Hello,
Today's Artist leads the band, and doesn't really play, but Kip Hanrahan is a forward thinker and an incredible organizer of all-star progressive bands. The founder of the American Clave label, Hanrahan has released Tenderness, Exotica, Darn It!, Anthology, All Roads Are Made of the Flesh, and Desire Develops an Edge. His style is a blend of Latin rhythms and avant-garde. His band has included Jack Bruce, Don Pullen, Leo Nocentelli, Robbie Ameen, and Alfredo Triff. .........N Joy
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Kip Hanrahan was born on december 9, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. His grandparents were irish and russian-jewish immigrants. At the age of fifteen he receveid a grant for study of art. Beginning with sculpture, he switched to film studies. At the age of seventeen he moved to Mahgreb, India with the poet Paul Haines, where he studied Islamic architecture for one year. In 1972 Kip Hanrahan travelled to various West African countries, such as Algeria, Mali and Mauretania, becoming familiar with their music and culture. Back in New York, he worked as a promoter with the Jazz Composers Association. In 1979 he founded the American Clavé label. His approach is often compared to the one of a filmdirector. Coordinating and integrating the musical contributions of various artists, he his totally involved with the music, while continously maintaining the detached view of an outsider. This critical distance, typical of Kip and his work, allows him to explore and experiment in unexpected directions, resulting in a unique body of work
Kip Hanrahan has constructed a career and history of recorded music and concerts as complex and unruley as he understands the human heart : an explosively productive creative relationship with Astor Piazzolla, resulting in the recordings Piazzolla was vocal about declaring the "best records of his life...."; a relentless evolving recordings of new music, and new ways of recording (iconoclastic masterworks, say some, many....), under his own name as well as "Conjure" (rooted in and framed by the American Black "Magic Realism" griot words of Ishmael Reed); a complex but musically awe inspiring, and impossible without Hanrahan, method of producing other artists like Silvana Deluigi, and Horacio El Negro Hernandez and Robby Ameen, and his lifetime friend, Milton Cardona, and records involving Paul Haines, Allen Toussaint and others... and tours with Hanrahan's own band which at times have included Jack Bruce (of course), Don Pullen, Allen Tou ssaint, Charles Neville, Fernando Saunders, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio el Negro Hernandez, Robby Ameen, Carmen Lundy, Little Jimmy Scott (on his first European tour!), Alfredo Triff Charles Neville and many others... Also, in the 25 years of living, Hanrahan has continued his need to make records that are among the most uncompromisingly MUSICAL and personal made in the world, and of playing concerts, both his obsessively loyal band of musicians - those that appear on his records as in his concerts - Bruce, Pullen (well, not now, he's deceaced...), Toussaint, Cardona, Hernandez, Ameen, Gonzalez, Neville, etc... During the late 1990s, through 2001, Hanrahan formed, recorded ("recording" sounding comically passive for something that's directed to the last note.....) and toured with a project called "Deep Rumba". A band, "Deep Rumba", formed from the absolute best Cuban (including Buena Vista players, like Amadito Valdez), Cuban American, Puerto Rican and New York percussionists and singers. With encouragement from Horacio El Negro Hernandez (Cuba's best trap drummer before his jump to Italy in 1989) as well as from Xiomara Laugart (Cuba's best singer? Yeah, REALLY!), Changuitio, Heila Monpie and Dafnis Prieto, and others, the band toured and recorded, with Charles Neville and other guest stars from 1998 through 2001, as the most creative and exciting band formed from the possibilties of Cuban and Latin US musics in the air.... Great, obsessively greeted tours of Japan, the US and (briefly) Europe encouraged more.... and more.... But, for Hanrahan, it was time to move on: it seemed that the audiences were intoxicated by the quality and vertuosity of the drumming, and the difficulty of the personal words was covered by the fact that they were sung in Spanish, not English, so..... Anyway : If an overused, but still accurate analogue of Mr. Hanrahan's studio work to that of a movie director still holds, the analogie of Mr. Hanrahan's stage work to that of a theater director might be in order. But during a tour, it's not another performance of the same play he directs each night. ...so.... So! With Hanrahan's new band, there were two nights in Vienne last October, and a new record on the way, following up, completing the heart music started by "Beautiful Scars". And Hanrahan's still "impossible", and the audience that shows up to see "how" Hanrahan struggles with Music and Making the Heart heard each night is still there... And anyone who's confused by what happens on stage is still open to becoming a lifetime Hanrahan fan...... FAN....... But, each night on stage, whether it's breathtakingly tanscendental, or a mixture of blindingly brilliant passages with minor train wrecks, each night / concert with the Kip Hanrahan band is always a project in making the heart's music (of that very night) audible, even in it's frustrations, and should NEVER sound like an excersize in just reproducing, QUOTING music that's been made and heard before, on other nights.Mr. Hanrahan often spends the concerts wandering among the musicians, giving new cues, whispering new musical parts and approaches, and changing the music (and sometimes the words) each night, directing, and redirecting the band in an unorthodox manner, disconcerting and distracting to only those who are unable to hear the music. It's a method of conducting (what's he going to do? As a conductor count out the time to the best percussionists in the world?) that was suggested by a vocal fan, Gil Evans, who originally suggested that Kip do what he does, start the concert PLAYING, then move to the pen and paper as the Night defined it's music during the concert. Kip, of course, took it further, by not even starting by playing or singing, as Gil had suggested. Each night makes itself heard, in both clarity and confusion, through Kip and the band members in it's distinction each time.
