CARLA BLEY — Tropic Appetites (1974-1998) FLAC (image + .cue), lossless

Following their superb "chronotransduction," Escalator Over the Hill, composer Carla Bley and poet Paul Haines once again teamed up for Tropic Appetites, a somewhat different, but equally compelling effort. The instrumentation is scaled down to an octet and the lyrics revolve around trips to Southeast Asia, particularly Bali, made by Haines over the preceding years. Bley makes an inspired choice for lead vocalist by enlisting the extraordinary Julie Tippetts who had attained rock stardom in the late '60s (as Julie Driscoll) in Brian Auger's Trinity.

After a powerful introductory "overture" led by the still incendiary Gato Barbieri who, for contractual reasons, is referred to in the credits as "Unidentified Cat," the hothouse atmosphere of the recording is established by the next song, "In India," with its humid, surreal lyrics.Bley consistently provides rich, imaginative, and varied underpinnings for Tippett's crystalline vocal work. From the ferocious and angry "Enormous Tots" to the yearning "Caucasian Bird Riffles" to the delightful singsong "Funnybird Song" featuring priceless vocals from Howard Johnson and Bley's very young daughter Karen Mantler (who would go on to a career of her own), the music is strong and memorable throughout.

All of the musicians are in top form, but special mention should be made of the dream rhythm team of David Holland and Paul Motian. Their tonal colors and supple interplay is a major factor of the success of this album. Tropic Appetites is one of Carla Bley's greatest successes; one could only wish that she had continued in this vein rather than opting for the jazz-funk bands she led from 1980 forward. Brian Olewnick
Tracklist :
1    What Will Be Left Between Us And The Moon Tonight?    11:04
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
2    In India    1:10
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
3    Enormous Tots    6:05
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
4    Caucasian Bird Riffles    5:06
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
5    Funnybird Song    1:18
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
6    Indonesian Dock Sucking Supreme    8:54
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
7    Song Of The Jungle Stream    10:15
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
8    Nothing    3:34
 Carla Bley / Paul Haines
Credits :
Cello, Acoustic Bass, Bass Guitar – Dave Holland
Drums, Percussion – Paul Motian
Producer – Carla Bley, Michael Mantler
Tenor Saxophone, Percussion – Gato Barbieri
Trumpet, Valve Trombone – Michael Mantler
Violin, Viola – Toni Marcus
Voice – Julie Tippetts
Voice, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, Tuba [Tubas] – Howard Johnson
Voice, Recorder [Recorders], Piano, Electric Piano, Clavinet, Organ, Marimba, Celesta [Celeste], Percussion, Music By – Carla Bley

CHARLIE HADEN — Liberation Music Orchestra (1970) Two Version | 1996, RM | BONUS TRACK | Impulse! – IMP 11882 + 2001, RM | Impulse! Best 50 – 38 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A fascinating reissue that comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing. Haden leads the charge and contributes material, but the real star here may in fact be Carla Bley, who arranged numbers, wrote several, and contributed typically brilliant piano work. Also of particular note in a particularly talented crew is guitarist Sam Brown, the standout of "El Quinto Regimiento/Los Cuatro Generales/Viva la Quince Brigada," a 21-minute marathon. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna has done his best with the mastering here, but listeners will note a roughness to the sound -- one that is in keeping with the album's tone and attitude. Steven McDonald 
Tracklist :
1  The Introduction 1:15
Carla Bley 
2  Song of the United Front 1:52
Bertolt Brecht / Hanns Eisler 
3  El Quinto Regimiento (The Fifth Regiment)/Los Cuatro Generales (The Four G 20:58
Carla Bley / Traditional 
4  The Ending to the First Side 2:07
Carla Bley 
5  Song for Ché 9:29
Charlie Haden 
6  War Orphans 6:42
Ornette Coleman 
7  The Interlude (Drinking Music) 1:24
Carla Bley 
8  Circus '68 '69 6:10
Charlie Haden 
9  We Shall Overcome 1:19
Guy Carawan / Frank Hamilton / Zilphia Horton / Pete Seeger / Traditional 
Credits :
Bass, Producer – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Cornet, Flute [Indian Wood Flute, Bamboo Flute] – Don Cherry (tracks: 3, 5) 
French Horn, Wood Block [Hand Wood Blocks], Bells, Reeds [Crow Call], Whistle [Military Whistle] – Bob Northern
Guitar, Kalimba [Thumb Piano] – Sam Brown (tracks: 1, 3 to 7) 
Percussion – Andrew Cyrille (tracks: 8), Paul Motian
Tambourine, Arranged By – Carla Bley
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – Gato Barbieri
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Michael Mantler
Tuba – Howard Johnson

