SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SPRING, 2022
VOLUME ELEVEN NUMBER THREE
MARC CARY
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE
(June 11-17)
OLU DARA
(June 18-24)
WALTER SMITH III
(June 25-July 1)
BOBBY WATSON
(July 2-8)
JAMES MOODY
(July 9-15)
RONALD SHANNON JACKSON
(July 16-22)
LEYLA McCALLA
(July 23-29)
GREG LEWIS
(July 30-August 5)
RUSSELL MALONE
(August 6-12)
JOHN HANDY
(August 13-19)
STANLEY CLARKE
(August 20-26)
JASON HAINSWORTH
(August 27-September 2)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/revolutionary-ensemble-mn0000462249/biography
Revolutionary Ensemble
(1970-1977)
Artist Biography by Eugene Chadbourne
This group was a favorite of many avant-garde jazz fans in the '70s, appealing to a generation of listeners who had been weaned on Frank Zappa, some only temporarily lured into his camp by the intoxicating sound of electric violin soloists such as Jean-Luc Ponty and Sugarcane Harris. The violinist in the Revolutionary Ensemble, Leroy Jenkins, was cut from the same mold as these players, bluesy and swinging, but he created his sometimes fiery solos within the context of something like a free jazz power trio, removed from the corny Zappa arrangements or repetitive rhythm & blues structures. This is just a partial description of the music of the Revolutionary Ensemble, however, just as calling Jenkins a violinist was only part of the story. He was also a composer, and played a variety of so-called "little instruments," the point of which wasn't so much the development of virtuosity but the creation of a musical space where some spaced-out tooting on a kazoo or harmonica might make sense. Percussionist Jerome Cooper and bassist Sirone, also known as Norris Jones, were the other members of the group, also as likely to create an ambient universe of miniature sounds as to take off and cook. The group's early recordings on labels such as ESP often suffered from crummy pressings, the soft passages inspiring "you had to be there" reactions, while the louder, swinging sections with electric violin soloing converted one and all.
Eventually the group's big break came; a signing with the fledgling Horizon label, a "class" project of A&M Records devoted to what seemed like the ultimate presentation of jazz artists, complete with musical transcriptions and "stereo field" charts. The People's Republic was something of a masterpiece, although flawed like all of this group's masterpieces, and was the source of a wonderful bit of music-industry mythology, or perhaps truth. As the tale is told, Quincy Jones was a dinner guest of Herb Alpert, owner of A&M. The latter Tijuana Brass trumpetman was eager to show his Oscar-winning Hollywood composer and Grammy-winning pop arranger guest his cool new line of jazz discs. "What's this?" quoth Jones, holding up a copy of The People's Republic. "Want to hear some?" asketh Alpert. Next thing is, Jones is lecturing Alpert on how he has been conned: this isn't even music, let alone jazz. The story ends on a sheer note of tragedy for jazz fans; the entire label is canned, its saintly producer John Snyder sent off to the unemployment line.
It was hardly the end of the Revolutionary Ensemble, who continued on for several more years and several more albums. Although there was one reunion performance at the Nickelsdorf Jazz Festival in Austria in 1990, the history of this group is basically the history of the '70s, at least as far as free jazz is concerned. The group formed in 1971 following the arrival of Jenkins in New York from Chicago, where he had been an important part of the latter city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. Jenkins had been one-third of the Creative Construction Company, an avant-garde supergroup also featuring the multi-instrumentalists and composers Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. The arrival in New York must have been a bit like being a missionary from another planet. The Big Apple jazz scene was still based on the old-school "cutting contest" rituals, while the new Chicago developments had been about collective activity. Rather than being able to join a band and get in on the New York scene, Jenkins was really forced to start his own group in order to continue playing music the way he had been. The result was a group whose subtlety was basically unmatched in the new music of the '70s, although many tried. The group's music, however, had come together in the only real tried-and-true way, by a great deal of practice and testing. Recalling the early days in an interview, Jenkins said, "So we got together and practiced every day. In fact, we were rehearsing on 13th Street there every day, five days a week, anywhere from 11 to two o'clock. I mean, we just hung out. We just played and played, and my art of improvisation got tremendously better, and the group got beautifully tight." Although the hungry New York nightlife crowd is always looking for new "hip" venues, part of the appeal of the new jazz lofts in the '70s was the groups playing in them. The image of Jenkins as a kind of pied piper, leading free jazz fans by the nose from one loft and art gallery venue in lower Manhattan to another is actually a pretty good description of what was going on at the time, minus the occasional mugging.
