Leroy Jenkins

Leroy Jenkins - Live! (1993) {Black Saint 120122-2}
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© 1993 Black Saint | 120122-2
Jazz / Jazz-Funk / Avant-Garde Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Violin

Jenkins's working band, Sting, were capable of great things in a live setting, but they're nothing compared to the new Computer Minds. The live session completely merits the exclamation mark. It's a fierce, urgent session, recorded in a New York public school, and sounds appropriately in contact with what's going on in the streets. To an extent, Jenkins is a traditionalist rather than a radical. His interests, though, have always reached well beyond jazz, and his band tackles a whole range of black musics.

The Revolutionary Ensemble were an extraordinary trio who unfortunately has a very limited discography, and what they did record is rather difficult to find. The Psyche is a case in point, released in 1975 on the small, self-produced RE: Records label and, as of 2002, unavailable on disc. It's a superb performance, however, consisting of three compositions, one by each group member, and can serve as a microcosm of what the band was about…

Anthony Braxton - The Complete Arista Recordings Of Anthony Braxton (2008) {8CD Set Mosaic MD8-242}
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© 2008 Mosaic Records / Arista / Sony BMG | MD8-242
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Creative Orchestra / Experimental Big Band

Since he released the completely solo For Alto in 1968, the accepted image of Anthony Braxton has been that he is more a theoretician and art music composer than a jazz musician. Therefore, it might seem strange that Mosaic Records is giving his Complete Arista Recordings one of their fabled box set treatments. But Braxton is both – and much more. This set – as well as the original Arista recordings – were produced by Michael Cuscuna, Mosaic/Blue Note label head. The sheer scope of these recordings is staggering. What we get in this amazingly detailed collection is the weightiest argument yet for Braxton's range and depth of field as a musical thinker and his role as a pillar of modern jazz.

George Lewis - Shadowgraph, 5 (Sextet) (1978) {Black Saint 120016-2}
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© 1978 Black Saint | 120016-2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Composition / Tuba / Trombone

A CD re-issue of the 1978 disc. Contains: "Monads" for an ensemble (with Anthony Davis, piano; Douglas Ewart, bass clarinet; Leroy Jenkins, violin; G. Lewis, alto and tenor trombones; Roscoe Mitchell, soprano sax; Abdul Wadud, cello) …fleeting melodic fragments amidst pointillistic (but not "abstract" !) textures, constantly re-defined and varied; "Triple Slow Mix," a trio for two pianos and sousaphone …a steady and slowly varied bass passacaglia surrounded by either extremely fast pointillistic playing or banal almost-quotes as if from music "literature," like a blasé music student in his practice room just trying to make it through the day…every once in a while someone shouts "hey !"

Dewey Redman - The Ear of the Behearer (1973) {Impulse! IMPD-271 rel 1998}
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© 1973, 1998 Impulse! / GRP /MCA | IMPD-271
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

This 1998 CD reissues Dewey Redman's entire The Ear of the Behearer album (although it leaves out an alternate take of "Interconnection" that was released on a different set), plus four of the seven selections from his Coincide record of a year later. Some of the music is quite adventurous and free, while other tracks include some freebop, a struttin' blues ("Boody"), and quieter ballads. Redman, a distinctive tenor saxophonist, actually plays alto on five of the first six selections; he is less memorable (although no less exploratory) on the smaller horn.

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy (1971) {Impulse! Japan Paper Sleeve UCCI-9109 rel 2004}
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© 1971, 2004 Impulse! / Verve / Universal Japan | UCCI-9109
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

One of Alice Coltrane's most ambitious albums of the early years – recorded with a full set of heavenly orchestrations! The core group features Alice on piano, organ, and harp – alongside Frank Lowe on saxes, Reggie Workman on bass, Leroy Jenkins on violin, and Ben Riley on drums. Added to this combo is a much larger set of strings – swirling around in a rich musical backdrop that gives Alice's work a sense of majesty and power we could have never imagined. This is the album that really showed the world that she was far far more than just the wife of the late great one – a true mystical visionary with a sound that demanded to be heard! Side 2 features a recitation by Alice's spiritual mentor, Swami Satchdiananda – and the album features a wonderful version of "My Favorite Things", done with both organ and harp.