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Le "blend" di Sandy Bull costituiscono una sintesi prodigiosa di idiomi antitetici e una
delle conquiste più durature del folk d'avanguardia. Lontano da Nashville
quanto lo si può essere, Bull non ebbe nulla da spartire con il nascente
movimento country-rock, ma la sua lezione di
individualismo creativo fu fondamentale per aprire nuovi orizzonti al genere che
sarà chiamato "american primitivism".
Il banjoista e chitarrista newyorkese
Sandy Bull comincio` come folksinger alla Woody Guthrie alla fine degli anni
'50 a Boston, dove stava studiando composizione, ma, tornato a New York nel
1961, divenne presto una delle
attrazioni fisse dei club d'avanguardia
(sia folk sia jazz) del Greenwich Village.
In locali come il "Gaslight Cafe", dove suonava fin dal 1961, venne in
contatto con il nascente free-jazz, e ne rimase profondamente influenzato.
Enfant prodige della chitarra e del banjo, studente di jazz e di musica indiana,
nel 1963 Bull incise il suo primo disco,
Fantasias For Guitar & Banjo (Vanguard, 1963),
con il solo accompagnamento del
batterista di Ornette Coleman (Billy Higgins), permettendosi il lusso di una suite di ventidue minuti,
Blend, per chitarra accordata come un banjo e batteria.
Influenzata dal suonatore di oud Hamza El Din, con cui aveva condiviso un
appartamento nel 1963 a Hollywood,
Blend è una sintesi cadenzata di improvvisazioni jazz,
sincopi raga, accordi arabi e melodie folk, un trascinante excursus sonoro che esplora mondi favolosi
filtrati dalla sensibilità di un cantastorie popolare, alternando fasi
lente e trascendenti a jam furibonde.
L'atmosfera e` spesso psichedelica, due anni prima che nascesse la psichedelia.
Fra gli altri brani del disco si distinguono alcuni arrangiamenti
di musica classica per solo banjo o sola chitarra.
A questo capolavoro diede un seguito con Blend II, sul successivo
Inventions For Guitar And Banjo (Vanguard, 1965), registrato nel 1964.
E Pluribus Unum (Vanguard, 1970 -
Sutro Park, 2009), registrato in gran parte nel 1968,
e` il suo disco psichedelico.
Suonato con una chitarra dal suono metallico, secco, ispido, antitetico al
twang di Duan Eddy, il segnale elettrico e` diviso per
quattro amplificatori diversi.
Il disco contiene due lunghe meditazioni:
Electric Blend (una "blend" per chitarra elettrica il cui segnale
è amplificato in quattro modi diversi), suite proiettata da accordi spaziali che continuamente
salgono e scendono, preghiera intensa e soffusa scandita a ritmo di processione dai tamburi indiani, con la
chitarra ad imitare le note nasali del sitar; e No Deposit No Return Blues, jam vibrante per
chitarra, basso, batteria, oud, cimbalo hi-hat, cowbell, che si svolge in un lento ritmato crescendo di
tocchi, di vibrazioni, di contrappunti,di echi, di rumori percussivi.
Demolition Derby (Vanguard, 1972) completa la trilogia dell'epoca d'oro.
Re-Inventions (Vanguard, 1998) raccoglie parte del materiale di quei
primi tre dischi.
La tossico-dipendenza ne distrusse la carriera nel 1972, obbligandolo a
dieci anni di silenzio (durante i quali peraltro imparo` a suonare il
sarod da Ali Akbar Khan) prima di riuscire a incidere altre "blend" su
Jukebox School Of Music (ROM, 1988):
Truth (la reunion con Billy Higgins, dopo un quarto di secolo) e
Continuum For Guitar.
Bull tornera` ancora a incidere con Vehicles (Timeless, 1992),
una raccolta di brani strumentali degni
del suo passato, all'insegna di un
raga-funk per orchestra etnica, accompagnato dal
percussionista senegalese Aiyb Dieng.
Steel Tears (Timeless, 1996) e` un album di "canzoni" che sono in gran
parte dedicate alle sue radici culturali e interpretate da alcuni ospiti.
Still Valentine's Day (Water, 2006) documents a live 1969 performance.
Sandy Bull & The Rhythm Ace documents a live 1976 performance.
