Tired of Being Alone (with Chicago)

Randomly encountered this video of Al Green singing "Tired of Being Alone" with Chicago. It shows Green in his prime. 

Joe Jordan Live

Here is a priceless video from the 1970s featuring Joe Jordan singing and playing the piano. Jordan was an important figure in the Chicago South Side music scene in the pre-jazz days when cabarets on State Street featured ragtime and vaudeville performances. While not really a jazz musician in the 1900s or 1910s, Jordan's legacy in terms of the South Side music scene deserves mention, as well as his music's contribution to early jazz in its transitional phase. He was also present at various moments in the development of ragtime (St. Louis), Chicago's South Side (Pekin Theater), and New York (Clef Club). By the 1920s, he was recording "jazz" with his Ten Sharps & Flats. 

Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904–1930

Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904–1930 is a fascinating read for all interested in the development of jazz in the Windy City. William Howland Kenney's study examines the economic, social, cultural, and racial factors at play leading to jazz in Chicago, as well as the rise of the "Jazz Age" in the metropolis. A variety of these aforementioned factors led to Chicago's prominence in 1920s jazz (Prohibition, the rise of cabarets, social dancing, and the Great Migration from the South), particularly as a stage for the transformation of the genre from the New Orleans style and roots of many of its top practitioners. Jazz within the larger society is explored as a source of leisure, interracial contact and racialized exploitation, contextualized within the Chicago of the time period. This history is relevant to jazz because Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, King Oliver, Benny Goodman, Jelly Roll Morton, and a plethora of other significant figures in the history of jazz were all shaped by Chicago's jazz scene or developed their unique voice and techniques while there. 

First, through their performances at cabarets in the black South Side or segregated white venues, jazz musicians had to dress the part. This led to many southern jazz musicians adopting refined mannerisms and fashionable tastes to not appear as rustic people. More importantly for the development of the music, working in cabarets, which combined influences from ragtime, blues, vaudeville, and popular song, demanded musicians to be versatile, proficient, and, if possible, to be unique to stand out from the crowd of other artists. These conditions of the entertainment industry in Chicago, which saw a large increase of its black population during the period in question, required professional musicians in a more competitive environment than New Orleans. Thus, even though many of the best Chicago jazz artists of the 1910s and 1920s were playing music clearly rooted in the collective polyphony of New Orleans jazz, their music was shaped by the Chicago cabarets, rent parties, and consumer demand for high quality music. 

New Orleans musicians who were active in the Windy City during the 1920s also refined their technique up north, with Louis Armstrong establishing the highest of standards for jazz improvisation or a Jelly Roll Morton's Hot Red Peppers showcasing the best elements of the New Orleans sound through his composing and arranging. As for the white musicians on the North and West sides of the city, Howell's book is less interesting. Many of the white orchestras, such as that led by Isham Jones, embraced aspects of jazz for their performances in white dance halls and hotels. For most whites in the city, jazz meant the "sweet" dance bands of Jones rather than the thrilling, "hot" jazz sounds emanating from the South Side. For a number of young whites, who ventured into the South Side not so much for slumming but to experience the innovations in jazz, they eventually went on to careers in the 1930s, perhaps the most illustrious case being Benny Goodman. 

Perhaps the greatest aspect of this cultural history lies in its ability to trace, in some cases very specifically, the conditions on the South Side that led to the jazz explosion in the 1920s (and its decline, leading to the Swing Age in next decade). The standardization of the blues influence in jazz, race records, the Great Migration, and big city living's need for entertainment all came together to create propitious conditions for jazz, a dynamic mirrored in other cities like New York. Moreover, the centrality of New Orleans in jazz is nuanced here, as Chicago's black South Side had long sported ragtime and vaudeville entertainment circuits connecting the city to other parts of the country. Even before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band came to Chicago in 1916, or Tom Brown's ragtime ensemble in 1915, the city featured entertainers such as Wilbur Sweatman, who may have been playing "jazz-like" clarinet years earlier. 

