Blue Note Obscurities Part 1: Some Other Avant-Cool Stuff

Blue Note is an iconic record label, like Motown or Sun, and people who get into Jazz can hardly fail to discover it. The label in its lengthy heyday featured a phenomenal and stylistically varied roster of talent, but runs of albums in the Hard Bop style by the likes of Grant Green, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Jimmy Smith and Lee Morgan have come to define its signature sound for many. There is plenty of relatively obscure, but hardly less brilliant, music waiting for those curious enough to dig a little deeper into the catalog.



Some Other Stuff by composer and trombonist Grachan Moncur III is one such gem. Featuring a superb roster of Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Cecil McBee, it is part of a series of 1960's albums on Blue Note that explored what was known then as the New Thing: the Avant Garde Jazz style godfathered by Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. The record contains four lengthy renditions of Moncur originals, which are explored in an unhurried, cool-toned yet exciting manner. It's highly original, with plenty of great moments, and it still sounds incredibly fresh and vivid.

Highly recommended for adventurous listeners.

A Tragic, Noirish Korean Whodunnit, for Mothers Everywhere

Bong Joon Hoo's Mother is a superb new film that scratches at the dark underbelly of South Korean society. The story centers around the titular mother and her mildly retarded son (there's a suggestion that her attempt years earlier at double suicide caused the retardation). A young girl is murdered after he is seen following her - he is arrested and, infinitely suggestible, he confesses. Cue mother's determined attempts to prove his innocence, which take us on a twisty, unpredictable path through some dark territory as we learn about the girl's life and the field of suspects grows.



Mother is currently available only in Korean DVD and Blu Ray editions. The (Region 3) Special Edition DVD, available here, has a top-notch print of the film and I recommend it to those DVD buyers who would prefer not to wait for a local edition (which will surely happen, given the quality of the film).

Those who have seen this director's Memories of Murder, a similarly dark opus, will know this film is not to be missed!

EDIT: This film is now available in various BD and DVD editions around the world, which may be cheaper than the Korean edition referred to above.

The Life of Chikuzan

Masahiro Shinoda is one of Japan's heavyweight film directors - I've recommended his films in this blog before. I recently enjoyed his film Chikuzan, about Chikuzan Takahashi, one of Japan's most renowned folk musicians. Chikuzan was blind from the age of two, and the film documents with pathos and humor his hardscrabble existence as a traveling musician. It features many strong female characters, and plenty of louche males - the women in Chikuzan's life are shown ultimately to be his salvation. There's plenty of gorgeous cinematography and fascinating music, and lovers of Asian traditional music or art-house cinema will not be disappointed.



Asmik's Japanese Region 2 DVD has an excellent visual presentation of the film, as is typical of Japanese DVDs. English sub-titles are available. Note that Chikuzan is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, which means you may need to adjust a widescreen television (by selecting size 4:3) in order to view it correctly at home. The DVD is available from HMV Japan.

Steely Dan Presents...

Tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb's 1978 album Apogee is an unusual Jazz album. Firstly, it's a great, mainstream acoustic Jazz record from a time not exactly associated with that kind of music - loud Jazz-Rock fusion, stuffed with electric instruments, and not always especially tasteful, was more the norm - and it was released on a major label no less. Secondly, it was produced by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame, Jazz-lovers both. The fact that Becker and Fagen got this released by Warner Brothers in 1978 had a lot to do, no doubt, with their clout at the label then. It's worth noting that Christlieb had previously played on Steely Dan's Aja - just one feature of his successful career as a studio musician (with James Brown, Tom Waits, Bobby "Blue" Bland, etc. and also as a longstanding fixture of the Saturday Night Live band).


Christlieb's co-leader on the set was Warne Marsh, a tenor-playing veteran of the Lennie Tristano cool school (Tristano was a remarkable musician, and is very much worth checking out in his own right), which makes this album something of a "two-tenor battle" in the grand tradition.

Two brilliant, under-acknowledged saxophonists with complementary styles, spurring each other on to marvelous heights of invention; some great, distinctive arrangements; a wide range of material, including a Kern/Mercer show-tune, plus material from Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, and Becker/Fagen; a very supportive band featuring Lou Levy on piano... Apogee is a winner, and well worth picking up.

Kaurismäki's Finnish Magic

Recommending a film that has recently won the Cannes Grand Prix (the annual festival's second most prestigious prize, behind the Palme d'Or) seems rather like blowing in the direction of a hurricane. I so much enjoyed "The Man Without a Past" from Finland's Aki Kaurismäki, however, that I can't resist adding my 2 pence worth of cheerleading. Centered amongst a lovable community of Helsinki's less fortunate denizens, it's tremendous fun, and full of bone dry humour plus infectious warmth and humanism. Darkness is not far away, however - in fact, it's instrumental to the plot - which adds depth to the film.



ICA/Optimum's R2 UK DVD is as every bit as good as this film deserves: a stable, well-defined picture with minimal artefacting.

Meditative Mountain Music

"Music of Central Asia is a co-production of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The aim of the series is to present leading exponents of Central Asia's rich and diverse musical heritage to listeners outside the region."


So says the blurb on the back cover of the CD/DVD set "Tengir Too - Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan", which is Volume One of the series.

Tengir Too is an ensemble formed to modernise Kyrgyzstan's folk music tradition, which historically was played solo by shepherds on a range of wind and string instruments as well as the so-called Jew's Harp*. The ensemble music is true to the roots of the music, and represents a gentle experimentalism. A wide range of exotic and beautiful sounds is on offer here, and the accompanying DVD contains some intimate performances and interviews, plus spectacular scenery.

A lovely package, highly recommended. Sound samples are here.

* Having heard both instruments, I wonder whether this colloquial name is due to the tiny instrument's sonic resemblance to the ancient Begenna, or Harp of David, still played in Ethiopia. See here for a sample of that tradition of spiritual music.

A Bad Trip

Japanese Director Sion Sono's Strange Circus is an appropriately shocking and disturbing film about childhood sexual abuse. Nothing is what it seems, as we witness events on screen through the lens of the disintegrated mental state of one of the characters, but it's safe to say that the various possible interpretations of the disjointed story are horrendous. I haven't painted a pretty picture, yet this is a remarkable, visually striking, and highly original film, full of twists and turns, that takes a hard-hitting approach to its subject matter. It ought be appreciated by those with a taste for challenging cinema, but its extreme approach will alienate more than a few.


Masumi Miyazaki gives an excellent triple performance as writer Taeko, the older Mitsuko, and her mother Sayuri.

The US Region 1 DVD from TLA Releasing (in their Danger After Dark series) makes for top quality viewing.