Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Bennie Maupin - "The Jewel In The Lotus" (1974)






Here's a vinyl rip of Bennie Maupin's "The Jewel In The Lotus" to complete the cycle of post-Mwandishi albums by members of Herbie Hancock's band from the early 70s band, who together had made "Mwandishi", "Crossings" and "Sextant".

(See also Buster William's "Pinnacle"; Julian Priester's "Love, Love", the Eddie Henderson albums "Realization" and "Inside Out", and the Boston Jazz Workshop live album. )

Recorded in March 1974, this album comes about six months after Priester's album, and in a few tracks resembles a minimalist version of some the textures explored there. Don't be looking out for the funk here - this is a more spiritual, atmospheric affair, with cascades of chord clusters from various instruments, and sparse percussion - "beds" of heavily structured sound over which the players minimally improvise. It's not "free jazz" - even on the raw soundscape of "Excursion", there's still an impeccable structure to control the dynamic flow. It's the perfect setting for Bennie Maupin to get into the subtle ranges of his high register reeds.

Whereas other "Bitches Brew" veterans tended to either emulate Miles Davis or run screaming into a more controlled jazz-funk, Maupin's lesson, compositionally, seems to have been to extract some order from the chaos, perhaps somewhat like Teo Macero ...

Maupin was the only player from Hancock's Mwandishi band to continue on to the Headhunters, and here he utilises players from both bands. A year after the phenomenally successful, electrified "Head Hunters" album, Herbie Hancock's tweaking the inbuilt delays on his fender rhodes to add to Maupin's soundscapes on the title track. Some of the textures in Maupin's songs are so subtle that the white machine noise coming out from the rhodes' phaser itself becomes a texture. Hancock also seems to be enjoying the opportunity to explore percussive dynamics once again on his acoustic piano - listen to his playing around Maupin's multitracked winds in "Past Is Past".

Bill Summers - the man who blew into beer bottles at the start of "Watermelon Man" on "Head Hunters" - is very at home as he mixes bells, cymbals and even garbage cans with Maupin's glockenspiel and Frederick Watts' marimba. Drummer Billy Hart and bassist Buster Williams return from the Mwandishi band, and guest Charles Sullivan supplies gentle muted trumpet to "Mappo" and some crazy squeals to the general chaos of "Excursion".

This is an album that gets better with repeated listens - I listened through a few times today when ripping and converting, not having heard it for several years, and once again I'm really taken with the colours that this group of people create together.

TRACKLIST
01. "Ensenada" (8:05)
02. "Mappo" (8:25)
03. "Excursion" (4:47)
04. "Past + Present = Future" (1:45)
05. "The Jewel In The Lotus" (9:57)
06. "Winds Of Change" (1:25)
07. "Song For Tracie Dixon Summers" (5:14)
08. "Past Is Past" (3:52)

All tracks written by Bennie Maupin

PERSONNEL
Reeds, Voice, Glockenspiel - Bennie Maupin
Piano, Electric Piano - Herbie Hancock
Trumpet - Charles Sullivan (tracks: 2,3)
Bass - Buster Williams
Drums (right channel) - Billy Hart
Drums, Marimba (left channel) - Frederick Waits
Percussion - Bill Summers

PRODUCTION DETAILS
ECM Records 1043
Recorded March 1974 at The Record Plant, New York City.
Engineer - Dennis Ferrante
Engineer [Mix] - Jan Erik Kongshaug
Producer - Manfred Eicher

POST CREDITS
Vinyl rip by Simon666
Apart from the three album links within this blog, this post's album links go to :

Oufar Khan, Abrabcadabra, Jazz and Beyond, manepipoca's music house, bug in the city, Real Hip Hop.
Please thank and support these bloggers if you click through.



DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3

Please leave comments - it makes it more interesting for me when people engage, so I post more. 

47 comments:

Simon666 said...

(and big thanks to the regular commenters)

jahcisco said...

thanks.

AUDIOWORM said...

You are posting superb selections. Well done!

Partenia said...

Thanks for those superb posts. Not only the music, but also your comments.

MFS Equipe ♪ said...

Superb! Brilliant!
Thanks Simon!
Pier

fritz the cat said...

sweet. thanks for the write up too.

JR Heat Warp said...

Incredible stuff. Always loved what Maupin brought to the table.

AmBrOsE said...

excellent, iv never listened to this album before!!
Thanx simon.
Here' a link to my new fledgling blog also!!!http://sound-of-joy.blogspot.com/

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

thank you!

AMM said...

superb bennie drops simon.
best wishes m8!

kizza said...