Thus, despite the fact that nearly half of the best jazz musicians in the city hailed from New Orleans, Chicago and the Midwest more broadly possessed unique conditions and local histories of black musical performance. It may also explain why jazz thrived so quickly in Chicago and New York City, especially if jazz was, as argued by Howell, linked to black enterprise and leisure in urban environment's like the "Stroll" of the South Side. This community ethos of jazz, through its ties to black-owned cabarets that became neighborhood institutions or the "race records" of jazz and blues popular among black consumers, is something that returned in subsequent decades with the AACM in the 1960s, but I would like to find out more information about Chicago jazz during the Swing and bop eras before contemplating the links between the Chicago jazz scene of the 1920s and avant-garde jazz collectives 40 years later. 

For Joseph Jarman

In light of the recent passing of Joseph Jarman, below is a selection of an essay by this blogger about the Art Ensemble of Chicago and AACM. Rest in peace...

Founded in 1965, AACM, under Muhal Richard Abrams’s guidance and direction, connected a number of African American musicians looking for new opportunities and alternatives to the commodification of black creative music. A number of similar jazz collectives dedicated to communitarianism arose in St. Louis, Los Angeles, and other cities around the same time, including the Black Artist Group, which often collaborated with AACM. AACM then established a voting system and structure which also defined itself in relation to Chicago’s South Side, as well as a commitment to creative music.^[2] According to George E. Lewis, AACM’s communitarian ethos also included collaborations with a number of other cultural organizations among African Americans, particularly Jeff Donaldson’s collective of black artists who explored African and African American styles for a distinct black aesthetic.^[3] Moreover, members of AACM also retained connections with the Organization of Black American Culture and the Affro-Arts Theater through Phil Cohran, an early member invested in promoting black cultural heritage through music and theater.^[4] Cohran’s involvement with the community-based Affro-Arts Theater attracted Gwendolyn Brooks, Haki Madhubuti, and Stokely Carmichael while contributing to culture building with music, dance, and classes for women, men, and children.^[5] Indeed, Ronald Michael Radano observed, “The AACM’s achievement as a stable, working organization could not have come about without a strong commitment from its membership, and that commitment surely would not have developed without inspiration from the black-rights movement.”^[6] Without the atmosphere of black activism and a political climate demanding self-determination, self-definition, and self-reliance, the AACM may not have been born or survived to become a fixture of Black Chicago music and culture.

In Chicago, Sun Ra and his Arkestra in the 1950s took jazz into different directions like the aforementioned artists. Adding his interests in Afrofuturist and ancient African history references and early use of electric instruments for his soundscape, Sun Ra’s Arkestra included Phil Cohran, who later became a member of AACM.^[7] Sun Ra’s band also used costumes, theatrical components to performances, space chants, multiple drums, and a larger mythos of “Great Black Music” which encompassed African, Latin, African American, Asian, and European styles. “India” from the Arkestra’s Super-Sonic Jazz, for instance, experiments with electric piano, exotica, and the eclecticism found in the works of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. However, Art Ensemble members usually cited the influence of Albert Ayler, Coltrane, or Cecil Taylor rather than Sun Ra.^[8] Age differences as well as Sun Ra’s move to New York in 1960 resulted in him having less influence upon AACM. Furthermore, during his Chicago years, Sun Ra was a more conventional player who did not embrace atonality and free-form structures as he famously did in later decades.^[9] However, his use of extramusical art forms of performance and visual art, in addition to esoteric writings, aesthetic spirituality, and embrace of African history shaped the course of Chicago jazz musicians just as it reflected larger Afro-modernist sensibilities of jazz musicians elsewhere.

