Nocentelli ( Leo )

Conjure | Bad Mouth | American Clavé

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It was after the ninth or tenth concert in Japan in August 2003 when Leo pointed out what was clear: that through playing and living the new materiel Paris, March of that year through that concert in Tokyo, the new materiel had assumed the form of the band, and the band of the new materiel. Pulling my shoulder, Leo nodded and said what was clear: “It’s TIME.” And although the money took a minute to snap to (hey, it’s this buisiness…), when it did, so did the band, immediately assuming the right form. So, during a week in a New Jersey studio in January 2005, Conjure recorded itself pretty much like a live set. There were a couple of punches on missed cues, but not many. The band breathed with the same music, ease and shared cadences and emotions as when on tour. Yeah, Conjure live in the studio. Just a better lit stage. Ish is fond of pointing out that Conjure may be the longest running music / poetry project around, but I’m not really when it really started. There was a period before the first Conjure recording (1983) when he and I worked together on a few film projects – was that when Conjure really started? Anyway, I’m not sure it matters. The band, the music, the poetry, breathe right now, just like Ish’s magic-realist world outlook contained in his words (fiction, poetry, essays, activism, attitude…) – you can hear it in every turn of this music. Right? — Kip Hanrahan Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | Tenderness | American Clavé

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Song Cycle (at least sixteen folk songs from inside the city): 1. “… faith in the pants, not in the prick…” (Vallejo’s Folk Song) 2. “… when I lose myself in the darkness and pain of love, no, this love…” 3. “…she turned so that maybe a third of her face was in this fuckin’ beautiful half-light…” 4. “…at the same time, as the subway train was pulling out of the station…” 5. “…I told him ‘I don’t have to be beaten to be understood’…” 6.“…look, the moon…” (Diahnne’s) 7. “…half of sex is fear…” 8. Gillian’s Folk Song 9. History 10. “…there was something about his anger that was so…inaccessable to me…” 11. “…if I knew how to, if I knew what muscles to relax…” 12. “…you’re no pimp, and I’m certainly no whore…”[wp-audio mp3="http://theshop.free-jazz.net/files/Track137.mp3"] 13. Deep Summer 14. “…look, the moon…” (Carmen’s) 15. in place of an epilog: Lullabye for my Daughter 16. in place of a morale: Geography

All music and words written by Kip Hanrahan except “Gillian’s Folk Song” which was written by Kip Hanrahan and Leo Nocentelli Continue reading →

American Clavé | Anthology 1980 – 1992

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HOW TO CREATE AN AMERICAN CLAVE: PRAISE/SONGS FOR A RECORDING PROJECT Begin with two measures of music: three rhythmic strokes in the first measure, two in the second, sounded by wood on wood. You have then the Clave, the basic building/block of salsa, of Afro-Cuban jazz. But what magic transformation occurs when you think of musics under the umbrella of a label like “American Clave?” A rashly superficial assumption runs: salsified jazz, perhaps improvised Tin Pan Alley standards bongoed-up, Sten Kentonized-up, blaring brass choruses meeting a small battalion of percussion. That would be an easy enough music to create and sell, the “how to” established in recording studios and recording company executive suites for a half century. Thank the gods that Kip Hanrahan is one of those who the poet Rilke would have identified as a “lover of the difficult.” This recording project refused that easy way out, that casual slide Latinizing American standard tunes would have represented. This is a story of a musical visionary embracing an American spirit of radical invention, taking on the alchemy of how to make an American Clave. Listen to the beats of different drummers under the enchantment of gods who still ponder what kind of experiment America is…–Norman Weinstein Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | Paul Haines | Darn It! | American Clavé

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…Darn it! Strings together an outrageous number of artists performing one after another in a polyglot line that stretches from Paul Bley’s solo piano ‘Threats That Matter’ through funky dance numbers by Greg ‘Iron Man’ Tate to a duet by trombonist Roswell Rudd and Canadian poetry Paul Haines, ‘Etait Dans La Nuit.’ Even its beautiful package, designed by artist / film maker / musician Michael Snow (who also contributes a lovely piano piece) enforces the compilation’s linearity, unfolding into a long accordion of personnel and poetry… Darn it! Overcomes stylistic impediments successfully, reveling in the way Haines’ terse writing can endure so many different kinds of interpretation.” — John Corbett, Downbeat Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | Days and Nights of blue luck inverted | American Clavé

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Some records are there because there’s money that demands to be made, some records are there because there’s a career that demands to be realized, this is a record that’s here because there was (is?) a mood, understood or misunderstood as above, constantly succeeding itself, that demanded to be heard. “Love is like a cigarette” was written by Richard Jerome and Walter Kent, made beautiful by Duke Ellington with Ivey Anderson, and was arranged for this record by Kip Hanrahan with Alberto Bengolea. The rhythm and horn arrangements and the changes for “Gender” were written by Alien Toussaint and the words and melody were written by Kip Hanrahan. It is published by Warner Brothers/Coup de Tete (BMI). In the case of “Marriage,” the two lower mid range bass lines, which in some ways become the song, were composed by Jack Bruce. The words, melody, form and arrangement are by Kip Hanrahan. It’s published by Coup de Tete (BMI). Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | All roads are made of the flesh | American Clavé

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With it’s subtle evocations of the sexual melodrama of — go, subdued guaguanco rhythms, wisps of Haitian compas and passages of improvisational flair merging together (so that organist Don Pullen’s off-kilter keyboard runs heighten the pulse of the 3/2 clave used throughout), Hanrahan’s new album All Roads are Made of the Flesh is greater than the sum of its parts…. Where much of the new global fusion is rhythm as an intellectual exercise, the rhythms of Hanrahan’s music evoke the many textures of desire and sensuality…” – Peter Shapiro, Wire (London) Continue reading →

Conjure | Cab Calloway stands in for the moon | American Clavé

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See, at the heart of Conjure is this rhythm section (yeah, it includes legends and horns) that swings so strongly and intelligently that you can hear the joy the players have working with and writing for each other and you can’t escape the living respect they have for the magic of the tradition. And at its sharp ({enter are the words and stories of Ishmael Reed (genuine American Magical Realism?) reintegrating themselves into the verbal, griot tradition from which they come. Most magic is vertical as well as horizontal, isn’t it? — KIP HANRAHAN Continue reading →