Live at the Village Vanguard - Noah Howard [Freedom FLP40127]

Here again - Earl Freeman playing bass. Fuzz-bass in fact, on part of 'Dedication (To Albert Ayler)'. Fuzz bass should probably be outlawed as just being awful and thoroughly bad. But this record isn't either of those. [And Earl thankfully stomps on his pedal to turn the distortion off after a few minutes.].  Sotise posted files from the
(rather dodgy-looking, [bootleg?]) CD of this album a few years ago on Inconstant Sol. I was inspired to go and track down a LP copy at the time.  Those files he posted back then at IS. seem long gone, so I thought this vinyl rip could be timely.

3 tunes.  One excellent solo saxophone number from Howard, one side-long congregationally wailing Ayler tribute, and one extended workout on a simple, even naive, bluesy
riff (reminiscent of Schizophrenic Blues [FMP] and other simple themes of Howard's).

Earlier in 1972, Noah's band had consisted of Freeman, drummer Art Lewis and Arthur Doyle.
By August though, with a 2 month residency of Sundays at the Vanguard, Frank Lowe had replaced Doyle on tenor. This was 'young' Frank Lowe (he was 30) - who had already
played in Alice Coltrane's group, but had yet to record the turbulent Black Beings for ESP or Duo Exchange with Rashied Ali - both to come, in 1973.
Rashied Ali himself was a reported late sub for Art Lewis who couldn't make the gig.
Piano player Bob Bruno has had a kaleidoscopic musical career - in the late 1960s he made 2 albums with Jerry Jeff Walker - be-hatted country music troubadour of 'Mr
Bojangles' fame. By the early 70s he was playing free jazz piano. Since then he seems to have played all kinds of music, on all kinds of instruments as well as moving into
visual computer art.
Juma Sultan is of course the same percussionist that played with Hendrix and whose own Aboriginal Music Society played on the New York loft scene and was more recently the
subject of the excellent 'Father of Origin' boxset from Eremite.
These 6 guys make a big sound, the recording is a typical rough and ready club taping and in all honesty I have difficulty hearing Sultan at all in this.

There's additional material that exists of Noah Howard's 1972 Vanguard residency - with a slightly different group - Art Lewis for Rashied Ali, another percussionist for
Sultan, and  a French Horn player as well as Lowe, Bruno, Freeman and Howard. In addition, Noah Howard reportedly had extra taped material of this band that he would allow
played on European radio.
In terms of chronology of issued material of Howard's playing, Live at the Village Vanguard sits between Frank Wright's Uhuru Na Umoja and Church Number Nine, both featuring Howard and Wright’s twin saxophone frontline.

Old hands will have this material and remain unexcited, although some might wish to upgrade their old 192kbps files.
To others coming afresh to this, I hope you enjoy the sounds from these dynamic musicians .

Interesting Links

Noah Howard's site, still maintained by his wife Lieve, a new recording available, older titles for sale - VISIT ! - http://www.noahhoward.com/
Juma Sultan's Archive - http://www.jumasarchive.org/
One of Bob Bruno's many web pages - http://www.freewebs.com/superdreamer/ourmusicians.htm

Vis-a-vis the front jacket - I don't think that the bass player pictured is Earl Freeman, nor the robed tenor player to be Frank Lowe.  Anyone ?

Traffic - Noah Howard [Frame RF2005]

Side A
Lovers
Traffic One
Red Star

Side B
Never Be The Same Again
Donkey Dance
Two Lovers' Hill
Traffic Two


Noah Howard - alto saxophone
Bobby Few - piano
Joe Maka - soprano saxophone
Clint Jackson - trumpet

Recorded Paris, June 10 1980
Released 1983



There are some good things on here...

If you've not heard of Noah Howard, well.. there are better places to start with his music - his 2 ESP discs (http://espdisk.com/official/artists/NoahHoward.html), Live at the Village Vanguard, The Black Ark (http://www.boweavilrecordings.com/Weavil_24.html) - also noahhoward.com/discography.html has a summary of issues - many available, some not.
In any case, Howard is a great player and composer who should be much better known than he is.

I can only tell what "seems to be going on here" in regards this LP - I hope there's someone that might know more definitively how it came to be, and might be kind enough to fill in the gaps.

Bobby Few was (and IS!) a well known AfroAmercian expat in Paris. - and has appeared on stacks of records .Howard and Few were part of the famous Frank Wright quartet (with Wright and drummer Muhammad Ali) that played all around Europe, made some records (Uhuru Na Umoja, Church Number Nine) etc..

Soprano player Joe Maka was from Guinea in Africa. Nathan Davis -himself for a while, a Parisian/US expat - has talked about Maka as an acolyte, studying at the Sorbonne - also playing with Manu Dibango in an 'African style'. Maka seems to have played with many and varied musicians - including at least one other occasion with Bobby Few on record - on 1979's Jom Futa. By the time 'Traffic' was released, Maka was dead (1981).

Clint Jackson is an American expat trumpet player and a professional practicing musician as far as I can tell (http://www.2souls.net/bios.php)

Frame Records I know next to nothing about: - I don't think they spent much though, at either the layout/design agency, or the pressing plant. The cover - well you can judge for yourself.
The pressing is OK but not great and my copy is 'as new'. It's not awful either (don't be put off!) - you would just expect better from a 'brand new record'.



The rather abrupt 'cut-offs' at the end of some of the tunes will sound as if the ripper has hit the Stop button a fraction too early. But no,they're right there on the vinyl I promise you.
At a guess I'd say that the last and second-last tracks have had their titles reversed the last but one track sounds like a logical - and absorbing - follow on from 'Traffic 1' from the first side. Whilst the last track virtually paints a picture of a couple in love atop a hill somewhere..
The vocal on 'Never Be The Same Again' sounds a bit like something the band were kidding around on after they got back from lunch, just for fun. Meant for the album? Who knows, maybe it was. Howard's 'Lovers' and 'Red Star' are revisited here - for me though the 'meat in the sandwich' though is the tune called Traffic One, along with its confrere on Side 2 (accepting my switched titles theory).

Anyway enough twittering - if you know and love Howard's music, you already know you want this.
If NOT (yet), well you're welcome of course to grab this anyway. Give it a listen, see what you think, leave a Comment with 'what you think'..

But also have a look at http://noahhoward.com . Buy something! The guy is a living working musician, has paid a hell of a lot of dues and has somehow stayed alive practising creativity for more than 40 years.
Which is no small feat in this world.

Respect to him.