Less Common Birds at the Feeder: Brown Thrasher

It was a beautiful sunny morning on Saturday and I was able to take a nice photograph of the Brown Thrasher (Taxostoma rufum) -- much better than my last attempt in September! Yet another rare and beautiful bird at our doorstep. Amazing.

Less Common Birds at the Feeder: Pileated Woodpecker (F)

Of all the beautiful birds that hang around our feeders, the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is, to me, the most magnificent. A very large bird, about as a big as a crow, a Pileated Woodpecker is really impressive up close. Many folks are unable to attract them to their feeders, but I think the fact that our feeder is way up high in a tree makes them feel more comfortable. The males are way more skittish than the females and will be much more difficult to photograph, but I hope to capture his distinctive red “mustache.” The females are pretty much fearless; this one let me take hundreds of pictures while she chowed down on suet for fifteen minutes or more. These amazing birds have not been seen at the feeders since early summer, but now that freezing weather has arrived, they will definitely be checking out the bird buffet here at Chez Nuvoid from time to time. We are so lucky!

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: Black Myth/Out in Space (Motor Music 2CD)

After the success of the Fondation Maeght performances in August, a hastily conceived “tour” of Europe was put together by Victor Schoenfield and Joachim Berendt (among others) with support from radio station Südwestrundfunk (SWF) and record labels Black Lion in the UK and SABA/MPS in Germany. The “tour,” which began in early October 1970, was something less than a total success. But at the time, Ra was excited to return to the Old World -- there was even talk of going to Africa. The Arkestra was enlarged to twenty musicians and Ra rehearsed them extensively right up their departure time. To add to the spectacle, two more dancers and a fire-eater were added to the entourage soon after their arrival in Paris. Sonny packed up his entire arsenal of electronic keyboards and all manner of lighting equipment, slide and film projectors, and trunks of glittering costumes and stage props for the trip; Sun Ra and his Arkestra were embarking on the next great phase of the Cosmo Drama.

The Arkestra appeared without incident at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre on October 9th and in Lyons on in the 12th, but their Paris debut turned into a near riot. Just days prior to their scheduled appearance at Les Halles, a nightclub fire had killed a number of people and at the last possible minute, the police mandated that only half of the 4,000 ticket-holders for Sun Ra’s performance would be allowed into the venue. As tempers began to flare, riot squads were positioned between the crowd and the theatre entrance. The mob began chanting “Libérez Sun Ra” and demanding that Sun Ra join his embattled comrades outside the theater. Szwed eloquently describes the precarious situation:

Sun Ra considered the situation, then grabbed the sign of the Sun, held it above his head, and started toward the exit, the Arkestra and the audience following the leader.

Out of the theater they came, shedding heat as they walked, banners streaming, Sun Ra, the Solar Arkstra, and the chosen few, marching straight through the police phalanx and down the street. And the crowds followed as they all circled around the block. When the procession returned to the front of the theater the police officals gave Sun Ra a salute as he passed their shattered ranks and marched into the theater, this time with the Les Halles 4,000 (now plus fellow travelers and cops), and the Arkestra mounted the stage once again (p.282).

The concert itself was apparently plagued with technical difficulties and a jittery and oppressive police presence, although the audience clearly appreciated Ra’s charm and charisma and the theatrical, multimedia extravaganza of the Arkestra’s performance.

On the 17th, the Arkestra performed at the prestigious Donaueschingen Musik Festival, the homefront of the stars of post-war European avant-garde composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and others. This year, Joachim Berendt managed to integrate modern jazz into the festival’s programming and Sun Ra’s three hour set did not disappoint. Recorded for broadcast by SWF, some of this material originally appeared on the MPS release entitled, It’s After the End of the World in 1971 and the entire forty-eight minute broadcast was issued on CD by Motor Music in 1998. (The Motor City issue also contains a second disc recorded in Berlin later on in the tour, which we will consider separately.)

According to Berendt (via Hartmut Geerken's liner notes), Sun Ra composed “Black Forest Myth” especially for this concert, its title referring to the legendary forest which surrounds the small town of Donaueschingen. The piece was performed only on this one occasion and it is a tension-filled four minutes for piccolo, electronic keyboards, and scraping, clanging percussion which sounds just as abstract and forbidding as the “contemporary classical” music for which the Donaueschinger Musiktage was made (in)famous. Another rendition of “Friendly Galaxy No.2” immediately follows, but this version differs markedly from the massed flute choir and trumpets orchestration found on Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol.2. Here, the rhythms are heavier and Ra plays much more aggressively on both piano and electric organ. In addition, Eloe Omoe (or possibly Danny Thompson) plays a riveting solo on the Neptunian libflecto (a bassoon with a trumpet mouthpiece) and the entire Arkestra enters toward the end with some spirited group improv before Ra closes the piece with some spacey synthesizer tones.

