Hello,
Today's Artist leads the band, and doesn't really play, but Kip Hanrahan is a forward thinker and an incredible organizer of all-star progressive bands. The founder of the American Clave label, Hanrahan has released Tenderness, Exotica, Darn It!, Anthology, All Roads Are Made of the Flesh, and Desire Develops an Edge. His style is a blend of Latin rhythms and avant-garde. His band has included Jack Bruce, Don Pullen, Leo Nocentelli, Robbie Ameen, and Alfredo Triff. .........N Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Kip Hanrahan was born on december 9, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. His grandparents were irish and russian-jewish immigrants. At the age of fifteen he receveid a grant for study of art. Beginning with sculpture, he switched to film studies. At the age of seventeen he moved to Mahgreb, India with the poet Paul Haines, where he studied Islamic architecture for one year. In 1972 Kip Hanrahan travelled to various West African countries, such as Algeria, Mali and Mauretania, becoming familiar with their music and culture. Back in New York, he worked as a promoter with the Jazz Composers Association. In 1979 he founded the American Clavé label. His approach is often compared to the one of a filmdirector. Coordinating and integrating the musical contributions of various artists, he his totally involved with the music, while continously maintaining the detached view of an outsider. This critical distance, typical of Kip and his work, allows him to explore and experiment in unexpected directions, resulting in a unique body of work
Kip Hanrahan has constructed a career and history of recorded music and concerts as complex and unruley as he understands the human heart : an explosively productive creative relationship with Astor Piazzolla, resulting in the recordings Piazzolla was vocal about declaring the "best records of his life...."; a relentless evolving recordings of new music, and new ways of recording (iconoclastic masterworks, say some, many....), under his own name as well as "Conjure" (rooted in and framed by the American Black "Magic Realism" griot words of Ishmael Reed); a complex but musically awe inspiring, and impossible without Hanrahan, method of producing other artists like Silvana Deluigi, and Horacio El Negro Hernandez and Robby Ameen, and his lifetime friend, Milton Cardona, and records involving Paul Haines, Allen Toussaint and others... and tours with Hanrahan's own band which at times have included Jack Bruce (of course), Don Pullen, Allen Tou ssaint, Charles Neville, Fernando Saunders, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio el Negro Hernandez, Robby Ameen, Carmen Lundy, Little Jimmy Scott (on his first European tour!), Alfredo Triff Charles Neville and many others... Also, in the 25 years of living, Hanrahan has continued his need to make records that are among the most uncompromisingly MUSICAL and personal made in the world, and of playing concerts, both his obsessively loyal band of musicians - those that appear on his records as in his concerts - Bruce, Pullen (well, not now, he's deceaced...), Toussaint, Cardona, Hernandez, Ameen, Gonzalez, Neville, etc... During the late 1990s, through 2001, Hanrahan formed, recorded ("recording" sounding comically passive for something that's directed to the last note.....) and toured with a project called "Deep Rumba". A band, "Deep Rumba", formed from the absolute best Cuban (including Buena Vista players, like Amadito Valdez), Cuban American, Puerto Rican and New York percussionists and singers. With encouragement from Horacio El Negro Hernandez (Cuba's best trap drummer before his jump to Italy in 1989) as well as from Xiomara Laugart (Cuba's best singer? Yeah, REALLY!), Changuitio, Heila Monpie and Dafnis Prieto, and others, the band toured and recorded, with Charles Neville and other guest stars from 1998 through 2001, as the most creative and exciting band formed from the possibilties of Cuban and Latin US musics in the air.... Great, obsessively greeted tours of Japan, the US and (briefly) Europe encouraged more.... and more.... But, for Hanrahan, it was time to move on: it seemed that the audiences were intoxicated by the quality and vertuosity of the drumming, and the difficulty of the personal words was covered by the fact that they were sung in Spanish, not English, so..... Anyway : If an overused, but still accurate analogue of Mr. Hanrahan's studio work to that of a movie director still holds, the analogie of Mr. Hanrahan's stage work to that of a theater director might be in order. But during a tour, it's not another performance of the same play he directs each night. ...so.... So! With Hanrahan's new band, there were two nights in Vienne last October, and a new record on the way, following up, completing the heart music started by "Beautiful Scars". And Hanrahan's still "impossible", and the audience that shows up to see "how" Hanrahan struggles with Music and Making the Heart heard each night is still there... And anyone who's confused by what happens on stage is still open to becoming a lifetime Hanrahan fan...... FAN....... But, each night on stage, whether it's breathtakingly