Noah Young, Freaks: No Fear of Contagion

I reviewed the out-of-print Unicorn Dream LP by Noah Young last November 4 on my Gapplegate Music Blog (http://gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com/2013/11/noah-young-unicorn-dream.html). I did it because I believe it should be reissued, because it's a terrific album, and because Noah is my friend and he needs in his illness to know he is much appreciated.

Today another, a combination of four excellent cuts from Noah's then trio--Noah on 5 string acoustic bass, Lanny Aplanalp on soprano, tenor and flute, and Fred Stofflet on drums--and the spoken prose-poetry of Noah.

It's an unusual combination of spoken word and free jazz. Freaks: No Fear of Contagion (New Alliance CD117) I think this is also out of print, but, again, it should not be.

The trio cuts--enough for one side of an LP, are fabulous. Noah is a real dynamo on bass and his partners are kicking it nicely. These compositions, as those on Unicorn Dream, show another side of Maestro Young.

The prose poems show Noah in a contrasting zone. They apply a sense of real compassion with a razor-thin analytical series of insights. The musician in him carries forward in his poems to Ayler and David Izenzon. He otherwise covers in a series of word-art vignettes those who one way or another have to fight to live--those afflicted with AIDS, dysfuntional families, the nightmare of addiction, those facing their demise (as are we all, sooner or later) countered by the will to heal, to feel what it's like in other's shoes and to try and help.

It all fits together to give you a creatively committed portrayal of the man, Noah Young. I posted this today because if I am not mistaken it marks the birthday of his late, beloved wife, lost to Noah and his family some years passed. Let this post mark a tribute to her courage. And Noah has been ill for some time, no longer can play, but fights on valiantly. This is music and word-wielding that should not go into the great dark night of unavailable obscurities. If you are into some very hip free jazz and an excellent bassist, you'll stay for the evocative wordage, of people in sorrow and searching for some happiness, of staying the course. Check the net and you'll no doubt find a copy for sale somewhere or other. And somebody who can--put this and Unicorn Dream out again! On this eve of 2014 may we find the will to continue, to heal, to thrive. Noah would like that, for us all.

Arnold Dreyblatt & Megafaun, Appalachian Excitation

When a disk goes on and you think, "what?", it's a good sign. That was my reaction when I listened the first time to the pairing of Arnold Dreyblatt (string bass, composer) and the roots-psych trio Megafaun on their first collaborative effort Appalachian Excitation (Northern Spy 044).

The "what" has to do with the unexpected way the music goes about it. They rock or march but in an unusually primal, almost minimal way. Primal in that there are elemental intervallic drones that can combine with advanced harmonic droning chords or just trance out with rock drums beating underneath.

Megafaun is Phillip Cook (here on banjo, modified electric guitar and "moog lap steel"), Bradley Cook (electric bass, acoustic guitar and mandolin) and Joseph Westerlund (drums, percussion and electric guitar). Take that and add the "excited" string bass of Mr. Dreyblatt (I take excited to mean played by means of a motorized friction or other than with the hands in general?).

When you get to the third piece, it's multi-layered sustains without beat, cosmically irradiating like an elaborate cartoon sun. They get such interesting sounds and there is enough change within the unified structure that it is mind-bending and acoustically interesting without straying too far on either side of the both/and.

The final cut gets back into a march beat and another series of trance-beated drone repeaters.

I cannot say this sounds like anything else, except if we were on another planet and were treated to a performance of the folk-rock the "natives" had independently created? The fact that it's different is one thing. The fact that it locks together and does it all very properly indeed is another thing.

It's a weirdo winner--from all hands! Seriously.

The Dickens Campaign, Oh Lovely Appearance

Who are the Dickens Campaign and why that name? Dickens...as in Deric Dickens, drummer, composer, bandleader. Their first album, Oh Lovely Appearance (Mole Tree Music 003), finally has made its way to the top of my review pile, and I am glad for it, because it's a different sort of sound. Deric on drums, Kirk Knuffke on cornet and Jesse Lewis on electric guitar.

The music can be compositional, free-flowing open-air spatial, or it can get a bit of a rock edge especially with Jesse's fine guitar work. There are things that look to an earlier time while looking ahead, and there are things that just sound like these three when they get together. Kirk plays some terrific cornet throughout, clean or brassy, a real phraser. He writes some game tunes here also (as does Dickens).

Deric plays some very propulsive drums which sound just right in this somewhat spare, spatially wide threesome. Jesse plays some very hip guitar here also.

There is an inextricability to this--like Giuffre's threesomes with Jim Hall (RIP, Jim), there's no taking away any of them. It's a three-way sound that has been fashioned with some care and each has a vital role to play.

There is something old, classic in its newness, especially coming out of Kirk. That doesn't mean he is in any way old-school, but the sound is classic.

This one is a definite score. Listen a few times and you'll get something you can't really find elsewhere.

Recommended!

The Living Earth Show, High Art

I like it when I am sent corkingly good yet totally unexpected musical combinations. I like to be rocked to my foundations as to what is supposed to go with what and I think it's good for us all to loosen up and see/hear all the possibilities that can be musically, which are infinite, never-ending.