What follows is some of the most bracingly challenging music in Sun Ra’s enormous discography. “Journey Through the Outer Darkness” pits various duos and trios against Ra’s cataclysmic organ and battalions of drums and percussion in an unrelenting barrage of music until an astonishing solo bass clarinet (Pat Patrick? – or is the Neptunian libflecto again?) finds a way to end the piece to stunned applause. The “Strange Worlds – Black Myth – It’s After the End of the World” sequence features the heavenly-voiced June Tyson declaiming Ra’s poetry alongside constantly shifting instrumental combinations. These evolving concertinos create wildly differentiated textures and colors, from the keening wail of oboes, saxophones and libflecto to the staccato brassiness of trumpets to the microtonal whine of Alan Silva’s viola. After about eleven minutes, Sun Ra introduces a clangorous space chord on the piano which is picked up by the Arkestra. In its aftermath, Tyson and Gilmore exclaim: “It’s after the end of the world! Don’t you know that yet?!” The Arkestra then launches into some more ecstatic free-jazz skronk just as the track fades. What a shame! “We’ll Wait for You” concludes the recording with a quick space chant followed by a long series of thoughtful solos over a deliberately murky and mumbling rhythm section, deftly conducted by Ra from behind his bank of keyboards. Ra summons up the whole panoply of electronic sounds from chiming bells to swooning synthesizer to chattering organ while each soloist explores both ensemble and a cappella territories, concluding with a brief but devastating Gilmore outing that brings down the house.

Szwed states that “[t]he audience received them well, but the German critics dismissed them” (p.283) while Geerken’s liner notes to this Motor Music CD allude to a review in Der Spiegel “that was abound with ignorance and rubbish.” Clearly Sun Ra was not immediately accepted into the rarified realm of the European cultural elite despite his appearance at Donaueschingen. Nevertheless, the Arkestra’s performance was a landmark event. Critics still debate the genuineness of Sun Ra’s music, but the proof is in the listening. Listening to the Donaueschingen performance reveals a large band at the height of its powers, playing Sun Ra’s most cutting edge musical conceptions with razor-sharp precision and prodigious invention while Ra himself displays his unequaled mastery of electronic keyboards. I know I say it all the time, but this is another essential Sun Ra disc that belongs in every fan’s collection.

Playlist 12-5-09

* Dowland: Complete Lute Works, Vol.2 (O’Dette) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Marais: Suite d’un Goût Etranger: Pieces de Viole, 1717 (Savall) (Alia Vox 2SACD)
* Geminiani: Cello Sonatas, Op.5 (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics CD)
* J.S. Bach: 7 Harpsichord Concertos (AAM/Manze/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)
* Herbie Nichols: Love, Gloom, Cash, Love (Bethlehem CD)
* Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin’ (Prestige/DCC CD)
* Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings (d.1) (Columbia 6CD)
* Wayne Shorter: JuJu (Blue Note CD)
* Wayne Shorter: Schizophrenia (Blue Note LP)
* Wayne Shorter Quintet: Circus, Copenhagen 7-13-96 (FM 2CDR)
* Wayne Shorter Quartet: Sala Sinopoli, Roma 11-07-06 (AUD CDR)
* Herbie Hancock & The New Standard All-Stars: Warsaw 6-29-97 (SBD 2CDR)
* Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol.1 (Universe CD)
* Sun Ra: Black Myth/Out in Space (Motor Music/MPS 2CD)
* Cecil Taylor Unit: Ann Arbor, MI 4-15-76 (FM CDR)
* Cecil Taylor Unit: Saalfelden 9-4-83 (AUD 2CDR)
* Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley: Moers Festival 5-12-08 (FM CDR)
* Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley: Strasbourg Auditorium 10-2-09 (AUD 2CDR)
* David S. Ware Quartet: Corridors and Parallels (AUM Fidelity CD)
* Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Trio: hr-Sendsaal, Frankfurt 10-30-09 (FM CDR)
* Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone: On and Off (Skirl CD)
* King Crimson: Red (DGM/Virgin CD)
* Grateful Dead: Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, MO 12-11-79 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Civic Center, Hartford 3-19-90 (d.2-3) (pre-FM 3CDR)
* The Style Council: My Ever Changing Moods (Geffen LP)
* Cocteau Twins: Victorialand (4AD/Capitol CD)
* Aphex Twin: Drukqs (Warp/Sire 2CD)
* Guided By Voices: Hardcore UFOs: Disc 2: Demons & Painkillers (Matador 5CD+DVD)
* Robert Pollard: Silverfish Trivia (Prom Is Coming 12”EP)
* Boston Spaceships: Licking Stamps and Drinking Shitty Coffee (APC 2LP)
* Gastr Del Sol: Mirror Repair (Drag City CDEP)
* Gastr Del Sol: Crookt, Crackt, or Fly (Drag City LP)
* Jim O’Rourke: Insignificance (Drag City LP)
* The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 5.1 (stereo) (Warner Bros. DVD-A)