tanscendental, or a mixture of blindingly brilliant passages with minor train wrecks, each night / concert with the Kip Hanrahan band is always a project in making the heart's music (of that very night) audible, even in it's frustrations, and should NEVER sound like an excersize in just reproducing, QUOTING music that's been made and heard before, on other nights.Mr. Hanrahan often spends the concerts wandering among the musicians, giving new cues, whispering new musical parts and approaches, and changing the music (and sometimes the words) each night, directing, and redirecting the band in an unorthodox manner, disconcerting and distracting to only those who are unable to hear the music. It's a method of conducting (what's he going to do? As a conductor count out the time to the best percussionists in the world?) that was suggested by a vocal fan, Gil Evans, who originally suggested that Kip do what he does, start the concert PLAYING, then move to the pen and paper as the Night defined it's music during the concert. Kip, of course, took it further, by not even starting by playing or singing, as Gil had suggested. Each night makes itself heard, in both clarity and confusion, through Kip and the band members in it's distinction each time.
A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways. The results are often magical. His records are as enigmatic as he is, and maybe that heightens the attraction and expectation. The results of his American Clavé productions have garnered a cultist reputation, yet a lot of people have heard them or at least of them. He chooses to remain in the shadows, an obscure figure that turns the knobs and brings it all together. Hanrahan’s recorded legacy speaks volumes of his knowledge and abilities to bring out the best of musicians that accompany him on his fantastic sojourns. Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. “I don't know where I am in a sense. People tell me that I am a Latin musician. But at the same time, it's not my music. I grew up with it and through it, and I learned it at the same time as everyone else around me learned it. And I think of Latin music as being my first music. But I'm not a Latin musician. I'm not from that culture.” After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts, in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats, those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt headgear would be one of 'facilitator', for Kip has the knack of being able to connect up people and music together. Kip Hanrahan now has numerous albums to his name. His discography reads like chapters of a book, or betters still, an anthology of short stories, each album reflective of a different phase in his life. “All Roads Are Made of the Flesh,” (1995) is probably his best known work, a compilation of musical vignettes from Jelly Roll Morton to full on avant-garde. Kip has also produced three albums for the late accordion master Astor Piazzolla, the best known of which is “Tango Zero Hour.” Drawing from a rich vein of rock, jazz and blues influences, as well as the Latin influence of his formative years, he has devised a distinctive meld of music, a dialogue between the two hemispheres of north and south, which is informed by the American Clavé. (The clavé is the internal rhythmic pulse around which all Latin music is based.) Kip works with class. Several of the finest Latin jazz percussionists in the world have toured in his band, notably the Puerto Rican Giovanni Hidalgo, who left Kip to work with Dizzy Gillespie, and his protégé Richie Flores, not to forget Milton Cardona, and Anthony Carillo. There is always a fine supporting cast of Cuban players in a variety of roles and instruments. Hanrahan’s musical associates are far too numerous to list or mention here, but on preferred sessions he worked with bassists Jack Bruce, Andy Gonzalez, and Sting, pianists Don Pullen, John Beasley, Edsel Gomez, and Allen Toussaint, sax man Charles Neville, and trumpet man Brian Lynch. More endeavors have included drummers Robby Ameen, and Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, along with the usual all star line up of top tier percussionists as Paoli Mejias. On his “Deep Rumba/A Calm in the Fire of Dances” (2000) project he featured the vocal of Xiomara Lougart, who shines on her selections. Salsa superstar Ruben Blades does a bilingual version version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” on the “Robby and Negro at the Third World War” (2004) recording. He did the soundtrack for the movie “Piñero,” in 2001, and covered the NuyoRican poetry of Piri Thomas in “Every Child is Born A Poet,” released in 2006. One of his latest projects, also in 2006 has been “Conjure: Bad Mouth.” Bottom line for the musical trajectory of Kip Hanrahan is for the adventuresome listener to dive and explore the profound depths. Kip Hanrahan’s worldly and highly artistic approach provides a road map for ongoing success. Most importantly, Hanrahan paints vivid portraits of life, love and reality without becoming self-absorbed or overbearing. Overall, his productions are generally accessible and entertaining while maintaining that perpetual touch of class.”
