Fred Moten, prolific poet, theorist, critic, English Professor and 2020 MacArthur Fellow, provides the insightful and incisive text fueling the improvisation of New York drummer Gerald Cleaver and contrabass player Brandon Lopez, the synergy of Moten's words reminding of Gil Scott-Heron or Amiri Baraka; issued on LP by Reading Group, this CD edition adds two tracks.
1. The Abolition Of Art, The Abolition Of Freedom, The Abolition Of You And Me 8:35 2. B Jenkins 3:02
3. B Jenkins, Pt. 2 2:25
4. The Faerie Ornithologie 8:54
5. A Poem For Black Art 25:09
6. James Baldwin 3:03
7. Laura Harris 8:46
8. John Thompson 3:50
9. Surfacing 12:22
sample the album:
descriptions, reviews, &c.
"Lopez and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they've developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic palettes.
Lopez and Cleaver have long been recognized as some of the most vital voices in contemporary experimental improvised music, each with dozens of recordings and frequent performances in New York and abroad. They are joined here by Fred Moten, the inimitable poet, theorist, critic, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow.
Moten's presence, voicing poetry in an improvisatory syncopation with the instrumentalists, raises the music to third plane, putting the record in a broader collection of legendary spoken-word jazz records from Gil Scott-Heron and Amiri Baraka to the contemporary energies of Moor Mother and Irreversible Entanglements. This CD release contains two tracks that did not appear on the LP."-Relatice Pitch