A Blah RSD Black Friday Still Produces a Few Gems

for jazz fans anyway

A relatively lackluster set of RSD Black Friday offerings had me staying home. There were a few interesting items but nothing that had me running to the store, especially pre-dawn to wait on line. Your reaction may have differed and for all I know you are reading this standing on line at your favorite record store. These three were sent my way, so of course I listened.

Resonance HLP-9074

The Sun Ra Arkestra played Warsaw while I was there covering last October's audio show (octogenarian Marshall Allen remained at home). They stayed at the Radisson Sobieski Blue hotel where I was staying and Saturday night they hung out in the bar. I returned from dinner too exhausted to socialize so I returned to my room. Damn. But my Norwegian friend Lasse Gretland, who manufactures the My Little Fwend end of record tonearm lift was there when they arrived and had a great hang! Lucky him.

The Sun Ra Lights on A Satellite Live At the Left Bank is from a live July 23rd,1978 live concert at Baltimore's Famous Ballroom (that's the venue's name; Left Bank is the Jazz Society associated with it) not far from Sun Ra headquarters at the time, with a few added tracks from Robert Mugge's film "Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise" the title of which well sums up the goings on here. There's big band swing, synthesizer squiggling, tender balladry, the usual joyous honking and squealing and outer space musings beginning after the opening intro with "Tapestry From An Asteroid" featuring June Tyson's wonderful vocalizing, covers of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (a fun, foreboding Sun Ra piano solo), Todd Dameron's "Lady Bird", Miles Davis's "Half Nelson" and one of "Cocktails For Two" that Spike Jones and/or Frank Zappa would envy for its subtle mock, among others. The set-ending "'Round Midnight" cover is from the Mugge's film. There's blues, bop, free jazz, swing, outer-space synth musings, you name it and you can't name it. So many moods.

Late '70s Sun Ra makes for as good an introduction to the good humor, organized chaos, high energy and twisted anarchy of the group's music as any in the extensive discography. J.D. Considine's annotations is especially welcoming for Ra newbies to get the hang (if that's needed). Add Mugge's recollections of the concert he recorded and his dealings afterwards with Sun Ra himself and added notes by others plus wonderful photos and this one's easy to recommend. Even the live sound is very good—spacious and dynamic, lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans on the TML lathe from digital files transferred from tape. If you can find a copy of the limited to 2300 (according to the jacket, but 1500 according to the RSD website), it's worth having. A first class presentation as you'd expect from Resonance producer Zev Feldman.

Resonance HLP-9076

The late, super-talented jazz guitarist Emily Remler's career had an unfortunately too common and tragic career arc, beginning with a profile in a 1982 issue of People Magazine of all places, published shortly after her well-received Concord Records debut Firefly. That her greatest influencer was Wes Montgomery was immediately obvious and eventually she recorded the tribute album East to Wes (Concord CJ-356) following a series of well-received albums on that label. A friend gifted me Take Two (CJ-195), her second on Concord filled with covers of tunes by Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Monte Alexander and others, plus a few originals and it left an impression—and that's before I knew the history, which I soon discovered was her passing from an overdose less than a decade after her People profile.

A YouTube check revealed many live performances and the depth of her following. This triple set is the first on record of Remler playing live, though some if not all of these tracks, culled from KNPR Las Vegas radio broadcasts can be heard on YouTube. Though the broadcasts began locally, eventually they went nationwide on American Public Radio.

This release includes more than an hour of previously unreleased music from these broadcasts, recorded in 1984 and 1988 in the French Quarter Lounge. Yes, for the purposes of these recordings Remler was "a lounge act".

Between the deep annotation—at this point a Resonance given— and the performances, all of which are covers, this set is a great intro to the artist. The 1988 trio setting material really lets you hear Remler's power as she digs into tunes like Miles Davis's "All Blues".

The sound is "broadcast quality" because that's literally what these recordings are. The 1988 audio is superior though the earlier material is pretty good too. Definitely worth a trip to the record store or an online shopping venue especially for jazz guitar fans. There's a short interview with Remler conducted by the show's host Alan Grant (Abraham Grochowsky). He says to her "Emily. you are the first female instrumental artist we have presented here and this is our third year. We're happy to have you hear, really." She replies, "I couldn't help it. I was born that way." A few other funny quips are in the interview. She was funny too. And tough. But......

Here's Emily playing with Monty Alexander:

Reel to Real RTLP014

When this record on the Reel to Real label started I thought my turntable was accidentally playing at 45 but it wasn't. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver was just playing the opener, bassist Clint Houston's "Black Vibrations" at 45 or maybe 78. His group Music Inc featuring John Hicks on piano and Cliff Barbaro on drums plus aforementioned Houston on bass, was playing jazz with rock intensity and propulsion in a tiny hundred seat venue located in a basement below a grocery store in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

It's not all jet propulsion on this set recorded in 1973 nor is the music in any way "free jazz". It's more hardest bop at breakneck speeds. Tolliver pulls back somewhat on side C's "Truth", a more introspective piece but then on "Repitition", the rubber squeals as the quartet goes at it full speed ahead.

Because the grooves (of the music not the record) are generally familiar, even first play you'll be swept up by the energy and excitement and forced happily to go with the flow. One of the musically more exciting RSD releases ever as far as I'm concerned. Tolliver at his peak (the annotation says) was an intense speed merchant, playing precision licks. An amazing performance by all.

The recording, though mono, is more than decent. It's timbrally well-balanced and will not get in the way of your enjoyment musically or sonically and if the piano doesn't sound grand, it shouldn't. It's a well-tuned upright.