Music Monday: Arthur Blythe (and friends)

I’m almost back in North Dakota to start the “home stand” portion of my summer research leave. Reminiscent of the “Golden Age of Air Travel,” it is now necessary for my trip home from the Mediterranean to involve multiple overnight stop overs.  This gave me an evening in Athens and an evening in Minneapolis. I can only assume these were necessary to refuel the airplane and restock drastically diminished supplies of caviar, champagne, and cognac (that latter being necessary for turn-down service). I was, of course, disappointed to see so few men wearing ties on the flight.

To classy things up a bit, I decided to listen to some Arthur Blythe. As readers of this blog, Arthur Blythe appears on many albums that I enjoy. He made his debut on Horace Tapscott’s epic, The Giant is Awakened, recorded on India Navigation with the likes of Chico Freeman, and contributed to Jack DeJohnette’s band Special Edition.  

 I’ve posted Arthur Blythe’s debut album, The Grip (1977) before, but it’s worth posting again. The B-side starts with the gently orientalizing track “Lower Nile” is a favorite, and ends with the track “My Son Ra”

He’s perhaps best known for this album Lenox Avenue Breakdown (1979) which is one of the cumulative statements in 1970s jazz and features Bob Stewart on tuba, James “Blood” Ulmer on guitar, Cecil McBee on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums:

I was less familiar with Blythe’s appearance with Anthony Braxton on Woody Shaw’s The Iron Men (recorded in 1977 and released in1980). Blythe appears on track 1 and 5 (and with Braxton on track 5). Muhal Richard Abrams is on piano, Joe Chambers and Victor Lewis taking turns on drum, and Cecil McBee on bass. I don’t know this album very well, but the line-up alone makes it worth my attention. 

As a bonus, here’s a live recording of DeJohnette’s Special Edition in Baltimore in 1980 which I find to be a pretty accessible introduction to this band and its recordings: