11 March 2008

Billy Bang's The Fire Within - Live NYC 1985


Billy Bang is not an artist who got onto my radar until recently when I heard him featured on a David Murray recording, so I don't know an awful lot about the history of his career.

What I do know is that "Billy Bang" is a nickname that stuck, and conveniently enabled the guy to label his albums with names like "Big Bang Theory" and "Bang On".

I guess there haven't been too many jazz violinists around, particularly in latter years, but Billy has a very nice tone, and he can really swing. This concert has some great numbers in it. The marimba (not an instrument you hear that often) makes an interesting accompanyment to Bang's violin, and there's some great work from Parker.

This is a very exiting concert with some great soloing, much appreciated by a vociferous audience.

Details:-

Billy Bang's The Fire Within
Neither/Nor
NYC
December 30 1985


Billy Bang Violin
Ahmed Abdullah Trumpet (2nd set only)
Thurman Barker Marimba
William Parker Bass
Zen Matsura Drums

Approximate setlist

1. Intro
2. Going Through/Echo Vamp
3. The New Seers
4. Music For The Love Of It
5. The Glow Of Awareness
6. The Mold Of Man

tracks 1-3 are the complete first settracks 5,6 are the incomplete 2nd set

Thanks to punkjazz for seeding. Flac and MP3 links in comments. Enjoy.
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20 comments:

  1. Boromir11 March 2008 at 17:13:00 CET

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Anonymous11 March 2008 at 18:25:00 CET

    I am not good at this yet bear with me links for Vandermark Caffeine info to follow--------------------------- -1.http://www.mediafire.com/?jjeyz2xyvee 2.http://www.mediafire.com/?jc0eynonfi7 3.http://www.mediafire.com/?ylmbntmfmtl 4.http://www.mediafire.com/?jcimmx0bccw 5.http://www.mediafire.com/?mj5bzmeyggf 6.http://www.mediafire.com/?rgbycnyxlni 7.http://www.mediafire.com/?tc52nbigjve

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  3. Anonymous11 March 2008 at 18:27:00 CET

    here's info : Jim Baker — piano
    Steve Hunt — percussion
    Ken Vandermark — reeds
    Cover and Artwork cover

    Cover art: William Mohline
    Photography: Marty Perez
    Design: Louise Molnar
    Songs 1. Two Car Garage
    2. Landscape on the Events Horizon
    3. Beyond the Gum Wrapper
    total time: 72:59
    Recording Info

    Recorded at Sparrow Sound Design, Chicago, IL, on November 20, 1993

    Produced by: Jim Baker
    Executive Producer: Bruno Johnson
    Engineer: Bradley Parker-Sparrow
    Liner Notes

    WARNING: Do not listen to this late at night or you may have difficulty falling asleep.
    Track 2 : has 5 index points for convenience and are not indications of divisions of the recording as a whole :this is what it says on back cover :sorry no scanner google vadermark caffeine you can find covers @ various sites Steve

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  4. Anonymous11 March 2008 at 18:29:00 CET

    This is my first attempt at posting I have lots of OOP disks to post let me know if this works and sorry about the split files I hope in the weeks to come I can get better at this . So here is a little contribution from me and a thanks for the great music Steve

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  5. Hookfinger13 March 2008 at 19:11:00 CET

    New to this site but I love. I have found several discs I have been interested in but rather than comment in all let this suffice. Thanks so much. I will keep my eye out.

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  6. Arcturus15 March 2008 at 09:45:00 CET

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Arcturus15 March 2008 at 09:46:00 CET

    once again, man - thank you for the live stuff - if you're just getting into his music, dig deeply - there's a lot there you're going to enjoy - stuff w/ d charles, c tyler, f lowe, an homage to stuff smith w/ sun ra, the vietnam albums, lots on black saint incl one w/ nearly the same players as this concert, the fire from within - studied at one point w/ leroy jenkins, vietnam vet - (what's the recording w/ d murray?)

