Another Record Store
Day double album that has never previously been heard unless you were at the
concert in Avignon, France on July 19, 1972. Maybe some of our readers were there
but for those who weren't this will give you an idea of what you missed.
Kenny Barron's Inside Atlantis gets the show on the road with an extended tenor workout from the leader that doesn't take any prisoners - not even Trane and Rollins! Barron and Cunningham throw in their two-pennyworth (plus!) and Tootie Heath reminds us what a great loss to jazz it was when he passed just nine days ago.
Lateef thanks the audience and name-checks the band - in English. The
French seem to know what he is talking about.
Barron notches up more compositional royalties with A Flower. A piano/flute duet, it has a depth of feeling and empathy between the two players that suggest something by Ellington or Strayhorn.
Lateef's Yusef's Mood, A rocking twelve bar that lasts 17:22 minutes, has Barron in barrelhouse mode with Tootie playing New Orleans street parade style drums. I can imagine the crowd dancing in the aisles and having the time of their lives. Nor does the party stop when Yusef returns. He literally 'rocks the joint' with the audience, or is it the band?, chanting 'all night long'. Those seem like prophetic words and when it does end in a musical free-for-all I'm thinking the applause will be of similar duration and I'm not far wrong.
Tootie's Lowland Lullaby, an Indian flute and bass duet, at 3:55, is the shortest track. It's a soporific, relaxed composition which no doubt gives the audience the chance to recharge after the exertions of the previous number.
Roy Brooks' Eboness opens with Lateef playing flute over a jazz-rock rhythm. Eastern flavoured fluting plus some growling reminiscent of Ian Anderson but jazzier. Bassist Cunningham is the featured soloist on this track reminding me of just what a tower of strength he is.
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You (George Bassman-Ned Washington) is, in my opinion, one the greatest ballads ever written and Lateef''s tenor solo does it justice. Pure magic. Barron and Cunningham are equally bewitched as they turn the tune upside down. A saxophone masterclass to rank alongside any of the great tenor saxophone ballad performances.
The Untitled. Composed by Barron, it begins at a speed that would have a metronome popping its spring. However, after that initial burst it goes into an out of tempo dirge. As the track is 27 minutes long I figured this wouldn't last forever - French audiences wouldn't stand for it - particularly as Lateef remarks in his introduction that it looks like rain. Things begin to pick up when Tootie is let off the leash. Barron tinkles the ivories and Yusef chips in with some birdlike calls on flute.
Barron then has some reflective moments during which he merges Art Tatum with Cecil Taylor. I can understand why he didn't give the piece a more descriptive title. There is just so much going on. With five minutes to go, all hell breaks loose before the quartet gets around to some hard swinging and an explosive last few bars. Encore!, Encore! shouts the crowd and Yusef, finally remembering he is in France. replies with Merci beaucoup! Lance
Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby will be available on April 20 as a two-LP package and as a two-CD package on April 26. Both with glossy 16-page booklet on Elemental Music.
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