8 November 2007

ARTHUR BLYTHE QUINTET - LIVE IN MONTRÉAL, QB, CANADA JULY 1981



Here's a wonderful concert by the great Arthur Blythe in his prime.

One of my favourite concert albums of all time has always been the Grip/Metamorphosis set on India Navigation from a few years before this concert.

Arthur has been around forever, and has recently (last 10 years) made a spate of great records for diverse labels.

For a time it looked like he was floundering after being picked up by cbs, for whom he made a couple of great records which didn’t sell, and are only now being rediscovered for the gems they are.
Label executives have never been terribly tolerant of artists intentions, unless they can make money.
So it seemed to a lot of Arthurs fans for a time that he was being manicured , and given a commercial makeover that didn’t suit him at which a lot of his virtues and integrity were sacrificed, to recoup the big advances and initial cost of that manicure.

But Arthur's back in full force,
And heres a potent souvenir from the glory days of that great period from the mid seventies to the early eighties.

Thanks to the original seeder/trader
[I'm sorry I don’t have the flacs for this one! > now available in Flac]

Arthur Blythe Quintet
Jazz festival –Montreal Quebec
July 1981

Track list
1)intro, announcement
2)?
3)?
4)hip tripper
5)illusions
6)faceless woman
7) short solo- by Arthur
8)?
(see comments for an improved track list)

Personnel-
Arthur Blythe - alto sax
Bob Stewart - tuba
Abdul Wadud - cello
Kelvyn Bell - guitar
Bobby Battle - drums
check out arthur's recent recordings!!
at

21 comments:

  1. SOTISE8 November 2007 at 02:23:00 CET

    http://rapidshare.com/files/66386368/Arthur_Blythe_-_Live_Montreal_Jazz_Festival_July_1981.part1.rar

    http://rapidshare.com/files/66421057/Arthur_Blythe_-_Live_Montreal_Jazz_Festival_July_1981.part2.rar

    mp3 256/vbr

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  2. Anonymous8 November 2007 at 03:59:00 CET

    Thanks for this, and all the other excellent broadcasts and location recordings you've shared with us over the previous months. Your taste is superb.

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  3. Boromir8 November 2007 at 12:07:00 CET

    Great post sotise. At times the tone of his horn reminds me of a 1940s Pillip Marlowe film, with Robert Mitchum.

    Blythe fans may be interested in the fantastic recording he did as a member of "The Leaders" - "Slipping and Sliding" where he played alonside Lester Bowie. This is still available for download on fredito's blog and is highly recommended.
    Link:
    http://huppeshyalites.blogspot.com/2007/04/helix-aspersa-muller.html

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  4. Anonymous8 November 2007 at 22:48:00 CET

    Sweet. I am anxious to hear this. another nice post. I've always really liked Blythe's sound, but I have only heard a little bit of his albums. 2 great live discs with Chico Freeman (Luminous and Unspoken Word). but I haven't been able to find any of his stuff as a leader from this time period - which I've read from a number of places is some of his best work. Black Arthur, bringing it, on a live date. Thank you,

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  5. SOTISE9 November 2007 at 07:08:00 CET

    somebody, also posted links to a rip of metamorphoses and the grip.
    in the comments to the blythe post
    on j bombays blog taste the mystery
    thats a great set, and if the links are down ill certainley consider it for a future post.

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  6. Wallofsound9 November 2007 at 17:23:00 CET

    What a wonderful night that must have been. I've not heard this before, but everything about it is outstanding.

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  7. head4249 November 2007 at 22:38:00 CET

    colwhy do you have to have these stupd fucking links that i can never type properly

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  8. John V9 November 2007 at 23:31:00 CET

    sotise-Thanks so much for this post as well the leads on the other posts.I'm just getting into Blythe and really enjoy his sound.These look great!

    John V.

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  9. ag10 November 2007 at 13:19:00 CET

    Now that's a lot more up my street.
    The India Navigation you refer to must be "In Concert", I know it, but I liked "Lenox Avenue" much better, can't really say why, probably because the songs from the concert seemed more complicated (like the guys were more into structural metamorphoses than simple song-playing). I hope this one comes at least somewhere mid-way.
    What's really interesting in all those Blythe bands is the lineup - you need balls (and fantastic musicians) to be able to do with a tuba instead of a bass.
    Certainly looking forward to it :)
    Thanks.

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  10. Sunmyth18 November 2007 at 23:43:00 CET

    I can't see the entire link in the comments for some reason. the end is cut off. Could you possibly post it again?

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  11. SOTISE19 November 2007 at 13:55:00 CET

    sun myth
    the link is
    http://rapidshare.com/files/66386368/Arthur_Blythe_-_Live_Montreal_Jazz_Festival_July_1981.part1.rar

    http://rapidshare.com/files/66421057/Arthur_Blythe_-_Live_Montreal_Jazz_Festival_July_1981.part2.rar
    if you still cant see them
    try pasting , them into a word document.

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  12. centrifuge28 May 2008 at 20:32:00 CEST

    i realise this is a bit late (very late!) but... just on the off chance that it might help anyone in future... unfortunately this very good concert was butchered by whoever edited and indexed it (presumably not sotise), bits missing etc - and the third file actually contains two different tracks, separated by a longish spiel by blythe, which accounts for some of the confusion in the track listing:

    can't identify the first two pieces played (track two, first third of track three), but the rest of track three *after* the spoken bit is "hip dripper" (sp.) - as explained by blythe

    track four is (garner's) "misty", again as arthur says beforehand

    five and six as listed

    track seven (unfortunately incomplete) is blythe's signature sax solo, "my son ra"

    - can't help with the last track, but of course that's cut as well.

    the music is very enjoyable though :)

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  13. luomosa19 March 2009 at 17:27:00 CET

    thank you sotise for this one I am very curious regards

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  14. Alistair19 April 2009 at 17:39:00 CEST

    Hi all - ok so it's taken me a long time to find the site :-)

    This great concert reminds me of when i started buying jazz records - Richard Cook wrote some very positive reviews of Blythe in the New Musical Express at the time - i always much preferred the guitar/tuba band to the piano band

    i think the tracks are: 1. Announcement 2. Odessa (from Lennox Avenue Breakdown and Da-Da) 3. first 6 mins is Strike Up the Band (from Blythe Spirit)with the rest being Hip Dripper (from In the Tradition) 4. Misty (Blythe Spirit) 5. Illusions (from LP of same name) 6. Faceless Woman (from Blythe Spirit and Basic Blythe) 7. My Son Ra (from The Grip) 8. just seems to be the first couple of minutes of track 6 and seems to be an editing error

    Hope this helps - thanks to everyone for posting the music

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  15. Anonymous21 November 2016 at 18:37:00 CET

    hi, can you please re up the link for this surely great recording??
    thanx

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  16. francisco santos30 March 2017 at 05:20:00 CEST

    re post, please...
    THX!...

    ReplyDelete
  17. francisco santos22 May 2020 at 06:47:00 CEST

    REPOST PLEASE!...
    THX!...

    ReplyDelete
  18. mew2317 August 2022 at 09:41:00 CEST

    New link

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  19. DRONSZ19 August 2022 at 22:00:00 CEST

    Thanks for the new link. Anyway, it's a mp3 version.
    In the description, it's stated:
    [I'm sorry I don’t have the flacs for this one! > now available in Flac]

    So, is there a FLAC version around? Could somebody post it?

    Thanks!

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  20. Brewing Luminous6 September 2023 at 19:25:00 CEST

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  21. apf22 November 2023 at 09:20:00 CET

    Thank you mew23 !

    ReplyDelete