Billy Bang - Commandment

Styles: Violin
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:24
Size: 164,5 MB
Art: Front

( 1:04) 1. Intro
( 7:57) 2. Pieta
( 7:14) 3. Bama Swing
( 7:15) 4. Commandment
(12:39) 5. Daydreams
( 8:59) 6. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
( 7:31) 7. Bama Swing Again
(11:32) 8. They Plan To Leave
( 7:09) 9. Music For The Love Of It

Bang is an intense, creative improviser; the fact that he plays an instrument that's little-used in jazz is almost irrelevant, except for the fact that the violin is one of the most wonderfully expressive instruments ever conceived (just ask Beethoven or Mendelssohn). In the hands of a talented musician like Bang, the violin becomes a consummate jazz instrument. Bang has a strong and agile technique, which he displays to profound end on this solo recital inspired by the art of sculptor Alain Kirilli.

Performing a solo set is a difficult task for the improviser. The musician must rely upon his own inspiration; there are no collaborators to feed from or suggest musical ideas. Bang does a remarkable job building his performance. Ideas flow and are elaborated upon and transformed. Every track has an individual character; each can stand on its own, yet works as part of the whole. His dexterity is extraordinary, yet as fluent as Bang is, it's his passion that carries the day.

His ability to exploit the instrument's tonal characteristics in service of emotional expression is practically unparalleled among the very few jazz violinists of note. An added highlight of this very fine album is its informal nature; the live atmosphere is nicely conjured, enhancing the listening experience. By Chris Kelsey https://www.allmusic.com/album/commandment-for-the-sculpture-of-alain-kirili-mw0000032157

Commandment

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Billy Bang - Vietnam: Reflections

Styles: Violin Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:05
Size: 161,7 MB
Art: Front

(11:49) 1. Reflections
( 3:23) 2. Ru con
(12:36) 3. Lock And Load
( 2:20) 4. Ly Ngua O
( 9:21) 5. Doi moi
( 8:23) 6. Reconciliation
( 6:48) 7. Waltz of the Water Puppets
( 2:29) 8. Trong Com
(12:52) 9. Reconciliation 2

With his previous record, Vietnam: The Aftermath, violinist, veteran, and anti-war activist Billy Bang exorcized some of the demons that continued to haunt him for thirty years following his return from a tour of duty in Vietnam in the '60s. With Vietnam: Reflections, an album that blends traditional Vietnamese folk melodies with modal grooves and tender ballads, he moves further towards reconciliation. It doesn't exactly shake any musical foundations, but that's not the point of this deeply personal project that finds Bang surrounded by a number of other Vietnam veterans trumpeter Ted Daniels, drummer Michael Carvin, percussionist Ron Brown, and conductor Butch Morris in addition to pianist John Hicks, saxophonist/flautist James Spaulding, multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill (this time heard solely on flute), and bassist Curtis Lundy.

The inclusion of singer Co Boi Nguyen and Nhan Thanh Ngo on dan tranh, a sixteen-string zither, finds Bang moving towards a point that, despite experiences that have inexorably altered the lives of Americans and Vietnamese alike, also looks to moving on and finding nexus points between two very different cultures. Bang's own compositions are informed with a significant shade of blue and fashion their melodies after Oriental pentatonics in the same way that Coltrane integrated Indian harmonies in his music. And by interspersing them with traditional Vietnamese songs, Bang creates a moving work that, even with its sometimes melancholic nature, is ultimately filled with hope and healing.

Even the structure of the album is pointed towards resolution and a joining of cultures. "Reflections starts with a modal vamp that gets moving in a relaxed way, with Bang's oriental-informed theme not entering until nearly the two-minute mark. This piece, like the third track, the equally groove-based and modal "Lock & Load, is more about creating a simple, open-ended context for the soloists, rather than any developed compositional concerns. But the interspersing of the traditional pieces "Ru Con and "Ly Ngua O performed by Nguyen, Ngo, and Bang after "Reflections and "Lock & Load, respectively, paints a picture of cultural division, at least at first.

But then the haunting ballad "Doi Moi paves the way for the first of two takes on "Reconciliation 1, where the American and Vietnamese musicians finally join together and, for the rest of the nearly seventy-minute record, even when the musicians go their own separate ways as they do on the beautiful "Waltz of the Water Puppets and the traditional "Trong Com the precedent has been set, so that by the time of the album's closer, a more upbeat reading of "Reconciliation 2, the mood has become considerably brighter.

While Bang first got his credentials in more avant-garde and free jazz settings, his most recent work has moved closer to the centre, sounding more mainstream and certainly more approachable. Still, despite the more straight-ahead direction of Vietnam: Reflections, there's no sense of pandering. Instead it's all about finding common ground and the potential for beauty in the simplest of contexts.By John Kelman
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/vietnam-reflections-billy-bang-justin-time-records-review-by-john-kelman

Personnel: Billy Bang (violin); James Spaulding (alto sax, flute); Henry Threadgill (flute); Ted Daniel (trumpet); Butch Morris (conductor); John Hicks (piano); Curtis Lundy (bass); Michael Carvin (drums); Ron Brown (percussion); Co Boi Nguyen (vocalist); Nhan Thanh Ngo (dan tranh)

Vietnam: Reflections

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Billy Bang - Lucky Man

Styles: Violin
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 92:54
Size: 214,1 MB
Art: Front

