Ancient Ritual

Ancient Ritual

ASIN: B000002MRI

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Sonny Simmons came out of New York's early-'60s avant-garde jazz scene. On this, his first album in a dozen years, Simmons shakes off years of unjust obscurity to emerge as a major talent. The noisy, superficial aspects of the early-'60s jazz scene have been stripped away from his playing but the essence of free jazz--the ability to follow an impulse wherever it leads--remains in Simmons's twisting, restless compositions. Accompanied by the propulsive rhythms of his son Zarak Simmons on drums and Charnett Moffett on bass, Simmons plays long, long solos which maintain an astonishing harmonic continuity even as they snake in every direction except the expected one. --Geoffrey Himes

Tracks:

Prelude - Iacta Alea Est, Orchid's Womb
First Movement - The Painted Bird
Second Movement - Persival
Third Movement - The Sword of Damocles
Fourth Movement - Kundalini Rising
Fifth Movement - Avodah
Postlude - Chrysanthemums & Orchids
Postlude - Lunatic Fringe

Album Description

Virtuoso musician, inventor, and visionary, Mark Deutsch releases an extraordinary new CD that debuts his epic composition, Fool, and features his revolutionary new instrument, the Bazantar, for which he has received a U.S. patent.

The Bazantar is a 38-stringed instrument, possessing 29 sympathetic, 4 drone, and 5 melody strings. Its engineering concept radically advances preexisting "sympathetic instrument" configurations. Robert Wilucki, a luthier who worked on the instrument, remarks, "It is genius what Mark has done with his invention--totally unique." The Bazantar's sound is multilayered and extraordinarily resonant. These characteristics, combined with Deutsch's unique style and prodigious technique, create the perception of several instruments being played simultaneously.

Fool..., the first recording to showcase the Bazantar, also employs the sitar and various percussion instruments. As a composer, Mark Deutsch has integrated many diverse elements into this work. He weaves Indian music's sublime melodic contouring with the panoramic architecture of classical music, universal mathematical principles with a jazz musician's commitment to spontaneous creation, and avant-garde's visceral convulsions with folk tradition's graceful simplicity to create a musical gestalt that defies simplistic categorization.

The Bazantar and sitar tracks are live solo performances. There is no overdubbing, looping, or other studio effects on these tracks. Rarely attempted in today's environment of digital manipulation, this method of recording requires substantial skill by both engineer and musician. The result is a work that reveals the creative process with a vitality remarkable in character.

Customer Reviews:

Hybrid Vigor.......2002-03-30

I am fresh from a concert presentation of gryphon-like beast the bazantar. The versatility of this instrument, in Mr. Deutch's most able hands, is quite remarkable. This recording is superb in its ability to place one inside the music. From this recording, from the concert, one gets a sense of vast possibilities and expectations for this instrument.

Fool is a musical exploration of a life as a spiritual path, one version at any rate, a rather saturnine version. I look forward to Mr. Deutsch putting out further recordings so he can expand the mystical vision with some of the irreverence of which he is also capable. Mysticism demands deconstruction to transcend itself. Fool is also a lesson in musicality. Part of the joy of this music is that it feels both unique and connected. We love to place things in categories (we cannot not do this in fact) and while I sit with this I have both the Baudelairean sense of plunging into the abyss of the new yet resonance with and anchoring to many traditions and expressions. As I am writing this I notice the second movement is playing, titled Persival. It includes a golden-ratioed figure-eight-like symbol. Interesting conjunction. Pesrival means "through the middle" or living in the points of conjunction, Whitman's "both in and out of the game. The bazantar is itself a point of intersection.

Transcendant Visionary Music: beyond the beyond.......2000-01-07

This music is unique and certainly difficult to describe with words. But I'll give it a go: With his Bazantar, Mark masterfully creates sound and timbre that entwine the exquisite aural resonance with cryptic mystical conjurings, beckoning the mind to relax and open and explore a transcendant tapestry of emotive texture and visionary trance.

Trance inducing, hallucinogenic!.......1999-10-25

By the 4th movement I found myself far removed from my sense of self in the room. The space around me grew very large and intense. This music is very interesting and penetrating. The fact that this music is of solo performance it astounding to me!

Average customer rating:

Invisible Standout
great obscure gem

Ancient Ritual
Sonny Simmons
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

American Jungle
Manhattan Egos
Firebirds

ASIN: B000002MRI
Release Date: 1994-07-19

Tracks:

Reincarnation
Trumpet Ship
Theme For Linda
Crystal
The Other East
Country Parson
Ancient Ritual
Sundown In Egypt

Amazon.com

Sonny Simmons came out of New York's early-'60s avant-garde jazz scene. On this, his first album in a dozen years, Simmons shakes off years of unjust obscurity to emerge as a major talent. The noisy, superficial aspects of the early-'60s jazz scene have been stripped away from his playing but the essence of free jazz--the ability to follow an impulse wherever it leads--remains in Simmons's twisting, restless compositions. Accompanied by the propulsive rhythms of his son Zarak Simmons on drums and Charnett Moffett on bass, Simmons plays long, long solos which maintain an astonishing harmonic continuity even as they snake in every direction except the expected one. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews:

