Hugh Nini

Hugh Hopper & Kramer - Huge (1997) {Knitting Factory-Shimmy Disc SH088}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 256 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb
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© 1997 Knitting Factory / Shimmy Disc | Shimmy-088
Rock / Art Rock / Canterbury Scene / Experimental / Prog-Rock

Recorded as a guitar-less trio (Hugh Hopper on bass, Kramer on piano, organ, and tape loops, plus Damon Krukowski on drums), Huge is marginally less chaotic than Hopper and Kramer's previous collaboration, 1994's A Remark Hugh Made. Each of the songs is a relatively concise (only two tracks break the five-minute mark) and melodic improvisation on a basic theme, which generally is introduced, soloed upon, and quickly resolved, with Kramer's found voices and sound effects providing the album's only truly random element.

Singer/songwriter Dave Cousins with guitarists Dave Lambert & Brian Willoughby played four sell-out shows at Hugh's Room in Toronto in 2003, the last of which was filmed for this release. Also includes a specially filmed documentary featuring Cousins visiting West London locations significant to The Strawbs history.

Released as a double LP on Chisa/Blue Thumb in 1972, Hugh Masekela's Home Is Where the Music Is marked an accessible but sharp detour from his more pop-oriented jazz records of the '60s. Masekela was chasing a different groove altogether. He was looking to create a very different kind of fusion, one that involved the rhythms and melodies of his native South Africa, and included the more spiritual, soul-driven explorations occurring in American music at the time on labels like Strata East, Tribe, and Black Jazz as well as those laid down by Gato Barbieri on Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman imprint. The South African and American quintet he assembled for the date is smoking. It includes the mighty saxophonist Dudu Pakwana and drummer Makaya Ntshoko, both South African exiles; they were paired with American pianist Larry Willis and bassist Eddie Gomez, creating a wonderfully balanced, groove-oriented ensemble.

This disc strikes me as an ideal introduction to the music of Turkey’s greatest composer. Ahmed Adnan Saygun’s style might be described as “Szymanowski with a primal rhythmic feel.” If you love the composer’s First Violin Concerto then you will find here a very similar exoticism, nocturnal atmosphere, and love of voluptuous textures. The harmonic style is intensely chromatic, but also highly melodic. Like Bartók in his last period, Saygun’s handling of tonality mellowed toward the end of his life, which makes the Cello Concerto more consonant than the Viola Concerto, but both works are absolutely gorgeous and masterpieces of their kind. It’s positively criminal that no one plays these pieces regularly in concert. The performances here are excellent. Tim Hugh is a well-known cellist, and he pours on the tone with all of the rhapsodic abandon that Saygun requires. Mirjam Tschopp also is a superb violist, with a big, beefy tone that never gets swamped by the intricate orchestration. It’s also very rewarding to hear a Turkish orchestra in this music–and to find that it plays beautifully under Howard Griffiths.