Commentary:

What? December already? Ugh.

We are really looking forward to the Solstice, when this awful period of diminishing light will end and the days will begin to get longer. I’m finding that as I get older, the slow retreat of the sun each fall has become increasingly difficult. Thankfully, after December 21st, there will gradually be more and more light in the sky. That will be reason enough to celebrate!

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The return to the workaday world after a long holiday weekend was pretty rough as well, which is reflected in the appearance of several Cecil Taylor recordings on the playlist. I realize it is stereotypical to describe Taylor’s music as “agitated” and “aggressive” and most clichéd of all, “dissonant and noisy”; but it is just these qualities that feel so reassuring (to me) when life feels agitated, aggressive, dissonant and noisy. And yet to actually immerse oneself in Taylor’s soundworld reveals that his music transcends these stereotypes and encompasses the entire emotional spectrum, as infinite and profound as life itself. In other words, I have to be in the right mood to listen to Cecil, but whenever I do, I find his music incredibly life-affirming. At eighty years old, Cecil Taylor is still going strong -- now that is truly inspiring!

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght vol.1 (Universe UV080 CD)

Recorded at the third and final concert on August 5, 1970, Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Volume 1 was originally released on the French Shandar label in 1971. Often bootlegged, it was also legitimately reissued on 12-inch 45RPM LP by the British label, Recommended Records, in 1981. (My copy sounds superb, but it’s plain black sleeve omits all relevant discographical information!) This CD issue on the Italian Universe label from 2005 is probably a “grey-market” bootleg as well, but it sounds fine and is packaged in a deluxe mini-gatefold LP sleeve. As of this writing, these Universe editions are in print and readily available.

The album opens with a spirited performance of “Enlightenment,” a composition co-written with trumpeter Hobart Dotson which dates all the way back to 1958’s Jazz in Silhouette. But by 1969, Sun Ra had abandoned Dotson’s counter-melodies and added typically Saturnalian lyrics. Here, Ra sets up the bouncy vamp on organ for John Gilmore and June Tyson, who chant in a call and response fashion, imploring humanity to join the Arkestra on its cosmic space voyage:

The Sound of Joy is Enlightenment
Space, Fire, Truth is Enlightenment
Space Fire
Sometimes it's Music
Strange Mathematics
Rhythmic Equations
The Sound of Thought is Enlightenment
The Magic Light of Tomorrow
Backwards are those of Sadness
Forward and Onward Are those of Gladness
Enlightenment Is my Tomorrow
It has no planes of Sorrow
Hereby, my Invitation
I do invite you be of my Space World
This Song is Sound of Enlightenment
The Fiery Truth of Enlightenment
Vibrations come from the Space World
Is of the Cosmic Starry Dimension
Enlightenment is my Tomorrow
It has no planes of Sorrow
Hereby, our Invitation
We do invite you to be of our Space World.

This infectious little ditty elicits some enthusiastic applause and, not surprisingly, “Enlightenment” would become a fixture of the live repertoire in coming years. Then, after a quick piano introduction, Gilmore and Tyson sing “The Star Gazers” in a lovely unison melody:

This is the Theme of the Star Gazers
Star Gazers in the Sky
This is the Theme of the Star Gazers
Star Gazers in the Sky
This is the Song of Tomorrow’s World
Of Cosmic Paradise.

