Abstract Index playlist - Feb 8/06

Last week led off with a monster track by Philip Cohran. He played trumpet in the Arkestra during its late 50s Chicago period. He stayed behind in Chi-town when the Arkestra decamped to New York (via Montreal). He was a man dedicated to the advancement of Sun Ra's musical and communal concepts, and ended up co-founding the AACM. He made few recordings under his own name, but those recordings exemplified his personal and political viewpoints, and involved a great cast of session players drawn mainly from the Chess Records orbit. Cohran is heard mostly on kalimba on the disc, although it’s amplified and sounding a little congotronic. Participants included Louis Satterfield (Earth, Wind and Fire), Master Henry Gibson (Curtis Mayfield), and most notably on this track, a Sonny Sharrock-ian solo by Pete Cosey (late electric Miles). This track an uplifting experience, and an example of many African influences coming together in one piece of music –a perfect track for Black History Month.

Lately, I have been preoccupied with musical community. Part of it was due to Wavelength’s celebration of 300 shows and its accompanying panels which analyzed the nature of ‘indie’. There seems to be a move on to do an artist run collective. I’m always a bit skeptical when it comes to collective enterprises; many would agree that collective enterprises often become the work of one individual – Ambiences Magnetiques in Montreal is an example, as is Wavelength itself!

Now, it remains an unspoken truth that ‘indie’ in Toronto means indie-rock with dashes of improv, country, and turntable/electro-terrorism, but certainly nothing that strays into “world music”. Sure, I've got my own definition of 'indie' which looks towards organizations like Music Africa - even the much troubled Caribana (sorry can't link you there - that's how troubled it is!) deserves to be recognized as by far the most successful indie-music enterprise of all time in Toronto in terms of popularity. What’s it gonna take for indie-rock scenesters and, like, everyone else to establish a meaningful dialogue in this town? Is this possible? Is it even desirable within the long established and successful Wavelength format? You tell me…

20 years ago, any talk of indie music would surely have included the wide range of global pop music burgeoning in Toronto at the time. Billy Bryans, who has similar grievances over the use of the word “indie”, was very much a part of that generation's indie culture, and will be guesting on the Abstract Index tonight at 7PM. We will be speaking about the Toronto debut of Cuban salsa/timba star Paulo FG, but will undoubtably stray into topics like this.

unity (live 1968) – philip cohran (aestuarium)
colere – nuru kane (riverboat)
when the dance is the game the food crisis came – once 11 (the agriculture)
march nor’easter – matt steckler (innova)
diskbreaker – satellite (moondata)
lumens – calamalka (plug research)
provisional dub – systemwide (bsi)
prehensile dream – the bad plus (Columbia)
conga blue – jane bunnett (blue note)
gordo rojo - zemog (aagoo)
na na nai – ripple effect (kindred rhythm)
war – Apollo nove (zirguiboom)
malato – nova lima (mr. bongo)
sam menga @ ingany – donne robert (indie)
eparapo – tony allen (comet)
why can’t we live together – tinga stewart (blood and fire)
why dem a gwaan so – cornell campbell/twilight circus (m)
jah jah voice is calling – peter broggs (ras)
heavy beat – soul vendors (heartbeat)
darker shade of black – soul vendors (heartbeat)