Rudd, Roswell

Blown Bone

Label: Emanem Country: UK

"Eddie Korvin's Blue Rock Studio on Greene Street in Soho was a great place to record because it was so comfortable for musicians. Eddie was relaxed, there was a room upstairs for privacy, and the studio felt more like a living room. Eddie's studio and the players on this album just happened to be available on these two days March 27th and 28th, 1976 in NYC - Steve Lacy and Enrico Rava, both living in Europe but passing through NY at this time. The chances of getting all these people together at one time would be one in a million and this was that time.

They were all in my life at the time - Steve Lacy, Kenny Davern, and Sheila Jordan going back to the late 1950's and early 1960's; Patti Bown, Paul Motian, and Enrico Rava from the 1970's; Wilbur Little, Tyrone Washington, Louisiana Red and Jordan Steckel from the time of the recording. The continuity that I had with Steve Lacy until his passing in 2004 and still have with Sheila Jordan, Enrico Rava, and Kenny Davern is very emotional for me.

BLOWN BONE was the name of a jazz suite conceived in the late '60's but not recorded until 1976. The personnel were exactly right and they all just happened to be at the same place ten years after I wrote it. BLOWN BONE is about New York City and the beauty, the energy, and the struggle. BLOWN BONE, CEMENT BLUES, STREET WALKING and BETHESDA FOUNTAIN was the conceived order of the suite.

IT'S HAPPENING is the first movement of a later jazz suite, HEARTBREAK AND REFORMULATION written around 1974, dedicated to Albert Ayler.

BLUES FOR THE PLANET EARTH and YOU BLEW IT were originally conceived for symphonic wind band (and performed at the Peace Church in Greenwich Village in 1968) as my reaction to garbage scows polluting New York Harbor. If that desecration provoked such anxiety in me at that time you can imagine my anxiety now! Sheila took out the 'S' and 'F' words and improved on the lyric as she has always done on my music. Of course the version here with a sextet is scaled way down from the originally conceived version. The important part for me was always the programmatic message of the earth calling out to human beings to alert them to the impending crises.

I've recently listened to the original vinyl recording, which was released only in Japan in 1979. I still have the same feeling - that the players and the music converged in a way that made it noumenal.

To separate the two 1976 sessions, the previously unissued 1967 recording of LONG HOPE has been inserted. This was the prologue to my first jazz opera: THE GOLD RUSH. The lyrics are shown on a screen while the band plays and a Native American Chief smokes a peace pipe and gestures: 'People, we were put here on Earth to take care of each other........'"-Roswell Rudd, from sleeve notes