So that's what dawned on me as I listened to The Living Earth Show and their album High Art (Innova 863). In a way the title is a commentary, an aside, because sure, this is "High Art" but it participates in some way with things that at one point were considered "Low Art", namely music that involves electric guitar and drums. Most of us by now have dismissed the high/low distinction. If it's good, it's not a matter of altitude, or it all is high, depending on how you look at it.

And the irony of the title also has to do with the fact that this duo is performing "new music", contemporary compositional music that you or I could easily file away under "modern classical" without any compunction, what is traditionally in the "High Art" camp.

That is all interesting and food for thought but it would not mean much if the music was uninteresting. And that is not so. It is very interesting. So who are these guys? It is Travis Andrews on electric guitar and Andy Meyerson on percussion, which means principally vibes, drums and hand percussion. They perform four different works (and one is performed in two different realizations) by the new sort of composers, people you may not be familiar with (or then again, you might). They are Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, Adrian Knight, and Jon Russell.

Each work has its own sound world, from a slightly "Moon Child", semi-Fripp-like gentle work to soundscapes of great beauty, to heavy metal and anything goes. The artistry of the players is obvious and the compositions bring out a unique something that has been influenced by the spatial qualities of new music and its unfolding but also from the advanced rock realm as we've experienced it from the psychedelic era onwards.

Through the magic of overdubbing we may get vibes along with hand percussion and drums, for example, so the sound can be larger than a typical duo would suggest. In any case the music is really fetching, if you give it the time and space to unfold.

It will be manna for electric guitar fans and players, and the same goes for the percussion end. Most importantly it is music that sings in your head, sets up rarified moods, blows you away in different ways for every work.

I reviewed the album here rather than on the Classical-Modern site because I figure it can do the most deconstructive rethinking non-damage from this end. What is music? Here is one good answer. Listen to this one and you might start opening up even more than what is ordinary for the adventurous audience. I did. Opened up more, I mean.

Mulatu Astatke, Sketches of Ethiopia

The anthology Ethiopiques woke many of us up, myself included, to how hip the funky Ethiopian version of Afrobeat/Afrojazz was. And now as we contemplate a new year I am glad to say that new Ethiopian music in this vein is emerging afresh.

Mulatu Astatke has a good one out on Jazz Village (570015) that's called Sketches of Ethiopia. As I listen again while writing up the review this morning I revel in it. Good Ethiopian music of this sort tends to keep bluesy and harmonic minor tonalities intact and puts a hip AfroBeat combination of the tribal and the groove overtop. With the Ethiopian version of this kind of groove there's a bit less of the James Brown influence and just a bit more of the jazz lineage there. So it is with Maestro Astatke; in fact he is even more jazz-oriented here than what you might have heard on Ethiopiques. You hear indigenous stringed instruments rub shoulders with jazz horns, piano, electric bass and drums, grooving down on what is at the base very Ethiopian but then very jazzed as well--with solo time as well as basic feel involved.

Astatke goes back a ways. He collaborated with Duke Ellington, I read on the net. I am not sure I know of that as far as recordings go, but I would certainly want to hear it if it exists out there based on this album! He's been around as percussionist and composer but this is his first album on a well-distributed label. There are some assorted vocals now and then and they are cool. The music speaks in whatever they do here. Don't hesitate!

Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog Records of the Year, 2013

I decided it was time to start picking my records of the year for the majority of genres I cover. I did not in the past, except to name Wadada Leo Smith's major album set last year, partially because the genres were mixed up higgledy-piggledy in the various blogsites and partially because everything that makes it into a review here is a winner, or else I would not review it. That latter is still true, but with the maturation of my blog pages it's more clear than ever what goes where, as much as that can be. So I am picking this year for nine categories. See the other blogsites for the rest of my choices. Here are the three choices for the Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog.

Best Album, Guitar: Gary Lucas, Cinefantastique (Northern Spy) See review, December 12, 2013.

Best Album, Bass: Shayna Dulberger, Ache & Flutter (Empty Room) See review, December 5, 2013.

Best Album, Rock: Robert Wyatt, '68 (Cuneiform) See review, November 13, 2013.

Sly & Robbie, Stepper Takes the Taxi

Reggae Dub is that old style tradition--what labels like Trojan generally did with their "B" side 45s. The vocal version would be the "A" side, then the flip side would feature the instrumental tracks from the song, with some echo and maybe a touch of the vocals thrown in. If the groove was a good one everything worked out great. Apparently it came out of what reggae DJs would do with the spins in the clubs...

Sly is drummer Sly Dunbar; Robbie is bassist Robbie Shakespeare (and he is a mother). Sly & Robbie have gone back to that dub tradition and made a whole CD of new dubs in the old style--great grooves back-to-back--and actually according to the press sheet some old dubs are mixed in there, too. The album is called Stepper Takes the Taxi (MVD Audio 5846A). It stars a cat named Stepper, aka Giullame, who plays sax and sounds cool--not like he's a new Trane or anything, but his horn parts are hip. The mix is done by one Fabwise, a dubmaster on the rise. It all works.

Great music comes in lots of forms. This is great reggae dub that clicks perfectly. Bass players, listen to what's going on in that department. There are some very hip bass tracks here. The rhythm sections cook and the horns give out with sheer hipness. So get this one and it will put you in a fantastic mood!