Poem About the Hero, by Mujician

Poem About the Hero

by Mujician

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	1.	First Verse 07:51
	2.	Second Verse 09:37
	3.	Third Verse 23:37
	4.	Fourth Verse 01:37
	5.	Fifth Verse 30:39

about

"The second album from Mujician was recorded live earlier this year. In the interim, free jazz has developed a tradition and language which Poem About The Hero unashamedly refers to. It may not be that radical anymore, but Tippett's ensemble can still surprise you with the ease with which it can slip in and out of different formal confines - from the rich and balladic, through the microtonal and muscular. "
- The Wire

"Despite the intense free-jazz dialogue and improv, there are several instances of lush melodic content along with moments of quiet solitude. Mujician isn't about an eccentric bunch of free jazzers competing against one another, but a tight cohesive unit with a stake planted firmly in the ground. Highly recommended."
- All About Jazz

"Mujician's first release was a long journey; their second release is a poem in five verses. Although all four musicians are active in other groups and as solo artists, at this point they had been playing together for roughly six years and they display the group sensitivity which is essential for a quality improvisational combo.

Recorded in front of a small live audience, this performance is perhaps more abstract and free than the first effort, and has somewhat less in the way of overt Coltrane-isms. Although there are only a few extended solos taken, each musician has opportunities to show what he can do, as all five tracks provide a shifting kaleidoscope of duets and trios, as well as the frequent collective engagement of all four participants.

Paul Dunmall, who plays only tenor and soprano saxes on this CD, is the emotional core of the group. He is a marvelously fluent and flexible player, but everything he plays also seems to have strong personal conviction.

Pianist Keith Tippett, with his classical training, is the group intellectual, and is not adverse to outside techniques such as plucking or strumming the piano strings. Whenever the group direction seems to be headed toward the conventional, Tippett is usually the one who inserts the strange, unexpected chords or rhythmic bursts, as if to remind everyone (including other group members) that Mujician will not settle for the easy solutions.

And while Tony Levin on drums and Paul Rogers on bass are by definition the "rhythm section," they are also much more than that. Rogers has a huge tone and superb intonation, and does far more than just establish a pulse. Likewise with Levin, who qualifies not only as a powerhouse, polyrhythmic drummer, but as a percussionist and "colorist."

All verses on this recording are highly entertaining, but the last and longest, "Fifth Verse," at over 30 minutes, shows off the quartet at its most daring. Building on nothing more than some curious high-end ivory tinkling by Tippett, it gradually acquires the momentum of a runaway freight train by the time Dunmall wades in on tenor, and then abruptly slows to ballad romanticism, with Dunmall gorgeously lyrical for a while, and Tippett joining in for some very moody, impressionistic playing.

One of the real pleasures of Mujician's collective improvisations, for the listener, is the opportunity for active participation in the experience, attempting to guess where a particular line of musical inquiry will lead, and continually being surprised (along with the members of the quartet, I suspect) that it has ended up where it has." – Bill Tilland / AllMusic

credits

released January 1, 1994

Paul Rogers : Five string double bass
Paul Dunmall : soprano and tenor saxophones
Keith Tippett : Steinway Grand Piano, wood blocks, plastic pan pipes, pebble and maraca.
Tony Levin : drums, percussion

Recorded live February 5, 1994 at the Michael Tippett Centre, Bath, UK.

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Cuneiform Records Washington, D.C.

Cuneiform Records is a record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world. They have always championed an eclectic mixture of musical styles and artists and have consistently danced at the dangerous intersection where genres meet. In doing so, they have become one of the most prominent labels of New Music.

Founded in 1984.
Based in Washington D.C. ... more

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