Brooklyn Diasporism

Zach Barocas, Diasporist Diarist

Day’s Plays Guest Post: Michael Honch

[You can hear Michael’s latest music here]

Music for teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jim Hall Meets Attila Zoller. Recorded in Studio 1 at NDR Funkhauses, Hannover: Jim Hall (guitar); Attila Zoller (guitar); Red Mitchell (bass); Daniel Humair (drums). This was released on the Guitar Masters: Live in Germany 1973 and 1980 DVD (the later session is an encounter with Zoller and Jimmy Raney). I first heard this recording on an old jazz blog, where someone had separated out the tracks and created their own album cover art. Hall and Zoller are a sublime combination; sometimes I hear them as one brilliant guitar. The highlight of this set is their performance of Zoller’s composition “Extension,” which is best known from Don Friedman’s brilliant album Metamorphosis.

Cannonball Adderley – “The Black Messiah”. Recorded live at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, California in 1971: Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone); Nat Adderley (cornet); Roy McCurdy (drums); Walter Booker (bass); George Duke (electric piano); Airto Moreira (percussion), and other guests. This is a hot one, recorded at the onset of electric jazz-rock fusion. The Adderleys and Duke are well-matched, and sound like they’re enjoying themselves immensely. I’d put this one right up there with the music Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, and Joe Henderson were making in the wake of Bitches Brew.

Ashanti Afrika Jah (aka Ashanti Afrika-Jah Int Band of Ghana)
1979 Nigerphone / Polygram Records Ltd. Nigeria. I first heard this band on the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump, Original Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife & Afro-Funk compilation. The two guitars are so tonally different (one sharp and trebly, the other muted and syrupy) and panned apart, with the bass right in between. All three instruments weave separate arpeggiated patterns that vary in length from each other. The harmonized vocals are just lovely, and the drums propel it steadily forward. At times, their music feels like the most direct antecedent to what the Talking Heads were up to in a song like “Crosseyed and Painless,” along with the music of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, and King Sunny Ade.

Georgia-Anne Muldrow (as Pattie Blingh and the Akebulan Five) – Sagala (2007). I learned of her through Mos Def. He puts it best: “She’s incredible. She’s like Flack, Nina Simone, Ella, she’s something else. She’s like religion. It’s heavy, vibrational music. I’ve never heard a human being sing like this. Her voice is wildly, finely expressive.” She is brilliant. I need to hear more of her music!

Hu Vibrational – Boonghee Music 1. Percussion masters Adam Rudolph and Hamid Drake have been friends since childhood, playing and recording together since the 70s (the 1978 Mandingo Griot Society is the earliest recording of them together I know of). Their music is such a warm and wonderful expression of their mutual love and respect. I got to see them perform as a duo in a small house party setting, and the Hu Vibrational recordings capture the joy and warmth. If you are feeling out of sorts, this music gets things flowing in the right way.

Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio w/ Billy Bang – Live At The River East Art Center. I was lucky enough to see this group on tour around this time. DC in the summertime, and the venue was hot and crowded: people were out of their seats and dancing, and in the end the band took the show out into the parking lot. I’d long given up on making music myself, but the day after this show I went to the music store and bought a bass. I was (and still am) profoundly moved and inspired by these musicians — especially the late Billy Bang. The songs on this record are tributes to bassist Malachi Favors, who had recently passed away. El’Zabar, Bang, and Favors first recorded together on the first Ritual Trio album from 1987, Another Kind Of Groove, which came out on the German label Sound Aspects. That one is hard to find; if you ever see a copy, let me know — I need one!

Day’s Plays Guest Post: Janet Morgan

[You can hear Janet’s latest music here.]

Misty In Roots: Live at the Counter Eurovision 79. I first heard Misty In Roots on John Peel way way back in the early 80’s. I learned so much from them and saw them uncountable times back in the day. I am on my second copy of this record (it was a vinyl only release) which was sent to me by a friend in London when he heard that I was in need. I listen to this ALL the time. My partner made files for me so that I can hear it on the go. Earth is a great record too.

The Blue Note: Club Culture. Having been deep in punk rock for many many years I found myself, seemingly suddenly, becoming open to different sounds and different ways of making music. Blue Note Club Culture was THAT record for me and to this day I still listen to it regularly.

