud Ghania's Trance of Seven Colors. The album does offer a healthy dose of what, for lack of a better term, can be called the Bill Laswell sound - depending on one's perspective that might be a turn-on or a turn-off. Sanders fans will be pleased that the sax legend comes across as firmly in control with the end result an album of world fusion with teeth. A shame it's out of print.

Tracks:

1. Our Roots (Began in Africa) (10:21)
2. Nozipho (9:43)
3. Tomoki (6:26)
4. Ocean Song (8:49)
5. Kumba (7:50)
6. Country Mile (6:03)

Personnel:
Bass - Charnett Moffett , Steve Neil
Drums - Hamid Drake
Guitar - Dominic Kanza
Keyboards - Bernie Worrell , Jeff Bova , William Henderson
Kora - Foday Musa Suso
Percussion - Aiyb Dieng
Producer - Bill Laswell
Saxophone - Pharoah Sanders
Violin - Michael White

Download Message From Home

Jah Wobble: Heaven and Earth

This is an interesting album in part because of Pharoah Sanders' appearance on a couple tracks. An AMG review which seems reasonably fair and accurate:

Fusing Eastern and Western classical influences with elements of ambient, dub and hip-hop, Jah Wobble has created a truly brilliant pancultural concept album. The title track opens the LP with a near-orchestral range of dynamic emotions centered around Zi Lan Liao's vocals and violin, Kui Hsuing Li's soaring bamboo flute, and Wobble's percolating tribal drums. "A Love Song" is a hypnotic dub track showcasing the vocal talents of Natacha Atlas, whose Middle Eastern melody lends a sultry feel perfectly matched by the sensual bassline. Bill Laswell lends his distinctive touch "Gone to Croatan" and "Hit Me," which perfectly match hip-hop beats and turntable wizardry provided by DJs DXT and Rob Swift with Pharoah Sanders' mind-bending flute and horn solos and Bernie Worrell's synth textures. But the piece de resistance is "Om Namah Shiva," which combines Najma Akhtar's nimble vocal calisthenics and Inder Matharu's dazzling tabla rhythms with programmed percussion and Wobble's botton-end bass wallop to create highly effective world/dance track. Laswell himself calls Heaven & Earth "the best thing Jah Wobble has ever recorded. Who are we to argue?

Tracks and credits:

1 Heaven & Earth (8:41)
Congas, Bells - Neville Murray
Keyboards - Mark Ferda
Vocals, Zither [Ku Cheng] - Zi Lan Liao

2 A Love Song (7:23)
Guitar - Justin Adams
Vocals - Natacha Atlas

3 Dying Over Europe (3:11)

4 Divine Mother (11:12)

5 Gone To Croatan (15:30)
Drums - Jerome 'Bigfoot' Brailey*
Guitar - Nicky Skopelitis
Keyboards - Bernie Worrell
Percussion - Aiyb Dieng
Producer - Bill Laswell
Saxophone [Soprano], Flute - Pharoah Sanders
Scratches - Rob Swift

6 Hit Me (7:42)
Drums - Jerome 'Bigfoot' Brailey*
Guitar - Nicky Skopelitis
Keyboards, Synthesizer - Bernie Worrell
Percussion - Aiyb Dieng
Producer - Bill Laswell
Saxophone [Tenor] - Pharoah Sanders
Scratches - DXT , Rob Swift

7 Om Namah Shiva (4:47)
Drum Programming, Keyboards - Mark Ferda
Guitar, Backing Vocals - Justin Adams
Tabla [Tablas] - Inder 'Goldfinger' Matharu*
Vocals - Najma Akhtar

Jah Wobble handles production (except tracks 5 and 6), bass, drums, percussion, and keyboards on the various tracks. This isn't the only time that Wobble has played or collaborated with jazz artists. I have another album that I'll share at some point.

Note: Between a busy January interterm teaching load, the start of the Spring Semester, and a school board candidacy (which I ultimately lost), I've been just a bit swamped. There are some recordings in the pipeline, so as always, stay tuned!