Bull died of lung cancer in april 2001.
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Sandy Bull was probably the single most original performer of the early 1960s.
Alas, he was 30-40 years ahead of the rest of rock music, and therefore was
still neglected at the end of the century. While the Merseybeat bands were
flooding the charts with idiotic three-minute ditties,
Bull was already composing 20-minute long raga/jams that belonged
to no known genre. These "blends" marked the first fantastic fusion of eastern
and western music, even before western musicians learned what a sitar was.
Virtually no encyclopedia or history of music mentioned his name, but Sandy
Bull is probably one of the few musicians of the 1960s who will be mentioned
in every encyclopedia and history of music centuries from now.
The musical "blends" of Sandy Bull constitute a prodigious synthesis of antithetical idioms and one of the most lasting conquests of the vanguard folk. Away from Nashville how much him can be been, Bull didn't have anything from to divide with the dawning movement country-rock, but his lesson of creative individualism was fundamental to open new horizons to the kind that will be called " american primitivism ".
Banjoist and guitarist Sandy Bull started as folksinger a` la Woody Guthrie at the end of the 1950s in Boston, where he was studying composition. When he returned to New York in 1961, he became one of the fixed attractions of the vanguard clubs of the Greenwich Village.
In clubs such as the Gaslight Cafe, where he played since 1961, he came in contact with the dawning free-jazz scene, that deeply influenced him.
Enfant prodige of the guitar and the banjo, student of jazz and Indian music, in 1963 Bull cut his first record, Fantasias For Guitar & Banjo (Vanguard, 1963) with the lone accompaniment of Ornette Coleman's drummer Billy Higgins, indulging in the luxury of a suite of twenty-two minutes, Blend, for guitar tuned as a banjo and battery.
(Italian text translated by Tobia D'Onofrio)
Blend, influenced by oud player Hamza El Din who
shared a Hollywood flat with Bull in 1963, is a rhythmic synthesis of jazz
improvisation, raga syncopations, Arabic chords and folk melodies, an
infectious sound excursus that explores fabulous worlds filtered through the
feeling of a folk story-teller, alternating slow and transcendent parts with
furious jams. The atmosphere is often psychedelic, two years before the
psychedelic movement was born. A few classical arrangements, for banjo or
guitar only, stand out among the other tracks of the album.
Bull wrote a sequel to this
masterpiece with Blend II, a track recorded in 1964 that featured on the
following album Inventions For Guitar And Banjo (Vanguard, 1965).
E Pluribus Unum (Vanguard, 1970), partly recorded in 1968, is
Bull’s psychedelic album. Here he plays a guitar characterized by a metallic,
sharp, rough sound, antithetic to Duan Eddy’s twang; the
guitar’s electric signal was divided into four different amplifiers. The album
features two long meditations: Electric
Blend (a “blend” for a special electric guitar whose signal was amplified
in four different ways), a suite propelled by space chords that keep
progressing up and down, an intense and mellow prayer with a processional
rhythm marked by Indian drums and a guitar that imitates the sitar’s nasal
notes; and No Deposit No Return Blues, a vibrant jam for guitar, bass,
drums, oud, hi-hat cymbal and cowbell, that goes on in a slow rhythmic
crescendo made of touches, vibrations, counterpoints, echoes and percussive
noises.
Demolition Derby (Vanguard, 1972) completes the trilogy of the
golden years.
Re-Inventions (Vanguard, 1998) compiles material from the
first three albums.
Drug addiction destroyed Bull’s career
in 1972, forcing him into ten years of silence (in those years Ali Akbar Khan
taught him how to play the sarod) before
he was able to record other “blends” on Jukebox School Of Music (ROM,
1988): Truth (the reunion with Billy Higgins, after a quarter of a
century) and Continuum For Guitar.
Bull went back in a recording studio
for the album Vehicles (Timeless, 1992), a collection of instrumental
tracks worthy of his past numbers, in the name of a raga-funk for ethnic
orchestra, accompanied by Senegalese percussionist Aiyb Dieng.
Steel Tears (Timeless, 1996) is an album of “songs”
interpreted by a few guests. The songs are partly dedicated to Bull’s cultural
roots.
Still Valentine’s Day (Water, 2006) documents a live performance
from 1969.
Bull died of lung cancer in April
2001.
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