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Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Cam Jazz
Manufacturer reference ‏ : ‎ 3019809
Label ‏ : ‎ Cam Jazz
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01K8LE2Q8

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David Keymer

INDISPENSABLE MIUSIC FROM A TRUE ORIGINAL

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2017

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HEMPHILL, Julius. Complete Recordings on Black Saint & Soul. 5 CDs. Black Saint/Soul Note. 2012; orig. 1977-98.

Raw Materials and Residuals: JH, alto, sop sx; Abdul Wadud, cello; Don Moye, perc.

Flat-Out Jump Suite: JH, sx; Olu Dara, tpt; Abdul Wadud, cello; Warren Smith, perc.

Fat Man and the Hard Blues: JH, Marty Ehrlich, Carl Grubbs, James Carter, Andrew White, Sam Furnace, sxes, flts..

Five Chord Stud: JH, Tim Berne, Marty Ehrlich, James Carter, Sam Furnace, Andrew White, Fred Ho, sxes, flts.

Chile New York: JH, alto, sop sxes, flt, voc; Warren Smith, perc.

THREADGILL, Henry. Complete Recordings on Black Saint & Soul. 7 CDs. Black Saint/Soul Note. 2011; orig. 1976-83.

Live Air: Air: HT, sx, flt; Fred Hopkins, b; Steve McCall, dr, perc.

Air Mail: Air: same

Live at Montreal Jazz Festival: New Air: HT, sx, flt; Fred Hopkins, b; Pheeroan Aklaff, dr, perc.

Air Show No. 1: New Air: HT, sx, flt; Fred Hopkins, b; Pheeroan Aklaff, dr, perc; Cassandra Wilson, voc.

Spirit of Nuff: Very Very Circus: HT, sxes, flt; Curtis Fowlkes, tbn; Brandon Ross, Masujaa, guit; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Edwin Rodriguez, p?; Gene Lake, dr.

Song Out of My Trees: HT, sx, flt; Ted Daniel, tpt; Brandon Ross, guit; James Emory, guit; Ed Cherry, dr; Jerome Harris, elec b; Myra Melford, p; Tony Cedrus, accord; Amina Claudine Myers, harpsichord; Dierdre Murray, Michelle Kinney, cellos; Mossa Bildner, voc; Gene Lake, dr; Reggie Nicholson.

Flutistry: HT, James Newton, Pedro Eustache, Melecio Magdaluyo flt.

Recently, I’ve been buried beneath a surfeit of good jazz recordings: Lucky Thompson, Tomasz Stanko’s tribute to the wholly apposite compositions of fellow Pole jazz artist Krzystzof Komeda, and these: two collections of 80s-90s CDs from two of the very best players and composers of that era, Julius Hemphill (d. 1995) and Henry Threadgill (still alive, hallelujah!). Five albums by Hemphill. Seven by Threadgill. There isn’t a bad album in either lot but some stand out and a couple I don’t greatly like –appreciate perhaps but not enjoy listening to.

Hemphill is best known as founder of the World Saxophone Quartet. That was in 1976. By the time the last two albums in this collection were released, Hemphill had left the WSQ, but you couldn’t tell it by the albums which are saxophone sextet (as opposed to quartet) versions of the same kind of music Hemphill had composed for the WSQ. It’s good music with some great players –Marty Ehrlich, James Carter. By the time the last of these was recorded, Five Chord Stud (1993), Hemphill was seriously ill: he wrote the pieces and conducted them but did not play on the recording. That is a shame because Hemphill was a performer of great talent and energy, whose sound on alto saxophone was alive and declamatory, with deep roots in the blues. He was always fun to listen to. The earlier albums catch this. Raw Materials and Residuals is a trio album: the ever-interesting cellist Abdul Wadud (alumnus, among other groups, of Arthur Blythe ensembles) and percussionist Don Moye of Art Ensemble of Chicago fame. Flat Out Jump Suite adds trumpeter Olu Dara and exchanges Warren Smith for Moye. Again, solid, solid jazz, modern enough you have to listen closely to it but not off-putting, an enjoyable listening session. The one album in this collection I could do without is the duet album with Hemphill and percussionist Smith.

