The Karuna Trio: Imaginary Archipelago

  The Karuna Trio unites percussionists Adam Rudolph and Hamid Drake with Ralph M. Jones on various wind instruments. On Imaginary Archipelago, the band offers a techno-tribal blend of every genre that Rudolph and Drake have worked in over the course of decades. These spontaneous improvisations combine sounds from “primitive” sources like drums and rattles with instruments of the industrial age like saxophone and clarinet, overlaid by Rudolph’s nuanced application of electronic effects. The conceit for the session has the three musicians embarking on a journey through an island chain that exists only in their minds. In the words of the artist’s statement that appears in the booklet, a “three person Research and Development team discovered an imaginary archipelago ... The music documented on this recording is a sounding of these island people’s lived philosophy.” There’s also a note to the effect that although some of the instruments heard may sound familiar, “this is only coincidental.” Each track is named after one of these islands of thought, representing the varied ways of imagined life. Rudolph and Drake go way back, meeting in a drum shop as teenagers in 1969. Rudolph met Jones in 1974 at a music festival where they played with pianist Kenny Cox. With trumpeter Charles Moore, Jones and Rudolph went on to form Eternal Wind, a group that made a couple of albums for the small Flying Fish label in the mid-Eighties. Those connections establish a high degree of trust and instant interplay that characterize their thoroughly absorbing and wildly inventive music. As listeners, we can only be glad that Rudolph, Drake, and Jones made the trip and came home safely to tell all these stories. Recommended. 

Meta 024; Ralph M. Jones (aerophones, voice) Adam Rudolph (membranophones [fingers & hands], idiophones, chordophones, overtone singing, electronic processing) Hamid Drake (membranophones [sticks & hands], idiophones, voice); New Haven, CT, September 21, 2018; Okomibo/ Alima/ Ibak/ Dimahala/ Apekweh/ Madazuba/ Pitek/ Chandirasa/ Suwakaba/ Vajna/ Sorokaba; 66:24. metarecords.com

Jordan/Futterman/Swell/Fielder + Jordan/Futterman/Parker/Drake

Percussionist Alvin Fiedler first appeared on record with a 1958 edition of the Sun Ra Arkestra. A charter member of Chicago’s AACM, he played with Roscoe Mitchell in the mid-Sixties, appearing on the seminal Sound album for Nessa. According to his Wikipedia entry, he returned home to Mississippi in 1969, and began working with saxophonist Kidd Jordan in 1975 in what became the Improvisational Arts band. A mainstay of the New Orleans avant-garde scene, Fielder had lengthy musical relationships with Jordan and pianist Joel Futterman, and getting as far as Dallas, Texas, with brassman Dennis Gonzalez. His final recording, issued by the Big Easy’s invaluable independent label Valid Records, is Masters Of Improvisation, featuring a quartet of Kidd Jordan, Alvin Fielder, Joel Futterman & Steve Swell from a live concert at the Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans in late January 2017. After a few tentative minutes to settle into the space, the second half of Expansion is a wild, no holds barred freely improvised onslaught, complete with a hip drum solo to end the piece. The exploratory 25 minutes of Residue start out with trombonist Swell and drummer Fielder in a low-key duet. Futterman joins the fray with darting piano chords as the intensity builds slowly and surely. Futterman and Fielder go at it for a spell in a busier frame of mind. Jordan then enters the scene, in a relaxed mood, and the music slows down again to give listeners a chance for some close listening. Overall, it’s quite an enjoyable exposition, with Fielder setting the pace and controlling the dynamics. The track flows directly into the finale, a cheerfully energetic conversation with plenty of interplay and direct communication, and ending the set with an unexpected sidelong glance at Doc Pomus’ Lonely Avenue! A fine night of music indeed.

