Recorded March 28, 1924.
Marion Harris (April 4, 1896 – April 23, 1944) was an American popular singer, most successful in the 1920s. She was the first widely known white singer to sing jazz and blues songs. [source]
Month: March 2013
Roland Kirk – Many Blessings (1968)
From the album The Inflated Tear by Roland Kirk, recorded the 10th of May 1968 and previously released as Atlantic SC 1502 (15th of June 1968).
The debut recording by Roland Kirk (this was still pre-Rahsaan) on Atlantic Records, the same label that gave us Blacknuss and Volunteered Slavery, is not the blowing fest one might expect upon hearing it for the first time. In fact, producer Joel Dorn and label boss Neshui Ertegun weren’t prepared for it either. Roland Kirk won over the masses with this one too, selling over 10,000 copies in the first year. This is Roland Kirk at his most poised and visionary; his reading of jazz harmony and fickle sonances are nearly without peer. And only Mingus understood Ellington in the way Kirk did. That evidence is here also. If you are looking for a place to start with Kirk, this is it. [source]
Ron Burton – Piano
Steve Novosel – Bass
Jimmy Hopps – Drums
Dick Griffith – Trombone
Roland Kirk – Tenor saxophone, Manzello, Stritch, Clarinet, Flute, Whistle, Cor Anglais, Flexafone
[Dedicated Ronnie Rocket, with all the best wishes]
Roland Kirk – The Black and Crazy Blues
From the album The Inflated Tear by Roland Kirk, recorded the 10th of May 1968 and previously released as Atlantic SC 1502 (15th of June 1968).
The Inflated Tear is an album by Roland Kirk released in 1968. One of his most popular albums and sometimes regarded as his magnum opus, it established his reputation as a jazz composer and earned him a modicum of respect in music circles who had previously written him off as a sideshow.
It was re-released in 1998 by Rhino featuring a bonus track and extensive liner notes. [source]
Ron Burton – Piano
Steve Novosel – Bass
Jimmy Hopps – Drums
Dick Griffith – Trombone
Roland Kirk – Tenor saxophone, Manzello, Stritch, Clarinet, Flute, Whistle, Cor Anglais, Flexafone
Charles Mingus – Passions Of A Man (1961)
Passions Of A Man is from the album Oh Yeah by Charles Mingus.
Mingus had always had a bizarre sense of humor, as expressed in some of his song titles and arranging devices, but Oh Yeah often gets downright warped. That’s partly because Mingus is freed up to vocalize more often, but it’s also due to the presence of mad genius Roland Kirk. His chemistry with Mingus is fantastically explosive, which makes sense — both were encyclopedias of jazz tradition, but given over to oddball modernist experimentation. “Passions of a Man” sounds almost like musique concrète, while “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am” nicks some Monk angularity and “Ecclusiastics” adds some testifying shouts and a chorale-like theme to Mingus’ gospel-jazz hybrid. Og Yeah is probably the most offbeat Mingus album ever, and that’s what makes it so vital. [source]
Charles Mingus – Piano, Vocals
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Flute, Siren, Tenor Saxophone, Manzello, Strich
Booker Ervin – Tenor Saxophone
Jimmy Knepper – Trombone
Doug Watkins – Bass
Dannie Richmond – Drums
The amazing dream team of Amiri Baraka akka Leroy Jones – live at a tv show (1968)
Warning: This is maybe not jazz, but it will definitely jazz up your day !!
Using synched movements and poetry, the kids address various issues from inequality to the lack of a well-rounded black history curriculum in the schools. One girl states affectingly: “We are taught to hate ourselves…America, why did you bring us here?” But the underlying message from Jones through these kids is the importance of pride and self-empowerment. As one of the children says near the end: “Today is ours/Let’s take it.”
Additional music by DJ Wild Worm Web.
“Black Power To The People” From MIX Tape WURM EP.
Francois Tusques – Dialogue II (1967)
From the album Le Nouveau Jazz by Francois Tusques, recorded in Paris on January 16 and February 15, 1967 and released on Mouloudji Records.
Pianist and composer François Tusques, while almost unknown outside his native France, is certainly among the rare few in European jazz, not only as a crucial figure in the development of the music in his sector of the continent, but so crucial that he was able to record the first true French free jazz record (Free Jazz, reissued by In Situ)—a claim which, Stateside, is not even Ornette Coleman’s.
Born in 1938 in Paris, Tusques migrated with his family to rural Brittany shortly thereafter, though as his father was a crucial figure in the French Resistance, François and his family moved around quite a bit during and after the War, eventually spending two years in Afghanistan and another two in Dakar before returning to France. As the potential for danger at being ‘outed’ as a member the Resistance was so high, Tusques did not attend any French schools at the time, for fear that he would accidentally divulge his father’s secret to his peers.
Free Jazz was followed in 1967 by Le Nouveau Jazz (Moloudji), which joined Tusques with Wilen in the saxophonist’s first recorded entrée into free playing (he would continue somewhat in this vein over the next several years), backed by Guerin and itinerant Italian drummer Aldo Romano, a fixture in Steve Lacy and Don Cherry’s ensembles of the period. Both Moloudji recordings are among the rarest documents of European jazz and were limited to a pressing of only 200 copies apiece—nevertheless, it was Tusques’ wherewithal that led to the first recorded examples of avant-garde French jazz. [source]
Dialogue II: Performed by Francois Tusques – Piano / Barney Wilen – Tenor Saxophone / Bernard Guérin – Bass / J.F. Jenny-Clark – Bass / Aldo Romano – Drums
Music composed by Francois Tusques
Clifford Thornton – Pan African Festival (1969)
From the album Ketchaoua by Clifford Thornton , recorded August 18, 1969 in Paris , France. Released on BYG records in 1969.
Clifford Thornton’s only Actuel date as a leader is, like many of the others in this BYG series, an all-star blowing session highly indicative of the times. For some, it will be difficult to tell whether taking credit for composing these pieces is a lost cause. This is some very free music and, save for a handful of scored passages, almost wholly improvised. [source]
Clifford Thornton – Cornet , Conga Drums
Arthur Jones – Alto Saxophone
Archie Shepp – Soprano Saxophone
Grachan Moncur III – Trombone
Beb Guerin – Bass
Dave Burrell – Piano
Sunny Murray – Drums
Earl Freeman – Bass
