Teruo Nakamura - Unicorn

barabara sounds sez:

Another classic TBM side from 1973, and probably the best thing that Nakamura ever laid down. Which is all thanks to the company he keeps here. It is (as TJ points out) a bit of a mixed bag, and I'm with those who say Umma Be Me, soulful and funky though it is, doesn't really belong on the album. But the other tracks more than make up for it, especially the final two tracks. Dusty, on the other hand, seems to like it all start to finish!

dusty sez:

A landmark album from the Japanese fusion scene of the 70s – a killer set of tracks recorded by bassist Teruo Nakamura, with help from a host of American soul jazz luminaries! The album's easily one of Nakamura's most sought-after sets – cut in New York in 1973, with players that include Steve Grossman, George Cables, Lenny White, Hubert Eaves, and Alphonze Mouzon. Tracks are long and jamming, but also have a wonderfully soulful component – a bit of the post-Coltrane spiritualism of some of Gary Bartz's early albums, and some of the open-ended styles you might hear on a label like Strata East. Singer Sandy Hewitt sings on 2 tracks – including the funky "Umma Be Me", which almost feels like an Andy Bey groover from the same time!

allmusic.com (thom jurek) sez:

Unicorn was bassist Teruo Nakamura's first date as a leader. Recorded and issued in Japan on the legendary Three Blind Mice imprint in 1973, Nakamura had been working in New York since 1964. He'd done a lot of hardscrabble work before 1969 when he landed the gig as bassist in Roy Haynes' fine group of the time. During that year he formed a band with Steve Grossman and Lenny White, who both appear here. This is an interesting date because it is equally divided between very electric fusion tracks and more modal acoustic numbers…

The music is very much of its time, and though it is a session players gig, with rotating lineups, there is plenty of fire here. Grossman had already done his stint with Miles Davis and is in fine form on soprano (especially on the opening title cut), and tenor on John Coltrane's "Some Other Blues." White and Mouzon are both outstanding, so the drum chair is killer throughout, no matter who's playing, and Cables' Rhodes work on the Trane cut and "Derrick's Dance," written by Miller, is stellar. Nakamura, for his part, is more than an able bassist; he leads by guiding the rhythm and not standing out as a soloist. This set has aged very well and was finally issued in the states on CD in 2007 on the Passion Music imprint.

tracks:

Unicorn Lady; Understanding; Some Other Blues; Umma Be Me; New Moon; Derrick's Dance

musicians:

Teruo Nakamura bass; Steve Grossman soprano sax; Charles Sullivan trumpet; George Cables electric piano, piano; Hubert Eaves III electric piano, piano; John Miller piano; Alphonse Mouzon drums; Lenny White drums; Ronald Jackson percussion; Alvern Bunn congas; Keiji Kishida percussion; Sandy Hewitt vocals

Don Cherry - Hear & Now

barabara sounds sez:

Wow, did/does this album ever polarize the self-styled critics...

Dusty terms it important and righteous; Julian Cope is conflicted; CD Universe says it's average, respectable and inoffensive; and AMG hyperventilates, damning it as bombastic cock-rock, lumbering, leaden, warbling, a truly gross example of shtick, a faddish veneer of exotic mysticism — and then compares it to Spinal Tap for good measure! (I've posted the best bits below for a laugh)

As for me... I like it. Clearly it's no classic; and definitely it's dated. But it's worth a few spins for sure. Let me know what you make of it...

dusty sez:

Important 70s work from Don Cherry – one of the first albums to bring his overseas experiments to a larger US audience! The set builds nicely off of styles that Don forged earlier in France and Scandinavia – a freer style of music than his work with Ornette Coleman, and a richly organic groove that builds up strongly from the bottom, often with elements of world music settled in alongside the jazz – but there's also some funkier moments here too, a bit like the Brown Rice album, but looser overall!

The groups on most numbers are relatively large and spiritual – almost like Alice Coltrane at times, but a bit more electric and funky at others… Narada Michael Walden produced, and the whole set's got a very righteous feel...

julian cope's head heritage (aether) sez:

The indecision and lack of confidence affecting Cherry at the time is totally understandable; unfortunately, it also permeates most of this LP - his one real stab at major label acceptance.

That said, a Don Cherry LP bowing to commercial acceptability is a damn sight better than many other artists of the time reaching for similar acceptance, and there are moments of high-brilliance amongst the clotted, over-sentimentalized, clinical pap.

cduniverse sez:

Hear and Now's cover depicts a smiling Cherry posing like Buddha, and holding a trumpet with a bent mouthpiece — an indication of some meditative sounds, but it's really a mishmash of styles with a leaning toward African rhythms... An average collection from Cherry, respectable and inoffensive.

AMG (Chris May) sez:

That multi-instrumentalist and world jazz pioneer Don Cherry was able to adopt such a beatific countenance for the cover shot of Hear And Now says much for the power of yoga, given the horrors that follow. The disc has now been reissued as part of Warner Jazz's Atlantic Masters series. But non-yogis should heed this warning: if you only acquire one Don Cherry album in your life, don't acquire this one.

Recorded in December 1976, Hear And Now was produced by drummer/keyboardist Narada Michael Walden, whose crimes against music—particularly at the height of the 1970s fusion era—are of a scale similar to those of pianist Bob James. The album is a truly gross example of Walden's schtick: bombastic cock-rock lead guitars, lumbering bass ostinatos, leaden drums, warbling background vocals, a faddish veneer of exotic mysticism and a sub-Wagnerian taste for dramatic shifts in dynamics. Walden himself is only heard on two tracks, but unfortunately one of them, the opening "Mahakali," features him on tympani.

If Spinal Tap had been a jazz-funk band, and if it had recorded the jazz odyssey talked about in the movie, this is what it would have sounded like.

[and so it goes on...]

Track listing

Mahakali; Universal Mother; Karmapa Chenno; California; Buddha's Blues; Eagle Eye; Surrender Rose; Journey Of Milarepa / Shanti / The Ending Movement--Liberation.

Personnel

Don Cherry: trumpet, flute, vocal; Michael Brecker: tenor saxophone (1); Stan Samole: guitar (1-5, 7, 8); Ronald Dean Miller: guitar (1, 3); Cliff Carter: keyboards (1-5, 7, 8); Narada Michael Walden: keyboards (7), tympani (1); Colin Walcott: sitar (1); Lois Colin: harp (2, 7); Moki: tamboura (1); Marcus Miller: bass (1, 3); Neil Jason: bass (2, 4, 5, 7, 8); Lenny White: drums (1, 3); Tony Williams: drums (4, 5); Steve Jordan: drums (7, 8); Raphael Cruz: percussion; Sammy Figuero: congas (2-6, 8); Cheryl Alexander: vocals (2); Phoenix Volaitis: vocals (7); Patty Scialfa: vocals (7).

Update (Jan.'11)

Another of Cherry's very best albums, Sangam, is now up at Jazz Archives. Highly recommended.