Liberation Music Orchestra

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Liberation Music Orchestra
General information
Genre (s) Avant-garde jazz
founding 1969
Founding members
Charlie Haden
Carla Bley
Gato Barbieri
clarinet
 Perry Robinson
Alto saxophone , tenor saxophone
 Dewey Redman
Don Cherry
Michael Mantler
Bob Northern
Roswell Rudd
Howard Johnson
Sam Brown
Drums , percussion
 Andrew Cyrille
percussion
 Paul Motian
Current occupation
Electric bass
 Steve Swallow
Arrangements, piano
 Carla Bley
Alto saxophone
 Loren Stillman
Tenor saxophone
 Chris Cheek
Tenor saxophone
 Tony Malaby
Trumpet
 Michael Rodriguez
Trumpet
 Seneca Black
French horn
 Vincent Chancey
trombone
 Curtis Fowlkes
tuba
 Joe Daley
guitar
 Steve Cardenas
Drums
 Matt Wilson
former members
Alto saxophone
 Ken McIntyre
Alto saxophone
 Miguel Zenón
Tenor saxophone
 Jim Pepper
Tenor saxophone
 Ernie Watts
Tenor saxophone
 Joe Lovano
Tenor saxophone
 Branford Marsalis
Trumpet
 Tom Harrell
Trumpet
 Stanton Davis
French horn
 Sharon Freeman
trombone
 Ray Anderson
trombone
 Gary Valente
trombone
 Steve Slagle
guitar
 Mick Goodrick

The Liberation Music Orchestra is a large jazz ensemble that was founded by Charlie Haden in 1969 and led by him until his death. It interprets pieces by various composers in arrangements by Carla Bley . In addition to the usual big band instruments, the timbres also include French horn and tuba. Especially when performing live, the music is shaped by the attitude of avant-garde jazz .

Orchestra programs

The orchestra's programs from 1969 to the present reflect the respective political discussions in the United States . "Unlike Roach , Mingus or Shepp , Haden had renounced the direct meaning of texts and instead resorted to musical material that the listener indirectly, indirectly via memory, or at least could potentially tap": traditional battle songs and hymns .

In 1969, both the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War were reflected in the ensemble's music selection as well as songs from the Spanish Civil War . In the new edition in 1982, the US intervention in Latin America with songs from Chile and El Salvador was the focus. American gospel music was interpreted on the album “Dream Keeper” (1990) , but also the anthem of the African National Congress and that of the Mujeres Libres ; The voices of the Oakland Youth Chorus are also woven into these pieces . On the last album from 2004, under the title “Not In Our Name”, hymns to and from the “New World”, for example by Antonín Dvořák , Samuel Barber or Gary McFarland , are performed; "They are nostalgic, grieving, elegiac evocations of another time."

occupation

The musicians initially came from within the Jazz Composer's Orchestra ; In 1989 at the latest a generation change occurred.

effect

Due to its political aspirations, the ensemble is also known as the “left jazz reaction force” ( Die tageszeitung , November 3, 2005). In retrospect, it looks as if Haden (and, in his successor, Bley) always call the ensemble together when the Republicans rule in the USA . In 2008 the Liberation Music Orchestra played on election night of the US presidential election.

According to Ekkehard Jost , “an essential characteristic and at the same time one of the most important merits” of the orchestra and its music is “that there the recourse to an association-enhancing thematic material used in the sense of quotations in no way led to musical regression. Because despite its traditional elements, which were ultimately decisive for conveying Haden's political message, Liberation Music remained contemporary jazz in the best sense, with all its inconsistencies and its contradictions - directed against a classical aesthetic that insists on inner unity. "

However, the aesthetics of Bly's arrangements are not without controversy. Josef Woodard writes: “Sometimes this music can sound a little too relaxed, a little too close to music from the Saturday Night Live advertising block. The special and unique deeper task of the orchestra is to create the magical balance between making yourself comfortable with the hauntings and still adding to the comfort. "

Discography

Charlie Haden, 2007

Web links

literature

  • Ashley Kahn: Impulses! The label that Coltrane created . Rogner and Bernhard Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 3807710264

Remarks

  1. ↑ The orchestra is currently directed by Carla Bley; see. Carla Bley conducts the Charlie Haden Jazz Liberation Music Orchestra at the Detroit Jazz Festival (2015)
  2. ↑ Cf. for example the recordings from the Montreal Jazz Festival 1989, which were published under the title "The Montreal Tapes" in 1999 and contain significantly longer solos.
  3. ↑ a b E. Jost Jazz and Politics (PDF; 568 kB)
  4. ^ Solemn tones for a different America
  5. ↑ Ch. Haden, (Interview taz 2005) , and Jazz Times
  6. ↑ Tim Wilkins Jazz.com ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2010 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.jazz.com
  7. ^ Josef Woodard Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra in New York (Jazz Times) "At times, this music can sound a bit too relaxed, a bit too close to an SNL band commercial break. This particular and unique band's deeper agenda is to find the magical balance between comforting the afflicted and also afflicting the comfortable. "
  8. ↑ Two of the pieces were recorded with Haden at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in 2011 , the other three pieces were recorded posthumously in 2015.