September Energy

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September Energy
Studio album from Centipede

Publication
(s)

1971

admission

1971

Label (s) RCA -Neon, BGO (Beat Goes On)

Format (s)

Thu-LP, Thu-CD

Genre (s)

Jazz rock , free jazz , progressive rock

Title (number)

4th

occupation
  • Violins: Wendy Treacher, John Trussler, Roddy Skeping, Wilf Gibson (concertmaster), Carol Slater, Louise Jopling, Garth Morton, Channa Salononson, Steve Rowlandson, Mica Gomberti, Colin Kitching, Philip Saudek, Esther Burgi
  • Cello: Michael Hurwitz, Timothy Kramer, Suki Towb, John Rees-Jones, Katherine Thulborn, Catherine Finnis

production

Robert Fripp

Studio (s)

Wessex Studios, London

Septober Energy is a cross-genre studio album that Keith Tippett and his Ensemble Centipede recorded over three days in June 1971. The producer was Robert Fripp , who was supposed to play as a guitarist - as in the previous concerts - but was so busy recording that he couldn't get on board.

The album

After Centipede had already completed a few concerts, Tippett received a recording contract from RCA . With the well-rehearsed ensemble he recorded the suite Septober Energy for their experimental sub-label Neon . The result was "music of incredible breadth".

The suite consisted of a large number of smaller pieces, which, however, were not shown separately on the album; rather, formal units were formed, each extending over an entire side of the plate. "Taking the idea of ​​pan-stylistic music to extremes" ( Ekkehard Jost ), the work includes both free jazz and rock music passages. It contains “songs and hymns, partly romantic, partly political, programmatic in character” as well as “sound surface structures and modal jazz improvisations ” reminiscent of Ligeti , as well as “chorale-like brass sections and vocal Africanisms. The dominant design principles are ostinati of any provenance as well as ... long-phase enhancement systems ”.

Track list

Plate / Disc 1

  1. "Septober Energy - Part 1" - 21:43
  2. "Septober Energy - Part 2" - 23:34

Plate / Disc 2

  1. "Septober Energy - Part 3" - 21:21
  2. "Septober Energy - Part 4" - 18:45

All compositions are by Keith Tippett; the lyrics are by Julie Tippetts.

reception

"An erratic, monumental boulder suddenly appeared in the musical landscape, after all, the music of Keith Tippett and his large formation Centepede was at least as far removed from the conventional big band sound as from the other, far more famous white double album in pop history ." Arte praised the album as “a heavyweight recording of the century” and “a collective experience of extraordinary intensity”. Billboard recommended the album in 1974, stating that it would have "a number of beautiful solos in each category".

However, Centipede's music was not understood by a large part of the audience and also a part of the critics and interpreted as a failed experiment. "When the album was released, there was criticism - which remained until the CD re-releases ...". For Ekkehard Jost, for example, the album is “a very contradictory work.” For him, the various “elements of a pluralistic musical culture ... are relatively unrelated” without any “mutual penetration” taking place: “In this case, the whole is hardly any more than the sum of its parts. "

For the Jazzthetik the orchestra sounds "like a Duke Ellington Orchestra at times the Carnegie Hall concerts", although seemingly "one half of the musicians on a LSD -Trip and the other in a primal scream would Therapy". “ Everything possible and impossible can be heard on the four“ Movements ”by Septober Energy - and this is thanks to this album. It broadened the listening conventions of some of his contemporaries. ”For Mike Oldfield , for example, the album was a major inspiration for his Tubular Bells .

Critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton described the work in the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings as “a masterpiece or a mess, depending on your personal opinion. Tippett's vision of a huge free jazz ensemble that should have the spontaneity of a smaller formation does not work properly, but the whole thing is a great achievement in its own way ”. In the opinion of the authors, it is "now inaudible and an album that more is talked about than heard, but which is cherished as a unique moment in modern British music".

Editorial notes

The 1971 album was also released in the United States in 1974. Before the CD release of BGO (from the year 2000), several pirated pressings came on the market, which were not pulled from the master tapes , but were copied from a record (so that, for example, at the very quiet beginning of the first track, there were clear cracking noises are heard).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liner Notes (BGO)
  2. ↑ Steve Day on Tippett's music
  3. ^ A b E. Jost, Europäische Jazz 1960-80 Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 332f.
  4. ↑ a b Arte about Centipede ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arte.tv
  5. ^ Billboard
  6. ↑ See review of the album at Allmusic
  7. ↑ a b c Review in Jazzthetik 6/2009, p. 41
  8. ^ Mike Oldfield: Changeling - The Autobiography of Mike Oldfield . Virgin Books 2007, as well as a review in Jazzthetik 6/2009
  9. ↑ Quoted from Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 , p. 1291.