Significantly, the authoritarian structure of the Arkestra also distinguished it from AACM and Art Ensemble. The participatory and egalitarian organization of AACM differed from the extreme practices of Sun Ra, who often punished Arkestra members who disobeyed his absolute authority.^[10] Punishment sometimes took the form of house arrest, sometimes physical force for those who disobeyed his rules of conduct, which included prohibition of drugs, alcohol, cavorting with women, or missing rehearsals.^[11]  The Arkestra’s communal living further distinguished AACM and Sun Ra, although the cooperative economics practiced by Art Ensemble of Chicago as a result of their time spent in France shows a shared value of solidarity.^[12] Furthermore, Sun Ra’s Arkestra did not permit membership of women except for vocalists. Even then, June Tyson was subject to occasional exclusion and women instrumentalists were not used. Even the Jazz Composer’s Guild, a short-lived organization of avant-garde artists in New York City, fell apart partly due to Sun Ra’s opposition to Carla Bley’s membership and the question of interracial collaboration on equal terms.^[13] Thus, Sun Ra’s views on gender limited a more democratic cooperative of jazz musicians.

Like Africobra, Art Ensemble of Chicago is a collective, and sought to connect their creative music to a tradition of “Great Black Music.” The group similarly incorporated a vast array of African, African American, and Caribbean musical traditions and styles into their sound. “Ja,” from their 1979 release, Nice Guys, uses a reggae rhythm and Jamaican accents in the vocals, for instance. “Theme de Yoyo” from Les Stances A Sophie, featuring then-wife of Lester Bowie, Fontella Bass, used funk musical features within an utterly unique Art Ensemble of Chicago aesthetic. With Bass singing over a funky bassline, the rest of the band maintain an unstable groove that threatens to fall apart despite its repetition, retaining avant-garde tonalities and hinting at free-form structures within a funk vamp. Art Ensemble of Chicago similarly used the blues form as homage to black musical traditions and Chicago’s history. “Bye Bye Baby” from Certain Blacks is a blues with harmonica, but retains space for individual expression of avant-garde soloing. The titular song from 1970 LP Certain Blacks includes Chicago Beau as well as lyrics on black individual expression, asserting “Certain blacks do what they wanna.” This can be interpreted as not only a reference to Black militancy of the time, but a defense of individual and group difference against black or white critics and conformists opposed to Art Ensemble of Chicago’s eclectic tastes and presentation. Trumpeter Lester Bowie, for example, defended the Art Ensemble’s musical expansiveness against Wynton Marsalis because they embraced tradition and the future rather than remaining stuck playing the same chord changes of the bop era.^[14] “Get In Line,” another composition with lyrics, is a critique of the French critics who only perceived the band in terms of racial politics and exoticism, not as creative artists.^[15]

Some members, such as Famoudou Don Moye and Malachi Favors Maghostut, used face paint and body art to add a visual component to the band’s performances. Lewis argues that the use of masks, body paint, a variety of “little instruments,” and the multi-instrumental virtuosity of the band created an assemblage of sounds and textures.^[16] The face paints, masking, and African dress additionally emphasized the role of musicians within many African cultures as a seer or griot. Like Phil Cohran’s Artistic Heritage Ensemble, which connected themselves to the griot tradition of West Africa, Art Ensemble of Chicago used African signifiers to affirm the communitarian ethos of AACM and reflect their understanding of Black Aesthetics.^[17] Becoming an assemblage, or a multi-layered approach to music and art within a collective that tied itself to community support, education, and celebrating African American culture and history, Art Ensemble resembles Africobra. Art Ensemble of Chicago also reinterpreted familiar materials from popular culture, like Africobra.^[18] Both groups used an assemblage of poetry, jazz, face paint, and musical styles from popular music or the past to world music.

