Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » KLiP Trio: Herman Sonny Blount (Omniversal Ambassador)

242

KLiP Trio: Herman Sonny Blount (Omniversal Ambassador)

KLiP Trio: Herman Sonny Blount (Omniversal Ambassador)
Recorded live between 1998-1999 at the Charles Ives Hall and Warren Auditorium in Rohnert Park, CA., KLiP Trio used live to two-track, all-tube analogue equipment and fittingly, produced it in vinyl format. Sure enough, that grand old analogue luster proves to be an asset on this homage to the late bandleader and "Omniversal Ambassador," Herman Sonny Blount, aka Sun Ra.

The musicians collectively use oddball implements, including singing bowls, whirly tubes, a soprano musical saw and other uncommon contrivances to supplement electronics, keys and prepared tapes. This premium vinyl pressing captures the venue space, where the trio enacts a bizarre, avant-garde format, complete with airy and edgy patterns, morphed with fluid noise-shaping maneuvers.

It's an acoustic-electric gala that spans imagery of a hazy dream amid semblances of disorientated cartoon characters, shimmying along to free jazz movements and harrowing effects. The artists also inject birdcalls, fuzz-toned keyboard phrasings and frantic dialogues while hearkening catastrophic notions and a haunting pace trek during "Your Shades and Beret." On this piece, special guest and tenor saxophonist Josh Allen adds to the excitement as the unit switches gears with the piece "Nothing Like A Samba," which is designed upon windswept electronics and a straightforward synth melody.

The trio uses guerilla tactics to contrast some free-form ethereal moments amid the heated avant-jazz schema. Sure enough, Blount would be proud of this trio's acceleration of the cosmologic jazz factor into previously unexplored galaxies of our respective psyches. Here, the musicians' shifty imaginations and broad vernaculars impart a mélange of cunning propositions.

Track Listing

Side 1: Wehrman (for David Wehrman); Herman Sonny Blount; Everything (for Lisle Ellis and Tony Williams). Side 2: Your Shades and Beret; Nothing like a Samba; Ellis Island.

Personnel

Elliot Kallen: piano, percussion, electronics; John Lauffenburger: bass, electronics; Garth Powell: drums, percussion; John Allen: tenor saxophone (S2#1).

Album information

Title: Herman Sonny Blount (Omniversal Ambassador) | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Edgetone Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.