Invisible Standout.......2006-05-29

One wants to believe in critical merit, in the general public's good taste, but when an album like "Ancient Ritual" is all but ignored, it's hard to resist cynicism. Not much to report past that. The fact is that Mr. Simmons returned to the scene after a long hiatus and produced a standout album. A gas from top to bottom. Cooks and swings...and that is something all too rare in contemporary jazz. Spread the word.

great obscure gem.......2002-02-02

Sonny Simmons is best known for a number of records he recorded in the 60's in the post-bop to Avant-Guarde style, including 2 with Prince Lasha ("Firebirds" is a masterpiece) and one Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.

On this CD Simmons dispenses with the dissonance and wierdness of 60's Free Jazz, but he retains the passion and creativity of his previous recordings.

Whether playing Alto Sax or English Horn, Simmons has a unique, instantly recognizable style. It is a travesty that this man doesn't get more recognition.

Tracks:

Mars, The Bringer Of War - Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Sabre Dance - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Malambo - Enrique Batiz
Ride Of The Valkyries - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Tzigane - Marat Bisengaliev
Overture To Ruslan And Ludmilla - Anthony Bramall
Allegro Vivace - Maggini String Quartet
Dies Arae (Chorus) - Hungarian State Opera Choir
Ritual Fire Dance - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Dance Of The Knights - Andrew Mogrelia
Joie Du Sang Des Etoiles - Thomas Bloch
Allegro - Alexander Rahbari
Molto Allegro E Appassionato - Wendy Warner
King Kashchey's Infernal Dance - Alexander Rahbari
O Fortuna - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Tracks:

Adagio - Moderato - Maria Kliegel
'Siste Farvel' (The Last Farewell) - Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Vocalise Op.34 No.14 - Vytautas Sondeckis
O Soave Fanciulla - Luba Orgonasova
Intermezzo - Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Aria - Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Liebestod - Johannes Wildner
Idylle Printemps - English Northern Philharmonia
Lento - Vlach Quartet Prague
Gluck, Das Mir Verblieb - Thomas Sunnegardh
Rhythmic Variations On Two Ancient Hymns - Kenneth Schermerhorn
Adagio For Strings, Op.11 - Marin Alsop

Customer Reviews:

Classical Wonder.......2003-05-18

As an avid classical music listener, and cellist, Classical Heat was the perfect blend of energized, fast-paced works, and then on the second disk, a more mellow, yet still firey, works. I would recommend this CD set to every classical listener, even people that don't normally like the classical genre will enjoy this cd.

Beware the Flame.......2002-06-14

Trumpet blasts, french horn flares, all the way to the subtle reeds of the bassoon. This album will keep you interested and awake all the way through. Paired with its sister album "Classical Chill", they can be the perfect mix you have been looking for. Musician and listener alike: This CD is a must have.

Average customer rating:

Maya: the Great Katun

Manufacturer: Round Sky Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CA442I
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Average customer rating:

Psalms of Ra

Manufacturer: Jim Berenholtz
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAF27Y
Release Date: 2002-12-03

Average customer rating:

Splices 1:Landmark

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005JJR7
Release Date: 2000-03-01

Tracks:

Transcendentalism
Monitoring The Abyss
At Your Own Pace/coda:City's Pace
Wave Intervals
There Will Come Soft Rain
The Harbor
Belfry & Cobblestone
Nightmare Repeller
Making My Way Through Paris
Frozen Moonshine Merlot
A Lighter Animal
A Train's Acomin'
Like Clockwork
A Park In Japan
The Archival Splices (a-o)

Album Description

ADSR is short for Ancient Desert Sounds and Recording. An electronic music lab supportive of experimental electronic artistry. ADSR also hosts Denver's Raw Material EMS in August founded by Glenn D. Clark in 1989.

Average customer rating:

Spirit of Our Time

Manufacturer: Leslie Melcher
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CA7M8G
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Average customer rating:

Around the World
Band of His Majesty the King's Guard Norway
Manufacturer: Norway Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005A0JC
Release Date: 2001-02-27

Average customer rating:

Ritual Structures
Mark Tindle
Manufacturer: Ancient Sun
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

Fusion & World Fusion | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Environmental | New Age | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00000J5P6
Release Date: 1999-01-01

Tracks:

Ritual Structures
Near Earth
Circular Ruins
Submerged
Cloud Messenger
Shaman Light
Shining Path
Archeozoic

Album Description

asm2004 RITUAL STRUCTURES - Mark Tindle

Ritual Structures is a monumental soundscape of hypnotic bass guitar atmospheres, hybrid electro-metallic instruments and the primordial voices of Tibetan monks. Bottomless, guttural, and bone resonating vibrations align you with the deep emptiness of Zen, washing you to the shores of a timeless universe.

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music