Customer Reviews

Too Much Sugar for a Dime

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

 

 

For the recordings by Threadgill's group VERY VERY CIRCUS, in my opinion this is the best. More so on this recording, they get to the point with a minumum of standing around.

Threadgill is one of the most fascinating composers in jazz. In VERY VERY CIRCUS he has pairs of like instruments all playing rather independent parts. But the sound is not cluttered because it all has been astutely prepared. For instance, if one tuba is low, the other will be high. The guitarists also have ways of playing intricate parts without stepping on each other. As the ensemble progesses, there will be extremely brief solos, just a few seconds, in which an instrumentalist can change the course of the music. The french hornist has all the jazz bebop chops, and Threadgill plays sax with a very vocal and melodic style.

The influences have been documented before, there are echos of New Orleans brass bands along with contemporary classical, and African, and funk add to the gritty spiral of patterns.

Don't miss this one!

As "free" as this album is, it's layered in a single theme or two. I guess that's how I like my jazz--living, breating, but not without a purpose. This may not be Threadgil's greatest album, in terms of what he gets attention for, but it's certainly my favorite, and one of my favorite jazz albums ever, which is why it makes this list.

As "avant-garde" as this work is, it's got roots that go into older jazz; as far back as the 1920's, even, with some of those squeals from the trumpets. However, it was recorded in the early 1990's, so it has a nice personality, as far as keeping the music interesting and original. The guitars use distortion, and are heard almost constantly, sometimes offbeat and confused, and sometimes leading the entire cacophony of sound forward.

"Little Pocket Sized Demons" introduced me to Threadgil's genious, and it's still my favorite track off of this album. The drums sound unbelievably fresh and crisp (I think they warrant the use of those words, and excuse them all at the same time). "In Touch" brings us to something even more panicky with it's seemingly muted brass chords, and choppy drum polyrhythms. It abruptly stops for a beautiful vocal piece; it makes me think of Vienna, in slow motion. If that track represents Vienna, then "Better Wrapped/Better Unwrapped" represents west Africa, or maybe Syria, and it's all very affectionate and often spooky.

The twelve minute plus track "Try Some Ammonia" ends more somberly than anything on the whole disc, and for that I love it. It wraps up my favorite jazz record of the last 15 years or so. And hey, I may not be up to date on current jazz movements, but I'm sure not many would come close to making me feel like this album does.

Funk intellectually weirdafied. Can you dig it? It's as though jazz wasn't necessarily even an aim but in some odd manner it makes an appearance, albeit in a primal sense that doesn't constitute a form known in its' early days. Think about this: funk was there at the outset and along comes Henry and his picture of the world completely unlike ours, sorta Don Quixotean mind you, and out pops a new entrance into the American verbiage known now as jazz. I say again, can you dig it?

The music sounds weird, but it is typical style of Henry Threadgill: great! It really alters your illusion of music. Each song is different from the other - what stays is Henry's typical way of composing.

This is an incredible album. I remember finding this in the bins at Rasputin in Berkeley, CA. This was the days before anything could be found on Amazon and Ebay. It wasn't an easy album to find from the day it was released.
Anyhow the music is incredible. Threadgill's free blowing interlaced with the incredibly scored music for "Very Very Circus." The instrumentation is strange and fantastic! And the music that Threadgill makes with these guys is incredible. Track 2, In Touch, is a wonderful highlight... Incredible mish-mash of genres without ever feeling forced. It's fun, funny, and meaningful!!! Could I gush anymore about this thing? Pick it up... Hopefully it goes back in print and you won't have to pay a hefty price for this great piece of music!!!

Glad I rediscovered this, this is a one of a kind album, the Threadgill soundworld is like no one else's. This is VVC's best performance of the discs I've heard, In Touch is one of those unique hybrids only HT could write some otherworldly ballad half sung in English + French with an utterly funky band steaming away in juxtaposition to it, a musical fantasty. Repeated listening will reveal just how tightly scored this stuff is, the review below is wrong "free" is a misnomer, there's nothing here that happens by chance, Threadgill is a stringent composer, one of the masters, the tuba and guitars parts are all written out, just the size of the whole sound often belies its structural intracy. Some meaty improvisations too, Henry on alto, Taylor french horn. This is a complex but highly funky music, the Venezuelan Culo Puya drummers cook on the track Better Wrapped/Unwrapped. I had fun with this disc, a 3-D party for your ears, you will dance to this !! , take it to bed