A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways. The results are often magical. His records are as enigmatic as he is, and maybe that heightens the attraction and expectation. The results of his American Clavé productions have garnered a cultist reputation, yet a lot of people have heard them or at least of them. He chooses to remain in the shadows, an obscure figure that turns the knobs and brings it all together. Hanrahan’s recorded legacy speaks volumes of his knowledge and abilities to bring out the best of musicians that accompany him on his fantastic sojourns. Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. “I don't know where I am in a sense. People tell me that I am a Latin musician. But at the same time, it's not my music. I grew up with it and through it, and I learned it at the same time as everyone else around me learned it. And I think of Latin music as being my first music. But I'm not a Latin musician. I'm not from that culture.” After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts, in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats, those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt headgear would be one of 'facilitator', for Kip has the knack of being able to connect up people and music together. Kip Hanrahan now has numerous albums to his name. His discography reads like chapters of a book, or betters still, an anthology of short stories, each album reflective of a different phase in his life. “All Roads Are Made of the Flesh,” (1995) is probably his best known work, a compilation of musical vignettes from Jelly Roll Morton to full on avant-garde. Kip has also produced three albums for the late accordion master Astor Piazzolla, the best known of which is “Tango Zero Hour.” Drawing from a rich vein of rock, jazz and blues influences, as well as the Latin influence of his formative years, he has devised a distinctive meld of music, a dialogue between the two hemispheres of north and south, which is informed by the American Clavé. (The clavé is the internal rhythmic pulse around which all Latin music is based.) Kip works with class. Several of the finest Latin jazz percussionists in the world have toured in his band, notably the Puerto Rican Giovanni Hidalgo, who left Kip to work with Dizzy Gillespie, and his protégé Richie Flores, not to forget Milton Cardona, and Anthony Carillo. There is always a fine supporting cast of Cuban players in a variety of roles and instruments. Hanrahan’s musical associates are far too numerous to list or mention here, but on preferred sessions he worked with bassists Jack Bruce, Andy Gonzalez, and Sting, pianists Don Pullen, John Beasley, Edsel Gomez, and Allen Toussaint, sax man Charles Neville, and trumpet man Brian Lynch. More endeavors have included drummers Robby Ameen, and Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, along with the usual all star line up of top tier percussionists as Paoli Mejias. On his “Deep Rumba/A Calm in the Fire of Dances” (2000) project he featured the vocal of Xiomara Lougart, who shines on her selections. Salsa superstar Ruben Blades does a bilingual version version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” on the “Robby and Negro at the Third World War” (2004) recording. He did the soundtrack for the movie “Piñero,” in 2001, and covered the NuyoRican poetry of Piri Thomas in “Every Child is Born A Poet,” released in 2006. One of his latest projects, also in 2006 has been “Conjure: Bad Mouth.” Bottom line for the musical trajectory of Kip Hanrahan is for the adventuresome listener to dive and explore the profound depths. Kip Hanrahan’s worldly and highly artistic approach provides a road map for ongoing success. Most importantly, Hanrahan paints vivid portraits of life, love and reality without becoming self-absorbed or overbearing. Overall, his productions are generally accessible and entertaining while maintaining that perpetual touch of class.”
xxxxx
Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is Mumbo Jumbo (1972), a sprawling and unorthodox novel set in 1920s New York that has been ranked among the 500 most important books in the Western canon. Reed's work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives; his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives, irrespective of their cultural origins.
