Free Jazz Music

Barre Phillips - bass
Joelle Leandre - bass
William Parker - bass
Tetsu Saitoh - bass

Recorded at the Victo Festival on 5/23/03

Albums like this make reviewing difficult. The other day I happily reviewed Requiem. I love it so I gushed. Now what to say about this one? Where that one is 4 different bassist (only WP appears on both discs) plus Charles Gayle on alto, this one is all bass. The moods, textures and directions in which the explorations take the listener do not cross paths. Both discs have 4 basses, yes, but they're completely different from one another. When listening to Requiem I feel it's the best one. Just listening to this one twice in a row again I'm thinking this one is better. This band is brilliant. The potential magic of the upright, acoustic, bass violin is that it has everything inside it. From the highest and brightest shimmerings to the lowest, most menacing sonority. In capable hands, that is, and this is as much of a meeting of 4 master improvising/spontaneously composing musicians as you'll find.

I recently got the reissue of 2 Days in April (which IS back in print and available via www.eremite.com even though this site isn't carrying it yet). Don't listen to that one right after this one. Musically that one grabs you and pulls you in to the Fire Music rhythm world of those 4 great musicians but it turns out that the recording quality is rather so-so. After You Gone's sonic/recording quality is tremendous! Every nuance, every detail of this monumental sound world is perfectly captured. You may as well be hanging out inside the bodies of these basses.

The music on this album may hold the dark keys to the universe. Absolutely amazing.

And that's likely not even it's aim: to appear on the same CD rack at a Borders or Hastings under the heading "Ambient/Environmental" along with "Sounds of a Vermont Rainstorm", or "Owls & Crickets under an Idaho Skyline", or any other such thing. Although I believe these kinds of recordings are perfectly fine (and have even owned a couple myself), I found the experience of listening, over time, to be...well... kind of artificial, if you know what I mean. The crickets, owls, etc., are all very real, and recorded quite faithfully, but...

So one day, a number of years ago, I was out spending some of my weekly paycheck at a record store, and picked up a couple of albums by saxophonist Marion Brown, because I was interested in Avant-Garde Jazz, and anything similar. The first one was the legendary "Porto Novo", and it fit the bill perfectly. The second was this one.

Nothing even close to what I was expecting.

If you're reading this review, then chances are you've already checked out the first critique, written above. What it describes, as far as the SOUND of this recording-particularly of the piece called "Afternoon Of A Georgia Fawn"-is accurate and as good as you can get with mere words. The listener is truly swept into another place, and that place seems to be the middle of some seriously wet and green deep Southern woods. There are no melodies, no chords, not even anything resembling music as we would recognize it, in the traditional sense. Just what would seem to be a kind of painting with sounds, as closely as I can describe it.

And where I fail in my description, this piece, for which the album was named, succeeds brilliantly. You are taken to this place, and your senses filled with all these sounds that absolutely, and beautifully create the entire atmosphere and setting of that "Afternoon..." And the clincher is that the sounds were all made, not by the inhabitants of the woods themselves, via a field recording mic, but by the musicians on this album. And as far as I know, there was no attempt to duplicate the exact sound of any bird, insect, etc. It is all simply an inspired expression of whatever the people on the recording at that time (Brown, particularly) felt the title suggested to them.

Which brings me back to the meaning of my title for this review, and the things I said in the first paragraph. This is truly the first album I would ever reach for, if I wanted to hear the 'voice of nature' coming out of my stereo in my living room, and in a way that would feel like a more authentic listening experience than what one of the actual 'Environments' CD's I bought from a suburban outlet might really be able to provide.

Finally, I should mention something about the piece called "Djinji's Corner". It is also very abstract, although it does work off some actual 'musical' phrases and ideas, more than its sister piece on the album. It does not hit me as powerfully, though, but that may change over time. What I can say for sure, is that in terms of contrast, it provides a nice foil for "Afternoon..." It balances the album in a way that few pieces, I think, could.

What else can be said? One of those rare albums that came along in my life, and profoundly changed me as a listener.

I hope it will do the same for you.

A few words of caution: Afternoon of Georgia Faun is not your ordinary jazz album, your ordinary free/avant-garde jazz album, and much different from anything else Marion Brown had done to that point. The two lengthy pieces don't swing. There is none of the overt fury that normally characterizes free jazz. Instead, Brown and crew create an impressionistic soundscape that for me evokes early childhood memories of summer afternoons in rural northeast Texas (not quite Georgia, but close enough). The sound of the birds, insects, the breeze blowing on the leaves, the sultriness of the hot and humid summer afternoons -- it's all there. The social and political turmoil of the day is never too far away (and it's never gone away), but for the moment is suspended. This album is about the rhythm, the pulse of life itself. Highly recommended.

