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Imagine two Eric Dolphys, one on flute and the other on the keynote alto, choiring and corresponding atop a swinging rhythm section. That is but one aspect of the greatness of this 1962 recording, newly reissued and deserving of attention as a jazz masterpiece.
Prince Lasha (flute) and Sonny Simmons (alto) had truly imbibed the melodicism of Ornette Coleman (and, beyond his, that of Albert Ayler), and the vocal hornplay of Dolphy. But they had much more than just those two parts-they appreciated jazz history (on "Ghost of the Past" it is as if they designed their own "Jitterbug Waltz"), they used a diversity of musical structures (the CD opener, "Congo Call," is their own "Caravan," and "Juanita" has that latin tinge that Fats Waller invoked), and they liked a steady, indeed swinging, undercurrent, the rhythm section almost-always straight-ahead under their wildly imaginative play.
These were two inestimable improvisers, and lovers of catchy melodies that they could take way, way out but then recapitulate endearingly. Theirs was a free jazz with easily discernible, almost-sing-along structures, one of the most beautiful and sustaining monuments to an era of experimentation.
— Jules Epstein, November 2001
The Cry!
Release Date:
2 October 2001
On his new solo guitar album,
Saints,
Marc Ribot
breaks away from his current ensemble, Cubanos Positizos, and his sideman roles, and gets back to his jazz and avant-garde roots. Ribot performs a mixture of jazz standards, blues, and traditional songs, plus avant-garde compositions from Albert Ayler and John Zorn, which he twists and bends to his own vision.
Some of the tunes are played on a cheap acoustic guitar that gives the music a timeless, almost otherworldly, sound. The treatments range from his surprisingly meditative, oriental-sounding version of Ayler's title piece (which opens and closes the album), to the extended techniques on Zorn's "Book of Heads #13," the noise of "Empty," and a slow, beautiful version of the Beatle's "Happiness is a Warm Gun."
Ribot's bluesy version of the standard "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" has a recognizable melody, but it's stretched out, with altered rhythms. He performs similar transformations on the standard "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)" and the traditional "St. James Infirmary."
- Alan Lankin, December 2001
Saints
1. Saints (Ayler) / 2. Book of Heads #13 (Zorn) / 3. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You (Bassman/Washington) / 4. Empty (Francois Lardeau/Ribot) / 5. Happiness is a Warm Gun (Lennon/McCartney) / 6. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) (Daughtery/Neiberg/Reynolds) / 7. Go Down Moses (traditional) / 8. St. James Infirmary (traditional) / 9. Somewhere (Bernstein/Sondheim) 10. Holy Holy Holy (traditional) / 11. It Could Have Been Very Very Beautiful (Lurie) / 12. Witches and Devils (Ayler)
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last update 17 December 2001