Today is Jack Bruce's birthday. He is 69 years old. Also, the 11th of May was Carla Bley's 76th birthday.
They are featured artists in this album,which is by far the darkest and most unrelentingly disturbing of Michael Mantler's albums of which I am aware.
I'm not even sure why I like it, but I do-
with Carla Bley's turgid ostinati like whirlpools less and less
Jack Bruce's angry declamatory style trapped like a prisoner die screams I may die or a foetus alone with my murmur when the panting stops
or monotones of hopelessness no tinged with uncertainty yes
Cherry's agitated squalls like a man trying to shake off a swarm of hornets in the mud
The overall effect is one of existential horror.
Entirely humorless and ultimately hopeless-
I imagine that Samuel Beckett was well pleased with this setting of his words.
-DrI
Side One:
No Answer Number Six
a1-Part One (4:55)
a2-Part Two (4:50)
a3-Part Three (5:45)
a4-Part Four (2:05)
Side Two:
No Answer Number Twelve
b1-Part One (7:35)
b2-Part Two (4:05)
b3-Part Three (2:00)
b4-Part Four (2:55)
Music by Michael Mantler
Words by Samuel Beckett from "How It Is", translated from the French by the author.
Jack Bruce- Voices, Bass Guitar
Carla Bley- Piano, Clavinet, Organs
Don Cherry- Trumpet
(1) or (1)
I don't know WHY my post looks like this, with those big empty spaces. I cannot correct it, as blogger is being intransigent and useless. My apologies.
ReplyDeletehaving a look at the html of your post, i see a lot of "br"'s in it - which causes the lines to "brake", one for each "br". i guess you write your text in "word" or somewhere similar and copy and paste the finished text into blogger - a thing your should NEVER do, because blogger's html is very different from a text program. for simple text just stick to a simple editor, or use the plain html mode and edit the tags later (such as bold, fat etc.).
ReplyDeletethis stuff can be a drag, but at the end it's good to get into and fight the mistakes. cheers, lucky.
AHAA!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, Lucky. You are absolutely right. I do my writing in notepad.(it usually sort of works, but...not quite...) I'll have to figure out what to use instead, I guess.You mean it's ME who's intransigent and useless???
Who'da thunkit?
Good to hear from you!
I agree No Answer is brilliant disturbing and is something that takes repeated listening. The urgency in Jack Bruce's vocals certainly adds to the effect. BTW ecm rereleased it as double with Silence also fantastic.
ReplyDeleteits gone...
ReplyDeleteIt's BACK...
Deleteunbelievable stuff. thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteNo Answer #6 and #12 does beg the question - what of #s 1-5, 7-11 and 13 - oo? Perhaps after we're dead, but probably no answer
ReplyDeleteAny chance of a re-up on the Mantler?
ReplyDeleteNeed more Cherry!
forgot to check Notify me!
Delete