This LP is one of the latest good news arrived from Cuba: this All Stars orchestra goes back to the good old mambo, to give a version faithful to the spirit of the origins, without being just a poor copy. At the beginning of this adventure, the producer Jacob Plasse returns on the genesis of this combo, somewhere between New York and Havana.

How was this orchestra born? Did you discover it or just set it up? tell me the beginning of the story…
Mike Eckroth, whom I had worked with on previous projects and is the arranger on this album, played me some of the less well-known music of Beny More and Perez Prado, and I became obsessed with it; I realized that this music was the apotheosis of so much music I loved – son cubano, Arsenio Rodriguez, Duke Ellington and guaguanco. Pepito, a good friend of mine who would sometimes play in my son group Los Hacheros, and I began taking some of his tunes and figuring out how they might be reconfigured for this instrumentation. At the same time I began writing tunes with Mike Eckroth, which we would then send to Pepito to write the lyrics. The process felt very organic and like we were discovering something new together.
We tried to record a couple songs in New York, and though these recordings were encouraging, they didn’t quite have the magic that I thought the music deserved. Pepito was going to Cuba to play with Pupi y los Que Son Son, and he thought we could record the tunes there, which to me felt like a pipe dream that would never happen due to the logistical difficulties. But slowly we began ironing out the details with the help of Pepito’s childhood friend, Cesar Lopez (saxophonist from Irakere), who did an incredible job corralling the crème de la crème of Havana’s musicians to be a part of the recording.

You did not put any violins, cello, in that band… So any reference to the typical charanga. To focus on wood and sax, what does that change in terms of sound, energy ?
We were intent on focusing on the sound of brass and saxophones with percussion- the sound of mambo. You will notice that even the piano and tres parts are played pretty sparingly so that the focus can be on the brass, sax and percussion. There is an elemental energy when you combine these sounds, it has an energy and sound like nothing else – it somehow reminds me of early punk rock.

At the center of the orchestra there is José Pepito Gomez. Can we talk about a leader?
Pepito has always been one of my favorite singers. He is able to combine the sound of many styles and eras of latin music into a singular voice, and it was an honor for me to have him as part of the project. I would be hard-pressed to tell you who the leader of the band is; it’s the result of Pepito’s, Mike’s and my combined efforts in bringing this project to fruition, and the amazing artistry of the Cuban and New York musicians who brought the music to life.

How was built – written – the songbook?
All the songs are original, but we tried to keep a stylistic cohesion to the album so that it really brings you into a sonic world of its own.

La Cosa

 

Who decided on the choice of guests, including Cesar Pupy Pedroso?
Me and Pepito discussed it a lot, and while it’s always nice to have stars perform on an album, it was more important that whomever the guest was really understood the style and intent of the music. And we were so lucky to get Pupy to perform, because besides being a legend and incredible innovator of Cuban music, he understands the lineage and history of the music as well as anyone; his father and uncle played with all the greats as well.

In the short presentation for the press, you talk about the influence of the 50s, Perez Prado, Cachao or Arsenio Rodriguez …. Yet the album makes me think especially of Beny Moré … An influence so essential for Akokan?
For sure! This album was inspired by all the artists you mentioned, but Beny More and his band is for me the pinnacle of Cuban music; and it’s hard for me to describe his music, except to say he did what Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong or James Brown did for American music – through his vision and musicality Beny combined the folkloric and popular musics of his day into something wholly new.

The mambo is of course very present, but we also hear other styles, as salsa dura. Why this thematic choice, a kind of old school taste. A reply to the current timba and salsa played those days?
It was important for us to not be trapped into replicating the past, but figuring out ways to express our lives within this particular sonic world; we love the sound of mambo, but it has to be true to the world we live in now. But despite the technological advancements involved in recording, I feel that older records sound better, they are more alive and have greater sonic personalities. Most modern salsa and timba recording sound rigid and stale to me, so I tried hard to capture the magic I heard in the music of older albums by researching how they were recorded, mixed and mastered.