After that plaintive vocal statement, Sonny launches into a gorgeous ad lib piano solo while small percussion instruments tinkle and clatter and Alan Silva provides some complementary figures on bass. Gradually, Ra builds up the intensity with cascading waves of chords and then bringing it back down to a gentle, quiet ending — until a crashing chord signals the beginning of the notorious “Shadow World.” Right off, it is obvious that the band is a well-oiled machine: the insanely complex, hocketed melodies are performed flawlessly, setting the stage for Gilmore’s utterly hair-raising solo on tenor saxophone, complete with a squealing and wailing a cappella cadenza. Ra then takes over with a skittering, swirling organ solo until cueing the horns for a huge, pulsating space chord. The braying and howling horns eventually subside, leaving Ra to sketch out the dramatic chord sequence on organ to end. This is a truly stunning performance of one of Ra’s most significant compositions and must be heard to be believed!

The album closes with an epic, twenty-minute-long MiniMoog/organ solo entitled, “The Cosmic Explorer” wherein Ra conjures up all kinds of incredible sounds from his electronic instruments: from spacey noodling to woozy portamentos, and blasts of white noise to apocalyptic torrents of dissonant tone-clusters. Meanwhile, cymbals, gongs and percussion rumble ominously in the background while a few horns add spare punctuation. After about seventeen minutes, the full Arkestra enters with a few minutes of high-energy, New-Thing-styled free-jazz which comes to a satisfyingly resolute climax before quickly fading out. I only wish we could hear the music that followed…

Like its companion volume, Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Volume 1 is an essential item in the discography, notable for its exceptionally good sound quality and superlative performances. Certainly, those in attendance were suitably impressed: the Arkestra had barely arrived back in Philadelphia when a group of European promoters offered to bring them back for a full-fledged tour only two months later, in October of 1970. I will be examining the surviving recordings from this momentous tour over the next few weeks here on Sun Ra Sunday.

Playlist 11-28-09

* Geminiani: Cello Sonatas, Op.5 (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics CD)
* Vivaldi: Concerti e Sinfonie per Archi (VBO/Marcon) (Arkiv Produktion CD)
* Vivaldi: Concertos for Two Violins (VBO/Mullova/Carmignola) (Arkiv Produktion CD)
* Vivaldi: Cello Sonatas (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics 2CD)
* C.P.E. Bach: Symphonies 1-4, etc. (English Concert/Manze) (Harmonia Mundi SACD)
* Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol.2 (Universe CD)
* Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol.1 (Universe CD)
* Herbie Hancock & Headhunters: Music Hall, Omaha, NE 11-17-75 (FM CDR)
* Weather Report: Shinjuku Kouseinenkin Hall, Tokyo 6-28-78 (FM 2CDR)
* John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension: Schloss Johannisberg, Cuvéehof 7-4-08 (FM CDR)
* Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus: Royal Festival Hall, London 1-30-92 (FM CDR)
* Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus: Paris 5-17-95 (FM CDR)
* William Parker & Hamid Drake: Volume 1: Piercing the Veil (AUM Fidelity CD)
* William Parker & Hamid Drake: Volume 2: Summer Snow (AUM Fidelity CD)
* Matthew Shipp: Harmony and Abyss (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Antipop Consortium: Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp (Thirsty ear CD)
* El-P: High Water Featuring the Blue Series Continuum (Thirsty Ear CD)
* DJ Spooky (w/Matthew Shipp, et al.): Optometry (Thirsty Ear CD)
* DJ Spooky (feat. Mad Professor & Lee “Scratch” Perry): Dubtometry (Thirsty Ear CD)
* DJ Spooky: Celestial Mechanix: The Blue Series MasterMix (Thirsty Ear 2CD)
* Quincy Jones: Sounds…and Stuff Like That (A&M CD)
* John Lennon: Anthology (d.1-2) (Capitol 4CD)
* King Crimson: Islands (DGM/Virgin CD)
* King Crimson: Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (DGM/Virgin CD)
* King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black (DGM/Virgin CD)
* Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Atco/Classic 2LP)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips: Vol.1, No.1: Fall ’79 (GD/Rhino 2+1CD)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips: Vol.3, No.1: Oakland 12-28-79 (GD/Rhino 2+1CD)
* Jerry Garcia Band: Let It Rock: Keystone, Berkeley November 17 & 18, 1975 (Rhino 2CD)
* Mickey Hart/Airto/Flora Purim: Däfos (RykoDisc Au20 CD)
* Japan: Oil on Canvas (Virgin – UK 2LP)
* David Sylvian (w/Robert Fripp): Gone to Earth (Virgin/Atlantic 2LP)
* Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand: The Director’s Cut (Scat 3LP)
* Guided By Voices: Suitcase 3 (d.1-3) (GBV, Inc. 4CD)
* Yo La Tengo: Crystal Ballroom, Portland 10-20-09 (SBD/AUD matrix 2CDR)
* The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin 5.1 (Warner Bros. DVD-A)
* Palace Music: Viva Last Blues (Drag City LP)
* Jim O’Rourke: Eureka (Drag City LP)
* Jim O’Rourke: The Visitor (Drag City LP)
* Stereolab: Dots and Loops (Drag City 2LP)
* Radiohead: In Rainbows (TBD CD)


