29 June 2008

Air - Cologne (with Amiri Baraka),March 20, 1982 FLAC and lame





Here’s another all too rare air concert.
This is a collaboration with controversial radical African American nationalist poet Amiri Baraka formerly Leroi Jones , probably best known to jazz fans as the author of Black Dada Nihilisimus, performed on the New York Art quartets eponymous album on esp.
Baraka was initially friends with the beats whom he had come to know after moving to Greenwich Village in the late 50’s.
Baraka moved on, I think becoming increasingly disillusioned with their flabby romanticism and lack of specific political engagement.

I don’t know too much about Baraka ,other than a few basic facts, and of course some of the background to the explosive controversy that exploded in the headlines ( here in Australia) when Baraka lost his status as poet laureate of new jersey after publishing a poem titled “somebody blew up America’ about the events of sept 11 2001.

Anyhow this is a great concert, and Air are providing much more than mere support but are interacting fully with both Baraka and each other.
A great one … many thanks to JeffMorris for taping and seeding this show.

Lineage: CD on trade ( FM, unknown gen ) -> Extracted & converted to FLAC using EAC -> DIME
Disc 1

1. Zoodoo 04:29
2. Bad News 04:22
3. I Love Music 03:57
4. Against Bourgeois Art 06:04
5. Afro-American Lyric 05:43
6. Wailers 05:05
7. Am/Trak 10:37
8. Class Struggle In Music 12:01


Lineup:

Amiri Baraka - recitation
Henry Threadgill - reeds
Fred Hopkins - b
Steve McCall - dr


ENJOY!!!

read Baraka's poems here
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/baraka/onlinepoems.htm

30 comments:

  1. vbr
    http://rapidshare.com/files/125143076/airk_oln82.zip
    FLAC
    http://rapidshare.com/files/125143054/airkolne82.part3.rar

    http://rapidshare.com/files/125143001/airkolne82.part2.rar

    http://rapidshare.com/files/125143070/airkolne82.part1.rar

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  2. Great post sotise. It's amazing how AIR seemed to manage to sound different with each concert they did, not easy with a trio format.

    I seem to recall hearing a poem by Baraka (or Leroi Jones as he was then) on a 60s Shepp LP. In those days it was all about Black empowerment, now there are other issues.

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  3. hi sotise .thanks for all these great post in this blog.
    This concert of AIR is amazing i had downloand it from Dime and as you see in artcover i had design this for all you that need this. and of course i don't have problem that you post this here in that great blog .. Thanks again , all the best

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  4. thanks for the cover htkat,its great.
    best to you too.

    and B.. yeah air were different from album to album as well.. a pity half their output is out of print.

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  5. Sotise, the more AIR the better. Thanks for sharing this concert. I was wondering...this is labeled "Disc 1;" is there a "Disc 2" somewhere? Whatever the case, I am happy to have this rare radio broadcast. Thanks!

    As an aside I hope it is okay to mention a blog that I ran across a month or so back that was offering several Threadgill albums (including some Air albums). It was called "17 green buicks." The URL is: http://17greenbuicks.blogspot.com/
    It's a little more run of the mill jazz site than "inconstantsol" but worth checking out (if you haven't already done so). Several "post-boppish" and avant garde offerings - MP3s on Mediafire - no FLACs as I recall.

    Well, keep 'em coming. Your work is greatly appreciated.

    Dale

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  6. thanks for the tip, dale. i picked up a few threadgill discs from the site (enjoying x-75 now) & wanted to leave a "thanks," but i don't think comments are enabled. i hope whoever's running it checks here.

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  7. Thank you so much again for sharing this great music! This blog is a truly inexhaustible source of inspiration for me. But most importantly, this place helps greatly to keep this music alive! Because if no one hears it, the music is as good as dead, and the people who created it forgotten (that's especially true for more "obscure" groups and musicians like Black Unity Trio). So, there can't be a better service done to the music than bringing it to those who appreciate it, who feel that it's values and ideas are still as urgent as they used to be.