Threadgill and Hemphill have a lot in common but listen a bit –not even a long while—and differences pop out. Simply put, Threadgill is one of the major composers in jazz today, as witness by his receiving the Pulitzer Prize for his 2016 album, In for a Penny, In for a Pound. He is also a major soloist on alto sax and flute. (His flute sound is gorgeous –rich and masculine—the best I’ve heard outside of Dolphy and James Newton.) But there’s something else about his albums that make them stand out, from the trio Air on. He is an absolute devil at putting together combinations of sounds and rhythms and his ensembles sound like many in jazz don’t as though all of the musicians involved don’t really care where the dividing line is between composed and improvised music. In other word, it’s all music and we’re all playing it. Together. I own a fair number of albums by Threadgill now and not one of them is bad, not even mediocre. I don’t like them all equally but they’re all well, even cunningly crafted, and the musicians on them seem to be having a ball. Why shouldn’t they? Who wouldn’t like to be handed challenging, musically sophisticated compositions to play and then be assured that nobody’s going to play Priority Games during the recording of them?

Threadgill loves trickster names for his groups (Air, Very Very Circus, The JH Sextette which was always a septet, Zooid), record and song names (on Disc 1: “Keep Right on Playing Thru the Mirror Over the Water” and “Be Ever Out”; Disc 4: “Don’t Drink That Corner My Life Is In the Bush,” “Apricots on Their Wings,” “Salute to the Enema Bandit”; Disc 5: “First Church of This” (a great song); Disc 7: “Figwig.”
He also likes to mix instruments in his ensembles, and with them the possibility for harmonies and rhythm. Thus, on Very Very Circus (on Spirit of Nuff … Nuff): Threadgill mixes his own sax or flute with trombone, two electric guitarists and two tubas and drums. One cut, starts with drums and flute, devolves into a guitar solo (the guitarist plays heavily distorted electronic cloud covers a la a jazzified Tangerine Dream) playing over a chord base of flute, middle range, trombone, slightly higher, and tuba, played at the top of its range. Later, Threadgill’s flute takes over but that segment with guitar, flute, trombone, tuba, over a churning rhythm base of drums –wow! That is something!

Here are my notes, scribbled during my first listening to Song Out of My Trees. "Thread gill’s sax or flute plus trumpet, two electric guitars, two cellos, accordion, piano or harpsichord, electric bass and drums and a vocalist, all in different combinations. Myra Milford’s piano work on “Over the River Club” is phenomenal, echoed by the guitarists (or is one doubling on mandolin here?). A weird vocal on “Grief,” over a bed of one bowed and one plucked cellos and bass. Cellos in duet. Out of the voice and the cellos and bass, a screaming tenor sax solo. Then the harpsichord (electrified) rises up. They all come together in a dirge-like piece reminiscent of Mingus’s early experiments with soprano voice, cello and bass, “Eclipse,” but more effective. The piece *churns*."

There are four albums here from Threadgill’s signature cooperative trio Air, two with original drummer Steve McCall (better), two with his replacement Aklaff (good, but more conventional). I said above that I don’t like all of this music equally. I could do without Cassandra Wilson’s vocal on one of the two New Air albums and I cannot, absolutely cannot, force myself to listen to all of Flutistry, four unaccompanied flutes. It’s good music, technically at least, but it leaves me cold.

It doesn’t matter though. There is so much good music here (and the price is right). When you listen to Threadgill’s music, you listen to a superb composer first who also happens to be a very effective player. It never really disappoints. Each piece is different than the previous one, sometimes startlingly so. Not all of the pieces swing but all of them are clearly jazz. If this is Third Stream music, then it is a singularly unstuffy form of it and not at all inaccessible. This album reminds you how versatile a good player can be in responding to challenging music.

It’s no wonder that Threadgill won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is the best jazz-oriented composer around today, and the one most reminiscent of Mingus. He is blessed with a singularly rich and varied palette of musical ideas to play with. And this is –often though not always—playful music.

4 people found this helpful

Autonomeus

Hemphill was a unique visionary

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2014

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For some reason I never caught up with Hemphill's music until somewhat recently. I was a huge devotee of the Chicago AACM from an early age -- the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roscoe Mitchell, Air, Henry Threadgill, Fred Anderson, Muhal Richard Abrams, and later Anthony Braxton, among others -- partly, no doubt, because I was in the Chicago area. I wasn't even aware of Hemphill and BAG (the Black Artists Group of St. Louis, which also included Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, and Baikida Carroll) until years later. I was never a fan of the World Saxophone Quartet, which sounded too traditional to me. Perhaps had I known that Hemphill was born in Forth Worth, like Ornette Coleman, and even went to the same high school as Coleman, I would have discovered him sooner...

