Description
1960年代以降のフリー・ジャズを牽引したMarion Brownが、アフロ・カリビアン・リズムやファンクを独自の美学で融合。長年埋もれていた重要作が待望の復刻。
1976年発表の『Awofofora』は、日米盤ともに流通量が少なく高い評価を受けてきたレア作品。今回の復刻盤は貴重な写真やEd Hazellによるライナーノーツを収録した見開きジャケット仕様で、限定1,000枚プレスとなる。
1960年代後半にニューヨークからヨーロッパへ活動の場を移したMarion Brownは、それまでのフリー・ジャズをさらに発展させ、即興演奏と構成美を融合した独自のスタイルを追求したサックス奏者。本作でもその姿勢は一貫しており、ファンクやレゲエ、アフロ・カリビアンのリズムを取り入れながら、表面的なジャンル融合ではなく、リズムそのものを楽曲構造の核として再構築している。
「La Placita」ではアフリカン・ドラム・アンサンブルを思わせる複数のリズムが重なり合い、その上をBrownとトランペット奏者Ambrose Jacksonの自由なインプロヴィゼーションが伸びやかに舞う。「Flamingo」はディアスポラ的なリズム感覚をまとい、新たな表情を獲得。「Pepi's Tempo」や「Mangoes」では切れ味鋭いファンクやレゲエのグルーヴを土台に、集団即興による躍動感あふれる演奏を展開する。「And Then They Danced」では一人で二重録音したアルト・サックスを用い、巧みな構成力を印象付ける。
黄金色とも形容されるMarion Brownの温かなアルト・サックスの音色と、自由でありながら緻密に組み立てられたリズム設計が融合した本作は、フリー・ジャズ、スピリチュアル・ジャズ、アフロ・ジャズを横断する重要作品。長らく再評価を待ち望まれてきた名盤を改めて味わえる貴重な復刻盤だ。
A1. La Placita
A2. Flamingo
A3. Pepi's Tempo
B1. Mangoes
B2. And Then They Danced
B3. Vista '76
"First time reissue of JP / US free jazz rarity. Old-style Gatefold LP with rare photographs & liner notes by Ed Hazell. Edition of 1000.
"The 1970s were Marion Brown’s most searching decade, a period during which he sought to move beyond the free jazz of the previous era and find more personal approaches to structuring improvisation and composition. After leaving New York for Europe in 1967, Brown began reshaping his music into what he described as 'a more deliberate kind of music that had more structure to it', pacing it so that moods and modes could develop over time. Albums such as In Sommerhausen, Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, Geechee Recollections, and Sweet Earth Flying trace this evolution: rhythmic structures moved to the foreground, harmony receded, and composition became a matter of orchestrating interlocking rhythmic parts as one would polyphonic lines.
"Released in 1976, Awofofora is an overlooked but crucial entry in that sequence. At the time, its use of funk and reggae beats, electric guitars, and grooves drawn from contemporary Black popular music led some to misread it as a jazz-rock detour. In retrospect, it is entirely consistent with Brown’s methodology. As he admired in the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the stimulus comes from within the community. Here Brown filters Afro-Caribbean rhythms and funk through his own sensibility, abstracting their structural qualities rather than adopting surface style.
"La Placita, making its first recorded appearance, layers distinct rhythmic phrases in a manner reminiscent of African drum ensembles, over which Brown and trumpeter Ambrose Jackson spin extended improvisations. The standard Flamingo is reshaped through diasporic rhythm and lyrical soloing, while Pepi’s Tempo and Mangoes harness crisp funk and reggae grooves to generate what Brown called a 'manifestation of community' through collective improvisation. Even the overdubbed solo feature And Then They Danced reflects his structural thinking, ingeniously re-voicing a duet composition for two alto saxophones performed by one player.
"This was the only recording by a short-lived band that briefly polarized audiences during festival appearances in 1976. Yet Brown consistently sought unity across change: different sounds, same principles — rhythm as structure, melody as architecture, collective improvisation, and above all, the primacy of tone. Awofofora stands not as a departure, but as a vivid synthesis of the elements he had been refining since the late 1960s, its grooves and golden alto lines conveying a sound drawn, in his words, 'from life and from the world of experience'.”
