By Popular Demand!

THE HISTORY OF the aRt of commanòrnc attention: 'g CORDING a anò all atone By Robert Angus òuet

By NAT HENTOFF

Although I approach each new rec- kind of cocky, strutting "half- valve" The entire six -part series from ording with anticipation of pleasure - sound and thrust that characterized Modern Recording Magazine. being a chronic though much disap- Rex Stewart's work with Duke El- pointed optimist -the prospect of a lington. (In fact, there are variations Reprinted as a specially bound trumpet -percussion duet gave me here on Rex's "Boy Meets Horn. ") In book for only ... $3.50 pause. The likelihood was either much addition, Bowie explores, often with Send for this edition today! "experimental" flailing about by both wit, a diversity of other sound poten- participants or a series of virtuosic tials on the trumpet. And it's all done Send check or money order to: exercises. Since the dialogue, however, with such strong, implicit swinging Modern Recording Magazine was between Lester Bowie and Phillip time that even though the pulse is often 14 Vanderventer Ave. Wilson, I should have known better. not explicitly stated, it is there. Add Their Duet on IAI (Improvising Artists Bowie's sure, graceful sense of Port Washington, N.Y. 11050 Inc.) is continually absorbing, surpris- dynamics and his ease with vast space ing, stimulating, and above all, abun- (he doesn't feel he has to fill it all up), dantly pleasurable to the senses. and you have an uncommon creator. Bowie, who first became widely Also on IAI is Ran Blake's Solo Piano. known among jazz explorers as an or- Blake, on the faculty of the New Eng- ganizer of the Association for the Ad- land Conservatory of Music, has long vancement of Creative Music in been a searching, devoted ecumenicist. Chicago -and later of the Art Ensemble His expertise ranges from black gospel 1 of Chicago -not only has total com- music to Thelonious Monk to sectors of mand of the horn but also has a most contemporary classical music. But in l2 singular, multi -colored imagination at his playing, Blake is truly an his disposal. original- reflective, continually sur- Wilson, who first met Bowie when prising in his turns of imagination but they were in high school in St. Louis, is never obtrusively "different." There is a also an alumnus of AACM and has deep coherence to his improvising and worked with an instructive diversity of at its core is a romantic but disciplined musicians, ranging from Paul But- sense of wonder at what sound can do to terfield to the latter -day Anthony Brax- the emotions. ton. In this duet ambience, Wilson does Pianist Paul Bley, co- founder of Im- not so much keep time as create an provising Artists Inc., produced both extraordinarily flexible soundscape of these albums, and the sound is what one intersecting rhythms -and silences - would expect of this demanding which allows Bowie enormous freedom musician -clear, without a trace of while also providing him with just electronic gimmickry, and full of im- enough outer limits of time -form so that mediacy, as befits a company of im- he doesn't stray into the quicksand of provisers. anarchy. And Wilson, like Bowie, is an inventive colorist-one of the most sub- LESTER BOWIE /PHILLIP WILSON: tle blenders of textures in post- modern Duet. [Paul Bley, producer; David Baker, The Only Magazine For jazz percussion. engineer.] IAI Records 37.38.54. Active And Creative Music & Audio In the forefront of much of the pro- Enthusiasts ceedings, however, is Lester Bowie. RAN BLAKE: Solo Piano /Breakthru. Capable of a burnished, jazz -classic, [Paul Bley, producer; David Baker, en- singing tone, he is also expert at the gineer.] IAI Records 37.38.42.

80 MODERN RECORDING