Records

          Freedom Jazz

The Arista/Freedom Jazz Release; Albert Ayler, Vibrations, Arista-Freedom AL 1000 Marión Brown, Porto Novo, Arista-Freedom AL 1001; Charles Tolliver, Paper Man, Arista-Freedom AL 1002 Gato Barbieri and Dollar Brand. Confluence, Arista-Freedom AL 1003; Randy Weston, Carnival, Arista-Freedom AL 1004: Cecil Taylor, Silent Tongues, Arista-Freedom AL 1005; Roswell Rudd . Flexible flyer, Arista-Freedom AL 1006

    You've got to hand it to Clive Davis - the man has style. Scarcely two years ago he was dismissed as president of Columbia Records for alleged misuse of company funds- an event the repercussions of which continue to vibrate the entire music industry and which would certainly have spelt the end to the career of any average, or even superior, businessman. But Clive simply took a brief vacation, wrote a book, regrouped his energies, and unleashed Arista Records. Ten minutes later Arisia artist Barry Manilow, the formerly unknown, no-talent accompanist for Bette Midler, has the No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. Arisia has also signed and released albums by vocalist Melissa Manchester, folkie songwriter Eric Anderson, and, recently, by The Head Hunters, Herbie Hancock's band minus Herbie. But Clive's most impressive coup so far has been the Arista Freedom Jazz Release.

   For a nominal outlay of cash. Clive bought up American distribution rights to the Freedom catalogue and Arista has been able to advertise. relatively lavishly and with a maximum of self-congratulation, a roster boasting the names of a half-dozen of the most innovative, influential New Wave jazz musicians of the 60's and 70's. Of course, it's important to keep in mind that many of these giant talents found themselves forced to migrate to Europe to play and record these albums in the first place because the scene in 60's America was so violently antipathetic to the practice of their art. But also consider that during that time Clive, as head of Columbia. was, indirectly but to his credit, making it easier for jazz musicians (and himself) today, by selling Miles Davis to a new hungry young audience and by likewise signing and promoting the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Significantly, to this day Warner Bros. Records doesn't have a single jazz artist on its roster while Atlantic and Blue Note are, effectively, marketing their narrow jazz as "race music". Thus, even today, it still takes imagination and daring to conceive and execute a promotion of music this alien to an industry and public numbed by the innocuously familiar. Arista has done us all a service by making some obscure but great music readily available.

   For example. take Albert Ayler's Vibrations. Originally issued as ghosts on Debut, it features the awesome post-Coltrane tenor saxophonist in one of the most congenial and fertile settings of his tragically brief career. It was recorded in l1964 in Denmark with Don Cherry, trumpet;Gary Peacock, bass; and Sonny Murray, Cecll Taylor's pulse-playing percussionist; and represents Ayler at his "purest"--- before he began to incorporate blues and r & b rhythms into his music. Ayler's music. unlike that of contemporaneous earth shakers like Cecil Taylor or John Coltrane, broke sharply away from the evolutionary processes of modern Jazz and returned to hummable, almost-childlike melodies, to turn-of-the-century marching bands and fife and drum units. He played these compositions with huge, elemental power and sincerity and as well on this disc as anywhere else.

    Trumpeter composer Charles Tolliver recorded Paper Man in 1968 with Gary Bartz, alto sax (side 2 only), Herbie Hancock, piano: Ron Carter, bass:and Joe Chambers, drums. It is strongly reminiscent of any of the dozens of imaginative, if straight-ahead, albums done for Blue Note throughout the Sixtes by musicians associated with Miles Davis and/or Art Blakey. There is a lyric. legato quality to Tolliver's attack and phrasing unusual in a trumpeter that distinguishes an endlessly listenable album.

    Porto Novo is one of about a dozen albums that altoist Marion Brown recorded for various labels during his extended sojourn in Europe. Although there is a lyricism that pervades all of his work. past and present, this disc, recorded in 1967 with a tree, yet cooking rhythm section, is unlike the almost pastoral compositions Brown is recording presently tor Impulse Porto Novo is high energy manna and a showcase for Brown's warm. Rollins-influenced tone and improvisational bent. The title cut is a particular ear-opener blending as it does, a long, brilliant tabla introduction with Brown's love of Mexican folk dance themes.

    Tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri and pianist Dollar Brand got together to record Confluence in Italy in 1968 during their separate ramblings in Europe. The album is a fascinating combination of a younger, less fully-formed, but undeniably fierce Gato and the South African Brand whose music is deeply redolent of Ellington and Monk.

     Flexible Flyer was recorded just this year by trombonist Rudd and Co, for Arista. Besides Rudd, whose fat nearly burlesque sound, grounded in Dixieland as well as in his advanced work with Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor. Flyer features ex-Detroiter vocalist Sheila Jordan who Charlie Parker once praised as having "million dollar ears". A sympathetic rhythm section rounds out a potent sound that demonstrates why Rudd should be heard as a leader more than once every 6 years.

    Pianists Weston's and Taylor's albums were well-recorded live at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Weston, the expatriate jazzman who took up permanent residence in Morocco in the late 60's, played a strong, main- streamed set that also reflected his North African influences. He got muscular help from tenor player Billy Harper and the Art Ensemble of Chicago's drummer. Don Moye, in particular. Taylor's Silent Tongues is a solo set. lt affords a particularly uncluttered shot at Taylor's dense, multi-handed kaleidophonics. lt is like everything else he's done, "psychedelic" in the literal sense of the word.

                ---Bill Adler