2.
Sonny Sharrock - Many Mansions.

Amen, Irving (b. 1918)
In My Father's House There Are Many Mansions
color woodcut, 407 x 533 mm.

Heresy in some circles I realise, but in truth I never really ‘got’ all Sharrock’s high-end skronky stuff on ‘Black woman’ etc. Randomly found myself listening to this one a few weeks back though, and the hypnotic doom-style riff that he and the drummer (Elvin Jones, guys!) are laying down under the sax player (Pharoah Sanders no less!) through the first half just completely bad-ass… (the riff has a modal ‘Kind of Blue’ kinda quality to it too, like ‘60s Miles goes metal or something).

I particularly love it when Jones eventually goes off on some shit for a while, but the guitar just keeps hammering away those same few notes… then when Sharrock veers off into soloing too towards the end, the groove’s been so well established that it just sorta *continues*, even though no one’s really playing it anymore.

I’m not really much for writing about jazz, but yeah, this is great. From * 1991 * too if ya can believe that. Last album Sharrock recorded before his death, and a right fucking piece of work it is too – incredible stuff.

Labels: jazz, song reviews, Sonny Sharrock