Sun Ra All-Stars ~ Berlin 1983

[Jazzrook]

A stellar line-up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAVXGWEumUc

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep & John Gilmore is always a delight

[Ian Thumwood]

Wondered if anyone of you had checked out the big bands led by Satoko Fujii? It is odd how reputations seem to vary with some bands with Sun Ra often being written out in very purple prose and others like Boyd Raeburn's a wrll kept secret. I've never been offended by Ra or found his music too outside but I find it struggles to live up to the almost hagiographical reputation that it has acquired. It's fun but in a way that Willem Breuker is fun, yet no one seems to make similar claims for the Dutch outfit. By contrast, Fujii seems to have been fronting big bands either in the States or Japan without making an impact in the wider contrast. It doesn't help that her records are so expensive and therefore tend to put you off exploring. What I have heard of her music makes her sound like an avant garde Toshiko Akiyoshi with a similar reliance on Japanese folk music. Fujii seems more prolific with smaller groups and even those aren't familiar even if favourably reviewed. This is the one track by the big band that you can find on Youtube and I think it is extremely exciting. Cast aside the rather cod exoticism of Sun Ra and try checking out this which seems far more authentic -even if the piece eventually mutates in to Ellington-esque territory. I would imagine that this will be very much to Jazzrook's taste!! :-

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

more here

the opening minutes reminded me of this - an awful test of my endurance when i heard it live last year or so .... the solo reed was unengaging and then 'the Ellington-esque' influence kicked in and i loved it [i'd have added Mingus orchestration/composition too]

thanks very much for that Ian never come across this artist before ..

[Jazzrook]

Thanks, Ian, very impressive. Satoko Fujii is a new name to me and I'm almost tempted to invest in a copy of 'Zakopane'.
Re Sun Ra, there's a fascinating article about him in Jazz Journal(November 2014) by Brian Morton who writes that 'Jazz In Silhouette'(EVIDENCE) "is a record I recommend to everyone who cares about jazz enough to spend a few unprejudiced minutes with it".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUtxy6ddiHc

[Ian Thumwood]

Jazzrook

Did you get hold of the copy of "Zakopane?"

I managed to snap up a second hand copy of "Jo" which was being sold on line and had been part of the stock from a library in the States. This is an American version of the big band with the likes of Chris Speed, Jack Walrath and Dave Ballou in the line up. I played it on Friday and the music is pretty sensational. It is immediately apparent that the arranger is Japanese because of the eccentric harmonies and the way the drums are deployed to reflect what I think they call "No theatre" - might be in error in this respect. However, there is always an awareness of 20th century Classical music as well as an Ellingtonian feel to the writing on the longest track, "Sola." One of the tracks features a trio of clarinets with percussion only.

The depth of the writing , especially for the trombones which are scored so low as to make you thing there are tubas in the line up, recalled the late, great George Gruntz who, in my opinion, was the king when it came to writing for these instruments. Fujii shares the same ability to use the trombones to give the music volume and the range of the instruments is further expanded by the high notes given to the trumpets. If i was subject to a blindfold test, I would have said the track "Reminiscence" was being played by Gruntz, the saxophones also sharing his approach to composition. One track, "Okesa-Yansado" seems to have been manipulated in the studio to produce an eerie effect and I was mesmerised by this arrangement.

A word of warning to anyone intrigued by this record and used to more traditional big bands. Fujii's playing on the piano is extremely modern and she has a fantastic grasp of the kind of technique used in contemporary Classical music. Don't expect her to be merely comping. She doesn't perform on all the tracks and , when she does feature, she is often playing inside the strings or playing a prepared piano. The percussion doesn't necessarily swing either and is used in a more exotic fashion than with most other big bands, even though the drummer is American and not Japanese. There are also elements where the music erupts in to a free-for all too. Personally, I think the record is fascinating and pushes Satoko Fujii right up in my estimation and appreciation of her music. She doesn't write as "much" as say Maria Schnieder, Steve Owen or Darcy -Argue but the way she voices and scores for the ensemble produces some amazing tone colours and she is not afraid to push the charts in to areas where the writing modulates in to harmonies which may seem "wrong" to Western ears. For about £3, this CD was worth a punt. Oddly, although the case was damaged and plastered with stickers, no one had even taken the CD out of the case and played it. Staggering to think of what the people in that community had missed in not borrowing the record from the library.

[Jazzrook]

Thanks, Ian. Have decided to go for Fujii's smaller scale 'Kitsun-Bi' which has had some good reviews:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/kitsune-bi-mw0000049593