(Avant-Garde / Modern Creative / Tzadik Composer Series) Julius Hemphill - One Atmosphere - 2003, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

An original member of the legendary Black Artists Group (St. Louis' counterpart to the AACM), and founder of the World Sax Quartet, Julius Hemphill was one of the most important composer/performers in creative music. His work is marked by a sharp, edgy melodicism steeped in the blues, contrapuntal complexity and a striking formal logic. One Atmosphere presents the full range of his compositional talents: a long, epic work for seven woodwinds (one of his greatest compositions, here receiving its premiere recording); a beautiful quintet for piano and strings; and a bluesy tune originally written for his famous trio with Abdul Wadud, here featuring the versatile cellist Erik Friedlander and two of his closest collaborators, Marty Ehrlich and Pheeroan AkLaff.

Hats off to Tzadik for this long overdue album of Julius Hemphill's creative music compositions. Here are three works, ranging in date from 1976 to 1992, for three different instrumental settings. The first, "One Atmosphere," is one of his most compelling pieces, written for piano and string quartet. The Pacifica String Quartet, a group synonymous with modern music, and the legendary vanguard pianist Ursula Oppens offer the premiere of this work, a subtle, nearly pastoral range of tonal studies for groups of strings laid out along droning, shimmering ostinatos with Oppens accenting the end of each written line with a restatement of not only the original notes but their contrapuntal extensions on into the next. Near the end, the piece erupts with strings and piano elongating the original ideas, stating them in almost serial phrases. "Savannah Suite," a mid-length work for cello, flute, and percussion, concentrates on the interrelationships of the various kinds of lyric tones and rural themes that obsessed Hemphill throughout his life. Cellist Erik Friedlander, flutist Marty Ehrlich, and the great Pheeroan akLaff perform it with great economy and emotion. Here the blues are the centerpiece. The final piece here, a 33-and-a-half-minute work for seven woodwinds, receives its premiere. Played by former students like Tim Berne, collaborators such as Oliver Lake, and downtown stalwarts such as Sam Furnace, this is easily the most monumental and breathtaking piece of music Hemphill ever composed. Full of lines that seemingly begin in the ether and go nowhere, only to be retraced later on by different instruments and varying time signatures crossing numerous musical eras, this is a labyrinthine work that is the epitome of Hemphill's musicality and deep, almost reverential dedication to the wind family. ~ Thom Jurek, AMG

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 19. April 2009, 20:46
Julius Hemphill / One Atmosphere
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