Is there anybody who likes jazz?

luka

Well-known member
i liked it so much i had to try and explain why to myself

The apex of modernism is jazz. More so than cubism, more so than Pound and Eliot and more so even than that terrifying and impossible cathedral Joyce constructed.
To see Pharaoh Sanders walk on stage the sense of occasion becomes obvious. This is a peer of John Coltrane and Sun Ra. This is one of the 20th century’s very greatest artists. A man who has made my life more numinous. This is one of the last of the earth’s titans, and we’re sharing a room with him.
For me these are the saints. My saints, very simply, are those artists who lived in selfless devotion to their muse. Through thick and thin. To be an instrument for that voice. You get a sense of this very strongly with the Arkestra and the dignity and grace and beauty and most of all the meaningfulness of a life lived under those self-imposed conditions, by that chivalric code, is made manifest when you share a room with them. The requirements for being an artist are simple and straightforward. You are to make yourself into a receiver. You have to be attuned. You have to be in tune. Or the message won’t get through. It can’t. You’ve jammed the signal. With your own noise. There is a science of attunement and musicians hold the key to it. Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy. The music plays you. You are the resonating chamber. I’ve heard rhythms that made me cough up phlegm from 20 years ago.
Seeing the Art Ensemble of Chicago the same, and now Pharaoh Sanders, who means the most to me personally, the same. It meant a lot to me to be an anonymous point in a huge auditorium giving Pharoah Sanders a standing ovation. To be able to personally say thank you. Art Ensemble played better music but they deserved a standing ovation in an auditorium. It lacked the sense of occasion. And the giving of thanks. The big crowds. The wild applause. Among all my favourite musicians only Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield have that same level of deeply human beauty, that way of testifying to the beauty and goodness and grace of people. That faith in people that transcends to the religious. Sanders is within his body and rooted to the earth in a way Coltrane and Davis weren’t. Their muses were not of this world but with Pharaoh it’s always viscerally embodied sound and it’s that extraordinary humanity that makes him an incomparably greater and more profound artist than, Ezra Pound, for example. They are human noises. The most sublime noises a human can make for sure, achingly impossibly beautiful noises, profound, wise noises, but always completely human.
 

luka

Well-known member
1 Corinthians 13New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
 

luka

Well-known member
''to think, my lord, if you delight not in man what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you''
 

john eden

male pale and stale
It was a great gig which managed to overcome the limitations of the venue. Amazing to see Pharoah in the flesh and give thanks as Luka says.

But very sad to see the man walking so slowly and sitting down so much. None of that mattered when he played though.

For my money Charles Gayle was better a few days earlier at OTO. But less of an occasion, of course.

Sorry I missed you Luka - hectic day and had to meet someone else.
 

luka

Well-known member
oto is good for being up close but not really appropriate to artists of that stature. the band was incredible. the best drummer i can remember ever seeing. superb pianist. the oud was great. i can ive without bass solos but thats the price of the ticket.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Agree about the supports. I think my personal taste is to veer on the side of intimacy rather than stature.

Which is probably just as well because it means the Barbican seems like a special occasion, which it was.
 

forclosure

Well-known member
i feel gutted that i missed both Sanders and Gayle, especially Sanders a titan is probably the best way to describe him

as for me ive been listening well re-listening to a person who i think (and my man CrowleyHead could agree) deserves as many write ups as Sun Ra, Rahsaan Roland Kirk bloody genius mad man:
this is probably one of the weirdest albums hes done but i love the opening song on this


also been digging into the music of Jaki Byard, brilliant pianist like Kirk he could probably play all different styles of jazz but used the history as a starting point for something singular
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
i liked it so much i had to try and explain why to myself