Really looking forward to hearing this!
Thanks heaps for your tremendous efforts with your blog! Love checking out your posts - and seeing all the fabulous stuff that you link too!

les said...

I need to thank you on your own site too since I screwed up. I blame my enthusiasm and the absinthe. lol.

This may be my favorite Maupin album.

Simon666 said...

hey pass the absinthe :)

Cellar said...

thanks alot, thanks also for mediafire link alternative ;)
stop by my blog some time!

Michael said...

Incredible!
Thank you very much!

johnv said...

Great album Simon, thanks for the share as always.

GeeeFlat said...

Nice One Si! Thanks ! ;)

Simon666 said...

Gee! The missing brother :) Good to see you here sir.

Unknown said...

Thanks, came across this site by accident and am really glad I did! Looking forward to listening to the post-Mwandishi albums listed.

Simon666 said...

Thanks Peter, hope you enjoy it.

taro nombei said...

Working my way through all your prodigious links, SImon, and this is one of the best!
Again, thanks indeed.
TN

Simon666 said...

You're going deep Taro! Thanks for all the comments, glad you enjoyed the todd cochran post too.

Simon666 said...

hey Taro, I noticed that you clicked through to the Eddie Henderson albums and that they had passwords. Did they get back to you with passwords? If not, let me know and i'll try to find another location to link to.

I will at some stage do my own rips of those two albums, but am concentrating on stuff that's not posted elsewhere at the moment ...

Simon666 said...

Actually don't worry Taro, I've re-directed the Henderson links to other blogs already ...

Vad sa dom sa du? said...

Thanks a lot! As always the presentation and the music is superb!
You have changed my musical life in such a new and wonderful way that I can´t even find the words to describe it. And I´ve been looking for them for a while now. The words. And the music. The music I have found.

mrivs said...

This really is such a spiritual gem - often play it as a background to my yoga practice! Thanks for the high quality rip!

Seb Palmer said...

ahhh, what a fabulous blog you have here Simon! ta, the goat

http://soundsfromthefunkygoat.blogspot.com/

Simon666 said...

Thankyou Mr Goat :)

Anonymous said...

thanks so much for putting this up

ensenada is ridiculous

troods said...

I love that, besides providing hard to find music, you give so much music education - background, history, etc. Since Sunday is my vacation from the news (don't look at the papers, watch any discussions on the tv), it's the perfect time to relax, listen and learn. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

The Headhunters were a great band, both with and without Herbie Hancock. Thanks for this post (never heard this; looking forward to it) and everything on your blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much. Just showing some appreciation from over here in New Zealand

Anonymous said...

I found out about this album from here:
http://somethingelsereviews.com/2011/04/02/forgotten-series-bennie-maupin-the-jewel-in-the-lotus-1974/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+somethingelsereviews%2FJjnG+%28SOMETHING+ELSE%21+REVIEWS%29
then I found the download link in my google reader. Great post, thanks a lot

Sleekit said...

thanks
i remember seeing this for sale in a prahran record shop(not liquorice pie)

for some reason i didnt buy it?

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much, I have been really enjoying these Mwandishi related recordings.

Especially Love Love, thanks for ripping and collating!

Theilf

Anonymous said...

Thank you!!!

chris_c said...

cheers big (musical) ears!

Anonymous said...

Great to find a link still working! I have this LP but no functioning turntable, so it will be a treat to hear it again. Many thanks!

-Brian

Anonymous said...

Many Thanks!!!

Unknown said...

Is there any chance you can reupload the wav files? I have been searching for this album for two years in lossless!

Simon666 said...

here you go isaac
http://rapidshare.com/share/A2F2CE72D6814F983C37F8FFD4DA0E71

g said...

What a wonderful place on the web. Amazed at the music you are sharing - and it's great that a post, such as this, from 7 years ago is still available. Also appreciate the knowledge you pass along regarding the recording and the time frame of the music being made. Listen to the music and for extra credit - read the comments!
Thanks
g

Simon666 said...

Hi G,
thanks for your comment, glad that people are still digging down here :)

Anonymous said...

Love Benny! Many thanks for this!

Walking Oliver Productions, Ltd said...

This was a great find! Many thanks. I see it is now available on CD and I will likely pick it up. It's always nice to have the original vinyl, though and this is a beautiful rip.

It's great having so many dates that included Bennie. That being said, more featured dates would have been much welcomed. Probably he was so busy that he didn't have the time. Easy to see why.

Barbatruco Producciones said...

amazing,thank you

Unknown said...

Have this, mwandishi, many other herbie, blue note on vinyl. The rhythmic changes in Ostinato make me hebrephrenic, which, in this case is a good place in which to temporarily reside