Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages

Alex in NYC in "I went to jazz gig and enjoyed it" shockah!!!

I also like sharrock's other record with linda 'Monkie-pockie-boo' which has been reissued on BYG last year. its got him slide whistle!

Yeah, a bit unlikely, but I went with my jazzbo friend, the excellently-named Brent Butterworth, who was into stuff like James Blood Ulmer, Last Exit, Ronald Shannon Jackson and that sorta stuff...jazz with teeth, if you like. I liked some of it.

*Guitar*, #84
*Seize the Rainbow,* #204
Last Exit *Iron Path*, #268
Last Exit *The Noise of Trouble,* #285
*Black Woman,* #290
Last Exit *Last Exit,* #342
Last Exit *Casette Recording 87*, #402

Also, the first sentence of my *Black Woman* review went: "*Monkey Pockie Boo*'s ungraspable anarchy and *Paradise*'s unsavory ivory came later, so of Sonny's 3 incomparably strident precomeback LPs, this one's easiest to make sense of, and I'll take it over the mostly lackadaisy live-in-Paris '82 trio date *Dance With Me Montana,* too."

(Whatever that means.)

I never liked Ask The Ages or anything following Paradise - too 'downtown' for my tastes I guess. But Monkey Pockie Boo gets a lot of play around here, more than Black Woman, even...

I HATE Last Exit

(and can someone explain to me why 'on the corner' is good or refer me to someone who might change my mind?)

and Last Exit fucking RAWKS!

bought 'tauhid' bcz of this thread and yeah, that's excellent.

Ask the Ages was great. It was funny, Pharoah really had a burst of resurgent creativity there in the early 90's; between the Sharrock record, the record he did with Moroccan Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, and his guest spot on that Franklin Kiermyer record on Evidence, he really seemed to forcefully reassert his brilliance. Then he kind of dropped off the face of the earth again...

"Once upon a Time" has to be the most gorgeous thing I've ever heard!

Actually, Ask The Ages is also notable to me because I had the occasion to see all four of it's musicians at four separate concerts: Sonny, Elvin, and Pharoah Sanders headlining, and Charnette Moffat backing up Courtney Pine.

"But Miles, you don't play guitar."

"Fuck you!" [Slams down phone]

Not the only Miles anecdote I've heard that ends with that verb and a phone hang-up. And this is just stuff I heard about in personal conversations.

Why is this album so hard to find for less than crazy money?!?! And not on iTunes/eMusic/Amazon.co.uk :(

it's v. v. out of print. i stumbled across a copy for like 12 bucks in a used shop in a college town one time.

I just sold this on ebay for $7.

It's $6 on Amazon.com/MP3....

Ah got it thanks

I highly doubt that a Sonny Sharrock reissue is going to crash the Hive Mind Records website the minute the presale goes up. Those 500 copies will be around for a while.

Obviosuly I dunno how many going to distributors but - 11 left on Bandcamp.

Almost considering getting one just for the digital tbh.

Edit - down to 8 since I started typing LOL.

Thanks for the heads-up on the vinyl, picked it up. And added the Rodrigo Tavares record Hivemind put out. Couple hours later, get an email from Bandcamp, “A virtual high five and/or fist bump to you, Rodrigo de Vasconcelos Faria Tavares just bought the following item after discovering it via your recommendation [Ask the Ages].” lol.

Actually looks like there is no digital at all accompanying the vinyl in case anyone else was wondering.

aaaand sold out.

I didn't get to ordering last night, so guess I'll wait and hope to encounter a copy.

Still saying 1 available ATM!

I think that's only around 50 sold through BC anyway so it should be around.

Around.

looks like you can still get it here:

https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/sonny-sharrock-ask-the-ages-636054

not sure if hive mind has us distribution

https://honestjons.com/shop/artist/Sonny_Sharrock/release/Ask_The_Ages

I realise this running commentary on availability of a reissue isn't very interesting but anyway there it is.

everyone should have this album, so there’s that.

And now the digital is up on Laswell's Bandcamp:

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/ask-the-ages

If you saw the craigslist post going around where someone was selling Sonny Sharrock's amp, here's an awesome end to the story: Henry Kaiser got it! pic.twitter.com/NlSi6Dkmzt

— Marc Masters 🌹 (@Marcissist) February 19, 2019

Wow

I finally got my copy of the vinyl release. At first blush it sounds great- big, lots of dynamics, and not too big of a hassle to do it over 2 LPs. Package on the whole is pretty underwhelming though- cover design is bland, no liner notes or any additional info, printing & cardboard are on the cheaper side. I don't need the "deluxe version" but I guess I'd have like to see something that approached the majesty of the music. That said, it's great to finally hear this on vinyl.

seems stranded has some copies in stock for the us market in case anybody is still interested in buying the 2xlp reissue:

https://www.strandedrecords.com/collections/hive-mind/products/sonny-sharrock-ask-the-ages-2xlp?mc_cid=e7184cd5cd&mc_eid=ad2240ad80

They repressed it too so there should be a few more out there.

