Miles Davis: The Complete On The Corner Sessions [disc 1]. 2007. Sony/BMG Music Entertainment. 88697062392.
Miles Davis: trumpet
Dave Liebman: soprano saxophone
Chick Corea: synthesizer
Herbie Hancock: electric piano
Harold Ivory Williams: organ
John McLaughlin: guitar
Collin Walcott: electric sitar
Michael Henderson: electric bass
Jack DeJohnette: drums
Don Alias: congas
Badal Roy: tablas
Billy Hart: wood block, cowbell, percussion
Carlos Garnett: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Bennie Maupin: bass clarinet
Dave Creamer: guitar
Lonnie Liston Smith: electric piano
Al Foster: drums
When I was a student it was clearly fashionable within the academic set to revere the music of Miles Davis while exempting everything he recorded after the 1960s. The dictates of this fashion required that people run a sharp scalpel along anything that was "plugged in" and "funky" as if it were an unfortunate aberration. This opinion was still expressed at the time accolades and tributes were piled on at the passing of Miles Davis. But there was this one DJ in Toronto who bucked this sentiment ever so slightly by stating that his aversion to the funk and fusion era Miles Davis was entirely his loss and not formed by a sense of that music being "inferior." As my ears have steadily absorbed the decades of musical output from the staggering genius of Miles Davis I have concluded that no such separation is called for. A willful "deaf spot" to any era of his music is a dishonest denial of the complete artistic arc that we are left with. While these On the Corner sessions are a sprawling soup, they are a delicious sprawling soup. The energy and texture of this music is enormously attractive in ways that are completely different from the bop, and Kind of Blue eras. Yet there is that distinctive sense of musicianship that unifies this music with the greatness of those earlier sounds. This is the sound that gave rise to so much that followed in its wake. Some of the movements and styles that followed have aged well and some have not. But On the Corner retains a timeless beauty that transcends its warts. This box set has become something I look forward to each time it comes up in the rotation.
Charles Ives: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano. 1991. Bridge Records: BCD 9024A, B.
Gregory Fulkerson: violin
Robert Shannon: piano
Sonata No. 1
Sonata No. 2
Sonata No. 3
Sonata No. 4
An artful and dedicated set of interpretations of these incredibly significant works for violin and piano. The often dense threads of hymns woven into a fabric that frequently threatens to unravel within these re-imaginings. "I Need Thee Every Hour" nearly always catches me off guard as it sneaks into the final movement of Sonata No. 3 with chilling effect. A hymn that also haunts my own memories more than a few generations removed from Ives' New England. The fact that these pieces will only become more celebrated and more ingrained as a high achievement within the repertoire becomes increasingly obvious each time one take the time to listen. Gregory Fulkerson and Robert Shannon have set a high standard for bringing clarity to these complex montages of Ivesian memories.
Happy Apple: Youth Oriented. 2002. Sunnyside Communications/Nato Bear Series: SSC 3006.
Erik Fratzke: bass guitar, guitar
Michael Lewis: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, double bass
David King: drums, toys, waterphone, megaphone, mellotron
This is one example of music that has taken root and thrived from the soil of On the Corner. One of its tastier fruits as this is a funk-heavy jazz record with substantial staying power. David King's drumming is a particularly strong draw here as this trio brings the same level of polish of his more famous trio; The Bad Plus. But then the ears are pulled into the considerable gravity of Michael Lewis on saxophone and his ability to carve out spaces within this texture that alternate between foreground and background with equal shimmer. Within that texture is Erik Fratzke's electric bass anchoring this sound with all the sophistication of a Michael Henderson (from On the Corner) with an updated sense of production. Youth Oriented is a forceful example of a groove-oriented sound that never falls into an open-ended jam. Each piece explores its own textural terrain with a healthy sense of variation.
When I was a student it was clearly fashionable within the academic set to revere the music of Miles Davis while exempting everything he recorded after the 1960s. The dictates of this fashion required that people run a sharp scalpel along anything that was "plugged in" and "funky" as if it were an unfortunate aberration. This opinion was still expressed at the time accolades and tributes were piled on at the passing of Miles Davis. But there was this one DJ in Toronto who bucked this sentiment ever so slightly by stating that his aversion to the funk and fusion era Miles Davis was entirely his loss and not formed by a sense of that music being "inferior." As my ears have steadily absorbed the decades of musical output from the staggering genius of Miles Davis I have concluded that no such separation is called for. A willful "deaf spot" to any era of his music is a dishonest denial of the complete artistic arc that we are left with. While these On the Corner sessions are a sprawling soup, they are a delicious sprawling soup. The energy and texture of this music is enormously attractive in ways that are completely different from the bop, and Kind of Blue eras. Yet there is that distinctive sense of musicianship that unifies this music with the greatness of those earlier sounds. This is the sound that gave rise to so much that followed in its wake. Some of the movements and styles that followed have aged well and some have not. But On the Corner retains a timeless beauty that transcends its warts. This box set has become something I look forward to each time it comes up in the rotation.
Charles Ives: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano. 1991. Bridge Records: BCD 9024A, B.Gregory Fulkerson: violin
Robert Shannon: piano
Sonata No. 1
Sonata No. 2
Sonata No. 3
Sonata No. 4
An artful and dedicated set of interpretations of these incredibly significant works for violin and piano. The often dense threads of hymns woven into a fabric that frequently threatens to unravel within these re-imaginings. "I Need Thee Every Hour" nearly always catches me off guard as it sneaks into the final movement of Sonata No. 3 with chilling effect. A hymn that also haunts my own memories more than a few generations removed from Ives' New England. The fact that these pieces will only become more celebrated and more ingrained as a high achievement within the repertoire becomes increasingly obvious each time one take the time to listen. Gregory Fulkerson and Robert Shannon have set a high standard for bringing clarity to these complex montages of Ivesian memories.
Happy Apple: Youth Oriented. 2002. Sunnyside Communications/Nato Bear Series: SSC 3006.Erik Fratzke: bass guitar, guitar
Michael Lewis: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, double bass
David King: drums, toys, waterphone, megaphone, mellotron
This is one example of music that has taken root and thrived from the soil of On the Corner. One of its tastier fruits as this is a funk-heavy jazz record with substantial staying power. David King's drumming is a particularly strong draw here as this trio brings the same level of polish of his more famous trio; The Bad Plus. But then the ears are pulled into the considerable gravity of Michael Lewis on saxophone and his ability to carve out spaces within this texture that alternate between foreground and background with equal shimmer. Within that texture is Erik Fratzke's electric bass anchoring this sound with all the sophistication of a Michael Henderson (from On the Corner) with an updated sense of production. Youth Oriented is a forceful example of a groove-oriented sound that never falls into an open-ended jam. Each piece explores its own textural terrain with a healthy sense of variation.
