Wadada Leo Smith / Sabu Toyozumi: Burning Meditation [Vinyl 1LP, limited edition 300]

Avant Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde
premiera polska: 2019-01-31
opakowanie: Singlefoldowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com - ocena: * * * * 1/2:
Oficyna NoBusiness po raz kolejny rozpieszcza fanów kreatywnego jazzu. Otrzymujemy oto na dwóch nośnikach (CD i Vinyl) rejestrację koncertową dokonaną 22 marca 1994 roku w japońskim C.S. Akarenga w Yamaguchi.
To była część trasy koncertowej, jaką Wadada Leo Smith - gigant kreatywnego jazzu odbył w marcu i kwietniu 1994 roku po Japonii. W Yamaguchi Smith zagrał z japońskim perkusistą Sabi Toyozumi. Nie było to pierwsze ich spotkanie, mają za sobą wiele wspólnych występów. Jeden z nich (z 13 kwietnia 1992 roku) został utrwalony na płycie za sprawą oficyny Scissors. Płyta nosi tytuł "Cosmos Has Spirit". Panowie znają się jednak dużo dłużej, Toyozumi w poszukiwaniu jazzowego Graala dotarł w 1971 roku do Chicago, gdzie odbył roczny staż w AACM. Tam spotkali się po raz pierwszy.
Taki duet zwiastuje wysokotemperaturowe granie!

Na "Burning Meditation" znajdujemy sześć swobodnie improwizowanych utworów, w których przewodnikiem jest amerykański trębacz, choć rola Sabu Toyozumiego jest niepoślednia, sposób, w jaki atakuje dźwięk, swoboda w konstruowaniu polirytmicznych struktur, jego bezwzględność w traktowaniu swoich instrumentów przywodzi na myśl najwspanialszych japońskich drummerów. Wadada Leo Smith gra tutaj na trąbce, koto, bambusowym flecie i perkusji, Sabu Toyozumi na perkusji i perkusjonaliach.

Już od pierwszego utworu "Creative Music-1- Red Mountain Garden, Wild Irises and Glacier Lines" panowie osiągają wysoki stopień przejrzystości muzycznej narracji. Jest to muzyka o wysokim stopniu intensywności, jednak nawet w momentach jej kulminacji nigdy nie jest apodyktyczna. Obaj muzycy działając z silnym poczuciem twórczej świadomości, wyrośli na płodnym gruncie AACM-u stworzyli tego wieczoru hipnotyczny seans, pełen zwięzłości w solowych partiach i celności w wymianie muzycznych ciosów.

Płyta została pieczołowicie zremasterowana, dźwięk jest przejrzysty i ciepły. Liner notes w języku angielskim i japońskim, jak też archiwalne fotografie są znakomitym uzupełnieniem tego kolekcjonerskiego rarytasu.
autor: maD
Copyright © 1996-2019 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved

jazzandblues.blogspot.com:
This is a sublimely beautiful duet recording featuring Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, koto, bamboo flute, voice and percussion and Sabu Toyozumi and drums and percussion. It was recorded in Yamaguchi, Japan in March of 1994 and saw a limited release at the time before being picked up by No Business for a wider release in 2018. It does not take long for the music to elevate to a high degree of clarity with Smith's excellent trumpet playing meeting Toyozumi's stellar drumming on the opening selection, "Creative Music -1- Red Mountain Garden, Wild Irises and Glacier Lines" a very lengthy selection, like the following performance, "Burning Meditation – Uprising" selections which are are played with a strong sense of creative consciousness, even when the music is at its most intense it is never shrill or overbearing. The music was composed spontaneously, but proceeds with a sense of grace that is ever present in their music. Smith is mostly known for his trumpet work and justly so, but it is fascinating to hear different sides of his musical personality come into play on tracks like "Don Cherry, A Silver Flute Song" where he plays large and small bamboo flutes. Like Smith, Cherry was originally known for his trumpet playing with Ornette Coleman, but toured the world, adding flutes and many other instruments to his repertoire. Smith plays quite beautifully, improvising with a light, dancing sense of fluid elegance that carries into the next track, "There are Human Rights Blues," where he sings, chants, and speaks with a shy yet authoritative voice allowing pauses for breath and to allow Toyozumi's evocative percussion work to weave its way into the performance making for a powerful and memorable duet that leads into their final track, "Stars, Lightning Bugs and Chrysanthemum Flowers." This is an excellent album, and it is wonderful to have it more widely available, with new liner notes in English and Japanese from the original record producer and some nice period pictures included. The remastering is excellent, this is a delicate album, one you want yo get close to, and the transparent warmth of the sound makes that possible.
by Tim Niland

dustedmagazine.com:
Tallying practice, rehearsals, concerts and studio sessions, how much trumpet has Wadada Leo Smith played to date? It’s an unanswerable and ultimately meaningless query, but even as an incalculable sum it remains reflected in the stature Smith holds on the instrument. Add to that his acumen as an improviser and composer and the enduring, pervasive interest in his work becomes immediately understandable. Burning Meditation presents a single aural snapshot of Smith in the company of Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi. Trumpet plays a sizeable part in the captured conversation, but as was Smith’s wont at the time flutes, koto and kalimba also factor into his instrumental arsenal.

The origins of the partnership date to earlier. Toyozumi traveled to Chicago in 1971for a year-long apprenticeship with the AACM, but a fortuitous crossing of paths with Smith wouldn’t occur until later. Enter Chap Chap label owner Takeo Suetomi who organized first a duo concert for the pair and a year later a Japanese tour for Smith from which the music on this disc culls. Smith and Toyozumi touch on various of the latter’s motifs as launching and pivot points, but their placement and development remain jointly improvised with both men relying on aural rather than visual cues to shape and steer the dialogue. Toyozumi positions himself as a forceful and fecund percussionist from the outset, stamping virile and vibrant tattoos and polyrhythms, which Smith embraces and answers with clarion runs.

The music reflects the natural and organic elements evocative in Smith’s titles. “Burning Meditation – Uprising” is ripe with martial motion and multidirectional drama with Smith firing cleanly arcing salvos and his colleague sustaining a swirling centripetal beat peppered with syncopated accents and even an eddying funk aside. “Don Cherry, A Silver Flute Song” turns attention to Smith’s sculptures on the titular instrument and what sounds like shenai, losing some incisiveness and celerity in the exchange, but Toyozumi holds the center with his steadying sticks. The set caps with “Stars, Lightning Bugs and Chrysanthemum Flowers,” a comparatively succinct dialogue that evokes AACM “little instruments” through Smith’s piquant harmonica and kalimba sandwiching a muted brass interlude that cedes Smith’s main axe the upper hand.
by Derek Taylor

muzycy:
Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet, koto, bamboo-flute, voice and percussion
Sabu Toyozumi - drums

utwory:
A1. Creative Music-1- Red Mountain Garden, Wild Irises and Glacier Lines 15:53
A2. Don Cherry, A Silver Flute Song 7:51
B1. Burning Meditation – Uprising 14:30
B2. There are Human Rights Blues 8:27

wydano: 2018-12
nagrano: Recorded live on the 22nd March 1994 at C.S Akarenga in Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi, Japan by Takeo Suetomi

more info: www.nobusinessrecords.com