Playing Catch Up

by Bob Pomeroy

Maybe it was all the wood smoke in the air this spring. Maybe it was a Ken Burns-induced bout of depression. Maybe it was just getting disgusted at looking at the walls of my apartment too much. Whatever the reason, I’ve fell off the writing wagon for quite awhile there. As you’ve probably noticed, I try to come up with a theme for each installment. Lately, I just haven’t been able to come up with a theme that works. With that in mind, the theme for this edition is, playing catch up on discs I should have reviewed already.

First up is Duets 2001 (www.thrilljockey.com) featuring Fred Anderson and Robert Barry. Anderson and Barry have known each other for decades. Both are active forces on the Chicago music scene. Anderson was a founding member of the AACM and currently runs the Velvet Lounge. Barry has played with Sun Ra and more recently with Ken Vandermark’s Sound in Motion Trio. Considering their histories, it’s amazing that the performance on this disc is only the second time the two men have played together. The music on this disc is so rich and so fully realized that it’s easy to forget that you’re listening to just two people. Anderson breathes passion through his horn as his solos jump and swing around Barry’s ever-shifting rhythms. These are players who should be better known. This is a fine way to make their acquaintance.

During their brief tenure from 1963-64, the New York Art Quartet were at the vanguard of free jazz in the Big Apple. The quartet brought together the monster talents of trombonist Roswell Rudd, the saxophone of John Tchicai, Reggie Workman’s bass and Milford Graves’ drumming. The wild card in the mix was poet Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). If you’ve never heard NYAQ, you’ve probably heard bits of “Black Dada Nihilismus” sampled in hip hop tunes.

In 1999, the New York Art Quartet got together for a 35th anniversary

celebration. The 35th Reunion CD was issued by DIW in Japan the next year, guaranteeing that the NYAQ will remain obscure in their homeland. The disc is an uneven affair. The instrumentalists, particularly Rudd and Tchicai, are in fine form. Their playing is limber, lively and as passionate as ever. Thee nsemble as a whole shows that they haven’t lost the musical passion. Baraka’s poetry is another matter. I may be missing something, but there doesn’t seem to be much of substance here. The most memorable recitation (memorable because it becomes irritating before the song is over) amounts to little more than shouting out the names of dead jazz legends.

Another recent release that touches on John Tchicai’s legacy is Willi the Pig (www.atavistic.com). The disc is a recording of the John Tchicai/Irene Schweizer Group’s 1975 performance at the Willsau Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The performance was released a year later in a limited edition of 500 by the festival’s organizer. The disc has been out of print, fetching high prices from collectors ever since. If you’ve never understood the affinity jam bands like Phish profess for free jazz, Willi the Pig can clue you in. The hour long performance is one long improvisation. While the music is definitely jazz, there is a free floating psychedelic feeling to the proceedings. While listening to Tchicai play off Schweizer’s piano and the rhythms of Buschi Neibergail and Makaya Ntshoko, it stuck me that this is what the Grateful Dead were trying to do all those years but not really achieving.

Joe McPhee is another under appreciated jazz veteran with both new and

reissued discs on the market. Trinity (www.atavistic.com) was originally issued in 1971. The bassless trio features Harold Smith on drums and Mike Kull on piano along with McPhee’s assorted brass and woodwinds. The smaller group allowed the players room to really stretch out and explore the music. Ionization features some great duo passages as well as ensemble playing. Delta is an invocation of the blues without conforming to any blues conventions. Krull’s electric piano gives the piece a bit of funkiness (again, without really being funk).

Emancipation Proclamation: A Real Statement of Freedom (www.okkadisc.com) is even more stripped down than the Trinity sessions of 30 years ago. This disc was recorded at a performance with percussionist Hamid Drake at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. McPhee is still a versatile and commanding performer. This is a demanding record. The performances feel like spiritual meditations. “Mother Africa” has a languid, almost melancholy feel that opens with wispy statements from the pocket coronet and abstract percussion statements. The piece gathers strength as it goes along. By the end, McPhee is playing a subdued, but soulful tenor while Drake’s drumming makes allusions to dance rhythms. The duo give “God Bless the Child” a beautifully understated treatment. The disc ends with a piece called “Hate Crime Crisis” that is downright spooky. McPhee gets some very eire sounds out of his horn by playing the horn while at the same time singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” The pained tones of the horn and the strangled singing remind me that the true promise of liberty and justice for all cannot be taken for granted in this country. To the people who say social consciousness in jazz is long dead, I dare them to listen to Emancipation Proclamation!

So there you have it. All of these discs are worth hearing. All of them have been sitting in my “to review” box for far too long. I promise not to be away so long.