Customer Reviews

Blueprints Of Jazz Vol. 2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, after checking out Mike Clark's Blueprints Of Jazz Volume 1 I had to go and check out Billy Harper's Blueprints of Jazz Volume 2. While I was a fan of Vol. 1, I like this one for very, very different reasons. Mike Clark's release was very bright and traditional sounding; with a greater deal of focus on letting the drums drive the band. This release was darker, more brooding, with a greater attention to being expressive and experimental.

The first two tracks, "Africa Revisited" and "Knowledge of Self" start off textural and connected, with a spoken word piece going over the two compositions. With the exception of "Oh... If Only", the remaining songs are purely instrumental. The theme of the album's lyrical content centers around the preservation of Black History and how it relates specifically to jazz music. The tone of it all seems somber at times, but the whole album from start to finish was absolutely beautiful and well conceived.

All and all, this was an excellent work of art that tells a story both figuratively and literally. I was really impressed.

Wonderful music from Billy Harper as usual. One star less for marring 3 of the songs with talking. The stories are tough to sit through once, especially if you are familiar with jazz history. The music and songs are wonderful. Most of the songs do not have talking on them.

Amiri Baraka's 3 or 4 narrative poems really gave a synopsis of his truly classic book, Blues People (released in early '60s). That book gave the best description of the origins of Black American music, jazz in particular, that is the foundation, more or less, of all American music. Baraka's words were spoken over Billy Harper's wailing tenor sax, which made the presentations even more compelling.

There are 3 tracks that feature spoken word from the legendary Amiri Baraka. Very good band with interesting instrumental tracks but the cd is worth owning for the 3 Baraka tracks.. "Africa Revisited," "Knowledge of Self," and "Oh... If Only."