Ishmael Reed was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1938. His family moved when he was a child to Buffalo, New York, during the Great Migration. After attending local schools, Reed attended the University at Buffalo, a private university that became part of the state public university system after he left. Reed withdrew from college in his junior year, partly for financial reasons, but mainly because he felt he needed a new atmosphere to support his writing and music. In 1995, the college awarded him an honorary doctorate...
In 1962 Reed moved to New York City and co-founded with Walter Bowart the East Village Other, which became a well-known underground publication. He was also a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, some of whose members helped establish the Black Arts Movement and promoted a Black Aesthetic. Although Reed never participated in that movement, he has continued to research the history of black Americans. While working on his novel Flight to Canada (1976), he coined the term "Neo-Slave narrative", which he used in 1984 in "A Conversation with Ishmael Reed" by Reginald Martin. During this time Reed also made connections with musicians and poets such as Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Albert Ayler, which contributed to Reed’s vast experimentation with jazz and his love for music. In 1970 Reed moved to the West Coast to begin teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 35 years. He retired from there in 2005 and is serving as a Distinguished Professor at California College of the Arts. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife of more than 40 years, Carla Blank, a noted author, choreographer, and director.
Speaking about his influences, Reed has said:
I've probably been more influenced by poets than by novelists—the Harlem Renaissance poets, the Beat poets, the American surrealist Ted Joans. Poets have to be more attuned to originality, coming up with lines and associations the ordinary prose writer wouldn't think of.
Reed's published works include 11 novels, of which Conjugating Hindi (2018) is the most recent. Among his other books are seven collections of poetry, including Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues: Poems 2006–2019, to be released by Dalkey Archive Press in July 2020; 11 collections of essays, with the most recent, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, released by Baraka Books of Montreal in September 2019; one farce, Cab Calloway Stands In for the Moon or The Hexorcism of Noxon D Awful (1970); two librettos, Gethsemane Park and in collaboration with Colleen McElroy The Wild Gardens of the Loop Garoo; a sampler collection, The Reed Reader (2000); two travelogues, of which the most recent is Blues City: A Walk in Oakland (2003); and six plays, collected by Dalkey Archive Press as Ishmael Reed, The Plays (2009). His seventh play, The Final Version, premiered at New York City's Nuyorican Poets Café in December 2013; his eighth, Life Among the Aryans ("a satire that chronicles the misadventures of two hapless revolutionaries"), had a staged reading in 2017 at the Nuyorican Poets Café[19] and a full production in 2018. Reed's most recent play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, premiered on May 23, 2019, and ran till June 16 at the Nuyorican Poets Café. Two of Reed's books have been nominated for National Book Awards, and a book of poetry, Conjure, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His New and Collected Poems, 1964–2007, received the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal.
Ishmael Reed's texts and lyrics have been performed, composed or set to music by Albert Ayler, David Murray, Allen Toussaint, Carman Moore, Taj Mahal, Olu Dara, Lester Bowie, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Ravi Coltrane, Leo Nocentelli, Eddie Harris, Anthony Cox, Don Pullen, Billy Bang, Bobby Womack, Milton Cardona, Omar Sosa, Fernando Saunders, Yosvanni Terry, Jack Bruce, Little Jimmy Scott, Robert Jason, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Cassandra Wilson, Gregory Porter and others.
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Essentially the brainchild of Kip Hanrahan, the loose-knit group known as Conjure brings to bear all the elements that he had fused so successfully in the various projects released under his own name: avant-garde jazz, Latin (especially Afro-Cuban) rhythms, and a deep, funky blues sensibility. Here, using texts from the contemporary author Ishmael Reed, he distributes the composing duties to everyone from Lester Bowie to Taj Mahal to Allen Toussaint, mixes a heady instrumental gumbo, and allows things to percolate to a fine boil. The cast of musicians is certainly of all-star quality, but special mention should be made of trumpeter Olu Dara for some heart-rendingly beautiful playing, Taj Mahal for his wonderful, raspy vocal delivery, and the entire cast of percussionists, astounding in their diversity of attacks. The pieces tend toward relaxed pop forms with vocals and approachable structures but always sporting a sharply honed edge, both in their musical form and in the pointed lyrical observations that are philosophical while retaining street-level grit. As on other Hanrahan productions, there are several pieces (like Bowie's "Fool-Ology") which might be popular hits in a more benevolent universe. Highly recommended for all listeners.
