The Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun (2010)

Da ***FARFIX*** Gio Giu 24, 2010 10:23 am

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Artist: The Souljazz Orchestra
Album: Rising Sun
Released: 2010
Label: Strut
Catalog N°: ???
Genre: Jazz
Cover: No Cover

FLAC

Track Listings:

1 Awakening
2 Agbara
3 Negus Negast
4 Lotus Flower
5 Mamaya
6 Serenity
7 Consecration
8 Rejoice Pt. 1
9 Rejoice Pt. 2

Review:

tinymixtapes.comThe Souljazz Orchestra is a Canadian group from Ottawa whose newest album Rising Sun has been released via Strut, a British label that's been doing a damn fine job of releasing some amazing comps from all over the world. The label's been cutting across genres, eras, and grinding out hot links of new material like Grandmaster Flash’s The Bridge, all the while gleaming like the edge of a knife.

Rising Sun is truly a stew. You get your Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Fela Kuti, Mulatu Astatke, and Sun Ra all rolled up into one tight little package. There’s a range of textures here, from the smooth by-the-bear-skinned-rug feel of “Lotus Flower,” to the darker tone of the Astatke-inspired, Ethio-jazz flavor of “Negus Negast.” Addis Ababa's jazz scene — called the spiritual heart of Africa by some — cultivated Ethio-jazz, a rolling, soul-inflected, and infectious form that is aptly molded in the hands of The Souljazz Orchestra. "Mamaya," which begins with an unmistakable cuica bleat, blends transcontinental styles with dovetailed snugness. Souljazz glue together styles like musical cabinet-makers joining wood species of disparate origin to create a solid drawer, in which we stow away melodious treasures and lyrical secrets.

Just a glance at the credits on each track inspires earnest music research. What are shekeres, guiros, flexatones, and gankoguis? Percussionist Marielle Rivard wields these implements with precision and finesse. The horn section is usually four deep, with a baritone, alto, and tenor sax creating a rich and vibrant sound, while the trumpet helps provide a blaring urgency. Amazingly, there is no guitar player, so you should expect none of the wailing shred that is standard in other bands evoking afro-rhythms. The absence of any guitar chords or arpeggios may help explain why Souljazz inspire the spiritual jazz connection — with a cleaner horn-based sound devoid of guitar distortion, the overall effect is more choral. The keyboards (Pierre Chretien) handle their end beautifully, tying it all together and evoking Alice Coltrane with dexterity.

While Rising Sun is an attempt to seamlessly fuse together jazz forms, the album also attempts to embed spirituality in the music without specifically discussing one religion or tradition. It must be no accident that this group has "Souljazz" in their title, for their music has a sacred quality in its execution. Listening to Rising Sun with an ear for those spiritual intonations, I have begun to again feel the potential of music to transmit spirituality, and it is not something that I can identify in terms of tempo, melody, or tone, but rather in a perceived intent and earnestness. The group simultaneously evokes (a) Ethiopia, the assumed cradle of humankind; (b) spiritually inspired jazz, one of the few musical traditions of American origin; and (c) the revolutionary musical fusion of West Africa’s wild afrobeat scene of the 60s and 70s. Political and religious significance coupled with polished musical professionalism make for a potent combo, and if you hurry, you might be able to feel like you got in on the ground floor. That is, unless you live in Canada. Then you have no excuse. They're on your doorstep knocking.

sentireascoltare.comI precedenti lavori per Do Right!, Freedom No Go Die (2006) e Manifesto (2008), hanno imposto la Souljazz orchestra come fervida realtà dell’odierno panorama neo-funk-afro-jazz. Il passaggio nella casa del rinato Mulatu Astatke, ne consolida la posizione. Presentato come il loro album afro-jazz acustico, The Rising Sun combina la febbrile verve di Fela Kuti con certo jazz trascendente, in primis Pharaoh Sanders ma anche Marcus Belgrave.

Dopo l’inizio di velluto (Awakening), le danze partono con l’afro-beat di Agbara a cui seguono gli arabeschi Ethio-jazz di Negus Negast. Più spirituale di Nomo e Budos Band (ma meno in your face degli Antibalas), il combo canadese sa farsi easy listening senza cadere nel kitsch (Lotus Flower e Serenity sembrano farina del miglior Belgrave) vestendo panni post-bop come si usava alla Blue Note (Consecration). A chiudere, nonché a confermare, la ripresa di un classico minore dello stesso Pharoah Sanders, Rejoice (dall’omonimo lavoro del 1981), diviso in due parti e fastoso come in origine.

Il fan Gilles Peterson dalle frequenze della BBC di sicuro apprezzerà.

EAC LOG

Codice: [Devi essere iscritto e connesso per vedere questo link]: Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009 EAC extraction logfile from 14. February 2010, 12:19 The Souljazz Orchestra / Rising Sun Used drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : Internal WAV Routines Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 2:51.48 | 0 | 12872 2 | 2:51.48 | 4:57.35 | 12873 | 35182 3 | 7:49.08 | 5:03.44 | 35183 | 57951 4 | 12:52.52 | 5:19.19 | 57952 | 81895 5 | 18:11.71 | 4:19.48 | 81896 | 101368 6 | 22:31.44 | 7:53.15 | 101369 | 136858 7 | 30:24.59 | 7:34.23 | 136859 | 170931 8 | 37:59.07 | 2:20.16 | 170932 | 181447 9 | 40:19.23 | 5:10.24 | 181448 | 204721 Track 1 Filename C:\temp\01. The Souljazz Orchestra - Awakening.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 93012CC3 Copy CRC 93012CC3 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 2 Filename C:\temp\02. The Souljazz Orchestra - Agbara.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC EFAF0524 Copy CRC EFAF0524 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 3 Filename C:\temp\03. The Souljazz Orchestra - Negus Negast.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 4978F15B Copy CRC 4978F15B Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 4 Filename C:\temp\04. The Souljazz Orchestra - Lotus Flower.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 2E3F26A6 Copy CRC 2E3F26A6 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 5 Filename C:\temp\05. The Souljazz Orchestra - Mamaya.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC AD2A846A Copy CRC AD2A846A Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 6 Filename C:\temp\06. The Souljazz Orchestra - Serenity.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC 7E0E30FB Copy CRC 7E0E30FB Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 7 Filename C:\temp\07. The Souljazz Orchestra - Consecration.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 54A6A031 Copy CRC 54A6A031 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 8 Filename C:\temp\08. The Souljazz Orchestra - Rejoice, Pt. 1.wav Peak level 90.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 6EA17AC8 Copy CRC 6EA17AC8 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 9 Filename C:\temp\09. The Souljazz Orchestra - Rejoice, Pt. 2.wav Peak level 100.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 7DBCC388 Copy CRC 7DBCC388 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database No errors occurred End of status report

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