However, the concept of “Great Black Music” or a “Black Aesthetic” was never defined in narrow or essentialist terms, which allowed for individual expression in both groups. Art Ensemble, for instance, included a diversity of performance attire and musical styles in their performances, as well as incorporating aspects of European and world music into their repertoire. Lewis describes Art Ensemble of Chicago’s sonic, visual, and multi-media diversity as a way of asserting a particular black cultural identity within a universal medium, music.^[19] The performative aspects, individual stylistic variations, cooperation as a unit, and cooperative economics allowed the group to persist, particularly when the band resided in France.^[20] As Kelley suggests, the use of poetry, humor, painting as well as other elements of the Art Ensemble’s performances and recordings affirm a radically different structure of a jazz band that contributed to the Black Arts Movement without being overtly political or essentialist.^[21] Indeed, there may also be elements of Afrofuturism in Art Ensemble’s allusions to futurity in their slogan or Lester Bowie’s lab coat worn during performances. As a result of combining futurity and tradition, Art Ensemble’s revision of the past and imagining of the future endeavors to resist traditionalism. By resisting the traditional jazz-oriented club performances, they also asserted black self-definition and self-determination to resist commodification of their art form. Thus, in spite of Amiri Baraka and Frank Kofsky’s interpretation of free jazz as linked to black nationalism, Art Ensemble shows a more nuanced portrait of the jazz avant-garde’s support of black cultural aesthetics and community art without necessarily following the narrower forms of black cultural nationalism.

In short, AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago exemplify a form of Chicago Black Arts Movement aesthetics that eschews essentialist notions of identity, undemocratic organizations, and commodified art removed from communities. Drawing on earlier generations of jazz activism and aesthetic sensibilities which encouraged the Civil Rights era, Art Ensemble of Chicago champions an innovative performance style within a black aesthetic favoring individuality through the collective. Like Glissant’s metaphor of the rhizome for explaining identity without grounding black cultural movements in a totalitarian or singular root, they respect black musical traditions and heritage, but also retain visions of the future in sight. The sense of individual expression is not lost, lending credence to Glissant’s notion of identity through relation as each member of the collective shapes and refines the other. Jeff Donaldson and the members of Africobra practiced a similar approach to black cultural identity and the visual arts. Donaldson’s TransAfrican aesthetic, which combines elements of jazz and popular culture, and African art forms, shares the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s rhizomatic model of cultural and artistic expression. The democratic form of these two groups likewise contributed to their longevity because members were able to express their own unique styles, pursue their own ideas of performance, and retain connections with the communities they seek to serve.

---

[1] Paul Steinbeck, Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017) 32.

[2] George E. Lewis, “Expressive Awesomeness: New Music and Art in Chicago 1965-75,” in The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 116.

[3] Clovis E. Semmes, “The Dialectics of Cultural Survival and the Community Artist: Phil Cohran and the Affro-Arts Theater,” Journal of Black Studies 24, no. 4 (1994): 449.

[4] Ibid, 457.

[5] Radano, New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton’s Cultural Critique (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 91.

[6] Clovis E. Semmes, “The Dialectics of Cultural Survival and the Community Artist: Phil Cohran and the Affro-Arts Theater,” 452.

[7] George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 160.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ingrid Monson, Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa, 310.

[10] Paul Szwed, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (New York: Pantheon Books, 1997), 117-118.

[11] Steinbeck, Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, 80.

[12] Benjamin Piekut, "New Thing? Gender and Sexuality in the Jazz Composers Guild." American Quarterly 62, no. 1 (2010): 25-48, 37.

[13] Nanette de Jong, “Women of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians: Four Narratives” in Black Women and Music: More than the Blues (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 135.

[14] Paul Steinbeck, Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, 104.

[15] George E. Lewis, “Expressive Awesomeness: New Music and Art in Chicago 1965-75,” in The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, 119-120.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] George E. Lewis, “Singing Omar’s Song: A (Re)Construction of Great Black Music,” Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry 4 (1998): 85.

[19] Paul Steinbeck, Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, 80.

[20] Kelley, “Dig they Freedom: Meditations on History and the Black Avant-Garde,” Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry 3 (1997): 21.

[21] Ibid, 22.

This Week's Crop of Readings...