Download Heaven and Earth

Jon Hassell: Earthquake Island

As good an introduction to Jon Hassell's music as any. Earthquake Island was his second as a leader, and features a cast of musicians who were known, more often than not, for their work in jazz and fusion - and explains the jazz-ish touches throughout the album. It's a personal favorite that is regrettably one of his more hard-to-find recordings.

Download Earthquake Island

Herbie Hancock & Foday Musa Suso: Jazz Africa

Jazz Africa is the live companion piece to Village Life. Recorded in Los Angeles at some point around 1986, the duo is augmented by a number of sidemen - many of whom were heavy hitters in the music world at the time. Here's an AMG review of the album:

Recorded in Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre one December afternoon as part of the Jazzvisions project, this was released four years later almost as an afterthought to the series -- and even many of Hancock's electric music fans weren't aware it was out. A pity, for this is one of the great unheralded Herbie Hancock recordings, a rock-'em, sock-'em, live tour de force that fuses Hancock's electric keyboard work, Foday Musa Suso's kora, incantory vocals, and scraping violin, and a thundering African/Caribbean rhythm section. The CD opens and ends quietly with the delicate, folk-like music introduced on Village Life but the record is dominated by two lengthy, madly swinging workouts for Hancock, Suso and the rhythm section, which is anchored by Santana's ageless Cuban-born percussionist Armando Peraza. Though not all of the concert is included here (the laserdisc and VHS versions contain more music), the CD does convey a good deal of the incredible energy level of the live event, where Hancock looked and played like a man possessed. This was a real breakthrough for Hancock, but alas, this perpetual chameleon has yet to pursue this stimulating direction further.

The music draws on the ideas explored on Village Life, but more danceable, funkier than the original. I've done my best to determine the credits from extremely minimal information. Hopefully it's accurate enough. If you liked Village Life, you'll dig this one was well. Copies of this album now sell for around $125, if you can find 'em.

Personnel:
Herbie Hancock - keyboards
Foday Musa Suso - kora, vocals
Aiyb Dieng - percussion
Armando Peraza - percussion
Adam Rudolph - percussion
Joe Thomas - bass
Hamid Drake - drums, percussion
Abdul Hakeem - guitar

Tracks:
1. Kumbasora
2. Debo
3. Cigarette Lighter
4. Jimbasing

Download Jazz Africa

The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco featuring Randy Weston

I first heard Gnawa trance music around a decade ago, and was immediately hooked. I remember telling a younger friend about the genre, but made the mistake of including the term "trance music" in the description. It became clear in a hurry that each of us held a radically different definition of "trance" - Gnawa trance music is performed exclusively on acoustic instruments. Whether or not my younger friend ever checked into the music of the Gnawa I do not know - I lost touch with him probably six or seven years ago.

This particular album was actually the second Gnawa trance CD that I picked up (the first was The Trance of Seven Colors), and part of the appeal was Randy Weston's involvement in the project. Weston mainly takes a back seat, save for some brief piano accompaniment on the final track, "Chalabati" and handling the production chores. In the wrong hands, this could have been an exercise in exotica for the sake of exotica. Not so here. Weston's interest in the music is quite genuine and deep-seated - going back a few decades (his first stint residing in Morocco was from 1968-1973), and a Gnawa influence can be found in much of his recorded jazz output since the 1970s. Since about the late 1990s (if not before), Weston has been performing in concert with master Gnawa musicians - occasionally dropping a live CD every now and then. A great deal of care went into the production and packaging of this particular album - including a fair amount of material in the liner notes regarding the context of the Gnawa tribe, their history, and some information about the selections included on the finished product. Needless to say, since a traditional Gnawa healing ceremony would last for hours, we're merely being treated to a portion of what would be experienced. If I ever get the opportunity to travel to Morocco, the music of the Gnawa is definitely on the list of experiences to savor. The music and the information on the CD are themselves to be savored as both a sensuous and educational experience.

