Outer Music Diary

Ornette Coleman - Music Inn, Roma 1974 (divx)

About 15 minutes of footage and very nice at that. I’m not so familiar with Coleman’s stuff that I could name songs, but he was definitely pulling from his Atlantic catalog, including at least a piece from The Shape of Jazz to Come. Quality was pretty decent, I’d love to have a good hour or so of this show or at least something from this same period.

Pink Floyd - France 1968 (mpg)

Very early Floyd in somewhat poor quality, doing two short pieces, one including Gilmour singing a Barrett/Floyd track - I suspect this might have been right after the personnel change. Still, very cool to see, like all the very earliest stuff, although this is in the type of quality I’d expect unfortunaely.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Bologna, Italy 11/9/73 (divx)

Reminded me of the Coleman clip, in fact I think both aired on the same television show. Even less familiar with Kirk’s music, so this one made not too much of an impression on me.

Santana - Montreux 4/30/71 (mpg)

I got it in my head that this was just a short clip from the band’s Montreux performance, but it actually looks like most of their set. I’d love to have this in better quality as for what amounts to a mostly “hits-oriented” performance, this was set band that got tighter and tighter as the show went on, culminating in another wild Michael Shrieve drum solo on Soul Sacrifice (or at least I think that’s what the song was). Looks like the crowd was really getting into it as well, and there’s some beautiful playing from Neal Schon who would not take second chair much longer. Overall, it still reminded me a lot of their 60s sets with much of the same music, although there was at least one piece from III here as well. Anything from this period is a treat.

Soft Machine - Hoepla 67 + ? 67 (mpg)

More really early Soft Machine footage from the Ayers line-up, this is poor quality but fascinating early psychedelic stuff. I’m a huge fan of the first album, so it’s great to get some video clips from this in Beat Club style. The second clip I barely remember, it was definitely quite rough on the quality end and a bit duplicative.

Funkadelic – Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow. 1971. 10+11. Acid psych and funk all rolled into one – and no one did it better than vintage Funkadelic. I can listen to Eddie Hazel wail on the guitar all day. Wish they featured him even more. And the organ on the title track is sublime. “Free Your Mind…” isn’t perfect by any means, it’s too short and there’s a lot of crazy rants to sit through. Recent CD issue is a must as it features two versions of one their best singles in ‘I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You’, which features Hazel in freak-out mode and Bernie Worrell grooving on the organ.

Mandrill – Mandrilland. 1974. 11=11. Mandrill’s fifth album and their sprawling double LP epic. Was way too much for the average get down and boogie funk fan, and most prog heads weren’t hip to this Brooklyn group at the time. Too artsy for their fan base, too funky for the Yes/ELP fanatic and too unknown for anyone else. Which probably explains why this still hasn’t been reissued on CD – it’s almost criminal.

Fro! – The Paisley Album. 2002. D: 12. Amazing new guitarist, African American Harold Davis Jr.,  who summons the ghosts of 1972 past. Tight melodic sax charts are offset by some mean wah wah and fuzz guitar. The rhythm section is hot, with a strong slant towards the Latin groove. One of the most promising debuts from a guitarist led group I’ve heard in a long time.

Joe Henderson Trio - Muenchner Klaviersommer 1993 (mpg)

I didn’t manage to look up much during this set, although with Dave Holland on bass I felt like I was in mostly safe hands. Part of it is just not being all that enamored with trios, especially when so many Joe albums have bigger bands. In fact this seemed to have more solo performances than you’d ever expect and those tend to make my eyes glaze over, even when it’s this level of talent. Course, I think I’d rather see some Joe footage from about 30 years earlier. Or even 20.

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Banana Fish Garden, NY 1973 “In Concert” (mpg)

Not a bad Mk I performance by a band who was falling apart by 1973. In fact I’m already going to break my “no solos” rule by mentioning how good Cobham’s drum solo on this, it actually reminded me of the legendary late 71 performance from Syracuse. But overall this is pretty short and it was over almost before I noticed.