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  8. Amiri Baraka, under his previous name LeRoi Jones, wrote an exceptional book Blues People (first published in 1963). I consider it the best book on jazz ever, along with his other book called Black Music, which is a collection of essays and articles on jazz written between 1959 and 1967. They both are probably out of print but second-hand copies must be possible to find through www.bookfinders.com and other such places. Speaking of jazz books, my second favourite are two books by Frank Kofsky: John Coltrane And The Jazz Revolution Of The 1960s, and Black Music White Business - Illuminating The History And Political Economy Of Jazz. Also I highly recommend a book by Ben Sidran called Black Talk. Another great book, not specifically on jazz but still very relevant Mother Wit From The Laughing Barrel: Readings In The Interpretation Of Afro-American Folklore (Archie Shepp uses it in one of his courses at the university). And the obvious free jazz trilogy: Free Jazz by Ekkehard Jost, The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 by John Litweiler, and As Serious As Your Life: John Coltrane And Beyond by Valerie Wilmer. I haven't yet read the "autobiographies" of Mingus and Miles but a book by a jazz musician surely is closer to the heart of the matter than writing of academics and critics. Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet is the book I keep coming back to again and again!
    If anyone knows some good books on jazz, please let me know.

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  9. Just remembered, I've got a 1983 recording of the performance by Max Roach and Archie Shepp duo with Amiri Baraka. I think half of it the duo and Baraka perform separately and another half all together. It's an audience recording, so the sound quality is not that great, but it's still listenable. Great performance though. If there is any interest I could make it available. Cheers.

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  10. www.bookfinder.com (I wrote it incorrectly above)

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  11. I downloaded the VBR and the FLAC files but both seem to be missing track 4. Anyone else notice this? Amazing to hear two favorites that I never knew had worked together.

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  12. Thank you, very much!
    --JDT
    http://www.last.fm/user/Justin1983/

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  13. I would love to hear that Shepp/Roach recording with Baraka. I actually seek out and collect as many Baraka recordings as I can. Considering the music on this blog, I'm actually surprised how many folks know little of him. I have his album with David Murray and Steve McCall, which is always highly praised, but I actually prefer his work on Hugh Ragin's album and on the NYAQ reunion album. There's this CD by a group called Artha Baraka, with Baraka on vocals, Alan Silva on bass, and a few European players I'm not so familiar with that I've been looking for a few years, to no avail.

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  14. great post, sotise.
    I was afraid at one point that there would be more political lecturing than good music, but boy, was I wrong!
    I love that funny 2nd tune with that strip-tease like "soundtrack" that fits the message (and the "massage" as well, I suppose).

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  15. Hello, I was wondering if this AIR is the french band? (Moon Safari, Virgin Suicides, Everybody Hertz, Talkie Walkie)

    Thank you.

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  16. José - Were you also wondering if Anthony Braxton and Toni Braxton could possibly be the same?

    Just kidding...of course the answer in both cases is no.

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  17. sotise: absolute thanxz!!!
    great music for the people here
    intempestif:
    please make available that shepp/roach/baraka man!!

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  18. Thanks, this was great. Is Ornette Coleman's "Crisis" available anywhere (or his "Song for Che", does anyone know?

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  19. Baraka fans: Amiri Baraka explains dialectics to Connie Chung:

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1482453363259008374

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  20. THANKS FOR GR POST
    BEST WISHES FROM ATHENS

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  21. For some fascinating background reading on Baraka's doings as Leroi Jones, do check out this ISBN:

    978-0802134967

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  22. Any chance of posting new links for this recording? The original rapidshares are dead.

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  23. yeap, it would be great to find new links to this post

    Igor

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  24. joining in on the re-up requests. if you have time, would love to hear this one.
    cheers

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  25. To commemorate the passing of Amiri Baraka, we have reposted this recording here:
    http://pettyvendetta.blogspot.com/2014/01/air-with-amiri-baraka-koln-03-20-1982.html
    go in peace.

    -PettyV

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  26. New link (flac)
    https://1fichier.com/?m8hckdt7rp

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  27. mew23 take my hat to you for preserving this jazz landmarks....
    BIG THX!....

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  28. Thank you very much. Beautiful music

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  29. mew, wonderful that you re-upped this. Air a very important part of Threadgill's overall output, + in its own right as a unit. Fred Hopkins sorely missed, and this one of the best vehicles for him. Note I downloaded all three parts, and got broken files on tracks 4 and 7. My problem [?] or can, at least, those tracks be re-upped?
    Thanks again!!!!

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  30. Incidentally, great recording quality + Baraka + AIR complement each other quite well. A unique event. Also nice that Amiri Baraka kept his politics but stayed away from some of the over the top invective which he sometimes espoused. To have one who (importantly) worked to expose the underbelly of racism in amerika (and beyond), he could also spin a pretty ugly anti-semitic vein.

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