Released 1971 Sing Me a Song of Songmy
(1971) Straight Life
(1971) Release date 1971 Label Rhino Atlantic | Length 40:35 Artist Freddie Hubbard Producer İlhan Mimaroğlu | |
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Recorded July 20 and August 10, 1970 Studio Regent Sound Studios, New York City Genres Jazz, Free jazz, Musique concrète, Avant-garde music, Experimental music, Spoken word Similar Freddie Hubbard albums, Jazz albums | ||
Sing Me a Song of Songmy (subtitled "A Fantasy For Electromagnetic Tape") is an album-length composition by avant-garde Turkish composer Ilhan Mimaroğlu, released in 1971. Principle performers include jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and Mimaroğlu himself.
Contents
The piece includes a chorus, strings, recitations of poems by Fazil Husnu Daglarca and other texts, organists and tape-based musique concrète, as well as Hubbard's jazz quintet: (tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Art Booth and drummer Louis Hayes). It was Hubbard's third album released on the Atlantic label, and is one of his most experimental albums.
Concept and execution
“Songmy” in the title is a reference to “Son My”, a village in South Vietnam, the location of the mass murder, rape and mutilation of some 400 unarmed civilians by the US Army its Vietnam campaign in 1968. The material on the album is heavily socio-political in tone, drawing on high-profile contemporary events like the Kent State shootings; the Tate-Labianca murders; the Vietnam war; and the then escalating American protests against the war.
Mimaroğlu used his influence as an executive producer for Atlantic Records to produce an unusually high-budget album of avant-garde music. The music is a fusion of post-bop jazz with musique concrete, salted with poetry and text fragments, and united by a generally anti-war message. The format is that of a montage, in which there are not always obvious breaks between one section, or one subsection and the next. In the original Atlantic release the double-album jacket included a collage of material drawn from various books and newspapers, which paralleled the tone of the music. On the whole, the album was not a commercial success, but it has been re-released on CD, and continues to garner positive reviews as an important work of 20th century avant-garde/jazz fusion music.
Track listing
All compositions by Ilhan Mimaroglu
PART I
- "Threnody for Sharon Tate" - 2:04
- "This Is Combat I Know" - 8:56
- "The Crowd" - 7:03
- "What a Good Time for Kent State" - 1:28
PART II
- "Monodrama" - 2:54
- "Black Soldier" - 2:19
- "Interlude I" - 5:48
- "Interlude II" - 4:30
- "And Yet There Could Be Love" - 4:28
- "Postlude" - 1:05
Personnel
Songs
1Threnody For Sharon Tate2:03
2This Is Combat I Know8:57
3The Crowd7:03