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.

20 comments:

Boromir said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

Hookfinger said...

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.

Arcturus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arcturus said...

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?)

Boromir said...

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.

serviceton said...

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

Anonymous said...

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!

unitstructure said...

burning performances. "Fire Within" is a favorite.

Fred said...

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

kinabalu said...

For sure!

Adrive

Really good this one. Recommended!

Fred said...

Kinabalu : MERCI !

A very very big trip with Billy Bang.

francisco santos said...

BIG THX!...

Solomon said...

Thank you!

Nod Y said...

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.

kinabalu said...

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

Scraps said...

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.

Scraps said...

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