The Tong Show
El Lagarto | Sandown, NH | 03/30/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Carla Bley is a fascinating figure in contemporary music, and still very much on the scene. Her musical vision is so all-encompassing that it seems to exclude nothing, weaving through jazz, rock, classical, and even world music with stunning ease. A Genuine Tong Funeral, which predates her underappreciated masterpiece, Escalator Over The Hill, draws from various sources and somehow manages to create a seamless, integrated whole. This carefully crafted, deliberate music conjures up a complete and totally seductive environment, soothing and gently beautiful, like snow falling in the woods. It's cool, slow, and has little interest in melody, narrative, or even resolution. In this regard it's reminiscent of the Miles Davis classic, Kind Of Blue, songs begin in a known framework but leave it quickly, drifting circuitously with the lazy ease of smoke.
The players could hardly be more select; Bley must have some powerful juice in the jazz community to attract this level of talent. Led by Gary Burton, you'll also find Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow, Steve Lacey, Gato Barbieri, Howard Johnson, others, and of course, Bley herself who conducts and holds down keyboards. What is most amazing about GTF is how wildly it differs from Escalator Over The Hill, which came only a few years later. While both pieces are unapologetically surreal in sensibility, GTF is easy and alluring while EOTH is a deliberately disjointed gumbo that assaults with its blatant lack of cohesion, logic, meaning, and other virtues so attractive to many listeners.
That said, there are certain signatures that tell you these two works are by the same hand. Bley loves those minor keys, and slow drags between them in both pieces. Barbieri's fruity sax, reminiscent of a gangster flick from the `30s, is also in evidence; in EOTH it is a major presence. But what really unites the two pieces is how daringly original they are, two creations by a woman who can only be described as one of our greatest and most fearless composers."
Almost 40 years old and still new
K. Kirkland | Millburn, NJ | 02/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Jazz ensemble meets Kurt Weil...Its hard to believe that this dates from 1967. It still sounds fresh, timeless, out of its time. It is also hard to fathom that this predates other milestones of the era, like the late 60's free-ensemble rock-jazz work of Miles Davis. The playing is amazing, the composition so mature, and all these musicians new in their journey's and were'nt yet 30, or barely so. Highlights? The whole thing. I am constantly doing double takes on "what is this"...great disc."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1