So, this week I read two books. Atkins on Japanese colonialism in Korea and the role of culture and ambivalence on modernity was fascinating for adding some interesting nuance to Japanese imperialism in East Asia. Although I could be speaking out of ignorance here, but it would have been interesting if the book had expanded Japanese colonialism's ambivalence on modernity and claims to protect Asia (pan-Asianism) in other parts of the empire, such as Taiwan, or other parts of the continent during World War II. Nonetheless, an interesting look at how colonialism and anthropology went hand in hand and actually helped pave the way for Korean nationalism (in spite of Japanese imperialism). In other news, Cisneros's The House on Mango Street was pure delight. Short, sweet, endearing, and set in Chicago, the perspective of a child in a series of vignettes about her neighborhood brought to mind works of numerous other writers yet something unique and original can be found here. I'm ashamed I waited so long to read it. 

Chicago Jazz

The following is another simple class assignment based on a chapter from a cultural history of jazz in Chicago. The main purpose of the short assignment was to summarize a reading and offer some questions or different interpretations. The one thing I learned from this book, as well as several articles and texts on Chicago's jazz scene, is how detailed and important "jazz studies" can be.

“The Evolution of South Side Chicago Jazz,” from Kenney’s Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904-1930, overviews the shifts in jazz music and performance in 1920s Chicago. According to Kenney, jazz music was increasingly professionalized through cabaret performances, stylistic expectations of dress, specialized musical training through formal or informal means, new repertoire that included more popular songs, the rise of a star system instead of folk anonymity, and instrumental virtuosity, perhaps best exemplified in the skills of Louis Armstrong. 

The movement of jazz musicians to Chicago led to performing for mixed audiences, absorption of Anglo-American musical culture, exposure to formal music theory, and “calculated primitivism” to appeal to some of the tastes and expectations of white audiences. Furthermore, African American composers, performers, and songwriters contributed to the standardization of twelve-bar blues, in addition to adopting faster tempos. In short, jazz’s evolution on the South Side contributed to a professionalization of jazz musicians and a commitment to music and instrumental virtuosity. 

In addition, the regional diversity of Chicago as well as its black population’s heterogeneity appears to have been a major factor in the evolution of jazz. Lil Hardin, for instance, did not come from New Orleans, and brought with her piano skills a formal music education background. Earl Hines also did not come from Louisiana, and black migrants to Chicago who were natives of the North or possessed a formal musical education, assisted in the professionalization of jazz, musical talent, and performance. 

Moreover, the diversity of Chicago’s white population similarly contributed to jazz. Armstrong, for example, studied with a German teacher, plus other jazz artists of the studied clarinet under Franz Schoepp, who also taught Benny Goodman. Chicago, though segregated, proved conducive to music education and a blending of musical cultures.

The Razor's Edge

One can see immediately the appeal of Maugham's The Razor's Edge. There is much humor through the "arch-snob" Elliot, who I like to see as a Frasier or Niles kind of character. We have a rich spiritual and philosophical discourse through Larry's search for meaning, social mores of the US and French characters, and Maugham's self-insertion into the text for much appreciated commentary and order. Like Greene's The End of the Affair, Maugham's presence within the text makes it more relatable and seemingly "real" to the reader. One cannot help but feel that one is on this journey of Maugham, who also traveled to India and modeled some of the characters and experiences on his own time there. Indeed, Naipaul alludes to this in great later novel, Half a Life, which inspired me to read Maugham. And in contrast to what I was led to believe about this novel's impact on the Beats and the generation of the 1960s, which it certainly hints at, Maugham avoids the romanticized or extremely problematic exoticized Western exploitation of "India" as the fount of spiritual redemption or force.

In fact, Maugham's character, the narrator, is never quite sure if Larry did indeed achieve union with the Absolute (Illumination), and the "mystical Orient" did not answer all of his questions. Does the novel reinforce cultural stereotypes? Yes, but not to the absurd degree future writers accomplished. Since India itself does not become an important part of the novel until much later in the text, I read it as a particularly clever and witty critique of Western society in the interwar years, especially the American obsession with growth and their belief in an infallible future of greatness. The obsession with success, status, and, excess, in the US, London, France, and Germany appears to drive the novel, yet one cannot help but feel that the author's conclusion is a call for a form of tolerance or coexistence of individualized expressions of a "successful life," perhaps a match to the ambiguity surrounding Larry's alleged union with the Absolute.

