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photo: Eliana Aponte | artistic direction: Reiner Michalke<br />
www.moers-festival.de<br />
Carolin Pook »pezzettino 8«<br />
Jóhann Jóhannsson<br />
»End Of Summer – live«<br />
No BS! Brass Band<br />
Subway Jazz Orchestra<br />
Kaja Draksler & Susana Santos Silva<br />
Maja Osojnik & Patrick Wurzwallner<br />
»Let Them Grow«<br />
Jeremy Flower’s »The Real Me«<br />
with Carla Kihlstedt<br />
and EOS Chamber Orchestra<br />
Harold López-Nussa Trio<br />
Harriet Tubman & Cassandra Wilson<br />
present »Black Sun«<br />
Tim Isfort »Zapptet«<br />
The Liz<br />
Medusa Beats<br />
David Virelles »Mbókò«<br />
Warped Dreamer<br />
Dawn Of Midi<br />
Moon Hooch<br />
Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble<br />
Hauschka & Kosminen<br />
Amok Amor<br />
Becca Stevens & Jacob Collier<br />
Do What You Like<br />
Ginger Baker’s Air Force (ITM Archives)<br />
by Elliott Simon<br />
Do What You Like, from drummer Ginger Baker’s Air<br />
Force, includes three studio outtakes, a 33-minute live<br />
title cut with drummer Elvin Jones and a take on an<br />
African folk song. This should not be confused with<br />
the identically titled Polydor (1998) retrospective. Air<br />
Force was a vehicle for Baker to showcase himself in<br />
the context of African music, jazz, R&B, the blues and<br />
gospel in a big band format. The horn sections were<br />
tight and drumming exceptional. While Airforce was<br />
overambitious and a transition point for Baker, it left<br />
its mark as a seminal worldly R&B/jazz-fusion band.<br />
Organist/saxophonist/vocalist and British R&B<br />
legend Graham Bond is present throughout as are<br />
female vocalists Aliki Ashman and Diane Stuart,<br />
conguero Speedy Acquaye and saxophonists Bud<br />
Beadle and Steve Gregory while Blind Faith bassist Ric<br />
Grech and guitarist Denny Laine only appear on the<br />
outtakes. The sound is unfortunately muddy and “You<br />
Look Like You Could Use a Rest”, a brilliant Electric<br />
Flag-type Grech cooker, is erroneously listed as “You<br />
Wouldn’t Believe It”. That aside, the music is worth<br />
documenting: “Let Me Ride” is a powerful send up of<br />
the Pops Staples tune; “I Don’t Wanna Go On Without<br />
You” is a ballad that is perfect for Laine; and the<br />
aforementioned “Rest” is a soulful standout showcasing<br />
the band’s influences with tight quick changes.<br />
The real highlight though is the title cut recorded<br />
at London’s Lyceum in 1971, the kind of period headtrip<br />
that plays best through headphones. Replacing<br />
Grech is Colin Gibson and he and Baker superbly enter<br />
the tune’s lengthy rhythmic exploration together. It is<br />
Baker though who frees the music and sets the stage<br />
for Jones to do his stuff. This is not to be missed and<br />
reminds us how melodic and improvisational the<br />
drums can be. What is titled “Air Force Jam” portends<br />
things to come for Baker with its heavy African content.<br />
Ironically, Baker had gotten Air Force back together for<br />
2016 but the project was cancelled due to his ill health.<br />
For more information, visit mdt.co.uk/labels/i/<br />
itm-archives.html<br />
and Billy Cobham: No keyboards or flashy, lengthy<br />
solos, the funk primarily in grooves rather than soloing<br />
and more free/avant garde influences. The self-titled<br />
album begins with the funky strut “It Will Never Be<br />
the Same”, featuring Trevor Watts’ tart, blues-charged<br />
alto saxophone, Peter Cowling’s rippling electric bass<br />
and Steve Hayton’s chunky guitar. The cadence is<br />
flavored with R&B but the players affably push against<br />
it with impassioned, free-charged solos. One of the few<br />
lengthy solo features herein is “Spirit of Peace (Tribute<br />
to Elvin Jones)”, finding Stevens explosive as Jones<br />
and crisp and fleet like Max Roach—like Matt Wilson<br />
today, Stevens had the finesse of a jazz drummer and<br />
the whomp of a rock one.<br />
The other albums feature a completely different<br />
lineup, a quintet with two bassists (one acoustic, one<br />
electric), saxophonist and guitarist. There’s fine unison<br />
passages of guitar and saxophone and more avant<br />
influence, but monster grooves persist. The undulating<br />
title track from Mazin Ennit, with its seemingly wild,<br />
frictional-yet-swinging guitar and saxophone duels,<br />
chittering drumming and African-flavored motifs,<br />
slightly resembles Ornette Coleman’s harmolodic<br />
Prime Time band. Further, there are bonus tracks<br />
with guest vocalists John Martyn (the late great jazzinfluenced<br />
British folk singer) and Terri Quaye.<br />
The reintroduction of these rare platters to the<br />
marketplace qualifies as an event. Not only does this<br />
set add to Stevens’ relatively small discography as a<br />
leader, but also the music, with its immediacy,<br />
irrepressible spirit and boundary-flouting variety, is<br />
consistently excellent. This should be heard by more<br />
than classic fusion aficionados and students of U.K.<br />
jazz history.<br />
For more information, visit bgo-records.com<br />
John Stevens’ Away/<br />
Somewhere In Between/Mazin Ennit<br />
John Stevens’ Away (Vertigo-BGO)<br />
by Mark Keresman<br />
The late John Stevens (1940-94) was an important<br />
figure in the U.K. jazz scene, central to British mid ‘60s<br />
free improvisation as founder of the Spontaneous<br />
Music Ensemble. In the early ‘70s, Stevens expanded<br />
his scope to encompass fusion and founded the band<br />
Away. This two-CD set collects three heretofore-hardto-find<br />
albums recorded in 1975-76.<br />
Stevens’ approach to fusion slightly differed from<br />
that of American ‘cousins’ Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke<br />
18 APRIL 2016 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD<br />
NYCJR_moers2016_sw80x305_160310.indd 1 14.03.16 09:41
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