What are the songs talking about? Cuban news or love story? From mysticism to music or more down-to-earth realities?
The lyrics are very much true to Pepito’s personality, as he wrote them all. And they run the gamut – love, fame, betrayal, santeria rituals, and double entendres galore.

Can we talk about a revival group? And how is this record (band, repertory) still souring «modern»?
While I agree that there is a definite affinity with older albums, I don’t think this is a revival group in any way: we play entirely original repertoire, and we have many modern musical elements. You can hear this in the way Pepito soneos have the cadence of salsa dura, the way in which La Corbata Barata ends in a McCoy Tyner-esque jazz sound or in the modern wide open harmonies of the intros to songs like No Te Hagas. There is a vintage sound to the production, but that is because I love the way old recordings sound and feel that is the best way to express our musical ideas.

You have chosen to record in the studio of Egrem (Areito), and not in Miramar for example. The warm mood of the wood? The big main room on the first floor? The vibrations of the old sessions done here? Is this choice an essential factor in the success of the album?
I think the choice of Egrem is essential to the recording, for the reasons you mentioned. A huge room, the wood, the ghosts of the legends of Cuban music.

Mambo Rapidito

 

How long have you been recording?
I’ve been learning about recording for about a decade, and with every album I realize how much I still have to learn. With the recording of this album, I began to think more about how so many different contexts were intersecting and reacting in the music. When you listen to ‘Dolor Carabali’ by Beny More for example, on one level you are listening simply to a beautiful piece of music. And as a musician you can consider how the harmonic, rhythmic and melodic choices guide the listener through the singers story. As a recordist, you begin to hear what choices were made in placing the musicians in the room, and how reverb and other effects were used to create the haunting nature of the recording. And as someone interested in history, you can hear how cubans, and particularly afro-cubans, express their lives through their music, through their interpretation of rhythm and harmony and interaction with the other musicians. And this is what I find so fascinating about the music, that through studying all these different lenses you can glimpse into the interior lives of a people in a time and place that no longer exists.

Why not publish this record on your label, Chulo Records?
That was my initial idea, but then I presented the album to Daptone. As we talked, it became clear they had a strong vision for how to present the album, and it seemed like a natural fit. They were so wonderfully supportive as soon as they heard it. What is so great about Daptone is that they really care about good music, and are very thoughtful and caring about how they present the music to an audience.

(c) Alexis Maryon

Saxophonist, composer, actor, and tap dancer, Idris Ackamoor is the founder of The Pyramids in 1972, resurrected ten years ago. Since 2010 the band has toured throughout the world with original members and a line-up of new players. As for this brand new album, ‘An Angel Fell’ produced by Malcolm Catto and recorded during an intense week at Quatermass studios in London. Time to go back to the complete story of this under known master.

In Land of Ra we can see a tribute to Sun Ra. Did you know him? What was his influence?
The original name of the composition was “Land of Jah” as a tribute to the beautiful Island of Jamaica. I changed it when I updated the composition adding lyrics and a new reference to “Land of Ra” referencing a double meaning to the Egyptian Ra, god of the sun, as well as a tribute to Sun Ra. I did not know Sun Ra personally but I always was inspired by his music and theatrical stage performances. He is still one of my favorite composers and performers. Equally, I have always loved Marshall Allen’s and John Gilmore’s playing.

Cecil Taylor was also a mentor, who was looking for other ways. What was your relationship with him?
Cecil was one of my major influences musically and philosophically and one of my greatest teachers along with my principle mentor, historic clarinet and reed master Andrew Cyrille (who had played with Jelly Roll Morton and Freddie Keppard in the 1920s), and the late alto saxophonist Charles Tyler. I was a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and studying in the music department. One of my music professors, named John Ronsheim, wrote a large grant to bring Cecil Taylor and his group including the late Jimmy Lyons on alto, Andrew Cyrille on drums, dancer Ken Miller, percussionist Cliff Sykes, and poet James Thompson. Professor Ronsheim decided to give me a work-study job to help prepare the way for Cecil and his ensemble to come to Antioch. During Cecil’s stay he taught classes and conducted the Cecil Taylor Black Music Ensemble. I took Cecil’s classes and was a member of the Ensemble playing alto saxophone in the alto section, along with Jemeel Moondoc and Bobby Zankle, both of who are major innovators in the jazz world now.

Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor have been classified in free jazz, yet their music is often different in their intentions. What do you think of this word, free jazz? A paradoxical jail or a radical opening?
I don’t and never have used the word «free jazz». If someone wants to use that word to describe a certain genre of jazz I don’t really have a problem with it. I am not much into slogans, or types. I understand the need for marketing purposes to have a name to attempt to identify a category of music. However, I must quote one of the masters of African American music, Duke Ellington, who said, «There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.»

You toured in Africa during the 70’s… What did you find, discovered?
I found my true self! Africa was a spiritual and revelational journey and adventure for me. I will never forget it and it will always be a part of one of my greatest experiences and influences beyond all others. I took a musical and spiritual journey to Northern Ghana traveling to Tamale and Bolgatanga, Ghana. It lasted about two weeks and during that time I played with the Dagomba people of Tamale who introduced me to playing with the King’s drummers. I also journeyed to Bolgatanga and participated in several magical musical rituals and ceremonies including performing at the Second Burial of a Fra Fra King, as well as, undertaking a healing ritual in the African bush with a Shaman who performed the «ritual of the washing of the legs». I collected many instruments and also became a percussionist playing a variety of instruments including talking drums, balafons, and a variety of flutes.

Lalibela


 

When you were going back, you had recorded three Afro-jazz albums, “c” in 1973, “King of Kings” in 1974 and “Birth / Speed / Merging” in 1976 on independent labels. Why this choice of independence ?
I wanted a way to get the music of The Pyramids out to a wider audience. In America it was the time of crossover music and rock and roll, and this was the type of music that was being played on the radio as well as recorded by record companies. They were not recording the music of Cecil Taylor or The Pyramids. Cecil was already beginning to self-produce and distribute his music while he was at Antioch College. Sun Ra was also continuing to self-produce and distribute his music. It was a natural development for me to be inspired by these innovative and independent musicians who also wanted to take control of their own musical destiny. The Pyramids were some of the first DIY musicians to take control of their music and fiercely independent!

The first Pyramids LP’s from the 70’s are now strong collector’s pieces. Haw many of each of them have been printed at the time
We printed 1000 copies of ‘Lalibela’ and ‘King of ’ and 5000 copies of ‘Birth/Speed/’. Many of the Birth/Speed/Merging LPs we’re unfortunately lost during a move.

You have a special link with France since this is where your band, The Pyramids, was born. Tell us more about this episode?
I wrote a proposal to the Antioch College Abroad Program to leave America with three Antioch students (my ex-wife flutist Margo Simmons, and electric bassist Kimathi Asante) and travel to Europe and form a band and work. The college agreed to send us with the condition that we had to at least spend some time at a university for several months. Once we did this we would be on our own to form a band and attempt to find work as professional musicians. We selected the University of Besançon and we took 6 weeks of Intensive French. We arrived in this idyllic small city in the French countryside and began our year abroad! While we were at the University we each stayed in three different dormitories that were shaped a lot like a pyramid. Hence the name! Following the six week language program we were speaking French pretty good, but when we left after the end of the intensive we went to Paris and then to Amsterdam. While in Paris we were introduced to musicians like tenor saxophonist Frank Wright and we also met a young drummer our age named Donald Robinson. He became the first drummer with The Pyramids and followed us to Amsterdam and months later to Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Ayler’s and Pharoah’s messages (‘Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe’, ‘Love Is Everywhere,’ …), are spiritual jazz essence. Do people need now more than ever music with a message?
I have always believed that musicians are spiritual messengers! Just like the ancient griots of Africa musicians are the repository of the collective cultural memories of a people. Whether it is John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ as a homage to the four black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham, or Charlie Parker’s ‘Now’s The Time’, the powerful music of Bob Marley or Fela Kuti, or ‘Soliloquy For Michael Brown’ from my album. These are the compositions and the musicians I most admire and listen to. Musicians who are not afraid to compose and play music with a positive message. I also loved the freedom and uncompromising music of early Albert Ayler whose very style and intensity sends its own kind of spiritual and political message! I was fortunate enough to study and play with Albert’s cousin and alto player, Charles Tyler.

