Friday, March 2, 2012

"FIRST ANCESTOR" TRACKS W/BARRY BRAILSFORD SPOKEN-WORD

Here are three tracks from my 2002 cd "First Ancestor". Inspiration from Barry Brailsford supplied the title...it's what the Waitaha called rock..."the body of the Earth." The spoken word is from the "Standing Tall in the Real World" volume of his Wisdom Walking series.

Each of these links should allow you to both listen and down-load the tracks.

1) "Walking in Beauty"

The opening track from a jam we did in Christchurch in May of 2002 at Duke Dixon's studio near Oxford, which became the "First Ancestor" cd. Ian McAllister, who co-engineered and produced, had recommended Dukes because he had the nicest grand piano, a 100+ year old Steinway grand, and around $50,000 worth of mikes. I invited sax player and vocalist Carmel Courtney (formerly of Hampster), and drummer Redford Grennel (formerly of Shapeshifter); none of us had ever played together before. Later I added in the simple bass part (in later tracks James Wilkinson put in some 6-string fretless) and some spoken word by south island metaphysician Barry Brailsford. The phrase "walking in beauty" is an English translation of a Hopi word I once knew but cannot remember...but to have one word that meant that is very cool eh?



2) "SONG OF WAITAHA"

This track opens with gentle piano arpeggios that make me think of a Celtic Cat Stevens. Barry's spoken word, from his Wisdom Walking series, 'Standing Tall in the Real World", takes us on a journey into the world-view of the ancient indigenous people of the south island. "The real world is immense..."



3) "RETURN TO AOTEAROALON JAM (SEP TEPI PRE-MIX)"

This is the last track of the "First Ancestor" cd...it's a 16 minute recapitulation of the whole previous jam. At around the 14 minute mark, after James Wilkinson's freaky bass glissando, it takes a turn for deep space...and ends up with time-stretched humpback whale sounds! check it out...("Sep Tepi" is the original world in the ancient history of the Egyptians...the "golden age" or "garden of Eden"...)

"We stand at the greatest cross-roads reached by human kind." Barry Brailsford



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