The Impressions, Curtis Mayfield, and Music

I came upon an interview with the two surviving original members of the legendary soul vocal group, The Impressions. The following are some highlights of the interview that I thought reveal important background knowledge and context for the group (the interview's first part can be accessed here).

1. Okay, so you're all probably wondering how the group got the name, The Impressions. Originally, it was The Roosters, since most of the R&B/doo wop vocal groups of the 1950s named themselves after birds in that era. However, after their first record came out, they were told their name didn't match the song, so they pulled names out of a hat!

2. Jerry Butler brought in Curtis Mayfield into The Impressions, since he knew Mayfield was a good guitarist and sang top tenor, two needed positions for the group.

3. A nephew of one of the vocalists, Sam Gooden, became a part of the band for The Impressions after a freak accident that killed all of their band. Gooden pulled his nephew into the group afterwards, since Lucky Scott was familiar with their music and a versatile player. Lucky would later go join Curtis Mayfield's solo band after he quit The Impressions. His bass was essential to the rhythms of Mayfield's Superfly.

4. Gooden considers Mayfield's music to be relevant to the future and criticizes the way people began trying to give him all kinds of awards after his accident in the 1990s when he had been working on great music his entire life.

5. "Move On Up" was originally supposed to be on an Impressions album (sans Mayfield, presumably) but Mayfield recorded himself for his solo career. Gooden considers it a 'together' song that brings people together through call and response, as well as an uplifting song with religious overtones.

6. "People Get Ready" is a spiritual, which is no surprise, really. Gooden looks at the lyric "a train is a-comin'" as a reference to the coming of Christ, which is definitely part of the song's message given Mayfield's gospel background. The "diesel humming" in the song's lyrics could refer to angels singing, the train picking up customers from coast to coast without baggage also sounds like a reference to the coming of Christ or the end of the world. Of course, the interviewer and Gooden concur on the song's relevance to the social climate of the 1960s, particularly the Civil Rights Movement. Like all great music, it speaks to multiple audiences on various levels.

7. Gooden and the rest of The Impressions were aware of their big influence in Jamaica. They met Bob Marley and The Wailers in Jamaica, performing their as early as 1961. Gooden also believes that Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" was inspired by Mayfield's "I Gotta Keep on Moving" due to similar content (Marley would also cover "I Gotta Keep On Moving," too). Gooden naturally alluded to the "People Get Ready" influence on Marley's "One Love" as well. The interviewer and Gooden also seem to agree on the influence of Mayfield's "Move On Up" on Marley's "Exodus."

I am eternally grateful to Beldon Blues Point. Interviews with musicians have always fascinated me and the whole world knows by now I love me some Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions. Matter of fact, here is a playlist I made of them and other Chicago soul acts influenced by Mayfield or featuring songs written or produced by him. Next I gotta read some books about Curtis Mayfield.

The Curtis Mayfield Stamp of Approval: "Patty Cake"

Another brilliant short gem of Chicago soul, "Patty Cake," exemplifies everything I love about Chicago soul, produced by Curtis Mayfield. That glorious backbeat keeps things rolling, the horns complement the simple melody perfectly, the guitar is smooth and refined (probably played by Mayfield himself, or so it sounds to me), and cutesy lyrics fulfill the lyrical goals of most popular music of that era. Arranger and conductor Riley Hampton, surprisingly not Johnny Pate, performs his roles excellently. "I'm gonna love her anyway!"

Billy Butler and The Enchanters' "You're Gonna Be Sorry"

The world should know by now that I love me some Curtis Mayfield, particularly the 1960s output with The Impressions. I also love me songs he wrote and produced for other Chicago-based soul artists of that decade, such as Walter Jackson, Billy Butler, Major Lance, The Opals, and many others. Some of his compositions, such as those for Major Lance, incorporated Latin rhythms while others were just his usual style of soul composition, with 'cute' and catchy melodies, a little brass or other orchestration, sweet soulful singing, and perhaps a touch of Johnny Pate producing to bring in touches of jazz or blues to the downright spiritual and gospel tones of Mayfield. Check out this song to see what I am talking about and you too will forever fall in love with Curtis Mayfield, specifically his earlier work (not that his solo material is 'bad' at all. To me it's like pre-afrobeat Fela vs. highlife jazz Fela because both are good for you in the end, but I prefer me the earlier period in his music).

