clifford_thornton

I wonder if Brandon Burke will be involved with this... Brandon?

TED CURSON - TEARS FOR DOLPHY (Fontana 1964 / Arista-Freedom 1970s) This week's Album of the Week is a rather auspicious set recorded by the 1964 quartet of trumpeter Ted Curson, "Tears for Dolphy." Recorded in Copenhagen during a well-received European tour, the album features tenorman/clarinetist Bill Barron (pianist Kenny's brother and a regular foil for Curson during this period), as well as bassist Herb Bushler and drummer Dick Berk for a romp through odd meters ("7/4 Funny Time" being the most obvious), Berk keeping a strong forward accent, and dissonant head arrangements that seem to mark a turning point in Curson's music. The group met with extraordinary popularity, overstaying a gig at Paris' Blue Note club from two months to six before the musicians' union essentially kicked them out of the country, the Curson-Barron quartet did meet with some hostility for, ironically, the use of a white rhythm section. This was especially true in Holland, where, according to Curson, the German drummer and Jewish bassist were routinely booed and catcalled. Echoes of Curson's previous employers Mingus and Cecil Taylor are here, not to mention the freebop aesthetic that would inform his work with the New York Contemporary Five (replacing for a time Don Cherry) and Archie Shepp. Curson is somewhat of a missing link between the ephemeral quality held by Miles and the stabbing brilliance of Booker Little, a rare example of brassy bravura in an age marked more by the saxophone's sway. I will be posting some excerpts from an interview I did with Ted that will elucidate both what this record signifies, and Ted's experiences in the '60s. In the meantime, please post your comments on this somewhat underrated session here.

I'll ask him next time I talk to him. I wouldn't doubt it, you know... Right now: Bitches Brew (2-eye stereo). Been trying to make my peace with it but Wayne's soprano keeps getting in the way.

Here's a bit of relevant PL material. Please don't reprint this at the moment, as it hasn't been published. CA: When did you go to England? PL: It was somewhere around ’65 to ’67. I used some of the Queen’s Royal Orchestra for that record. I had a friend named John Hammond at CBS, and he always liked my playing and John Handy’s playing. He said ‘I’m going to set you up a date for CBS in Great Britain [which resulted in Insight, CBS UK, 1966].’ I went over with a friend of mine, the bass player John Hartt, and I lived in Kensington for about a year on Russell Road, and Yusef Lateef used to come over and he wrote some of the parts for the harp. John was a millionaire who went on the road with Philly Joe Jones and later lost his life; he was a great bass player and sat up all night playing like Bud Powell on the bass. He had drums and everything, and I used to have Yusef come over because he was playing Ronnie Scott’s club at the time. I played a concert in Cambridge, one in Brighton and recorded there. I was living with Hartt and we rode around in Bentleys; they didn’t have minks, but chinchillas for their ladies! We were staying at a mansion and built a big bonfire at night. The mansion had so much land to it, a great big place, and we had a baby grand piano inside so we’d play throughout the night. We built a big bonfire and smoked a lot of hashish, did whatever we wanted. Having an invitation to come to this place, I took Moffett with me and Chris Bateson, and we’d do gigs at night. I think the family that owned it was out of the country; John was a relative of the owners. We could do what we wanted, but we had to have discipline. We weren’t close to anyone, and the music has always been very well-mannered; it’s not like rock, you don’t hear this next door. We did music inside at this mansion with three or four floors, ten or twelve baths, just all kinds of beautiful areas. CA: When you put that band together for Insight, did that band work at all, or was it just for the record date? PL: It was for the record date; Stan [Tracey] was working Ronnie Scott’s as was Yusef, and the other cats were working clubs too. I just went over there for CBS because John Hammond got that together. Joe Oliver was the drummer, and he was the only other brother in the band. He was in New York at some point, I think. and more... PL: The theme of Eric Dolphy belongs to that CBS record, because he was a good friend, and I wrote that tune [“Impressions of Eric Dolphy”] that Yusef Lateef contributed the tempo section to, with the flute playing the birdseye cadenza. I know I've got more in the archives too, but I can't seem to find it. You get the idea, though... Cheers, CT

I don't know if I can name 'a' Monk LP... but at the end of the day, Trane or Rollins would probably be involved. Rouse is irritating, though I do like the production on those Columbia LPs. Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake - The Newest Sound Around Kevin Ayers - Shooting At the Moon Battered Ornaments - Mantlepiece Can - Monster Movie Brigitte Fontaine & Areski - Le Bonheur Don Ellis - New Ideas Max Roach - Speak, Brother, Speak! Stanley T - Blue Hour and Amen on LMO - amazing record!

