I love the tone and emotional range that the clarinet can provide in old school or modern jazz and as such I keep coming across John Carter references in my reading .. I have been streaming his music with mixed results when I came across this one which is so stunning it makes me think I haven’t been paying close enough attention ... here is the band of which I only really know (and love) Richard Davis and Andrew Cyrille Its about the origins of the slave trade , so heavy indeed , but the music is not macabre or leaden , or unrelentingly painful as one might expect. Rather , while having sometimes deeply fractured traumatic moments, it also has dignity, anger, confusion, false hope, exhaustion... in short a complex mix that requires a lot more listens then I have done. I managed to score a relatively inexpensive copy recently but the vinyl is meh sounding so maybe get the less expensive cd if you must have a physical copy . i dont know Bradford but at times he channels old school swing era sounds like Ruby Braff but also he brings a very modern (think Wadada Leo Smith ) sensibility to his cornet which seemed to give a powerful humbling sweeping breadth of history to the theme All this and I think I have barely scratched the surface. Essential listening
Great album. Part of Carter's five-album "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music," series. I think of the five only Dauwhe and this one are currently readily available, at least via streaming. Carter and Bradford, btw, were longtime musical partners -- a Texan, like Carter and musical compatriot of Ornette Coleman's from back home (they finally did record together on Science Fiction. Carter too was I think a classmate's of Ornette's back home). The albums Carter & Bradford did together in the late '60s and early '70s are sort of minor classics (also on Bradford, check out David Murray's Death of a Sideman, which is actually a suite of bittersweet pieces about, well, a sideman, all composed by Bradford). For an interest look at Carter as a sideman, his playing on Horace Tapscott's two volume live album The Dark Tree is outstanding (actually everything about that record is outstanding).
Thanks C, i picked up Dark Tree a year ago and love it , but my aging brain failed to make the Carter connection. I will check out those other connections...
FWIW, if you're streaming and you want to check it out, I think some of the late '60s early '70s Carter-Bradford albums are streaming -- Seeking, Flight for Four, Self Determination Music. Death of A Sideman, despite my moaning this morning about the relative accessibility of DIW titles from the era, that seems to be streaming, just looked on Qobuz. That's a beautiful album.
Working my way through some Joshua Redman albums this morning, all first listens. Joshua Redman Elastic Band - Momentum This one's pretty varied, plenty of funk and fusion and an interesting version of Lonely Woman. Pleasant enough but not really my bag. Joshua Redman - Compass Sax trio - much more up my alley and really enjoying this one. Just about to put on Walking Shadows.
DIW titles?? Yeah spotify ( my service) has most of the Carter - Bradford stuff. Some of which I have already heard and did not immediately connect with but after Castles , I am reassessing and revisiting. This is common for me. Sometimes something just clicks with me and it opens the door and I go back and take another look. Jazz appreciation is really not linear at all for me , but I am used to that now after the decades...
Death of a Sideman is a Murray date for DIW, but it's as much a Bradford record -- it's Bradford's compositions.
This is a first listen for me but fits the mood of the night! First time out at an (outdoor) concert earlier tonight.. since 2019.... consider today a win. NP: McCoy Tyner - Nights of Ballads and Blues
That Impulse 60th anniversary 2 CD comp . Yusef Lateef 's Sister Mamie always gets me , what a performance and song
@JeffMo - The tunes are very fine - but yesterday i was surprised how good this record is, listen to it since months....
Part of a series of 4 which I found easily in the '80s/early '90s after they were deleted (which was probably where I first saw them). After getting the Carter/Bradford Flying Dutchman and Revelation titles in the early '70s, I wanted to hear more; I have most of these below; as you may or may not know, the Revelation titles are on the Mosaic. John Carter (3) The 'clarinet summit' recordings are great too: Bluiett also had a clarinet ensemble: Hamiet Bluiett - The Clarinet Family
Funny; I've always looked at it as kind of like being the center object from which MANY lines emanated, in all kinds of directions, with lots of tangents, overlays, isolated wires, snarls, broken wires... almost kind of like a spider web in some ways... spider webs, of course, have many lines inside them...
Carter's great other 'Roots and Folklore' records, his work with Tapscott, and his clarinet summit have already been mentioned - and I can only affirm their the greatness of these recordings. The Carter discussion inspired me to give James Newton's Water Mystery (Gramavision, 1986) another play. On this set, Carter's clarinet is part of richly textured woodwinds sound that combines Newton's flute, Greg Martin's oboe, John Nunez' bassoon and Charles Owens soprano sax. The ensemble is completed with April Aoki's harp, Anthony Brown's percussion, Red Callender's tuba, Allan Iwohara's koto and Roberto Miranda's bass. The presence of a koto - as well as the album art - betrays the Asian influences on this set that some would probably categorize as 'third stream.' I think the unusual lineup and Newton's skills make for an interesting recording. It is also a chance to hear Carter in a somewhat different setting. In addition, if you like to occasionally hear woodwinds other than saxophones, this one might be of some interest as well.
Newton's Blue Note of Ellington and Strayhorn compositions from the 1980s, African Flower got a lot of play from me for several years back then:
Unfortunately it Seems like that one is impossible to hear. Not streaming anywhere except one song ( star crossed lovers) on youtube .. but its a pretty cool sound. Is the rest of the lp like this one track?