Review page of jazz, jazzfusion with "black spirit"

Alantara Rec. Milton Marsh : We are not separate from spirit, we are in it (US,rec.1973-1999,iss. 2003)**°

Milton Marsh made some releases and contributions before but this one is the first private release on his own label. Milton backend before Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, and other vocalists, arranged various choreographies,... He also made it to Professor of Music and Director of Afro-American Music Studies.

Many tracks, like “Fall from Grace” have more or less fundament of leading strings and piano, with a jazz band. One other inspiration is the “black spirit” in jazz music, something which was explored before by early Pharoah Sanders, Brother Ah, Sun Ra, Don Cherry and others. If ever it succeeds in its perception, it touches something magical. In “Everlasting beauty”, with narration (by Henrietta Robinson) it succeeds to show this spirit like these other names did before. “Alankara” is smooth jazz (with Richard Johnson on piano). This mood continues in the next or more or less in most tracks. Although the recording sessions span 30 years they all hang perfectly together. “Psychic Impulses” is strings and piano only. I don’t know what caused this, but it has some “early century music” feeling, in a pure form of inspiration and a sound of it. It is meant as a transcending-the-mind piece, so I guess with this effect it is successful, even when it’s only 1 minute out of an originally 10 minute piece. On “Sabotage, 3 preparations” Milton Marsh sax leads more, with Cedric Lawson on solo piano. Like the title says this is a jazz piece in three parts, with different inspirations. With the last piece, “Metamorphosis” the brass section concludes the score. A fine, and very highly enjoyable release.

Info : http://www.mmarsh.org/ & http://www.mmarsh.org/oldsite/ & http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/miltonmarsh

Soundfile : “Natural order” ; small soundfragments : http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6114252

Older release : http://www.mmarsh.org/oldsite/Monism%20album%20detail.htm

Onde Spirale

Daniel Bouliane : Tagayet (CAN,2006)***

Daniel Bouliane is a composer specialised in television series music and film scores. This release offers the best conditions for such a presentation, with a home cinema feeling, presenting a dynamic sound consisting of some inspired elements reminding us of African deserts (the singing and some sand dune rhythm changes), suitable to dream away to in images. “Tagayet” also is a movie score. The word means "in the middle of nowhere", and it is a movie about a small recently built village around a new well drilled in the middle of the Sahara desert in Niger. Besides the urbanised African inspirations, there are also some nice layers of electric guitars.

Usually I do not review too easily items that tend to keep a distance from the subjects they express (like new age, most world beat exploitations, and various filmic scores), but I think Daniel Bouliane is so much involved, that even when taking a distance to the real African origins, direct contacts and any participations from source, he transforms this expression from a distance, so that it does not become like a musically colonized exploitation, but is entirely his own band’s story, with some direct references that should open up the dialogues out of the context of visualization expressions. Compared to other items of the genre, it has dynamic and colourful elements that inhabit some “progressive” move forward, because of a certain degree of musical empathy involved. Other instruments used are kalimba,.. The wordless vocal parts are African-like, in chorus, or with male or female vocals that are repeated in some variations. There are also a few more dynamic-percussive led ambient textured tracks, again with some variation.

P.S. 10% off all sales and 100% of royalties from track 10 will go to help build another well in Tagayet.

Homepage (with audio): http://www.ondespirale.com/produits.html

French review : http://www.quebecpop.com/b.htm#Bouliane_Daniel