The first Hemphill recording I finally connected with, in 1999 or so, was the superb trio "Raw Materials and Residuals," which is included here. And then just a couple of years ago I was blown away by the 2011 reissue of the amazing Dogon A.D. . So this was the first of the Black Saint/Soul Note boxes that I picked up, to make up for lost time with the music of Julius Hemphill (1938-1995)!

The Black Saint/Soul Note treasure trove was purchased by CAM Jazz in 2008, and in 2012 they began their "Complete Remastered Recordings" box set series. As new producer Ermanno Basso says, "[i]f it hadn't been for music legend Giovanni Bonandrini's intense passion for music, there would be no evidence today of a great part of the Afro-American avant-guard and improvised music that originated in the mid seventies." And Basso goes on to say that the reissue series pays tribute to Bonandrini and all the artists.

*** *** ***
This box includes five discs. There are no liner notes, and no jewel cases. Each disc comes in a cardboard slip with the original cover art.

1977 -- Raw Materials and Residuals
1980 -- Chile New York (Sound Environment)
1980 -- Flat-Out Jump Suite
1991 -- Fat Man and the Hard Blues
1993 -- Five Chord Stud

"Raw Materials" remains my favorite here, a powerful trio with alto and soprano sax, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Famadou Don Moye (of the Art Ensemble) on percussion. The trio plays five Hemphill compositions, with Hemphill sounding very Ornette-like at times, and concludes with the funky "G Song," very much the way the Art Ensemble used to end their shows with a toe-tapping funky number.

The "Chile New York" duet recording from 1980, was not released until 1998, after Hemphill's death in 1995. This is a very atmospheric album, over an hour in length, with three 20-minute segments followed by four shorter ones. It was part of a sculpture installation on the theme of the CIA coup that overthrew the democratically elected Allende regime in Chile in 1973. (Kissinger was famously quoted saying the U.S. should "make the economy scream.") The sounds of Hemphill and Smith echo in the CUNY space, and Hemphill employs wordless vocalizations along with sax and flute. Gongs and tuned percussion are among the battery of percussion. Not for everyday listening, this is powerful music, and an important sonic document.

("Chile New York" is said to be live, but there are clearly two Hemphills in many places, playing sax and flute for instance, and two Warren Smiths on percussion, sometimes playing gong and vibraphone, for instance. I have not been able to find any information as to how this was done. It seems that it must have been either: A) studio overdubs added to the live performance (at the CUNY Graduate Center in NYC) later, or B) a prerecorded tape over which Hemphill and Smith improvised at the live performance. In either case, the recording can't be entirely live.)

"Flat-Out Jump Suite," recorded in May, a month after the CUNY performance, is a fascinating quartet piece that reveals Hemphill's compositional ambition. It is not typical post-bop at all, but a tightly structured piece that moves through five movements (Ear, Mind, Mind Pt. 2, Heart, Body). Hemphill plays tenor and flute, no alto. Olu Dara is great on trumpet. Abdul Wadud on cello and Warren Smith on percussion round out the ensemble. Some may miss more freewheeling improvisation from these players, but they will be missing Hemphill's unique vision as a composer.

That leaves the two recordings of the Julius Hemphill Sextet. The first, "Fat Man and the Hard Blues," features Hemphill and Marty Ehrlich on alto and James Carter on tenor, among others. This 1991 recording directly followed from Hemphill's many years of writing for the World Saxophone Quartet, for which he was the chief composer. Here he expands that format from 4 to 6, and develops even more complex counterpoint and textures. I am reminded of Henry Threadgill's Sextetts, some of my all-time favorite recordings. The 1993 recordings on "Five Chord Stud" were made without Hemphill as performer. He is listed only as conductor, and Tim Berne takes his place on alto alongside Ehrlich. Hemphill was very ill at the time, and was to die only two years later. Testimony to the importance of his compositional ability as opposed to his ability as a woodwind player, this album is the better of the two! Two things account for this -- the quality of Hemphill's compositions, and the astonishing playing of James Carter on tenor. A fantastic disc.

*** *** ***
Julius Hemphill was a key figure in an important movement in African-American avant-garde music that followed from the avant-garde revolution of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, and Albert Ayler. Along with his fellow musician/composers of Chicago, St. Louis, and New York, Hemphill created a new sound that reached from the avant-garde back to the earlier swing and blues. Of course Charles Mingus had made that move years earlier, and Mingus was acknowledged as a key influence on this new movement.