( 4:10) 1. Lucky Man: Introduction
( 6:16) 2. Billy playing with the Banhar Gong Group of Kuntum (traditional and improvised) (feat. Banhar Gong Group of Kuntum)
( 1:26) 3. Lucky Man: Flashback Tunnel Reflections
( 6:59) 4. Mystery of the Mekong (feat. Hanoi Symphony Orchestra)
( 1:03) 5. Lucky Man: The Sun Rising - Introduction to Song for Don Cherry
(13:26) 6. Song for Don Cherry (feat. Duc Dau & Phu Dong Family Band of Ho Chi Minh City)
( 1:45) 7. Lucky Man: Flashback Memories
(11:35) 8. New Saigon Phunk (Extended Version) (feat. Duc Dau & Phu Dong Family Band of Ho Chi Minh City)
( 0:59) 9. Lucky Man: Traditional Vietnamese Catru Music
( 0:51) 10. Lucky Man: Billy Reflecting on Memories and Feelings
(12:26) 11. Jungle Lullaby (Live at the Sax n'Art Club) (feat. Sax n’Art Band)
( 1:07) 12. Lucky Man: Quynh Anh Pham's Memories About Her Father
( 9:46) 13. Dan Da
( 0:47) 14. Lucky Man: Billy Speaking About Music and Art
( 1:53) 15. Lucky Man: Flashlight and a 45 Tunnel Memories
( 1:06) 16. Lucky Man Title Music: Vietnam 1967 Battle Composition
( 1:09) 17. Lucky Man: Teach Me Banhar
( 5:47) 18. Traditional Quan Ho (feat. Cau River Singers)
( 1:05) 19. Lucky Man: Billy Reflecting on America, Music and Being Left Alone
( 2:30) 20. Moments for the KIAMIA (Solo in a Hotel Interior Courtyard)
( 0:44) 21. Lucky Man: Quynh Anh Pham Lullaby
( 5:51) 22. New Saigon Phunk (feat. Duc Dau & Phu Dong Family Band of Ho Chi Minh City)

When he performed in Germany, they called him the "black devil violinist," his frenetic playing wrapped in a gyrating, trance-like state. For Billy Bang, who believed he had schizophrenia, the epithet bore a resemblance to his inner turmoil. He was born William Walker in Mobile, Alabama but grew up in the South Bronx. He studied violin and classical music, and his talent earned him a hardship scholarship to the Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Bang felt out of place in the predominantly white prep school and quit, returning to the Bronx, where he was drafted into the army. He fought in the infantry during the bloodiest period of the Vietnam War's TET Offensive.

Back home, now with substance abuse problems, he found his neighborhood re-christened as Fort Apache; with burned-out buildings and urban decay, the South Bronx itself looked like a war zone. Bang's expertise in weaponry led to a job buying guns for a black militant group. He wandered into a pawnshop's backroom on one such buying trip in Baltimore and found a twenty-five-dollar violin hanging from the wall. He brought it home and started over.

In New York's avant-garde and experimental loft scene of the 1970s, Bang studied with Leroy Jenkins and began playing and recording with David Murray, Frank Lowe and others. In the 1980s, he played with the Sun Ra Arkestra. But Vietnam haunted him. It would be seventeen recordings and three decades later that he found catharsis in his music. What Bang unlocked with Vietnam: The Aftermath (Justin Time, 2001) and Vietnam: Reflections (Justin Time, 2004) was in his words "painful, but it was very honest and truthful for me." Bang took that reckoning a giant step further, returning to Vietnam in 2008. Out of that journey comes Lucky Man.

French cinematographer/producer Jean-Marie Boulet and German multi-media artist Markus Hansen shadowed Bang on his voyage through Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, and the 17th parallel, which divided North and South Vietnam. Lucky Man is the title of both their documentary film and this soundtrack. There are twenty-two audio tracks, of which twelve are spoken narrations taken directly from the film and mostly alternating with musical tracks. The music is unlike anything else that Bang had recorded.

"Billy playing with the Banhar Gong Group of Kuntum" is, as the subtitle indicates, a mix of traditional Vietnamese and improvised music, the latter falling primarily to the violinist. Here we see the difficulty in communicating as Bang encourages the ensemble to decrescendo with frustratingly slow results. No matter; the piece is superb. "Mystery of the Mekong," with the Hanoi Symphony Orchestra, is a stunning avant-garde orchestration of Bang's Vietnam: The Aftermath composition. In "Song for Don Cherry," Ho Chi Minh City native Duc Dau plays a "dan da," a primitive stone idiophone comparable to the vibraphone. Bang improvises along with Dau, and the two become caught up in a rapid-fire contest. A brief but moving highlight of Lucky Man is "Moments for the Kiamia." Bang plays solo in an interior courtyard of a hotel, the sounds of the violin echo off the grey concrete, and the background noises of guests and workers become part of the music.

The documentary film is raw at times, particularly in its footage of the war, but it goes a long way explaining what Bang feels. The spoken tracks are mesmerizing and seamlessly incorporated into the field recordings. Bang sometimes sounds like he has conquered his demons, but at other times, his pain is palpable. Always, he is acutely aware of the same racial dichotomies that Dizzy Gillespie struggled with as a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador. Bang talks about the trauma of coming home to a country jeering rather than cheering its vets. There's no bitterness in his voice, but there is profound sadness, regret, and a reluctant acceptance. As a stand-alone feature, the music conveys much the same context and emotion; Bang's trademark acerbic but animated style is peppered with the violinist's inner dialog. He says, "You can't hurt a guy that got no more feelings." In Bang's case, neither of those things seem authentic. He died of lung cancer three years after completing this project, but his final act may have been his best. By Karl Ackermann https://www.allaboutjazz.com/lucky-man-billy-bang-bbe-records

Personnel: Billy Bang: violin.

Additional Instrumentation: Banhar Gong Group (1); Hanoi Symphony Orchestra (3); Duc Dau: dan da (5); Phu Dong Family Band (22); Tran Manh Tuan: saxophone (13).

Lucky Man

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