MADLY GOOD bonus session(!) on SOLOMON ILORI Conn, 1964

[Rooster_Ties]

I've had this disc for about a year (the Conn of "African High Life"), and I swear the almost 40-minute long, previously unreleased BONUS session gets better and better, and BETTER every time I hear it.

This is some of THE most soulful Donald Byrd I've ever heard. He's not flashy (even sometimes decidedly UNflashy), perhaps sounding a little like he'd heard some Don Cherry.

Whatever it is, I love it dearly. :excited:

Solomon Ilori Band

Solomon Ilori (vo, talking drum), Donald Byrd (tp), Hubert Laws (fl, ts), Coleridge Perkinson (piano, music director), Bob Cranshaw (b), Elvin Jones (d), Chief Bey, Ladji Camara, Sunny Morgan, Roger Sanders (per, vo)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 30, 1964

1458 tk.4 Bamu Baamu L'ayo (I Have The Strength To Sing) - Blue Note rejected (not on the Conn)

1459 tk.11 Toni Omo Re (Loving Your Child) - Blue Note rejected (not on the Conn)

1460 tk.17 Agbamurero (Rhino) - first release on "African High Life" Conn, 2006

1461 tk.25 Gbogbo Omo Ibile (Going Home) - first release on "African High Life" Conn, 2006

1462 tk.33 Igbesi Aiye (Song Of Praise To God) - first release on "African High Life" Conn, 2006

Anybody else have this disc?? The original session is interesting, and enjoyable -- but that second session is one of THE heaviest things in the entire BN catalog (in my book).

Sangrey, you have this date?? If not, you really NEED it, trust me.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

Yeah, I have it...haven't paid much attention to it past the first few listens a few years ago...probably should revisit, thanks for the tip.

I will say this though - Hubert Laws was one helluva tenor player.

[Rooster_Ties]

This AAJ review (slightly edited by me for space, and with emphasis added here and there) nicely sums up the bonus session specifically...

source

African High Life -- Solomon Ilori And His Afro-Drum Ensemble | Blue Note Records (Conn, 2006)

By Chris May

Every now and again, a label pulls a previously unissued session out of the vaults and it proves to be a down-by-law number one with a mango. Case in point, Solomon Ilori's "African High Life" (Englewood Cliffs, 1963-64)—or to be precise, the album's final three tracks, recorded eighteen months after the rest of the set, and which together clock up just under forty minutes of playing time.

Tracks 7-9 on Ilori's album (meaning the bonus session on the Conn), anticipate—with great brio and deep grooves—the astral jazz of the late '60s and early '70s, and the world jazz which has in turn followed.

The Nigerian-born Ilori arrived in the US in the late '50s and recorded the first six tracks on this album—the original African High Life release—in 1963. They're pleasant, if unspectacular, palm-wine highlife outings from the West African tradition, distinguished by some masterful drumming, but diminished by strangely inept alto saxophone contributions. (Saxophonist Hosea Taylor is more convincing on flute, but even here, he's eclipsed by Ilori's pennywhistle, winningly showcased on the Irish sea shanty-derived "Follow Me To Africa.")

The separation between the drums isn't great on the recording (of the original session), and there's too much tinny top on the call and response vocals—but traditional West African music wasn't engineer Rudy Van Gelder's main area of expertise, and recording technology in the early 1960s wasn't what it is today. By the time the final three tracks here were recorded, Van Gelder had it down more sympathetically.

Each of these three tunes runs approximately thirteen minutes and includes extended horn, traps and African drum solos. Elvin Jones' thrilling and uplifting interaction with the drum choir of Ilori, Chief Bey, Roger Sanders, Ladji Camara and Sonny Morgan is a feature of the midtempo groove of "Gbogbo Omo Ibilie" and the hotter and more intense "Agbamurero." Their dialogue continues on the cool-down closing tune, "Igbesi Aiye," which gets into some fine cross-rhythmic work.

Donald Byrd (trumpet) and Hubert Laws (tenor saxophone and flute) both contribute convincing modal solos to each tune, giving a taste of the aesthetic Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane would develop later in the decade.

Ilori went on to work Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. It's taken forty years to release these latest tracks, but they're resoundingly well worth the wait.

Edited July 21, 2009 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

I think the real unsung hero here might be Coleridge Perkinson (piano, music director). His playing really fits the mood of the session well (in much the way McCoy Tyner might have fit well here too). But moreover, the whole session just hangs together great. Not an easy thing, for a group made up of such disparate musical styles and musicians -- and I'm guessing Perkinson, being the music director on the date, had a lot to do with it.