Performers:
Hag'houge, clapping, vocals
The M'Alems (The Masters):
Ali El Mansoum
Molay Abdelaziz
Mohamed Zourhba
Boubker Gania
Mohamed El Ghorfi
Ahmed Boussou
Abdelouahid Berrady
Mahmoud Gania

Karkaba, backing vocals, clapping
M'Barek Ben Outman
Abdemebi Oubella

Hag'houge, clapping, vocals
Abdellah El Gourd

Piano
Randy Weston

Tracks:
1. La Voix Errrante: Sorie/Folinho Rejale/Ahayana Wayi/Bokarli Ana (18:58)
2. Sound Playing: Bermaryo/Fanyro/Merkadi/Yobady/Ya la la/Concoba/Tembara (43:26)
3.Chalabati (8:31)

Recorded September 17, 1992 in the ballroom of the La Mamounia Hotel, Marrakech, Morocco. Released on Verve-Antilles in 1994 (catalogue # 314 521 587-2).

Download The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco

Ginger Baker - Stratavarious

A lost gem from the early 1970s, parts of which ended up on a compilation album (Do What You Like) from Ginger Baker's short-lived Air Force project. Stratavarious is more properly Baker's first post-Air Force recording, and offers a mixed bag of afrojazz and jazz rock. The first two tracks are the more African-leaning tunes: the former Baker's take on a traditional song, the latter a tune penned by Fela Kuti. The next two tracks would appeal to classic rockers yearning for a return to the days of Cream. Throw in a drum duet with Guy Warren (a cat who paved the way for Babatunde Olatunji, and whose 1950s and 1960s recordings are about as hard as hen's teeth to find) and some electronic noodling, and you have the proverbial icing on the cake. A pretty nice description of the players and the album can be found at with comb & razor.

Personnel:
Ginger Baker - Drums
Guy Warren - Drums (track 5 only)
Fela Ransome-Kuti - Organ, Vocals, Piano, Percussion
Bobby Gass - Bass
Sandra Danielle - Vocals
Alhaji Jk Brimar - Percussion

Tracks:
1. Ariwo
2. Tiwa (It's Our Own)
3. Something Nice
4. Ju Ju
5. Blood Brothers 69
6. Coda

Download Stratavarious

Don Cherry: Organic Music Society

Here's another artist whose work I've grooved on for a long time - at least since I stumbled upon his contributions to various tracks on an ECM sampler that my parents unloaded on me back in 1980. That ECM sampler (Music for 58 Musicians) offered examples of Don Cherry in both world fusion (Codona) and free jazz (Old and New Dreams, which covered Ornette Coleman tunes) settings. I tend to gravitate toward his world fusion recordings, and this out-of-print gem is a personal favorite.

Here's the lowdown (via this Don Cherry discography):

Personnel

Don Cherry: trumpet, piano, harmonium, vocals
Maffy Falay: muted trumpet
Tommy Goldman: flute
Tommy Koverhult: flute
Tage Siven: bass
Okay Temiz: drums
Youth Orchestra
Mok Cherry: tamboura, vocal
Nana Vasconcelos: berimbau, percussion
Helen Eggert: tamboura, vocal
Hans Isgren: sarangi
Bengt Berger: drums, percussion
H'suan: percussion, trumpet
Chris Bothen: doussn' gouni

tracks

1. North Brazilian Ceremonial Hym - (N.Vaconcelos) - 12:30 MONO
2. Elixir - (D.Cherry) & Manusha Raga Kamboji - (Hans Isgren) - 8:30 STEREO
3. Relativity Suite Part One - (D.Cherry) - 6:53 STEREO
4. Relativity Part Two - (D.Cherry) - 12:02 STEREO
5. Terry's Tune - (T.Riley), Hope - (D.Cherry), The Creator Has A Master Plan - (P.Sanders/L.Thomas), Sidharta - (D.Cherry), Utopia & Visions - (D.Cherry) - 20:30 STEREO
6. Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro - (D.Brand) & Terry's Tune - (T.Riley) - 6:34 MONO
7. Resa - (D.Cherry) - 7:43 MONO


