HK's 10 Best Recordings of 1994 East Bay Express When I look at my computer list of all of the new recordings that I enjoyed this year, I notice that there about half as many again as there were last year. I can't really guess why. Most recordings that I enjoy are pretty difficult to find. Here is a list of alternates available in the better Berkeley shops that might alert music fans to unusual things that they may have missed in the shops. Any of the CDs listed below could substitute for any of the ten best that I've selected. I just happened to feel like writing about about the particular ten that I selected today. On another day I would probably have selected a different ten from this list: - MASAYUKI TAKAYANAGI: Call in Question (PSF)
- IGOR STRAVINSKY-POKROVSKY ENSEMBLE: Les Noches (Elektra Nonesuch)
- PAT MARTINO: Interchange (Muse)
- DEREK BAILEY & JAIME MUIR: Dart Drug (Incus)
- REV. UTAH SMITH & REV. LONNIE FARRIS: Slide Guitar Gospel (Document)
- O-TYPE: Mommy (Electromotive)
- LIGETI-ENSEMBLE MODERN: Concertos (Sony)
- ARRAY MUSIC: New World (Artifact)
- ROVA SAX QUARTET-TERRY RILEY: Chanting the Light of Foresight (New Albion)
- JOHN OSWALD-THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Grayfolded (Swell/Artifact)
- THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Dick's Picks Volume One (GDM)
- MICHAEL GULEZIAN: The Dare of an Angel (Timberline)
- VARIOUS ARTISTS: Ifi Palasa - Tongan Brass (Pan)
- JIM HALL: Dedications & Inspirations (Telarc Jazz)
- STEVE TIBBETTS: The Fall of Us All (ECM)
- DANNY GATTON & JOEY DEFRANCESCO: Relentless (Big Mo)
- SONNY SHARROCK: Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Cartoon Network)
- BILL FRISELL: This Land (Electra Nonesuch)
- THE HELLECASTERS: Escape from Hollywood (Rio)
- THE FREE SPIRITS FEATURING JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: Tokyo Live (Verve)
- MARK NAUSEEF & MIROSLAV TADIC: The Snake Music (CMP)
- OTIS RUSH: Ain't Enough Comin' In (Mercury)
PETE ANDERSON: Working Class (Little Dog) Dwight Yoakum's producer and guitarist has quietly released his first solo recording on a small label. It's an odd and very personal exposition of a unique hobo-beatnik-country-blues esthetic. The unusual songs, unusual guitar solos and mostly played live production make this recording a very satisfying and unexpected listening pleasure. It's nice to see a relatively big money country artist making exactly the kind of record that he wants to make.
DONNY CHILLINGWORTH: Sonny Solo (Dancing Cat) This is my favorite recording of Hawaiian slack key solo guitar. A contemporary of Gabby Pahinui, Sonny had a delicate guitar touch and sentimental style of singing. My hat is off to George Winston's Dancing Cat label for having recorded all of Hawaii's living guitar masters for what is destined to be a series of dozens of forthcoming releases. Their album by Gabby's son Cyril, 6 & 12 String Slack Key , is also excellent. The music is recorded as it should be with plenty of time taken to get things right and to make things sound as good as if you had a private audience at home with the masters. Quite the opposite approach to many of the shoddily produced slack key records that have appeared in Hawaii over the last few decades. It's time that this music was recognized alongside the blues as one of the greatest cultural heritages of our country.
BILL DIXON: Vade Mecum (Soul Note) Dixon was a jazz trumpeter best known for his work with Cecil Taylor in the 60's. Since then he has retreated from visibility on the American scene to teach at a college in Vermont and has only appeared in European festivals and recorded for small European labels. This is the most adventurous and visionary jazz recording of the year. It extends many traditions into new territories. Accompanied by British master drummer Tony Oxley and two bassists: Barry Guy and William Parker, Dixon's horn leads the sideman in their own improvisations through inspiring new musical soundscapes and spaces.
CHARLES IVES: Universe Symphony (Centaur) Post-Stockhausen Ives? Yes. Charles Ives worked on sketches for his unrealized Universe Symphony from 1911-1951. Larry Austin has completed it for this recording by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra. Evidently Ives had considered ideas like multiple, complexly related tempos for different instrumentalists in an ensemble that could only recently be realized via computer synchronized headphone click tracks. I suppose that this is really Austin's dream based upon much fragmentary material by Ives (Austin says that it is 100% Ives composition) - but it certainly is a compelling musical adventure story.