Conjure - Music For The Texts of Ishmael Reed (flac 244mb)
01 Jes' Grew 4:03
02 The Wardrobe Master of Paradise 5:41
03 Dualism (1) 2:47
04 Oakland Blues 4:26
05 Skydiving 4:14
06 Judas 2:14
07 Betty Ball's Blues 3:41
08 Untitled II 3:35
09 Fool-Ology (The Song) 6:07
10 From the Files of Agent 22 3:18
11 Dualism (2) 3:37
12 Rhythm in Philosophy 1:38
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Long ago a friend gave me this definition of poetry: "the marriage of meaning & music!" I have no idea how literally he meant that, but I don't think he apprehended anything this specific, this swinging, this funky. What we have here is a seamless, peripatetic meld of contexts, word and tune, spirit and ensemble.
This is not a sequel but a full-fledged complement to the earlier album, Conjure - Music For The Texts of Ishmael Reed, likewise an eclectic jazzy, bluesy, toe-tapping nuptials of musical compositions and arrangements especially crafted by Kip Hanrahan to embrace the NeoHooDoo peregrinations of that linguistic shaman, Ishmael Reed. And Hanrahan doesn't skimp on assembling a legion of adept musical accomplices. This stuff percolates along your nerve tracks. Reed's acerbic wit and skewed observations ("No one's ever seen a dead crow along the highway") eagle rock over, under and through Hanrahan's wicked tracks. One of my all time favorites, especially for the opening track, with Bobby Womack's ballsy baritone setting the stage. Defies categorization. Go ahead and check it out, you won't be sorry.
Conjure - Cab Calloway stands in for the Moon (flac 273mb)
01 The Author Reflects on His 35th Birthday 5:00
02 Loup Garou Means Change Into 3:39
03 'Sputin 5:03
04 Nobody Was There 5:04
05 Medley: General Science / Ish / Papa La Bas 5:12
06 Running for the Office of Love (Prelude) 1:38
07 My Brothers 7:01
08 Running for the Office of Love 3:47
09 Petit Kid Everett 2:10
10 St. Louis Women (Excerpts) 2:43
11 Bitter Chocklate 4:13
12 Beware: Don't Listen to This Song 5:27
13 Minnie the Moocher 2:02
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Hanrahan had been a little quiet but here's a double-album reviving the Conjure band for another set of collaborations with the novelist/poet Ishmael Reed, and a soundtrack album for a documentary on the poet Piri Thomas. Bad Mouth is an often stunning melange of jazz, Cuban percussion, funk, postmodern blues, spoken word, R&B vocals, you name it. As always, there's a tremendous cast of characters: I won't list them all, but it's worth noting the presence of Billy Bang, David Murray, Yosvanny Terry, the hotshot Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Anthony Cox..... The album peaks early, with a terrific pair of tracks: the wicked funk of "Mo Ku Lana, Mo Jinde Loni" (which is I assume translated in the opening words: "I died yesterday. I rose today.") and "In War Such Things Happen", a devastating commentary on ends-justify-the-means violence on both sides of the "war on terror". The rest of the set is nearly as good, though most of the best material is on disc one; the second CD does tread water at times, but never loses its way and is notable for some terrific work from David Murray. I've flip-flopped a few times on Murray, a player who does often bluster his way through solos, leaving lots of rhythmic loose ends and half-baked ideas; here, though, he turns in some imaginative, very focused work, especially his solo on "Jack Johnson".
Impressive stuff: a marriage of words, cultures and musics that really works. Check it out.