Nsorama from King of Kings

 

We are witnessing a revival of spiritual jazz, also known as cosmic jazz, whose values you carry. What could be your definition of this music?
I can only define my music. As I mentioned before I understand the need to use words to categorize and market music. However, I am an Artistic Being! The music I play is cosmic in that it is expansive and encompasses the past, present and future of the Omniverse! I also live in San Francisco! In the early 70’s the city was the epicenter for mind altering drugs, flower power, and freedom. I love the music of Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone and Santana. But equally I grew up in Chicago. The home of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. I loved Martha and the Vandellas. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. And of course The Impressions. Then I was birthed into John Coltrane, nurtured by Cecil Taylor, destroyed and reinvented by Albert Ayler and the album “Bells”. Altoist Charles Tyler passed a message on to me I will never forget! Clifford King was truly «The King»! He taught me to play dogs and cats, lightning and rain, and invent my life. I mention all of the above because they are the aggregate of cosmic music…music of the Omniverse!

Your were a tap dancer, you had worked with Bill T. Jones, great choregrapher… What is your relationship to dance? Do you think music is a «body and soul» affair?
Yes, I am a tap dancer. Or more appropriately, a «hoofer». Legendary hoofer, the late Al Robinson, was my mentor and teacher. He taught me to tell stories with my feet. I am one of the repositories of amazingly complex and sublime «Al Robinson» steps. I also studied with the master Steve Condos. I also number Bill T. Jones as a friend and collaborator. His creativity and intellect is of the highest form. I danced a duet with Bill in the Cultural Odyssey production, “Perfect Courage”. Music is a «body and soul affair». I seek to be a very physical saxophonist with the stance of a basketball player at the free throw line. Breath to me is the most important aspect of my playing. I play like i’m swimming. Breathing deep, relaxed, but intense!

In your new album you talk about global apocalypse, climate change and the healing power of music. Why this title : An Angel Fell? A subliminal message?
Everyone who listens to the music and lyrics of “An Angel Fell” will have their own story to tell. It is my phantasmagoric journey just below the service of awareness. Something I dreamed or thought I dreamed but in fact it was a reality. A love story. A story of loss and recovery. A story of memory, minds, bodies, and spirits crossing time… falling through space. What’s your story?

When we see the coming to power of many nationalists, including Donald Trump in the USA, but also in India, Japan or Europe, are you pessimistic about the future of the planet?
I don’t have a pessimistic bone in my body! I embrace the positive and hope abounds. I’m from a people who were taken as slaves and who triumphed against all odds! My mother was one of those golden warriors. I saw my father (who is now 96 years old) stand up fearless looking into the barrel of a gun held by a white man. I was there as a teenager helping him as a janitor in the sixties. So, no I am not pessimistic about the future of the planet. I have seen real live angels in my life… they are everywhere… in the prisons, on the playgrounds, next door…

Tinoge

 

What are the main dangers for the next years ?
Indifference! Listen to the album.

The political commitment was very strong in the 70’s, and again there is a movement of more militant musicians. Do you believe that music is the weapon of the future, as Fela said?
A friend of mine said, «Musicians are the ambassadors of the soul». I believe this. For me weapons and music are diametrically opposed! Try to live one day without music in your life! Music is omnipresent! The eyes are the windows into the soul and the ears are the black hole into space. Music is change and change is music! See the clouds part with the sun. It’s a new start everyone!