Matana Roberts's Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres

1. "Rise"   7:28
2. "Pov Piti"   7:41
3. "Song For Eulalie"   8:26
4. "Kersaia"   7:33
5. "Libation For Mr. Brown: Bid 'em In..."   9:48
6. "Lulla/Bye"   5:54
7. "I Am"   10:06
8. "How Much Would You Cost?"   4:19

I highly recommend this free jazz blast of Black history, beginning with Marie-Therese Metoyer, or Coin Coin, an enslaved woman in Louisiana whose progeny would include wealthy gens de coleur libres who owned the Melrose estate. Indeed, famed African-American artist, Clementine Hunter, is a descendant of slaves on the very same plantation the enslaved Coin Coin's descendants would own when her mixed-race children were recognized as free. The album fuses free jazz with traditional music, spoken word, and straight ahead jazz to allow Matana Roberts, alto saxophonist who has Louisiana roots, to tell the story of Coin Coin and slavery. Several of the song titles, lyrics, and music allude to Louisiana folk music, Louisiana Creole, and the horrors of life as a black slave in 18th and 19th century Louisiana. A conceptual suite, the album demands a full listen the entire way through, which may be a bit trying for those not interested in free jazz, Roberts's occasional screams, and spoken poetry. She also has a tendency to shift in tempos and genre within the same track, going between experimental free jazz, folk, and other genres whilst somehow pulling off the seemingly impossible fusion. 

At times Roberts uses Latin rhythms and the songs merge with similar melodies. Thus, "Rise" and "Kersaia" are very similar in melody and identical rhythmically in the first 2 minutes. Around 5 minutes into the latter, she begins to emulate New Orleans trad jazz or Carnival music, showing you the great depths to which Roberts will go to portray African-American history and culture. My favorite track may be "Libation for Mr. Brown..." which is a tribute to Oscar Brown, a lyricist who worked with Max Roach on his black civil rights album, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. Roberts does a cover of a song by him about a slave being sold at an auction. Here is the original, which, unfortunately, does not break out into a swing jam like Roberts's cover. The final track, "How Much Would You Cost?" makes a reference to the calenda dance, which was also popular in 18th century Haiti. It's more of a folk song with clear vocals by Roberts. She devotes the calenda to her mother, and, by extension, her family's Afro-Caribbean or Afro-Louisianan roots. Overall, an enjoyable, albeit trying, free jazz album. 

Matana Roberts has also performed the album live, which can be listened to here, here, and there. Check out Max Roach's album, too, if you're interested in more political jazz about African American history. Here is a live version of the album from German television.

Clifford Jordan's Blowin' In From Chicago

Clifford Jordan is joined by John Gilmore of Sun Ra's Arkestra, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and Curly Russell on bass. As suggested by the title, Jordan is bringing his Chicago jazz background to the New York scene in the late 1950s, when this album was released. It's fascinating to hear the amazing John Gilmore on tenor, who was an important influence on John Coltrane and avant-garde jazz, play in this rather accessible and conventional hard bop release. Furthermore, Horace Silver and Art Blakey were among the finest hard bop jazz artists in the 1950s. Interestingly, both Jordan and Gilmore studied music at DuSable High on the Southside, where many famous Chicago jazz artists were educated (as well as future mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington). So if you want to hear some great hard bop jazz with two of Chicago's finest saxophonists, check out this album. Below are my thoughts and comments on each track. Some of the links are to mog.com, the only site where I could find the entire album online, but one may have to register an account to listen. Unfortunately, I could not locate the bonus track added to the CD issue, so I have only commented on the 6 original tracks, which truly are a fantastic jam session with some of the finest musicians in the game. Listening to this album proves that Blakey was an essential ingredient in any great hard bop jam session, or in hard bop generally. His presence on seminal albums such as Somethin' Else demonstrates this, as well as how the albums were geared toward black urban culture and slang.

