Free Jazz Music

A welcome reissue of the 1968 album. Lateef was able to round up some excellent sidemen for the session including Kenny Burrell on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet and Cecil McBee on Bass. Lateef gets to blow all kinds of instruments including several different kinds of flute, a Taiwan koto and scratcher, as well as tenor sax.He also persuaded The Sweet inspirations to add vocal backing to two tracks ( "Juba Juba" and "Back Home").Most of the tracks survive the test of time. Favourites are "Like it is" on which there's the addition of a string quartet, "Get Over get off and get on", and "Six Miles next door". Also worth the price of admission are the sleeve notes, which are VERY 1968, and include some Lateef poetry. The mystery still resolves around the track "Moon Cup". I bought the album when it was originally released and was somewhat skeptical about Lateef singing.... I thought way back then that there was an element of tongue-in -cheek when he declares in the sleeve notes that its " a tagalog chant. The lyrics are derived from a dialect of the Phillipine Islands". Oh yeh? If there's anybody out there who can confirm or deny whether this is so, you'd make a middle aged man very happy.Me? I think he's making it up as he goes along - but I'd love to be proved wrong!

blues for falasha, music in 4 parts -- 1) the old book, 2) rituals, 3) cold water and dirt, and, over 28 minutes, the longest section, 4) seed sounds -- is recorded on john zorn's label tzadik: radical jewish music. the name of glenn spearman appears in white letters embossed on a golden star of david. glenn spearman's mother is jewish.

the old book, a background chant over which spearman recites an original poem, concludes with a honking tenor sax evocative of a shofar. rituals opens with a groaning, my guess, made by either the prepared piano or the bass. john zorn refers to spearman's group as the double trio (ornette coleman's classic, free jazz, used a double quartet), consisting of 2 saxophonists, a pianist, a bassist, and 2 drummer/percussionists. both saxophonists play softly in unison and then the piano and percussion chime in, the droning groan fades and the other instruments continue on thru cold water and dirt.

the poet, nathaniel mackey, in the preface of his book, splay anthem, describes glenn spearman as 'a san francisco bay tenor saxophonist...who died in 1998 at age 51, a saxophonist in the coltrane tradition, a tradition worked and ramified by such musicians as shepp, albert ayler, pharoah sanders, and, of particular importance to spearman, frank wright, with whom he studied and worked in paris in the 1970s. ...glenn's music could be pointedly echoic. toward the end of his 1993 composition "thinking of frank," he quotes from the piece wright wrote in memory of trane "one for john." here echo is homage, lineage, a school of ancestors...' the falasha are a jewish hamitic people of ethiopia who claim descent from menelik I, the son of solomon and the queen of sheba. glenn spearman's father is african american.

seed sound, as mackey might say, echoes the music of john coltrane. you could say it's in the spirit of coltrane's meditations, the building up rapid playing of screeching, honking horns to blend with piano and heavily strummed bass, the piano growing in pace and intensity joining the screeching horns and loud banging drums. spearman published his music under the name: ascension publication, undoubtably moved by coltrane's ascension. the screeching rises to tumbling drums and the piece ends with a meeting of the 2 horns and the return of the chanting voices.

larry ochs, pianist for the double trio, writes in the linear notes that he believed blues for falasha marked the end of one kind of free jazz focus for glenn spearman as a saxophonist, and the explorations in new directions.

unfortunately, we'll never know where spearman's explorations would have taken him, as well his listeners. what we do have is something echoic and indicative of spearman's journey here in blues for falasha, music well worth a listen.

Bley is at his best in later albums when he works solo. He has emerged in the last two decades (he's been recording for four!) as a significant, if underrated composer. "Blues for Red" consists entirely of Bley's compositions. For those who know the entire corpus of Bley's work his later solo albums are a departure. Gone is the often obscure, "anti-melodic" radicalism of his earlier work, replaced by a lyrical, if never sentimental, voice that constantly astounds by its inventiveness and warmth. If you like this album you should examine "Tango Palace" and "Paul Bley at Copenhagen Jazz House" (a live performance) to comprehend the full depth of what he did in the 80's.

