Other Dimension with Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, William Parker, & Charles Downs, plus vocalist Fay Victor for an album influenced by Kaiso, a music of African and Spanish colonial influences.
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Roy Campbell, Jr.-trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, recorder, shepherd pipes, arghul, bird whistles, panpipes, bells
Daniel Carter-alto, tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, trumpet, clarinet
William Parker-doublebass, gembri, bass duduk, trombonium
Charles Downs-drums, percussion
Fay Victor-voice
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UPC: 7320470142011
Label: Silkheart
Catalog ID: SHCD-158
Squidco Product Code: 14052
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2011
Country: Sweden
Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jim Clouse on September 8th, 2010 at ParkWest Studios, Brooklyn, NY.
"Kaiso - A music of western African derivation and Spanish colonial influence. The precursor to the modern Calypso, narrative in form and often has a cleverly concealed political subtext. Kaiso probably has its origins in the Hausa language, where it's used to exclaim approval such as "Bravo!"
Many of my childhood summers were spent at my grandmother's house in Belmont, Port of Spain - the capital of the tiny sister republic of Trinidad & Tobago - the southernmost Caribbean Islands. This yearly cycle of me leaving the Greater New York area for the summer and heading to Port of Spain started after kindergarten and continued until my early teens. Trinidad, the island where my Mom was born and raised, and my Dad grew up as well, was my cultural home. Going there immersed me in another world I felt drawn to and a part of: the food, the patois, the humor, the melodic cadence in the speech, the sun, the fruits, the sea; the music, like school-girl songs such as "London Bridge is Falling Down" and "Brown Girl in the Ring" that my sister and I used to sing and play patty-cake to. Calypso music was a steady soundtrack in the background of island life. I saw my Aunt Mary and her friends 'wine down' at parties and we kids were encouraged to do the same, we were meant to dance this way. When my Aunt cleaned the house on rainy days, she'd pull out old Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener records and sing the songs out loud as she dusted. Sometimes she'd stop in the middle and dance, and we'd dance with her, break out in laughter and resume cleaning again.
This music followed me to family parties in New York, New Jersey and Toronto. Classic Calypso was played everywhere my family staked claim, even though my Mom preferred the Commodores and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes to anything the Mighty Sparrow had to say. Yet if there was a party, Calypsos were omnipresent. After my years in college away from my family, I moved back to Brooklyn, and my Aunt, now also Brooklyn based, took me out to parties, calypso tents, parades, boat-rides and concerts, immersing me head first in the NYC Trinidadian scene. It was a great period in my life because I reconnected to that part of my culture again as an adult, mostly through music, realizing then how much it meant to me.
In 2009, Silkheart Records's Lars Gustavsson visited the Vision Festival and suggested the idea of making a record with the original Other Dimensions in Music, made up of trumpeter Roy Campbell, reedist Daniel Carter, bassist William Parker and drummer Charles Downs. I liked the idea immediately - but what kind of vocal project would work for a free jazz outfit?
Lars granted me the time to figure this out, for which I was grateful, because it allowed me to unearth something buried deep for so long - a Caribbean project. This had been on my mind for years, but I didn't have an idea strong enough to move forward with, and thus it languished on my 'to do' list of projects, hopefully to come to fruition sometime before I die.
Kaiso Stories is a free-jazz project with classic calypso lyrics. The lyrics I chose cover subjects such as politics, humor, being an immigrant and wanting to return home, speaking out against Trinidad's first prime-minister Dr. Eric Williams, stepping into the darkness of Shango Baptism, identity and what can happen at a wake. This hardly covers the cultural richness of Calypso lyrics; in my research for this project I encountered incredible stories such as elaborate scenarios to win back a jilted lover, lengthy discourse on government, strong pleas for a better economy or employment, or the value of taking care of your cat. Calypso lyrics tell the story of living life in Trinidad and calypsos were the newspaper of the people, the one place where the people could hear the issues of the day free from media-tampering by the Powers that Be. The story needs a messenger in the Calypso singer or 'Calypsonian', to tell the truth as he sees it and tell it good, otherwise the audience will let him have it. The importance of the message wasn't lost on the government and censorship boards were set up to monitor calypsos, especially around Carnival - the annual celebration held before Lent of which Calypsos are an integral part. So Calypsonians devised clever strategies such as double-entendre to get their message across to the audiences it was intended for. This makes Calypso lyrics some of the most beautiful and imaginative I've ever heard in any genre.