“Tinoge” is co-written with Max Weissenfeldt and a few others. Are you surprised by this new generation, who often knows history better than many jazz specialists?
There are many of the new generation who respect what came before but are not anchored to it. I find it exciting when genres are broken down and barriers come tumbling down! Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down! Musicians young and old have to speak with one voice, blow with one horn to tumble down walls of hatred, disrespect, and division.

How did you work with Malcolm Catto? What did he bring you?
Malcolm gave 100% to the recording! He has such large ears and the ability to help guide and produce a recording session in a respectful and mutually supportive manner. The more we worked together the better we understood each other. I found him to be very nurturing of my compositional needs and vision for the album which was worked out in my waking dreams for many years.

Are you going to perform on stage with Heliocentrics?
I am ready anytime!!!! And would love it!

Check the complete new record on Strut website

« For me, to produce, it is to conceive an idea, and to be able to lead it to its term. What supposes that you have to make everything, or almost. » Alan Douglas had the feeling of the street. « It is from there that all the good ideas come. » If he wasn’t under the spotlight, this native of Boston was nevertheless one of the key figures of his time. The era of the end of the golden age of jazz and the irresistible ascension of the pop culture. Alan Douglas was best known for his lengthy association with Jimi Hendrix. Certainly, the guitarist was his friend, and the one who marked him for all his life, but Alan Douglas’s career cannot be resumed to these two years of complicity! Producer of numerous records which will become classics, he also published number of collections of protest singers, worked for Hollywood or avant-garde movies. That’s why we pay him tribute with a selection of 10 LP’s, which tell each a part of the incredible destiny of this hit man, died June 7th, 2014 at 81 years. 10 LP’s, but only one, singular, original vision of the music.
 
 
 
 

Alan Douglas enters the legend by creating a summit meeting. “Money Jungle” put together in 1962 an exceptional trio. «I had got on with Duke in Paris. We spoke about the fact to see us again, later. One day, I was in my office, in New York, when one employee warned me that mister Ellington was there. And directly, he told me: “Well, let us speak about the record that you would like to produce with me, for the pleasure…” I answered him that as regards for the big band, there were enough existing records. On the other hand, I liked very much the way he plays the piano, and I wanted to hear him in small band. I proposed him Charles Mingus and Max Roach, by arguing of the fact that they were in a way these heirs, carriers of the same values. My idea seduced him…»
 

«The jazz, it is the soundtrack of my life. I know that it is a commonplace : but it’s true, the jazz isn’t a reducible music in a definitive definition, in a small box. It is an attitude, an emotion, a way of feeling, living, the world. » In 1962, Alan Douglas is so going to produce 18 LP’s, among which some will become very popular. « That represents well all the aesthetics of the jazz at that time. Even if I was not able to have Ornette and Miles. The bop which arrived at its term, the free exploded the forms, the rock was at the top, the fusion was not any more going to delay. This sixties were rich, trust in me!»
 

After United Artists, Alan Douglas launched Record FM. « We began with Eric Dolphy. I asked him what he wanted to record? “Just to play, nobody lets me make what I want. With musicians who I love.” Dolphy never complained. But, for sure, he knew exactly what he wanted to hear. Some words, but it was very clear. Finally, some notes more than few words, because he always had a walk with his flute, and took out it to show you what he wanted as a music. And all the musicians wanted to show themselves deserving him. So, my job was rather simple: sit down and listen these magnificent sessions. Doubtless among the best which I keep in memory. We stayed in studio one week, from 3 pm untill 3 am. As a result: two LP which I consider as his best. » Recorded with Gotha of the new thing, “Conversations” and “Iron Man” are considered as monuments of new jazz.
 