It sounds truly incredible. I’d love to hear any outtakes they had from those sessions.

re yr previous post about the packaging, is it a gatefold sleeve or just two discs in a single jacket ?

The latter- packaging is very bare-bones.

it's weird how this is the greatest album of all time

it's so good.

i would really like to buy this reissue lol

I still enjoy digging out Last Exit - Iron Path a lot as well.

The other day I thought of it as the last great album of the 60s

Do you mean in some sort of rhetorical sense? I honestly thought it was recorded not that long before his death in the early 90's, but I'm often wrong on these matters.

Assumed it was rhetorical myself but thanks for asking

wasn't trying to be dickish, just genuinely thought have I got something wrong here? never mind!

I wasn't giving you any snark, I was wondering myself!

Sorry for the confusion... what I was thinking of was more along the lines that it was the last great album of the Impulse! records era. The energy, the power, the players (Moffett excepted, and he acquits himself wonderfully for what I believe is his first recording session) are all of the era... it's a real lightning in a bottle session, just astounding and easily on the same level of anything Sonny or Pharoah had recorded previously. Remarkable for these guys being 30+ years into their careers.

Astonishing music easily one of my favorite albums ever.

Doesn't seem to be Charnett Moffett's first recording session:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnett_Moffett

Yeah, I was very wrong! The '84 Frank Lowe album that appears to be his earliest has a great lineup, sounds interesting.

Moffett's earliest work was with the Marsalis brothers - he was on Branford's Scenes in the City when he was like 16.

Yup

wow, I had no idea- I have only encountered him occasionally

this set was mentioned above, here's a youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO4FzQof6AI

sounds so good rn

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

Cool, thanks! What's in Easley's right hand?

Man, Bellerose is another drummer (like Brian Blade and Bill Stewart) I just love in every context.

It's a straw I guess? I asked a pedal steel player about it, and he said he wasn't sure but it's probably just to reinforce his hand position. After listening to a podcast in part about what a crazy instrument it is, I'm even more impressed by Easley. Also only recently made the connection that he's on the first couple Brian Blade Fellowship albums.

Hope that one places in the ILM poll.

I interviewed Blade eons ago, and this is what he told me about Easley on those records:

Oh, that was just Dave (Easley’s) sound, what he expressed through the instrument. It could have been … actually, the sympathetic sort of overtone or relationship between the horn, the string, and John’s piano, it’s like our little orchestra. Since I write on the guitar, I like having the steel and the texture that it adds to the ensemble. But then, Dave is a great improviser, so we just got so much from this one voice that it’s brilliant.

Nice. Is the full interview out there?

Some of it. Here's the whole unedited thing. This was from ... 2001?

Interview with Brian Blade

Before he even turned 30, drummer Brian Blade had already built up a resume that would put most musicians to shame. He worked as the drummer of choice for such pop artists as Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Seal, as well as jazz players Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, and Joshua Redman. In what little spare time he had left Blade developed his Brian Blade Fellowship project, a fascinating hybrid of jazz, blues, folk, and country that released one of the most distinctive and wonderful albums this year, Perceptual. Yet the soft-spoken Blade is remarkably humble about his achievements and extremely generous, as The Onion discovered.

The Onion: You recently recorded with Wayne Shorter.

Brian Blade: Yeah. For me, man, it just kind of keeps coming up roses, Privileges, honors. Just being around these people you have such great respect for. They paved the way for you. Like Wayne: he’s so heavy, you know? Brilliant.

O: It’s also pretty appropriate, since I hear so much of (legendary Miles Davis Quintet drummer) Tony Williams playing in you.

BB: It’s such an influence that it’s almost scary at times, when I realize that it’s him playing the horn in front of me. It’s kind of daunting, but I just try to surrender to the moment. He’s so brilliant.

O: It must be scary to put it all in perspective. You know, Tony was playing with Wayne and Miles when he was about ten years younger than you are now.

BB: Yeah, I guess so. I try not to think about it so much just because, well, it’s hard not to think about it. I often do, actually. The whole idea of what hasn’t really been said. Like John Lennon said (laughs and sings) “nothing you do that can’t be done.”

O: The Fellowship is actually saying and doing a lot of things that haven’t been done.