That review can be found here.

1. "Status Quo" (John Neely) - 5:36
Beautiful, short drum solo by Art Blakey that goes Latin, a beautiful head, and great soloing from John Gilmore. Blakey really keeps this piece together for the jam session, providing strong rhythms and some spontaneity. Silver's piano solo also provides a nice break between Jordan's sax solo and Gilmore's solo, even though the album is focused on a jam session between these two masters of the tenor saxophone. I swear that I hear Horace Silver quoting another famous jazz song in his brief solo by Duke Ellington, but I cannot recall which. Anyway, I think John Gilmore won this duel. His solo almost sounds like future John Coltrane.

2. "Bo-Till" - 5:56
Features a great Latin beat from my man, Art Blakey. The head is cute, too, but Art Blakey really steals the show. After the brief Latin-infused intro, Blakey swings hard while Jordan's solo, bluesy and funky, keeps things from settling into boredom. Silver's proceeding piano solo also has it's cutesy charm, but not enough to maintain my interest. Gilmore's next solo picks up the song, but ends too quickly before the song reverts to the Latin-inflected theme. Overall, not a great track, except for Blakey's lovable short solo in the conclusion.

3. "Blue Lights" (Gigi Gryce) - 6:38
A fun blues, Jordan excels here. Coming from the Chicago jazz tradition, it's inevitable to not become adept at the blues form, which Jordan does well in his angular, bebop-based improvisation. Silver does nice accompaniment and Blakey knows when to mix it up a little himself to add some spice with different rolls and rhythms. Silver, as someone whose entire style is still in debt to the blues, plays an interesting solo which takes multiple directions, but emphasizes the groove. Gilmores' solo is also good, too, with him responding to himself with different notes and Blakey's fine rhythmic presence. Though hardly as far out or avant-garde as his later work, Gilmore's contribution is welcomed. Curly Russell's bass solo even works here, though too short. Same for Blakey's as well, which ends too soon before the band restates the short bluesy theme.

4. "Billie's Bounce" (Charlie Parker) - 9:34
This certainly lives up to the "bounce" suggested in the title, with Blakey beginning alone at a loud, uptempo pace. The bluesy theme then picks up while Blakey rocks the drumset. Another fun, bluesy romp where Jordan's solo is also likable and pleasant with excellent accompaniment, especially from Blakey's thunderous drums that will have you tapping your feet. Who said jazz ain't dance music? This is classic, good times hard bop everyone in the family can enjoy. None of the solos are difficult to follow or deviate from the blues, especially Horace Silver's piano and the saxophonists. The later exchanges between Blakey and the saxophonists is another highlight, in addition to Blakey's funky solo.

5. "Evil Eye" - 5:14
A funky blues, "Evil Eye" doesn't really connote an evil eye, though it does sound a little ominous as a minor blues. Jordan's searching, soulful solo really does encapsulate one of the highlights of blues in jazz music, however. In addition to fine saxes, Silver's funky piano brings an additional element of blues into the piece, by playing funky lines. This, when combined with Jordan and Gilmore's call and response, a central feature of African-American music, one cannot help but love this piece more than "Blue Lights." Though not well-known, compositions like this best represent the zenith of hard bop's funkier side in the 1950s as well as providing a musical landscape of urban black America.

6. "Everywhere" (Horace Silver) - 5:45
Silver's composition is a catchy number that swings, like every track on the album. The initial saxophone solo is quite lovely with its sudden shifts and honking sounds. Then we are treated to Silver's "cute" solo and Blakey's polyrhythmic improvisation. Of course one cannot overlook Curly Russell's constant bass picking. Blakey's solo, though short here, displays his mastery of Latin and African styles, hitting different to get different tones.