Monday, June 8, 2009

Scorpio - Arthur Jones [BYG-Actuel 50]





Mid-1969 and a whole bunch of 'new music' free American musicians are in France.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur, Don Cherry, Jimmy Lyons, Burton Greene, Andrew Cyrille, Sunny Murray, Steve McCall ....
The turbulent events of May 68 are fresh in the consciousness of young people in France - arguably, all over Europe.
A trumpet player called Jacques Coursil comes over to Paris with another guy - an alto player - whose name is Arthur Jones.

This is Arthur's record.

A personal rip - not the badly distorted 192kbps MP3s that you may know from 'around the place'...

38 comments:

serviceton said...

Les Files de FLAC

rapidshare.com/files/242290473/ScorAJ_FLC_.part1.rar

rapidshare.com/files/242412047/ScorAJ_FLC_.part2.rar

1009 said...

I am so glad you cannot hear my girlish screams of excitement. Thank you.

My copy from "around" has been played often & to much pleasure. Very excited to hear what you've done.

Wallofsound said...

serviceton, thank you so much for sharing this one.

SOTISE said...

yes indeed THANKS,all is forgiven!!!

great to have a clean copy at last , i even bought an original of this one years ago ...so scrappy it was all but playable, this for me is one of the gems of the BYG catalog.. an album i never tire of.
sadly it gets short shrift critically .... and is usually reffered to unjustly as mediocre.

its true that jones is heavily influenced by/reliant on...... O Coleman ..particularly ,melodically but theres something much more fragile ...brittle to his lyricism..eh, damned its heartbreakingly beautiful!

Arthur Jones slipped away .and vanished after just a few sessions, i know nothing of his life.. Guerin and Delcloo though known in france ..have also languished in relative obscurity ..a shame , they are one of the great european rythmn sections of the era every bit as good as Kowald and Johansson or any other....for that matter.

SOTISE said...

beautiful rip... and for the record .to potential interested parties , this is ripped to FLAC....

1009 said...

Hot damn I love this record. Just listened to it (again) while driving around Chicago. It is just amazing, as sotise says, surely more than derivative of OC. I know of no other record that sounds like this, with the possible exception of Noah Howard's *Black Ark*. But that's a different proposition for many reasons, not least Arthur Doyle.

I would love to know what happened to AJ after his two BYG dates (the other has been posted at Nothing Is blog, & is not quite as interesting I think). I don't get the feeling, with this record in particular, that this is all AJ was capable of; sounds like he had a lot of ideas & was excited about them. Very mature sound too, energetic but thoughtful & lyrical. What else is he on, the Frank Wright date, maybe a couple other BYGs? The Dave Burrell date I think?

SOTISE said...

hey 1009 , how'r things... is there an other Arthur Jones album , news to me...whats it called?
he and both Delcloo and Guerin are on Jacques coursil's 2 stunning records..... man you've hyped my curiosity ... i was certain this was Jones only record as a leader..
google doesnt turn up any info about jones... but then the a-joneses are multidudinous, the place to check would be pierre's online free jazz database , pretty sure thats in the links here , or at I sol

Anonymous said...

I suspect the other Arthur Jones record 1009 has in mind is the "Africanasia" set on BYG co-led by Claude Delcloo. Jones' other recordings include "Aquariana" (Burton Greene), "Yasmina" (Archie Shepp), "Sunshine" (Sunny Murray), and as mentioned "Echo" (Dave Burrell) and "Your Prayer" (Frank Wright).

SOTISE said...

oh yeah G.. that one ,i think it slipped my mind because ive never seen an actual copy.... B.Guerin and C.Delcloo were virtualy the BYG house rythm section, as i understand it Delcloo also organised some of the sessions.. being credited as exucutive producer.

1009 said...

Here's the link for the "Africanasia" set at Nothing Is:

http://tinyurl.com/mhhxmk

I don't think I've listened to it more than twice, but as I recall it's a wildly different set. Not something I was as able to get into as *Scorpio*, but that's testament to the breadth of his ideas at the time, I think. What a shame that we only have a few years' record of his performances and compositions.

Reminds me of a debate I was reading somewhere about Braxton. Someone compared AB to AJ, asking what we would think of Braxton if we only had his recordings of the same era, say *For Alto* through the two BYGs, what we would think of him. A million different answers, of course, but an interesting question.

Newk said...

One of things that always made an impression on me about Jones' playing is that he actually had a tone and approach that goes way back in the jazz tradition, but his overall attack and dynamism were very modern. I suppose he was like Jimmy Lyons in that sense. My copy was like listening to a 78, so thanks for this.

icastico said...

(^_^)

http://penmallet.blogspot.com/2009/06/aboombong-ambientrance-dub-dozen.html

1009 said...

Oh, and things are pretty well. How 'bout you, sotise?!

Igor said...

Thanks a lot serviceton.

This is much better rip than that one I have (from Church?).

Arthur Jones had 16 sessions, according to The Jazz discography by Tom Lord (I don't have it). Glmir has listed seven (including Scorpio). There are two more: "Black Suite" and "Way Ahead" (Jacques Coursil).
Seven still missing.

Anonymous said...

320kbps mp3 is tons!

kinabalu said...

Lovers of discographical trivia would want to know, I'm sure, that this one was also out on the America label (America 30 AM 6112), and that's the one I've got. Thanks for ripping this one and providing me with a digital back-up, in any case! You shouldn't have the Dewey Redman "Tariq"? That's a beauty and another highlight from the Actuel catelogue.