BB: Well, I appreciate that. It came together over a period of almost a decade, actually. Unknowingly, when (piano player) Jon Cowherd and I met in New Orleans – (bassist) Christopher Thomas was also there at that time – we always talked about having a group some day. It just took this long to come to pass, but all the musicians in the band kind of came into my life and here we are, trying to do it together.

O: Why did you decide to incorporate pedal steel, which doesn’t seem a traditional jazz instrument?

BB: Oh, that was just Dave (Easley’s) sound, what he expressed through the instrument. It could have been … actually, the sympathetic sort of overtone or relationship between the horn, the string, and John’s piano, it’s like our little orchestra. Since I write on the guitar, I like having the steel and the texture that it adds to the ensemble. But then, Dave is a great improviser, so we just got so much from this one voice that it’s brilliant.

O: Since the recorded versions already sound so organic, I was wondering how things were developing live.

BB: It’s evolving and changing. We’re taking chances every night. No one is sort of tied to anything, necessarily. Of course, we respect the forms and structures, the melodic integrity of the music, but we always try to push ourselves to, even in the melodic interpretation, make that as powerful as possible, so that maybe there doesn’t need to be a solo, or maybe there doesn’t need to be the drumming here. Perhaps just that one note has the power to make people feel something.

O: How does the audience respond?

BB: It’s been great. People have been coming out. People are slowly realizing that we exist, and hopefully they’ll listen to the music and want to hear it live. Not everybody’s downloading their music, you know! (laughs) People still want to have a live experience.

O: How tough is it to tour with such a large band?

BB: Extremely tough. Of course financially, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for as long a necessary. Just because I want it to happen, and if I can sort of be my own benefactor for however long, so be it. I’ll do that. I’d like to get to the point where we are somewhat recognized by people and have an audience that we feel we’ll grow together. We’ll change along the way, and you’ll come along for the trip, and we’ll change with you. That way maybe we can start helping people who need some help, on a whole other level, not just playing live gigs. That gets kind of personal too, I guess.

O: Music is always personal, right?

BB: Well, the music is, but it’s also what you do away from the music that the music actually fuels. In fact, even more so, it’s what you do away from the music that the music fuels. You know, like charity. Sometimes it can get sort of selfish. It’s what you do, but how can you just give it and have your life be something other than that? It’s kind of a heavy weight sometimes.

O: Well, your music is very alive, and music like that always brings people together. Then after they gather other things can happen.

BB: I hope so. That’s ideal, but we’ll see, as time goes by, if we can continue to do good work.

O: With a lot of the work you’ve been getting, it does kind of show that people are listening.

BB: I think so. I’m trying to be an optimist …

O: Oh, there’s not much to be pessimistic about. You can just list the names of all the people you’ve played with.

BB: Yeah. I’m always at the crossroads, I think, for myself, which is personal, but also the strain of traveling with seven folks at times gets to be … you lose sight of the beauty in it. But when we start playing everything’s OK! It’s alright.

O: What kind of music did you listen to growing up? Your playing is all over the map.

BB: Well, I grew up in church, so gospel music I guess was kind of the first music I heard. Choral music, sacred music. I have a pretty clear memory of hearing Al Green when I was at my grandmother’s. It was kind of the first musical experience that sticks in my memory. But everything along the way that I thought was great – Earth, Wind, and Fire, Stevie Wonder, all these things. Later I got into Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Joni Mitchell, and all these recordings just made me want to buy more recordings! And New Orleans, when I moved there to go to college, was kind of emerging into such a rich musical community, just on the street there, that everything started to multiply in a good way.

O: New Orleans is eating, sleeping, and breathing jazz.

BB: Even if you’re not a music student, per se, just being in the city it all passes through you for sure.

O: So you were really familiar with Joni Mitchell before she called you up?

BB: Yeah, she’s my greatest musical influence. I felt like I owed her this debt, she had given me so much! All of a sudden I felt that I was just getting more blessings. I just hope I can serve the situation properly.

O: And she picked you personally, right?

BB: Yeah, you can’t even put it into words. It’s so fulfilling.

O: I was surprised to see you playing with Seal alongside Tony Levin and David Sancious.

BB: Yeah, it’s absolutely brilliant, man, all those people. I guess my head should be getting pretty big. But hopefully it’ll stand up. These recordings and all, beyond one night stands. Hopefully they’ll be important to people, as they are to me, and touch folks.

O: That’s definitely the case with Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. Time Out of Mind and Wrecking Ball both mean a lot to many people. How difficult is it to get past their iconic status?

BB: Of course that’s on your mind, that these are some of the most amazing voices of any time, some of the greatest songwriters of any time. You’re standing before these people and obviously your knees wobble a bit, probably. (laughs) But it’s also rewarding when you have such reverence for someone and you meet them and they’re even greater than you thought. They let you in on it and then they’re not puffed up, you know? It kind of takes away my nervousness and hesitation. I just feel that I’m here and they want me to try to do what I do. I just try and do it, man.

