{"id":932,"date":"2009-03-17T09:13:55","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=932"},"modified":"2009-03-17T09:13:55","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:13:55","slug":"reivews-hna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reivews-hna\/","title":{"rendered":"Reivews – HNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Chris May<\/a>
\nSource: All About Jazz
\nLink to this article<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Starting with a bold and beautiful idea\u2014to perform a concert tribute to an iconic musician from an earlier age while that musician is still with us\u2014His Name Is Alive have gone on to record an album of such oh-my-god beauty and vitality that the listener may at first be reduced to silent, slack-jawed wonder. And while we’ll never know whether trumpeter Miles Davis would have approved bassist\/producer Bill Laswell’s reconstruction of his music on Panthalassa<\/em> (Columbia, 1997), we do know that alto saxophonist Marion Brown loves Sweet Earth Flower<\/em>, which he has warmly endorsed.Brown, born in Atlanta in 1935, came to notice in New York in the mid 1960s as a member of the emergent free jazz movement. He played on one of that school’s most uncompromising discs, saxophonist John Coltrane’s Ascension<\/em> (Impulse!, 1965), and went on to record similarly abrasive albums of his own for the ESP label.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as with his near contemporaries, the saxophonists Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, a prettier and more lyrical strand has always co-existed in Brown’s music. This is particularly true of his composing, which began to be enriched in the 1970s by his interest in African, and other non-European derived, musics. It is to Brown’s magical and restorative, tuneful songbook rather than his free improvising adventures that Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> pays most attention.<\/p>\n

Guitarist\/pianist Warn Defever’s extraordinary His Name Is Alive, here augmented by members of fellow Michigan, nouveau Afro-funk band Nomo, present Brown’s work as a suite, with each track morphing or being mixed into the next. The atmosphere is simultaneously retro\u2014with its powerful evocations of Pharoah Sanders’ and harpist\/pianist Alice Coltrane’s late 1960s, percussion-rich, incense and bells astral jazz\u2014and new millennial\u2014elegantly travelling alongside post-modern, post-jam band groups like Mushroom<\/em><\/a> and Mysteries Of The Revolution<\/em><\/a>. Trippy, African-derived drum and percussion passages alternate with robust trumpet, multiphonic tenor saxophone, and fuzzed-up, fed-back and otherwise distorted electric guitar improvisations, the latter referencing equal quantities of Larry Coryell and Sonny Sharrock. Every second is a delight.<\/p>\n

In his endorsement, Brown pays HNIA the ultimate compliment: “You really understand me.” An under-the-skin devotional masterpiece, Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> is a thing of rare beauty, and not to be missed.
\nVisit His Name Is Alive<\/a> on the web.
\nTrack listing: Sweet Earth Flying; Juba Lee Brown; Capricorn Moon (live); November Cotton Flower; Bismillah ‘Rrahmani ‘Rrahim; Geechee Recollections (live); Geechee Recollections; Sweet Earth Flying (live).<\/p>\n

Personnel: Warn Defever: guitar, piano; Elliot Bergman: tenor saxophhone, Rhodes piano; Jamie Saltsman: double bass; Justin Walter: trumpet; James Easter: percussion; Dan Piccolo: drums, percussion; Michael Herbst: alto saxophone; Erik Hall: Wurlitzer electric piano; Olman Piedra: congas, cajon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Chris May Source: All About Jazz Link to this article Starting with a bold and beautiful idea\u2014to perform a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[47,84,85,50,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-his-name-is-alive","category-ht014","category-releases","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":948,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":0},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Troy Collins Source: All about Jazz Link to this article Sweet Earth Flower: a tribute to Marion Brown is His Name Is Alive's meditative ode to the work of the under-sung free jazz saxophonist. Veterans of the American rock underground, His Name Is Alive has been exploring various musical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1985,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/hnia-remembers-marion-brown\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":1},"title":"HNIA remembers Marion Brown","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"October 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We are sad to hear last week of the passing of jazz icon Marion Brown. Our friend, Warn Defever of His Name is Alive, talks about the influence and importance of Marion in MetroTimes Detroit: http:\/\/blogs.metrotimes.com\/index.php\/2010\/10\/warn-defever-remembers-marion-brown\/","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":940,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":2},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Jason Ferguson Source: Orlando Weekly Link to this article Many fans of His Name Is Alive may be struck by the oddity of their favorite dreampop act delivering an album of cosmic free-jazz. But HNIA main man Warn Defever\u2019s studio, Brown Rice, isn\u2019t named after a Don Cherry album\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":3},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: John DeFore Source: San Antonio Current Link to this article This month\u2019s most surprising jazz-pop blend comes from the uncategorizable (and hard-to-find-in-stores) group His Name is Alive, whose latest, Sweet Earth Flower (High Two) centers on compositions by little-known avant-garde saxophonist Marion Brown. A lovely, atmospheric disc that mixes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/great-reviews-for-his-name-is-alives-marion-brown-cd\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":4},"title":"Great reviews for His Name is Alive’s Marion Brown CD","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"April 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When we started telling people we were gonna release a jazz tribute album from a rock band, some were quite suspicious. Those who have heard, now also believe. A few months after its release, His Name Is Alive's daring and sensitive tribute to Marion Brown, Sweet Earth Flower, is already\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "His Name is Alive"","block_context":{"text":"His Name is Alive","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/his-name-is-alive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sweet Earth Flower","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/ht014-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":950,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/950-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":5},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: mpardaiolo Source: Audiversity Link to this article \u201cOrnette Coleman is the same as Charlie Parker, but he did it a different, the opposite way. Charlie Parker did everything that he did based on knowing harmony and chords. Ornette Coleman did everything he did based on knowing how to reach\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}