Extrapolation (album)
| Extrapolation | ||||
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| Studio album by John McLaughlin | ||||
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Publication |
1969 |
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admission |
1968 |
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| Label (s) | Marmalade Records, Polydor | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
39:57 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Advision Studios London |
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Extrapolation is the debut album by jazz guitarist John McLaughlin . It first appeared on Marmalade Records ; also due to the collapse of this label, the album was only sold internationally since 1972. Today it is considered to be one of the classic albums of British jazz, on which “jazz and rock are paradigmatically fused” (Ulrich Kurth).
prehistory
McLaughlin had started as a guitarist in the English blues rock scene and played in the groups of Graham Bond , Brian Auger , Herbie Goins and Georgie Fame . He also accompanied American soul singers on their European tours. He had also played in the bands of jazz musicians such as Kenny Wheeler , Sandy Brown and John Stevens and occasionally appeared in the opening act at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club . There he often played in a trio with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Tony Oxley . In 1967 he was in the studio with Gordon Beck to record for Marmalade ; he played with Gunter Hampel in 1968 at the Essener Songtagen .
For his debut album, he initially wanted to record in a trio with Holland and Oxley; since Holland went to America at the urging of Miles Davis , Brian Odgers took his place. At relatively short notice it was decided to expand the trio to include John Surman . The album was recorded on January 16, 1969 in London . Producer Giorgio Gomelsky wanted the album to appeal to a prog rock audience.
The music
The theme of the title track Extrapolation is Bebop-like and, after an introduction by Odgers and Oxley, which reminds Eric Thaker of the work of Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins in Lonely Woman , it is first introduced in unison by guitar and saxophone. It's Funny is thematically reminiscent, especially in the saxophone line, of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Charles Mingus and highlights the skills of the critically undervalued studio musician Brian Odgers.
Arjen's Bag alludes to the Dutch bassist Arjen Gorter (“one of Holland's greatest musicians”, as McLaughlin said in his liner notes ), the shell of his bass is always there where you don't expect it. The situation is similar here with the rhythmic emphasis: The piece has an 11/8 time, which Roger T. Dean divided into 4/4 and 3/8 in his analysis according to the accents of the drummer. Due to this accentuation of the odd meters, two pulse speeds arise here, which can be improvised in parallel. McLaughlin later developed the piece into Follow Your Heart . This oscillating “11/8 meter merges seamlessly into a fast 3/8 time” in the next piece: Pete the Poet , an “aptly trolling” piece, was named after the poet and singer Pete Brown . McLaughlin used a strong, fat guitar tone there.
This Is for Us to Share has large rubato arcs, to which McLaughlin makes an impressive contribution on the acoustic guitar. Detached from the tempo, Oxley uses his drums here to create inspiring sounds on his drums and cymbals . In Spectrum , after the theme presented in unison, Surman was able to play a baritone saxophone solo before a fast guitar solo followed. The piece goes into Binky's Beam . With bassist Binky McKenzie , to whom McLaughlin dedicated this composition of the album, McLaughlin played in Pete Brown's group Huge Local Sun, among others . In the liner notes he praised Binky McKenzie as one of the best bassists; he had been convicted with his brother Bunny at the time, unjustly in the guitarist's opinion. Binky's Beam is a jazz blues in 11/8 time. The Celestial Terrestrial Commuters, recorded in 1973 with the Mahavishnu Orchestra , emerged from this theme .
Similar to this piece, Oxley also superimposes the various meters in Really You Know “with delicate ease”, as his biographer Ulrich Kurth notes; The naturalness with which Oxley plays "gives the album a dance-like gesture." In Two for Two , the "most prophetic number on the album" according to McLaughlin's biographer Paul Stump, McLaughlin plays a "wildly rumbled solo" that has flamenco sounds . The last piece on the album, Peace Piece , which was dedicated to peace and initially has features of the tune of the same name by Bill Evans , McLaughlin played unaccompanied on the acoustic guitar; Here, too, however, there is no hymn, but rather a comparatively aggressive and "brutal" approach by the guitarist.