Documentary recordings made 1971-1972 by Göran Freese, Rita Knox, Jan Bruér.
Editing and mastering: Göran Freese.
Liner notes: Jan Bruér.
English translation: Keith Knox.
German translation: Juliane Backman.
Album production: Jan Bruér, Keith Knox, Rita Knox.
Album cover and painting: Moki.
Only the recordings from August 14th, 1972 (Elixir-Relativity Suite) were made in a recording studio. The rest of the material consists of documentation recordings made on portable machines, some of them carried out under awkward acoustic conditions.

The tracks and times I list are as found on the mp3s that I've found floating around the Internet tubes - otherwise, all information regarding the the tracks and their composers (and whether the recordings were in stereo or mono) are as presented in the discography. Expect plenty of percussion, chanting, singing, and non-Western jazz instrumentation. A lot of "world music" or "worldbeat" got a bad name for being bland, lowest-common-denominator pabulum, but I can guarantee that much of what Cherry was recording sounded (and still sounds) quite engaging and experimental. Given the circumstances in which this album was recorded - i.e., varied times, locations, and recording conditions - the sound is strikingly coherent throughout. Only the sound quality of Resa (the last track) seems dodgy. The first four tracks have the least in common with what we would normally consider jazz. The last three tracks mix non-Western instrumentation and ideas with instrumentation more typical of an avant-garde jazz performance. Very spirited and spiritual music. Don Cherry would later collaborate with Nana Vasconcelos on several Codona albums, and with Bengt Berger for the album Bitter Funeral Beer.

Download Organic Music Society

Herbie Hancock and Foday Musa Suso: Village Life

A personal favorite for a number of years, that I tracked down on ebay (and which will often fetch a premium unless you get lucky, which was what happened in my case).

The info:

Tracks:

1 Moon/Light 7:57
2 Ndan Ndan Nyaria 9:50
3 Early Warning 2:50
4 Kanatente 19:59

Credits:
Herbie Hancock: Yamaha DX-1 Synthesizer, Yamaha RX-11 Digital Drum Machine, Producer
Foday Musa Suso: Kora, Talking Drum, Vocals
Bill Laswell: Producer

Recorded August 7-9, 1984 at CBS/Sony Studios, Shinao-Machi, Tokyo Japan

Released by Columbia Records, 1985

An absolutely gorgeous live-in-studio album with Hancock and Suso jamming together, weaving these tranquil, improvised tunes that defy easy categorization and must have given the marketing wonks fits. Of course, unlike Hancock's previous albums (Future Shock and Sound System), there was no recognizable hit - nothing to inspire break dancing or made-for-MTV videos. Not too surprisingly, it's been out of print for ages. Hancock and Suso had worked together before (on Sound System), and it's cool that the two musicians chose to explore their ideas outside of a pop or fusion context. It's a shame these two didn't pursue this collaboration further.

A more professional view from Allmusic.com:

This quiet, lovely record, in which the Gambian kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso is given equal billing, was generally ignored when it came out, probably because it fit no one's preconceived idioms -- be they jazz, funk, MTV, or even world music. The only performers are Hancock on a detunable Yamaha DX-1 synthesizer and drum machine and Suso spinning his webs of delicate sound on the zither-like kora, vocalizing a bit and playing a talking drum -- all in real time in a Tokyo studio. The results are absolutely mesmerizing, with Herbie aligning himself perfectly within Suso's unusual, complex rhythmic conceptions and folk-like harmonies. On the 20-minute "Kanatente," Hancock does introduce some of his own advanced harmonic ideas, and he contrasts and interweaves them with Suso's deceptively simple lines in a splendid jam session that eventually ends in a dance that can only be described as Gambian funk. This music generates the same feeling of ecstatic well-being as an Indian raga -- and even hardcore jazz fans may find themselves seduced against their will.

There was a subsequent live album credited to Hancock and Suso (also out of print) that I'll upload a little later.

Download Village Life.