{"id":946,"date":"2009-03-17T09:28:12","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=946"},"modified":"2009-03-17T09:28:12","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T14:28:12","slug":"reviews-hna-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews – HNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: FRANKLIN BRUNO<\/strong><\/a>
\nSource: <\/span>Boston Phoenix
\nLink to this article<\/a><\/p>\n

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 really no such thing), an orchestral performance, a noontime meditation session in a Brooklyn park, and a come-one-come-all midnight jam. Not exactly Yalta, but the event\u2019s mixture of pretense, play, and utopian hope sheds light on the wellsprings of Defever\u2019s surprising recent music.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The title \u201cCome Out the Wilderness\u201d \u2014 shared by a James Baldwin short story and a memoir by poet Estella Conwill Majozo \u2014 resurfaces on HNIA\u2019s Xmmer<\/em> (BMG\/Silver Mountain). The album isn\u2019t a massive swerve from 2006\u2019s Detrola<\/em>, the band\u2019s first with singer Andrea Morici, but listeners who haven\u2019t checked in since HNIA\u2019s gauzy \u201990s records for 4AD, or the more recent trip-hop ventures, may be shocked. Much of Xmmer<\/em> is a non-\u00e6thereal collocation of earthy percussion and elements of folk and pre-war blues. \u201cCome Out the Wilderness\u201d itself moves through a half-chanted tune, simple as a field holler, a long breakdown on the words \u201cyour light,\u201d and a gentler out-chorus, all built on anxious martial snare and statically riffing guitars. The lyrics are less protest than plea: \u201cCan\u2019t you hear me calling out\/Lord I think it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a restless album: \u201cCome to Me\u201d touches on Afrobeat, whereas Apples in Stereo could have penned \u201cGo to Hell Mountain.\u201d The constants are Defever\u2019s multi-instrumental gifts \u2014 he\u2019s the meanest electric-thumb-pianist this side of Konono N\u00ba 1 \u2014 and Morici\u2019s pretty but chilly vocals, HNIA\u2019s vestigial tie to indie rock. The best tracks worry the seam between her disengagement and his troubling, increasingly politicized lyrics. However it\u2019s sung, the line \u201cWhat did you see\/Miss Eliza Jane?\u201d sounds less quaint when you learn that the song (\u201cWhat Color Was the Blood\u201d) concerns a violent mass arrest in Eliza Howell Park, a perennial drug meet in Defever\u2019s beloved Detroit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> (High Two), released just weeks after Xmmer<\/em>, mines an even less expected source. It\u2019s subtitled \u201cA Tribute to Marion Brown,\u201d and the selections originate with post-bop, pre-free altoist Brown, who\u2019s widely known as a sideman with Archie Shepp (Fire Music<\/em>) and John Coltrane (Ascension<\/em>) but undersung as a bandleader\/composer. Brown once wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t play about Religion, or the Universe, or Love. . . . I don\u2019t play words,\u201d but his \u201960s and \u201970s work has more to do with Trane\u2019s spirituality than with Shepp\u2019s rage. His playing has a self-reflexive reserve that helps explain his cult status \u2014 his music can be a hard sell to listeners seeking expressive catharsis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Open-eared rockers often pay lip service to outr\u00e9 jazz figures, but this HNIA exploration is deeper and more selfless than the usual soundboy dabbling. Morici is absent, Defever\u2019s guitar is mostly sidelined in favor of electric piano and congas, and the ad hoc band line-up includes most of Detroit compatriots Nomo. Elliot Bergman (tenor), Michael Herbst (alto), and Justin Walter (trumpet) ably extrapolate from Brown\u2019s contemplative, sometimes pastoral written heads. (Herbst shines on \u201cBismilahi \u2019Rrahmani \u2019Rrahim,\u201d a 1978 Harold Budd piece that featured Brown.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not everything works: the rhythm section falters on occasion, and several cuts (\u201cJuba-Lee,\u201d \u201cNovember Cotton Flower\u201d) are shorter and less exploratory than their models. Although one misses the disciplined inventiveness of dedicated jazz players, the ensemble is empathetic and respectful. Sweet Earth Flower<\/em> argues for something Defever would surely like to believe: whenever people gather to play music as searching and uncynical as Brown\u2019s, it\u2019s always a peace conference.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: FRANKLIN BRUNO Source: Boston Phoenix Link to this article In 2006, His Name Is Alive songwriter\/guitarist\/recording whiz Warn (once […]<\/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-946","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":956,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reivews-hna-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":946,"position":0},"title":"Reivews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Source: Wonkavision Link to this article His Name is Alive is unintentionally cryptic. Like how do you pronounce that album title? What are these locks of hair composed with sleeping gerbils (or are those little raccoons? I can\u2019t tell) in the album art. What is this cartoonish bug-eyed monster\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":937,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":946,"position":1},"title":"Reviews – HNA","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: By Jon Dale Source: Dusted Magazine Link to this article His Name Is Alive - \"Sweet Earth Flying\" (Sweet Earth Flower - A Tribute To Marion Brown) On Xmmer, as with other His Name Is Alive albums, head prefect Warn Defever builds a model of his universe, populates it\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":946,"position":2},"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":940,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":946,"position":3},"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":948,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-hna-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":946,"position":4},"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":24,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/great-reviews-for-his-name-is-alives-marion-brown-cd\/","url_meta":{"origin":946,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","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=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}