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fittingly enough, the first sound heard on Kip Hanrahan's premier release is that of the conga and the first word sung is "sex," two leitmotifs that would appear consistently in his ensuing work. Coup de Tete burst on the scene in the early '80s as an entirely fresh, invigorating amalgam of Cuban percussion (much of it Santeria-based), free jazz, funk, and intimate, confrontational lyrics. Hanrahan had worked at New Music Distribution Service, a project run by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler (both of whom appear on this album), and had established contacts with numerous musicians from varied fields who he threw together in a glorious New York City melting pot. With the percussion and electric bass laying down thick and delicious grooves, the cream of the younger avant saxophonists in New York at the time wail over the top, accompanying some of the most brutally uncomfortable lyrics ever put to wax. The relationships Hanrahan details are turbulent to say the least, often intertwined with economic concerns as well as a general sense of the impossibility of understanding one's mate. After asking him for abuse and being refused, his lover (sung wonderfully by Lisa Herman) taunts, "When you could only sulk/I had more contempt for you than I ever thought I could have." Interspersed among the bitter love harangues and ecstatic percussion-driven numbers are two stunningly lovely pieces, Marguerite Duras' "India Song" and Teo Macero's "Heart on My Sleeve," both aching with romanticism. Coup de Tete is a superb record, an impressive debut, and, arguably, one of the finest moments in Hanrahan's career along with the following release, Desire Develops an Edge. Highly recommended.
Kip Hanrahan - Coup De Tete (flac 301mb)
01 Whatever I Want 5:43
02 At the Moment of the Serve 5:39
03 This Night Comes Out of Both of Us 5:40
04 India Song 4:13
05 A Lover Divides Time (To Hear How It Sounds) 3:17
06 No One Gets to Transcend Anything (No One Except Oil Company Executives) 3:42
07 Shadow to Shadow 7:06
08 Sketch From Two Cubas 4:07
09 Heart on My Sleeve 5:14
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Desire Develops an Edge was originally released as a two-LP set in 1983; it was reissued on a single CD in 1994. It consists primarily of compositions by Hanrahan, who does not play any of the instruments but avails himself of a kaleidoscopic group of studio musicans that includes Americans (Arto Lindsay, Steve Swallow), Cubans (Puntilla Orlando Rios, Milton Cardona), and Haitians (Elysee Pyronneau, Jean Claude Jean), as well as one very prominent Briton -- former Cream singer and bassist Jack Bruce. As might be expected, there is quite a bit of complex and beautiful music on this album; highlights include the absolutely delightful "What Is This Dance, Anyway?" and "Don't Complicate the Life." But there's also an awful lot of downright tiresome music. The main offenders are an assortment of meandering songs with embarrassing lyrics: For example, the awful "Two (Still in Half-Light)" (which does benefit from the interplay between bassists Jamaladeen Tacuma and Steve Swallow") and the dumbly vulgar "Her Boyfriend Assesses His Value and Pleads His Case." On tracks like these, the session players lay down intricate beds of rhythm while Bruce sings no discernible melody whatsoever, thus obscuring the only thing really worth hearing. Overall, this is a fairly frustrating album.
