Jan 18, 2010

Music Revelation Ensemble - Knights of Power

barabara sounds sez:
The Music Revelation Ensemble make a righteous funky noise, propelled as ever by James Blood Ulmer who has a great line-up with him here: Amin Ali and Cornell Rochester as the rhythm section, with Arthur Blythe and Hamiet Bluiett sharing sax duties. The tracks that grab me are Noise And Clamor and Father Of Flame – but they're all kick-ass (as TJ says in his review). As far as I know this excellent album (1995) was only released in Japan and is well OOP.

On ebay I've seen this offered for substantial bucks: here it's yours for the price of a comment. [And remember no comment is in itself a comment :–)]

More info on the Music Revelation Ensemble here...

allmusic (Thom Jurek) sez:
James Blood Ulmer's sporadic and ever-evolving Music Revelation Ensemble has featured at one time or another everyone from David Murray and Roland Shannon Jackson to John Zorn and the late George Adams. The results have been spotty as well, but when Blood is on in this band, his true jamming unit, there's none better. This disc is one example of that power with a rhythm section consisting of Amin Ali on bass and Cornell W. Rochester on drums, and two guests saxophonists who go by the names Arthur Blythe (whose landmark Lennox Avenue Breakdown facilitated Ulmer getting a Columbia Records contract in the 1970s) and Hamiet Bluiett, splitting the eight tunes between them. Funk is the root key of everything here, slipped grooves and underhanded bass riffs kick the tunes off before a melody line gets stated played jointly usually by Ulmer and either Blythe or Bluiett, and then it's off to the stratosphere while never losing the groove. Ulmer's guitar work on this disc is truly astonishing as he plays lead and rhythm at the same time, chasing the train and keeping the groove. Standouts on the set are "The Day Of" and "Confusion," as well as "Father of Flame." On each of these selections, Ulmer and his rhythm section create wide spaces for the horn players to move around in. Once the saxists are established in their improvisations, Ulmer will stab through the mix with another idea of dimensional scale and either Blythe or Bluiett will be given the responsibility of opening that up. Blood eventually comes in for his solo and understates it while introducing yet another length of the harmolodic lyrical chain. In each case, it's amazing that the band finds its way back to the root, the groove never having been absent. Along with No Wave, this is the best of the Music Revelation Ensemble's recordings; it kicks ass.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anything to say? Don't be shy (or worse)!

http://www.mediafire.com/?tizoywgxjd3

Wallofsound said...

I have a couple of other (much earlier) MRE releases, so I'll give this one a listen. Thanks for sharing.

yotte said...

Several great names are mentioned above... I'm really looking forward to hearing this. THANKS!

taro nombei said...

@Wallofsound
Thanks for dropping by — I'm a big fan of inconstant sol (and would love to visit the other blogs too!). I only know the later Ulmer albums. Got any recommendations for the early stuff?

jwillaum said...

Ulmer has had his moments in my opinion he's become more of a concept than an viable artist but then aren't all concepts art? anyway Blythe and Bluiett on the other hand have to me never wasted a breath this should be an interesting listening experience thanks

taro nombei said...

@Yotte
greetings and thanks for the note. I always enjoy Pathway — as you see it's on my blog roll — so good to see you here... Enjoy!!

taro nombei said...

@jwillaum
let me know if you think the music lives up to/surpasses the concept...
personally I think this is one of his best!

E-mile said...

TN, been looking for this one for ages! thank you for this fantastic share!
peace, E-mile

corvimax said...

yes, thank you!
the sax section too....

taro nombei said...

Greetings E-mile & corvimax,
You're very welcome. Thanks for dropping by — and even more so for just letting me know!

Bhowani said...

Music revelation ensemble

So I won't make any comments about the fact that I thank you beaucoup for this (with Blythe !)

taro nombei said...

@ Bhowani
LOL
thanks for the not comment :–)

Anonymous said...

This group has always been my favorite context to hear Ulmer in. Really looking forward to this one, which I wasn't aware of,. Thanks!....

Anonymous said...

Can't ever get enough Blood. Thanks!

taro nombei said...

yup, we all need plenty of Blood — buckets of Blood, you could say ;–)

DEFGRAFIX said...

Thanks again matey, top class!

E S said...

If indeed this was another Blood and David Murray MRE I was ready to pass, but JBUlmer and Arthur Blythe is a sure thing - they both bring out the best in each other.

(For early JBUlmer with Arthur Blythe check out "Illusions" (under AB's name)from 1979/80 - on CBS but OOP for ages -)
------
(BTW, MRE with JBUlmer and George Adams
(i believe the recording is called 'Revealing')`
is NOT to be missed either…)

taro nombei said...

@ E S

Thanks for dropping by and leaving those recommendations.

If anyone else is interested, the Arthur Blythe has been posted at Fantod Under Glass.
And you can track Revealing down through Simon's excellent and essential Never Enough Rhodes.

Unknown said...

Well, I didn´t know the MRE... so, thanks to you I will know it very, very soon... wooow...

Durge & The Oldies said...

Never heard of this one and am grateful for the opportunity. Will be interesting to see if this is indeed the best! Thanks so much.

taro nombei said...

@ Nando
@ Arkiver

You're very welcome.
Let me know what you think...

Anonymous said...

wow you are a star thanks and keep the faith bless stu

jbull49 said...

Always a delight to find another tangent of JBU's career. Thanks for the harmelodics. I've enjoyed his trio albums best, but the two horns here look like they should make this a rather turbulent bit of fun.

Cheers,

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much. So Obscure and cool .. been a big of these guys for 30 years ... nice to hear stuff i couldn't get even then!

Anonymous said...

Re-up?
(please?)

SantosCurser said...

In order that my comment be deemed worthy... i have nothing but some humble gratitude if you are so kind as to offer these (what looks to be) treasured sound vibrations.

(and perhaps this note, I just noticed today that Steve Coleman, -avante gard sax of some fame- is giving away much of his music for free: (thanks to infinitefool.blogspot.com/ for pointing it out to me)
"Don't forget that Steve Coleman is giving away 16 of his albums over at his web site. Check out his essay explaining why, while you're at it... ESSAY: m-base.com/give_away.html
FREE DL m-base.com/download.html
..."
tell them I said "holy shit!" or some other irreverent exclamation!

Anonymous said...

Dead Link.

Please Re-up.

Thank you.