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MP3 Dennis Warren - 7 in One
9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Acid Jazz, JAZZ: Free Jazz
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7 in One
Dennis Warren''s Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble
By Mark Corroto
Let me take you out there to a place where energy meets sound. Where the electric Miles treads. Where freedom means a discipline to music, like a Sun Ra meltdown. Where the groove has no titles and John Coltrane can play a solo for two hours and you remain riveted in your seat. Dennis Warren lives here. His Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble walks the land where Ornette Coleman'' electric Prime Time and Ronald Shannon Jackson''s band walked. His latest self-released recording is a nine track sampling of that energy with their longest track clocking in at just short of eleven minutes. It''s a pity, this release should have been nine discs of extended jams. Each track aches to be stretched out and grooved upon. Guess you will just have to catch FMRJE live.
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The Green Mountain Jazz Messenger
Recordings of Note September/October 1999
7 in One
By John Barrett, Jr.
When I hear this I don''t think of metal - this is sand, moving fast and always receptive to the winds of change. The rhythm keeps popping, slurring guitars over gathering drums. "Jazz Iron" takes the pulse and goes hot: Raphe Malik reaching high in spiraling notes. The left guitar starts a wah-wah, and his partner builds the thought: Hendrix one moment, Clapton the next. Malik returns softer, and here he blends; one more flavor in a thick tangy stew. It goes its own way, and yet you feel structure.
"Metal Petals" starts in Chico Hamiltion country: Earl Lawrence''s flute, twisting exotic over the mist of cymbals. Some wah-wah splashes through, a spot of marimba, and Malik cries in the distance. The warmth of the jungle - and then it goes wild. Nature has wakened and Lawrence takes wing, a bird above the dense foliage. "First Hit" has the turbulence of "Iron," with Malik creeping softly. The power is Warren''s drumming, and slippery twangs that dot the air. Lawrence moves slowly with calm in the midst of hysteria. Not as strong as "Iron," but nice, and I can''t forget the flute!
It''s a lighter sound on "Rhumba X:" Lawrence dancing smooth over big drums. It goes kinetic, without the density of before; a clearer taste that I enjoy. Malik''s turn is good and ferocious. "Mercury" is a more aggressive "Iron;" here Lawrence shouts (with sweetness intact), and I love it. Malik is a foghorn, and the harsh strings really bring energy. Nice.
"Ogun''s Flight" takes the prize; after a breakdown (and some delightful studio chatter) the rhythm bears down and Lawrence winds his sensual dance. No guitar heroes here; and Malik is a supplemental bass, adding a hum to the background. Everything in service to the mood, and this is PERFECT. A Santana feel starts to emerge, and the conga steps forward. Sweet rumbles develop, the cymbals shower, and Martin Gil gets his lone earthly solo. Then it ends; oddly abrupt, but we have crossed the world in ten minutes. It''s been a trip: some bits sound alike but the horns are great and the interplay fun. It''s a colorful dance - and how it moves!
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SIGNAL to NOISE
The journal of improvised & experimental music
May/June 1999
7 in One (self-released)
Pete Gershon
The FMRJE celebrates it''s tenth anniversary and sallies forth on another commando mission to bring electrified free jazz to the people. Trumpeter Raphe Malik blasts the fanfare and leads the way, flanked by Earl Grant Lawrence''s soaring flute and the double guitar assault of Mike Sealy and Tor Yochai Snyder, while their indefatigable unit chief drummer Dennis Warren propels the unit from the engine room. If you love the smell of napalm in the morning, you''ll savor the stinging mists that settle and shroud around the tribalistic tic tic rising from the jungle floor. Translation: Martin Gil''s percussion adds to the music''s organic flavor in spite of the two guitarists'' effects-drenched metal-bending. It''s worth noting that this is the first time a sax-less FMRJE has been recorded, opening things up a bit for the other solists and allowing some less dominating colors to creep through. The unit''s newest member, electric basses Alby Balgochian, lays down a fluid and sometimes quite rhythmic bottom end (as on the uncharacteristically languid "Metal Petals") which could serve as an easy point of access for the uninitiated. But to these ears, the ballistic, if somewhat homogenous, moments of rapid-fire trumpet and dense drum-punishing are the most rewarding. Allow yourself to be swept into the vortex and judge for yourself.