I have never heard such tosh in all my living life ! Can't work out if the 3 tracks are actually a tune of some sort or he is still tuning up ! If you buy this album don't forget to go to the local hardware store and buy some long rope and find a tree ! Swing Swing Swing......

Yes, I am giving Mr.Bailey full marks for this one, as I would have done for much of his recorded work. Nevertheless, I must admit that my favou
rable opinion for Derek Bailey's guitar exploits, derives mainly from the fact that I myself am a guitarist and very much interested in free improvisation. As such, I find DB's playing in this CD inspired and exciting, as well as, a source of inspiration for me as an improvising musician. Indeed, I think that his solo efforts help the listener to appreciate what he does, more than some of his work with other musicians, and this is certainly one of his best. However, the imagination and creativity displayed here, is not everyone's cup of tea. Let us be honest about it: to most casual listeners, this would sound like someone fooling around with an instrument he doesn't know how to play. A guitarist of course should know very well, that it would be impossible for someone who can't handle the guitar, to do what Derek does. It takes years of effort, not to mention disregard for negative criticism, to be able to play and sound like this.
Anyway, the clarity of the two long, imaginative pieces (plus a shorter one) will be a real treat for DB's fans. As for those who are simply curious, as well as open minded, maybe this will help them to expand their ideas about what music can be.

Akis Boukalis, Athens, Greece, EU.

...at least that's what i assume the ex-gastr guys who chose this as their representation of the man would say...if you wanna hear guitar touch-harmonics and rootsy plucking, scraping, etc. made into its own language, then this is the place, methinks...oh, and when derek's watch beeps at the end of one of the pieces, hopefully you'll chuckle along with everyone who got to witness that classic moment...

If you've never heard Derek and you buy AIDA you will be changed forever by what you hear. Most guitarists can have an entire electric effects-rack and still not come up with the multitude of new and inventive sounds that Derek gets just by sitting on a stool and holding an acoustic guitar. I don't know how he does it. Derek is one of the founding father's of Free-Improvisation, and AIDA is one of his very best works. If you are a fan of music that display's pure and unadulterated creativity then you are a Derek Bailey fan in-the-making. I can't say enough about this cd. It WILL make you rethink everything you thought the acoustic guitar was capable of.

I have never heard such tosh in all my living life ! Can't work out if the 3 tracks are actually a tune of some sort or he is still tuning up ! If you buy this album don't forget to go to the local hardware store and buy some long rope and find a tree ! Swing Swing Swing......

Yes, I am giving Mr.Bailey full marks for this one, as I would have done for much of his recorded work. Nevertheless, I must admit that my favou
rable opinion for Derek Bailey's guitar exploits, derives mainly from the fact that I myself am a guitarist and very much interested in free improvisation. As such, I find DB's playing in this CD inspired and exciting, as well as, a source of inspiration for me as an improvising musician. Indeed, I think that his solo efforts help the listener to appreciate what he does, more than some of his work with other musicians, and this is certainly one of his best. However, the imagination and creativity displayed here, is not everyone's cup of tea. Let us be honest about it: to most casual listeners, this would sound like someone fooling around with an instrument he doesn't know how to play. A guitarist of course should know very well, that it would be impossible for someone who can't handle the guitar, to do what Derek does. It takes years of effort, not to mention disregard for negative criticism, to be able to play and sound like this.
Anyway, the clarity of the two long, imaginative pieces (plus a shorter one) will be a real treat for DB's fans. As for those who are simply curious, as well as open minded, maybe this will help them to expand their ideas about what music can be.

Akis Boukalis, Athens, Greece, EU.

...at least that's what i assume the ex-gastr guys who chose this as their representation of the man would say...if you wanna hear guitar touch-harmonics and rootsy plucking, scraping, etc. made into its own language, then this is the place, methinks...oh, and when derek's watch beeps at the end of one of the pieces, hopefully you'll chuckle along with everyone who got to witness that classic moment...

If you've never heard Derek and you buy AIDA you will be changed forever by what you hear. Most guitarists can have an entire electric effects-rack and still not come up with the multitude of new and inventive sounds that Derek gets just by sitting on a stool and holding an acoustic guitar. I don't know how he does it. Derek is one of the founding father's of Free-Improvisation, and AIDA is one of his very best works. If you are a fan of music that display's pure and unadulterated creativity then you are a Derek Bailey fan in-the-making. I can't say enough about this cd. It WILL make you rethink everything you thought the acoustic guitar was capable of.