The Squid's Ear Magazine


Greene / Smith / Moses: Life's Intense Mystery (Astral Spirits)

Performing live at Lily Pad in Cambridge, MA, the trio of free jazz piano legend Burton Green in a trio with bassist Damon Smith and drummer Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, in 6 collective improvisations, with impressive playing from all three as they segway through the three part "Life's Intense Mystery", taking exploratory moments and even some "Kid Play" inbetween.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Burton Greene-piano

Damon Smith-double bass

Ra Kalam Bob Moses-drums, percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5060179706290

Label: Astral Spirits
Catalog ID: AS090
Squidco Product Code: 27529

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at the Lily Pad in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 7th, 2017, by Eric Zinman.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This rare appearance of Maestro Greene, one of the Godfather's of Free Jazz piano and an ageless stalwart of the growth and expansion of Jazz into the contemporary and avant worlds, will also mark the release of two albums on the French Improvising Beings label: * Compedium (solos, duos & Trios) by Burton Greene, Zither Gods by Eric Zinman.

Greene became part of the nascent free jazz movement, forming probably the first spontaneous composition group with bassist Alan Silva in '63: The Free Form Improvisation Ensemble. He joined Bill Dixon's and Cecil Taylor's Jazz Composers Guild in 1964 and worked with Marion Brown, Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Sam Rivers, and Patty Waters among others before moving to Europe in 1969. He currently resides in Amsterdam."-from the Lily Pad concert listing."



Also available on cassette with download.

Artist Biographies

"Burton Greene (born June 14, 1937) is a free jazz pianist born in Chicago, Illinois, though most known for his work in New York City. He has explored a variety of genres, including avant-garde jazz and the Klezmer medium.

Greene rose to popularity during the 1960s on New York's free jazz scene, gigging with well-known musicians which included Alan Silva and Marion Brown, among a host of others. With Alan Silva he formed the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble in 1963. He joined Bill Dixon's and Cecil Taylor's Jazz Composers Guild in 1964, and also played with a number of other artists, including Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Byard Lancaster, Sam Rivers, Patty Waters, and others. During this time, he recorded two albums under his own name for ESP-Disk.

He moved to Europe in 1969, first to Paris. Since then he has been living in Amsterdam and played with such Dutch musicians as Maarten Altena and Willem Breuker. During the late 1980s he began exploring the Klezmer tradition in his groups Klezmokum (along with Perry Robinson), Klez-thetics, and a more recent group called Klez-Edge with vocalist Marek Balata. Klez-Edge has a recent recording Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters (2008) out on John Zorn's Tzadik label. A duet with Perry Robinson, also on the Tzadik label, Two Voices in the Desert was released in January 2009.

Since the mid-1990s Greene has often performed and recorded in New York and along the East Coast. Greene's recent performance and recorded groups based in New York include a duet with bassist Mark Dresser; a quartet with trumpeter Roy Campbell, Lou Grassi and Adam Lane; a trio with Ed and George Schuller on bass and drums (recorded on the CIMP label); and a quintet with the Schuller brothers, Russ Nolan on saxes and flute and Paul Smoker on trumpet. His autobiography written over 20 years, Memoirs of a Musical Pesty-Mystic, was published in 2001 (Cadence Jazz Books)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_Greene)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Damon Smith studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and has had lessons with Bertram Turezky, Joëlle Leandré, John Lindberg, Mark Dresser and others. Damon's explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced by his CAMH performance of Ben Patterson's Variations for Double Bass, collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Damon has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, Marco Eneidi, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and five great years in Houston, Texas working regularly with Alvin Fielder, Sandy Ewen, David Dove & Chris Cogburn, Damon will move to the Boston area in the fall of 2016. Damon has run Balance Point Acoustics record label since 2001, releasing music focusing on transatlantic collaborations between US and European musicians."

-Balance Point Acoustic Website (https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Life's Intense Mystery Pt. I 15:49

2. Life's Intense Mystery Pt. II 6:24

3. Anything that Ain't Yes, Get Rid of It 6:09

4. Perc-Waves (or Percussion Waves) 10:42

5. Kid Play 4:40

6. Life's Intense Mystery Pt. III 8:38

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Boston Area Improvisers
Trio Recordings
Piano Trio (Piano Bass Drums)
Collective Free Improvsation

Search for other titles on the label:
Astral Spirits.


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