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In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album *Silver Ladders* (a year-end favorite of NPR, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and others), Los Angeles-based harpist and composer Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, *Collected Pieces: 2015-2020*, out January 14, 2022. The limited-edition LP sequences selections from her two rarities collections, *Collected Pieces I* (2017) and *Collected Pieces II* (2020), bringing archive highlights and fan favorites to vinyl and CD for the first time. Lattimore has described the process of arranging these releases as akin to “opening a box filled with memories,” and here that box continues to populate, accessible for both the artist and fans. Evocative material separated by years, framed as a portrait of an instrumental storyteller who rarely pauses, recording and often sharing music as soon as it strikes her. Seemingly in constant forward motion for the last five years since her Ghostly debut, Lattimore glances back for a breath, inviting new chances to live in these fleeting moments and emotions; all the beauty, sorrow, sunshine, and darkness housed within.
A familiar harp sequence opens the set, making its first vinyl appearance is “Wawa By The Ocean,” Lattimore’s ode to her favorite convenience store, Wawa #700 in Ship Bottom, New Jersey. “Twelve summers of solo trips to Ship Bottom and it hasn't really changed. I'll always visit it in my dreams,” Lattimore said upon its initial release, and surely that beachside landmark still appears each time this delightful pattern unfolds, hoagies and all. Next is a newer single, “We Wave From Our Boats,” which she improvised after walking her neighborhood during the early days of lockdown in 2020, and shared on her Bandcamp. “I would just wave at neighbors I didn't know in a gesture of solidarity and it reminded me of how you’re compelled to wave at people on the other boat when you’re on a boat yourself, or on a bridge or something. The pull to wave feels very innate and natural.” The heart of the track is a somber loop, over top which Lattimore’s synth notes ruminate, each a gentle shimmer of optimism in the most anxious and absurd of days.
Also recorded in 2020, “What The Living Do” is inspired by Marie Howe’s poem of the same name, which reflects on loss through an appreciation for the mundane messiness of being human. The echoed, slow-marching track has a distant feel to it, as if the listener is outside of it, watching life play out as a film. “Princess Nicotine (1909)” scores actual footage, a dream sequence Lattimore imagined for J. Stuart Blackton’s surreal silent film *(link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UvG5ItVzxc&feature=youtu.be text: Princess Nicotine; or, the Smoke Fairy)*. She adopted the same approach for “Polly of the Circus,” explaining it was the name of one of the old silent films discovered in permafrost in the Yukon [featured in the documentary *Dawson City: Frozen Time*], “the only copy that survived and it kind of warped in the aging process.”
“Mary, You Were Wrong” mirrors an author’s bout with a broken heart. “It’s about how you have to keep on going even if you make some mistakes,” she says. The bittersweet refrain cycles throughout, a little brighter every time, slowly, like the way time tends to heal.
A trove of pieces are collected here, most recorded in the moment, just Lattimore and her Lyon and Healy Concert Grand Harp, contact mics, and pedals. There’s the one about the late Twin Peaks actress Margaret Lanterman (“We Just Found Out She Died”), the American astronaut’s homecoming (“For Scott Kelly, Returned To Earth”), the joke about the cannibal’s wife (“The Warm Shoulder”), the Charlie Chaplin-like character who lost their glasses (“Be My Four Eyes”), and the high school kids driving their shiny cars in a parking lot (“Your Glossy Camry”). Like her most affecting work, these songs showcase Lattimore’s gifts as an observer, able to shape her craft around emotional frequencies and scenes. Her power as a musician is rooted in how she sees the world: in vivid detail, profoundly empathic, with deep gratitude for nature and nuance.
The Miles Davis Septet alive in Tokyo with stunning rendition of such fabulous pop hits by Michael Jackson (Human Nature) and Cindy Lauper (Time After Time). Miles Davis (trumpet), Bob Berg (soprano sax, tenor sax), Robert Irving III (keyboards), John Scofield (electric guitar), Darryl Jones (electric bass), Vincent Wilburn, Jr. (drums), Steve Thornton (percussion)
Side A
One Phone Call - Street Scenes
Star People
Human Nature
Code M.D.
Side B
Time After Time
Ms. Morrisine
Katia
‘Conquering Lion’ stands as one of the few truly essential albums of the roots era. As devotional as anything by Burning Spear, as polemical as Bob Marley, and as militant as the Mighty Diamonds, the album also communicates a haunting spiritual quality that is uniquely its own. Amazingly, for such a coherent work, the tracks were recorded over a period of at least four years, yet come together to present a single coherent vision. The album was first issued in Jamaica by Micron, and in the UK with a different tracklisting as ‘Ram-A-Dam’ on the Lucky label in 1976. Here the album is presented for the first time in expanded form, together with its dub counterpart.
Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson is often portrayed as a strange, otherworldly figure. Yet his life was filled with two opposing forces, the spiritual and the earthly. Even as Yabby was yearning for a higher plane of existence, he was scratching out a difficult living in the ghetto. Whilst warning of sinful secular behaviour, he was working at the race track taking bets. As well as creating some of the most powerful and heartfelt music to come out of Jamaica, Yabby was busy cutting deals with studios and musicians, and hustling round the record shops to sell his products. And these contradictions seem to have fuelled some of his best music, pushing him into places that other artists shied away from. When I had a couple of lengthy phone conversations with Yabby shortly before his death, his religious musings were frequently interrupted by the loud squawking of the chickens in his yard. If the theology he espoused seems stern and prescriptive, he could also be charming and generous in conversation.
‘You have the rasta business, like the rastamen believe Emperor Haile Selassie is the creator who create people. I used to try to show them he is just another man like anyone of we. I show them Jesus Christ is recorded in history as a great individual and him also great. So with God now: I was trying fe educate them and I feel like if I use music I will be able to spread out all over the world, spread out and reach those type of people, for them have a zeal for godliness.’
So Yabby’s religious views put him immediately at odds with rasta orthodoxy, and he often wore his belief as a shield against the world, certainly against the more ruthless side of the record business. Indeed Yabby’s personal dogma was sometimes deployed as a tactic to clinch a negotiation, by wearing down his ‘less godly’ opponent to the point of compromise. And the unshakeable strength of his beliefs gave rise to some of the deepest of roots music.
Run Come Rally + Rally Dub
The album opens with an immensely powerful call to turn away from the earthly wickedness of ‘the land of the sinking sand’ before the upcoming apocalypse. ‘The sun shall be darkened / And the moon shall be turned into blood / One of these days.’ ‘Run Come Rally’ was recorded by Lee Perry at his Black Ark Studios, and the dub contains typical disruptive Perry touches, like cutting in and out on isolated syllables of the voice.
Jah Vengeance + Tubby’s Vengeance
Amazingly the album’s second track intensifies the sentiments of the first: ‘Jah Vengeance surely will come down on anyone / Who still insists to stay in wicked Babylon’. Its release as a single was backed by a stark King Tubby’s dub which perfectly highlights the end of days sentiments of the vocal, but Yabby explained that the backing track was again recorded at the Black Ark: ‘Black Ark was a great studio and Lee Perry is really a great producer with a great sound. You know the tune named “Jah Vengeance” and the one named “Run Come Rally” and the first song Wayne Wade do named “Black Is Our Colour”? Well I did those three tunes at Black Ark. Them times there Bob Marley used to be up there. Lee Perry have a unique sound when you recording. Is a pity him turn to the mad business, but between me and you I don’t really think him mad, you know, him just turn to that business. Him had to keep off certain artists who come pressure him for money. But sometime me think him take it too far.’
Conquering Lion + Conquering Dub + Big Youth Fights Against Capitalist
One of the most devastating debut singles of all time, the vision recounted in ‘Conquering Lion’ gave the young Vivian Jackson his nickname of Yabby You. Yabby told me the history of how he created this classic, expanded here with two of its most imaginative versions, a mix from the ‘King Tubby’s Prophesy of Dub’ album, and the brilliantly named B-side of Big Youth’s ‘Yabby Youth’. ‘I recorded the riddim down at Dynamic – the drum, the bass, the riddim guitar and the organ. From the day it do at Dynamic everyone know say it going to be a hit. Waterhouse and Gullybank was an underworld place, where most of the sufferers come from, and they never expect someone from Gullybank would make that quality or make that type of riddim. So all of them things there add together a lickle bit. “Chinna” did play the guitar, Aston “Familyman” Barrett play the bass and Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace play the drum. I never have the experience to know say well I must get a 4 track tape so we just use 2 track tape. So after we put on the riddim pon one track, we only had one track left and “Familyman” dub the organ onto that second track. The rest of the instrument them me dub on afterwards at Tubby’s. We dub on the horns, the voices – like the lead and the two harmony. And then that inspired you as a singer now to sing pon it comfortable, you know.’
Covetous Men
A stinging denunciation of greed, Yabby’s lyrics here move from attacking avarice in general to exposing the exploitation of the poor, ‘The big fishes feeding on the small ones’. Sadly no dub version exists for this track, which balances its message of condemnation with the optimistic conclusion that ‘Just through our faith, that’s why we overcome’.
Anti Christ + Anti Christ Rock
Yabby rails against dissembling and hypocrisy on a track renamed ‘Dem-A-Wolf’ on the ‘Ram-A-Dam’ album. ‘See them there / Them favour Christ but them a Anti-Christ.’ The dub shows King Tubby masterfully emphasizing the ‘flyers’ drum pattern.
Carnal Mind
This is probably the closest Yabby ever came to invoking the sound of a Pentecostal church meeting, as verses from the Books of Romans and Psalms are quoted in an uplifting devotional. With no dub existing for this track, we can only speculate on how Tubby might have transformed it.
