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Ishmael Reed - The Hands Of Grace
Ishmael Reed - The Hands Of Grace
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€27,00 EUR
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All Night Flight, Reading Group - LP
UK, 2026
Jazz / Piano / Home Recording
I think I've been waiting a great deal of years for a record to strike again that one special chord I first heard as a kid when my godfather gave me a CD copy of Stan Getz's Plays album. That was my first encounter with jazz in all its obviousness, and the first time I would experience that blurred sense that the recording of these instruments conveyed pure, unadulterated human feelings—a sensation I would long for throughout my teen years, but would only find in far fewer jazz recordings than I expected.
Of course, I got my share of musical shocks, when faced with Coltrane's My Favourite Things or Miles Davis' ESP but more and more often, the jazz recordings I would listen to felt too sophisticated. I guess it's a common obsession amongst people who listen to a lot of music to try to row upstream to find - I don't know know exactly how to put it - the source or the quintessence of folk and popular music in general; an obsession that dragged me into the music of Elizabeth Cotten, Shirley Collins and other Folkways recordings, as well as experiments in "primitivism" by John Fahey, Tori Kudo or Kath Bloom & Loren Mazzacane Connors...
Are we all ineluctably bound to turn into Robert Crumb? That, I don't know, but what I do know is that American novelist Ishmael Reed's debut release as a musician (he was 84 when The Hands of Grace was released on CD in 2022) struck that one chord so perfectly that I immediately let down my guard. Upon first listen, I mentally put the album on the top shelf of my personal jazz pantheon, no matter how minor it might genuinely be in regards to over a hundred years of American jazz history (which Ishmael Reed obviously knows so well). Iknow that we've been fed a lot of releases lately that are supposed to feel 'authentic,' 'bare,' or 'simple' - and it might be the ultimate aesthetic trick the underground plays on us in the 2020s - but Ishmael Reed's easy piano playing and tiny, drumless jazz formations are something else: jazz in its intrinsically formless shape, softly shifting at the whim of his small amateur hesitations.
Some words from the label:
Are we all ineluctably bound to turn into Robert Crumb? That, I don't know, but what I do know is that American novelist Ishmael Reed's debut release as a musician (he was 84 when The Hands of Grace was released on CD in 2022) struck that one chord so perfectly that I immediately let down my guard. Upon first listen, I mentally put the album on the top shelf of my personal jazz pantheon, no matter how minor it might genuinely be in regards to over a hundred years of American jazz history (which Ishmael Reed obviously knows so well). Iknow that we've been fed a lot of releases lately that are supposed to feel 'authentic,' 'bare,' or 'simple' - and it might be the ultimate aesthetic trick the underground plays on us in the 2020s - but Ishmael Reed's easy piano playing and tiny, drumless jazz formations are something else: jazz in its intrinsically formless shape, softly shifting at the whim of his small amateur hesitations.
Some words from the label:
"Touching homebuilt compositions from celebrated American novelist, playwright and poet Ishmael Reed, channelling a long life immersed in jazz culture. A joint in-house production from ANF and NYC-based label Reading Group. You’re never too old to learn something new. Reed credits bebop with keeping him and his friends out of reform school because they were too busy listening to records at each other’s houses to get into trouble. Finding fame as a distinguished writer, he found his way back to music circuitously, eventually taking the plunge at aged 60 to study jazz piano. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 he hastily assembled a quintet to fulfil a lifelong ambition of recording an album. He made the record but thankfully he didn’t succumb to his illness Cash-strapped during COVID, he became a composer to save on money for his own plays, enlisting his daughter Tennessee as the narrator. These humble origins and a genuine love (and natural talent) for music are what underpins The Hands Of Grace. Consisting of works written for Reed’s play ‘The Slave Who Loved Caviar’ alongside new original compositions, it brings in close friends and family to accompany his casual, unvarnished playing style that’s so genuinely heartfelt it feels as if you could be sat alongside them in their living room. The music carries a lived-in simplicity yet it also holds something ambiguous that draws it away from the predictable. Music papers rustle, a living room chair is dragged up to the keys whilst Reed’s wife Carla contributes violin and daughter Tennessee recites her poetry on standout ‘How High The Moon’. This is a poignant family affair with no-one left out, ending on a touching tribute and voicemail from their late daughter Timothy. Ever since it first appeared on CD The Hands Of Grace has become a staple. A record to return to, a uniquely personal tribute, a document of working method, a lifelong passion finally coming to fruition…" (M/M - wholesale: shops, contact us)
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