Kip Hanrahan - Desire Develops an Edge (flac 325mb)
01 Desire Develops an Edge 1:16
02 What Is This Dance, Aniway? 8:41
03 Two (Still in Half-Light) 5:38
04 Early Fall 2:09
05 Velasquez 5:02
06 (Don't Complicate) The Life 6:47
07 Late Fall 2:25
08 Sara Wade 2:34
09 Far From Freetown 1:29
10 All Us Working Class Boys 4:00
11 Child Song 2:37
12 Nocturnal Heart 4:53
13 Her Boy Friend Assesses His Value 4:42
14 Meaning a Visa 3:41
15 Jack and the Golden Palominos 3:45
16 Trust Me Yet? 4:55
17 Nancy 4:27
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Vertical's Currency started with "A Small Map Of Heaven", a kind of soft lounge-jazz with exotic percussion, followed by "Shadow Song", an exuberant Latin-jazz that was rich in brass (one baritone saxophone, two tenor saxophones, two trumpets). "Smiles And Grins" was borderline ska: groovy and delightful, whereas "Two Heartedly To The Other Side" was a soft-jazz elegy: gentle, melancholic and masterful. On the same climate, "Chances Are Good" was slightly more vibrant, but still represented a resigned mood in a beautiful autumnal environment. The lush soul-jazz "Make Love 2 " viewed the same idea from a different angle, while the Latin-jazz-funk-exotica "One Casual Song" was still measured, but far more exuberant. In comparison, the tribal mysticism of "Intimate Distances" was a radical departure. "Describing It To Yourself As Convex " was almost psychedelic. "What Do You Think That This Mountain Was Once Fire" was way too casual for it's own good, but "Dark" ended the album in another note of blue elegance.
Kip Hanrahan - Vertical's Currency (flac 211mb)
01 A Small Map Of Heaven 5:20
02 Shadow Song (Mario's In) 4:03
03 Smiles And Grins 3:09
04 Two Heartedly, To The Other Side 3:02
05 Chances Are Good (Baden's Distance) 5:15
06 Make Love 2 4:25
07 One Casual Song (After Another) 3:14
08 Intimate Distances (Jack's Margrit's Natasha) 2:50
09 Describing It To Yourself As Convex 4:15
10 What Do You Think? That This Mountain Was Once Fire? 1:38
11 Dark (Kip's Tune) 2:52
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Poor Kip Hanrahan. What bad timing. If he had only made this record in say 2001 instead of 1987, the current generation of hipsters would have snapped up this ingratiating mix of New York latin jazz, tango, arch lyrics, and unabashed romanticism, and he'd be a household name. Instead, this album slips in and out of the catalogue. This moody and quirky work by the rather mysterious Hanrahan has many bright moments, like the smoky opener "Love is Like a Cigarette," Muscianship is first-rate; among the musicians appearing on the disk are Jack Bruce, Steve Swallow, Allen Toussaint, Astor Piazzolla, David Murray, John Stubblefield, George Adams, Anton Fier, Fernando Saunders and a host of others. Get it while you can.