Jah Love + Jah Love Dub + Warning Version
Originally released as a single with the title ‘Warn The Nation’, the lyrics call for an escape from the mental chains of slavery: ‘No shackles on our feet, no whip on our back / Yet I and I must realize we are still being enslaved’. The two Tubby’s dubs bring out different nuances of the backing track, particularly the heavy one drop drums and their repeating hi-hat pattern.
Love Thy Neighbour + Love Thy Neighbour Version
Yabby casts himself as a preacher addressing his flock after a unique intro featuring Richard ‘Dirty Harry’ Hall playing the fife, a simplified flute that originated in medieval Europe, and in Jamaica is usually made from bamboo. ‘Me used the fife, and people always wonder where me get that sound. Well sometimes we used like three fifes, like lead, tenor and alto, and that fife thing was a unique special sound. Tommy McCook would play one fife and you had this brother named “Dirty Harry” who used to blow tenor sax too, and then me would dub back the third one on top. You see, horns take a lot of time and very expensive. And those days reggae music was very poor, and so most producers try fe avoid using horns.’
Love Of Jah + Love Of Jah Version
A simple song elevated by strong harmonies and a plaintive lead, the dub version is sparse and stripped down, highlighting the insistent percussion.
The Man Who Does The Work + Work Without Pay Version
Like ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, this version is mixed without clean drums and bass. Both versions are compelling nonetheless: here echoes on the organ catch the ear, and both versions show varying degrees of high pass filtering across the mix. ‘Tubby’s have that precise timing like with all the echo. And him have that high pass filter – him have that sound inside of the board, and him did arrange it. Him was one of the greatest engineer, and him was a technician too, and him develop the sounds, like all the bass – him have resistors and things there and him make it become more round.’
Yabby’s music is both intense and warmly human, both militant and yet strangely fragile, a quality it shares with some of the greatest instrumentals by Augustus Pablo, who appears here on piano. The songs are defiant and strong, but at times seem almost translucent, inviting the listener in to share the vision of their composer. With King Tubby’s dub mixes reassembling the songs into fascinating new patterns, ‘Conquering Lion’ is a timeless classic of Jamaican reggae.
Diggory Kenrick
Born from ten-hour jam sessions in peeling Brighton bedsits, the technical parameters of a bootstrap recording process and the osmotic, multi-genre influence of internet music archives, quintet Ebi Soda have been steady-cultivating a unique sound amidst the exploding UK jazz scene.
Balancing irreverent musical and technical improvisation with an uncompromising instinct for vibe and prodigious musicianship, the Ebi ascent has been swift. Their eponymous debut EP, follow-up aptly titled “Bedroom Tapes” and debut LP ‘Ugh’ were originally released on Sola Terra, and won international plaudits, major radio plays and performances at Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here, London’s Jazz Re:Freshed, EFG London Jazz Festival and Latitude.
Despite their steep rise – the Brighton outfit have preserved as much as possible of their unique recording process, originating from their very first sessions. With just a two-track recorder around, the band would lay down whole takes, one instrument at a time, then immediately transform the overdub, digitally reshaping the sound with the same mischievous, adderall energy as the musical performance. This call-and-response between performance and production spurs an instinctive development – with musicality, player and producer egging one another on through naturally developing phases and textures.
‘Honk If You’re Sad’, their sophomore full-length album, stays true to these foundations, while bringing more ambitious experimentation, technical mastery and a stellar lineup of guest players to the studio including Yazz Ahmed, Deji Ijishakin and Dan Gray.
In typical Ebi style, while recalling jazz pioneers in playing style, ‘Honk If You’re Sad’ draws from a vast neural network of influences: the Ebi Brain has been marinating in a digital soup of trap, drill, dub, post-punk and no wave to name but a few. The result is a mercurial record that beams in psychedelia, dissonance, serene ambient passages, tough, neck-snapping beats and lush textures, all underscored by the intersection of jazz, hip hop and electronic music.
Across opening heaters, “Tang of the Zest” and “My Man from College”, Will Heaton’s trombone growls in and out of focus over a tight uptempo breakbeat. Deji Ijishakin’s tenor sax solo shrieks and shudders between lush layers of sound. Driving basslines, liquid keys, murmuring dissonant brass, delay and hazy reverb tumble into progressive cycles of frenetic climax and oceanic calm.
These patterns recur over the record. “Giraffe Bread” and “Listen, King” opens with a tight funk on the bass; short crisp phrases from drummer Sam Schlich-Davies dissipate in cascading dub echoes and the track opens into an instrumental, psychedelic jam, with rippling synth pads and trombone murmurs peeking out from a deep, reverberating soundscape. Ijishakin’s hyperactive sax solo on “Gated Community with a Public Pool” sits on a glitched-out rhythm section: a rocking, window-shaking bassline and sparse stuttering drums.
From influences as diverse as Kokoroko, Can, Lounge Lizards, BadBadNotGood, Ronin Arkestra, and The Fall, ‘Honk if You’re Sad’ focuses a cohesive whole; an explorative, playful and technically brilliant record that coaxes the listener through immersive phases of fun, chaos and harmony.
