While assessing my favorite albums from 2010, HERE, I gave top nod to Lloyd Miller’s awesome collaboration with The Heliocentrics. My full review of their self-titled disc can be found HERE.
A taste:
Lloyd Miller and The Heliocentrics accomplished what few albums from any year are able to do: they made me shake my head, in both delight and disbelief, and remain awestruck by what fellow human beings, armed only with instruments and their imaginations, are capable of achieving.
I’m not sure who I would recommend it to, but I do believe anyone with a remotely open mind could be quickly convinced. Convinced of what, exactly? That your world was too small without it, for starters. Not unlike the way a great novel or movie or even a new type of cuisine will remind you that there are places and times you were unaware of, and that someone –or something– else can transport you without the use of machines or magic (or even drugs). If, understandably, that sounds a tad too precious, this is music you can put on while you meditate, do yoga, think or have sex. So there’s that.
The Heliocentrics have not wasted any time establishing themselves as an indispensable part of the contemporary avant-garde. In addition to their impressive 2007 release Out There (a nice nod to Eric Dolphy), in 2009 they collaborated with none other than Mulatu Astatke and dropped one of the best releases of that year, Inspiration Information 3.
Do a Google search on Lloyd Miller and you’ll find he’s been around for a long time (we’re talking decades) and been an influential force in jazz and world music. His distinct amalgamation of Persian music, American jazz and a sort of psychedelic far-east vibe (think zither and gongs) is quite unlike anything anyone else has done, although serious fans will hear traces of Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and even Santana (circa Caravanserai). For an amazing –and addictive– overview of what he’s done, check out the very fittingly titled collection A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz. Considering how much music he has made it’s disconcerting how little he seems to have recorded. Let’s hope there are lots of dusty treats in the vaults waiting to see the light of day.
You could sum up the ideas and obsessions that have marked Miller’s career with two words: Spiritual Jazz. Appropriately, he used this title for one of the strongest tracks on his last album. Listen:
Appropriately, and inevitably, a collection (that features Lloyd Miller, of course) entitled Spiritual Jazz dropped in 2009. It is sub-titled “Esoteric, Modal + Deep Jazz From The Underground 1868-77”. Any other questions? It’s definitely a global vibe, with an emphasis on Africa, which makes all the sense in the world –literally and figuratively. If you’re bored by what you’re hearing today, look to the past and broaden your horizons, back-to-the-future style. You’ll find music that makes you want to dance, smile and think. And then, that wonderful moment when you realize: there is a lot more music like this out there, waiting.
Check it out, and listen to samples, HERE.
Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band:
Ndikho Xaba & The Natives:
Mor Thiam:
Unforced and never formulaic, this music manages to be adventurous without descending into pretense or abrasiveness—it is reminiscent of far-away times and places, but ultimately situated comfortably in the here-and-now. Our world is big enough for that, now, and Lloyd Miller has helped make this possible.