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  8. Boromir15 March 2008 at 09:59:00 CET

    Thanks for the background info arcturus. The Murray recording I referred to was a tribute to Charles Tyler concert from 1995. If you're interested I can post that in the near future.

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  9. serviceton18 March 2008 at 03:34:00 CET

    Thanks for this post - Appreciated.

    most of Billy Bang's back catalogue is still in print - including his great 80s records on Soul Note (stuff arcturus is referring to above), and the String Trio of New York albums on Black Saint (recommended).
    There are 2 albums more recently issued that reflect on his Vietnam experience, feat. Threadgill, Butch Morris, F Lowe etc - these are really worthwhile too. (+ other titles avail. that I haven't heard)



    This one, is a duo with Dennis Charles - 'Banception'. Relased early 80s on Hatart, and reissued in the late 90's on CD. Although some shops seem to have copies of the CD, the Hat website shows it as Out Of Print.

    These files ripped from vinyl though, not CD. The LP had an amazing dull brown cover, which I've included a scan of, for those that dig 'dull'
    The music is far from it.

    mp3 @320kbps

    http://rapidshare.com/files/100360853/Bangception.part1.rar
    http://rapidshare.com/files/100361086/Bangception.part2.rar

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  10. Anonymous19 March 2008 at 20:25:00 CET

    Gents -- this is great stuff. Many, many thanks. The Billy Bang love-fest we're starting is the kind of unexpected event that makes these file-sharing blogs so wonderful. I still think fondly on the Society of Braxton that spontaneously assembled over at the church.

    Wonderful!

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  11. unitstructure18 December 2013 at 18:52:00 CET

    burning performances. "Fire Within" is a favorite.

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  12. Fred25 March 2016 at 22:40:00 CET

    Hello, "very old" post, but could "someone" repost it ?

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  13. kinabalu26 March 2016 at 17:11:00 CET

    For sure!

    Adrive

    Really good this one. Recommended!

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  14. Fred26 March 2016 at 22:30:00 CET

    Kinabalu : MERCI !

    A very very big trip with Billy Bang.

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  15. francisco santos27 March 2016 at 05:16:00 CEST

    BIG THX!...

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  16. Solomon27 March 2016 at 22:57:00 CEST

    Thank you!

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  17. Nod Y28 March 2016 at 00:00:00 CEST

    Hi Kinabalu
    Please stop posting so many great music, i soon won't have time to sleep!
    this set is simply amazing, here is the exact track listing:
    1 introduction
    2 going through/echo vamp
    3 the new seers
    4 music for the love of it (written by Butch Morris)
    5 the glow of awareness
    6 the mold of man
    -echo vamp is originally on the album "untitled gift", track 3, 5 and 6 are on "the fire from within" and music for the love of it is on "sweet space".
    Both "sweet space" and "untitled gift" have been reissued on cd many years ago, don't know if it's still possible to find it.

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  18. kinabalu29 March 2016 at 13:02:00 CEST

    @Nod Y: Thanks for filling in the gaps. I'll revise the main post accordingly.

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  19. Scraps29 March 2016 at 17:07:00 CEST

    Wow, I saw this one! At least, I'm pretty sure. Thirty years ago.... man. I never thought I could hear it again. Exciting!

    I saw Billy Bang several times, some of them in a very small Village bar which I can't remember the name of. Off of Sixth Avenue.... can't remember the street. That's the stroke for you: lots of proper nouns lost in my memory. Takes me back, though; sitting in Claire's favorite bar -- I remembered the name! 55 was the bar -- with two single malt scotches in front of us, smoking leisurely (before mayor Bloomberg), talking with the bartender, with Billy playing alone.... miss New York, sigh.

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  20. Scraps29 March 2016 at 17:10:00 CEST

    Also, "The Fire from Within" is my favorite Bang album, one of my favorite jazz albums period.

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