From the old school

By Stef

The CD-player in my computer is broken, I am travelling too much, too working too hard, including evenings, ... even required to pay attention to my family .... hence some time issues for the daily delivery of new reviews.

Hence the compiled and somewhat shorter reviews. Today some stuff from the old school ...

Moholo-Moholo, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Rev. Frank Wright - Spiritual Knowledge And Grace (Ogun, 2011) ***½ 

Recorded in 1979 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, some musicians of the South-African "apartheid diaspora", Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums, voice, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, piano, voice, meet Reverend Frank Wright on tenor saxophone, double bass, voice. On two fully improvised sets, the collaboration works well, because the South-Africans knew "how powerful a Zulu Frank was", and it works really well, free form, floating and rhythmic and hypnotic like the free jazz of those days.

The Lou Grass PO Band with Marshall Allen - Live At The Knitting Factory Vol. 1 (Porter, 2011) ***½  

Less old, but with Sun Ra veteran Marshall Allen (then 77 years old) on alto, drummer Lou Grassi's PO Band, brings the real free jazz, with Paul Smoker on trumpet, Steve Swell on trombone, Perry Robinson on clarinet, and the late Wilber Morris on bass. The performance was recorded at the Knitting Factory in 2000 and varies greatly between slow contemplative and sensitive moments on the one hand, and free for all blowfests on the other.


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© stef