Chris McGregor Septet - Up to Earth

[Chalupa]

I just got an email from the fine folks at Fledg'ling Records informing me that they have it in stock!!! :party:

In 1969 the Chris McGregor Group were riding high on the London jazz scene, playing and hanging out with all the rising stars of British free jazz. Sessions for the previously unreleased Up To Earth brought together a dream team of South African exiles and some of the finest young players on the British scene - Chris McGregor piano, Dudu Pukwana alto saxophone, Mongezi Feza trumpet, Louis Moholo drums, John Surman baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, Evan Parker tenor saxophone with Barre Phillips or Danny Thompson on double bass.

Up To Earth was produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood at Sound Techniques studio in London, during the same months they were also working with several other luminaries of the Witchseason stable - Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and the Incredible String Band. The album was mastered and test pressings produced before the project was shelved. The group morphed into the spectacular big band - the Brotherhood of Breath – and all energies were transferred to recording the Brotherhood’s debut album. Fledg’ling Records are very proud to release this remarkable album as part of our campaign to reissue Chris McGregor’s wonderfully creative recordings from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

track list:

1 Moonlight Aloe

2 Yickytickee / Union Special

3 Up To Earth

4 Years Ago Now

http://www.thebeesknees.com/?p=224

[Chalupa]

Ouch! I forgot about that conversion from Pounds to Dollars. Oh well I'm sure it will be worth it.

[Alexander Hawkins]

What a band!

[ep1str0phy]

(Hi, again, folks, by the way-)

Got word by a few involved and some intimates that there's something shady about the Fledg'ling issues/reissues, financially. Maxine McGregor is getting paid, but it doesn't seem as if anyone else is getting money out of it. It's an issue I admittedly don't know much about, but at least some people are miffed about this (including Moholo-Moholo, who voiced his dissatisfaction with the matter for the record a few months back...).

On the matter of Up to Earth--I, for one, am interested in the music, but there seems to be bad blood in the air about the session in general. From my talks with them, I recall Moholo-Moholo and Parker saying that they didn't get paid for their work. I'd be interested to see if any of the other (extant) musicians who participated in this session hold it in any high regard. I think the music has some fantastic, furiously charged moments, but it seems to be borne out of seriously clusterfucky and unfortunate circumstances. That the sides are reappearing, after all these years (and with so many test pressings circulating over the interval between recording and issue), can't be met with the most exalted feelings--not all around, at least.

It's interesting seeing folks in the creative music community address the issue of issues/reissues/distribution in the age of information abundance/gluttony, what with some among the AACM's number speaking [quietly] about furtive distribution of suppressed recordings. It's a subjective valuation whether Up to Earth (or, for that matter, a lot of the recent SA jazz issues) really merits acclamation (or even, at least, the light of day), but I don't know if posthumous, holy grail endeavors are really worth upsetting all the skeletons, if you dig.

Edited June 18, 2008 by ep1str0phy

[ep1str0phy]

Which also reminds me of when I really upstartedly queried Roscoe Mitchell about the "furtive album circulation" issue. His response was something to the effect of (in a slow, measured tone), "Well, you could do that, but there are probably better things to do."

I think I'm having a conversation with myself right now, and as a scholar of music that was created before I was born I'm certainly the last to talk, but I'd like to see the scores of younger people interested in the music--which is a rare enough phenomenon--funnel some of that interest into making some new music. (God bless you, Red, for being among the interested and creative.)

Edited June 18, 2008 by ep1str0phy

[clifford_thornton]

Um, this is the music industry. Who gets paid for anything?

(not saying I agree with that, but I think it is a valid point to make)

[ep1str0phy]

Well, the Up to Earth case is not necessarily a special one--though it seems to be a personal kind of sore point as Messrs. MM, Parker etc. have surely been paid elsewhere--but that doesn't excuse the situation. The counterargument is that although highway robbery kind of goes with the territory, it doesn't make one more marauding any less invidious. Not to presume any avenging angel thing, of course--only that I get an unclean feeling in my rhombencephalon every time I pick up a brand new BYG/Actuel issue...

[Late]

Who gets paid for anything?

Entertainers.

[Alexander Hawkins]

as a scholar of music that was created before I was born I'm certainly the last to talk, but I'd like to see the scores of younger people interested in the music--which is a rare enough phenomenon--funnel some of that interest into making some new music. (God bless you, Red, for being among the interested and creative.)

This is really kind of you...and of course, I agree - it's really important we keep trying to make the music...even if it's increasingly (sadly) difficult to learn the craft from the real masters 'in person'...