a r t i s t : Idris Ackamoor
t i t l e : Music of Idris Ackamoor 1971-2004
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : EM (EM1062DCD)
g e n r e : Jazz
r l s. d a t e : Jan/2007
t r a c k s : 16
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 213,5 MB
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As with every review of a release on EM records, we feel
obligated to gush just a little. WHAT AN AMAZING LABEL! Most
definitely the coolest reissue label going. Completely off the
wall releases dug up and given new life. Amazing packaging,
killer liner notes, tons of photos. So much love and passion
obviously goes into each and every release we'd almost buy
every one regardless of the music. Thankfully, pretty much
everything we've heard so far is absolutely amazing, and well
deserving of a deluxe reissue treatment.
You may remember a while back we reviewed a 1976 disc from a
free jazz ensemble called the Pyramids, whose sound was not
just jazz, but a strange swirling mix of Funkadelic, Don
Cherry and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, all with a groovy,
funky, spaced out vibe. Chaotic and completely mesmerizing,
some of the sounds as we described them in the Pyramids
review: "Wild Eastern sounding tribal rhythms, shuffling jazzy
post bop, fluttering flutes and skronking horns, chanted
vocals, droning buzzing ragas, seventies psychedelic free
folk, propulsive krautfunk jams, totally chaotic free jazz,
octopoidal drumming, wild shrieking sax and haunting
percussive soundscapes"! And those disparate elements were all
wrapped up, in and around more traditional sounding African
music. Wow! A total revelation for sure.
And it appears to have been a revelation for everyone else as
well. There's a massive box set planned for the near future,
and then there's this, a sort of career retrospective of
Pyramids mainman Idris Ackamoor, drawing equally from the
Pyramids albums Lalibela (1973), King Of Kings (1974) and
Birth, Speed, Merging (1976), as well as a track a piece from
three of Ackamoor's solo albums. As if that weren't already
enough, there are six unreleased tracks, over an hour of
music! One track from Ackamoor's pre-Pyramids group The
Collective, three unreleased Pyramids tracks, one unreleased
track from the Idris Ackamoor Quartet and finally a recording
of Ackamoor and his wife at the time (1973) playing with
King's Drummers Of Tamale, Ghana!!
Disc one is drawn from the earliest years, 1971 to 1974, and
is completely mind blowing. Absolute free jazz nirvana! But
with plenty of soul and groove. Long long tracks, heavy on the
percussion, very tribal and experimental, but still soulful
and jazzy. Fluttering flutes drift over dense beds of
percussive shimmer, some tracks explode into full on drum solo
percussion jams, others drift serenely, while still others
careen wildly between the two. Modern ears will of course hear
No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand, Avarus and Kemialliset,
it's hard not to, after all this is where that sound came
from!! Disc one would be worth the price of admission alone,
and definitely has us excited to see these whole records
reissued in their entirety. But lucky for us there's a whole
other disc!
The first two tracks on disc 2 are from Birth, Speed, Merging
(1976) and if you don't have it already, these tracks should
easily convince you that you absolutely NEED TO OWN IT!
Gorgeous long form, slow burning jazz epics, horns skronk and
shimmer, the bass is slippery and serpentine, the drums are
wild and all over the place, utterly mesmerizing, extended
blasts of controlled chaos. So goddamn good. The unreleased
track is a killer too. Nearly twenty minutes. The stuff from
Ackamoor's solo records is a lot less far out, but still
really great, from straight up Bop, to groovy sort of
cinematic jazz, to some softer Cuban style jazz (the final
track taken from his album Cubana).
It's hard to believe a band could be this amazing, and
revolutionary and so brilliantly far out and not be spoken of
in the same breath as groups like the Art Ensemble and Sun
Ra's Arkestra, but here's hoping that this, as well as past
and future reissues takes care of that! Absolutely
essential!!!!!!
Like all EM releases, the packaging is fantastic. A Japanese
style extra thick jewel case, a printed obi as well as a
MASSIVE booklet full of rare photos, and liner notes penned by
Ackamoor himself, in both English and Japanese!
http://www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/a4.html
http://www.emrecords.net/records/00077.html
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Disc 1
01-The Collective - The Shepherd's Tune [16:59]
02-The Pyramids - Land of Eternal Song Suite Part 3 [10:51]
03-The Pyramids - Lalibela [06:02]
04-The Pyramids - Masenko Nights [03:00]
05-The Pyramids - Ya A Ya A [06:19]
06-The Pyramids - The River Ganges [11:06]
07-The Pyramids - Mohgo Naba [08:32]
08-The Pyramids - Queen of the Spirits Part 3 [06:37]
Disc 2
01-The Pyramids - Aomawa [05:35]
02-The Pyramids - Birth/Speed/Merging [07:47]
03-The Pyramids - Black Man of the Nile [18:39]
04-Idris Ackamoor and Margaux Simmons with King's [03:33]
Drummers of Tamale, Ghana - Africa
05-Idris Ackamoor Quartet - Spiritual Rebirth [05:49]
06-Idris Ackamoor Quartet - Topanga [06:04]
07-Idris Ackamoor Ensemble - Centurian [08:08]
08-Idris Ackamoor Ensemble - Cubana [11:30]
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