Miles Davis - Berlin 1973 (divx)
Miles Davis - New York 1973 (mpg)
Miles Davis - Roma 1969

Let’s talk about the Roma 1969 performance first, it’s actually the best of the three shows both on quality and performance. A black and white performance, I take it this is from the Teatro Sistina performance of 10/27/69. Definitely an on night and I do wish there was a DVD of this floating around as it’s dominated by Chick Corea’s remarkably out Rhodes playing. It’s actually no wonder he ended up moving so far away from dissonance later on. The two 73 performances are almost identical in a way, or at least that’s the way this period strikes me, a big heavy funk groove that doesn’t really vary much. Perhaps the Berlin performance gets the nod, because we really get to see Pete Cosey stretching out on his axe some, which is my favorite aspect of Miles’ pre-retirement line ups. The NY footage I believe is from some movie that maybe never came out, as you get a caption, “Prince of Darkness,” at the beginning. It’s a little on the poor side, quality wise, so overall it’s a bit forgettable.

Red Sand – Mirror of Insanity. 2004. D: 10.
Red Sand – Gentry. 2005. D: 9. Canada’s Red Sand are quite simply “Script For a Jester’s Tear” era Marillion, right down the Fish-like vocalist and album artwork. Which is fine with me, as I felt the early years of the neo-progressive movement held promise. And I never thought Marillion gave their more progressive side a chance and were too quick to embrace AOR. “Mirror of Insanity” has a few new ideas to add and it’s nice to hear a band tackle a genre that lost its way years ago. “Gentry” sees the band losing momentum in an already crowded marketplace. I need more time with these, as the melodies could sink in. Not likely to be rated classics – but you never know.

Popol Ace – Stolen From Time. 1975. 8=8. I originally bought this Norwegian album in 1989 with a pile of other import LPs, many of which are favorites to this day. However, this one was quickly tossed to the sell bin. I’m revisiting many albums that I’ve dissed in the past, as I’ve more tolerance for other styles than I once did. So off to ebay I went and found a copy relatively cheap. And…. my opinion hasn’t changed one bit. This album was about 10 years ahead of its time. A concise, safe rock album with prog trimmings – the recipe for the Dutch (SI) neo prog scene a decade later. There’s just not much here except for a couple of interesting instrumental breaks and a handful of decent hooks. The Roger Dean cover will allow me to put in an album art frame for display – so it will stick around longer than last time. But probably not for the long count….

Comus - First Utterance

Pretty happy to report that this one turned the final gear for me and I think I’d consider it a flawless album, a 15. Never has there been an album like this and this is an album that has often been a major influence on the strangest of bands, for instance Opeth’s album title “My Arms, Your Hearse” originates here. First Utterance is probably the most pagan album ever put to vinyl, drawing energy from a pre-civilized state where there was nothing between primitive and god. The cries to Diana that begin the album already hint at the promise of leaving behind the known and entering the other land, but such a lure is swiftly forgotten as the story begins again, building a web of hand drums, violins, and multiple vocals. The music is so beautiful, it’s excruciating, but it’s when the beauty starts to kick in that the premonitions of what is to come start nipping at the periphery, just a shiver and a wicked lyric here and there as one starts to tenuously slide down a hallucinatory tunnel. If the beginning of the album invokes a vision of faerie, you quickly learn that it isn’t what it seems to be and everything turns dark rapidly, the hand drum like the quickening pace of your heart as the beauty of the folk starts to weave darker strands in between and the vocals become more strident. The build up is utterly bewitching, voices begin to appear subliminally like in those pictures when you realize that the wildlife is actually busy with faces and bodies all merging into nature. And nature is unforgiving, wild, vast, pitiless, hungry. When the lyrics turn to the death of a Christian, it’s not even the lyrics that get the point across, it’s the context that has been built up so far as the old world collides with the young world. The album climaxes deliriously with a terrible and simple repetition: “Insane, insane, insane, insane…”

Sun Ra - Brother from Another Planet BBC4

Fascinating BBC4 documentary of the maverick jazz musician from Saturn. More about the man and the people around him than the music, although there’s a healthy collection of clips. Pretty interesting to see that he was something of a cult figure, although apparently not a cult figure who abused his status sexually. Everything here is about as wigged out as you expected and there’s lots of acid talk, in fact people talk about taking it as a way of making the whole phenomenon seem normal, which is pretty hilarious.

Wes Montgomery & Friends - Jazz Workshop, NDR, Hamburg 1965 (divx)

Wow, this is a really nice clip, Wes with a big band. I don’t really know enough about the music to comment on what it’s from (it sounds quite a bit different than Wes playing with Wynton Kelly’s group), but it’s great stuff and Wes when he gets the spotlight is a serious presence, almost a titan, showing a wide range of techniques with his guitar. Martial Solal sure plays a mean piano and it’s nice to Johnny Griffin along for the ride as well.