This superb Black Saint/Soul Note box set documents Hemphill in spectacular fashion!

6 people found this helpful

Stuart Jefferson

SOME OF HEMPHILL'S BEST WORK AFTER THE WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2013

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Julius Hemphill is probably most known for his work in the WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET (WSQ), who also have a box set in this series. He was a founding member and composed much of their music. These albums begin in the time just after he left the WSQ, and began leading his own groups.

As usual with these sets from Black Saint/Soul Note, each disc slips inside a cardboard recreation of the original album cover. Everything fits inside a substantial lidded box. There's no booklet-the only information is on the back of each album-some of which are printed very small. The remastered sound is clean and open without harshness. This set is part of the second wave of releases in this series, including a nice set from George Adams, who played to good acclaim with pianist Don Pullen, who also has a box set in this series.

"Raw Materials And Residuals", (1977), features Hemphill on alto/soprano saxophones, Abdul Wadud-cello, and Don Moye-percussion. This set is an example of the long association between the three musicians, and their use of textures, meter, and the ebb and flow of the actual music. The quieter portions of these compositions only add depth to the movement found in the more rapid passages. "C", "Plateau", and "G-Song" are good examples of their efforts.

"Flat Out Jump Suite", (1980), is another example of Hemphill's writing. He's joined by Olu Dara-trumpet, Abdul Wadud-cello, and Warren Smith-percussion. The five compositions (with the one word titles spoken before each track) are subtle in their presentation. Smith plays an important part in this music, his percussion work never overpowers Hemphill's delicate flute work on "Ear", or at the beginning of "Mind (2nd Part)". Dara's trumpet work is beautiful in it's tone. He manages to sound both forward thinking and organic at the same time. Wadud's cello ("Mind (1st Part)") works well with Dara's trumpet work. "Heart" has some good ensemble playing from the whole band. This album is slightly atypical for Hemphill, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's very open with a feeling of space. But concentrating on the music is very rewarding.

"Fat Man And The Hard Blues", (1991), is in some respects a continuation of Hemphill's work with the WSQ. This is Hemphill with five other horn players-and no traditional rhythm section, a-la WSQ. His arrangements are reminiscent of his work with the WSQ, with any combination of eight saxes and two flutes. For fans (like me) of the WSQ, this will be a real treat. The horns play off of and over and through each other, with different players coming forward to solo. The music is largely based in the blues, but stays between the jazz lines. A great album for those WSQ fans.

"Five Chord Stud", (1993), is similar to the previous album. There's no rhythm section-the band creates it's own rhythm patterns if needed. But what's unique here is that Hemphill doesn't play a note-he is the conductor. His music is played by six horn players with eight horns between them. This is (arguably) the best album in this set. There's occasionally a nod to Ornette Coleman's approach ("Band Theme" among others), which does nothing in burying Hemphill's music-it may in fact sharpen it a bit. Tim Berne and James Carter have some good work here-but then so do the other players. A nice addition is each track has solo information-player and horn used-a nice touch.

"Chile New York", (1980), is (on the surface at least) a different animal. Recorded live, it features Hemphill on alto and soprano saxes, flute, and voice. Accompanying him is mainstay Warren Smith on various percussion instruments. The compositions (all by Hemphill) are titled "One" through "Seven". This highly atmospheric music was originally intended to be used at a sculpture installation. It's based on the fall of the Communist government in Chile. But the music (even after so many years) can stand alone. Hemphill draws out his playing while Smith uses vibes, maracas, and other percussion instruments to give this music an atmospheric grounding. Hemphill's short vocalisms may put some people off (remember this is a live set), so you've been warned. This is a fine album full of images conjured by the music.

This is a good collection of Hemphill' music after the WSQ. He gives his music free reign and it shows. The various players he uses are well versed in the music, and bring a confidence and intuitiveness that brings this music alive. One of the better sets in this (hopefully) continuing series

13 people found this helpful

Lawrence Hilton

Great Composer

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021

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The most underrated jazz composer and intstrumemtalist. Great composer and arranger. This is jazz for post bop audience

Solozooid

If you luv this music, it doesn't get better than this!

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021

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Great documentation!

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Julius Hemphill: The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note by Julius Hemphill

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