FYI, Perkinson also directed the vocal group on Donald Byrd's "A New Perspective" (Blue Note, early '63), as he did the vocal group on Max Roach's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (1971, Atlantic).

Edited July 22, 2009 by Rooster_Ties

[sidewinder]

as he did the vocal group on Max Roach's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (1971, Atlantic).

There's actually TV film footage around of Perkinson in Max Roach's group with Abbey Lincoln from '64 doing a performance of 'Freedom Now'.

[mikeweil]

I will say this though - Hubert Laws was one helluva tenor player.

A real Texas tenor, for sure!

[king ubu]

sorry, but ought that not be "madly good"?

(it is, in my opinion!)

[king ubu]

btw, my "it is" was directed at the session in question, not my nit-picking...

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

african high life, hell yeah

[king ubu]

yup... those who like this should consider the Randy Weston Mosaic Select while it's still around! It's just one album, but there's plenty of other great music in that little box!

HIGHLIFE Music from the New African Nations

1 Caban Bamboo Highlife (Weston)

2 Niger Mambo (Bobby Benson)

3 Zulu (Weston)

4 In Memory of (Weston)

5 Congolese Children (Weston)

6 Blues to Africa (Weston)

7 Mystery of Love (Guy Warren)

recorded April 1963

Webster Hall New York USA

LP 1963 Colpix CP 456

Collections:

CD 2003 Mosaic 004

CD 1990 Capitol/Roulette CDP 7945102

Randy Weston piano

Ray Copeland trumpet, flugelhorn

Aaron Bell tuba

Quentin Jackson trombone

Julius Watkins french-horn

Booker Ervin tenor sax

Budd Johnson soprano sax, tenor sax

Peck Morrison bass

Charlie Persip drums

Frankie Dunlop percussion

Archie Lee congas

George Young percussion

Melba Liston arrangements

Jack Lewis producer

HIGHLIFE

The highlife may be considered the national and traditional rhythm of West Africa. It was popularized in the newly-independent African Nation of Ghana, though it is now highly popular all along the West African coast in such nations as Sierra Leone, Dahomey, Guinea, Gabon, Liberia, the Republic of Togo and Nigeria.

Starting as a tribal type of music, the highlife is now heard in all of the major cities in West Africa. In Ghana it is danced at most social functions. Some compare the highlife in tempo and accent to both the calypso and samba, and both of these may be danced to a highlife rhythm.

It is possible that it was introduced to the United States by African students who often perform it at parties and dances. In recent years African records with highlife music -though hard to come by- have also been available in the United States.

Pianist Randy Weston is one of the first American artists to present an album of highlife music. As often happens, when rhythms or music from foreign countries are assimilated into American music, some of the original elements are lost However, Randy's treatments of the highlife with special rhythm effects brings the selections in this album closer to the native highlife rhythms than many of the current, so-called highlife albums on the market.

Randy's hobby is African culture and music, so he has been acquainted with the highlife for several years, having heard it on records made in Africa. When he was in Lagos, Nigeria for a series of concerts, sponsored by the American Society of African Culture in 1961, he had an opportunity to hear the highlife in an authentic setting. He became even more interested in African music and its intriguing rhythm patterns. On his return to the United States, he began writing music in the highlife medium.

Caban Bamboo Highlife, which was written by Weston, is dedicated to Bobby Benson, who owns a nightclub in Lagos, called the Caban Bamboo, and to several friends that Randy met in the Caban Bamboo. Randy often sat in with African musicians at the club. It is the most authentic highlife in this LP.

Niger Mambo is a composition of Bobby Benson, a Nigerian. Randy met Benson on his African tour. Benson is one of the top entertainers in his country as well as one of its outstanding composers.

Zulu is a new version of a former Weston piece, rewritten in highlife style. Randy was once told by a woman anthropologist that he had the head of a Zulu. That comment led to his cleffing Zulu.

In Memory Of is a funeral song dedicated to the many great musicians who have died and whom Randy feels should have been commemorated when they passed away by an old-time marching band blowing through the streets. This custom may possibly be traced to African tribal ritual.

Congolese Children is Randy's adaptation of a traditional African folk song of the Bashai tribe. The treatment was inspired by a group of Bashai boys from a mission school near Kasheke on Lake Kivu in the Congo.

Blues to Africa is a tribute to the nations that are the real source of the blues. It is dedicated to Miriam Makeba and Michael Olatunji, two African artists who are currently in America and are doing much to make the American people aware of African music.

Mystery of Love was written by Guy Warren, a contemporary Ghanaian composer and percussionist, who has done a great deal of work in the United States. It was written forepart of a show some years ago for the African Room in New York. It portrays a youth and a maid brought together for the first time by the mysterious forces of love.