Conjure - Bad Mouth 1 (flac 315mb)
01 Mo Ku Lana, Mo Jinde Loni 9:06
02 Conjuring a Calm Between the Wars 3:44
03 In War Such Things Happen 6:01
04 He Picked a Fight With the Haitians 9:17
05 For Dancer 7:13
06 Bad Mouth 8:20
07 Tokyo Woman Blues 6:56
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Conjure - Bad Mouth 2 (flac 270mb)
01 Go to Jazz 10:13
02 Louisiana Red 7:28
03 At an Azabu Cafe 9:17
04 Medley: Jack Johnson / Skirt Dance 11:36
05 Prayer to Earth 3:21
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Today's Artist leads the band, and doesn't really play, but Kip Hanrahan is a forward thinker and an incredible organizer of all-star progressive bands. The founder of the American Clave label, Hanrahan has released Tenderness, Exotica, Darn It!, Anthology, All Roads Are Made of the Flesh, and Desire Develops an Edge. His style is a blend of Latin rhythms and avant-garde. His band has included Jack Bruce, Don Pullen, Leo Nocentelli, Robbie Ameen, and Alfredo Triff. .........N Joy
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Kip Hanrahan was born on december 9, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. His grandparents were irish and russian-jewish immigrants. At the age of fifteen he receveid a grant for study of art. Beginning with sculpture, he switched to film studies. At the age of seventeen he moved to Mahgreb, India with the poet Paul Haines, where he studied Islamic architecture for one year. In 1972 Kip Hanrahan travelled to various West African countries, such as Algeria, Mali and Mauretania, becoming familiar with their music and culture. Back in New York, he worked as a promoter with the Jazz Composers Association. In 1979 he founded the American Clavé label. His approach is often compared to the one of a filmdirector. Coordinating and integrating the musical contributions of various artists, he his totally involved with the music, while continously maintaining the detached view of an outsider. This critical distance, typical of Kip and his work, allows him to explore and experiment in unexpected directions, resulting in a unique body of work
Kip Hanrahan has constructed a career and history of recorded music and concerts as complex and unruley as he understands the human heart : an explosively productive creative relationship with Astor Piazzolla, resulting in the recordings Piazzolla was vocal about declaring the "best records of his life...."; a relentless evolving recordings of new music, and new ways of recording (iconoclastic masterworks, say some, many....), under his own name as well as "Conjure" (rooted in and framed by the American Black "Magic Realism" griot words of Ishmael Reed); a complex but musically awe inspiring, and impossible without Hanrahan, method of producing other artists like Silvana Deluigi, and Horacio El Negro Hernandez and Robby Ameen, and his lifetime friend, Milton Cardona, and records involving Paul Haines, Allen Toussaint and others... and tours with Hanrahan's own band which at times have included Jack Bruce (of course), Don Pullen, Allen Tou ssaint, Charles Neville, Fernando Saunders, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio el Negro Hernandez, Robby Ameen, Carmen Lundy, Little Jimmy Scott (on his first European tour!), Alfredo Triff Charles Neville and many others... Also, in the 25 years of living, Hanrahan has continued his need to make records that are among the most uncompromisingly MUSICAL and personal made in the world, and of playing concerts, both his obsessively loyal band of musicians - those that appear on his records as in his concerts - Bruce, Pullen (well, not now, he's deceaced...), Toussaint, Cardona, Hernandez, Ameen, Gonzalez, Neville, etc... During the late 1990s, through 2001, Hanrahan formed, recorded ("recording" sounding comically passive for something that's directed to the last note.....) and toured with a project called "Deep Rumba". A band, "Deep Rumba", formed from the absolute best Cuban (including Buena Vista players, like Amadito Valdez), Cuban American, Puerto Rican and New York percussionists and singers. With encouragement from Horacio El Negro Hernandez (Cuba's best trap drummer before his jump to Italy in 1989) as well as from Xiomara Laugart (Cuba's best singer? Yeah, REALLY!), Changuitio, Heila Monpie and Dafnis Prieto, and others, the band toured and recorded, with Charles Neville and other guest stars from 1998 through 2001, as the most creative and exciting band formed from the possibilties of Cuban and Latin US musics in the air.... Great, obsessively greeted tours of Japan, the US and (briefly) Europe encouraged more.... and more.... But, for Hanrahan, it was time to move on: it seemed that the audiences were intoxicated by the quality and vertuosity of the drumming, and the difficulty of the personal words was covered by the fact that they were sung in Spanish, not English, so..... Anyway : If an overused, but still accurate analogue of Mr. Hanrahan's studio work to that of a movie director still holds, the analogie of Mr. Hanrahan's stage work to that of a theater director might be in order. But during a tour, it's not another performance of the same play he directs each night. ...so.... So! With Hanrahan's new band, there were two nights in Vienne last October, and a new record on the way, following up, completing the heart music started by "Beautiful Scars". And Hanrahan's still "impossible", and the audience that shows up to see "how" Hanrahan struggles with Music and Making the Heart heard each night is still there... And anyone who's confused by what happens on stage is still open to becoming a lifetime Hanrahan fan...... FAN....... But, each night on stage, whether it's breathtakingly tanscendental, or a mixture of blindingly brilliant passages with minor train wrecks, each night / concert with the Kip Hanrahan band is always a project in making the heart's music (of that very night) audible, even in it's frustrations, and should NEVER sound like an excersize in just reproducing, QUOTING music that's been made and heard before, on other nights.Mr. Hanrahan often spends the concerts wandering among the musicians, giving new cues, whispering new musical parts and approaches, and changing the music (and sometimes the words) each night, directing, and redirecting the band in an unorthodox manner, disconcerting and distracting to only those who are unable to hear the music. It's a method of conducting (what's he going to do? As a conductor count out the time to the best percussionists in the world?) that was suggested by a vocal fan, Gil Evans, who originally suggested that Kip do what he does, start the concert PLAYING, then move to the pen and paper as the Night defined it's music during the concert. Kip, of course, took it further, by not even starting by playing or singing, as Gil had suggested. Each night makes itself heard, in both clarity and confusion, through Kip and the band members in it's distinction each time.