   Fielder passed away at the age of 83 in January 2019, and in June of that year, the quartet of Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Joel Futterman, William Parker, & Hamid Drake offered A Tribute to Alvin Fielder, Live at Vision Festival XXIV. It’s clear from the first seconds of the single 45-minute improvisation that spirits were high and the musicians totally engaged. Bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake form one of the most potent rhythm teams around. One of the great musical experiences of my life was witnessing a quartet of Parker and Drake with the twin-tenor threat of Edward “Kidd” Jordan and the late Fred Anderson, and so I had great expectations for this Vision Festival performance. I wish I could have been there, but I’m very happy to report that this Mahakala Music release is deeply satisfying from start to finish. As is usually the case with free improvisation, a blow-by-blow account is relatively pointless and unhelpful. But I will note Jordan’s playful evocation of eden ahbez’s Nature Boy, Futterman’s lush and deep concentration at the low end of the piano, and the uncanny empathy displayed at every moment by Parker and Drake as the music ebbs and flows. As Kidd Jordan (85 in May, 2020) tells the audience at the end, he’s “blessed to play with younger fellows” and, quoting the blues song Going Down Slow, he’s had his fun, “if I don’t get well no more.” He had a ball, he told them, and now it’s your turn to have a ball at home. Happily recommended.
Masters of Improvisation: Valid VR-1016; Steve Swell (tbn) Kidd Jordan (ts) Joel Futterman (p) Alvin Fielder (d); New Orleans, LA, January 24, 2017; Expansion/ Residue/ Sawdust on the Floor; 47:50. validrecords.com
Tribute To Alvin Fielder: Mahakala Music; Edward "Kidd" Jordan (ts) Joel Futterman (p) William Parker (b) Hamid Drake (d); Brooklyn, NY, June 12, 2019; A Tribute to Alvin Fiedler; 45:03. mahakalamusic.com

Dave Liebman/ Adam Rudolph/ Hamid Drake: CHI

Improvisation must be as old as music itself. After all, the first sounds we might recognize as musical arose from nothing. But of course, the tools have changed radically over the millennia, and the deeply conjoined trio of Dave Liebman, Adam Rudolph, and Hamid Drake uses anything they can to create something from nothing on their new CD, CHI. Saxophones, an array of percussion instruments from around the world, voices, electronics, and the occasional piano meet in a invigorating display of instant communication. Rudolph and Drake go back a long way together, to their time in the Mandingo Griot Society in the late Seventies. And since the late Sixties, Dave Liebman has established himself on hundreds of recordings as a free spirit and a reliably potent musical force. Their improvisations here range from under 3 minutes for the introductory Becoming to the quarter-hour of Emergence, and the titles they’ve assigned to their free-wheeling inventions are roughly descriptive of the music. Thus Flux is mostly a continuous changing flow with some intense drumming and an aggressive soprano saxophone solo. Continuum builds on Drake’s cymbal beat and Rudolph’s hand drums, with a keening saxophone emerging after two minutes and leading the way into a passionate musical conversation. The carefully sculpted Formless Form features Liebman’s slightly hesitant piano and steady but delicate percussion. Percussion dominates the first section of Emergence. Liebman enters with a sinuous soprano line, and the piece slowly builds to a exciting three-way improvisation. The sax drops out, the drummers engage one another, and the mood changes for a while into a more pastoral kind of feeling before revving up again and slowly drifting off. Whirl ends the program of nearly an hour with a piece centered on Rudolph’s sintir, a bass lute used by the Gnawa people of northern Africa. His swirling bass lines meld with Drake’s frame drum and lilting saxophone lines from Liebman to create a mellow conclusion to their encounter. Recommended.
RareNoise RNR102; Dave Liebman (ss, ts, p on *, wooden recorder) Adam Rudolph (hand drumset [kongos, djembe, tarija], p on #, sintir, multi-phonic vcl, perc, elec) Hamid Drake (d, vcl, frame drum, perc); NYC, May 8, 2018; Becoming#/ Flux/ Continuum/ Formless Form*/ Emergence / Whirl; 56:00. www.rarenoiserecords.com