We Are The World: Clay Stones. I fucking love this record and often times I feel like I am the only one. I want everyone to love it and buy it so that they continue to create. In fact I was just trying to find some more info on them to see what’s up and found a review that said of this record that “it plays like a devilish temper tantrum, where throbbing synths are overlaid with shocks of percussion, and the vocals of Megan Gold morph from possessed baptist minister to voodoo queen”. I mean … YES! Although I believe these words were meant to put potential listeners off.

The Slits: Cut. This record has the energy and confidence that I wish for myself. As a younger person I would describe this as “fuck off music”, which shouldn’t really need an explanation. And, of course, Budgie.

Agnes Obel: Citizen of Glass. Agnes Obel is a Danish singer, songwriter and musician. On this record, she layers her voice so it becomes a choir. She uses instruments such as violin, cello and piano as well as other less obvious keyboards choices like the spinet, celesta and the Trautonium, which is a monophonic electronic musical instrument invented about 1929 – an early synthesizer! This is an eerie and beautiful record.

Wildbirds & Peacedrums: Rhythm. I once read something about this Swedish duo that said something along the lines of “Wildbirds & Peacedrums was born of a desire to break free and play music that captures pure, ecstatic feeling” and this is exactly what I get from their music, especially from their record Rhythm. The seemingly easy musical banter of drums and voice is so thrilling to me.

Day’s Plays Guest Post: Damon Locks

  • New Me, Same Us
  • Jeff Parker - A Suite for Max Brown
  • The Black Fairy
  • He’s a Black Man
  • Sit-in Songs
  • Give Your Hands to Struggle

[You can listen to Damon’s latest music here and here.]

Keep your mind free is a phrase that stays ringing in my head. I orchestrated an evening of online performance and an image promoting decarceration with the same phrase. Thinking not only of those late nights when the weight of the new alternate pandemic lockdown dimension we found ourselves in pressed heavy but thinking of the people without my options. My students at Stateville Correctional Center remain in my brain while structuring correspondence classes as creative outlets, as escape, with the theme of liberation in the time of covid-19, inside of prisons, hoping to help them keep their minds free as the virus spreads. I purchased one new album in the first 2 months of the pandemic which served as a beautiful dream state inside a state of shock before the deaths of more Black people caused us to realize we never left our same racist dimension that we have always been in.  Pandemic or no, the time is way overdue for structural change. Here are some records that are relevant to me some right now and some always. Thank you for reading. Love, Damon

Little Dragon’s new record is called, New Me, Same Us. This record just sat on my stereo getting flipped over and over. I am not sure where the magic of this record comes from, it just is. I paid for this record online and biked to the shop and picked it up curbside. It was a thrill to buy a record after a couple months.

Jeff Parker’s Suite For Max Brown is great. A sonic companion to his last record. Jeff’s concert was the last show I saw before the pandemic became the reality. It was a great show and it is a great record.

The Black Fairy is a record I have been looking for for a long time. I bought it a couple months ago after a long irl search. It is the songs from a theater piece done in the early 70s in Chicago about a Black fairy who loses her confidence because a little boy tells her fairies never help Black people and she has no power to make change. This is the story of how she regains herself. 

He’s A Black Man, Volume 1 is one part of a volume of records (a friend has another from the series). It is a series of radio spots illuminating the achievements of Black people. It was made in Chicago and paid for by Sears. It’s amazing.

Sit-In Songs w/ booklet. An instruction guide for sit-ins. See how the notes on the staff are stools? Come on!

Bernice Johnson Reagon is one of my inspirations. She was a member of The Freedom Singers who would perform at SNCC events in the height of the Civil Rights Era. The Freedom Singers set the template for how many singers I wanted in Black Monument. She later formed Sweet Honey In The Rock. This solo record uses the voice and her gospel training to address political issues. It’s a great record, very past, present, and future.

