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

ARCHIE SHEPP - The Impulse Story (2007) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Archie Shepp's volume in The Impulse Story series, with liner notes by Ashley Kahn, author of The House That Trane Built: The Impulse Story, is arguably the best and most representative of any of the editions in it. These ten cuts capture Shepp's many faces. There's his wonderful look inside the music of his mentor John Coltrane ("Naima" from Four for Trane), through to his gaze at the jazz tradition (Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady"), to bossa nova (a very unique read of "Girl from Ipanema") to the weighty concerns of his own compositions that engaged everything from the avant-garde "Les Matin des Noires" to politics ("Malcolm Malcolm -- Semper Malcolm"), to R&B and soul ("Damn If I Know" "Mama Too Tight," and "Attica Blues"). While certain albums are not represented here -- the magnificent Magic of Ju-Ju being one -- the breadth and depth of Shepp's true genius is all here. That said, it is a shame that many of his albums recorded for Impulse (the classic Fire Music and Magic of Ju-Ju just to name two) are currently out of print. Of all the volumes in this fine collection, Shepp's stands, with Alice Coltrane's as the very best in that it gives a true introduction to an artist often misunderstood, but during his tenure for this label, he was creatively unstoppable.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1     Naima 7'10
(John Coltrane)
Bass – Reggie Workman
Drums – Charles Moffett
Flugelhorn – Alan Shorter
Producer – John Coltrane
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
2     Los Olvidados 8'56
(Archie Shepp)
Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown
Bass – Reggie Johnson
Drums – Joe Chambers
Trumpet – Ted Curson
3     The Girl from Ipanema 8'35
(Norman Gimbel / Antônio Carlos Jobim / Vinícius de Moraes)
Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown
Bass – Reggie Johnson
Drums – Joe Chambers
Trumpet – Ted Curson
4     Malcolm, Malcolm - Semper Malcolm 4'51
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – David Izenzon
Drums – J.C. Moses
Vocals [Recitation] – Archie Shepp
5     Le Matin des Noires 8'00
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Barre Phillips
Drums – Joe Chambers
Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson     
6     Scag 3'23
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Barre Phillips
Drums – Joe Chambers
Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson
Vocals [Recitation] – Archie Shepp
7     Mama Too Tight 5'25
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Drums – Beaver Harris
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Tommy Turrentine
Tuba – Howard Johnson
8     Damn If I Know (The Stroller) 6'19
(Walter Davis, Jr.)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Beaver Harris
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III
Trumpet – Jimmy Owens
9     Sophisticated Lady 7'10
(Duke Ellington / Irving Mills / Mitchell Parish)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Roy Haynes
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III
Trumpet – Jimmy Owen
10     Attica Blues 4'47
(Beaver Harris / Archie Shepp)
Alto Saxophone – Clarence White, Marion Brown
Backing Vocals – Albertine Robinson, Joshie Armstead
Baritone Saxophone – James Ware
Bass [Fender] – Jerry Jemmott, Roland Wilson
Cello – Calo Scott, Ronald Lipscomb
Cornet – Clifford Thornton
Drums – Beaver Harris
Guitar – Cornell Dupree
Lead Vocals – Henry Hull
Percussion – Juma Sutan*, Nene DeFense, Ollie Anderson
Producer – Ed Michel
Tenor Saxophone – Roland Alexander
Trombone – Charles Greenlee, Charles Stephens, Kiane Zawadi
Trumpet – Charles McGhee, Michael Ridley
Tuba – Hakim Jami
Violin – John Blake, Leroy Jenkins, Shankar