By 1978, the highly motivated and ever-questing original members were ready to go their own ways. The most high-profile career has belonged to Jenkins. The violinist seems to have a steady stream of projects including new groups, premieres of compositions, and recordings in which he reinvents himself while maintaining the nuance of his original stylistic appeal. Sirone was a highly in-demand free jazz bassist before the group, and continued lugging his massive instrument around Manhattan to play with leaders such as the thundering pianist Cecil Taylor or the honking, barking saxophonist Dewey Redman. Cooper received much praise for his solo performances and recordings in the early '80s, delving into specific areas of tempo, instrumentation, or texture in his own unique manner; the concepts similar to the solo work of British percussionist Eddie Prevost as well as the formidable composition examples of Braxton. By the late '90s, Cooper was less active on the New York scene, although he still performed house concerts in the East Village.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Ensemble
Revolutionary Ensemble
The Revolutionary Ensemble was a free jazz trio consisting of violinist Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007), bassist Sirone (Norris Jones, 1940–2009) and percussionist/pianist Jerome Cooper (1946–2015).[1] The group was active from 1970–1977, and reunited briefly in 2004.[2] Musician George E. Lewis described the trio as "one of the signal groups of the period."[3] Writer John Fordham stated that the group "was remarkable for its concentration on texture, tone colour and the then unclaimed territory between jazz and contemporary classical music."[4] A DownBeat reviewer, writing in 1972, described them as "a unique, utterly contemporary unit of extraordinarily talented players who possess a world understanding of what 'organized sound' is all about."[5]
History
Prior to the formation of the Revolutionary Ensemble in 1970, Jenkins, recently returned from Europe, had been playing with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith in a group called Creative Construction Company.[6] Following a May 19, 1970 performance by the group at Greenwich Village's "Peace Church", Braxton left, and joined Chick Corea's group, which became known as Circle.[7] Jenkins began playing with a large group that included Sirone, who had previously played with Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, and Gato Barbieri,[8] and to whom Jenkins had been introduced by drummer Sunny Murray.[4] The two began discussing the possibility of forming a new group, and Sirone proposed a leaderless lineup of violin, bass, and drums, to which Jenkins initially responded with shock, before suggesting the name Revolutionary Ensemble.[9] (Sirone later recalled that other musicians told him "You must be crazy. Violin, bass, and drums!"[10]) They recruited drummer Frank Clayton, but he was soon replaced by Jerome Cooper, who had been playing in Europe with Steve Lacy, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and others, and who, after leaving Europe and arriving in New York, contacted Jenkins at the recommendation of Roscoe Mitchell.[11]
The trio began rehearsing on a regular basis at Ornette Coleman's Artists House loft, where Jenkins had been living, as well as at the home of artist Fred Brown. Jenkins recalled: "we got together and practiced every day... five days a week, anywhere from 11 to two o'clock. I mean, we just hung out. We just played and played, and my art of improvisation got tremendously better, and the group got beautifully tight."[12] In 1971, the group began rehearsing at the annex to Joseph Papp's Public Theater, then presented a concert there.[13] The following year, they booked a four week engagement at the Mercer Arts Center. According to Jenkins, "first week... nobody was there. Second week, two or three. Third week it was half packed. The fourth week it was jam-packed."[13] By 1972, the group was performing more regularly, with concerts at Artists House, the Jamaica Art Center in Queens, the Five Spot, and the Village Vanguard, as well as various radio interviews.[14] In March of that year, they presented a concert at the Peace Church, a recording of which was released on the ESP-Disk label as their first album Vietnam.[15] On December 31, 1972, they performed at the St. Marks Theater, and released a live recording of the concert as their second album, Manhattan Cycles, issued on India Navigation the following year.[15]
By the mid-1970s, the group was receiving greater recognition, and began appearing at festivals. In 1975, they formed a record company named RE Records for the purpose of releasing their third album, The Psyche. They then left for a European tour, taking boxes of the LPs with them, and selling out the first and only pressing to European record dealers.[16] The group also landed a short-lived recording contract with Horizon Records, a subsidiary of A&M Records, allowing them to record and release their first studio album, The People's Republic.[15] However, according to Sirone, when A&M's cofounder Herb Alpert played an excerpt from the album for musical director Quincy Jones, it elicited a harsh, negative reaction, with Jones claiming that he had "been conned; that it wasn't jazz or music and blah blah blah."[17] (A&M closed Horizon Records in 1979 following a slump in music sales.[18])
In 1977, the group released their fifth album, Revolutionary Ensemble, recorded live in Austria, on the Enja label. However, work began to dry up, and, at the same time, the musicians were being pulled in different artistic directions. Cooper recalled: "I was going into more of a shamanistic journey. I was hanging out with this Mexican, pre-Columbian drummer, Antonio Zapata. And Sirone was going into theater and moving to Berlin. Leroy was going into a more notated European music."[19] The group disbanded that year.[20] However, in 2004, the Mutable Music label reissued The Psyche on CD, and the trio reunited, performing at the Vision Festival, and recording their second and final studio album, And Now..., for Pi Recordings. In May of the following year, they performed in Warsaw, Poland; the concert was recorded and released by Mutable Music in 2008 as Beyond the Boundary of Time. [21] In November 2005, they played in Genoa, Italy, yielding the album Counterparts, released by Mutable in 2012.[22] Jenkins's death in 2007 precluded any further reunions.