A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways. The results are often magical. His records are as enigmatic as he is, and maybe that heightens the attraction and expectation. The results of his American Clavé productions have garnered a cultist reputation, yet a lot of people have heard them or at least of them. He chooses to remain in the shadows, an obscure figure that turns the knobs and brings it all together. Hanrahan’s recorded legacy speaks volumes of his knowledge and abilities to bring out the best of musicians that accompany him on his fantastic sojourns. Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. “I don't know where I am in a sense. People tell me that I am a Latin musician. But at the same time, it's not my music. I grew up with it and through it, and I learned it at the same time as everyone else around me learned it. And I think of Latin music as being my first music. But I'm not a Latin musician. I'm not from that culture.” After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts, in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats, those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt headgear would be one of 'facilitator', for Kip has the knack of being able to connect up people and music together. Kip Hanrahan now has numerous albums to his name. His discography reads like chapters of a book, or betters still, an anthology of short stories, each album reflective of a different phase in his life. “All Roads Are Made of the Flesh,” (1995) is probably his best known work, a compilation of musical vignettes from Jelly Roll Morton to full on avant-garde. Kip has also produced three albums for the late accordion master Astor Piazzolla, the best known of which is “Tango Zero Hour.” Drawing from a rich vein of rock, jazz and blues influences, as well as the Latin influence of his formative years, he has devised a distinctive meld of music, a dialogue between the two hemispheres of north and south, which is informed by the American Clavé. (The clavé is the internal rhythmic pulse around which all Latin music is based.) Kip works with class. Several of the finest Latin jazz percussionists in the world have toured in his band, notably the Puerto Rican Giovanni Hidalgo, who left Kip to work with Dizzy Gillespie, and his protégé Richie Flores, not to forget Milton Cardona, and Anthony Carillo. There is always a fine supporting cast of Cuban players in a variety of roles and instruments. Hanrahan’s musical associates are far too numerous to list or mention here, but on preferred sessions he worked with bassists Jack Bruce, Andy Gonzalez, and Sting, pianists Don Pullen, John Beasley, Edsel Gomez, and Allen Toussaint, sax man Charles Neville, and trumpet man Brian Lynch. More endeavors have included drummers Robby Ameen, and Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, along with the usual all star line up of top tier percussionists as Paoli Mejias. On his “Deep Rumba/A Calm in the Fire of Dances” (2000) project he featured the vocal of Xiomara Lougart, who shines on her selections. Salsa superstar Ruben Blades does a bilingual version version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” on the “Robby and Negro at the Third World War” (2004) recording. He did the soundtrack for the movie “Piñero,” in 2001, and covered the NuyoRican poetry of Piri Thomas in “Every Child is Born A Poet,” released in 2006. One of his latest projects, also in 2006 has been “Conjure: Bad Mouth.” Bottom line for the musical trajectory of Kip Hanrahan is for the adventuresome listener to dive and explore the profound depths. Kip Hanrahan’s worldly and highly artistic approach provides a road map for ongoing success. Most importantly, Hanrahan paints vivid portraits of life, love and reality without becoming self-absorbed or overbearing. Overall, his productions are generally accessible and entertaining while maintaining that perpetual touch of class.”
xxxxx
Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is Mumbo Jumbo (1972), a sprawling and unorthodox novel set in 1920s New York that has been ranked among the 500 most important books in the Western canon. Reed's work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives; his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives, irrespective of their cultural origins.