About his original songs for this album, Randy states that, "In composing these songs I have been very aware of drawing upon my own heritage, an invaluable part of which is the uniqueness, variety and beauty of indigenous African music. They express my conviction that there is a living, vital relation between the blues-based music of American and authentic African music. I am also paying tribute to the not-always-recognized fact that African music has been a source of inspiration to and an important influence on many other kinds of musicians and composers throughout the world."

Melba Liston, one of the few women to have gained distinction in the field of arranging and as a trombonist, has done the orchestral settings for the album. She has come up with versions of highlife that offer no compromises to the native highlife.

She and Randy chose from the best for their instrumental personnel. Players include Budd Johnson, soprano sax; Booker Ervin, tenor sax; Ray Copeland, trumpet; Jimmy Cleveland and Quentin Jackson, trombones; Julius Watkins, french-horn; and Aaron Bell, tuba. Ervin accompanied Weston on his African tour.

Rhythm sections are composed of Peck Morrison, bass; Charlie Persip or Frankie Dunlop, conventional percussion; and Frankie Dunlop, Archie Lee and George Young on special percussion. The special percussion includes a variety of instruments such as wrist bells, timbales, tympani, marimbas, bongos, congas, a gourd, a shakera (a rounded instrument with beads inside and outside that is shaken) and a bottle that is played by hitting it with a metal rod.

1963 unsigned

source: http://www.randyweston.info/randy-weston-d...63highlife.html

[DMP]

When my special order of "Bundle of Joy" and "Liquid Love" hadn't shown at my local shop, remembering this discussion I picked it up today. It's a sleeper! One thing that's always struck me about Laws' tenor playing is that it's a completely different conception from his flute style; you'd never guess it was the same person.

[BruceH]

I think the real unsung hero here might be Coleridge Perkinson (piano, music director). His playing really fits the mood of the session well (in much the way McCoy Tyner might have fit well here too). But moreover, the whole session just hangs together great. Not an easy thing, for a group made up of such disparate musical styles and musicians -- and I'm guessing Perkinson, being the music director on the date, had a lot to do with it.

FYI, Perkinson also directed the vocal group on Donald Byrd's "A New Perspective" (Blue Note, early '63), as he did the vocal group on Max Roach's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (1971, Atlantic).

He got around, that Perkinson.

[AndrewHill]

Great, now I'm all psyched to get this cd and of course its already out of print. I mean, the cd's only been out for what, nearly three years? Oh well, I don't think I'm dropping nearly $20 on it to get it now either.

[jlhoots]

I got one for $10.97 including shipping.

[Royal Oak]

I bought this album on the strength of Rooster's recommendation. While I don't much dig the original album, I agree that the bonus session is ace. It almost makes me want to start smoking dope again!

[Rooster_Ties]

Yeah, I have it...haven't paid much attention to it past the first few listens a few years ago...probably should revisit, thanks for the tip.

I will say this though - Hubert Laws was one helluva tenor player.

Any thoughts on the bonus session, Jim?

[JSngry]

Not yet...too much "stuff" going on to allow for prolonged listening right now. Sorry.

[Teasing the Korean]

I'm not a fan of high life, but I bought this years ago just for the bonus tracks. They are the best part of the album, IMHO.

[jeffcrom]

Just picked this up - my favorite local CD store had this, out of print or not. I also like the originally issued session, particularly Hosea Taylor's rough, wild alto playing.

[clifford_thornton]

I think my local used CD joint has it, too. I keep forgetting to go by there.

[Rooster_Ties]

Not yet...too much "stuff" going on to allow for prolonged listening right now. Sorry.

Hey Jim, still would love to hear your thoughts on this date. Cheers!!

-- Rooster T.

[Rooster_Ties]

Here's the three bonus tracks from the 2006 reissue of "African High Life", for anyone wondering. (Fully 39 minutes of music!!)

Jim, I'd still love to heard your thoughts on the bonus session in particular - thanks!!

Third track to follow in next post...

Edited June 20, 2012 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

Here's the third track.

[David Ayers]

Know this already. Like the beat/vibe but not so much the 'tunes'. Thanks for the reminder about this one.

[Rooster_Ties]

Yeah, I have it...haven't paid much attention to it past the first few listens a few years ago...probably should revisit, thanks for the tip.

I will say this though - Hubert Laws was one helluva tenor player.

Any dates with Hubert Laws on tenor that I should have?

I'm guessing the one (or is it two?) Harold Mabern date(s?) Laws appears to be on in the '69-'70 range. If there are two, which one is better?

Edited June 21, 2012 by Rooster_Ties