By the way, Beb Guerin was on the two Michel Portal Unit albums from the 70s. Essential listening! Got both of them in case there's an interest.

Nuage fiché qui rêve said...

Thank you Serviceton ; Arthur Jones is also on Clifford Thornton's Ketchaoua http://www.discogs.com/Clifford-Thornton-Ketchaoua/release/523378

Hi Sotise, à la prochaine !

SOTISE said...

@Kinabalu
most definately interested in the M.Portal... the more Michel P, the better.. 0), i have Dewey Redman's Tariq if anyone reading this want'it , ive thought about posting it but...im aware that it has been blogged before at 320kbs....

Salut Freddy , j'espere que tous va bien avec tois , on entend plus de tes nouvelle nulle part eh.

il angelo said...

thanks for sharings this one, the other rip made its work but this is it. I also have a copy of the lp but it is unplayable, it already was when I bought it in a flea market long ago. I may say this is the first time I have listened to it clean, great experience
thanks gentlemen

1009 said...

*Alors!* is supposed to be out on CD soon. I've got it on my "Want List" at Dusty Groove.

roberto t. said...

Beb Guerin died in 1981.

http://www.natomusic.fr/artisans/jazz/artisans-detail.php?id=92

serviceton said...

Responding rather late to Comments here - thanks to all who have left a note!
roberto - thanks for that on Guerin - I *think* Delcloo is still alive (see Africanasia post)...
il angelo, fredito, igor - glad to hear you're enjoying it. I too would like to know the summary of Jones' sessions.. glmlr lists the ones I know. Some, of course - like Dave Burrell's 'Echo" you're not going to hear *any* player 'individually'..
Newk I think you're spot on about AJ's sound and phrasing coming from 'the tradition'. In some ways he's like Dolphy - not so much that he sounds like him, but that the modernism is *based on* traditional roots.
kinabalu - Yeah I know about the America label issue - which came first and what's the story there I wonder ? (other than the obvious comments re "BYG were crooks, America were crooks too", etc etc...)
Sotise - what d'ye mean "all is forgiven"?
*Nothing* is forgiven you swine!! (hope you're well)
The highlight comment for me (because I'm easily amused) was the one that had me imagining 1009's 'girlish screams of excitement'.
:o)

Calisan said...

Any chance to get the complete artwork? Please! Excelent post Thanks!!

serviceton said...

the complete artwork (for a gatefold jacket) just takes SO long to get organised. If you're incompetent, and I certainly am - and have only A4 scanning, then a couple of hours in "a sophisticated image editing program" will allow the stitching together of the 4 scans per jacket face. I did all of them for the Arthur Jones/Claude Delcloo post - if I get some time, I'll try to do the inners for this too..

hepatman said...

Wow. Great album! Merci beaucoup :-)

E S said...

Ohh la la! When are you guys going to realize that Portal is the world's greatest con artist! What a JAMF ! He'll never even touch the shoelaces of the Arthurs (Jones or Doyle). The argument could be made that he is the biggest scandal in the history of jazz (considering the completely outrageous amounts money that he is paid by subsidized French institutions to play for the non playing artsy fartsy know nothing crowd and the relative level of his sad sad playing).

BTW thanks so much for the Arthur Jones - who is still remembered by the old guard in Paris…

sasha said...

Arthur Jones got the blues!! You can hear that in his heads and improvising..To liken him to Ornette is to miss the personality of his own voice..'Scorpio' has some beautiful themes that should be played by others..Its great that folk get a chance to hear how graceful and melodic a so-called 'free' date can actually be.

Newk said...

I was listening to this again the other night after a hot day of fruitless job hunting. At some points on this album, Jones sounds down right churchical.

serviceton said...

Newk, sasha - you're both dead right. This morning, listening to Jacques Coursil's 'Way Ahead' (a quartet with A. Jones)- right there in the first track - that soulful, bluesy, testifyin sound...
good luck on the job front Newk.

matt w said...

Thanks -- I lost my old copy in a hard drive crash and am happy to get it back. This is just a great album.

thoth said...

i generally think it is unfortunate that delcloo placed himself (selfishly in my opinion) behind the drums rather than any of the american guys who were on the scene at the time. i do not personally feel it was his piece to speak (so to speak). though he is generally ok.

Anonymous said...

grateful for the continued education/entertainment you provide. I am very grateful

serviceton said...

You're welcome pwr2thepeopleman.

Anonymous said...

new link:

https://mega.co.nz/#!CBE1hLyb!pgNgDqcIXCoIYdFt1IlWDy_sKlf8j_J5XD4rGOQOYGc

Igor

JazzHound said...

The April link is no longer good. Might it be possible to repost the Arthur Jones: Scorpio?

Thanks so much!

Jazz Hound

Anonymous said...

I'd also love to see a repost of the album!

Many Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

I hope new link will work much longer, here it is:
https://mega.nz/#!TMcxHC7J!pgNgDqcIXCoIYdFt1IlWDy_sKlf8j_J5XD4rGOQOYGc

Igor

Anonymous said...


Thanks Igor !! You made my Day ! I Love this SCORPIO album.

The Vinyl is too expensive for me right now. This will do it ( flac on CD )

Good Jazz to you all!

Rob