Ishmael Reed was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1938. His family moved when he was a child to Buffalo, New York, during the Great Migration. After attending local schools, Reed attended the University at Buffalo, a private university that became part of the state public university system after he left. Reed withdrew from college in his junior year, partly for financial reasons, but mainly because he felt he needed a new atmosphere to support his writing and music. In 1995, the college awarded him an honorary doctorate...
In 1962 Reed moved to New York City and co-founded with Walter Bowart the East Village Other, which became a well-known underground publication. He was also a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, some of whose members helped establish the Black Arts Movement and promoted a Black Aesthetic. Although Reed never participated in that movement, he has continued to research the history of black Americans. While working on his novel Flight to Canada (1976), he coined the term "Neo-Slave narrative", which he used in 1984 in "A Conversation with Ishmael Reed" by Reginald Martin. During this time Reed also made connections with musicians and poets such as Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Albert Ayler, which contributed to Reed’s vast experimentation with jazz and his love for music. In 1970 Reed moved to the West Coast to begin teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 35 years. He retired from there in 2005 and is serving as a Distinguished Professor at California College of the Arts. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife of more than 40 years, Carla Blank, a noted author, choreographer, and director.
Speaking about his influences, Reed has said:
I've probably been more influenced by poets than by novelists—the Harlem Renaissance poets, the Beat poets, the American surrealist Ted Joans. Poets have to be more attuned to originality, coming up with lines and associations the ordinary prose writer wouldn't think of.
Reed's published works include 11 novels, of which Conjugating Hindi (2018) is the most recent. Among his other books are seven collections of poetry, including Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues: Poems 2006–2019, to be released by Dalkey Archive Press in July 2020; 11 collections of essays, with the most recent, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, released by Baraka Books of Montreal in September 2019; one farce, Cab Calloway Stands In for the Moon or The Hexorcism of Noxon D Awful (1970); two librettos, Gethsemane Park and in collaboration with Colleen McElroy The Wild Gardens of the Loop Garoo; a sampler collection, The Reed Reader (2000); two travelogues, of which the most recent is Blues City: A Walk in Oakland (2003); and six plays, collected by Dalkey Archive Press as Ishmael Reed, The Plays (2009). His seventh play, The Final Version, premiered at New York City's Nuyorican Poets Café in December 2013; his eighth, Life Among the Aryans ("a satire that chronicles the misadventures of two hapless revolutionaries"), had a staged reading in 2017 at the Nuyorican Poets Café[19] and a full production in 2018. Reed's most recent play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, premiered on May 23, 2019, and ran till June 16 at the Nuyorican Poets Café. Two of Reed's books have been nominated for National Book Awards, and a book of poetry, Conjure, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His New and Collected Poems, 1964–2007, received the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal.
Ishmael Reed's texts and lyrics have been performed, composed or set to music by Albert Ayler, David Murray, Allen Toussaint, Carman Moore, Taj Mahal, Olu Dara, Lester Bowie, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Ravi Coltrane, Leo Nocentelli, Eddie Harris, Anthony Cox, Don Pullen, Billy Bang, Bobby Womack, Milton Cardona, Omar Sosa, Fernando Saunders, Yosvanni Terry, Jack Bruce, Little Jimmy Scott, Robert Jason, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Cassandra Wilson, Gregory Porter and others.
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Essentially the brainchild of Kip Hanrahan, the loose-knit group known as Conjure brings to bear all the elements that he had fused so successfully in the various projects released under his own name: avant-garde jazz, Latin (especially Afro-Cuban) rhythms, and a deep, funky blues sensibility. Here, using texts from the contemporary author Ishmael Reed, he distributes the composing duties to everyone from Lester Bowie to Taj Mahal to Allen Toussaint, mixes a heady instrumental gumbo, and allows things to percolate to a fine boil. The cast of musicians is certainly of all-star quality, but special mention should be made of trumpeter Olu Dara for some heart-rendingly beautiful playing, Taj Mahal for his wonderful, raspy vocal delivery, and the entire cast of percussionists, astounding in their diversity of attacks. The pieces tend toward relaxed pop forms with vocals and approachable structures but always sporting a sharply honed edge, both in their musical form and in the pointed lyrical observations that are philosophical while retaining street-level grit. As on other Hanrahan productions, there are several pieces (like Bowie's "Fool-Ology") which might be popular hits in a more benevolent universe. Highly recommended for all listeners.
