April 9, born day of Paul Robeson
A tribute worthy of the man and his acts
From another one of my favorite 11 albums of all time
Clifford Jordan released Glass Bead Games in 1973
Full disclosure: I’ve never actually read Hesse’s novel
It’s my father’s favorite book
Maybe I never read it cuz he always told me I should?
I’ll leave that one to Dr Winer
This cut, like most of the tracks on the album, is a Jordan original
It was released on Strata East, seminal independent ny jazz label
I discovered it via hip hop (I discovered most music via hip hop)
Since it was so heavily mined by producers in the early 90s
Esp native tongues
The label was artist-driven and pushed the envelope artistically, stylistically, and politically
Drawing heavily on spiritual and Afrocentric themes in what gets categorized as “post-bop”
Or maybe more simply “post-Trane”
Similar independent labels existed in Chicago (black jazz), Detroit (tribe), and LA (nimbus)
Glass Bead Games is actually probably the most straight ahead album cut on Strata East
And Jordan’s playing is far from free
But his tone…
Man
There’s nothing like it, for my money
Strata East was founded by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver
Cowell has a couple compositions on the album
As does Bill Lee (yup, Spike’s father)
I don’t know how to describe what I love about Jordan’s tenor on this album
Or the writing
https://youtu.be/Xp58woJOgbI
Like Lee’s homage to Coltrane
Except to say that it epitomizes freedom as creativity
Not in the absence of structure, but in its presence
Jordan is…surprise!…another product of Walter Dyett’s music machine at Dusable high school
If you don’t know this album, I think there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy it.
And our time is the right time to reflect on Robeson’s legacy (and that of his persecutors, whose heirs have returned to power)
But Paul is still more
Does this mean “there’s nothing new in this music so I don’t agree that it is great” or “this is album should already be known by all so I don’t agree it’s underrated”?
1) you have no idea how happy this makes me
2) this album is best listened to straight through, imo. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve gone through the whole thing ~ 100 times in the last 20 years
3) is any painting able to be shared to thread?
If you don’t have the time to listen all the way through
In addition to Coltrane and Powerful Paul Robeson, I think this is the other absolutely necessary one
by Stanley Cowell
His compositions are often described as “brooding” and that characterization certainly fits here
