Airto Moreira & The Gods Of Jazz - Killer Bees (1993)

Stanley Clarke, Chic Corea, Herbie Hancock, Flora Purim, Mark Egan y Gary Meek acompañan a Airto en otro pedazo de disco. Sin palabras.

Artista: Airto Moreira & The Gods Of Jazz

Álbum: Killer Bees
Año: 1993
Género: Jazz fusión, Latin jazz, Funk, Soul
Duración: 50:08
Nacionalidad: Brasil / EEUU

Lista de Temas:
1. Banana Jam
2. Be There
3. Killer Bees
4. City Sushi Man
5. See Ya Later
6. Nevermind
7. Communion
8. Nasty Moves
9. Chicken In The Mind

Alineación:
- Airto Moreira / Drums, percussion, vocals
- Stanley Clarke / Acoustic bass, electric bass
- Chic Corea / Acoustic piano, electronic keyboards
- Mark Egan / Electric, fretless bass
- Herbie Hancock / Acoustic piano, electronic keyboards
- Gary Meek / Tenor, soprano saxophones
- Flora Purim / Vocals

Un disco con una aglutinación de músicos increíbles que se juntan para improvisar y grabar las mejores momentos de la tocada. Esto es lo que sucede cuando Airto Moreira se junta con Stanley Clarke, Chic Corea, Herbie Hancock, Flora Purim y otros grandes.
Algunos comentarios en inglés por si les interesa:

In November of 1989, after ten years of California living, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira felt the need to get back in touch with the free-music roots he established two decades earlier in New York City. A spate of slumberous L.A. studio sessions, in combination with a tired scene in his adoptive hometown of Santa Barbara, was beginning to take its toll on the creative percussionist. New York of the late 1960s bustled with musical vibrancy for Moreira. All night jam sessions with the likes of Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jan Hammer, Stanley Clarke, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Walker Booker were the rule for the artist. On occasion, even such heavyweight legends as Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Buster Williams, and Thelonious Monk would sit in. In an effort to shake off L.A. studio stupor and re-create the wonder days of impromptu dream team sessions, he invited long time jazz comrades Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Mark Egan, and Stanley Clarke to record improvised music with him in a local Santa Barbara studio. Jumping at the opportunity to play with their friends for the sake of playing, these musicians ended up producing the Killer Bees CD. Peppered with subtle overdubs by vocalist Flora Purim, saxophonist Gary Meek, and guitarist Hiram Bullock, Killer Bees is a set of nine tracks characterized by the sense of spontaneity and adventurousness that Airto intended to revisit. From the opening "Banana Jam," a track in which Moreira, Corea, and Egan experiment with sounds in an improvised section that eventually crescendos into a powerful bass and piano ostinato, to the concluding "Chicken on the Mind," a whimsical track that builds on the sounds of a barking dog and the cackles of Corea, this CD captures superb studio musicians playing out on a limb. If you are looking for the precise articulation of rigid song structures, then this CD may leave you feeling a bit unsatisfied. On the other hand, if you enjoy listening to evolving and amorphous forms full of mercurially virtuosic content, then Killer Bees will make you yearn for more projects that recreate Moreira's free-jazz jams of yore.

John Vallier

There is no way in the world that the God-like names featured could be gathered together on one album. No way, that is unless your name is Airto Moreira. So how did 'Killer Bees' come into being? Airto saw an opportunity to return to his jazz roots and explore some freeform playing ideas that had been kicking around for a while and called on old friends like Chick Corea, Mark Egan, Herbie Hancock and Stanley Clarke to come down to Santa Barbara and jam.
Membership of some of the hottest jazz combinations of all time makes ringing up old friends a creative process in itself and Airto had little trouble persuading his friends Chick Corea, Mark Egan, Herbie Hancock and Stanley Clarke to come down to Santa Barbara and jam. Used to playing within closely defined parameters on other people's projects the musicians were delighted to find that Airto didn't have parts written for them.
This album is the beautiful result. Musicians with outstanding pedigrees encouraged to play exactly the way they felt, sparring and playing off one another, experimenting with sound, yet retaining complete control over harmony and dynamics. The instinctive interplay between the musicians creates the deception that months of rehearsal went into creating this penthouse level of spontaneity. But the secret is simply years of playing together in lofts before any of them got famous.
Most tracks are first or second takes with additional tracks overdubbed. Hiram Bullock's coruscating guitar work was added later in New York. Fourth World reeds and keyboards maestro Gary Meek came over to California to contribute some wonderful saxophone to the mix. The music on the record ranges from the soulful, uplifting 'Nevermind' and 'Communion' - tracks on which Herbie Hancock spirits achingly beautiful piano playing out of the ether - to tracks like 'Killer Bees' and 'Nasty Moves' which show that rock music doesn't have a monopoly over power and aggression. Chick Corea's masterful electric and acoustic keyboards playing and Stanley Clarke's upright bass playing, his first for many years, help make 'Killer Bees' a milestone in modern jazz and a must for fans of true freeform composition.
Oh yes, the original tapes were turned down by the label who commissioned them. They 'weren't Brazilian enough.' But Airto and Flora's present record label boss, Robert Trunz, on hearing these masters of modern jazz playing exactly the way they felt, sparring and jesting musically with one another, experimenting with sound, yet retaining complete control over harmony and dynamics, dismissed the 'Brazilian' argument and took a world view and thought the world should be able to enjoy this classic album. Here's your chance.
Like a fusion of the best moments of Return to Forever, Weather Report and Miles Davis circa 'Bitches Brew', (ex-bands of collaborators here), 'Killer Bees' shows that jazz in the nineties can still delight, surprise and lead by example. 'Killer Bees' is a buzz.
As befits a recording of this calibre, B&W Music released a special 180gm metal-mastered vinyl collectors' edition. The heavier vinyl format means extra depth and width to the groves to facilitate almost perfect reproduction. The recording engineer, Chris Lewis, himself a great hi-fi lover, has not used any limiters or compressors for this special release, which highlights a dramatic difference over the commercial CD release. The records were manufactured in Germany by Pallas, a specialist hi-fi pressing plant, to strict quality and sound reproduction standards.
The packaging is equally impressive. Each box set is shrink-wrapped and contains nine colour reproductions of the original album artwork, with startlingly original interpretations of the songs created by Sussex-based designer, Gary Edwards, and Airto's own sleeve notes. The record is supplied with an anti-static sleeve and sits on a cushion of polystyrene foam. In all, the vinyl version of 'Killer Bees' is a must for any hi-fi jazz fan.

MELT Music

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