Back in the seventies when jazz/rock fusion was starting to take place, most people were concentrating on Mahavishnu Orchestra , Return To Forever, Weather Report and Tony Williams Lifetime. Those groups were the defacto jazz/fusion pioneers which came out of Miles Davies's influence. Now, almost 30 years later when I listen to Don Cherrys Here And Now, I feel that this album is as great a collection of music as all of the others I mentioned although it never received as much notoriety. This is a great CD which leans a bit more on the Jazz side of the fusion movement. It never gets old.
Tamma (which means talking drum in Gambian) is a percussion and horn jazz group founded by Gambian master drummer Miki N'Doye and brought to Norway where he enlisted the aid of that country's musicians in forming an open-ended music that would engage European cultures in the music of the African Diaspora. A quintet, they feature a proper trap kit drummer, saxophonist, trumpet, an electric bassist, and N'Doye. All members play some percussion and sing (more like chant). They make an ethereal, moody, high-lonesome kind of rhythm-based Afro-jazz. Performing live at the Mode International Jazz Festival, they were joined for two days by the late trumpeter and douzongouni player (African guitar), and the late drummer Ed Blackwell both men at that time were members of Old and New Dreams and former bandmates in the Ornette Coleman Quartet.
The second recording by Old and New Dreams was, like its first from three years earlier, named after the group. Trumpeter Don Cherry, tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell made for a mighty team, performing high-quality free bop in the tradition of the Ornette Coleman Quartet (of which they were all alumni). In addition to two of Ornette's tunes (including a lengthy exploration of "Lonely Woman"), the musicians each contributed an original of their own. Stirring music in a setting that always brought out the best in each of these musicians.
On Wednesday September 29, 2021 - the year of the band's 20th Anniversary - Kentucky's favorite sons, Black Stone Cherry, realized their childhood dream of playing at the legendary Royal Albert Hall, London…
One can't venture very far into contemporary pop without hearing the echoes of '70s-'80's soul, funk and r&b; decades once mocked have seen their vibrant, groove-savvy music re-embraced – often without a trace of kitsch-savvy irony. This triple-disc, 58 track collection may come anthologized with a slightly cheesy conceit–retro-party-soundtrack-in-a-box, with discs devoted to flavoring your soulful soiree's beginning, middle and end–but its potent collection of vintage, era-evoking favorites can't be denied. Disc one/"Kickin' It Off" wends its way from expected jams like Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music" and Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" through such funk-fueled grooves as James Brown's sweaty "Payback" and Donna Summer's urgent, torch-song-with-a beat "Last Dance." Disc two/"Getting' Into the Groove" does just that via Top 40 stalwarts like The Spinners, Four Tops and O'Jays, while making room for legends (Al Green, Isley Brothers) and newcomers like the Brothers Johnson and Kool & the Gang alike. The set's final act winds down into late-night sultriness via Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Heraling," Delfonics' "Didn't I Blow Your Mind," Pointer Sister's "Slow Hand" and other sexy charms.