VOTD 1/7/2023

 George Russell & The Living Time Orchestra: The African Game (Blue Note)

Purchased at The Government Center

This has been sitting on me "to do" pile for some time now, and I was wondering why I'd been waiting? Then I remembered, oh yes, the needle was skating on the surface of the record, and I needed to replace it.

Now that I've made that necessary replacement, time to dig into this.

The lineup: more or less a traditional big band, with augmented rhythm section. The names in the credits are largely unfamiliar to me, with the exception of Bruce Barth on keyboards.

I'll confess that I only got a few pages into George Russell's book, Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. I keep meaning to return to it, but then I also think, is it really going to do me any good? Still, one day.

Russell is very good composer. He is especially good at coloration, both instrumentally and harmonically. This session dates to 1985. It sounds to me similar to what composers active in that era were doing, except George was at least a generation older.

The album is defined as having nine "events," which overall maps out the history of the world (?). "Organic Life on Earth Begins," "The Paleolithic Game," "Consciousness," etc.

My complaints with this record have more to do with my own personal tastes and preferences as anything specific criticisms. Russell has expanded a standard-sized big band/stage band. I'm not particularly a fan, and I think fewer players would be been preferable. Like I said, that's me.

Most of the soloists aren't particularly interesting, sounding very studio-ish. Saxophonist Gary Joynes comes closest to blowing some fire into "African Empires" on the second side. But then, there's not a room for blowing here. Times are clearly restricted based on LP length. CD length would have probably suited this project better.

Then there's the era. 1985. The keyboards are thoroughly in that FM synthesis period, and it sounds so dated now. That's sometimes one of the problems and even ironies of using current technologies; it can make your work sound dated. I think of the keyboards, and early digital production on Frank Zappa's 1978-1983 period, and it sounds old and brittle to my ears.