« Richie Havens was one of the personalities of the clubs in New York Village in the beginning of the 60’s. We could hear him with the guitar almost everywhere. But there was an ironical problem : nobody could understand that a Black sings folk song, and not the real blues. » Alan Douglas gets the songwritter well before the glory of Woodstock. « The true personality of Richie Havens is there. Not try to have hits. Just inhale the mood of time, the asphalt of New York. I baptized the sessions “Electric Havens”, not for the electric dimension of the music, but in reference to the electricity which he created on his audience, in the power which he irradiated. It was enormous. »
 

« A good friend gave me 25 000 dollars to create my own record label. He just asked me to call it: Alan Douglas Records. A little bit too much! Thus I suggested him just Douglas. » The Bostonian is going to produce LP always on the same principle : new meetings which he suggests. Like on this record, of post-bop, quite modal, which associates under the name of the american drummer the keyboard player Chick Corea and the saxophonist John Gilmore!
 

It is at the corner of the 137th street and Lennox Avenue that Alan Douglas discovered Last Poets. Two records testify of it. The first was a masterpiece, « an happening of three hours in studio, as what I had heard in the street ». This episode will be burnt in the mythology of the rap which was not born yet. « Jalal had understood the history of the spoken poetry. Of course, you can go back to the african griots. That it is the essence of this art. But the shape took roots in certain prisons of the South of the United States. It is what we call the jail toast. The source of the rap. And that doesn’t learn as the guitar or the piano. No lesson. It is a natural capacity to know how to use the rhymes. In prisons, those who used this technique told their stories. Crimes, murders, dope, prostitutes… » The street, again and again.
 

With John McLaughlin, Alan Douglas is going to produce two LP, two great pieces to put in his credit. “Devotion”, a record influenced by the presence of Buddy Miles, « not the best drummer of the world, but the guy who was able to give a color r&b », and “My Goals Beyond”, with a cross-country team (Badal Roy, Airto Moreira, Dave Liebman) which translates the conversion of the British in the indian philosophy. A classic, still one, like for this incredible vision of the standard “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”.
 

The painter Mati Klarwein is going to illustrate several LP produced by Alan Douglas among which a collection of texts of the hero of the black power, Malcom X, entitled “By Any Means Necessary”, one 7 inch posthumous of Jimi Hendrix and The Last Poets’s LP, but also this album of Jerry Garcia, ex Grateful Dead. « Mati was a part of the band! » In this crew, there were two women, Stella, the wife of Alan Douglas, and Colette, whose shop of clothes, in the district of Soho, in New York, was then the place to be. There was also Jimi Hendrix, and Miles Davis, who tried to work with the guitarist. Unfortunately, for questions of dollars, and also ego trip, this session will never take place!
 

Alan Douglas signs in 1973 the fantastic “Hustlers Convention”, where Jalal of Last Poets appears under the name of Lightnin’ Rod. This LP looks like a sort of Babel of the great black music. A manifesto with Kool And The Gang and latin brothers of Barrio, with also two saxophonists well known: Julius Hemphill, icon of the new thing, and King Curtis, star of the good old time rhythm’n’blues. An album unsuccessfully, except for the esthetes. With Jalal, Alan Douglas will also record an historic take with Hendrix, called “Doriella Dufontaine”. « Everything left an improvisation between Jalal and Buddy Miles, on drums. And Jimi got up and said: let me play that. We reloaded everything: Jalal took a microphone, Jimi opposite in another room, and Buddy ready to go far away… Non-stop thirteen minutes. An improv. Magnificent ! Done… In the box ! »
 

Alan Douglas is going to sign between 14 and on May 23rd 1976 an epic series. “Wildflowers” in the RivBea studio, the loft held by the saxophonist Sam Rivers. A long chorus which takes the shape of several LP of anthology. All the jazz (or almost) was there. Henry Threadgill, Randy Weston, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton … Imagine the atmosphere, hot. Quite libertarian. Fire free. « For the rather dark period for the jazz, out of order of any idea, it was a bright period. »
 
 
 

Listen Alan Douglas talking to Smokey about Duke Ellington, Last Poets, Jimi Hendrix and co :