{"id":937,"date":"2009-03-17T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=937"},"modified":"2009-03-17T09:20:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:20:00","slug":"reviews-hna-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews – HNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: By Jon Dale
\nSource: Dusted Magazine
\nLink to this article<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His Name Is Alive – “Sweet Earth Flying” (Sweet Earth Flower – A Tribute To Marion Brown)<\/p>\n

On Xmmer<\/em>, as with other His Name Is Alive albums, head prefect Warn Defever builds a model of his universe, populates it with musicians and melodies, and then goes on roundabout travelogue. Often, that world will unerringly reflect a particular popular genre, as Defever\u2019s omnipotent, magpie eyes always survey surrounding terrain before lifting both appropriate and incongruous elements. There\u2019s often a touch of the absurdist to Defever\u2019s desires, and he\u2019s possibly the modern artist most sympathetic to Pop Art\u2019s fondness for both making-popular and making from the<\/em> popular, though the outcome doesn\u2019t really tally with received wisdom of what constitutes a Pop Art statement.<\/p>\n

Xmmer<\/em> is modular and cyclic compared to other His Name Is Alive records, working through rhythms and patterns in much the same manner as certain kinds of African music. These simple, recurring riffs are generally played on glittering acoustic guitar, clanking, distorted mbiras or martial snares, and their snowball effect propels Xmmer<\/em> to its conclusion in \u201cCome to Me,\u201d where the album\u2019s various threads meet in a kind of hypnotic chewing-gum pop that masticates obsessively over its own texture, but without losing its flavor. There are breaks in the continuum \u2013 despite its title, \u201cGo to Hell Mountain\u201d is the sunny face to Detrola<\/em>\u2019s \u201cI Thought I Saw,\u201d another angle on Defever\u2019s revisiting of the 1970s singer-songwriter, a field also explored on \u201cPut It in Your Mind\u201d \u2013 but Xmmer<\/em> is mostly single-minded. In a final nod to the album\u2019s circularity, the opener \u201cYoung Blood\u201d shares lyrics with \u201cCome to Me,\u201d but the former sets them in shifting layers of gilt-edged strings.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Joel Calahan in Signal to Noise<\/em>, Defever explains one reason why a tribute to Atlanta, Georgia-born saxophonist Marion Brown was so appealing: \u201cHe does something few other similar improv musicians do, which is [that] he redoes the same songs. So there\u2019s a fluid notion of albums, of the recording process.\u201d His Name Is Alive have followed that model since they begun, as their releases are populated with mutant re-takes, visions of versions, similar songs travelling under several different names at once. Defever is also fond of the melody head that blossoms through permutation, as such songs as Last Night<\/em>\u2019s \u201cSomeday My Prince Will Come,\u201d his Afrobeat lift, attest.<\/p>\n

But Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> is more a re-imagining of Marion Brown\u2019s music than mere \u2018tribute.\u2019 Defever and his cohorts, made up of members of Antibalas and Nomo, among others, bolster Brown\u2019s songs with new energy while taking them at an easy clip. There is intimate consort here between sax, Rhodes\/Wurlitzer, guitar and drums, and the moments where acoustic and electric keys duel, as on \u201cNovember Cotton Flower,\u201d are breathtaking. Indeed, most all the playing on the set is absolutely beautiful, particularly on live cuts like \u201cCapricorn Moon,\u201d and the new takes on \u201cGeechee Recollections\u201d are as warm and open as the original recordings. This reinforces the kernel of Brown\u2019s music: it is free and spontaneous, yet it admits great structural integrity, something Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> reinforces. These new versions also tap into a vein of quotidian mysticism in the air among American free jazz players of the 1970s. Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> might be His Name Is Alive\u2019s most straightforwardly appealing album yet, testament to both this particular line-up\u2019s resilience and fluidity, and the strength of Brown\u2019s originals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: By Jon Dale Source: Dusted Magazine Link to this article His Name Is Alive – “Sweet Earth Flying” (Sweet […]<\/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-937","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":940,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":0},"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":950,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/950-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":946,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":2},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: FRANKLIN BRUNO Source: Boston Phoenix Link to this article In 2006, His Name Is Alive songwriter\/guitarist\/recording whiz Warn (once \u201cWarren\u201d) Defever used a modest arts grant to hold a \u201cpeace conference\u201d in New York City. Called \u201cCome Out the Wilderness,\u201d the proceedings included one \u201cnormal\u201d HNIA show (though there\u2019s\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":932,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reivews-hna\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":3},"title":"Reivews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Chris May Source: All About Jazz Link to this article 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\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":512,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/his-name-is-alive-sweet-earth-flower\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":4},"title":"His Name is Alive – Sweet Earth Flower","author":"admin","date":"November 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"His Name is Alive Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown 2007 Cd, Mp3 Download","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/artists\/"},"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":944,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":937,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","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=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}