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Piri Thomas | Every Child Is Born A Poet | American Clavé

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Every Child is Born a Poet: the Life and Work of Piri Thomas is a film that is at the very heart of Piri’s life, soul and vision. He yearns for all unheard broods in every dark part of this disconcerted world to experience refuge, love, joy, creativity, self-esteem and self-fulfillment… to be forever boundless and free. Spiritual emancipation is Piri Thomas’s rite of passage… to repent and rebel through the healing powers of poetry spoken in tongues. Punto! — Juan Sanchez, Visual artist, teacher and activist, June 2005, Brooklyn, New York Continue reading →

Silvana DeLuigi | Yo! | American Clavé

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When Kip Hanrahan asked me a couple of years ago whether I was interested in doing a record with him, I immediately said yes. But when the moment came to decide on a title, I did not know what to propose. What kind of name could describe something which sounds different from everything I’ve done – and heard – before. I spontaneously pronounced the word “Yo.” It was the simplest expression for me, having given everything I had, including my very own musical and emotional self, into the hands of a musician and producer whom I trust blindly. For me, Kip is the only person capable of recognizing, understand, and transforming into a record my ages old desire to trespass the musical conventions of a music which is mine: which I grew up with, which I love – but which I had to leave behind in order to confront it from a new angle – and make it mine: the tango. So therefore “Yo” stands for a record whose songs may sound familiar, but are completely personal to me. Most of them have been with me since my early youth. Some I had inherited from Argentine popular culture, some came to me from Brazil. Some were offered by Kip and his friends, who all helped me to realize this dream: to look back on my town, my country, my culture, my life – and my music. — Silvana Deluigi Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | Desire develops an edge | American Clavé

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The center of gravity of this record was formed by the labor of Kip Hanrahan, Jack Bruce, Steve Swallow, Puntilla Orlando Rios, Arto Lindsay, Elysee Pyronneau, Scott Marcus, Jon Fausty and David Rodriguez. Among others who sold or contributed their work, time and talent to the project were Ricky Ford, Ignacio Berroa, Jerry Gonzalez, Alberto Bengolea, Ti’Plume Ricardo Franck, Olufemi Claudette Mitchell, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Milton Cardona, John Stubblefield, Tico Harry Sylvain, Daniel Frieberg, Nancy Weiss, Yale Evelev, Paul Haines, Frisner Augustin, Molly Parley, Anton Fier, Sergio Brandao, Marlene Freeman-Semels, Jean Claude Jean, John Scofield, Jody Harris, Yoram Vazan, Edwin Ayala, Frank Rodriguez and Ralf Ridao. It was recorded during July, August and September 1982 and April and June 1983. The editing, overdubbing and mixing were done during October 1982 and January, March, April, May, June and July 1983. All the work was done at Latin/Eurosound Studios, New York City. 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 →

Steven Lugerner | For We Have Heard | No Business Records

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Last summer I previewed a concert by an excellent New York jazz trio called Chives, led by the reedist Steven Lugerner, an ambitious composer, arranger, and conceptualist who seems to be overflowing with ideas. That impression is only reinforced by his strong new album, For We Have Heard (due May 14 on No Business/Primary), his second session with pianist Myra Melford, trumpeter Darren Johnston, and drummer Matt Wilson. Lugerner used texts from the Book of Joshua in the Torah to title each piece, and he further composed the music by usinggematria, a traditional rabbinical system of assigning numbers to particular words or phrases. In the album’s press materials he writes, “I devised a couple of ways of turning those numbers into music. For instance, if I had a series of five or six numbers, I could stack them in terms of harmony and build chords out of that. Or I could use those numbers in a time signature or meter of music. The numbers could be reflected in the melody or the duration of a note.” But don’t let that dissuade you from checking the actual music out, because this is no theoretical trip—the sounds stand easily on their own, as you can tell from today’s 12 O’Clock Track, “When a Long Blast Is Sounded.” — Peter Margasak Continue reading →

Melodic Art-Tet | No Business Records

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Although according to detractors, all free-jazz sessions sound alike, these high-quality dates from 1974 and 1986 put a lie to that supposition. Both also suggest why the music was never popular. Each CD shares trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah and features all stars. 1974’s Melodic Art-Tet included reedist Charles Brackeen, drummer Roger Blank, bassist William Parker and percussionist Tony Waters (Ramadan Mumeen). 1986’s The Group was saxophonist Marion Brown, violinist Billy Bang, bassists Sirone or Fred Hopkins plus drummer Andrew Cyrille. —Ken Waxman Continue reading →

Evan Parker | Barry Guy | Paul Lytton | Live at Maya Recordings Festival | No Business Records

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As a musician Evan Parker is a man of many faces. On the one hand he is always looking for new collaborations like on C-Section with electronic madman John Wiese (Second Layer Recordings), Live at Akbank Jazz Festival (Re:konstruKkt) with the Turkish group konstruKt or ‘Round About One O’clock (Not Two) with Slovenian drummer and percussionist Zlatko Kaučič. On the other hand he likes long time relations like his Electro-Acoustic Ensemble (although many new members have been added to this project), the legendary Schlippenbach Trio (as to persistence the Rolling Stones of free jazz) and the Evan Parker Trio (with Barry Guy on bass and Paul Lytton on drums). — Martin Schray Continue reading →

Correction with Mats Gustafsson | Shift | No Business Records

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The inmates riot in the House of Correction. The girls who put up postcards in London telephone boxes – are telephone boxes used for anything else now? – offer correction among other delights. The ticker-tape in newspaper offices – also not much used now – hesitates on a story, flags CORRECTION, and adjusts the casualty figures up or down. We know what the word means, and what it means is somewhere on the pleasure/pain divide, somewhere between sticking to and breaking the rules, some measure of restraint coupled to a throwing over of all restraint. — Brian Morton Continue reading →

Quat Quartet | Live at Hasselt | No Business Records

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A foursome that includes vibes and piano may initially put you in mind of the Modern Jazz Quartet. It’s a natural reaction for those who have absorbed the jazz canon going back at least that far. But though there is a certain kind of quietude at times in common with MJQ, the quartet Quat doesn’t occupy the quasi-formal bop-classical-tonal-composed-head territory of the earlier group. Listen to Quat’s CD Live at Hasselt (No Business NBCD54), however, and you will find there is much going on in an intimate interactive setting that the MJQ also excelled at, though the Quat quartet firmly occupies a modern free improv context. Quat comes through with four middle- to long-lengthed improvisations that surely bear repeated listens. —Grego Applegate Edwards Continue reading →

The Convergence Quartet | Slow and Steady | No Business Records

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Free music is no simple matter. It can work marvelously when the chemistry between players is right. Or it can earnestly go along but never quite reach a collective point of convergence. Happily, the group named after such occurrences, the Convergence Quartet, achieves such a state consistently and rewardingly on their album Slow and Steady (No Business NBCD 53). — Grego Applegate Edwards Continue reading →