Legacy and music
The Revolutionary Ensemble was unusual in that it was a cooperative group, with all three members contributing compositions. Sirone recalled that, in early discussions with Jenkins, he insisted: "everybody has to hold their own ground. We're not talking about no leaders here."[9] Cooper reflected: "we weren't like a trio. We were three individuals playing."[20] Jenkins enjoyed the absence of a group leader, stating: "It takes a lot of the load off you. A leader has a lot of extra work and the other guys sit back and get all the benefits of his work. The leader also becomes a father complex and a lot of leaders just don't want to be a father."[23] Author Bob Gluck summed up the musical results of this approach: "individual and group configurations were malleable constructs, one giving way to the other without so much as a moment's notice. Collectivity could just as soon feature simultaneous and multiple individual initiatives as it could musical togetherness. Construction of a cohesive whole was constantly subject to instantaneous negotiation. Some might view this approach as anarchic, but the three musicians of the Revolutionary Ensemble functioned like a musical high-wire act, sounding sometimes like one voice and at other times like independent individuals coexisting in the same sound space."[24]
The group's primary instrumentation was also unique, and each of the members doubled on secondary instruments. Although his primary instrument was violin, Jenkins also played viola, alto saxophone, kalimba, recorder, percussion, flute, and harmonica. In addition to playing bass, Sirone played trombone, percussion, and flute, while Cooper played an array of percussion instruments, bugle, flute, piano, electronic keyboards, and saw.[25][26][27][28][29][12]
The ensemble's musical style was characterized by three notable traits. The first is "parallel play," "a performance mode in which all three musicians pursued their own direction while contributing to a shared overall construction. The 'glue' for such performance is a combined energy level, density, texture, and sense of shared purpose."[30] The second is the fact that Sirone's bass is rarely heard in a conventional, supportive mode, and instead maintains equal footing with the other instruments.[31] The third is an emphasis on musical texture and the physicality of the instruments as conveyed through sound, what Bob Gluck referred to as "collective sound paintings."[32]
Sirone summed up his experience with the group: "It was very difficult even to be alive for the three of us, and it's a miracle in itself playing this music; the dedication that we put towards this music... having the rare opportunity to write music like that and have musicians to honestly approach it. That just don't happen every day."[19]
Discography
- 1972: Vietnam (ESP-Disk)
- 1972: Manhattan Cycles (India Navigation)
- 1975: The Psyche (RE Records)
- 1976: The People's Republic (A&M/Horizon)
- 1977: Revolutionary Ensemble (Enja)
- 2004: And Now... (Pi)
- 2008: Beyond the Boundary of Time (Mutable) recorded 2005
- 2012: Counterparts (Mutable) recorded 2005
Revolutionary Ensemble at a Club
by Robert Palmer
January 16, 1977
New York Times
Leroy Jenkins, Sirone, and Jerome Cooper, the violinist, bassist, and drummer who make up the ensemble, are three of the most provocative jazz players in New York. In the past, they have tended to concentrate on creating a group identity, and some listeners, hearing them during one nightclub set or for one evening have drawn erroneous impressions of their overall musical direction. One night they might forsake their usual instruments for long stretches and play toy xylophones, bicicyle horns and woodblocks. Another night they might play violin, bass and drums collectively.
At the Tin Palace on Friday evening, the Revolutionary Ensemble spotlighted each member in extensive unaccompanied solo sections. Mr. Jenkins, who gave a solo concert of his own earlier in the week on acoustic violin, was even more astonishing at the Tin Palace, cutting through conversations in the room with his electric violin sound. His ideas flowed in such profusion and were executed with such flair that he seemed to be surprising everyone in the packed club, including himself.