MICHAEL MANTLER - Hide and Seek (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Michael Mantler, jazz and new music iconoclast, has been on a quest for the past 25 years to find new marriages of voices and words in his compositions. Here, with the help of distinguished vocalists such as Robert Wyatt and Susi Hyldgaard, he has succeeded in perhaps finally finding that direction without faltering. In the past he has employed not only Wyatt and Hyldgaard, but also Marianne Faithfull and the poems of Beckett, Brecht, Mallarme, and others, but always with mixed results. His earlier album, Many Have No Speech, was a solid shot, but its musical excesses outweighed its literary tomes. Here, Mantler has stepped back from the precipice and has found a text worthy of his adventurous muse: Hide and Seek, a play by the American writer Paul Auster, who is also a poet, critic, novelist, screenwriter, and the founder of the National Story Project. It is gratifying to hear Mantler's restrained compositions, played chamber style by an ensemble that is larger than on any of his voices projects. Hyldgaard, who also plays accordion, is featured prominently alongside Mantler's gorgeous trumpet lines. Her and Wyatt's voices interplay here, set in tight yet relaxed vignettes where tension and bewilderment are the wheels that carry on the dislocation of meaning between the singers. Musically, Mantler keeps his orchestra shaded, behind the curtain of expression, coloring in the tension, giving it as little room to breathe as possible without overstating their place. In the longer instrumental passages, Mantler directs them like a jazz band setting the winds in direct counterpoint to the strings and Per Salo's piano, ripping through the middle with flourishes of clustered chords and invertible counterpoint. The tango atmosphere created by the accordion is the bearer of drama in the sung score. Whenever you hear it, it signals another confrontation between the protagonists. It's an exhausting but wonderfully musical ride through the elements that make speech and language possible, at least in the economies of its exchange both musically and vocally. It's wonderful to hear Wyatt used so much here, his voice creating meaning from the repetition when he sings: "You can't just say words/Words mean nothing/Just words." Language ceases to be what it once was and disappears into the string section, leaving listeners with sound itself as the transmitter of meaning. Mantler, it seems, has finally found his "operatic" voice. by Thom Jurek   
Tracklist:
1 Unsaid (1) 2:36
2 What Did You Say? 2:19
3 Unsaid (2) 2:01
4 It's All Just Words 1:38
5 If You Have Nothing To Say 2:46
6 Unsaid (3) 1:32
7 What Do You See? 1:27
8 Absolutely Nothing 4:10
9 Unsaid (4) 1:49
10 What Can We Do? 4:20
11 Unsaid (5) 1:38
12 It All Has To End Sometime 3:39
13 Unsaid (6) 1:29
14 I Don't Deny It 1:38
15 I'm Glad You're Glad 2:14
16 Do You Think We'll Ever Find It? 2:15
17 It Makes No Difference To Me 2:09
Credits:
Cello [Cellos] – Helle Sørensen
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet [Clarinets] – Roger Jannotta
French Horn – Martin Cholewa
Guitar [Guitars] – Bjarne Roupé
Lyrics By – Paul Auster
Piano – Per Salo
Trombone [Trombones] – Vincent Nilsson
Trumpet [Trumpets], Programmed By [Electronic Percussion Programmed By], Music By, Producer – Michael Mantler
Vibraphone, Marimba – Tineke Noordhoek
Viola [Violas] – Mette Winther
Violin [Violins] – Marianne Sørensen
Voice – Robert Wyatt
Voice, Accordion – Susi Hyldgaard

MICHAEL MANTLER — The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories (1976) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

A surprising step after his earlier work with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra and their juxtaposition of avant-garde soloists in a modern orchestral context, Mantler created a virtual prog rock album, setting Edward Gorey's Freudian/gothic texts to music that owes far more to Henry Cow than Cecil Taylor. Enlisting ex-Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt on vocals and Jan Garbarek alumnus Terje Rypdal for some soaring guitar work, he managed to create a very convincing, enjoyably literary recording with potentially large appeal. The song structures are fairly consistent and the melodies often catchy, alternating from somber dirges (quite appropriate to the text) to up-tempo rockers. Much of the success accrues to Wyatt, whose reedy, intelligent voice gives exactly the right ironic inflection to Gorey's eerie tales. When in the title track he lightly sings the opening line, "There was once a little girl named..." then drops into a minor mode for, "Charlotte Sophia," you know things don't bode well for the song's heroine. Indeed, all of the lyrics are compelling little stories and it's to Mantler's credit that his compositions couch and project them instead of competing for attention. The Hapless Child has assumed a bit of cult classic status as a one-off prog rock project and it largely deserves the rep, holding up reasonably well over time. Brian Olewnick 
Tracklist :
1 The Sinking Spell 5:10
Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
2 The Object-Lesson 5:00
Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
3 The Insect God 4:58
Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
4 The Doubtful Guest 4:47
Samuel Beckett / Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
5 The Remembered Visit 6:27
Samuel Beckett / Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
6 The Hapless Child 7:02
Vitti Gorey / Michael Mantler
Credits
Bass Guitar – Steve Swallow
Drums, Percussion – Jack DeJohnette
Guitar – Terje Rypdal
Music By – Michael Mantler
Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer [String Synthesizer], Producer – Carla Bley
Vocals – Robert Wyatt
Voice [Additional Speaker] – Albert Caulder, Nick Mason
Voice [Speaker] – Alfreda Benge
Words By – Edward Gorey