Music Of Another Present Era

Music of Another Present Era remains Oregon's most enduring masterwork. Achieving a perfect balance of musical traditions from the East and West, ancient to future, they set the stage not only for a new transculturalism in jazz, but also created a lasting template for the fusion of musics from world traditions that would flower over a decade later. […] This is fusion music, to be sure, but it's the kind of fusion musicians have been trying unsuccessfully to emulate for decades. Music of Another Present Era is one of the most poetic and groundbreaking records to be released in the 1970s. ~Thom Jurek, All Music

Music of Another Present Era remains Oregon's most enduring masterwork. Achieving a perfect balance of musical traditions from the East and West, ancient to future, they set the stage not only for a new transculturalism in jazz, but also created a lasting template for the fusion of musics from world traditions that would flower over a decade later. The four participants in Oregon, oboist and pianist Paul McCandless, guitarist and pianist Ralph Towner, upright bassist and pianist Glen Moore, and the late multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott, operated on the premise that melodic ideas and expansive harmonies all contributed to a music that didn't bridge cultures, but erased them and eradicated them.

If there was a "second best" recording from Oregon in their early years, this would be it. The concept of "Winter Light" certainly reflects the visage of the Pacific Northwest in the fourth season, yet it is a music, and time of year, filled with hope for the future while pondering a somewhat bleak present. Winter can be pleasant, bearable and filled with its own snowy delights. The first three pieces on their own are worth the price of this entire project, and are definitive works from the quartet. "Tide Pool" while accented with bizarre twists, is anchored by Walcott's energetic tabla and Towner's pure bred energy on acoustic guitar.

Christopher Tye was a close contemporary of Tallis and other composers of the Tudor era. He spent most of his career in the prestigious post of Master of the Choristers and organist of Ely Cathedral. Only a proportion of his works have survived, but among them are motets and two Mass settings. Of all these, his masterpiece is surely the six-voice Missa Euge Bone – recorded on the present disc and by several other ensembles over the past few decades.

Oregon - Our First Record (1970) {Vanguard–PJL Japan MTCJ-2550 rel 2004, Paper Sleeve}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 252 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 115 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2004 Vanguard / PJL Japan | MTCJ-2550
Jazz / World Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Folk Jazz

Let's get one thing straight from the outset: Oregon is not nor were they Ever a "New Age" group. There is nothing saccahrinely simple or cloyingly pretty about this music - it is harmonically complex, rhythmically interesting and melodically uncliched. I have never understood why this band came to be labeled in such a facile and flagrantly inaccurate way. Along with bandleader Paul Winter (and coming from a completely different place,) Miles Davis, they were the true godfathers of what's come to be known as world jazz. Not to mention important contributors to 3rd stream music.

Formed in 2008, AGENTS OF MERCY was originally a side-project by Roine Stolt (guitars, bass, vocals) of The Flower Kings fame, whrere the goal was to create a low key, mostly acoustic based type of music…