O: You’re a composer yourself, and your own playing is pretty musical. When you’re in a situation like that, how much freedom do you have to do what you want?

BB: It’s been absolutely carte blanche. If there’s ever a suggestion made, it’s never restrictive. It’s more conceptual. But most times, with Joni or with Wayne, it’s always this dance, you know that I mean? You figure that the other person knows their steps so that you don’t step on each other’s toes. Just have a good time.

O: Maybe that’s why the music sounds so natural.

BB: I think so. They give so much freedom so that the music can just unfold. For me, that’s the only way, I think. Of course, these are my heroes, too, so anything they say I’m going to do! (laughs) But they’ve never made me feel uncomfortable that way.

O: Both Emmylou and Dylan were produced by Daniel Lanois. He must have been pretty helpful in getting you these jobs.

BB: Oh, absolutely. He’s a great friend. He introduced me to Joni from a long distance. Music that I had been recording with him, his music, he played for her. She liked the tone of it and that’s how we started talking over the phone. Then of course, he brought me in on the sessions with Bob and Emmy. Of course, we’ve had this relationship for so long. He’s such an inspiration to me, his songwriting and what he does as a producer. Brilliant.

O: And with Bill Frisell you did those covers of the Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach collaboration.

BB: Man, I love Bill. He’s probably … you think about it, the guitar. How many guitarists could there be in the world? But, man, he’s so special. Such a voice, and I love playing with him. I definitely feel a kindred spirit in Bill. Hopefully we’ll record some of his music or even my music again some day.

O: You’ve been fortunate enough to play with a lot of your musical heroes. Who do you hope to play with that you haven’t played with yet?

BB: Neil Young. Gee whiz. I’d love to play with a Symphony, you know, New York Philharmonic or something. (laughs) It sounds strange, but I want to try to start writing in this way, as if the band wasn’t big enough already! It’s so unseen, in a way, because there are so many artists that maybe people don’t know about – Dave Berkman or Sam Yahel, that I play with so often in New York – I want to continue these things so that they grow over time. When you can make a session but then never see these people again, I’m not too fond of doing that. I’m more in for the long run. It’s been a real privilege to be able to do these things and still play with the band and tour with friends. It’s sometimes a fragile balance, because there’s not much time between these things, but that’s fine because it’s what I want to do. There’ll be time to sleep later!

Lovely, thank you!

that live session is beautiful, thanks for sharing

great record

Took me a while to figure out what David Berkman was doing on this thread.

Not sure where to put this but a big piece in the NYT today on Linda who had a stroke a long time ago and can’t speak but is somehow still making records and performing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/arts/music/linda-sharrock.html

Saw that. Interesting Mike Rubin written article on Linda

During surgery for an intestinal blockage in 2009, Sharrock suffered her stroke, and spent the following two years in and out of the hospital. In 2012 she was visited in Austria by the jazz bassist Henry Grimes. “She was sitting on the couch while he played,” Rechtern recalled, “and I heard her very softly singing into the music.”

Intrigued, Rechtern began gradually coaxing Sharrock to perform again. “She started to develop first this growl sound, this cry, because she couldn’t articulate,” he said. “Out of the blues and this typical sound, she found this explosion.”

Beginning with “No Is No” in 2014, Sharrock has released five recordings in Europe since her stroke. Her recent music is more in the spirit of the free jazz she made with Sonny than her somewhat more conventional work with Puschnig, though her vocal range is understandably not the same.

Thanks for posting that BB interview!

Could have sworn there was a thread about Sonny Sharrock and The Savages---anyway some Sonny thread where there was a query and we agreed that it was the Black Woman/WKCR line-up---however, the knowledgeable Mike Rubin, who once ran worthy printzine Motorbooty, thinks otherwise, as he says in the xpost amazing Linda update:

Released on the Vortex subsidiary of Atlantic Records, the trailblazing “Black Woman” failed to find a larger audience. A few years later, the couple put together the Savages, a working band that could play out regularly. The group included steel drums and Latin percussion and gigged at downtown venues like the Tin Palace and lofts like Studio Rivbea, said Abe Speller, the band’s drummer. The Savages recorded a soundtrack to Sedat Pakay’s 1973 short documentary “James Baldwin: From Another Place” and performed a live set in 1974 on WKCR, which are the only surviving souvenirs of their existence. Speller recalled the band holing up to rehearse before entering a studio in December 1977 to record a four-song demo tape, but the group failed to score a label deal and eventually fizzled out.