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Seven Days
Reviews
April 21, 1999
Bill Barton
Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble,
7 in One (self-released, CD)
Sometimes a group''s name says it all. With Dennis Warren''s Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble that is certainly the case. Colchester resident and percussionist Martin Gil says they play "collectively improvised art music" - part of a tradition that began over 30 years ago spearheaded by Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Bill Dixon, Archie Shepp, John Coltrane''s Ascension recording, and Ornette Coleman''s Free Jazz sessions, among others.
If you already have an affinity for any of these artists, you may find the FMRJE of more than a passing interests; if not, be forewarned: This is not music for the faint of heart. The four core members of the ensemble- drummer/leader Warren, percussionist Gil, trumpeter Raphe Malik and electric guitarist Tor Yochai Snyder - have played together for 10 years. Previous incarnations of the band released five cassettes and three CDs, all self-produced with the exception of 1996 Watch Out! CD on the Accurate label.
7 in One features a very different sonic palette than its predecessors, with the excoriating ululation''s of the saxophonists replaced by the burnished flute sound of Earl Grant Lawrence. This change tempers the often cathartic and trenchant free-form blowing with a coruscating lightness of timbre that adds depth to the group''s available tone colors and actually makes the music more accessible. It''s an unusual combination of instruments, with electric guitarist Mike Sealy and electric bassist Albey Balgochian completing the line up. The disc''s highlights include "Metal Petals," anchored by a loping repeating bass riff and evoking a quasi-Oriental or perhaps even Native American ambiance thanks to the melodic flute improvisations, and "Ogun''s Flight," a timbale and percussion driven paean to the Yoruba god of war(iron). "Blues Ore" is a morbid, dirge-like piece by trumpeter Malik that would have been right at home on the Miles Davis'' Agharta album.
Malik is probably the best-known among FMRJE, having recorded several CDs under his own name, and sharing the front line with Jimmy Lyons and violinist Ramsey Ameen in one of Cecil Taylor''s more memorable Units. His heraldic improvisations rise out of the cacophony of "First Hit" like a fearless and articulate preacher addressing a bar full of drunks. Some of the other pieces here are less successful, but it could be argued that any recording of this type of open-ended collective improvisation is at best a blurry snap shot, incapable of capturing the here-and-nowness of the moment. Part of the definition of "metal" is that it is "a chemical element that can conduct heat and electricity." The FMRJE conduct plenty of both on 7 in One.
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Cadence May 1999
Dennis Warren ''s Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble
7 in One, FMRJE Productions 1998
by Robert Spencer
The name and instrumentation of this band would lead anyone to expect a pedal-to-the floor production, "Jazz Iron" delivers right away, courtesy the superb trumpeter Malik. The under appreciated Cecil Taylor alumnus, who added so much sheer power to Rova''s 1995 Ascension concert, is on fire here. Here and on "First Hit" he soars as high as he ever has, over a peripatetic foundation provided by Warren, the Sharrockian guitarists, and, somewhat surprisingly, the flautist Lawrence, who throughout this disc (see "Hit Me D/M" and the furious "Molten Seeds") winds lines around Malik''s with an expert sense of timing and discretion. But everything isn''t flat-out here; "Metal Petals," unexpectedly, is a shimmering, soft-spoken vehicle for Lawrence, broken in the middle by a rather uninspired guitar break of the heavy-metal-in-repose line. Malik''s "Blues Ore" is a strolling electric bath, on which the trumpeter is again notably imaginative and strikingly lyrical at high speed. "Rhumba X," the collective improvisation "Mercury," and "Ogun''s Flight" dip into Latin and African percussion https://www.tradebit.com only quibble is that I''m not sure, when all is said and done, that the electric guitarists really add much of value. But there is great playing all over this disc.
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