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Sunday, January 14, 2007

The Gift - Live At Sangha


I've always been a great fan of Roy Campbell (trumpet, flute), whom I consider to be the true musical heir of Don Cherry. I have all his great albums with William Parker and Hamid Drake, but this one I bought without knowing what to expect. The trio also consists of William Hooker (drums) and Jason Kao Hwan (violin). By itself, this is already an unusual line-up, but the CD is one long piece of free improvisation, with slow, hectic, intense, sad moments. I have listened to this album dozens of times as if hypnotised. The music is at the same time open and free beyond belief, yet very accessible and emotionally powerful. This is free jazz at its best. Campbell and Hwan circle around each other, complete each other through the warm acoustic sound of Campbell's trumpet and the electronically deformed sound of Hwan's violin. Hooker is a very dominant drummer and changes the whole piece from time to time by some astute interventions. This CD opened a new way of listening to music to me. It is as if a door opened which made all other free jazz which I found very inaccessible, suddenly something to be cherished (starting with Joe McPhee and Vinny Golia). Really great stuff. An emotional experience

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