Sonic Liberation Front

They're FROM Philadelphia. I knew they had played heere a lot. Who are these guys? I probably already would recognize them.

don't recognize any of the names.....i participate in a weekly jam session with some older cats who are really good afro-cuban percussionists.....so it makes me think that this is just a network of hobbyists trying to get more serious?

when i saw this i was like, duh, why hasn't this been done like a hundred times?

then again, maybe most free jazz horn players are too disorganized to form a tight group of percussionists. probably just lucky circumstances led to this SLF.

pheNAM, I think sometimes Sun Ra approaches this. Not strict Afro-Cuban percussion, but awfully close: tracks like "Journey Outwar" on Out There a Minute. There's a pseudo-rumba (in a good sense) quality to Arkestra percussion, at times.

Based on the mp3s, I'm afraid SLF hasn't figured out how to successfully fuse free jazz with Afro-Cuban roots. It just seems like they are being laid on top of one another. I don't hear them being connected.

I still think it's a promising idea.

i admit it sounds like something could be there, i just don't know what.....from my experience, it's hard to fathom how to connect the afro-cuban approach of super strict disciplinary poly-rhythmic order vs. the total disorder of free jazz.

most of the free jazz i've seen is of the angry, chaotic, totally disordered type. the prospect of hearing multiple horn players and percussionists soloing at the same time scares me. after a few times, though i got tired of free jazz....and now i don't go near it.

i'm curious though, so i'll give this a listen.

I'm not really much of a fan of free jazz (or even jazz in general), myself, to be honest, but when I find something I enjoy there, it tends to be something I just would not have imagined or expected. (I do like a lot of Sun Ra, though even there, some of his recordings seem to chaotic to me.)

Also, if you think of Dizzy Gillespies "Night in Tunisia" from Afro (which I do realize is not free jazz), it's not so much of a stretch, is it?

(That Sun Ra title above should have been "Journey Outward" not "Journey Outwar," which might have been obvious, but given the oddness of some Ra titles, I thought I'd mention the correction.)

Also, once again, I have to say that Out There a Minute is one of the best albums ever made.

Try googling Gato Barbieri. I'm not familiar with a lot of his sutff, but the Chapter albums that I heard were good, especially the first, CHAPTER ONE: LATIN AMERICA. This and the second have been reissued, with bonus material, as LATINO AMERICA, on Impulse! (yknow the exclamation mark was theirs, but this is one that deserves it). Both with Brazilian musicians, not Afro-Cuban (first in Rio, second in L.A.) both pretty wild, but with good toons and atmosphere too (he also did the soundtrack for LAST TANGO IN PARIS). Some, like Christgau, prefer the more groove-oriented backing for G's wildness, on CHAPTER THREE:BOLIVIA; then he did CHAPTER FOUR: NEW YORK, with NYC Latins, I think, but haven't heard it. Another effective use of free x Grrove was his LIVE AT MONTREUX, with drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, who also played with on a lot of classic R&B, as well as the Insect Trust's HOBOKEN SATURDAY NIGHT (kind of like a jazzier Holy Modal Rounders, with an actual Rounder, Luke Faust, but also Elvin Jones, as well as Pretty!)Previous to all this, recorded on ESP-DISK (good duet album with Dollar Brand on Arista Freedom too). The Cuban big band Irakere made a free-with-Afro-Cuban and *African* and other elements live self-titled album, really good, kinda raw sound, but I like it that way. Came to NYC during a brief political thaw, and several key players, like Arturo Sandovol and Paquito D'Rivera, I *think*, defected; later stuff not as good (Also during thaw, some Anglos went down there, like the Trio of Doom, with Mclaughlin, Jaco, and Tony Williams, also Stan Getz and others, and there was a live LP, HAVANA JAM; think mebbe Irakere and some others got in on that?) Leester Bowie and David Murray did some free-ish (post-free? Trippy enough!) stuff on the Skatalites' HIP-BOP-SKA; even my friends who don;don't like jazz *or* ska like that. In the current Voice, Tom Hull's Carribean Jazz Consumer Guide enticingly describes Murray's latest, involving input from his Latin Big Band and much else.Oh yeah, and check Charlie Haden's LIBERATION MUSIC ORCHESTRA! The second, recorded many years later, is considered not as good, but DREAMKEEPER (think that's the title?) did get good reviews, but seems to be mellower than what we're taling about.

Thanks. I just borrowed a Gato Barbieri CD from that Chapter album series, and I liked it, but not enough to think I'd come back to it a lot. But I will also check into some of your other suggestions.

The Body Acoustic (s/t) which came out this year is pretty good, but the trumpet playing is very Miles-indebted as is the overall mood, and there's not as much variety as I would like. Outside of a straightforward Afro-Latin rhythmic foundation laid down on conga and bass, the playing is in a modal/free vein.

Sorry bout typos. Not sure what you're looking for, but might also try THE BEST BEST (sic) OF FELA KUTI. He's been called the james Brown of Africa, but that's maybe true in terms of method (terms like groove, song, style, substance, composition, arrangement get mseeed with), rather than final results sounding much like JB. African sounds, some of which made it into "Afro-Cuban" and some that didn't; plus keybs and Tony Allen's drums that have def heard a lot of Jazz and R&B of all kinds.A huge sound, including social commentary, free(incisive/imagistic) enough to get Fela in a whole lotta trouble.

Two very clear examples of Afro-Cuban + free jazz:

Steve Coleman's album The Sign & The Seal. He took his band to Cuba and recorded for a week with a bunch of Cuban singers, drummers, dancers, etc. It's still one of the best recordings I've heard of straight-up Afro-Cuban folkloric music, and the American musicians' concept and soloing is pretty well-integrated.

You almost might want to check out the David Murray Latin Big Band, which is pretty self-explanatory.

I just bought a Dave Murray CD (with Hamid Drake, who I like a lot sometimes, and Paroah Sanders who I like a lot at least in a few cases, although not all the time by any means) that I didn't like much, so I am not read to jump into anything else by him.

I like Fela, but somehow not really super-enthusiastically, even though nothing I've heard by him has been bad.

Does anyone else think Gato Barbieri (at least on one of those Chapter albums) sounds and awful lot like Rahsaan Roland Kirk?

Steve Coleman,yeah! I should have thought of that one. Seem to recall Gato being compared to Pharoah, early on. You might check John Storm Roberts' books on latin (and other) music, but don't know how he is re connecting it to free.

Which Chapter album did you borrow? I still like Chapter One the best.

It was Chapter Three--Viva Emiliano Zapata.

Sonic Liberation Front has turned up on a couple critical end of the year round-ups (including a jazz best off in the Village Voice). I'm still a bit skeptical of how well it coheres, based on what I heard, but I'd like to hear the whole thing.