|
|
 |
LOOKING FOR AMERICA was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. With an unlikely amalgam of influences including Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, Oliver Nelson, Charles Ives, and Woodstock-fatback-groove, ... Full DescriptionCarla Bley's musical palette is a quirky and uncompromising one. A maverick in the American tradition by any standard, Bley began writing crystalline melodies for her first husband, pianist Paul Bley, in the early 1960s. She made a name for herself writing for other musicians, winning many awards along the way from institutions like Down Beat and Jazz Times.
If you enjoy your patriotism, not to mention your jazz, with an impish twist, her 2003 installment, LOOKING FOR AMERICA, might be the ticket. Clocking in at nearly 22-minutes, her version of the National Anthem, loosely based on "The Star Spangled Banner," might be the most original version of the piece since Jimi Hendrix's notorious performance in '69. As their titles imply, "Fast Lane" and "Tijuana Traffic" come replete with pulsing car-horn harmonies. The writing for the brass and winds throughout is done with bright, bold colors and tight, interlocking rhythms. The proceedings are capped off with a slaphappy "Old MacDonald."
Don Alias (percussion).
Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, New York on October 7 & 8, 2002.
Personnel: Carla Bley (conductor, piano); Wolfgang Pusching (alto saxophone, flute); Andy Sheppard, Craig Handy (tenor saxophone); Gary Smulyan (baritone saxophone); Lew Soloff (trumpet); Jim Pugh (trombone); Karen Mantler (glockenspiel, organ); Steve Swallow (bass); Billy Drummond (drums);
Big Band
Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Much of this meditation on Bley's homeland is affectionate and funky..." Hide Description Looking For America Music | List Price | $17.97 (You save $3.42) | | Category | Rock/Pop Albums, Jazz Instrument CDs, Classics (Silents / Avant Garde), Jazz, Enhanced CD | | Label | ECM / WATT | | Orig Year | 2003 | | All Time Sales Rank |  40555  | | CD Universe Part number | 5855259 | | Catalog number | 000019502 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | May 13, 2003 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Steve Swallow | | Engineer | Tom Mark | | Personnel | Jim Pugh - trombone
Andy Sheppard
Carla Bley - conductor, piano
Wolfgang Pusching - alto saxophone, flute
Karen Mantler - glockenspiel, organ
Gary Smulyan - baritone saxophone
Also: Lew Soloff, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond, Craig Handy, Wolfgang Puschnig |
Purchase Looking For America CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Dave Holland Extended Play: Live At Birdland CDs (2003)
Looking For America album
 $21.99  
EXTENDED PLAY was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
With a front line that features saxophone, trombone, and vibraphone/marimba, the Dave Holland Quintet features an immediately identifiable band sound. As for backing, bassist Holland and traps man Billy Kilson provide a push-me-pull-you, supple and responsive rhythm section that is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to accompaniment ideas.
The thing that separates the men from the boys in the world of jazz improvisation is listening--when the performers are paying close attention to one another, the creative horizons are all but limitless. It would be a slight to say this quintet is all on the same page, better to imagine they all bring their knowledge of great art and fine cuisine to bear each time they play together--it's a multi-faceted, heady ...
| | Paul Motian I Have The Room Above Her CD (2005)
Looking For America CD music
$14.79
The delicate imbrication of parts lends these compositions the feel of fragile, shifting houses suspended in air. Motian's drumming is crucial to this aesthetic--light years beyond standard beat-keeping, his approach to time is all suggestion and evocative accent. Aside from the Hammerstein/Kern title track and a sweet, ethereal take on Thelonious Monk's "Dreamland," all the tunes were written by Motian, his rich imagination informed by classic jazz, post-bop, avant-garde, and ambient music alike. The silent partner here is producer Manfred Eicher, whose ear for warm, resonant tones and expansive atmospheres is the perfect match for the inventiveness, lyricism, and exquisite beauty of this session.
To put drummer Paul Motian, guitarist ...
| | Dave Holland Overtime CD (2005)
Looking For America music CDs
$13.89
| | Thelonious Monk At Carnegie Hall CD (2005)
Looking For America songs
$14.19
On paper it seems as if such titanic and distinctive musical personalities as Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane might not mix very well, but this stellar set, recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1957, plays almost like a blissful extended duet between the two (with support from a sensitive yet hard-swinging bassist and drummer). The opener, "Monk's Mood," for example, features the composer/pianist's typically brilliant, idiosyncratic playing, while Coltrane floats over the top in the most lyrical of modes. Monk, in particular, is a master of tension-and-release tunefulness, creating rhythmic and harmonic intricacies that seem to spur Coltrane's saxophone exploration to new heights.
The quartet shines on ballads ("Sweet and Lovely"), but the leaders display ...
|  | | Also Bought |
| Satantango DVDs (1994) Widescreen; Black & White; Subtitled
Looking For America album
 $61.29
This ambitious, black-and-white, seven-hour Hungarian film from idiosyncratic auteur Bela Tarr follows the inhabitants of a run-down Hungarian village still reeling from the collapse of Communism. Based on Laszlo Karsznahorkai's novel and filmed over a period of two years, the critically acclaimed epic takes the time to explore each character's unique point of view.
Hailed by critics as landmark cinema, SATANTANGO transcends all genres, surpasses all styles. The story revolves ...
| | Almost Human / Maya Beiser CD (2007)
$15.05 | | America Ventura Highway & Other Favorites CD (1992)
Looking For America CD music
$7.55
| | Jon Lloyd Four & Five CD (1999)
Looking For America music CDs
$15.15
| | Charles Mingus Lionel's Sessions CD (2002) (Import)
Looking For America songs
$12.69
| | Various Artists String Quartet Tribute To New Order & Joy Division CD (2003)
Looking For America album
$15.19 
| | Various Artists Masterbeat: Gay Days 2004 CD (2004)
Looking For America CD music
$15.05
| | Various Artists RSVP CD (2006)
Looking For America music CDs
$8.55
| | Mimi Chen & the Blend Mimi Chen & The Blend CD (1997)
Looking For America songs
$7.99
| | Claude Bolling Plays Brassens, Bechet, Vian, Becaud CD (2006)
Looking For America album
$8.69 
| | Jean Luc Godard-Histoire De Musique CD (2007)
Looking For America CD music
$13.35
Track Listing of songs: A Bout De Souffle : La Mort; A Bout De Souffle : New York Herald Tribune; A Bout De Souffle : Duo; Une Femme Est Une Femme : Angela, Strasbourg Saint Denis; Une Femme Est Une Femme : Chanson D'Angela; ...
|
|
Looking For America Music Review | Have you heard this album? |  |
|
|
|
|
|
to listen to Music Samples 
