Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble: Proverbs of Sam

356

Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble: Proverbs of Sam

By

View read count
Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble: Proverbs of Sam
Master of semi-exotic Eastern double-reed instruments, Bill Coleman has spent most of his professional life as an academic. Criminally under-recorded, when Seasoning the Greens, a 2001 concert of his Untempered Ensemble was released in 2002, fans of freely improvised worldbeat jazz only had to wait one year. So the question raised by Proverbs of Sam is: what took so long? Featuring the three long improvisations that comprised the Ensemble's set at the Vision Festival in June of 2001 and a fourth track from the concert that gave us Seasoning the Greens, it is dedicated to the memory of the late Sam Furnace who passed away in 2003.

Where Greens offered a global tour of rhythms, Proverbs plays more like a Best of Sam Furnace, with the African-centric beats remaining fairly consistent while Furnace's solos jump from the speakers. In addition to his buzzing sona (China), shenai and nagaswaram (India), Cole blows Ghanaian flute and didgeridoo while Furnace is featured on alto and Joseph Daley patrols the bottom on baritone, trombone and tuba. From time to time the three hornmen clash as their lines overlap but their hyperactivity serves as counterpoint to the pulsating rocksteady rhythms of drummer Warren Smith and percussionist Atticus Cole. Bassist William Parker links both halves together and, as a fringe benefit, Cooper-Moore whacks his diddley bow. Proverbs for Sam is a fitting tribute and carries a spiritual weight not found in most run-of-the-mill world music projects.

Track Listing

Don't Wait for the Day of Battle Before Getting Your Weapons Ready; If a Blacksmith Continues to Strike an Iron at One Point, He Must Have a Reason; The Drum Sounding a Message in War Is Beaten in a Cryptic Manner, Only Wise Men Can Dance to It, and Only Experienced Men Can Understand It; No One Knows the Paths in a Garden Better Than the Gardener, a Follower Should Always Allow His Guide to Lead.

Personnel

Bill Coleman
trumpet

Bill Cole: sona, digeridoo, shenai, flute, nagaswaram; Sam Furnace: alto saxophone, flute; Joseph Daley: baritone horn, tuba, trombone; William Parker: bass; Warrren Smith: drums and percussion, voice, whistle; Cooper-Moore: diddley bow, rim drums, flute, voice; Atticus Cole: percussion.

Album information

Title: Proverbs of Sam | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Boxholder 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.

Near

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.