Track list
- Extrapolation - 2:57
- It's Funny - 4:25
- Arjen's Bag - 4:25
- Pete the Poet - 5:00
- This Is for Us to Share - 3:30
- Spectrum - 2:45
- Binky's Beam - 7:05
- Really You Know - 4:25
- Two for Two - 3:35
- Peace Piece - 1:50
Billboard Album Charts
| Chart | space | year |
|---|---|---|
| Pop albums | 152 | 1972 |
Reviews
According to Stuart Nicholson , the album is not only "rhythmically and harmonically fluid", but uses both modal harmonies and the time, no change principle as the basis of improvisations, with the composition defining tempo, key and mood, but the choice of chord changes being spontaneous Interaction between the interpreter and the accompanying musicians. The music magazine Jazzwise added the album to The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World list .
For Ian Carr , extrapolation was one of the classic jazz albums of the decade and a virtual summary of common combo playing techniques; it anticipated 1970s jazz rock and showed that McLaughlin was already a good composer as much as he was a great and original jazz guitarist. Eric Thacker agrees with this judgment and emphasizes the “beautifully consistent sequence of top jazz performances”, in which free play is already reflected. It is one of the most original and prophetic albums that was created in British jazz at the transition into the 1970s. Scott Albin emphasizes that the album is a classic and McLaughlin never topped it. Scott Yanow has extrapolation of Allmusic rated four and a half out of five points; he believes that John Surman dominates the album in places. For Richard Cook and Brian Morton , who gave Extrapolation the top grade and crown in the Penguin Guide to Jazz , it is "one of the greatest albums ever recorded in Europe [...] It is essential and timeless."
Alexander Schmitz believes that McLaughlin, using extrapolation, "built his own monument, which to this day is stable and visible from afar in the wide landscape of jazz and fusion guitar, a monolith that nobody can ignore." In contrast, Ben Watson is of the opinion, that the album has little innovation, but is based on banal and harmoniously limited runs and melodies, even if something in McLaughlin's playing stance is "pure bailey " here .
literature
- Max Harrison , Eric Thacker, Stuart Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records. Vol. 2: Modernism to Postmodernism London, New York, Mansell 2000, ISBN 0720118220
- Ulrich Kurth: The 4th Quarter of the Triad: Tony Oxley. Five decades of improvised music. Wolke Verlag, Hofheim am Taunus 2011, ISBN 978-3-936000-48-1 .
- Paul Stump: Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin Firefly Publications 1999, ISBN 978-0946719242
Web links
- Extrapolation at Allmusic (English)
- Meeting at AllAboutJazz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Odgers is incorrectly spelled “Odges” on the album
- ↑ a b c U. Kurth The Forth Quarter of the Triad , p. 65
- ↑ a b P. Stump Go Ahead John , p. 27
- ↑ See Stump Go Ahead John (p. 27) and McLaughlin discography . According to other sources, such as John Surman Discography , the recording session was on January 18, 1969
- ↑ a b c d e f M. Harrsion u. a. The Essential Jazz Records. Pp. 450-452
- ↑ Stump Go Ahead John , p. 28
- ↑ See Roger Dean Structures in Jazz , p. 24
- ↑ a b c d Stump Go Ahead John , p. 29
- ↑ a b c U. Kurth The Forth Quarter of the Triad , p. 66
- ↑ Stump Go Ahead John , p. 28
- ↑ Due to a misprint on the cover of the first edition, the piece of music is still often referred to as “Binky's Dream”. Cf. Walter Kolosky John McLaughlin Binky's Dream (Binky's Beam) ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2016 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. .
- ↑ See Musicians' Olympus: Binky McKenzie
- ↑ As he wrote in the Liner Notes . McLaughlin had already played with him at Duffy Power and is still friends with him to this day. See also P. Stump Go Ahead John , p. 29f.
- ↑ cit. n. Stump Go Ahead John , p. 28
- ↑ Stuart Nicholson wrote in his explanation: " Extrapolation is the most prophetic, not only as a stepping stone in McLaughlin's career - from Extrapolation to Tony Williams ' Lifetime to Bitches Brew to the Mahavishnu Orchestra are indeed surprisingly small strides - but for how change in." jazz in the late 1960s and early 1970s would shape up. This mixture of freedom (often “time, no changes”) and structure as well as the increasing sense of identity in McLaughlin's playing framed by Surman and Oxley make for compelling listening “. The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World
- ^ Carr Jazz: The Essential Companion quoted. n.Ben Watson Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation 2004, p. 120
- ↑ Review at jazz.com ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2009 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.
- ↑ See Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
- ↑ Alexander Schmitz hearing of humanity ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Watson Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation , p. 120
