“The whole piece is a low-down plucked upright bass, brushes and breaks deal with Sinclair\u2019s one hundred thousand joints-later-voice sounding like a stoned, jazz obsessed grizzly bear reeling off listing, lilting lines like on the title track \u201cJune 6th 1950 Bird and Dizz and Monk and Curly Russell on bass\u201d. He\u2019s actually trying to describe how jazz happened, how it became and how it is \u2013 and to transport the listener into that world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a considerable attraction, for sure, as you begin to feel privy to some backroom New York jam session in the early \u201840s seared through with sudden bursts of scratch-record modernity. It\u2019s a thrilling clash as we hear Sinclair describe these artists \u201ccreating a new nation of music\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStraight No Chaser\u201d named for the Thelonius Monk classic, sees Sinclair recounting a conversation between Art Blakey and Monk over chimes, shimmering cymbals, alternately furious and absolutely zen drumlins, reversing glitches and rumbles filling the space where horns might usually be found, a glockenspiel batting its head against the waves of strange sound.<\/p>\n
The pace really picks up on tracks like the racing \u201cBloomdido\u201d set \u201cIn Harlem, in the early days of the new music\u201d \u2013 you are right there with him when \u201cThe music hit hard and deep \/ Monk and Bird and Dizzy\u201d. This is jazz during wartime, skittering and panicked as Sinclair declares \u201cThey brought music to life \/ They brought life to music\u201d.<\/p>\n
There are plenty more lines worth noting here \u2013 \u201cThey gave it life and made it bloom \/ Great flowers emerged in the middle of the night\u201d he cries, filled up with music and wonder.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere the formula of basic, stripped down acoustic band (bass, acoustic, drums) augmented with jarring samples and loops, all serving as a spinning platform for Sinclair\u2019s lyrical, heart-full poetry works just as effectively;<\/p>\n
On \u201cEronel\u201d, which borrows liberally from Monk\u2019s original of the same name, we get an exploration of reversals, mirrored sounds and words, \u201cA twisted glimpse into the mind of Monk at work\u201d. A saxophone is spliced, warped and split over thundering drums.<\/p>\n
Where Sinclair\u2019s obsession (and an obsession it must be \u2013 this project is the culmination of the seed of an idea that was sewn in 1982) with his subject really shines is on the immensely personal \u201cMy Melancholy Baby\u201d (you\u2019re sensing the theme with these titles now?) which recounts \u201cin the awful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina\u201d filmmaker and friend Stevenson Kalfi (Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together)\u2019s struggles to continue his art without funding or even much attention. Kalfi is, we\u2019re told, \u201cthis beautiful cat with a big heart and huge imagination\u201d and we get namechecks for the likes of \u2018Tuts\u2019 Washington and legendary banjoist Emanuel Sayles. It\u2019s rich, enthused stuff.<\/p>\n
Same goes for \u201cAn Oscar for Treadwell\u201d where George Treadwell is given similarly eulogious treatment. Here we\u2019re again with \u201cMonk and Bird and Dizzy\u201d \u201cIn New York City at the end of the 1930s\u201d. it\u2019s a music-poem of all night jams \u201cin midtown from 9pm to 3am\u201d and on til dawn. You can taste the reefer smoke, feel the tired eyes of the tweleve hour a day players in \u201cthe jazz centre of the world\u201d, \u201ccutting a new edge on the shape of the music \/ Pointing into the future\u201d. Suddenly we\u2019re at a house party with Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Billy Holliday, Jack Kerouac and endless, nameless sailors, pimps, drug dealers\u2026\u201dThis is the shit!\u201d the man from Flint, Michigan hardly has to mention.<\/p>\n
The words here are like a shorthand version of Gene Lees\u2019 excellent book of personal jazz histories \u201cMeet Me At Jim and Andy\u2019s\u201d \u2013 both idealise jazz and its players, both celebrate the scenes and sounds of the respective styles and times they lived through.<\/p>\n
Such are Sinclair\u2019s lyrical fireworks you could be forgiven for overlooking the feel, the accuracy, the joy of the playing here \u2013 orchestrated by Brit Steve Fry \u2013suffice to say, every element of the backing reflects the generosity of spirit, heart and sincerity that Sinclair speaks with.<\/p>\n
Things are perhaps more playful on \u201cLeap Frog\u201d, an insistent jam with yes, jazz flute and horn samples and, of course, \u201cBird and Monk and Dizzy before the second world war\u201d \u2013 yet musically it\u2019s a close cousin to something Geoff Barrow\u2019s Beak> might come up with.<\/p>\n
Apocalyptic but slight closer \u201cCarolina Moon\u201d ends the session with grace and power \u2013 but don\u2019t stop listening there. Especially if you\u2019re a Beatles fan. Seriously.<\/p>\n
Mohawk is an album that feels great, imparts wisdom, drops sweet details and encourages both fandom and participation. If there\u2019s fault to be found it\u2019s in the record\u2019s brevity \u2013 it\u2019s a short album to put together when drawing on Sinclair\u2019s lengthy body of work, some of the tracks no more than a few choice lines, Regardless, it\u2019s a ray of warming jazz sunshine that hopefully will encourage some exploration of the form among those who know this stoner poet only for his notoriety in the MC5 days. Yes, it\u2019s hard to like a hippie, but, on this evidence, here\u2019s one you could really love.” –review from The Line of Best Fit<\/p>\n
As new CD, unplayed, signed by John Sinclair on front cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“The whole piece is a low-down plucked upright bass, brushes and breaks deal with Sinclair\u2019s one hundred thousand joints-later-voice sounding like a stoned, jazz obsessed grizzly bear reeling off listing, lilting lines like on the title track \u201cJune 6th 1950 Bird and Dizz and Monk and Curly Russell on bass\u201d. He\u2019s actually trying to describe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":78495,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[151,141,108,150],"product_tag":[242,595],"class_list":["post-12534","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-artist-recordings-on-vinyl-cd-dvd","product_cat-music-lp-cd-dvd-video","product_cat-poetry","product_cat-underground","product_tag-john-sinclair","product_tag-spoken-word","first","outofstock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/12534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=12534"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=12534"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=12534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}