Sirone wrenched solos of exhaustive length out of his bass. He leans into his instrument and growls as he plays, and his tone in the lower register is perhaps more commanding than that of any other bassist in New York. He brings this same physicality to his roaring solos on trombone.
Mr. Cooper's accompaniments are so apt that the music often seems to be proceeding from one intelligence instead of three. His solos are models of thoughtful construction, and his wry piano work is lending the ensemble yet another dimension.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/18/arts/revolutionary-ensemble-reuniting.html
REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE REUNITING
THE Revolutionary Ensemble, a jazz trio of violin, bass and drums, built a worldwide following during its seven years of existence. It disbanded four years ago, having developed a remarkably responsive group interplay and wholly original style - without ever enjoying substantial commercial rewards. The violinist Leroy Jenkins, the bassist Sirone and the drummer Jerome Cooper went their separate ways and have been active participants in j az z as soloist and group leaders.
But tonight and tomorrow night they are getting back together to kick off the Public Theater's fall series of new-jazz concerts. When Mr. Jenkins settled in New York in 1970, he had already performed and recorded in Chicago and Europe with Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams and other important figures in contemporary jazz. He was introduced to Sirone, who had worked with Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders during the late 60's, by a mutual friend.
The two string players found they had much in common. They started the Revolutionary Ensemble with Frank Clayton on drums and experimented with using additional musicians before forming a trio with Mr. Cooper in October 1971.
''I didn't even realize this concert would mark our 10th anniversary until the people at the Public Theater pointed it out,'' Mr. Jenkins said. ''And when we started rehearsing, I remembered how hard some of our music was to play. But I think the music is going to be more understandable this time around; people will be able to hear it a little more easily.''
The ensemble splintered because its members were unable to come to terms with the shaky economics that most adventurous jazz groups have to face. Some of the musicians wanted to demand a fee they felt was commensurate with their talents and reputation, even if it meant working infrequently.
Others feel the band should work as much as possible. The disagreement was intense enough to break up t he band, but it has not prevented its members from reuniting for this weekend's concerts.
''Getting back together wasn't a big decision to make,'' Sirone said. ''As far as I can tell, the three of us will always be able to play well together. And although we're not thinking any further ahead than these concerts in terms of keeping the group going, I think it was important for us to get back together at this particular time.
''Jazz musicians seem to have been neglecting the idea of working collectively and corroborating with each other during the last few years, and I think that was a really important aspect of our kind of music. The music advances through the work of individuals, but those individuals have to work together.''
Tickets are $7.50; performances are at 9 o'clock tonight and tomorrow. The Public is at 425 Lafayette Street. Call 598-7150.
REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE / The Psyche
Leroy Jenkins (violin); Sirone (bass); Jerome Cooper (drums, piano)
In 1970 the idea of revolution was everywhere - the raging war in VietNam, the desperate antiwar protests that erupted, the ongoing civil rights revolution, and the jazz revolution. In New York City, the center of the jazz world, the free jazz scene - "outside" jazz, underground jazz, the avant garde - was highly active. Inflamed by a decade of innovations by the likes of Coleman, Taylor, Coltrane, Ayler, rugged individualists roamed the lofts and small clubs, seeking catharsis in playing fast, exhaustive energy music. One night at a popular club drummer-bandleader Sunny Murray introduced his versatile bassist, Sirone, to Leroy Jenkins, who was becoming known as a new violinist in town; almost immediately the two discussed playing together. They soon formed a trio with, briefly, drummer Frank Clayton; later in 1970 another newcomer to New York, drummer Jerome Cooper, joined the two string players to complete the Revolutionary Ensemble.
This group introduced New York to decided musical advances, many pioneered by Chicago's A.A.C.M. musicians. Ex-Chicagoan Jenkins, who played violin, of all unhyeard-of modern jazz instruments, had formed his concept from classical, swing, blues, and modern elements and had been one of the radicals who discovered new concepts of sound, space, and musical relationships in the late 1960s. Cooper had been a somewhat later Chicago explorer, while Sirone's freedom of motion had grown out of work with the most visionary New Yorkers. Extensive rehearsal led this cooperative trio to a shared, free sense of dynamics, momentum, and form, and a wholly unique sound: their instrumental recombinations yielded a surprising variety of textures and colors. Most of all, these highly sophisticated personalities played together to create an ensemble music even larger than the sum of its parts.
