Search - Julius Hemphill :: One Atmosphere

This is an attempt to pay a debt that I owe...

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 02/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To two men that have enriched my life beyond measure. The first of those men is Julius Hemphill, the auteur of a piece of music that changed the way that I hear everything. I have loved country blues since I was about fourteen. I have no idea why- something about the way the music is so raw, the anguish of the player so exposed. Son House, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Blind Blake. Then came the shock of records like Coltrane's Ascension or Ornette Colemans' Free Jazz. Again there was a rawness, an immediate emotional exposure to another human's plight or path.

Then Julius Hemphill appeared with his great recording, Coon Bid'Ness, with the seminal The Hard Blues. And suddenly there was the actuality of the two musics that I loved being one. If you are unfamiliar with that recording please proceed to the Amazon page for that recording which is also released in CD format under the title, Reflections.

But as with so many of that generation of artists who emerged in the late `60s from the AACM in Chicago (Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams) and from the BAG in St. Louis (Hemphill, Lester Bowie) Julius Hemphill was much more than a blues driven avant-gardist. As a result of his long collaboration with Abdul Wadud, Hemphill is as responsible as anyone for the emergence of cello as an creative improvisation stable. He worked in all formats from solo to big band with particularly powerful contributions to the music for saxophone ensembles. He wrote theatre pieces and worked with dance ensembles.

This particular recording is a posthumous collection produced by the second of the two men to whom I owe a cultural debt. I have sung the praises of Marty Ehrlich on the pages of Amazon many times. His recordings represent an overall oeuvre that is as great as any being currently forged on the creative improv scene. But he also impresses with his determination to keep the works of his mentor, Hemphill, alive and thriving. Prior to this effort Ehrlich recorded At Dr. King's Table with the Julius Hemphill Sextet which Ehrlich now leads.

There is something to be said by anyone who gives themselves over to the service of the music of another. As an exemplar of musical humility, Ehrlich is challenged only by Tiziano Tononi. Don't even get me started on Tononi (except to say that the fact that Amazon doesn't carry his great tribute on the Splasc(h) label to Rahsaan Roland Kirk is a cultural crime-IMHO).

There are three pieces on this CD. The first is a string quintet performed by the Pacific String Quartet and Ursula Oppens on the piano (the piece is dedicated to her). This is a beautiful modern classical piece that sounds like something that might have been written in the early twentieth century. For the most part calm and reflective, Hemphill shows in this piece an unusually mature understanding of string sonorities and a deep understanding of the classical piano tradition. Apparently, nothing musical was foreign to Hemphill.

The Savannah Suite is a beautiful bluesy piece for Marty Ehrlich on the flute, Erik Friedlander on the cello and Pheeroan Aklaff on the drums. The Suite is an eight minute marvel of melodic episode and shifting loopy rythyms. The playing by all is wonderful but I want to mention in particular Fiedlander's facile plucking on the cello. His playing is fast, exact, relaxed and displays perfectly what Hemphill heard in the cello.

The last piece is the four part Water Music for Woodwinds. This is played by Ehrlich, Oliver Lake, Sam Furnace, Tim Berne, Aaron Stewart, Robert DeBellis and J.D. Parran all of whom play various saxophones and flutes. This piece can be seen as a contribution to 20th century chamber music or to Hemphill's saxophone ensemble music. Perhaps the best way to hear this piece is to see it as another contribution to the breaking down of such genres by musicians like Hemphill, Braxton, Mitchell, Franz Koglmann and Henry Threadgill.

The first part of Water Music, entitled Mr. Neptune, features thoughtful solos and a duet section by Lake and Berne. The ensemble for the most part works in unison to provide the shifting background to their conversation.

The other pieces follow a similar pattern. Each features solo, duet or trio work by various members of the ensemble all of whom play well. Occasionally, it gets more complicated as in the middle section of King's Pawn. Always, for my ears, the focus is on the compositions. No one else that I know of is able to write for a saxophone ensemble like this. The only one I know of who tries is Odean Pope with his Saxophone Choir. And Pope's music is very different.

I feel immense gratitude to Tzadik and to Ehrlich for giving us the gift of more music by Julius Hemphill. I can only hope that there is more to come. Hemphill's passing was very premature but we should all feel blessed for what he was able to accomplish in a relatively short time. This CD is an essential document of that accomplishment.

"

I WANT to like it more!

jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 01/04/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Julius Hemphill has never gotten the attention he deserves for his masterpieces Coon Bid'ness and Dogon A.D. He seems to have fallen through the cracks - thank the Young Lions, again! That whole period of post-Art Ensemble creativity remains marginalized, while the creators age...It's unheard of for a music to have to wait SO long. Cecil and Ornette were heralded not so long after their initial achievements...But all this being said, I have to say that a release like this muddies the waters. This ain't strong composed music. It's OK, and it's played OK. Nothing here feels either white-hot creative or drop-dead beautiful. In terms of language, it's kind of middle-of-the-road. Maybe the problem is that the critical standard for this kind of music was never as high as it should have been. Masterpieces are in any case happy accidents. And sometimes composition is seen as an end in itself. The FACT of composing is just what it is. The question should not be "did he write chamber music?" but rather "how good was his chamber music?". Answer: it's OK."