ARCHIE SHEPP - Mama Too Tight (1967-1998) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The octet Archie Shepp surrounded himself with in 1966 was filled with new and old faces. The twin trombones of Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III embodied this, but so did bassist Charlie Haden and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, while familiar figures like drummer Beaver Harris and tubaist Howard Johnson had been part of Shepp's regular band. There are four tracks on Mama Too Tight, all of them in some way acting as extensions of the opening three-part suite "A Portrait of Robert Thomson (As a Young Man)." Shepp had hit his stride here compositionally. The track is, at first, a seeming free jazz blowout, but then traces the history of jazz, gospel, and blues breeze through its three sections. Certainly there is plenty of atonality, but there is plenty of harmonic and rhythmic invention, too. The piece, almost 19 minutes in length, has an intricate architecture that uses foreshadowing techniques and complex resolution methods. The title track is a post-bop blues swinger with a killer frontline riff turning in and out as the trombones go head to head. And finally, "Basheer," with an Eastern modality that transposes itself toward blues and folk music, becomes a statement on the transitional ties the '60s were ushering in musically. Here again, lots of free blowing, angry bursts of energy, and shouts of pure revelry are balanced with Ellingtonian elegance and restraint that was considerable enough to let the lyric line float through and encourage more improvisation. This is Shepp at his level best.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
Portrait Of Robert Thompson (As A Young Man)    18:58
1a    Prelude To A Kiss
Written-By – Ellington, Gordon, Mills
1b    The Break Strain-King Cotton
Written-By – Public Domain
1c    Dem Basses
Written-By – Public Domain
2    Mama Too Tight 5:26
Written-By – Archie Shepp
3    Theme For Ernie 3:22
Written-By – Fred Lacey
4    Basheer 10:39
Written-By – Archie Shepp
Credits
Bass – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Drums – Beaver Harris
Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
Tenor Saxophone, Liner Notes [Original] – Archie Shepp
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Tommy Turrentine
Tuba – Howard Johnson

ANAT FORT - A Long Story (2007) APE (image+.cue), lossless

“A long story” marks the international debut of Israeli-born pianist Anat Fort, in the company of three exceptional improvisers. The opening tune “Just Now” – an almost classical ballad that feels like a standard-in-the-making – demonstrates, right from the outset, Fort’s striking compositional gifts. Her pieces provide her fellow musicians with ample solo space; more crucially they also experiment analytically with different models of musical interaction in the ensemble. Elegantly carved tunes, their boldly melodic contours give way to adventurous improvised playing from all parties, with veteran clarinet innovator Perry Robinson, also making his ECM debut here, in particularly strong form.
 
Although Anat counts Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley (and “much of the music on ECM”) among her formative influences, her music also subtly but clearly indicates her geographical origins. Born near Tel Aviv she studied classical piano as a child and began writing her own music and improvising from an early age, open to all the musical sounds of her environment. In the mid-1990s she came to the USA to study jazz, wanting to balance a natural tendency towards freer playing with a firm grounding in the tradition. Her teachers have included jazz greats Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern. In the last several years she has been a presence on NYC’s alternative jazz scene, but is also a highly regarded player in her homeland. She now splits her time between Israel and the US. Her most recent commission is the creation of five new arrangements of Israeli music for the Tel Aviv opera house.
 
The “long story” the album title refers to is more than a metaphor for the sometimes complicated paths music has to take from the composer’s mind to the listener’s ear. It rather concretely denotes the circuitous route by which this quartet – and eventually the record – came into existence. As Anat explains it in her liner notes: “I guess it had to be a long story: from the first time I heard Paul Motian on a Bill Evans record and was blown away I have dreamt of playing with him. Years later I met Ed who had been in many of Paul’s bands and we started playing together. It was around that time when I met Perry, too, and one day it all became clear: I had to make a record with Paul, and I couldn’t think of two better partners than Ed and Perry. I decided to throw the ball and ask him if he would do it. The request was odd, though not unheard of in the jazz world. At that point, Paul has never heard me or my music before, while I felt that through his music, he has been one of my strongest mentors for years.”
 
Paul Motian: “It was Ed Schuller that called me to take part in Anat Fort's recording. My first reaction was ‘no’ because I didn't know her music. Ed talked me into doing the session and then I was very pleasantly surprised at how great the music was – all Anat's music with a sort of middle Eastern Flavor – I liked the music so much that I recommended it to ECM. And I love the way the album came out!". ecm

Tracklist :
1    Just Now, Var. I    4:14
Anat Fort
2    Morning: Good    7:22
Anat Fort
3    Lullaby    5:59
Anat Fort
4    Chapter Two 3:43
Composed By – Anat Fort, Perry Robinson
5    Just Now, Var. II    3:59
Anat Fort
6    Not A Dream?    5:24
Anat Fort
7    Rehaired    5:55
Anat Fort
8    As Two / Something 'Bout Camels    5:52
Anat Fort
9    Not The Perfect Storm    7:21
Anat Fort
10    Chapter One    4:14
Anat Fort
11    Just Now, Var. III    2:14
Anat Fort
Credits :
Clarinet, Ocarina – Perry Robinson
Double Bass – Ed Schuller
Drums – Paul Motian
Piano – Anat Fort
Producer – Anat Fort, Manfred Eicher