Horace Tapscott / Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra / UGMAA / Nimbus West Records / affiliated Los Angeles avant-jazz

long revered on ILM and elsewhere, the great master now gets his own thread.

some initial thoughts:

tapscott's debut as leader, THE GIANT IS AWAKENED (1969), is a sublime document and well worth seeking out. if i'm not mistaken, this is also arthur blythe's first appearance on record.

both volumes of THE DARK TREE (rec. 1989) are essential listening.

the recently reissued PAPA records — FLIGHT 17, THE CALL (both 1978), and LIVE AT THE I.U.C.C. (1979) — are, if nothing else, fascinating documents of a very interesting scene. there's much more on nimbus west i haven't made it to yet, including a 15-minute 1979 PAPA track that remained unreleased until 2004. there's also a sextet recording (DIAL 'B' FOR BARBARA), and a duo session with drummer everett brown jr. (technically on the UGMAA label), both recorded in 1980. and then there's THE TAPSCOTT SESSIONS, his eleven volumes of solo piano. anybody have thoughts on these ?

i'm also interested in checking out his 1979 trio session with art davis and roy haynes, IN NEW YORK.

steve isoardi's 2006 book about tapscott, the ark, and the LA black arts movement (entitled THE DARK TREE: JAZZ AND THE COMMUNITY ARTS IN LOS ANGELES) is sadly out of print. i've heard nothing but good things about it; here's vijay iyer:

This is a revelatory document, virtuosically combining scholarship and oral history to connect the dots of African American music on the west coast. Far more than a mere historical 'overdub' of an underdocumented scene, this book disrupts the mythic notions of jazz history, showing instead how music and community unfold as one. Both a celebratory and a cautionary tale, it also delivers some of the most frank and eye-opening musicians' accounts since Arthur Taylor's Notes and Tones

there's also an autobiography called SONGS OF THE UNSUNG which i'd be curious to hear any opinions on.

last thing i'll mention is the aptly-named dark tree records, a french label which recently unearthed two previously unreleased (i think) ark recordings: THE COVINA SESSIONS, 1976 and LIVE AT LACMA, 1998. both are available to sample / purchase on bandcamp.

https://darktree.bandcamp.com/album/ancestral-echoes-the-covina-sessions-1976
https://darktree.bandcamp.com/album/why-dont-you-listen-live-at-lacma-1998

thoughts / feelings / suggestions / recommendations ?

https://jazzdagama.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Horace-Tapscott-1-Final.jpg

an excerpt from poet kamau daáood's PAPA, THE LEAN GRIOT:

I am Horace Tapscott
my fingers are dancing grassroots
I do not fit in form, I create form
my ears are radar charting the whispers of my ancestors
I seek the divinity in outcasts, the richness of rebels
I walk these sacred streets remembering
kola nuts and cowrie shells
and how well our uncles wore their trousers
I am Horace Tapscott
and I am not for sale

quoted in this excellent deep dive on HT:

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/passing-the-magic-horace-tapscott-and-his-pan-afrikan-peoples-arkestra

One day I'm gonna dive in and listen to his stuff in depth. I keep meaning to. I interviewed singer Dwight Trible last year; he worked with Tapscott, and is the current vocal director of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra; he also works with Kamasi Washington now.

All right, I'm gonna dive in this week. I'm gonna check out The Giant is Awakened, The Call, Flight 17, and Live at I.U.C.C. and see what I think.

it would be incredibly remiss not to include The Dark Tree I + II to your listening project, honest guv!

Initial report...

The Giant Is Awakened - Really nice. I liked hearing a young Arthur Blythe absolutely screaming, and the compositions are straightforward but interesting and powerful.

Flight 17 - Reminds me of Ellington crossed with John Coltrane's Africa/Brass. Swings harder than I expected, and the orchestrations are unique and well done. Five tracks with a large-ish ensemble, about 15 people, and two tracks with a smaller group - a septet or an octet - at the end. I didn't like those as much as the more sprawling stuff (vocals didn't help).

The Call, Live at I.U.C.C. and, yes, both volumes of The Dark Tree to come...

The Dark Tree is monstrous. I need to delve further into some of this other stuff.

