17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur [LIVE]

Bill Dixon

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 24, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Aum Fidelity
• ASIN: B00195BMI4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #238,271 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Trumpeter Bill Dixon has proved himself to be one of the most dedicated vanguardists in jazz, honing an instantly recognizable language on his instrument while composing at a furious rate." -- Time Out New York "Starkly removed from history and tradition, and yet eerily and achingly redolent of its revolutionary moments, Dixon's compositions form an equally disparate and unified body of work that ranks among the finest this country has offered the world." -- All About Jazz

2008 marks the magnificent return of the legendary Bill Dixon: composer, trumpeter, teacher, and all-around musical force. His contributions to the body of great Black American Music first began in the 1960s: performing and recording with Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor; producing the groundbreaking October Revolution concert series in NYC 1964, and as architect of the Jazz Composers Guild. In the late '60s he left "the scene" but continued to leave an indelible mark on music by devoting himself to teaching from 1968 onward, creating the Black Music Division at Bennington College in 1973. While he has never stopped composing (prolifically at that), and has produced a series of rarified small ensemble recordings, his work for expanded orchestral ensemble has gone unrecorded and/or unreleased since his momentous album Intents and Purposes (RCA, 1967). Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra, a well-received collaboration with Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra), was released by Thrill Jockey in February. And now, this album--a tour de force of orchestral composition, conduction, and improvisational exploration--fully composed by Bill Dixon and performed with the Bill Dixon Orchestra. 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur was specially commissioned by Arts for Art, Inc. (producers of the Vision Festival). It is one of three such commissions that made their concert debuts at Vision Festival XII in 2007. Roy Campbell's Akhenaten Suite was the first released (in March) and the next shall be William Parker's orchestral work Double Sunrise Over Neptune (due in August).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Aptly named, June 24, 2009

By	J. BATEMAN (San Francisco, Ca USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This CD captures all the angst and turmoil that is Darfur. Discord and oppression, faint hopes for a harmonious life, and aimless wandering are all metaphors that apply equally well to this amalgamation. Like fingernails on a chalkboard or rival felines asserting their dominance over one another, this project epitomizes musically the dissonance of Sudan.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dixon remembers darfur, February 8, 2009

By	Case Quarter (CT USA) - See all my reviews

minimalism is all the rage these days in cerebral jazz, free jazz, jazz in marriage with the daughter of european concert music. do you, the music of bill dixon, take the music of steve reich to be your... ?

music for 18 musicians and 17 musicians in search of a sound. you don't have to be paranoid or chasing conspiracy theories to wonder about connections here. or music for social awareness, john adams and 911, corigliano and aids, and the trumpet so eloquent for taps and dirges, blanchard and katrina. add dixon's trumpet and compositions to darfur.

as for the music itself, what bill dixon does is far closer to roscoe mitchell and butch morris than to what terrance blanchard does, no disrespect for blanchard who plays a different brand of jazz.

today is a sunny sunday afternoon here in connecticut, and i'm not far from the jazz club, firehouse 12, in new haven, where the music for dixon's live concert was mixed, listening to the resulting cd, fitting music to a welcomed sunny sunday afternoon in new england in the month of our cold february, music that unfolds and flows the way a landscape does during a hike in the woods if you can imagine a state forest, a national park, and every mile on your walk you encounter an explosive geyser, noisy and phenomenal, before which you stop and gaze before continuing your stroll.

bill dixon's recording is divided into 13 parts, several of them under 2 minutes in duration. the longest part, sinopia (a painter's term, dixon did the art work for the 'cover'), is more than 23 minutes, 13 horns, including a tuba, tenor trombones, a bass clarinet and a bass saxophone. not to forget the double bass, the cello, the drums and the vibraphone. one would think, hard with so much orchestra to achieve and maintain minimalism, but dixon does it.