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| 1. Only Time Will Tell |
| 2. Satin Doll |
| 3. Deep Purple |
| 4. Bugle Blues |
| 5. Foggy Day In London Town |
| 6. April In Paris |
| 7. Lover Man |
| 8. Yesterdays |
But you know what? It's a trade off. What he lost in technique, he more than made up in depth of feeling.
Listen. This disc has a vibe unlike any other jazz outing in the 100-year history of this music. A kind of off-kilter, profound meloncholic joy: that's what I hear here. Yes, it lacks precision and sheer pyrotechnics, but oh, the ravishing emotional content! Amazingly, John Ore on bass and Andrew Cyrille completely tune into the sensibility and deliver amazingly sensitive and beautiful playing.
Ra displays a spare, Monkish pianism that speaks volumes. Pick any tune at random--my favorite Ellington song, "Satin Doll," will do. This performance strikes me as one of the finest, most revelatory I've ever heard. Or again, take "Deep Purple." Not only does it seem to evoke a simpler, more elegant bygone era, there's an entirely remarkable thing happening here--I don't know how to describe it other than a frisky sadness--that totally nails this piece of music.
Billy Bang's playing also deserves some comment. First off, I don't usually like jazz violin. Most practitioners seem to opt for the vitruoso route--understandable with an instrument featuring a somewhat annoying timbre: if you play it fast enough, perhaps no one will notice. Bang just lets its inherent timbral strangeness hang out there, opting instead for hidden tonal richness that he patiently reveals by a combination of quirky double-stopping, low-register sawing, and daring intervalic swoops.
All in all, I'm entirely taken by this odd session, hearing as I do unusual emotional depth and swing in its glorious sonorities. Perhaps you will hear something similar . . .
But you know what? It's a trade off. What he lost in technique, he more than made up in depth of feeling.
Listen. This disc has a vibe unlike any other jazz outing in the 100-year history of this music. A kind of off-kilter, profound meloncholic joy: that's what I hear here. Yes, it lacks precision and sheer pyrotechnics, but oh, the ravishing emotional content! Amazingly, John Ore on bass and Andrew Cyrille completely tune into the sensibility and deliver amazingly sensitive and beautiful playing.
Ra displays a spare, Monkish pianism that speaks volumes. Pick any tune at random--my favorite Ellington song, "Satin Doll," will do. This performance strikes me as one of the finest, most revelatory I've ever heard. Or again, take "Deep Purple." Not only does it seem to evoke a simpler, more elegant bygone era, there's an entirely remarkable thing happening here--I don't know how to describe it other than a frisky sadness--that totally nails this piece of music.
Billy Bang's playing also deserves some comment. First off, I don't usually like jazz violin. Most practitioners seem to opt for the vitruoso route--understandable with an instrument featuring a somewhat annoying timbre: if you play it fast enough, perhaps no one will notice. Bang just lets its inherent timbral strangeness hang out there, opting instead for hidden tonal richness that he patiently reveals by a combination of quirky double-stopping, low-register sawing, and daring intervalic swoops.
All in all, I'm entirely taken by this odd session, hearing as I do unusual emotional depth and swing in its glorious sonorities. Perhaps you will hear something similar . . .
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