Flight 17 is the other one I know. Agreed it's a bit of a mess but when they lock in. Damn.

a new isoardi book is on the way:

http://www.darktree-records.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Music-Finds-A-Way_Steven-L-Isoardi.jpg
THE MUSIC FINDS A WAY
A PAPA/UGMAA Oral History of Growing Up In Postwar South Central Los Angeles

http://www.darktree-records.com/en/the-music-finds-a-way-by-steven-l-isoardi

currently making my way through some of the solo / small combo stuff. here's a version of "the dark tree" from a trio date called "live at lobero" and recorded in 1979:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3_7MpuMf6E

unperson, how is your listening journey coming along ?

I used to live in LA, where I became really familiar with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Ark as a lot of musicians in the Ark have continued to play live around the city (though I'm sure the pandemic has put a stop to that). I saw recently that there's a new LA-based label The Village is putting out unreleased Horace Tapscott material as well as new PAPA material. It all sounds pretty wonderful so far to me.

https://horacetapscottmichaelsession.bandcamp.com/

https://panafrikanpeoplesarkestra.bandcamp.com/

cool, thanks for the heads-up

one of the preview tunes from the '89 live date is a cover of "milestones" but the tune is entitled "lately's solo" — wonder what that's about, maybe trying to avoid a rights / royalties thing ?

Crazy that you mention that, I was just reading about it. After My initial post I looked up the label's instagram to find out more about it and they posted a writeup of exactly that point.

Ahead of our Tapscott & Session release next friday, we have released one more single from the project - “Lately’s Solo”. This tune may sound like Milestones but it’s much more than that. Lately was the nickname of great @panafrikanpeoplesarkestra trombonist Lester Robertson, whom Tapscott met in highscool. He was one of the first members of PAPA and stayed in the band as a performer, composer and teacher for the rest of his life. Robertson also worked with other LA jazz musicians including Eric Dolphy, who dedicated his tune “Les” off the album “Outward Bound” to Robertson, as well as ‘60s big band superstar Gerald Wilson. On Wilson’s record “The Golden Sword” from 1966, Robertson plays a solo on their rendition of “Milestones” and from this solo the tune “Lately’s Solo” was born. Horace wrote out the first course and Ark players rehearsed it religiously, resulting in a very tight, aggressive “melody” played over familiar, unassuming changes. Horace and Michael demonstrate that agility and raw power earnestly, despite the stripped back instrumentation.

Thanks for the heads up!

Hadn't seen this great thread---posted on Rolling Reissues 2020

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/d01WK09mandwU1BQbXB3UkoxdzBKZz09/cs787323-01a-big.jpg

Horace Tapscott Quintet The Giant is Awakened Flying Dutchman
LP RLGM11131PMI£31.00
Housed in a replica of original gatefold sleeve
In stock

...Seminal spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1969! Horace Tapscott's debut (and only) release for a major label - Flying Dutchman - occurred at the height of the civil rights/black power movement in the USA. Soon after the Watts Riots (65), Tapscott was the central figure at the heart of the community music scene (a precursor to that of Thundercat, Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus almost 50 years later).

Flying Dutchman was the only major label that Tapscott trusted to release his music - a testament to founder Bob Thiele who had produced John Coltrane's seminal Impulse releases throughout the 1960s. At the same time as Tapscott, Flying Dutchman signed Gil Scott Heron and Leon Thomas.
More info, audio excerpts:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/horace-tapscott-quintet-the-giant-is-awakened_2

Why Don’t You Listen? is highly recommended. I’m not super up on Tapscott’s discography, but the handful of things I’ve heard, from different decades, have been uniformly gripping.

I saw him solo once, in the summer of 1992, and I was really struck by his touch at the piano; he had a command of the instrument’s tone that I’ve only heard in maybe two other pianists...and those two are Cecil Taylor and Count Basie.

Going by full thread title, this is the rightest place that I found for the following:

Enrique Rodriguez and The Negra Chiway Band
Fase Liminal
Powerful new spiritual jazz from Chile on Soul Jazz Records!

This album comes as a very limited one-off unique pressing of 1000-edition vinyl, limited editon CD and digital release.

Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band group have an instantly powerful and unique sound that is reminiscent of the ensembles of Sun Ra and his Arkestra as well as Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, one that channels the righteous spirits of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner together with a stunning Latin rhythmical and new consciousness and percussive energy. Added to this are elements of the Samurai film soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa, Popol Vuh’s musical spirituality (especially their work with film director Werner Herzog), Tibetan Buddhism and over-blowing chants, that all combine to give a truly unique new sound.

Enrique Rodríguez is a composer, percussionist, keyboardist, and producer from Santiago, Chile, whose work shows many similarities with the music featured on Soul Jazz Records’ recent collection ‘Kaleidoscope - New Spirts Known and Unknown’, featuring new forward-looking jazz artists including Mathew Halsall, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and Makaya McCraven.

Like all these artists, Rodríguez’s work is a progressive and experimental fusion of earlier influences that combine into a new and definitely 21st century ground-breaking sound that, on account of its South American setting, give the group its truly unique feeling. Hypnotic modal piano riffs, powerful brass and flutes, an army of Latin percussion instruments, and addictive vocal chants all combine in this powerful mix of radical 60s Afro-centric jazz, eastern spirituality and cosmology, and Latin American rhythmical movement.
More info, audio excerpts:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/uobcvxdwc

Kaleidoscope is a really good comp, but doesn't sound all that much like the names dropped here.

new music from the current Ark is out on the same label that just put out that unreleased Tapscott duo record:

https://panafrikanpeoplesarkestra.bandcamp.com/

speaking of nimbus west ... any opinions on creative arts ensemble? i only know the track "unity" and like it a lot, was wondering if anybody had opinions on the album "one step out"?

it's good. sounds a bit like pharoah's "black unity" band backing up june tyson.

RIP tom albach, founder of nimbus records, who passed away in november. obituary here:

https://www.nimbuswestrecords.com/

nimbus is releasing a new 3xLP of horace and PAPA live in 1979:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAE49NnPpbs

new mr. bongo LP of horace tapscott quintet music, from the same session that produced THE GIANT IS AWAKENED:

https://us.mrbongo.com/products/the-quintet-vinyl-lp-cd

Pre-ordered the digital version, which came out this weekend. Haven't listened to it yet.

https://mrbongo.bandcamp.com/album/the-quintet

Band is Arthur Blythe on alto sax, Tapscott on piano, David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. on basses, and Everett Brown Jr. on drums.

sample track is good!

If you're in the NY area, the Brooklyn Academy of Music is screening Larry Clark's Passing Through tomorrow (Labor Day) at 4pm:

https://www.bam.org/film/2022/passing-through

Larry's uncle was Sonny Clark, and this film was Larry's MFA thesis. (That same year, Charles Burnett turned his thesis which turned out to be Killer of Sheep and David Lynch completed his AFI-produced project which was Eraserhead. Easily the greatest year for student films ever.) Clark owns the rights to the film, and per his wishes, Passing Through can only seen in theaters - there's no legal home viewing release. Since this is a DCP, it's probably transferred from UCLA's recent restoration of the original negative, so it should look really good.

Posting this here because Horace Tapscott does the score.

Here's Richard Brody's review in the New Yorker (though primarily a film critic, Brody occasionally writes jazz reviews for them too):

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/one-of-the-greatest-movies-about-jazz

It’s worth paying for definitely, for these who can. It’s a whole unreleased album!

I mean the album on Mr. Bongo

Needs to be specified: Not that Larry Clark. (Kids, Bully, et al.)

This Mr. Bongo archival release is just as good as The Giant Is Awakened, which I didn't think was possible. Vinyl sounds nice, too. If you are on the fence, don't hesitate.

My one geeky nitpick: the LP sleeve is about 1/4" bigger than standard, which means it doesn't fit into a plastic sleeve. I've seen a few other records like this recently (the Bulbous Creation reissue on Numero and Tangerine Dream's Strange Behavior soundtrack, for two), and hope it isn't a trend.

LA Institute for Contemporary Art is hosting a Milford Graves listening party for a new album, and a screening of the film about him the next day at their Arts District location. RSVP required, and I don't know if any are left.

https://www.theicala.org/en/events/494-milford-graves-album-release-listening-party

currently listening to Sonny Criss's "Sonny's Dream" w/ music composed, arranged, and conducted by HT

highly recommended, the arrangements can really swing but are kind of avant and raggedy too

Tapscott's memoir is great!!