ALI AKBAR KHAN & NIKHIL BANERJEE: Rags Manj Khammaj & Misra Mand (AMMP) The Connoisseur Society label's out-of-print 1960's recordings of Ali Akbar Khan are considered by many cognoscenti to be the finest North Indian Classical recordings ever made. The jugalbandi or duet recording of Kansahib's sarod and the lat Nikhil Banerjee's sitar has always been one of my most favoriterecordings. I have worn out 3 or 4 LPs of it over the last 25 years. It is one of the best recordings to introduce a new listener to Indian music. One of the 100 greatest recordings of all time and it's fortunate that it has finally been reissued on CD. Ali Akbar Khan's recording of rag Marwa, reissued at the same time by AMMP (volume 3 of the signature series) is another stunning reissue. Kansahib once told me that it was the only recording that he would be proud to play for his father. As a public service, I'd like to mention that the absolute best and most economical place to purchase this and virtually all other current releases of Indian music is at Shrimati's Ltd., 2011 University Ave., Berkeley, telephone: 548-6220. Some of the other best Indian classical releases of the year were: INDRANIL BHATTAACHARYA & AASHISH KHAN: Homage to Our Guru (Chhanda Dhara), ALI AKBAR KHAN: Morning Visions (AMMP), USTAD AMJAD ALI KHAN: Rag Bageshwari (TIPS), VILAYAT KHAN: Sitar Vadan (Venus), SHIVKUMAR SHARMA: An Exquisite Raag in a Live Concert (Chhanda Dhara), KAMALESH MAITRA: Tabla Tarang - Ragas on Drums (Wergo Welt Musik), and MOHAN BHATT & TARUN BHATTACHARYA: Rag Aheer Bhairav (Vanilla).
MIYA MASAOKA: Compositions Improvisations (Asian Improv) This CD's appearance in my mailbox was one of the biggest surprises of the year. A previously unknown local improviser operating at virtuoso levels of technique, imagination and expression. Masaoka plays the Japanese koto and she creates gorgeous compositions and improvisations that extend the Japanese tradition through the American experience. There is a wonderful version of Duke Ellington's Come Sunday as well as a piece based upon a theme by Cecil Taylor here in addition to Masaoka's originals. Truly original and exciting.
THE MERMEN: Food for Other Fish (Kelptone) This instrumental surf band is my favorite local group. They effortless demonstrate the almost lost art of creating instrumental rock that is powerfully expressive and able to move an audience's hearts as well as their feet. Go see them live and buy their recordings. Guitarist Jim Thomas is a great composer and his monstrous guitar sound is the BIGGEST that I have ever heard, bar none.
TISZIJI MUNOZ: Hearing Voices (Anami) John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Greenwich: the four most prominent guitarist disciples of John Coltrane's musical legacy. Munoz is a lesser-known contemporary of these gentlemen who is equally adept, creative and expressive. His guitar seems to speak with the voice of another world. Tisziji, who has worked with Pharoah Sanders and McCoy Tyner, is a unique and visionary guitarist who deserves much more recognition that his extremely obscure previous releases have garnered for him. The 1980's recordings on this CD are available by mail from Anami Music, PO Box 712, Schenectady, NY 12301. They also have an excellent live cassette made this year which I hope to see on CD very soon.
GARY PEACOCK & BILL FRISELL: Happens (Postcards) Lots of recording featuring one of my favorite guitarists Bill Frisell this year. This obscure one is my favorite. Perhaps because of the personalities of both of the players and the style of engineering this is the warmest exposition of Frisell's work that I have heard. In the absence of a drumkit's saturation of the sonic spectrum, Peacock has a particularly woody, warm and detailed sound on the bass and to match it Frisell rises to create some fine filigrees of guitarwork. I also hear more of the exploratory edge that Frisell pursues in concert than I hear on most of his studio recordings.
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Eternal Voices - Traditional Vietnamese Music in the United States (New Alliance) Friends of mine and I often go to tiny concerts of different Asian minorities that take place unannounced in the major media. We find some of the best musical experiences each year at these shows. Someone once asked a world-traveling ethnomusicologist friend of mine what the weirdest place in the world was. He said San Jose, California. I could agree having been to many truly exotic concerts among its different Asian communities. This CD provides a great example of some of the invisible music that is alive in America today. Beautiful expressive music that is quite appealing to the more exotic western ears. Vietnamese music often sounds to Americans like the blues of Asia. I suggest checking it out! Three other excellent releases of Vietnamese music this year were: The Music of Vietnam Vols. 1.1 & 1.2 (Celestial Harmonies) and NGUYEN THI HAI PHUONG: Vietnam: The Danh Tranh (Ocora).
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