Colosseum - Beat Club 1970
Curved Air - Beat Club 9/71

Couple very short single pieces from the Beat Club, one a real kickin’ piece with Chris Farlow on vocals that I’m forgetting the title of (”Take me baaaaack, take me baaaaaack…”) and a rather turgid piece from Curved Air with whom you never know what you’re going to get. It wasn’t Air Cut but was compositionally close.

Tyner/Fortune/Hubbard/Workman/Jones - “A Love Supreme” Memorial Concert, Messina, Italy 1987? (avi)

Through the years lots of various festivals love throwing together collections of jazz veterans to give tribute to legendary musicians, and Coltrane tributes are among the most common. Unfortunately, in some cases, throwing together musicians, even those as familiar with each other as this group, for these events isn’t always a great idea, and this has to rank among the most uninspiring of these events. Tyner and Hubbard are nearly always stalwart, but Elvin Jones here is on an off night, in fact it’s fortunate Hubbard gets quite a bit of time, as watching him chop is never boring from my perspective. The repertoire does include the usual first fraction of Love Supreme and some other Coltrane goodies, but it doesn’t have the spark this music has under best circumstances, despite Hubbard’s efforts. I know Elvin when he’s got the fire of God in him, this is a guttering match. Overall, entertaining - not essential.

The Gathering - Metal Mania ‘97, Spadek Hall, Katowice, Poland 2/5/97 (avi)

I saw a Gathering video a while back from not too much later than this that bored me to death, I think it was at a Dutch festival, a home crowd versus the always amazing Polish crowds you see on the metal DVDs filmed there. This is quite a bit better, The Gathering in their prime. I think to some extent there’s some sheer sexuality when it comes to the band’s front lady, in fact it might overwhelm the fact that the band really sticks to very simple song structures, steady 4/4 beats in first or second gear, making you wonder how they’d fare outside such shallow waters. Anneke’s a very strong vocalist, which is particularly apparent in that she relies on far less effects live than on the albums and she more than holds her own here. So you’ve got this big Floydian sound, a babe on vocals and lots of guys with hair banging their heads, something of a winning cult combo if you think about it (she’s wearing sweatpants for chrissakes). Strange the band stopped being interesting when they started stretching out though.

Piano Workshop, Berliner Jazztage 1965

It’s actually kind of funny but hearing this sort of bebop extravaganza from the middle of 65 is somewhat anachronistic, I’d have bought 55 and for all I know I just got the date wrong. Anyway this is basically a jazz rhythm section backing up a cycle of pianists, including people like Jackie Byard and Bill Evans. Everyone’s pretty good, everyone’s way the hell inside and except for a few notable solos, I was kind of glad to see it over, it struck me as a little hokey.

Dungen – Stadsvandringar. 2002. D: 11.
Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt. 2004. D: 12. Dungen has to be the craziest band yet that the hipster’s have embraced. In a nutshell, Dungen are recreating the wonderful, exploratory early 70s Swedish scene ala Flasket Brinner, Kebnekaise and (a more grounded) Algarnas Tradgard. The vocals are in glorious Swedish, the melodies are memorable with more than a nod to Nordic folk music, and the entire fuzzy sound is right out of 1973. And they played late night on Conan. The whole thing is so ludicrous, I can’t tell if maybe I’m just going insane. No complaints though, I would love to actually enjoy music that the majority of others like too. And Dungen is as adventurous and quirky as any progressive/experimental rock band (especially on their debut, which isn’t listed here). I just hope they don’t try too hard for acceptance.

Freddy Lindquist – Menu. 1970. D: 9. Apparently in the 1960s, Terje Rypdal and Freddy Lindquist battled for guitar hero supremacy in their native Norway. Freddy was the more Hendrix influenced player while Terje was more immersed in jazz. Guess we know who won that battle, and it isn’t the guy in the subject line. Before Lindquist disappeared altogether, he released this one solo album – which is really a band effort – but the label was hoping to cash in on the Lindquist name. Who? And no one can miss the naked hippy chick on the cover. Still nobody bought the record. Probably because it isn’t very good. After a promising start where Lindquist does provide some wonderful heavily affected guitar ala Hendrix, the rest goes on to try and prove that he is a quality songwriter and not just a great guitarist. That’s rarely a good idea. There are some gems to be found here for sure – and explains the passable 9 grade. Not sure this one will make the cut during the next round of layoffs though…