I don't want to imply that everything Mr. Ulmer does is great because I don't have his complete catalog and I've never been lucky enough to see him play live (I live on the West Coast and I believe he mainly stays and plays on the Eastern one).

However, if you are in the mood to groove and move and sing along this album has it all.

It seems from the reviews I've read about Mr. Ulmer that you either like him or don't, but to me the reviews don't matter because I like him and am always willing to take the chance. This one continues to pay off.

So I regularly pull this gem out and play it. I like his soulful voice, the lyrics are hopeful, comforting, and inspirational, and when he lets loose with his bursts of notes I am reminded of grape clusters except the grapes that shine are really diamonds and pearls.

When he plays his longer lines of guitar I am always amazed, and one should not overlook the rhythm work.

No one who isn't one with their instrument could play like this.

As a person who would love to play the guitar but knows it will never happen, I have to rely on other human folks to do it for me. As you probably have experienced, it never happens quite exactly the way you would do it. But this comes close, very close for me of one style I wish I could play.

I don't want to forget to praise the players, singers, and everyone involved with this album but I think I am going on a little long.

I'm sorry to see that as I write this review that this wonderful effort is now relegated to the cut-out bin and used section on Amazon.com.

If you can find it I hope you will give it a chance, it's not background music. May be best on a rainy nite with a friend willing to listen close and share something close with you. But will also work well in a random mix for a party. Works good any way you play it.

Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors . . .

I don't want to imply that everything Mr. Ulmer does is great because I don't have his complete catalog and I've never been lucky enough to see him play live (I live on the West Coast and I believe he mainly stays and plays on the Eastern one).

However, if you are in the mood to groove and move and sing along this album has it all.

It seems from the reviews I've read about Mr. Ulmer that you either like him or don't, but to me the reviews don't matter because I like him and am always willing to take the chance. This one continues to pay off.

So I regularly pull this gem out and play it. I like his soulful voice, the lyrics are hopeful, comforting, and inspirational, and when he lets loose with his bursts of notes I am reminded of grape clusters except the grapes that shine are really diamonds and pearls.

When he plays his longer lines of guitar I am always amazed, and one should not overlook the rhythm work.

No one who isn't one with their instrument could play like this.

As a person who would love to play the guitar but knows it will never happen, I have to rely on other human folks to do it for me. As you probably have experienced, it never happens quite exactly the way you would do it. But this comes close, very close for me of one style I wish I could play.

I don't want to forget to praise the players, singers, and everyone involved with this album but I think I am going on a little long.

I'm sorry to see that as I write this review that this wonderful effort is now relegated to the cut-out bin and used section on Amazon.com.

If you can find it I hope you will give it a chance, it's not background music. May be best on a rainy nite with a friend willing to listen close and share something close with you. But will also work well in a random mix for a party. Works good any way you play it.

Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors . . .

I don't want to imply that everything Mr. Ulmer does is great because I don't have his complete catalog and I've never been lucky enough to see him play live (I live on the West Coast and I believe he mainly stays and plays on the Eastern one).

However, if you are in the mood to groove and move and sing along this album has it all.

It seems from the reviews I've read about Mr. Ulmer that you either like him or don't, but to me the reviews don't matter because I like him and am always willing to take the chance. This one continues to pay off.

So I regularly pull this gem out and play it. I like his soulful voice, the lyrics are hopeful, comforting, and inspirational, and when he lets loose with his bursts of notes I am reminded of grape clusters except the grapes that shine are really diamonds and pearls.

When he plays his longer lines of guitar I am always amazed, and one should not overlook the rhythm work.

No one who isn't one with their instrument could play like this.

As a person who would love to play the guitar but knows it will never happen, I have to rely on other human folks to do it for me. As you probably have experienced, it never happens quite exactly the way you would do it. But this comes close, very close for me of one style I wish I could play.

I don't want to forget to praise the players, singers, and everyone involved with this album but I think I am going on a little long.

I'm sorry to see that as I write this review that this wonderful effort is now relegated to the cut-out bin and used section on Amazon.com.

If you can find it I hope you will give it a chance, it's not background music. May be best on a rainy nite with a friend willing to listen close and share something close with you. But will also work well in a random mix for a party. Works good any way you play it.

Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors . . .