Sealed LP: Julius Hemphill: Blue Boyé

$

31

Julius Hemphill: Blue Boyé

FACTORY SEALED LP

• Countryside
• Hotend
• OK Rubberband
• Antecedent
• Kansas City Line
• C.M.E.
• Dirty Row
• Homeboy Tootin' at the Dog/Star

• Tim Berne: Liner Notes, Assistant Producer
• Julius Hemphill: Flute, Percussion, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano), Producer, Liner Notes
• Robert Lewis: Photography
• Frank Perry: Prints
• Doug Pomeroy: Remastering

• Recorded in 1977 in a cold basement studio in New York, the late Julius Hemphill self-released Blue Boyé on his own Mbari label. Given that there was almost no independent distribution that actually paid people in those days, Hemphill's record, a beautifully packaged double album, sank without a trace. It seems that after his death, the original tapes of the album also disappeared. Enter Tim Berne, saxophonist, composer, bandleader, independent label boss, and art terrorist -- as well as a former student of Hemphill's. Out of devotion and an impeccable sense of knowing what to offer people, Berne has had the CD remastered from well-preserved vinyl copies, and listeners thus have this double CD. All eight tracks are meditations on various formal musical structures, and, as Hemphill claims in his manifesto-like liner notes, autobiographical. There is the chamber serialism of "Countryside," an impressionistic, textured travel through the inner workings of the flute and soprano saxophone as well as a gorgeous multi-tracked alto in the lower register. On "Hotend," Hemphill's multi-tracked saxophones are more expressionistic, using one part of the blues, one part personal experience, and one part the musical instinct of being a great balladeer -- in Archie Shepp's definition of the word. The playfulness of "OK Rubberband," with its funky backdrop and handclap percussion, is reminiscent of Roland Kirk in its humor, warmth, and screaming blues lines.
• On disc two, "Kansas City Line" is the most purely Hemphill piece in his entire oeuvre. On this piece, the solo alto -- playing itself through the blues and ancient swing lines -- reveals the true guiding light behind the World Saxophone Quartet. Here is the true funk and soul in the bottom of the jazz art. In "C.M.E.," Hemphill reveals the fine twining of soul, blues, and gospel and floats them along a time line from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century. Kirk again makes a spiritual appearance in the album's closer, "Homeboy Tootin' at the Dogstar." Here, overdubbed flutes and Hemphill's singing through them go for the deep groove right from the jump. They bend corners, lift themselves out of the gospel tradition, and head straight for the unknown -- while keeping the vernacular backbone a part of the story that everyone can hear. Blue Boyé is a singular album, born of equal parts inspiration, determination, and artistry. It should be heard by virtually anyone interested in Hemphill to be sure, but not only. Blue Boyé is an album that reveals as much about the history of American black music as Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, Anthony Braxton's For Alto, Aretha Franklin's Aretha, Duke Ellington's Drum Is a Woman, or Michael Jackson's Thriller.

• Hemphill was best known for his work with the World Saxophone Quartet -- he was arguably the band's most distinctive writer -- but his work as an improvising saxophonist and composer encompassed a variety of other contexts over the course of his career. Hemphill worked with everything from big bands to duos; he especially excelled at composing for unusual instrumental combinations. Hemphill's primary instrument was the alto; he had a huge, somewhat harsh tone, almost as if he were playing a horn made out of a steel pipe with a sax mouthpiece attached. He possessed a formidable technique and a fertile imagination. The latter probably best manifested itself in his compositions, in which he merged his jazz roots with European classical and African influences.
• Hemphill's first instrument was the clarinet. He played bari saxophone in high school; purportedly, he fostered a musical infatuation with Gerry Mulligan. In Fort Worth, he studied with the renowned jazz clarinetist John Carter and played with local rhythm & blues bands. Hemphill joined the army in 1964. Upon his discharge, he played for a time with Ike Turner, then moved to St. Louis in 1968. There he became involved with the Black Artists Group, a new music collective that also included Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, Joseph Bowie, and Baikida Carroll, among others. Hemphill formed his own record company, Mbari, to document his music. His '70s Mbari releases, Dogon A.D. and Blue Boyé, proved to be quite influential, affecting the later work of such disparate artists as Dave Sanborn and Tim Berne.
• Hemphill moved to New York in the mid-'70s. There he became active in loft sessions and recorded as a sideman with Anthony Braxton and Lester Bowie. Around this time, he also recorded for the Arista/Freedom label. In 1976, he formed the World Saxophone Quartet with Lake, Bluiett, and David Murray, which would prove to be the most commercially successful and long-lasting of his performing units. In the '70s and '80s, Hemphill played and recorded fairly often for several labels, almost always under his own leadership. His 1980 album, Flat Out Jump Suite (Black Saint), with cellist Abdul Wadud, cornetist Olu Dara, and percussionist Warren Smith, was critically praised, as was his concurrent work with the WSQ. In the late '80s, Hemphill and the WSQ began an association with the Elektra label, which led to a number of well-distributed and aesthetically rewarding albums. In 1988, Hemphill got his one and only chance to record his big band compositions, on the album Julius Hemphill Big Band (Elektra/Musician).
• Hemphill left the WSQ in the early '90s, thus weakening the ensemble from a conceptual standpoint. He went on to form his own all-sax group -- a sextet -- which included such players as Marty Ehrlich, Andrew White, and a young James Carter. The band made a pair of albums: Fat Man and the Hard Blues, recorded in 1991, and Five Chord Stud, recorded in 1993. Hemphill's presence on the latter was as a composer only; a worsening medical condition had by this time forced him to stop playing.
• Hemphill also had a strong interest in theatre. He incorporated theatrical elements into his 1977 album Roi Boyé and the Gotham Minstrels and in the '80s he composed an extended work entitled Long Tongues, which he called "a saxophone opera." Hemphill's death in 1995 prematurely curtailed the career of one of free jazz's most visionary composers.

FINE PRINT

• All pictures are of the exact item being sold.
• This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their leftover inventory some years later when I owned a new & used record store in Catasauqua called "Music Madness".
• Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of the albums. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of the albums. Most of the albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the records have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for the record in 1978 if you would have bought it at Phantasmagoria. Please don't confuse these prices with their current value.
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