FRANK LOWE

Black Beings

(ZYX) Used CD $15.00

“Frank Lowe remained one of the last to carry on the “Fire Music” tradition in its truest form. Mixing post-bop influences, African heritage, and the experimentation of late Coltrane, Black Beings is one of the most soulful and extreme albums of its ilk…, encapsulate[ing] what’s great about improvisation at its very core: harnessing spontaneity in a way that can never be recreated. Aside from stellar, moment-to-moment playing, Black Beings also documents a pivotal time in music. Lowe takes free jazz to its fiercest and rawest states, while … deeply invested in the same roots as the previous generation of jazz experimenters. As avant-garde as Black Beings gets, it is indeed pure soul music, without a trace of pretension or self-indulgence….”

CHARLES TYLER ENSEMBLE

Charles Tyler Ensemble

(ZYX - ESP 1029-2 ) Used CD $5.00

This debut recording from 1966 as a leader by the Ayler sideman conceptualizes alto sax-player Tyler’s focus and the path he was on, with an ensemble well-constructed to fit in with those pursuits. (Kingpins of 60s avant garde Henry Grimes [bass], Ronald Shannon Jackson [drums] and Joel Friedman [cello] all played with Ayler at some point, while Charles Moffett [orchestra vibes], cast his die with Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley and Pharoah Sanders.) Tyler’s agonized, convoluted lines and taut guttural intonations cry out on “Strange Uhuru,” and he rips open a calypso melody on “Three Spirits,” twisting and turning like a frenzied avatar. German reissue of an ESP-Disk.