(2022) Lloyd Miller - Orientations (remastered)  


Review:
Dr. Lloyd Miller is an American musician, academic, musicologist, and multi-instrumentalist. Based in Utah, he has been fusing jazz with Middle Eastern, African folk, and classical forms since the early 1960s. He plays more than 100 instruments and has issued a slew of privately recorded albums. His 1968 offering, Oriental Jazz, is a cult classic and was remastered and reissued by Now-Again in 2019. During the ’70s, Miller hosted a longstanding prime-time musical variety show in Tehran. In 2010, he released a popular collaborative outing with the Heliocentrics. In his eighties, Miller continues to make music, as evidenced by 2020’s wondrous At the Ends of the World for Fountain AVM. It collects 22 unissued recordings between 1960 and 2021, sourced from Miller’s personal archive. He plays a slew of instruments: santur, oud, piano, saxophone, dhol, qanun, tar, setar, tanbur, kamanche, zurna, ney, and analog synth. These recordings offer Miller playing solo, in the company of students at Brigham Young University and University of Utah, and with various Persian, Arabic, Indian, and African musicians on his television show. All have been painstakingly remastered. Opener “Camels to Cairo” was recorded in 1963. Reeds, percussion, and tar play a circular eight-note pattern appended and subtracted in each chorus like a ceremonial piece. “Segah Leaves” commences as a santur solo but morphs into a lithe, bluesy, jazz piano tune with droning overtones. “Orientation #1 (Kheneccordion)” from 1963 (revisited in 2021), reveals Miller’s considerable improvisational skills (after all, he played with Eddie Harris and Don Ellis in the ’50s) on a Persian accordion accompanied by layers of percussion and an overdubbed analog synth for texture and atmosphere. His highly individual oud-playing style is highlighted beautifully in “Takseem It Seems “Beautiful Eyes”,” recorded live at a jazz festival with his university ensemble that includes reeds, winds, piano, and percussion. 1963’s “Pentakarnatica” weds raga, blues, jazz, and Persian classical music with traditional instruments, as well as piano, saxophones, and an upright bass. 1990’s “Persuasian” weaves together various flutes, large drums, santur, and piano; it sounds like it was composed for dancers. “Pacific Breeze,” from the early ’80s, joins synth, piano, tympani, bass, and more into an ascendant spiritual soundscape flavored with post-bop. Several pieces are drawn from tapes of Miller’s TV show, including “Mellow Cello,” which is plucked and played like a lead guitar. 1972’s “Shahin” is a lovely jazz piano trio number that suggests the influence of West Coast piano icon Russ Freeman. 2005’s stunning, 18-minute “Improv in Isfahan” is an improvisation played by an ensemble using traditional Persian instrumentation to evoke the feel of Arabic classical music before transforming itself into a swinging post-bop, jazz-piano trio groover. Orientations, even more than Jazzman’s 2009 compilation A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz, is far more representative of Miller’s depth and reach. This isn’t merely a great introduction to the artist, but a deep, resonant, and revelatory listen in its own right. — AMG


         


Track List:
01 - Camels to Cairo (1963)
02 - Segah Leaves (1960, Re-Edited 2021)
03 - Orientation 1 (Kheneccordion 1963, Revisited 2021)
04 - Carnatic Clarinet (1960s)
05 - Intercollegiate Jazz Festival Introduction (1968)
06 - Takeseem It Seems 'Beautiful Eyes' (1968)
07 - Orientation 2 (The Telling of Thaime, 1963, Revisited 2021)
08 - Mellow Cello (Mid 1970s Television in Tehran, Iran)
09 - Shahin (1972 Tehran, Iran)
10 - Pentakarnatica (7;8, Rehearsal, 1963)
11 - Orientation 3 (Poetically Past the Present, 1963 Revisited 2021)
12 - Piano, Santur and Drum Interlude (1960s)
13 - Persuasian (1990)
14 - Orientation 4 (Of Mandarin Myth, 1963, Revisited 2021)
15 - Pacific Breeze (Early 1980s)
16 - Humalayan (Edited Version 1998)
17 - Summer Thyme in Tehran (1972 Tehran, Iran)
18 - Ketch Me If You Can (Improvisation, 1972 Tehran, Iran)
19 - Orientation 5 (Central Asian Occasion, 1963)
20 - Improv in Isfahan (Extended Full Version, 2005)
21 - Camels from Cairo (1963)


Media Report:
Genre: jazz, world
Country: Salt Lake City, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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