Kip Hanrahan - Days and Night of Blue Luck Inverted (flac 236mb)
01 Love Is Like a Cigarette 5:45
02 A Poker Game; Luck Inverts Itself; Four Swimmers 6:06
03 Gender 3:34
04 Marriage 3:24
05 American Clavé 3:49
06 A Model Bronx Childhood 2:47
07 Ah, Intruder! (Female) 6:13
08 Lisbon; Blue Request 6:09
09 My Life Outside of Power 1:42
10 Road Song 3:54
11 The First and Last to Love Me (2. December) 4:34
12 Unobtainable Days 3:20
13 What Else Can You Do With a Drum 1:51
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Today's Artist leads the band, and doesn't really play, but Kip Hanrahan is a forward thinker and an incredible organizer of all-star progressive bands. The founder of the American Clave label, Hanrahan has released Tenderness, Exotica, Darn It!, Anthology, All Roads Are Made of the Flesh, and Desire Develops an Edge. His style is a blend of Latin rhythms and avant-garde. His band has included Jack Bruce, Don Pullen, Leo Nocentelli, Robbie Ameen, and Alfredo Triff. .........N Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Kip Hanrahan was born on december 9, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. His grandparents were irish and russian-jewish immigrants. At the age of fifteen he receveid a grant for study of art. Beginning with sculpture, he switched to film studies. At the age of seventeen he moved to Mahgreb, India with the poet Paul Haines, where he studied Islamic architecture for one year. In 1972 Kip Hanrahan travelled to various West African countries, such as Algeria, Mali and Mauretania, becoming familiar with their music and culture. Back in New York, he worked as a promoter with the Jazz Composers Association. In 1979 he founded the American Clavé label. His approach is often compared to the one of a filmdirector. Coordinating and integrating the musical contributions of various artists, he his totally involved with the music, while continously maintaining the detached view of an outsider. This critical distance, typical of Kip and his work, allows him to explore and experiment in unexpected directions, resulting in a unique body of work
Kip Hanrahan has constructed a career and history of recorded music and concerts as complex and unruley as he understands the human heart : an explosively productive creative relationship with Astor Piazzolla, resulting in the recordings Piazzolla was vocal about declaring the "best records of his life...."; a relentless evolving recordings of new music, and new ways of recording (iconoclastic masterworks, say some, many....), under his own name as well as "Conjure" (rooted in and framed by the American Black "Magic Realism" griot words of Ishmael Reed); a complex but musically awe inspiring, and impossible without Hanrahan, method of producing other artists like Silvana Deluigi, and Horacio El Negro Hernandez and Robby Ameen, and his lifetime friend, Milton Cardona, and records involving Paul Haines, Allen Toussaint and others... and tours with Hanrahan's own band which at times have included Jack Bruce (of course), Don Pullen, Allen Tou ssaint, Charles Neville, Fernando Saunders, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio el Negro Hernandez, Robby Ameen, Carmen Lundy, Little Jimmy Scott (on his first European tour!), Alfredo Triff Charles Neville and many others... Also, in the 25 years of living, Hanrahan has continued his need to make records that are among the most uncompromisingly MUSICAL and personal made in the world, and of playing concerts, both his obsessively loyal band of musicians - those that appear on his records as in his concerts - Bruce, Pullen (well, not now, he's deceaced...), Toussaint, Cardona, Hernandez, Ameen, Gonzalez, Neville, etc... During the late 1990s, through 2001, Hanrahan formed, recorded ("recording" sounding comically passive for something that's directed to the last note.....) and toured with a project called "Deep Rumba". A band, "Deep Rumba", formed from the absolute best Cuban (including Buena Vista players, like Amadito Valdez), Cuban American, Puerto Rican and New York percussionists and singers. With encouragement from Horacio El Negro Hernandez (Cuba's best trap drummer before his jump to Italy in 1989) as well as from Xiomara Laugart (Cuba's best singer? Yeah, REALLY!), Changuitio, Heila Monpie and Dafnis Prieto, and others, the band toured and recorded, with Charles Neville and other guest stars from 1998 through 2001, as the most creative and exciting band formed from the possibilties of Cuban and Latin US musics in the air.... Great, obsessively greeted tours of Japan, the US and (briefly) Europe encouraged more.... and more.... But, for Hanrahan, it was time to move on: it seemed that the audiences were intoxicated by the quality and vertuosity of the drumming, and the difficulty of the personal words was covered by the fact that they were sung in Spanish, not English, so..... Anyway : If an overused, but still accurate analogue of Mr. Hanrahan's studio work to that of a movie director still holds, the analogie of Mr. Hanrahan's stage work to that of a theater director might be in order. But during a tour, it's not another performance of the same play he directs each night. ...so.... So! With Hanrahan's new band, there were two nights in Vienne last October, and a new record on the way, following up, completing the heart music started by "Beautiful Scars". And Hanrahan's still "impossible", and the audience that shows up to see "how" Hanrahan struggles with Music and Making the Heart heard each night is still there... And anyone who's confused by what happens on stage is still open to becoming a lifetime Hanrahan fan...... FAN....... But, each night on stage, whether it's breathtakingly tanscendental, or a mixture of blindingly brilliant passages with minor train wrecks, each night / concert with the Kip Hanrahan band is always a project in making the heart's music (of that very night) audible, even in it's frustrations, and should NEVER sound like an excersize in just reproducing, QUOTING music that's been made and heard before, on other nights.Mr. Hanrahan often spends the concerts wandering among the musicians, giving new cues, whispering new musical parts and approaches, and changing the music (and sometimes the words) each night, directing, and redirecting the band in an unorthodox manner, disconcerting and distracting to only those who are unable to hear the music. It's a method of conducting (what's he going to do? As a conductor count out the time to the best percussionists in the world?) that was suggested by a vocal fan, Gil Evans, who originally suggested that Kip do what he does, start the concert PLAYING, then move to the pen and paper as the Night defined it's music during the concert. Kip, of course, took it further, by not even starting by playing or singing, as Gil had suggested. Each night makes itself heard, in both clarity and confusion, through Kip and the band members in it's distinction each time.
A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways. The results are often magical. His records are as enigmatic as he is, and maybe that heightens the attraction and expectation. The results of his American Clavé productions have garnered a cultist reputation, yet a lot of people have heard them or at least of them. He chooses to remain in the shadows, an obscure figure that turns the knobs and brings it all together. Hanrahan’s recorded legacy speaks volumes of his knowledge and abilities to bring out the best of musicians that accompany him on his fantastic sojourns. Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. “I don't know where I am in a sense. People tell me that I am a Latin musician. But at the same time, it's not my music. I grew up with it and through it, and I learned it at the same time as everyone else around me learned it. And I think of Latin music as being my first music. But I'm not a Latin musician. I'm not from that culture.” After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts, in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats, those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt headgear would be one of 'facilitator', for Kip has the knack of being able to connect up people and music together. Kip Hanrahan now has numerous albums to his name. His discography reads like chapters of a book, or betters still, an anthology of short stories, each album reflective of a different phase in his life. “All Roads Are Made of the Flesh,” (1995) is probably his best known work, a compilation of musical vignettes from Jelly Roll Morton to full on avant-garde. Kip has also produced three albums for the late accordion master Astor Piazzolla, the best known of which is “Tango Zero Hour.” Drawing from a rich vein of rock, jazz and blues influences, as well as the Latin influence of his formative years, he has devised a distinctive meld of music, a dialogue between the two hemispheres of north and south, which is informed by the American Clavé. (The clavé is the internal rhythmic pulse around which all Latin music is based.) Kip works with class. Several of the finest Latin jazz percussionists in the world have toured in his band, notably the Puerto Rican Giovanni Hidalgo, who left Kip to work with Dizzy Gillespie, and his protégé Richie Flores, not to forget Milton Cardona, and Anthony Carillo. There is always a fine supporting cast of Cuban players in a variety of roles and instruments. Hanrahan’s musical associates are far too numerous to list or mention here, but on preferred sessions he worked with bassists Jack Bruce, Andy Gonzalez, and Sting, pianists Don Pullen, John Beasley, Edsel Gomez, and Allen Toussaint, sax man Charles Neville, and trumpet man Brian Lynch. More endeavors have included drummers Robby Ameen, and Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, along with the usual all star line up of top tier percussionists as Paoli Mejias. On his “Deep Rumba/A Calm in the Fire of Dances” (2000) project he featured the vocal of Xiomara Lougart, who shines on her selections. Salsa superstar Ruben Blades does a bilingual version version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” on the “Robby and Negro at the Third World War” (2004) recording. He did the soundtrack for the movie “Piñero,” in 2001, and covered the NuyoRican poetry of Piri Thomas in “Every Child is Born A Poet,” released in 2006. One of his latest projects, also in 2006 has been “Conjure: Bad Mouth.” Bottom line for the musical trajectory of Kip Hanrahan is for the adventuresome listener to dive and explore the profound depths. Kip Hanrahan’s worldly and highly artistic approach provides a road map for ongoing success. Most importantly, Hanrahan paints vivid portraits of life, love and reality without becoming self-absorbed or overbearing. Overall, his productions are generally accessible and entertaining while maintaining that perpetual touch of class.”
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fittingly enough, the first sound heard on Kip Hanrahan's premier release is that of the conga and the first word sung is "sex," two leitmotifs that would appear consistently in his ensuing work. Coup de Tete burst on the scene in the early '80s as an entirely fresh, invigorating amalgam of Cuban percussion (much of it Santeria-based), free jazz, funk, and intimate, confrontational lyrics. Hanrahan had worked at New Music Distribution Service, a project run by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler (both of whom appear on this album), and had established contacts with numerous musicians from varied fields who he threw together in a glorious New York City melting pot. With the percussion and electric bass laying down thick and delicious grooves, the cream of the younger avant saxophonists in New York at the time wail over the top, accompanying some of the most brutally uncomfortable lyrics ever put to wax. The relationships Hanrahan details are turbulent to say the least, often intertwined with economic concerns as well as a general sense of the impossibility of understanding one's mate. After asking him for abuse and being refused, his lover (sung wonderfully by Lisa Herman) taunts, "When you could only sulk/I had more contempt for you than I ever thought I could have." Interspersed among the bitter love harangues and ecstatic percussion-driven numbers are two stunningly lovely pieces, Marguerite Duras' "India Song" and Teo Macero's "Heart on My Sleeve," both aching with romanticism. Coup de Tete is a superb record, an impressive debut, and, arguably, one of the finest moments in Hanrahan's career along with the following release, Desire Develops an Edge. Highly recommended.
Kip Hanrahan - Coup De Tete (flac 301mb)
01 Whatever I Want 5:43
02 At the Moment of the Serve 5:39
03 This Night Comes Out of Both of Us 5:40
04 India Song 4:13
05 A Lover Divides Time (To Hear How It Sounds) 3:17
06 No One Gets to Transcend Anything (No One Except Oil Company Executives) 3:42
07 Shadow to Shadow 7:06
08 Sketch From Two Cubas 4:07
09 Heart on My Sleeve 5:14
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Desire Develops an Edge was originally released as a two-LP set in 1983; it was reissued on a single CD in 1994. It consists primarily of compositions by Hanrahan, who does not play any of the instruments but avails himself of a kaleidoscopic group of studio musicans that includes Americans (Arto Lindsay, Steve Swallow), Cubans (Puntilla Orlando Rios, Milton Cardona), and Haitians (Elysee Pyronneau, Jean Claude Jean), as well as one very prominent Briton -- former Cream singer and bassist Jack Bruce. As might be expected, there is quite a bit of complex and beautiful music on this album; highlights include the absolutely delightful "What Is This Dance, Anyway?" and "Don't Complicate the Life." But there's also an awful lot of downright tiresome music. The main offenders are an assortment of meandering songs with embarrassing lyrics: For example, the awful "Two (Still in Half-Light)" (which does benefit from the interplay between bassists Jamaladeen Tacuma and Steve Swallow") and the dumbly vulgar "Her Boyfriend Assesses His Value and Pleads His Case." On tracks like these, the session players lay down intricate beds of rhythm while Bruce sings no discernible melody whatsoever, thus obscuring the only thing really worth hearing. Overall, this is a fairly frustrating album.
Kip Hanrahan - Desire Develops an Edge (flac 325mb)
01 Desire Develops an Edge 1:16
02 What Is This Dance, Aniway? 8:41
03 Two (Still in Half-Light) 5:38
04 Early Fall 2:09
05 Velasquez 5:02
06 (Don't Complicate) The Life 6:47
07 Late Fall 2:25
08 Sara Wade 2:34
09 Far From Freetown 1:29
10 All Us Working Class Boys 4:00
11 Child Song 2:37
12 Nocturnal Heart 4:53
13 Her Boy Friend Assesses His Value 4:42
14 Meaning a Visa 3:41
15 Jack and the Golden Palominos 3:45
16 Trust Me Yet? 4:55
17 Nancy 4:27
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Vertical's Currency started with "A Small Map Of Heaven", a kind of soft lounge-jazz with exotic percussion, followed by "Shadow Song", an exuberant Latin-jazz that was rich in brass (one baritone saxophone, two tenor saxophones, two trumpets). "Smiles And Grins" was borderline ska: groovy and delightful, whereas "Two Heartedly To The Other Side" was a soft-jazz elegy: gentle, melancholic and masterful. On the same climate, "Chances Are Good" was slightly more vibrant, but still represented a resigned mood in a beautiful autumnal environment. The lush soul-jazz "Make Love 2 " viewed the same idea from a different angle, while the Latin-jazz-funk-exotica "One Casual Song" was still measured, but far more exuberant. In comparison, the tribal mysticism of "Intimate Distances" was a radical departure. "Describing It To Yourself As Convex " was almost psychedelic. "What Do You Think That This Mountain Was Once Fire" was way too casual for it's own good, but "Dark" ended the album in another note of blue elegance.
Kip Hanrahan - Vertical's Currency (flac 211mb)
01 A Small Map Of Heaven 5:20
02 Shadow Song (Mario's In) 4:03
03 Smiles And Grins 3:09
04 Two Heartedly, To The Other Side 3:02
05 Chances Are Good (Baden's Distance) 5:15
06 Make Love 2 4:25
07 One Casual Song (After Another) 3:14
08 Intimate Distances (Jack's Margrit's Natasha) 2:50
09 Describing It To Yourself As Convex 4:15
10 What Do You Think? That This Mountain Was Once Fire? 1:38
11 Dark (Kip's Tune) 2:52
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Poor Kip Hanrahan. What bad timing. If he had only made this record in say 2001 instead of 1987, the current generation of hipsters would have snapped up this ingratiating mix of New York latin jazz, tango, arch lyrics, and unabashed romanticism, and he'd be a household name. Instead, this album slips in and out of the catalogue. This moody and quirky work by the rather mysterious Hanrahan has many bright moments, like the smoky opener "Love is Like a Cigarette," Muscianship is first-rate; among the musicians appearing on the disk are Jack Bruce, Steve Swallow, Allen Toussaint, Astor Piazzolla, David Murray, John Stubblefield, George Adams, Anton Fier, Fernando Saunders and a host of others. Get it while you can.
Kip Hanrahan - Days and Night of Blue Luck Inverted (flac 236mb)
01 Love Is Like a Cigarette 5:45
02 A Poker Game; Luck Inverts Itself; Four Swimmers 6:06
03 Gender 3:34
04 Marriage 3:24
05 American Clavé 3:49
06 A Model Bronx Childhood 2:47
07 Ah, Intruder! (Female) 6:13
08 Lisbon; Blue Request 6:09
09 My Life Outside of Power 1:42
10 Road Song 3:54
11 The First and Last to Love Me (2. December) 4:34
12 Unobtainable Days 3:20
13 What Else Can You Do With a Drum 1:51
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2 comments:
Great Hanrahanian thanks.
Thanks and could you upload recent albums too?
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