Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Music I Liked And Didn't - 12/12/06 - 12/13/06


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COHRAN, PHILIP (AND THE ARTISTIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE): The Malcolm X Memorial (A Tribute in Music) CD (Katalyst Entertainment) - Well, I finally got my hands on a copy of this reissue that I mentioned a few days ago. As the title states, this is a musical tribute, in four parts, to Malcolm X. It was recorded live in 1968 at the Afro-Arts Theater and was released in the early 70s on Cohran's Zulu Record imprint. Conceptually, this is very well done, with the music in each part representing a period of his life. So, the album starts out in a very old school 30’s blues/jazz vein (think Cab Calloway and so on) with, "Malcolm Little". "Detroit Red", is next and the sounds are updated a couple of decades with soulful post-bop. "Malcolm X", features a more modern, flowing, righteous groove, as well as some chanting, representing well both the sound of jazz and the rising black consciousness of the early to mid-60’s. Finally, Malcolm X’s epiphany inspiring pilgrimage to Mecca is represented by "El Hajj Malik El Shabazz", which features an excellent middle eastern influenced solo by Charles Handy on Chinese Musette. While not as transcendently great as the reissue from a few years back, this is still an interesting snapshot that captures the American underground Jazz scene in a transitional time that is quite worthy of attention.


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Running Count For The Year

Adds 158/67%

Did Not Add 79/33%

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