Atlanta's misfits Hampton Grease Band, fronted by guitarist Glenn Philips and former Four Of Nine's vocalist Bruce Hampton, recorded the
double-LP album Music To Eat (Columbia, 1971 - Legacy, 2002), on which
they attempted a bold fusion of the idioms of
Absolutely Free (Frank Zappa), Trout Mask Replica (Captain Beefheart)
and Eat A Peach (Allman Brothers).
Their manifesto was the side-long 19-minute Halifax that opened the
double LP. Boasting amateurish vocals that blended the hysterical tone of
Wild Man Fischer, the psychotic tone of
Captain Beefheart and the emphatic/clownish
tone of Frank Zappa,
the band transitioned from a blues-rock section to a theatrical
operetta-style section to an effervescent jazzy jam (via tinkling vibrahone
and grotesque Zappa-style tempo and melody shifts) only to return to a
slow-burning blues section that again rolled into a comic Zappa-esque section.
After countless metamorphoses, they finally capped the suite with a catchy
pop melody.
The second side of the first LP, after the satirical vaudeville skit of
Maria, was dominated by another 19-minute juggernaut, Six,
also a collage of styles, from Brecht-ian declamation to boiling soul-rock
to abstract jamming to square dancing.
The 12-minute Evans, the first track of the second LP, ran the
gamut from frantic rhythm'n'blues to cacophony and silence, ending in a
canonical psychedelic freak-out.
Abstract noises populated the seven-minute Lawton, a mixture of
Chicago's creative jazz, Jimi Hendrix's 1983 and Amon Duul's Phallus Dei.
After aping Little Richard in the wild Hey Old Lady / Bert's Song, the album
ended with another lengthy excursion into the avantgarde,
the 20-minute four-movement suite Hendon, peppered with
dissonant swing music, shouted recitation over loose jamming, and dissonant
group improvisation that escalates to gargantuan proportions.
The three lengthy pieces ranked among the most visionary pieces of music
of the 1960s. In a sense, this album marked the end of the 1960s and summarized
its innovations.
They quickly disappeared from the recording studios.
However, at the end of the decade Hampton was given another chance and
managed to record two more albums:
One Ruined Life (Pine Tree, 1978) and Skin Deep Yeah (Jonathan
David Earle).
During the 1980s Hampton played with New Ice Age and then with
Late Bronze Age, groups that released
Outside Looking Out (Landslide, 1980), Route Two
and Isles Of Langerhan.
Then the self-appointed colonel Hampton released
Arkansas (Landslide, 1987) and formed the Arkansas Travelers.
The "colonel" returned in 1992, fronting the Aquarium Rescue Unit,
a septet of southern freaks featuring Chuck Leavell on keyboards, two
percussionists (Larry Jones, aka Count Mbutu, and Jeff Sipe, aka Apt Q258),
ferocious
bassist Oteil Burbridge, logorrhoic guitarist Jimmy Herring and devilish
mandolin player Matt Mundy.
The self-titled live album harked back to the age of live jams.
The sound was still permeated by the same
oblique and cosmic blend of all the musical lingos of the South
(blues, jazz, rock, country, gospel, funk),
and still marked by a sardonic hippie spirit.
The combo devastated classics of all ages with the domestic nonchalance
that was of the Allman Brothers Band: teerrific melodic progressions,
breathtaking guitar phrases, acrobatic solos and duets,
and, towering over everything else, the raspy, shrill and very "black" vocals
of colonel Hampton.
The album peaked with Quinius Thoth, a suite that crossed Sun Ra and
Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Mirrors Of Embarrassment (1993) continued to promote the revival of
the southern jam. However, this time the combo remained more faithful
to the song format, despite ornating with mesmerizing group improvisations
the funky theme song of No Ego`s Under Water,
the jazzy Shoeless Joe and Payday, the western-swing numbers
Lost My Mule In Texas and Swing.
By their standards, it was old-fashioned music.
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Ai tempi passo` per lo piu` inosservato
l'album doppio della Hampton Grease Band, Music To Eat (Columbia, 1971 -
Legacy - 2002),
che deliberatamente tentava di assorbire e fondere gli idiomi di tre capolavori
come Ummagumma (Pink Floyd), Trout Mask Replica (Captain Beefheart) e
Eat A Peach (Allman Brothers). A guidare quel branco di reietti di Atlanta
erano il chitarrista Glenn Philips e il cantante Bruce Hampton,
quest'ultimo gia` titolare
dei Four Of Nine (un sestetto).
Jam come Halifax fanno invidia anche a Zappa.
Sparirono rapidamente dalla scena,
ma alla fine del decennio Hampton ebbe ancora l'occasione di registrare due
album: One Ruined Life (Pine Tree) nel 1978 e Skin Deep Yeah (Jonathan
David Earle). Negli anni Ottanta Hampton vivacchio` con i New Ice Age e poi
con i Late Bronze Age, dei
quali uscirono a partire dal 1980 Outside Looking Out (Landslide), Route Two
e Isles Of Langerhan. Nel 1987, infine, Hampton, auto-nominatosi colonnello,
pubblico` Arkansas (Landslide) e diede vita agli Arkansas Travelers.
Il "colonnello" e` tornato alla ribalta nel 1992 con la Aquarium Rescue Unit,
un settetto un po' "freak" che annovera Chuck Leavell alle tastiere, due
percussionisti (Larry Jones, alias Count Mbutu, e Jeff Sipe, alias Apt Q258), il
truce bassista Oteil Burbridge, il chitarrista logorroico Jimmy Herring e il diabolico
mandolinista Matt Mundy.
Il disco omonimo registrato dal vivo (per la Capricorn) e` uno di quelli che
riporta in auge le jam improvvisate.
Il sound e` rimasto quella stratosferica e sgangheratissima
miscela di tutti i verbi del sud (blues, jazz, rock, country, gospel, funk),
ancora intrisa di sardonico spirito hippie.
Il combo scorrazza fra classici di tutte le epoche con la stessa naturalezza
domestica che fu il marchio di fabbrica della Allman Brothers Band: grandi
progressioni melodiche, attacchi mozzafiato delle chitarre, assoli e duetti
acrobatici, e su tutto i vocalizzi "nerissimi", rauchi e sgolati, di Hampton.
Swingante alla grande dall'inizio alla fine, l'album tocca forse l'apice di
genialita` e sregolatezza in Quinius Thoth, a meta` strada fra Sun Ra e
il Zappa di Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Il nuovo album in studio del 1993, Mirrors Of Embarrassment, lo conferma alla
testa del movimento di rivalutazione della jam sudista. Il combo si attiene
comunque alla forma della canzone popolare, infiorettando di magistrali
improvvisazioni collettive la sigla funky di No Ego`s Under Water,
le jazzate Shoeless Joe e Payday, il western swing di Lost My Mule In
Texas e Swing.
Musica d'altri tempi, che, paradossalmente, risulta attuale adesso ma non lo
era ai suoi tempi.
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