(From Jazz Monthly May, 1968.) - UK

SONNY’S TIME NOW:
Don Cherry (tpt); Albert Ayler (ten); Henry Grimes, Louis Worrell (bs); Sonny Murray (d); LeRoi Jones (ranting-1)
Virtue  ::  Black art-1  ::  Justice
                              Jihad 663*

*Obtainable from: Jihad Productions, Box 663, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A. @ 5 dollars.

          THERE is little a mere pianist can hope to add to Jack Cooke’s admirably lucid and detailed account of Murray’s work which appeared in “Jazz Monthly” for November, 1967. But as the above disc was not to hand when he was preparing that essay readers may like a few comments now. Its only disadvantage is “Black art”, which features LeRoi Jones yelling one of his ‘poems’. Most of this sounds like a prurient schoolboy trying desperately hard to be shocking, except that at the words “airplane poems” he imitates the noise of an aeroplane, then of a machine-gun, like a child not yet old enough for school. In contrast to such inspirations there are some nasty racialist moments, of which “dagger poems in the slimy bellys of the owner Jews” is representative. Whatever extenuating circumstances there are, I regret fine musicians such as Cherry and Ayler associating themselves with this, the more so as everyone plays so well on the other tracks. “Justice” and “Virtue” are heterophonic performances without chorus divisions or bar-lines and are sustained by the thick, dark, continuous textures of Murray’s drums and the basses. Quite often one or other of the two horns will drop out, and Cherry has a particularly good, brooding passage on “Virtue”. The intensity with which horns, basses and drums react with each other makes one hesitate, though, to describe any given part as ‘solo’ or ‘accompaniment’. Certainly the most striking moments come when all five players are involved, a good instance being the quiet, almost trapt, vehemence of the long collective improvisation in “Virtue” which precedes the passage for drums and basses alone. Cherry, Ayler and Murray, indeed; are excellent foils to each other, as “New York Eye and Ear Control” showed (ESP 1016, reviewed in these pages last October).

MAX HARRISON

***

This review provoked a long-running controversy in the pages of Jazz Monthly. Much of this was a matter of personal opinion and I feel it would serve no purpose repeating it all here. However, the following letter from Max Harrison, published in Jazz Monthly No. 169, March 1969, (p. 31) may still be of interest:

Cherry/Ayler/Murray/Jones/Burke/Berk

          THOSE readers who were as amused by Patrick Burke’s damp little squib in the February issue as by his more strenuous efforts last July might be still further diverted by the comments on that Sonny’s Time Now Jihad LP which follow. They are by a close friend of Don Cherry’s who prefers, alas, to remain anonymous. However, if I say he occasionally writes for this magazine sharper readers may be able to put two and two together without making .five out of it.
          “As you said in your review, there is some fine jazz on the album. This is a great pity in some ways, for reasons that will become clear below. I’ve had the Jihad disc for what seems like a long time and my feelings about the LeRoi Jones ‘poem’ are similar to yours. One day when Don Cherry was at my place I asked him about the session because I couldn’t understand how in hell he or Albert Ayler got to be associated with that stuff. Don’s only positive remark was, ‘Wow, Sonny’s got a record out!’ The rest was obviously hurting him. It seems there was a wild party—probably Xmas or New Year—at which pretty well everyone got drunk. LeRoi Jones took advantage of the situation, got a cab and shuffled horn men over the east side to the Black Arts Theatre or some place like that. The rhythm men were, I gather, awaiting their arrival, much to Don’s and Albert’s surprise. They were assured that this was a private session, but couldn’t help noticing the set-up of recording gear. . . . it was some kind of dunky studio. All this appears to have been strictly LeRoi Jones’s deal for the Black Arts Rep. Don Cherry has no clear recollection of what, if anything was played at the session, by which I mean he didn’t recognise the material when the disc was played. About all he could say was that it sounded pretty definitely that he was on that session, and he didn’t dig the idea one little bit.”
          Unfortunately, it is hard completely to accept all this because if Ayler and Cherry had been so drunk as to have no real memory of the session they could not have played so well. Also, one would like positive comments from Ayler or someone as close to him as my informant is to Cherry. But it is obvious I owe both musicians an apology for assuming they did go along with Jones’s ranting—although this was surely a natural conclusion to draw under the circumstances. What is also obvious is that Patrick Burke owes everybody an apology for asserting “Roi is speaking for them/of them”.
          That gentleman is equally wrong to suggest I devoted five columns to defending myself on this matter. What in fact happened was I used his first ridiculous letter as a peg upon which to hang my opinions on several aspects of ‘sixties jazz. Those who read New Thing Notes properly will know this already, of course, but perhaps I should spell out that the exaggerated schoolboy humour of my remarks about him was deliberate, being intended as an ironic comment on the level of his arguments. It seems I should have remembered the advice Stanley Dance gave me about 12 years ago: “Never be sarcastic in a jazz magazine—at least half the readers will take it at face value. And as for irony. . . .” Still to judge from the total evasion of his second ridiculous letter, I did at least get Mr. Burke’s range.

MAX HARRISON, London, W.12.

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