In Paris, Aries 1973
Live album by
Black Artists Group
Released1973
Recorded1973
VenueParis
GenreFree jazz
LabelAguirre Records

In Paris, Aries 1973 is a live album by the Black Artists Group, featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw.[1] The album was recorded in 1973 in Paris, and was initially self-released in very limited quantities.[2] It was reissued in 2011 in a limited edition of 500 LPs by Rank and File Records,[3] and was remastered and reissued on LP by Aguirre Records in 2018, with extensive liner notes by Julian Cowley, again in a limited edition of 500 copies.[1]

In Paris, Aries 1973 is the only album ever issued under the BAG name.[4] The group had traveled to Paris at the recommendation of Lester Bowie, and used the Art Ensemble of Chicago's agent upon arrival.[5] The zodiac reference in the album title is a tribute to bassist and group member Kada Kayan, to whom the album is dedicated, and who fell ill and died before the group left for Paris.[1][5][6]

Reception

Elliott Sharp included the album in a Village Voice article titled "Ten Free Jazz Albums to Hear Before You Die," describing it as a "gem."[7]

Writer Greg Tate stated that, while listening to the album, he found himself "returned to a state of analogue innocence and freedom jazz paradise regained," and wrote that he treasured "the audible intimacy of the setting."[8] He praised "the spirited generosity and affability that can be heard going on between the members... how conversational, elated, and relaxed the group sounds unleashing all that artillery."[6] He concluded: "In Paris is a welcome addition to a small and brilliant canon of mature, atmospheric album-length freedom jazz works... by a pan-idiomatic and boundary-free hive mind of spiritually connected virtuosi."[6]

In an article for Fact Magazine, Jon Dale wrote: "it's a scorching set, moving from relatively denuded passages for multiple percussion and snake-charming sax, through to more reflective, intimate improvisations."[9]

Regarding "Something to Play On," author Max Brzezinski commented that it "creates a cacophony of rhythm out of pieces of metal and found percussion–it, like the best of the free jazz, is more spirited, even aggressively so, than the 'spiritual' tag might suggest."[10]

Bill Shoemaker, writing for Point of Departure, noted that, even during "flat out" sections, the musicians "avoid trampling over each other or creating a muddy mass of sound." Regarding their visit to Paris, he commented: "Given the quality of In Paris, Aries 1973, it is clear they arrived ready."[11]

Thurston Moore included the recording in his "Top Ten from the Free Jazz Underground" list (first published in 1995 in the second issue of the defunct Grand Royal Magazine), writing: "This is squeaky, spindly stuff and very OPEN and a good indication of what was happening in the early 70's."[12]

Track listing

Track timings not provided.

Side one

  1. "Echos" (Carroll, Shaw, Le Flore, Bowie, Lake)
  2. "Something to Play On" (Shaw)

Side two

  1. "Re-Cre-A-Tion" (Lake)
  2. "OLCSJBFLBC Bag" (BAG)

Personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Black Artists Group – In Paris, Aries 1973 LP". Aguirre Records. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  2. ↑ Owsley, Dennis (2006). City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973. Reedy Press. p. 184.
  3. ↑ "Black Artists Group: In Paris, Aries 1973". HHV. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  4. ↑ Looker, Benjamin (2004). Point From Which Creation Begins: The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis. Missouri Historical Society Press. p. 201.
  5. 1 2 Bruyninckx, Joeri (November 19, 2018). "Black Artists Group". It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Tate, Greg (2016). Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader. Duke University Press. p. 54.
  7. ↑ Sharp, Elliott (November 15, 2012). "Ten Free Jazz Albums to Hear Before You Die". The Village Voice. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  8. ↑ Tate, Greg (2016). Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader. Duke University Press. p. 53.
  9. ↑ Dale, Jon (March 11, 2015). "Where free jazz went next: 20 essential records from the 70s underground". Fact Magazine. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  10. ↑ Brzezinski, Max (2020). Vinyl Age: A Guide to Record Collecting Now. Running Press.
  11. ↑ Shoemaker, Bill (January 2006). "The Circle with a Hole in the Middle: Rare Vinyl Revisited". Point of Departure. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  12. ↑ Moore, Thurston (August 4, 2009). "Thurston Moore's Top Ten Free Jazz Underground". Root Strata. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
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