Two days before going into the studio to record what is now in your hands, we performed at the Local 269 on the Lower East Side, as part of the weekly Evolving Voice & Music Series. It was our first performance together and from the first moment, I knew this music would be about connection- about a long running group like Other Dimensions in Music connecting to me and the ideas I wanted to try and, about me reconnecting with a musical friend I've had since birth, reconfigured for the person I've become, and most of all, about all of us together connecting to the audience whom became part of a secret treasure trove of great Calypso stories, and gleefully so. It was a great meeting and a tremendous experience. Thanks for taking the time to try it. [...]"-Fay Victor, from the liner notes
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Roy Campbell, Jr. "Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. (September 29, 1952 - January 9, 2014) was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career. Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York City. At the age of fifteen he began learning to play trumpet and soon studied at the Jazz Mobile program along with Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan and Joe Newman. Throughout the 1960s, still unacquainted with the avant-garde movement, Campbell performed in the big bands of the Manhattan Community College. From the 1970s onwards he performed primarily within the context of free jazz, spending some of this period studying with Yusef Lateef. In the early 1990s Campbell moved to the Netherlands and performed regularly with Klaas Hekman and Don Cherry. In addition to leading his own groups, he performed with Yo La Tengo, William Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Matthew Shipp, and other improvisors. Upon returning to the United States he began leading his group Other Dimensions In Music and also formed the Pyramid Trio, a pianoless trio formed with William Parker. He performed regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which is held annually in New York City. He died in January 2014 of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at the age of 61." ^ Hide Bio for Roy Campbell, Jr. • Show Bio for Daniel Carter "Daniel Carter (born December 28, 1945, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is an American experimental saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s. Carter is a prolific performer and has recorded or performed with William Parker, Federico Ughi, DJ Logic, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth, scientist/musician Matthew Putman, Cooper-Moore, Sam Rivers, David S. Ware, Yoko Ono, Living Colour, Medensky Martin and Wood and Jaco Pastorius among others. He is a member of the cooperative free jazz groups TEST and Other Dimensions In Music." ^ Hide Bio for Daniel Carter • Show Bio for William Parker "William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time." In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists. Parker's current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan's Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others." ^ Hide Bio for William Parker • Show Bio for Charles Downs Charles Downs is a New York City drummer known for band Centipede, influenced by Miles Davis, Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, samba, Afro Cuban, and Caribbean feelings, and points in between. He was a member of Jameel Moondoc's Muntu. He worked with Bobby Zankel, and performed with Cecil Taylor, including being a member of Cecil Taylor's big band. He is a member of Flow Trio with Louie Belogenis and Joe Morris, and Other Dimensions in Music. ^ Hide Bio for Charles Downs • Show Bio for Fay Victor "Called "a thrilling improviser" by Downbeat magazine, Fay Victor consistently hones a unique vision of the vocalist's role in jazz and improvised music. Victor's eight (8) critically acclaimed recordings as a leader since the late 90's has seen praise in venerable media outlets such as Downbeat, JazzTimes, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Wire, Signal to Noise, Popmatters.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Reader, The New York City Jazz Record and JazzWise (UK). Victor's long standing group, the Fay Victor Ensemble - an expansive and cohesive mix of jazz, rock, blues, new music and free improvisation - released three albums to huge critical acclaim (2009's The FreeSong Suite made it onto numerous year-end lists including The Village Voice, NPR and Popmatters.com). The experimental blues project The Exposed Blues Duo, with FVE guitarist Anders Nilsson delving deep into a variety of blues forms released Bare in 2010. There is Herbie Nichols SUNG, Victor's homage to the unsung be-bop pianist incorporating Victor's lyrics and arrangements in a quintet and trio format. The trio project has been recorded and currently looking for label support for release and 2018 will see