Oh my aching head...I have spent the previous evening at my associate Dr. Sulkow's home. He was entertaining his Nephew, Marty. Remarkable young man, and like all youth, he has an ear open for what's new, and also just like youth, knows a reference point but couldn't tell you what the reference was...It seems that all new bands have become either Fleetwood Mac, or Jackson Brown fronting The Eagles...but how have I come to have discomfort of the skull, you may ask? To allow myself to accept the possible blandness of the sonic future, I had imbibed many skillfully made Screwdrivers by Prof. Sulkow. Yes they did help, and were easy going down, but waking up, that's a different process...
It is at times like these that I can turn away from music, and prefer the low key ambiance of the world. But yet, I had this reissue to listen to...what to do...would my condition take president and spoil the mood of discovering something new? With trepidation, I slipped in the CD, and sat back. How glad I was that I did not wait any longer! As the music of The Sound Of Feeling's LP filled the air, I found my mind soothed, but not in a sleepy way. Microtonal singing often sounds like shouting, but the Andrece sisters pull it of in a post Bop performance. The Spleen album never sets on one tone, often parts are in conflict; hip songs of the day are given a jazz treatment. While using the stabbing phrasing of McCoy Tyner's piano, it all still some how mood of calm prevails. The middle eight of "The Time Has Come For Silence" for instance, has shrieking mixed way down. Every track on the album has an off kilter feel, but somehow there is a grace, that in the hands of the merely average would have turned this into either an academic snooze fest, or contrived free jazz.
Even the cover of the LP is a study in contrast; The sisters are photographed with a creepy wide eyed doll stare, only to be complimented by a smaller photo of them holding the hand of Gary David - third voice, and composer. This shot is not unlike the graphics of an "I Love You" Hallmark card.
Included in the reissue on Sunbeam Records is the Sound Of Feelings side of Leonard Feather presents The Sound Of Feeling and the sound of Oliver Nelson (Verve, 1968), and tracks recorded after Spleen. On the Verve album the approach to the music is wilder. Not unlike free jazz at the time, subtlety is not an issue. Start blowing from the top and everyone else will catch up. It is the last few tracks that the Spleen album takes embryonic shape. Some studio treatment, and what sounds like a Koto creeps in.
As for the music recorded in 1971, a more contemporary sound is approached. While anything adding this groups small cannon is welcome, it was obvious that it was over. Not exactly comfortable using rock, jazz was dead again for the second time, and Limelight's history of almost everyone on the label record only one record were all nails in the coffin.
Please click on the review title for sample track: Hex
Posts