The Revolutionary Ensemble's seven years together were surely fruitful, with many New York City appearances and European tours, too. Audiences responded warmly; among other gigs, they played the Village Vanguard and several dates at the Tin Palace - once, despite a historic snowstorm, that club was packed to hear the Ensemble. Articles and reviews were mainly encouraging, but recordings were a problem: Few companies documented the new music, and too many LPs were badly recorded or pressed. To assure quality control the Revolutionary Ensemble formed RE Records, in 1975, to produce the third of their six albums. The Psyche proved to be the RE label's only album. It was little heard in America, for it was released just in time for a European tour and the artists took the cartons of LPs with them. They sold out the first pressing to European dealers; somehow, the busy trio never had time to order a second pressing.
If you doubt the expressive capacity of stringed instruments, The Psyche should change your mind: Jenkins and Sirone have many ways of bowing and plucking, along with dramatic passages high and low on their instruments. Careful listening and sensitive responses sustain this music; accompaniments to solos grow into intense interplay. The ensemble regularly re-forms into solo, duet, and trio combinations, aided by the players' doubling instruments. Jenkins' mastery of thematic improvisation, including motive recall and motivic transformation, provides an especially valuable unifying element. In "Invasion," hear the opening sustained tones over a rattle (ghostly chains?) that are strained into heated tension, erupting into a fast tempo and three long tones that are Jenkin's solo's cell motive. Another highlight of this disc is the wonderfully conceived, far-ranging violin solo that becomes a colorful violin-bass-drums trio improvisation at the center of "Hu-Man." And don't miss "Col Legno," named for a technique of playing strings with the wood of the bow, which features especially close, intense interplay of violin-bass-piano. There are many other delights in this CD, for these artists are near the peak of their creative powers in The Psyche. Their remarkable realization of the ensemble ideal still is revolutionary, nearly three decades later. For us Americans, it's a joy and a revelation to finally hear this album. - John Litweiler, November 2003
TRACK LIST
Invasion (26:16)
Hu-man (7:58)
Col legno (12:48)
REVIEWS
Rex Butters, All About Jazz Los Angeles
When Leroy Jenkins brought his AACM ways with him to New York, he altered that city's musical landscape forever. Bringing the "new thing" as the Chicagoans played it, he formed a trio (on bass, Sirone; on drums, Jerome Cooper) that survived through the '70s. Formed in the halcyon days of Nixon's war on everyone, the Revolutionary Ensemble embraced musical radicalism. The trio played music as rich in emotion and beauty as experimentation.
Jenkins and Sirone hold bowed while Cooper shakes bells and rattles
to open "Invasion." On drums, Cooper races, with Sirone dropping the bow
and plucking after him. Jenkins takes the bait and soon all three raise
a storm. Sirone brings it down for a hard rubber solo, nearly handing
off to Jenkins' vio;a. He creates a sublime acapella aria. A Rough edit
causes a duet with Cooper on piano and Sirone to abruptly commence.
While Cooper invents interesting avenues, Sirone plays like he's covered
with ants. Eventually his enthusiasm infects Cooper, who picks up his
pace. After their fruitful interplay, Jenkins rejoins and Cooper
relights the furnace in his drum set. Their tempestuous finale keeps the
27 minute piece fresh till the end. Sirone's cool bass into to on
"Collegno" becomes framework for Jenkins and Cooper's unisons and
differences. Sirone and Cooper on piano throw lines back and forth.
Jenkins plays at Sirone's pace with color by Cooper, the string players
chopping up their attack like cole slaw.
The Revolutionary Ensemble took the original release pressing of The
Psyche with them on a tour of Europe and sold them all. Thirty years
later, the second pressing is finally mass released in America.
The Revolutionary Ensemble (Leroy Jenkins, violin, viola; Sirone,
bass; Jerome Cooper, drums, piano) is one of the great unsung bands of
the 1970s. They seem to have been forgotten by many but they were on of
that era's most vital bands. Part of the problem was that most of their
recordings were on smaller labels, with the exception of the last two
which were on the A&M distributed Horizon label. The Psyche is
probably the hardest of their recordings to find, so this reissue is
particularly welcome.
The main calling card of this group was Jenkins' fantastic violin and viola work. At the time of his emergence, the instrument had not ha much of a presence in the "free jazz" movement. But after a couple of recordings with Archie Shepp and Rahsaan Rpland Kirk and his work in Paris with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith, he let everyone know what his instrument could do. But the group was so much more than Jenkins. Sirone's bass was a mighty instrument, as capable of low menacing grumbles as well as high howling shrieks. Jerome Cooper's rolling polyrhythms provided a multi-directional bed that shot the music off in a variety of directions. Additionally Cooper was a master colorist with a variety of smaller instruments that added to the group texture.