Conjure - Music For The Texts of Ishmael Reed (flac 244mb)
01 Jes' Grew 4:03
02 The Wardrobe Master of Paradise 5:41
03 Dualism (1) 2:47
04 Oakland Blues 4:26
05 Skydiving 4:14
06 Judas 2:14
07 Betty Ball's Blues 3:41
08 Untitled II 3:35
09 Fool-Ology (The Song) 6:07
10 From the Files of Agent 22 3:18
11 Dualism (2) 3:37
12 Rhythm in Philosophy 1:38
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Long ago a friend gave me this definition of poetry: "the marriage of meaning & music!" I have no idea how literally he meant that, but I don't think he apprehended anything this specific, this swinging, this funky. What we have here is a seamless, peripatetic meld of contexts, word and tune, spirit and ensemble.
This is not a sequel but a full-fledged complement to the earlier album, Conjure - Music For The Texts of Ishmael Reed, likewise an eclectic jazzy, bluesy, toe-tapping nuptials of musical compositions and arrangements especially crafted by Kip Hanrahan to embrace the NeoHooDoo peregrinations of that linguistic shaman, Ishmael Reed. And Hanrahan doesn't skimp on assembling a legion of adept musical accomplices. This stuff percolates along your nerve tracks. Reed's acerbic wit and skewed observations ("No one's ever seen a dead crow along the highway") eagle rock over, under and through Hanrahan's wicked tracks. One of my all time favorites, especially for the opening track, with Bobby Womack's ballsy baritone setting the stage. Defies categorization. Go ahead and check it out, you won't be sorry.
Conjure - Cab Calloway stands in for the Moon (flac 273mb)
01 The Author Reflects on His 35th Birthday 5:00
02 Loup Garou Means Change Into 3:39
03 'Sputin 5:03
04 Nobody Was There 5:04
05 Medley: General Science / Ish / Papa La Bas 5:12
06 Running for the Office of Love (Prelude) 1:38
07 My Brothers 7:01
08 Running for the Office of Love 3:47
09 Petit Kid Everett 2:10
10 St. Louis Women (Excerpts) 2:43
11 Bitter Chocklate 4:13
12 Beware: Don't Listen to This Song 5:27
13 Minnie the Moocher 2:02
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Hanrahan had been a little quiet but here's a double-album reviving the Conjure band for another set of collaborations with the novelist/poet Ishmael Reed, and a soundtrack album for a documentary on the poet Piri Thomas. Bad Mouth is an often stunning melange of jazz, Cuban percussion, funk, postmodern blues, spoken word, R&B vocals, you name it. As always, there's a tremendous cast of characters: I won't list them all, but it's worth noting the presence of Billy Bang, David Murray, Yosvanny Terry, the hotshot Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Anthony Cox..... The album peaks early, with a terrific pair of tracks: the wicked funk of "Mo Ku Lana, Mo Jinde Loni" (which is I assume translated in the opening words: "I died yesterday. I rose today.") and "In War Such Things Happen", a devastating commentary on ends-justify-the-means violence on both sides of the "war on terror". The rest of the set is nearly as good, though most of the best material is on disc one; the second CD does tread water at times, but never loses its way and is notable for some terrific work from David Murray. I've flip-flopped a few times on Murray, a player who does often bluster his way through solos, leaving lots of rhythmic loose ends and half-baked ideas; here, though, he turns in some imaginative, very focused work, especially his solo on "Jack Johnson".
Impressive stuff: a marriage of words, cultures and musics that really works. Check it out.
Conjure - Bad Mouth 1 (flac 315mb)
01 Mo Ku Lana, Mo Jinde Loni 9:06
02 Conjuring a Calm Between the Wars 3:44
03 In War Such Things Happen 6:01
04 He Picked a Fight With the Haitians 9:17
05 For Dancer 7:13
06 Bad Mouth 8:20
07 Tokyo Woman Blues 6:56
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Conjure - Bad Mouth 2 (flac 270mb)
01 Go to Jazz 10:13
02 Louisiana Red 7:28
03 At an Azabu Cafe 9:17
04 Medley: Jack Johnson / Skirt Dance 11:36
05 Prayer to Earth 3:21
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