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Ernest Dawkins’
new Horizons
Ensemble
The Prairie
Prophet
DELMARK RECORDS 598
★★★★
After a five-year hiatus
from recording, Ernest
Hawkins’ New Horizons
Ensemble returns with
another splendid example of free-bop—music
nudging toward the edges of modern bop, flirting
intermittently with free jazz, yet never fully
abandoning the cohesive momentum of swing.
With The Prairie Prophet, Dawkins pays
homage to the late saxophonist, cultural progenitor
and fellow AACM member Fred
Anderson. Just as Anderson was, Dawkins is
capable of addressing a broad jazz vocabulary
as a player and composer—a talent that’s
made clear from the get-go as the disc opens
with the South African-inflected “Hymn For
A Hip King” and then shifts into “Sketches,”
which expands and constricts between avantgarde
and modern big band swing with hints
of blues shouts and country music.
The disc showcases a slightly new front-line
Anthony Brown’s Asian
American orchestra
India & Africa: A Tribute To
John Coltrane
WATER BABY RECORDS 1110
★★★½
Unincorporated, independent large ensembles or
big bands such as Anthony Brown’s Asian
American Orchestra serve myriad purposes.
Founded in 1997, the ABAAO is a showcase
of all-star Bay Area-based musicians. It places
Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Iranian instruments
alongside brass and reeds and has
performed and recorded its own arrangements
of selections from the likes of Duke Ellington,
Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, as well
as its members’ original works.
For India & Africa, drummer/percussionist/
composer/scholar Brown culled Spanish- and (as
the title lays out) Indian- and African-influenced
pieces that John Coltrane was exploring in the
latter part of his career. The album is sourced
from a pair of concerts held, appropriately
enough, at both the San Francisco and Oakland
locations of Yoshi’s nightclub.
“Living Space” opens the program with an
unexpected twin presentation of the Japanese
shakuhachi flute and the Chinese sheng mouth
organ, recontextualizing Coltrane’s underexposed
composition that was recorded with his
classic quartet in 1965. Appealingly dense arrangements
of the title tracks are sequenced second
within each section, with a short reprise of
each closing out both.
50 DOWNBEAT JULY 2011
lineup with new trumpeters
Marquis Hill and Shaun
Johnson joining Dawkins
and trombonist Steve Berry.
Both newcomers deliver delectable
solos, whether on the
surging political statement
of “Baghdad Boogie” or on
“Mal-Lester,” a lovely tribute
to Lester Bowie and Malachi
Favors Maghostut. Each
member plays extremely well
with a focus on group empathy, as demonstrated
on Berry’s gorgeous “Mesopotamia” or when
delivering individual solos, such as guitarist Jeff
Parker does on the boisterous “Sketches.”
When Dawkins solos, like on the opening
“Hymn For A Hip King” or the roiling “Shades
Of The Prairie Prophet,” he shows great command
on alto and tenor saxophones. Without
attempting to make grandiose statements, The
Prairie Prophet illustrates the excellence of
Dawkins as a consummate jazz figure.
—John Murph
The Prairie Prophet: Hymn For A Hip King, Sketches, Balladesque,
Mal-Lester, Shades of the Prairie Prophet, Mesopotamia,
Baghdad Boogie. (64:50)
Personnel: Ernest Dawkins, alto and tenor saxophones, percussion,
vocals; Marquis Hill, flugelhorn (1), trumpet (2, 3, 7); Shaun
Johnson, trumpet (1, 2, 4); Steve Berry, trombone; Jeff Parker, guitar;
Junius Paul, bass; Isaiah Spencer, drums, percussion.
ordering info: delmark.com
Two original works—Kenneth Nash’s deeply
felt vocal and percussion “Exaltation” and Nash
and Brown’s dual “Percussion Discussion”
— further personalize “Suite: Africa.” A spirited
reading of “Afro Blue” seems somewhat aesthetically
out of place as the final number, until one
reads the track listing and realizes it was done as
an encore; in that context, it makes perfect sense.
—Yoshi Kato
India & Africa: A Tribute To John Coltrane: India: Diaspora Living
Space; India; Olé; Tabla-Sarod Duet; India-Reprise; Suite: Africa:
Exaltation; Africa; Liberia; Percussion Discussion; Dahomey
Dance; Africa-Reprise; Encore: Afro Blue. (59:19)
Personnel: Anthony Brown, drums, percussion, conductor;
Danny Bittker, baritone sax, contralto clarinet, soprano saxophone;
Mark Izu, bass, sheng (Chinese mouth organ); Henry
Hung, trumpet, flügelhorn; Masaru Koga, soprano and tenor
saxophones, shakuhachi; Richard Lee, bass trombone; Melecio
Magdaluyo, alto, tenor and soprano saxophones; Marcia Miget,
flute, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones; Kenneth Nash, African,
American and Indian percussion; Pushpa Oda, tambura;
Steve Oda, North Indian lute; Dana Pandey, tabla; Glen Pearson,
piano; Geechi Taylor, trumpet, flügelhorn; Kathleen Torres, French
horn; Wayne Wallace, trombone.
ordering info: anthonybrown.org
Paul van Kemenade
Close Enough
KEMO 09
★★★★★
Ever heard a jazz CD open with Gregorian
chant? A composition involving a Renaissance
vocal ensemble, flamenco guitar, Senegalese
percussion and jazz quartet also has to be a first.
Further listening reveals rich variety and surprising
homogeneity, driven with deep conviction
from the leader, already confirming this as one
of my albums of the year.
Dutch saxophonist Paul van Kemenade’s
expressive alto and bluesy feel betray a likely
debt to David Sanborn and Maceo Parker,
but might also have been distilled from Bunky
Green, Johnny Hodges or Amsterdam-based
saxophonist Michael Moore. Clawing for precedents
ends there, since this is a unique record.
Contexts are ingenious, from three horns
plus bass, to duo with cello, to big-shot quintet
with Ray Anderson, Ernst Glerum and Han
Bennink. The latter plays snare with brushes,
contributing to an overall chamber-like vibe.
Collaborations with Angelo Verploegen and
Louk Boudesteijn suggest a regular band given
the perfect tonal overlay, bassist Wiro Mahieu
as a fine counterweight.
The leader’s “Close Enough” and “It Is
Never Too Late” whiff of rhapsodic ballads
and detour into peculiar polyphonic places, the
former fragmenting into spacious abstraction.
His alto darts and dives luxuriously, a rainbow
feathered bird of paradise riding to the stratosphere.
Speaking of birds, “Cuckoo,” with Ernst
Reijseger plucking and strumming cello and
guffawing like a tipsy woodchopper, is brilliant
and hilarious. Despite the alto’s distinct pump
in the mix, there is great sensitivity to dynamics
and a lovely hover betwixt classical, composition
and improv. —Michael Jackson
Close Enough: Fantasy Colors; Close Enough; Lapstop; Take It
Easy; Cool Man, Coleman Part 1 & 2; Cuckoo; It Is Never Too Late;
Gathering For Alto And Cello; Vormärz. (51:59)
Personnel: Paul van Kemenade, alto saxophone; Ernst Reijseger,
cello; Han Bennink, snaredrum; Ray Anderson, trombone; Cappella
Pratensis, vocals; Frank Möbus, guitar; El Periquín, guitar; Ernst
Glerum, bass; Serigne Gueye, percussion; Wiro Mahieu, bass; Eckard
Koltermann, bass clarinet; Stevko Busch, piano; Achim Kramer,
drums; Benjamin Trawinski, bass; Angelo Verploegen, flugelhorn;
Louk Boudesteijn, trombone.
ordering info: paulvankemenade.com