The Psyche was the group's third album (after Vietnam on ESP and the
great Manhattan Cycles done for India Navigation.) This was also the
only album released on their own label (RE). The program consists of
three compositions: "invasion" by Cooper, "Hu-Man" by Sirone, and
"Collegno" by Jenkins. "Invasion" took up all of side one and was a
suite of sorts. It began with a low bass drone, with Jenkins hovering
above and Cooper coloring with cymbal splashes. When they kick into
gear, Sirone shifts to a running bass line, Cooper lays down a steady
ride cymbal rhythm and Jenkins is off. This was a group of three
musicians who knew each other well and they knew how to support and prod
each other. And it was never just two musicians supporting Jenkins.
This was an ensemble of equals and each shone in his role. "Invasion" is
a lengthy piece and its only lull us during a meandering interlude
where Cooper switches to piano for a duet section with Sirone. The piece
ends mid-drum solo which is picked up at the beginning of "Hu-Man." And
therein lies the main complaint about this disc. On LP, one had to get
up and flip it over to continue, but here the two should have been
merged into a seamless whole. Even if they hadn't used the master tapes
for this issue (and the sound is quite good), surely with today's
sophisticated technology, something could have been done. As it is, it
was a missed opportunity and the flow of the piece is destroyed. That
said, "Hu-Man" is as straight ahead as the band got (at this time) and
there's a swinging, driving solo by Jenkins on this piece. Jenkins'
"Collegno" is driven by a bassline that involves Sirone tapping his line
out with the bow while Jenkins and Cooper etch out the delicate theme
on violin and piano.
This is not my favorite Revolutionary Ensemble album. My vote would
go to either People's Republic or Manhattan Cycles. But since neither of
these recordings has been reissued on CD, this definitely one to pick
up.
In 1972 the Revolutionary Ensemble registered their presence with
recordings on the cutting edge ESP and India Navigation labels. Four
years later, the trio's music attained a degree of high profile exposure
when The People's Republic was issued on A&M's enterprising Horizon
label. Prior to this, in 1975, violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone
(Norris Jones) and drummer Jerome Cooper had taken matters into their
own hands, releasing The Psyche in limited numbers under their own RE
imprint. At last its three tracks - Cooper's "Invasion", Sirone's
"Hu-Man", Jenkins's "Col Legno" - can be heard more widely.
Sirone had previously played with the incendiary spirits of New York's free jazz scene - saxophonists Noah Howard, Arthur Doyle and Pharoah Sanders, guitarist Sonny Sharrock and drummer Sunny Murray. He was also entering a fruitful phase with pianist Cecil Taylor. But the expanded conceptions brought out of Chicago by Jenkins and Cooper enabled him to explore, within the maverick chamber music of the Revolutionary Ensemble, other dynamics, different textures, moods and relationships between instrumental voices.
Jenkins has an incisive tone, coiling fluently around and out from
thematic cells. But although his looping line tends to disclose with
great clarity the figure latent in the music's field, the group resist
establishing a hierarchy of voices. Each member is allowed solo space
and duets occur. Sirone's double bass and Cooper, occasionally on piano
as well as drums, can drive with force but their input is thoroughly,
spontaneously compositional rather than supportive and secondary. Their
weight and density are articulate. As The Psyche cofirms, the poise of
the energetic interplay between all three made the Revolutionary
Ensemble special.
Norris Jones aka Sirone / Sept 28, 1940 - Oct 21, 2009
Born on this day was the great improvising bassist Sirone, who brought a highly intuitive, yet bluesy improvisational presence to the scene and contributing to several genre-defining classics of the '60s & '70s, not the least of which was his work with the collective Revolutionary Ensemble.
From Atlanta, the former Norris Jones took up the trombone as a kid before moving to bass at 17. He started playing locally in the late '50s in a group with saxophonist George Adams. He was a sideman at sessions for Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson and other R&B artists.
In '65 he moved to NYC and started immediately working with Dave Burrell. The late '60s found him playing with many of the most exciting artists in NYC--Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Jackie McLean, Gato Barbieri, Marion Brown, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard. He was on Sonny Sharrock's raging Black Woman.
In '71 he started the awesome Revolutionary Ensemble, a violin/bass/percussion trio that combined free-jazz, avant-classical and various folk themes. The group lasted for much of the '70s and returned in 2004. The '70s also found him working with Andrew Cyrille, Jazz Composers Orchestra, Clifford Thornton, Roswell Rudd, Dewey Redman's great Impulse! albums and the AWESOME Cecil Taylor Unit.
Living in Berlin starting in the late '70s, he retained a presence in NYC and continued working non-stop, putting in time with folks like Billy Bang, Walt Dickerson, Charles Gayle, Ben Abarbanel-Wolff, Zusaan Kali-Fasteau, William Parker, Oluyemi Thomas and the underrated group Phalanx (with James "Blood" Ulmer, Rashied Ali and Adams). He also collaborated with theater ensembles and was a Buddhist.
Leroy Jenkins
Renowned violinist
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Augusta Savage Gallery 7:00 pm
Leroy Jenkins has been a pioneer and influential figure in the world of
improvised music for over three decades. He began his violin training
as a child, received a B.S. in Music Education from Florida A&M
University in 1961, and then taught music in the schools of Alabama and
Chicago. Having studied classical violin, he was also influenced by the
great jazz masters, and found a way to meld the two influences when he
joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a
pivotal Chicago organization which originated a vibrant new form of
creative improvised music. Moving to Paris in 1969, Jenkins toured
Europe with his first group: The Creative Construction Company of
Chicago, with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1970, he came to New
York and formed another cooperative, The Revolutionary Ensemble, a trio
of bass, violin, and drums, which toured internationally to critical
acclaim, and went on to record five albums. He also developed his solo
compositions and premiered his first works in this format at a concert
at the Washington Square Peace Church in Greenwich Village. In the ‘70s
and ‘80s Jenkins received major support for music composition with many
grants and commissions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, and
theater - from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation
for the Arts and the New York State Council for the Arts. During this
period, in addition to touring as a soloist and with various
instrumental groups under his leadership, his music was performed by the
Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber
Symphony, the Kronos Quartet, the Dessoff Choirs, the Pittsburgh New
Music Ensemble, and the New Music Consort, among others. Jenkins also
toured and held residencies at many American universities including
Oberlin, Bennington, Harvard, Brown, University of Michigan, Williams,
and Duke. He was invited to be guest composer/ master teacher/performer
at organizations such as the Della Rosa of Portland,Tom Buckner's
Interpretations series in New York, the American Composers series at the
Kennedy Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Atlanta
Virtuoso, and the First American Violin Congress (Artistic Director: Sir
Yehudi Menuhin) Jenkins serves on the Board of Directors of Meet the
Composer in New York and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and as
Artistic Director and Board Member of Composers" Forum. He has sat on
many panels for music including the National Endowment, the Herb Alpert
Foundation, The Bush Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, New York
Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts. He
placed numerous times in critics" and readers" polls in Downbeat and
Jazz Magazine. In 1989 Jenkins was commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for
the Munich Bienale New Music Theater Festival to write the
opera/ballet, Mother Of Three Sons, choreographed and directed by Bill
T. Jones. It premiered in Munich and was later staged by the New York
City Opera, the Houston Opera, and was broadcast on German television.
He received a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) “for the
lyrical, intricately constructed river of jazz and opera". In groupings
from solo to chamber orchestras, Jenkins has recorded 25 albums/ CD's,
nine of which have been reissued. His most recent touring group was
formed in 1999 (Equal Interest, a trio with violin, piano, and
woodwinds). The British Arts Council commissioned its members to write
pieces for the group and nine British musicians which were performed on a
ten city tour of England. Jenkins also tours with dancer Felicia Norton
(solo violin and dancer) and was commissioned twice by Lincoln Center's
Out of Doors Series for collaborations with choreographers Molissa
Fenley and Mark Dendy. Other recent projects have been a commissioned
piece for tenor, baritone, and brass quartet which was performed at
Merkin Hall as part of the World Music series in New York, in San
Francisco and at North Florida State University. In 1998, the Cleveland
Chamber Symphony performed and recorded Wonderlust, his piece for
chamber orchestra and two soloists. During the spring semester of 2001
Jenkins was been at the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco,
California Institute for the Arts, the Contemporary Museum in New
Orleans, the Chicago Jazz Festival, as well as international jazz
festivals in Portugal, Sardinia, and Canada. In the late 90's Jenkins
was commissioned to write several music/theater pieces with grants
frArtist in Residence at California Institute for the Arts. Most recent
appearances have om the Rockefeller Foundation. Fresh Faust used rap
artists and was presented in workshop at the Institute of Creative Arts
in Boston. The Negro Burial Ground, a cantata, was presented in workshop
at the Kitchen Center in New York. A later work, The Three Willies
(2001) was presented at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia and at the
Kitchen Center. Currently, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation
and the New York State Council of the Arts Jenkins is developing a new
theater/opera piece with a working title of Coincidents. The first
section was presented in workshops at The Kitchen Center in July, 2003.
