#avant-jazz

[shodwithbootsofether]

Cardiacs

[womenofnoise]

Alice Coltrane

[zef-zef]

Eiko Ishibashi - For McCoy (Black Truffle, 2021)

Composed By, Keyboards, Synth, Flute, Voice, Field Recording – Eiko Ishibashi Alto Saxophone – Daisuke Fujiwara Drums – Joe Talia (tracks: 1), Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (tracks: 3) Guitar, Acoustic Bass – Jim O'Rourke (tracks: 3) Violin – Mio Okamura (tracks: 2) Mastered & Mixed – Jim O'Rourke Artwork By – Eiko Ishibashi Design – Lasse Marhaug

[vinylspinning]

Julius Hemphill: Dogon A.D. (1972) [Reissued 1977]

Many years ago (almost a decade, in fact), my friend and fellow music critic Phil Freeman reviewed this album in his Burning Ambulance blog and inspired me to add it to my Discogs want-list, where it has patiently sat, all this time, waiting for me to grow a pair.

And I say that because Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D. is, in Phil’s words, “a landmark in early ‘70s avant-jazz,” and such claims are apt to strike fear into the heart of a relative jazz tourist like myself, even a quarter century removed from my first exposure to Bitches Brew.

So, won’t you grow a pair of your own and join me?

Let’s start with a little backstory: born in Ft. Worth, Texas, Hemphill studied clarinet before picking up the saxophone; he joined the army, then seems to have played some blues and R&B on the Chitlin’ Circuit, including a stint with Ike Turner.

By 1968, he’d settled in St. Louis, where he co-founded a multidisciplinary arts collective called the Black Artists’ Group (B.A.G.) alongside other intrepid musicians, including trumpeter Baikida E.J. Carroll, who also figures on this LP.

First released in 1972 on Hemphill’s own Mbari Records (see minimalist cover art above), Dogon A.D. was reissued five years later by Arista’s Freedom subsidiary, packaged in new artwork that referenced the cliff-dwelling Dogon people of Mali, famous for their unique culture and elaborate wooden masks.

And this exotic imagery, literal as it is, provides an accurate metaphor for the fifteen-minute title track’s stumbling tempo, courtesy of former Paul Butterfield Blues Band drummer Philip Wilson, Hemphill’s and Carroll’s jousting horns, and, strangest of all: Abdul Wadud’s central theme played, not on upright bass, but on a cello!

Second cut “Ritual” quickly blasts off into a free jazz frenzy, but “The Painter” sets off on another quarter-hour adventure, during which Carroll’s muted trumpet, Wadud’s subdued cello strums, Wison’s scampering brushes and Hemphill’s flute flurries mesh together with an altogether stunning, subtle intensity.

In sum: challenging it may well be, but I also found Dogon A.D. instantly enjoyable, and ultimately fascinating, in much the same way that Sun Ra has captured my imagination in recent years.

So try not to wait as long as I did to sample Julius Hemphill’s travels to, as Freeman put it, “jazz’s rougher edges” ... I’ll be there too, looking for my next leap into the musical unknown.

More Julius Hemphill: 'Coon Bid'ness.

[womenofnoise]

Dorothy Ashby

[womenofnoise]

Angel Bat Dawid

[womenofnoise]

Matana Roberts

[womenofnoise]

Gyna Bootleg + Tamio Shirasi