Xenakis state of mind: what a trip

Blow your minds, dear marlbank readers, Steve 'spectral' Lehman at it again, quite brilliantly as it happens, that is obvious.

''More from the saxophonist-composer, describing his new project: ''Xenakis and the Valedictorian was recorded in the passenger seat of my 2011 Honda CR-V, from March 25 to April 15, 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States. In the midst of homeschooling my two young children and remote teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, I set aside one hour everyday to work on solo saxophone repertoire. I recorded each practice session. And as it dawned on me that I would be unable to be with my mom, Sheila Lehman, on her 80th birthday (April 25, 2020) I decided to compile a concise EP of my practice sessions and present it to her for the occasion.

''Throughout my childhood, my mother introduced me to an incredibly wide array of musicians and musical styles, including Cecil Taylor, B.B. King, Meredith Monk, McCoy Tyner, Koko Taylor, Milt Hinton, Morton Feldman, Betty Carter, The Sugarhill Gang, The Emerson String Quartet, and saxophonists Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton. For my 10th birthday, we threw a haunted house themed party in our attic, and my mom chose Iannis Xenakis's 1962 composition "Bohor" as the accompanying music.

''The ten tracks presented here were recorded with a 1973 Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone and a 2016 iPhone SE. There is no effects processing or editing of any kind. 100% percent of the revenue for this album will be used to support freelance musicians adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.''

Steve Lehman photo: Pi

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Very sad to hear of the passing of yet another significant jazz musician with the news of the death of bassist Henry Grimes who has died due to coronavirus aged 84 in Harlem. Henry's wife, Margaret confirmed his passing to the Jazz Foundation of America, according to WBGO.

Grimes played with a who's who of jazz greats in the 1960s who included Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan and Albert Ayler.

His career in music was never an easy journey and he disappeared from the music scene for decades only emerging in the early-2000s when he was given a new bass by his fellow avantist William Parker and then began to play shows in America and abroad again.

I heard him twice during his comeback years towards the end of his career, in Finland at the Tampere Jazz Happening, and best of all in 2011 at the Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street station in London with Marc Ribot playing the music of Albert Ayler and John Coltrane. Reviewing that concert for Jazzwise I wrote that the spirit of Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, and the blues, were at the forefront of the sound that night.

''A music born of protest, humility, humanity, life itself, as relevant today as yesterday, was being played out just over a mile away from the tents [of Occupy London] protesters at St Paul’s as the cathedral reopened. The Holy Ghost, as Ayler was dubbed, the counterpart of Trane as Father, was being invoked. As for the Son (an absent Pharoah Sanders) who knows? As for Henry Grimes, who played and recorded with Ayler, he was at the centre of everything the trio did, while Chad Taylor’s excellent multi-directional drumming summoned up the style of the much missed Rashied Ali, who Grimes performed with not long before Ali’s death two years earlier. Grimes, it was not unfair to Ribot, carried the gig, presiding over every shift, subtle, obvious, rhythmic, conceptual, or otherwise. Mobile, fast impressive ideas worn big and to fit, the years melted away and a music was reborn without sounding dated at all. Trane’s ‘Sun Ship’ near the end was unbelievably potent and earlier what sounded like ‘Truth Is Marching In’ was another highlight.''

Grimes played his truth. That was what made him significant and inspirational. He will be missed. SG

Xenakis state of mind: what a trip

Avant icon Henry Grimes has died