Commentary:

Nothing like a long holiday weekend to provide lots of extra listening time! Hooray!

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There was a time around the turn of the century when it appeared that a free-jazz/hip-hop crossover was ascendant, spearheaded by Matthew Shipp and the adventurous folks at Thirsty Ear. Sure, producer/bassist Bill Laswell had been mining this sort of territory for years, but his meticulously clinical constructions can sometimes sound bloodless and sterile. Shipp’s forays into electronica were more spontaneous and loose, harnessing hip-hop’s pumping drive to avant-jazz musicianship to exciting effect. Shipp has since backed away from this kind of “fusion” music, instead focusing on an almost-traditionalist solo and trio approach on his latest records. Perhaps “fusion” really is just a dead end; nevertheless, I like it.

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Speaking of musical dead ends, I will also unapologetically admit to a predilection for progressive rock from the Nineteen-Seventies. I especially love Peter Gabriel’s final album with Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), which sounds utterly stupendous on my 200g Classic pressing. This sprawling double-album epitomizes all that is magnificent and horrible about the prog-rock genre: the fantastical, incomprehensible lyrics; the pretentiously tricky and overly-complicated music; the overbearing melodrama and theatricality…it’s all there to be savored and abhorred. Great fun. And then there’s King Crimson, a band whose music can be both sublimely beautiful and menacingly ugly and disturbing. Each of their albums is a carefully-wrought opus that rewards repeated listening. But when Bill Bruford and John Wetton joined the band for 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, they constituted a muscular yet flexible rhythm section that rooted Robert Fripp’s brainy constructions in some earthy oomph. This is powerfully strong stuff that still gives me great listening pleasure even after all these years. 40th Anniversary CD/DVD-A reissues of King Crimson’s catalog are currently ongoing — gosh, has it been a decade already? My 30th Anniversary CDs sound darn good to me and I love the mini-gatefold-LP packaging. Do I have to buy these albums again?! Of course, I am a sucker for high-res digital…maybe Santa Clause will drop them down the chimney on December 25th.

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Stereolab’s Dots and Loops (1997) is one of my favorite albums of all time. Listening to this pure pop masterpiece, I feel like I am touring the Alps in a small Italian convertible sports car, wind in my hair, not a care in the world. Not that I’ve ever visited the Alps, or driven a small Italian convertible sports car. But this album makes me imagine how pleasant such an experience might be. While I enjoyed their subsequent albums, they did not move me in the same way that Dots and Loops still does. I stopped paying attention after 2001’s Sound Dust and was shocked to learn of the tragic death of Mary Hansen in 2002. The band continues to soldier on, but I haven’t heard any of the music. Doesn’t matter — they made one perfect album and that’s more than enough for anyone.

More Free Music for Free at Internet Archive

I’ve uploaded quite a bit of music to the Internet Archive over the past couple of days, documenting some of the freely improvised piano/drums duets I recorded with the extraordinary Sam Byrd, right here at Heeltop Home Studio over the past couple of years. It is nothing short of miraculous that I have been able to make music with my old band-mate at least once – and sometimes twice – per year ever since we moved to Kingston Springs. I have my doubts about my piano playing, but Sam sounds great, even on a rudimentary kit.

Music wants to be free, so here it is.

This piece, recorded in December 2007, now somewhat arbitrarily titled, “Ones and Zeroes,” is obviously a nod to the digital technology that makes all this music possible, but I was thinking about Stravinsky’s riots at the ballet while we were playing: Does music still have the power to move people to violence? Whatever…enjoy!