Search - Eugene Mcdaniels :: Headless Heroes of Apocalypse / Outlaw

Classic

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 06/29/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got hip to Headless Hero's from a friend of mine who owned a record shop and told me I had to get this "I dunno......jazz funk fusion protest thing," he said, "by the guy who did 100 Pounds Of Clay, but way after.



Well, believe it or not that is not a bad description of Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse. My CD dealer must have really had my number that day for two more reasons: First, I love buying good music smart music people have trouble describing--it makes me extra curious.



Second, Vice President Sperow Agnew called the head of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun in 1971 to try to keep this album out of stores. Lucky for us but not surprising, Agnew even screwed that up.



Headless Heroes really is an Apocalyptic vision of America in 1971. Race riots, student protests turning violent, and political murder of top leaders was almost common place. There really did seem to be an insurrection going on.



This album documents all this with jazz inflected soul and biblical fear. "The Lord/he's mad/his disposition mean/he's riding the road to mass destruction" McDaniel's sings. Was the Load the Black Panthers, the students, the national guard, Nixon? In 1971, it could have been any and all. America seemed that dangerous.



McDaniel's uses a type of soul here with a lot of open spaces for improvisation. The chords are long and leave a good deal of room for runs, fills, all the amazing little insertions great jazz musicians pepper non jazz with when hired to play non jazz. The writing is unique in the way simple chords are presented in new ways, and the musical interaction is incredibly layered and textured. If you can fathom a much darker 1970s CTI sound, this will give you an idea of how Headless Hero's sounds





If you are a far right wing tea party member who just happens to have great taste in music, you still have to get Headless Hero's .



Outlaw is more rural and avoids some of the complications of Headless Heroes, but paired here it is not radically different, and if you listen to the whole twofer, you will not notice a decline between the two albums"