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I received a comment during my latest radio show asking if I was going to play any music by Butch Morris. Morris, the legendary composer, cornetist and group-improvisation innovator had recently died and the listener was, understandably, asking if I was going to be paying tribute. The truth is I have mixed feelings about producing "remembrance" broadcasts. Doing so is a perfectly reasonable thing to do (no station produces better memorial programming than WKCR in New York), and, in fact, I've been moved to present such programs on numerous occasions. But I just can't escape the feeling that this conceit comes tinged with an opportunism that diminishes the sort of tribute I aim to pay my my musical heroes in an ongoing basis.
I experience similar conflicts over the celebration of Black History Month. However worthy the respect and acknowledgment, the formalized segregation of its expression to this one month a year feels like a cheapening to me.
In the spirit of muddling my personal confusion further, please allow me to pay memorial tribute to these magnificent African-American musical genius who left us during the past year...
Butch Morris ~ In Touch…But Out of Reach
(Blog: 9 Grey Chairs)
LAWRENCE D. "BUTCH" MORRIS
February 10, 1947 – January 29, 2013
"…Morris has waxed several other albums that deserve canonization. First, there’s In Touch… But Out of Reach, recorded live in 1978 with a stellar ensemble. It showcases Morris’s more traditional abilities as a cornetist, composer, and bandleader. It’s still adventurous work, but might prove an easier entry for some listeners than the later genre-hopping offerings. In Touch offers key insights into his later work as well as plenty of unalloyed musical pleasure. 'Irin Sun' provides a rare chance to hear Morris as a key part of the band, in a decidedly non-epic setting. Primarily a vehicle for Eubanks, who borrows something of Abdullah Ibrahim’s limpid beauty, the track floats by briskly. It's a lovely, if brief, postcard from Africa. 'Lovers Existing' is a more significant statement, and its shifting arrangements and multiple instrumental combinations suggests the grand experiments in conduction to come. In his typical generous fashion, Morris lays out for much of the track, though his guidance is everywhere evident. Wilbur Morris covers a lot of ground in strong support of Moncur’s long solo, and beneath Morris's late turn about two-thirds of the way in." (Description by Chilly Jay Chill & Prof. Drew LeDrew, at Destination: Out)
John Tchicai & Cadentia Nova Danica ~ Afrodisiaca
(Blog: Poofter's Froth Wyoming)
JOHN MARTIN TCHICAI
April 28, 1936 – October 8, 2012
"A minor classic so unknown that, until this 2008 reissue, it wasn't even listed at All Music Guide, Danish-born of Congolese-descent saxophonist John Tchicai's 1969 MPS release Afrodisiaca is a sprawling, multidisciplinary work that rivals better known works like John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965). No less a personal journey, Afrodisiaca stands, nearly forty years later, as a masterpiece that blends Afro-rhythms and harmonic conceits with improvisation of the freest kind, near-classical microtonalism and innovative sonic experimentation. Its reach as an underground classic is so broad that it's even considered by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to be 'beautiful, baby, BEAUTIFUL!'" (Description by John Kelman, at All Music Guide)
Byard Lancaster ~ Funny Funky Rib Crib
(Blog: An Ism to Horns and Beats)
BYARD LANCASTER
August 6, 1942 – August 23, 2012
"You'd have a job categorising this one. While ostensibly it's a jazz record, Lancaster and his ensemble are hardly ones to fixate on a single genre, and so in addition to encountering the straight up swing and flailing funk of 'Dogtown' there's a quality to 'Loving Kindness' that's at once suggestive of George Gershwin and old-time spirituals. Also, there are some truly mindblowing guitar licks on 'Work And Pray' - a real technical tour de force accompanying a contrapuntally languid, bluesy vocal." (Description taken from widely quoted PR copy)
Sam Rivers ~ Contrasts
(Blog: The Changing Same) [or try this link]
SAMUEL CARTHORNE RIVERS
September 25, 1923 – December 26, 2011
"The album opens in “Circles” with some chewy improv. Thick horns and brittle drumming provide plenty of interplay to keep our wits on a tight leash. Lewis seems the most at home here, providing a bubbling cauldron of likeminded flights. It is the first in a smattering of freer tracks, the others being the slowly building “Solace” and perhaps the most abstract aside, “Images.” This leaves us with a hefty set of rhythm-driven powerhouses. “Zip” tightens the purse strings with an ever-moving tenor for some wholesome, head-nodding goodness. This joint also serves up a heaping drum solo on the side. Our frontman opts for flute in the swinging “Verve” with a renewed spring in his step. Convincing monologues from Holland and Lewis ease into a slow and timid end. “Lines” reprises that contagious soprano sax against an omniscient rhythm section before bowing out for some quality bass time. “Dazzle” brings exactly that, freeing our minds with a Braxton-esque tenor and tap-dancing bass work. Lewis is more than up to the task, scurrying in with Rivers in their joint commitment to going deeper." (Description posted at ECMReviews.com )
David S. Ware ~ From Silence to Music
(Blog: Inconstant Sol)
DAVID SPENCER WARE
November 7, 1949 – October 18, 2012
"So Ware leaves this earth a victor. In a world where conformity is prevalent and privilege from the beginning is usually what guarantees success, he managed to change the history of jazz through authenticity and substance." (Closing paragraph of Matthew Shipp's elegy for David S. Ware)
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Speaking of cheapening, there's nothing like an endorsement by the insipid Thurston, is there?
Posted by: Bart | February 12, 2013 at 08:48 PM
Personally, I relish Moore's bursting-with-love free jazz list in Grand Royal. Care to share your choices, Bart?
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | February 12, 2013 at 10:41 PM
I think it's a cool list to get into the whole free/avant-garde jazz thing. The fact that's a top 10 with actually over 15 records in it makes pretty clear, that it isn't meant to be exclusive or anything. Actually the list led me to Sunny Murray, who was my entrance into free jazz.
Posted by: Stefan | February 13, 2013 at 08:47 AM
If anyone is unawares, the list being referenced here is Thurston Moore's Top Ten From the Free Jazz Underground. Use it as a diving board to cannonball your way into a beautiful pool of sound.
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | February 13, 2013 at 11:20 AM
Thurston Moore is insipid? Wow, learn something new every day.
Posted by: jimson | February 13, 2013 at 05:20 PM
Thanks so much for excerpting my review of Sam Rivers's Contrasts. I'm glad to others are out there listening to this lost record. This is a fantastic blog, and I look forward to exploring more!
Posted by: Tyran Grillo | February 14, 2013 at 12:49 AM
Great music, good to remind myself of old songs, nice blog btw.
Posted by: qlwik | February 14, 2013 at 08:41 AM
Looks like you are the only one posting to the blog, I wonder why is that? Ay\t least you still do and that is a good thing.
Posted by: Michael Yahwak | February 14, 2013 at 10:43 AM
Michael, keep your eyes, ears and nose open for a re-launch of this blog. Soon come...
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | February 14, 2013 at 11:36 AM
Check this Butch Morris interview. Recorded Summer 2012, at Sines, Portugal:
http://podcast.stress.fm/post/29161215575/entrevista-a-lawrence-butch-morris-gravado-em
(article written in portuguese, but the sound is in english)
Posted by: stress.fm | February 14, 2013 at 09:59 PM