Day’s Plays Guest Post: Jesse Pires

  • Elvin Jones
  • Pentangle
  • McDonald & Giles
  • Funkadelic
  • Bitter Funeral Beer Band with Don Cherry
  • Bitchin Bajas

I have spent so much of my life seeking out and enjoying interesting and sometimes challenging music. I’ve found that I practically have a song for every mood and a new favorite record almost monthly. When entering this period of social isolation months ago I was never more grateful for a house full of records. No matter how bleak the outside world feels I can almost always find a record to bring a little bit of joy and plenty of healing. Some recent favorites:

I so dearly miss going to record stores and I hope some of my favorite spots weather this current storm. My last few visits to Philadelphia’s Long in the Tooth and Beautiful World Syndicate turned up a bunch of Elvin Jones records I hadn’t heard before. This still sealed copy of Time Capsule was the first of several discs from Jones’ 70s output that I picked up. Elvin is in fine form but the late Ryo Kawasaki along with Bunky Green are the true stars here. 

I’m never sure how to define “acid folk” but I would certainly offer this Pentangle record as a fine example of the genre. That double bass gets me every time. 

This lovely reissue of McDonald and Giles always brings me joy, a timeless classic if there ever was one.

Some of Don Cherry’s best work is still relatively hard to find on vinyl, though it’s been getting reissued here and there. I’m familiar with the Black Sweat label for some of the more ambient stuff they’ve put out recently so I jumped on this thinking it would be more in the vein of Cherry’s Brown Rice. Instead it’s some of the most ferocious music I’ve heard in a long time. A special record for special occasions.

I hadn’t really paid attention to Bitchin Bajas until they released a record with Will Oldham. I ended up catching them together when they toured which ultimately sold me on their retro synth-y stylings. This is another one that needs to be listened to with great attention.

— Jesse Pires, 6/4/20

“To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction. Ask the souls of the 10,000 black victims of COVID-19 who might still be living if they had been white. Ask the souls of those who were told the pandemic was the “great equalizer.” Ask the souls of those forced to choose between their low-wage jobs and their treasured life. Ask the souls of those blamed for their own death. Ask the souls of those who disproportionately lost their jobs and then their life as others disproportionately raged about losing their freedom to infect us all. Ask the souls of those ignored by the governors reopening their states.

The American nightmare has everything and nothing to do with the pandemic. Ask the souls of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. Step into their souls.”

— Ibrahim X. Kendi, The American Nightmare

My Day’s Plays

Yesterday was a scheduled record-reshelving day, meaning there were the twin joys of cleaning up and finding some forgotten treasures among the heavy-rotation titles. It brought some respite from our greater unrest, loss, tragedy, protest, and pandemic, and for those of us who might have some time to spend listening to music, I thought I’d make this post.

The Tony Allen set is a solid survey of his drumming. These sides are mostly background inspiration for me, keep me on track with their deep 4/4 grooves, regardless of the task at hand. I bought this one at Earwax in Williamsburg.

I forgot I had this Hypnotic Brass Ensemble record and have no idea when or where I picked it up. A fascinating group to which I was first introduced by curator and former-record-shopping-companion Jesse Pires via a CD-R many years ago. The CD-R is gone but I’m pleased to report that Mr. Pires is doing well and by all available accounts, so is the HBE, whose rollicking jazz-informed, marching band/funk band hybrid is, indeed, hypnotic.

I’m not sure how to categorize Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun. Ben LaMar Gay has a lot on his mind and the lexical command of soul music and collage to render it in music. This is beautiful, intentional stuff, by turns jazzy, noisy, groovy, harmonious, cacophonous.

I know almost nothing about Dudu Pakwana or Diamond Express except that I picked this up a few years ago in Philadelphia at Long in the Tooth and that it is a remarkably energetic set. Most Arista Freedom releases are worth a listen, so when I saw this one, I was intrigued for musical reasons and by the apparently rodent-inflicted destruction of the jacket’s upper left corner. When I inquired about a discount for the missing portion, the clerk replied, “That’s some definite chompage. We can discount for that.”

I’ve been thinking about Alphonse Mouzon since McCoy Tyner’s passing, revisiting Tyner’s quartet with him on drums. I’m not sure The Essence of Mystery is a milestone exactly, but it typifies certain aspirations of its era with cosmological vigor and ample talent. I bought this record while shopping at Reckless Records with musician Wayne Montana.

Another Philly find, I picked up guitarist George Freeman’s Birth Sign at Beautiful World Syndicate because it was a Delmark release and because Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre was on the session. Unlike McIntyre-led work, however, this record strikes a familiar note of funky, bluesy, guitar-led jazz. A very satisfying album.