When it comes to serious improvised music, tribute discs are as likely to be a bane as a boon. That’s because the artist involved faces a double challenge. Firstly can the player salute the honoree in such a way that the music will amplify rather than diminish that person’s reputation? Plus if that’s done properly will the resulting product be imaginative rather than an unoriginal run though of familiar tunes? Luckily the sessions here stay away from the overly familiar Miles-Louis-Duke-Trane team to honor less frequently venerated innovators. But while each session is enjoyable and while there are pleasurable and cultivated sounds on tap, none attains the level of creative freshness that the prototypes did.
Trying to avoid the curse of emulation, alto saxophonist Kathrin Lemke and her eight-piece Heliocentric Counterblast ensemble, perform her original compositions along with classics first recorded by Saturian-American honoree Sun Ra (1914-1993) and his Arkestra. Some, such as “NepTune”, which are borne on waves of hand-claps, harmonized horns and a walking bass line, engender genuine excitement. However all sound so close to the Ra oeuvre, that even if they’re not pastiches of other Ra compositions – which is what “Sat-ancient-Urn-Aiethopia” is literally – they could be mistaken for them.
Taken as a whole the recreations are professional enough and often move with unabashed swing. Plus just as long as the group pitches its variants on Ra’s simpler music so that it resembles so-called Jungle band music which the Arkestra intuited from earlier classics by Fletcher Henderson, Heliocentric Counterblast is on solid ground – or perhaps more appropriately operating in the correct part of outer space. However a tune such as “Outro” with its combination of yelping trombone and spacey synthesizer runs sounds more like Earth, Wind & Fire than “We Are Not of This Earth”. What is a bit unsettling though are the chants. Try as they may the players’ harmonies can’t equal those of June Tyson, Michael Ray et. al and the sharp ear can note several non-English inflections as band members vocalize.
With the negatives out of the way, though, Planetary Tunes can be enjoyed for what it is. Consisting of some of the most accomplished Berlin-based improvisers, not only does the group integrate contrapuntal pulses and straightforward energy, but there are many outstanding solos. With Andreas Dormann’s jumping baritone saxophone blats and Mike Majkowski`s tough double bass lines holding down the bottom, everyone is granted freedom, often in surprising ways. For instance, among the screeches, scrimps and electronic wiggles on “Saturn” Lemke creates a sweet Pete Brown-styled solo whose subversive old-timey-ness would have appealed to Ra. “Sat-ancient-Urn-Aiethopia” is one of the tracks that showcases the firm, hard trumpet work of Nikolaus Neuser, abetted by the convinced Tranesque – not John Gilmoresque, though – tenor saxophone of Dirk Steglich. Plus on “Fate in a Pleasant Mood”, Niko Meinhold is able to use his keyboard to emulate slick guitar runs and space harp whizzes, while with the same facility his piano playing moves from night-club moderation to pseudo-ragtime. Overall; though, there are few instances where the band reaches true Arkestra transcendence. Playing up Sun Ra’s party-time eccentricity and futurism at the expense of his commitment to Black music in many forms may be the one fashion a European band can honor Ra’s music. If that foreshortened goal is a measure of success, then Lemke and Heliocentric Counterblast score on their own terms.
Sun Ra’s musical longevity may have overcome his Jazz obscurity, which wasn’t the case with South African alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana (1938-1990). Part of the Apartheid-era Diaspora that led many of his fellow musicians to leave home, Pukwana’s mix of Freebop plus Africanized rhythms and compositions were featured in bands such as The Blue Notes, Brotherhood of Breath and his own units. But knowledge of his distinctive soloing was limited to a select few. Organized by drummer Andrew Scott, Duduvudu seeks to change that perception. Featuring a dozen tracks played by a total of 29 musicians, sessions took place in London in 2009 and San Francisco at a later date.
Sincere in his fandom, Scott has even managed to round up a half-dozen players who worked with Pukwana in his heyday to join the band. As expressive as some of the arrangements and solo work are however, the drummer’s focus on Pukwana’s blues-dance-gospel side risks reducing the alto saxophonist to the status of a Fun-Jazz progenitator. The South African’s equivalent involvement with and influence by such British avant-improvisers as Evan Parker, John Stevens and Paul Rutherford is left out. As a matter of fact, the only true free-form improv on the disc is “Duet for Dudu”, a spindly session of arrhythmic trombone flutters and pinched flute lines by Annie Whitehead and Chloe Scott respectively.
With a total of se...