The apex of modernism is jazz. More so than cubism, more so than Pound and Eliot and more so even than that terrifying and impossible cathedral Joyce constructed.
To see Pharaoh Sanders walk on stage the sense of occasion becomes obvious. This is a peer of John Coltrane and Sun Ra. This is one of the 20th century’s very greatest artists. A man who has made my life more numinous. This is one of the last of the earth’s titans, and we’re sharing a room with him.
For me these are the saints. My saints, very simply, are those artists who lived in selfless devotion to their muse. Through thick and thin. To be an instrument for that voice. You get a sense of this very strongly with the Arkestra and the dignity and grace and beauty and most of all the meaningfulness of a life lived under those self-imposed conditions, by that chivalric code, is made manifest when you share a room with them. The requirements for being an artist are simple and straightforward. You are to make yourself into a receiver. You have to be attuned. You have to be in tune. Or the message won’t get through. It can’t. You’ve jammed the signal. With your own noise. There is a science of attunement and musicians hold the key to it. Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy. The music plays you. You are the resonating chamber. I’ve heard rhythms that made me cough up phlegm from 20 years ago.
Seeing the Art Ensemble of Chicago the same, and now Pharaoh Sanders, who means the most to me personally, the same. It meant a lot to me to be an anonymous point in a huge auditorium giving Pharoah Sanders a standing ovation. To be able to personally say thank you. Art Ensemble played better music but they deserved a standing ovation in an auditorium. It lacked the sense of occasion. And the giving of thanks. The big crowds. The wild applause. Among all my favourite musicians only Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield have that same level of deeply human beauty, that way of testifying to the beauty and goodness and grace of people. That faith in people that transcends to the religious. Sanders is within his body and rooted to the earth in a way Coltrane and Davis weren’t. Their muses were not of this world but with Pharaoh it’s always viscerally embodied sound and it’s that extraordinary humanity that makes him an incomparably greater and more profound artist than, Ezra Pound, for example. They are human noises. The most sublime noises a human can make for sure, achingly impossibly beautiful noises, profound, wise noises, but always completely human.

Thanks Luka.

And to think I didn't go and see him in Leeds cause it was £27. What a dick.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
oto is good for being up close but not really appropriate to artists of that stature. the band was incredible. the best drummer i can remember ever seeing. superb pianist. the oud was great. i can ive without bass solos but thats the price of the ticket.

Band was utterly brilliant indeed - they didn't have an oud player though at the gig I saw, which is a pity cos I'm very partial to an oud.

Side note - I was able to get up next to the stage when I saw Pharoah the other week in Utrecht, without even pushing/tricking other people. Obviously Barbican is more of a seated venue so not applicable there, but in general when I've seen legendary (and less legendary) artists in the UK the music nerd density is so crippling that you're in constant near-violent competition to get close to the stage, in a way that happens way less in Europe. I might start checking more frequently what gigs are on in Amsterdam etc...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I gave my ticket to my father who used to be a drummer in a Coventry band called Ra Ho Tep. They considered themselves the West Midlands answer to Sun Ra. He's really excited about going so I feel like I did a good deed.

I would seriously like to hear a recording of Ra Ho Tep.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I would seriously like to hear a recording of Ra Ho Tep.

Lol, me too. But unfortunately this was the sum total of their activities:

Ra Ho Tep [1969-1977ish]
the name of an Egyptian sun god and an appropriate name for a band in the 60s/70s. Featured myself on alto-sax, tenor-sax, clarinet, electric-piano, harp and vocals, Phil Porter on bass-guitar, string-bass and acoustic-guitar and Joe Craner on drums, trumpet and vibes. We very often played one piece of totally improvised music per set, although the pieces developed strong formats as we played them, due to our almost telepathic understanding of each other. People would ask us how long it took to put these complicated arrangements together. I didn't have the heart to tell them that we "made it up as we went along". We also played "covers" by as diverse a collection as Marvin Gaye, Laura Nyro, James Taylor, and many more who would never have recognised their songs after we'd finished with them. Our finale was nearly always Concierto de Aranjuez, a moody piece by Spanish classical composer Joquin Rodriguez. We played all over the country ... people tended to love us or hate us, the latter if we were mistakenly booked to play college discos - where our style of music didn't fit in with "Brown Sugar" and the like.
I think we peaked in 1973 with the Polyglot Dance Group. when we teamed up with some student dancers from a college in Surrey and incorporated modern dance into the improvisational routine. After a few years Joe got other commitments and we did recruit temporary drummers. The band eventually folded due to our own other commitments and geographical difficulties

http://www.timjamesblues.com/libry_mr.htm#tep
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Charlie Wrights was the shit. They used to host these weekly jams which went on til late, midweek. Quality was always high and in amongst the boppers with their relentless need to play standards, you'd get shit like Shabaka Hutchings on a bass clarinet going through a bunch of fx pedals accompanied by drums and upright bass. Was tight.
 
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