Label: Chitei
Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
UPC: 667342097527
EAN: 0667342097527
ASIN: B0000648HP
Release Date: 2001-06-26
|
|
Artist:
Shibusa Shirazu
Label: Chitei Category: Music Average customer rating:
Format: Import Media: Audio CD UPC: 667342097527 EAN: 0667342097527 ASIN: B0000648HP Release Date: 2001-06-26 |
General
|
International
|
Styles
|
Music
International
|
Imports
|
Stores
|
Music
Customer Reviews:
Sun Ra meets the Grateful Dead, directed by Duke Ellington.......2004-02-25
Then I'm back in the Shinjuku Pit Inn club in Tokyo, a performance space with room for, maybe 150, filled with 300 people watching a group of about 20 musicians on the stage, plus 3 dancers (more later). The place was packed 30 minutes before the first show ... For once I could understand why a few generations ago jazz was seen as the devil's music ... it WAS a wild show.
The musicians include 5 saxes, easily outplayed by one trumpet, one trombone, 3 percussionists, a guitarist, a Hammond B3, two keyboardists and a flutist/vocalist (sings on DA DA DA). The keyboardists, both women, had a neat piano four hands trick where the larger one played the upper and lower parts and the smaller played the inner parts.... But other times they sat at their own instruments and had at it with fists, elbows and fingers. I'm sure I've missed a few of the musicians.... but I think this list paints the picture.
About the third piece they did was Sun Ra's "Space is the Place". I'd seen Sun Ra perform this in '79 in Cambridge, Mass and the Shibusa Shirazu version had about double the notes and triple the enthusiasm.
Dancers. Two women in "Las Vegas Showgirl" type outfits did very lively dances with the high tempo of the music, sometimes joined by the tiny flutist/vocalist who would jump around like a maniac. Also a mime-like guy who looked like Gollum and moved through the audience, standing on tables and dividers and amplifies and so on, moving to a very very slow rhythm, hypnotically connected to the music.
OK, like Sun Ra because they sound like Sun Ra but more enthusiastic. Like the Grateful Dead because they do great, complicated segues in 10-12 minute duration pieces. Maybe like Duke Ellington is a stretch, but the leader/conductor does an excellent job of keeping their very diverse set of sounds moving forward.
The last piece on this CD, DA DA DA, was one of the last of the evning. As they got into the final chorus, many band members left the stage and paraded through the audience, and we all sang along ... like a nice long "We Bid You Goodnight" number at a Dead concert. Except, there were only 300 or so of us.
Of the CDs that Amazon seems to have, I would also recommend Never Cool. If you want an experience on the edge of jazz, I suggest buying Shiburyu (Cool Dragon), and, if you ever have the chance, go see a live performance. Don't wear your good clothes.... they are not your father's jazz band.
Music CD:
Music CD
Shove the Sun Aside ~ Dave Weiner
Ursa Major ~ Eleventh Dream Day
Girls Girls Girls ~ Mötley Crüe