Two oldie-goldies from the Human Arts Ensemble
I thought I'd do a bit more of recycling from the now defunct C#9 blog. These posts were initially put in the comments section in response to Flux'us posting of the Black Arts Ensemble so I thought they deserve front-page status here.
Both ensembles were basically made up of a small core of musicians, centered around the drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw. This was a St. Louis-based outfit which would invite guest musicians, including the Bowie (Lester, Joseph) brothers and Oliver Lake. They would later shift to New York where Shaw made more records under the "Human Arts Ensemble" umbrella and Joseph Bowie founded Defunkt, a well-known 80s jazz-funk band.
The HAE records were mostly side-long jams with collective improvisation from the regular band members and guests. As such, they drew upon the dixieland tradition rather than the standard one of serial improvisation with one soloist at a time.
These four sides have all their different characters. The two pieces on Under the Sun are obviously inspired by folk music of the Middle East and further beyond. The title piece on
Whisper of Dharma invokes the serenity of the Asian jungles with its assortment of small instruments and quiet moods, not unlike the early Art Ensemble of Chicago, another ensemble from another city , but with Lester Bowie as the human link. Some similarity may also be found with the early quartet pieces of Anthony Braxton. The other side of Whisper, on the other hand, expresses the hustle-bustle of the North American urban reality.
Tracks:
Under the Sun
side 1: A Lover's Desire
side 2: Hazrat, the Sufi
Whisper of Dharma
side 1: Whisper of Dharma
side 2: A World New
The cast of characters is a bit too long to reproduce here, but the full line-up can be found in the attached scans.
Both these records were initially privately released and fetch huge sums of money for original copies. These rips, however, are from the Arista Freedom rereleases from the mid-70s, but I dont think anyone will notice any difference, audio-wise.
35 comments:
Whisper of Dharma:
http://www.divshare.com/download/
1426132-374
Under the Sun:
http://www.divshare.com/download/
1425975-45d
These are both high-quality mp3s. I haven't done any conversions to a lossless format, but I do keep the wav files on the computer, just in case.
Scans are included in the rar files.
Good to see your continued support, Kinabalu.
kinabalu, thanks! Already had your earlier files, but realized these are substantial bit upgrades of great performances :)
Great posts kinabalu. I already have them from some time ago. There is another one, "Streets Of St Louis" I have which I got from james's "Nothing Is" blog. The link is still active:-
http://ajbenjamin2beta.blogspot.com/search?q=human+arts
There are others of the same ilk there. Thanks to james.
glmr,
thanks for your continued support, too ... do keep firing them cds in our general direction ...
I do realise that the hard core folks do not just skim the front page, but peruse the comments section as well. But still, might attract some extra downloads.
Boromir,
Yes, the HAE did one with Luther Thomas which is the one you're referring to. Looking closer, they actually did more than one. I'll keep investigating ... Luther Thomas is still active, I believe ...
It's nice to see this material again. Thank you!
rare as hen's teeth. Thank you!
thanks for posting. I love both of these albums. It will be nice to have a cleaner copy. I believe someone told me that both or at least one of these albums were on import cd at one time. Any idea if that is true?
thanks again
pepper 67,
as far as I know, these two have not been reissued on cd, but second-hand vinyl copies can still be picked up.
Listened to these for the first time today - truly excellent, fascinating music. Thank you.
I have just found a copy of 'Under the Sun' in my local CD emporium - it is a Japanese reissue from 1994 on the Freedom label (seems to be part of Black Lion). I thought the music was superb when I listed to kinabulu's vinyl rip, so didn't hesitate to snap this CD up.
I can post a lossless rip if that would be of interest.
Under the Sun would definitely be of interest!
thanks for these
Is there anyone who would kindly post link of "Poem for Gratitude" which is very rare works of Human Arts Ensemble of this time?
Thank you again Kinabalu!
Will listen again tonight...
You're very much welcome, Onx!
Can anybody provide a re-up for that lossless Whisper of Dharma? I'd be ever so grateful.
Thanks! kinabalu
Many thanks!
I've got the "Whispers Of Dharma" LP, but no turntable, and have never heard "Under The Sun", so it will be great to hear them both. "Whispers" was my introduction to the St. Louis jazz scene and players like Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and the Bowie brothers. Many thanks for the opportunity to listen to these records again/for the first time!
-Brian
Many Thanks for these and all the other excellent uploads.
Many Thanks.
Fantastic albums! A lot of thanks!
Any chance of a re-up?
New link for Whisper of Dharma:
1fichier
and Under the Sun:
1fichier
kinabalu, thank you so much for both of these. Cannot say it enough. Both are great. Thanks!
Incredible stuff. SO grateful
Thank you so much!
Merci beaucoup pour le 'Whisper Of Dharma'.
I was looking for this one lately.
Deep thanks.
Funky Fred From France
Hi, could you please repost "Under the Sun"? 1f link is dead. Thank you!
yeah!...post it, please...
THX!...
The link for "under the sun" is broken.
Could you fix it?
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