Thursday, June 22, 2017

NEW MUSIC RELEASES: TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME – EMERGENCY; WILLIAM PARKER QUARTETS – MEDITATION / RESURRECTION; DAVID S. WARE – LIVE IN NEW YORK, 2010

TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME – EMERGENCY

A seminal jazz rock statement from drummer Tony Williams – one that has him stepping out quite far from his original "new thing" recordings of the mid 60s! The album's got a genre-forming sound that's incredibly fierce – a power trio churning of Williams drums, John McLaughlin's guitar, and Larry Young's free-thinking work on organ. The tunes are long and jamming, but also have a tight rhythmic focus that never gets too sloppy – and which virtually set the stage for a whole generation of 70s fusion players in years to come! Young and McLaughling are especially great – working here with Williams to pound out sheets of sound in a cosmic trippy maze of riffs and grooves, certainly enough to inspire the most addled rocker to head over to the jazz section! CD features the full 8 track original set – with titles that include "Sangria For Three", "Something Spiritual", "Spectrum", "Via The Spectrum Road", "Emergency", "Beyond Games", "Where" and "Vashkar".  ~ Dusty Groove

WILLIAM PARKER QUARTETS – MEDITATION / RESURRECTION

Bassist William Parker in two different settings, but both served up here with a very unified feel! The material was all recorded on a single day, with a core trio that features Parker on bass, Hamid Drake on drums, and Rob Brown on alto – a group whose energy you can really feel building up right from the core, especially in the interplay between Parker and Drake, a pair who only seem to get better together over the years! The first half features trumpeter Jalalu Kalvert Nelson – whose soaring sense of pride really adds a new dimension to the music – this righteous quality that opens up new channels of beauty when he steps in. The second half features pianist Cooper-Moore, instead of the trumpeter – and his tones are maybe more introspective, and produce a similar shift in the music, especially in the way Parker shapes his notes. This change really deepens our understanding of the trio on both sides – and shows just how adaptive they are to each other. Titles include "Horace Silver Part 2", "Things Falling Apart", "Give Me Back My Drum", "Rodney's Resurrection", "Urban Disruption", and "Orange Winter Flower".  ~ Dusty Groove

DAVID S. WARE – LIVE IN NEW YORK, 2010

Gigantic genius from the late David S Ware – heard here in an unreleased performance from the final years of his time – at a time when his saxophone greatness was still very much in full flower! The group is a trio – with William Parker on bass and Warren Smith on drums – and Ware really dominates on both tenor and a Buchler straight alto sax, which he plays with an amazing sound – really spinning out these incredible solos that are full of soul and imagination, with that special quality that first made us fall in love with his music many decades back. At his best – as he is here – Ware can improvise freely, yet still find this spiritual core to guide him forward – which is very much the case on the two long performances included in this double-length package!  ~ Dusty Groove


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