source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 22:31:05 -0800 Subject: Emil Richards / Don Ellis From: "Jonathan M. Szanto" Re: the above subject - Since I have seen a few questions revolving around this, I am always more than happy to supply essentially useless information . >Re: Microtonal Jazz. I have seen - but not heard - an LP by Emil Richards >with a title akin to _Emil Richards and his Microtonal Blues Band_. It was >in Erv Wilson*s record collection and he pointedly stopped me from further >inquiry. There were two LP's, both still sitting in my closet: - "Journey To Bliss - Emil Richards and the Microtonal Blues Band" (Impulse Stereo A-9166) - "Spirit of 1976 - Emil Richards and the Microtonal Blues Band / Live at Donte's" (Impulse Stereo A-9182) To be upfront about it, these are not excursions into microtonal composition per se; Emil and company just used microtonal instruments, virtually all of these percussion (and mostly made by Emil, I think) to add colors to the music. They had been influenced by Hari Har Rao, who had recently begun teaching Indian music in the LA area at the time. Most of the expansion of the jazz idiom came in the form of odd meters. They were also being influenced by the Maharishi himself (with LP #1 having a particularly striking oil painting of him on the back), and more than a certainty being influenced by burning vegetation of an illegal nature (except for medicinal purposes, of course). You probably don't need to check them out as microtonal resources, but if you want a retro insight into the late 60's (when I believe these were recorded) they are just the ticket. Side Two of LP #1 is "Journey To Bliss: A Meditation Suite in Six Movements". Priceless stuff, I assure you. Emil was turned on (hmmm...) to the Indian thing by Don Ellis, and for a while they had a group called the Hindustani Jazz Sextet. About that group, I know nothing. Maybe Daniel Wolf knows - seems like he was a California boy back then... Peace and love, flower-people! Cheers, Jon *--------------------------------------------------------------------* Jonathan M. Szanto | If spirits can live online . . . . . . . . . Backbeats & Interrupts | . . . then Harry lives in Corporeal Meadows jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.adnc.com/web/jszanto/welcome.html *--------------------------------------------------------------------* Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 16:04 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05736; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 16:05:28 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05733 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id HAA06022; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 07:05:14 -0800 Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 07:05:14 -0800 Message-Id: <961106150044_71670.2576_HHB37-2@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu