The call to mass suicide has been temporarily put on hold, for I have, er, more pressing matters to engage in. First off is the announcement of the recent sighting after a good year of MIA-dom by none other than longtime "serious rock critic" (for what that's worth!) Tim Ellison, who has finally returned to the fold with not one but two new blogs, one of which (THE KYNGE'S MUSIC), is listed on the grande roster of BTC-approved reading on the left. (The other blog is opera-related, though from what I can discern I think my own opera-loving mudder wouldn't be able to make hide nor hair of the thing.) Welcome back to the wonderful world of blogging Tim, and I hope that everything is going swimmingly lest you pull the plug on these new 'uns like you did with MUSIC CHAMBER.
And with that, on to a couple of reviews I was able to "whip up" to sate your musical appetite. Bon appetit!
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INTRODUCING BURTON GREENE CD-R (Columbia)Here's a rarity that I don't even recall eyeballing during my days of avid used bin hopping throughout Cle Hts. from the late-seventies through the early-nineties. And believe-you-moi, this one is so rare that a legit Cee-Dee reissue is probably asking for way too much even in these over-digitized days (hadda rely on a freebee given to me by one Bill Shute, a name that rings a bell somewhat), and as far as actually finding a pic of the sleeve somewhere on the web to use for this blog (the "sleeve" Bill sent with the disque being too small and light to reproduce) well, good luck finding it which is why I hadda rely on a familiar snap from Greene's first ESP album to use in its stead. And even though this 'un originally came out on Columbia I kinda doubt that anyone at their Legacy reissuing department even knows this exists in the first place and besides, I can't see Sundazed handling INTRODUCING BURTON GREENE like they would some old Paul Revere or Byrds offering!
Which is all too bad (for you) unless you have an original or know someone who can burn a Cee-Dee for ya (don't look at me, pongo) because INTRODUCING BURTON GREENE is that good of an obscure late-sixties freedom platter and a real winner especially for a label such as Columbia who wasn't that much on top of the free jazz slagheap as they were with the classical "Music Of Our Time" stuff that used to drive my father to fits back in the way-distant mid-seventies.
Good ESP-derived lineup here too not only with familiar faces Steve Tintweiss and Shelly Rusten on bass and drums rspctvly but Byard Lancaster, a man def. worthy of more than the shallow accolades he has received over the years, not only handling alto sax but trumpet in a fine enough free manner to satisfy any of you superficialists who only "got into" free jazz because of all the name dropping yer fave rock stars gave to such innovators as Ornette and Sun Ra thus upping their stock a few thousand %.
Playing doesn't even take effort to "tone down" for major label consumption and in many ways INTRODUCING... could have been an ESP offering 'stead of brewed from the loins of Mitch Miller's label. It's that grand esp. when you get to the point where Greene starts chanting in some unknown tongue on "Nirvana Vibrations" or better yet switches to electric harpsichord reminding one of Sun Ra at his late-sixties incoherent best (Greene also tackles moog in an early application of it in the jazz medium, and in fact if you can find any usage of it in jazz before this please lemme know!). Naturally the Tintweiss/Rusten "rhythm" (for wont of a better word) section in more'n just plain "sympathetic" with Greene's still after all these years cutting-edge stylings, and Lancaster once again shows why he's perhaps one of the better (still)-living free players on the boards, at least when he is performing in the avant style. Kinda makes me wish he woulda been able to make that trip to the CBGB Lounge for that "freestyle" gig I tuned in for quite a few years back!
I dunno why Columbia's nixing any reish of this one when they had the smarts to issue things like Jimmy Giuffre's FREE FALL which ain't any flea market bin stuffer itself, but maybe if we wait long enough and the message finally sinks in that the late-sixties free thing continues to live (at least in the hearts of high energy madmen like ourselves) we might be seeing this 'un snuggled in somewhere between the Herbie Mann's and Al DeMeola's at the fru-fru high-society coffeehouse bookstore located at your nearest mall sometime soon! It would be worth checking out the online auctions for this one lest we have to tangle with some gourmet coffee fanatic whose looking for the ultimate Michael Hedges compilation and a copy of THE NEW YORK TIMES to sip his mocha to!
***Caroline Peyton-MOCK UP; INTUITION CD's (Asterisk, available through Forced Exposure)
Only reason I bought this cute hippy-chick's first album MOCK UP from '72 was because of Bruce Anderson's guitar solo on "Lor el iii" which lent some boss underground credo to an otherwise strictly lady o' the canyon type of platter. Unfortunately for me (and presumably you), "Lor el iii" was left off this Cee-Dee reissue for who knows what reason, unless it's due to end up on some MX-80-related compilation hopefully to worm its way into our hearts more sooner than later.
Otherwise this songstress really doesn't live up to any special BLOG TO COMM-recommended ideals, that is if you follow such a credo to begin with and who tuning into this blog doesn't (or so I ass-sume). MOCK UP attempts to be a rather concise encapsulation of various fringe-y West Coast stylings (Joni Mitchell comes mostly to mind) with a spot of avant garde a la Tim Buckley ca. STARSAILOR and Yoko Ono all done up in the confines of midwest college town Bloomington Indiana, which from I gather was itself trying to be Berkeley Midwest. INTUITION is reaching for the more laid-back (if you can imagine that!) mid-seventies El Lay Scene stylings with a sound that wouldn't've sounded outta place on the Asylum label as it went straight from the factory right into your nearest cut-out bin for $1.99. Nothing that I would expect any of you reg'lar readers to seek out (even if the cover of MOCK UP looks straight out of a late-eighties SST Records catalog), and now I can understand Bruce Anderson's exclamation in the MX-80 interview in FE when he said "oh, you've heard those albums" in a rather sheepish manner.
Darn you weren't kidding. Finding that Burton Greene album is harder than #$@%&.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen pictures of this lady? By golly she was cute!
ReplyDeleteBrian C.
Are you talking about Peyton? She wa OK, but no Figure in Motion!
ReplyDeleteThe...what? Post-Meltzer taproot? Ah, as Meltzer once wrote of that guy from the Del-Lords, the rock 'n' roll fan club meets here. The Peyton records aren't...er, rock 'n' roll enough for you? You prefer MX-80 (well, the Midwest always liked Beefheart--have fun with that!) to "Mock Up." There sure is a big wide world of music out there and one day, perhaps you'll get your head out of your Meltzer book (I like Meltzer) and your ass, and listen to some other stuff. And lose the condescending tone. The thing people like you can never understand about music, as opposed to your ideas about "rock" music and "avant-garde" and "noise" (you prefer that "Lor el iii" cut to the more, uhhm, structured things on "Mock Up," for example), is that a person like Caroline Peyton is a professional musician who could do most anything. Bruce Anderson and this shit you're championing is fine, but they're just amateurs in love with their little ideas about, you know, noise and rock 'n' roll and all that Midwest "dissidence" you farmboys are so fond of, since you're so culturally insecure to begin with. And Peyton looks pretty cute to me on that album cover. Sings in tune too. Next.
ReplyDeleteUh yeah, I prefer rock & roll and noise/dissonance and to think that I don't know that Peyton could do just about "anything" is entirely missing the point of not only five years of this blog but 28 years of writings for various pubs, but it's just that what Peyton did do wasn't exactly conduit to my own midwest fanboy tastes which really is NOTHING NEW! As far as listening to "other stuff" goes, maybe if you'd explore this blog a li'l more than I assume you have you'll realize that the material reviewed, both positively and negatively, is a lot more varied than what is seen on some of the more "focused" music blogs who rarely take time to look outside their own indie music and underground concerns.
ReplyDelete