In the fall of 2003 he was awarded a composition grant from Harvard's
Fromm Foundation to continue this project. In 2004 he was again
supported in his work on Coincidents with a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is
currently touring with the Revolutionary Ensemble and Equal Interest.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/vietnam-revolutionary-ensemble-esp-disk-review-by-raul-dgama-rose
Revolutionary Ensemble: Vietnam
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This extraordinary, album-length composition by percussionist Jerome Cooper, bassist Sirone and violinist Leroy Jenkins would have likely passed like a ship in the night, had it not been for the fact the recording has been rereleased by ESP-Disk. It is hard to imagine why it was not first greeted with more fanfare upon its original release, but perhaps the world of art was much crueler towards modern musicians. The music on Vietnam rises like a primordial wail and growl from the guts of Jenkins' violin and Sirone's bass.
These pure screams echo the war bugle and groans of men and women at war. The ululation of strings mimics the chilling whine and drone of air-raid death. Cooper's furious playing, punctuated by brash splashes and judicious "pings" on the cymbals—especially in the first part of the composition— brings the "rat-a-tat" of small arms fire to life. While the violin invokes the spirits of the victims, the bass recreates the aggressor, and the percussion makes for a nightmarish historical backdrop.
The musicians' sense of history is acute. Essentially, this is an interpolated blues composition, with a timely reminder of other American musical traditions. For instance, Jenkins often brings Cajun accents to bear in his fiery bowing. Sirone's mournful pedal point provides powerful contrapuntal coloration. The language of the strings is somber yet beautiful, and the tone is always questioning in both sections of the piece.
Vietnam is a staggering composition; an epic lament of two peoples and the world at war. If it was not recognized as a major contribution in 1971, that fact ought to be reconsidered today. Although not orchestral in rendering, the composition is evocative of Mahler's glorious Ninth Symphony.
Track Listing
Vietnam 1; Vietnam 2.
Personnel
Leroy Jenkins: violin; Jerome Cooper: percussion; Sirone: bass.
Album information
Title: Vietnam | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: ESP Disk
https://pirecordings.com/artists/group-revolutionary-ensemble/Revolutionary Ensemble
When the Revolutionary Ensemble formed in
the early 70s, the New Thing in jazz, disbursed mainly through the ESP
label, had flamed brightly, been co-opted by political influences and
developed into a more violent strain of free improvisation, a move from
which it has yet to recover. What was happening concurrently was a total
acceptance of any instrument into the jazz fold. Beneficiary of this
benevolence was Leroy Jenkins, heir to the heritage of
Stuff Smith but also the first to apply the dulcet tones of violin to a
more experimental setting (at least in jazz).
After work with Archie Shepp and Alan Silva, and as a member of the woefully short-lived Creative Construction Company, Jenkins hooked up with bassist Sirone (born Norris Jones, who had been with Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, Gato Barbieri and others) and younger drummer Jerome Cooper (fresh from Rahsaan Roland Kirks group). They formed the Revolutionary Ensemble and began working on chamber jazz. The Revolutionary Ensemble was first recorded in 1972. And Now… (Pi) is the ensembles first recording since the 1970s.
https://burningambulance.com/2022/04/08/sirone/
The People's Republic Review
by Rob Ferrier
AllMusic
This record has a fearsome reputation that is completely undeserved. On the contrary, while the sound of strings seems strange to a jazz-trained ear, the music these people make on this record is beautiful, fragile, and -- considering that it's all completely improvised -- astonishingly tight as well. These men played together for a long time, not for tangible reward, but for themselves and whoever cared to listen. This is definitely a different record, and what happens here might not even be called jazz, but the salient quality of the music is beauty, not the ferociousness one might expect. This is highly recommended, if only for the inclusion of Sirone's bass playing, a voice that should have been recorded more often.
The People's Republic Album Information
Release Date
1975Recording Date:
Track Listing:
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Revolutionary Ensemble | ||||
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Revolutionary Ensemble |
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Revolutionary Ensemble | ||||
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Revolutionary Ensemble | ||||
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| Revolutionary Ensemble |
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