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!!

21 comments:

SOTISE said...

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

Anonymous said...

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.

Boromir said...

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

Anonymous said...

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,

SOTISE said...

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.

Wallofsound said...

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

head424 said...

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

John V said...

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.

ag said...

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.

Sunmyth said...

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

SOTISE said...

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.

centrifuge said...

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 :)

luomosa said...

thank you sotise for this one I am very curious regards

Alistair said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

francisco santos said...

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

francisco santos said...

REPOST PLEASE!...
THX!...

mew23 said...

New link

DRONSZ said...

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!

Brewing Luminous said...

Thank you

apf said...

Thank you mew23 !