Sidewinder, I'll post some stuff about it when I get to my home computer. I've got an interview with him that was supposed to be for AAJ, but became too long and now is destined for something else. But there's some interesting stuff that happened during Lasha's two years living in the UK. Cheers, CT

My momentary warm-up to these titles seems to have flared out. But who knows, I'm not getting rid of the LPs any time soon....

Cecil Taylor - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght (w/ Rivers, Lyons and Cyrille), all three volumes in succession!

That is a great, great record. Man! Just thinking about it gets me fired up. Too bad it's on the shelf and I'm at work, otherwise I'd spin it right now... Lasha's got some great stories about that session, too.

Yeah, there is a double LP version of that. Strange... they press that reissue up brand spanking new, but don't have enough to keep some older titles in print! You know, I hadn't pulled out that Cherry/Penderecki LP in quite a long time, and I'm starting to think that "Humus" is my favorite Cherry, eclipsing the neck-and-neck runners-up "Symphony for Improvisers" and "Relativity Suite." Also decided recently that the BYGs (French and Japanese) aren't so great... Dollar Brand - Anatomy of a South African Village Alan Skidmore - TCB Eh, maybe Tubby Hayes - Mexican Green is my fave Tubbs, I don't know. It's so hard to choose just one, isn't it?

I picked up "Spirits Rejoice" (1st Moholo group LP) and wasn't so impressed with it; seemed sort of derivative. I'd like to get those Harry Miller LPs at some point, though. Suppose my interest in Ogun is a little earlier, considering that they are putting new stuff out as we speak.

Alan Jackson is on side two only, I guess... Stirling Betancourt is the drummer on the first half, and Errol Phillip plays conga. My bad! That's what I get for almost never listening to the calypso stuff, but your thread got me jamming it tonight and it's a lot better than I remembered.

How I wish I still lived in the KC area. Have fun, guys!

Yeah, and IIRC Alan Jackson is the drummer, can't recall the pianist. I want to say Roy Fry, but I know that's not it. There was a record on Decca Eclipse called "Jazz In Britain '68-'69" that had more of this Calypso stuff, and the band slays - Surman, Osborne, Jackson, Miller, Oxley, Skidmore, John Taylor, Malcolm Griffiths and Harry Beckett, among others. Unfortunately, the tunes themselves do not slay at all. Interesting thought on the Rollins/"St. Thomas" connection, though. Food for the next time I listen to these.

I think the record label pushed him in that direction, frankly (goofy calypsos were popular in England around '68). The side-long suite is where he would have preferred to go, and where he went entirely on his second LP. Still, that side two is a motherfucker...

I know there's a rather large Ogun catalog, but for me, I keep getting stuck on the Brotherhood of Breath releases, as well as "All Night Long" (Osborne, Miller, Moholo). Wilisau must have some serious water wells...

That title track just kills! Move over Frank Wright, Joe Henderson's in town! -_-

Don't get me wrong, I'm down with firey lyrics... I think people are too mellow about shit at this point anyway. But that's for another thread...

Maybe because they weren't up to the standards set by his Transition and Brunswick dates?

I thought Billy Gault had a number of records and some production credits as well. Creepy Farakahn lyrics? Interesting...

Sven-Ake Johansson "Schlingerland" (SAJ) ... just nabbed this and it's far better and different than expected. Tom-echo sound art? Wild.

on Black Marigolds... great band, and the poetry is pretty interesting in a British modernist-surrealist sort of way... I think the Bards didn't have the other Garrick, because this is the only one I got. The Skidmore is ok, not as good as 'TCB' on Phillips (2nd LP, w/ Surman and Osborne) but solid. Chitinous I'm getting into - had forgotten that it was Buckmaster behind it; he was in the Third Ear Band as well as arranging a lot of pop records I never bothered to listen to. Sort of like a cross between Third Ear, Birtwistle and 70s Miles - in other words, pretty weird!

The flutist is Becky Friend, Alan Silva's then-girlfriend (early '70s). Conception Vessel is a really, really good date.

I've always been curious about that record - isn't Warren Smith the drummer? As for Al Shorter, Tes Esat is such a mysterious title and a heavy slab of batshit free music that it outdistances Orgasm by at least, I dunno, eight inches...

Mal Waldron - Blood and Guts Alan Silva - My Country Noah Howard - At Judson Hall Dave Burrell - High Michel Portal - Splendid Yzlment Karlheinz Stockhausen - Aus den Sieben Tagen: Kommunion/Intensitaat Patty Waters - College Tour Don Cherry - Symphony for Improvisers John Fahey - Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes Sandy Bull - Inventions ...