Victor release Wet Robots on ESP-DISK, a brand new vehicle for fresh sounds and improvisational approaches in a group called SoundNoiseFUNK. In addition to Victor's band-leading vehicles on record, her voice has attracted esteemed ensembles including Other Dimensions in Music (ODIM), the perennial free jazz outfit joined forces with Victor for 2011's Kaiso Stories on Silkheart Records in 2011, lauded for its impressive fusion of Calypso, the music of Trinidad & Tobago and home to Victor's cultural roots, with free jazz. The legendary and longstanding Dutch outfit, the Instant Composer's Pool Orkest (ICP) led by Misha Mengelberg/Han Bennink invited Victor to tour with them in Europe in 2010 and appear during US tours in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Victor is the first vocalist to work consistently with ICP in it's 50 year history. Victor was one of the vocalists on Trillium E (New Braxton Records 2011) with Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra and Trillium J during the four-day Braxtonian Festival in 2011. Reedist Ab Baars invited Victor and french horn hero Vincent Chancey to celebrate 20 years with his esteemed trio in 2011 including a 15-concert European tour, the first time Baars had written material for voice and specifically for Victor; that work is contained on The Invisible Blow (Stichting Wig 2014). Victor received a presenting commission from Anthony Braxton himself on behalf of the Tricentric Foundation for Neighborhood Dynamics (co-composed with Jochem van Dijk) that was presented during the TriCentric Festival in a double bill with Anthony Braxton's Nonet in 2014. Neighborhood Dynamics is a piece about gentrification and the changing demographic landscape of Brooklyn, NY, where Victor calls home. Over the past four years, Victor's work with esteemed avant-garde trombonist Roswell Rudd has seen a deeper connection appearing on his 2014 Trombone for Lovers(Sunnyside Records 2014) and now appearing on every track of Embrace (RareNoise 2017), a project of re-imagined standards. Victor was part of a voice/percussion/piano duo with MacArthur genius grant recipient, professor and composer/multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, with appearances at Constellation in Chicago, IL (2016) and Vision Festival XVVI (2014) amongst their performance highlights. Victor is also out on record as a part of Glorious Ravage, a sprawling song-cycle in honor of Victorian-era female explorers composed by Bay Area bassist/composer Lisa Mezzacappa (New World Records 2017). Mezzacappa and Victor have collaborated frequently since 2011 and the song cycle was originally inspired by Victor's first trip out West to play with Mezzacappa. Finally, Victor is part of ReDDeer a trio of improvisors that met at MusicOmi in 2010 with a record of live duo/trio recordings in New York & Austria called New York - St. Johann (Evil Rabbit Records 2017) and Victor is a featured guest on Marc Ribot's Songs of Resistance, due for release in January 2018. Victor was just awarded a residency at Yaddo Corp. for Music Composition, staying there for 6 weeks to complete a large work on the life and death of her mother, in early 2018. Victor performances has included such luminaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Marshall Allen (Sun Ra), NEA Jazz Master Dr. Randy Weston, NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Myra Melford, Lawrence Butch Morris, Gary Lucas, Dave Burrell, Henry Threadgill, Andrew Cyrille, Jason Moran, Sam Newsome, Darius Jones, Anthony Coleman, Aruan Ortiz, Joe Morris, Vijay Iyer, Matana Roberts, Mark Dresser, Steven Bernstein, Marika Hughes, Mazz Swift, Marty Ehrlich, Melvin Gibbs, Henry Butler, Curtis Clark and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Victor has graced stages around the world including BAMCafe Live, The Stone (NY), Symphony Space (NY),The Jazz Standard (NY), Jazz at Lincoln Center (NY), National Sawdust (NY), Firehouse 12 (New Haven), The Bimhuis (The Netherlands), Cankarjev Dom (Slovenia), Koln Philharmonie (Germany), Nardis(Turkey), Rostov Philharmonic Hall (Russia), De Loft (Koln), The 55 Bar (monthly residency for over 5 years - NY), Vision Festival XV, XVI, XVIV, XXI, The ArtActs Festival (Austria), New Frequencies Festival (San Francisco) and River to River Festivals (New York)." ^ Hide Bio for Fay Victor
10/2/2024
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10/2/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/2/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/2/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Maryanne Revisited 13:33
2. Three Friends Advised 15:24
3. Kitch Goes Home 7:36
4. Saltfish Refried 10:46
5. John Gilman Wants Tobacco 1:57
6. An Open Letter 10:02
7. De Night A De Wake 6:45
8. We Is We Trini 8:24
Ayler Records
Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Unusual Vocal Forms
Parker, William
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