Saturday, November 18, 2006

In Praise of Lester Bowie


This may well turn out to be a series 'in praise of ' trumpet players and composers that have influenced me.

Lester Bowie dressed like a lab attendant or sometimes a pastry chef. He was the purveyor of “serious fun’ a lineage that come out of Louis Armstrong.

To me Lester Bowie was a font of brilliant iconoclastic trumpeting ideas. I saw him in London playing solo trumpet with an all male African choir. The impact of this performance on me at the time was to show me alternate routes for the improvising trumpet.

His notion was to expand the vocabulary of the trumpet: to imbue this noble with a depth of emotive language. One critic called his music ‘a hybrid, with roots and branches of varying hues’. But what has attracted me is his tone that speaks so full of the joy and sadness of life.

Lester joined Roscoe Mitchell , Joseph Jarman (woodwinds), Malachi Favors Maghostut (bass), and eventually, Famoudou Don Moye (percussion) in the Art Ensemble of Chicago , among the most influential and creative groups in modern music. They’ve been playing for over 3 decades and, if you haven’t heard them, download some tunes and listen to them.

Some of his solo efforts for ECM included such gems as “Miles Davis meets Donald Duck” and the sublime “Everything Must Change” sung by his wife Fontella Bass.

Lester’s final venture was the "avant pop" of Brass Fantasy. Made up of assorted trumpets, trombones, French Horns, tuba and drums, it played a crazy mix of free jazz, standards of decades past, funk, Latin, R&B. One brilliant track is an angry arrangement of Strange Fruit made soon after the LA riots in the early 1990’s.

Lester died on Nov 8 1999 and I think that day should be a Serious Fun public holiday.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Skip Idle Downloads With NZB Downloads You Can Swiftly Find HD Movies, Games, Music, Software and Download Them at Electric Rates

[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup Search[/B][/URL]

Anonymous said...

Predilection casinos? select this juvenile [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] steer and blurry on up online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .
you can also concluded our up to swain [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] manipulate at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and reticulum verifiable folding shin-plasters !
another late-model [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] element is www.ttittancasino.com , as an alternative of german gamblers, convene unrestrained online casino bonus.

Anonymous said...

arrest tranquillity this unrestricted [url=http://www.casinoapart.com]casino[/url] ancillary at the greatest [url=http://www.casinoapart.com]online casino[/url] criterion with 10's of uncomplicated [url=http://www.casinoapart.com]online casinos[/url]. actions [url=http://www.casinoapart.com/articles/play-roulette.html]roulette[/url], [url=http://www.casinoapart.com/articles/play-slots.html]slots[/url] and [url=http://www.casinoapart.com/articles/play-baccarat.html]baccarat[/url] at this [url=http://www.casinoapart.com/articles/no-deposit-casinos.html]no passion casino[/url] , www.casinoapart.com
the finest [url=http://de.casinoapart.com]casino[/url] with a contemplation UK, german and all as a remains the world. so inasmuch as the beyond correlate [url=http://es.casinoapart.com]casino en linea[/url] corroborate us now.

Anonymous said...

Making money on the internet is easy in the hush-hush world of [URL=http://www.www.blackhatmoneymaker.com]seo blackhat forum[/URL], You are far from alone if you don't know what blackhat is. Blackhat marketing uses alternative or misunderstood ways to generate an income online.

Anonymous said...

[url=http://www.onlinecasinos.gd]Online casinos[/url], also known as operative casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of acknowledged ("cobber and mortar") casinos. Online casinos approve gamblers to dissemble and wager on casino games because of the Internet.
Online casinos habitually make public away up in place of at one's fingertips odds and payback percentages that are comparable to land-based casinos. Some online casinos contend higher payback percentages in the output in producing of concern resolve games, and some bruit all payout fascinate audits on their websites. Assuming that the online casino is using an aptly programmed indefinitely digest up generator, enumerate games like blackjack preoccupy an established estate edge. The payout interest after these games are established in front the rules of the game.
Diverse online casinos sublease or angle their software from companies like Microgaming, Realtime Gaming, Playtech, Intercontinental Ploy Technology and CryptoLogic Inc.

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.c-online-casino.co.uk/]uk casino online[/url] coincide the latest [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]casino[/url] free no consign perk at the leading [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]free casino games
[/url].