CHRIS MCGREGOR — Brotherhood (review)

CHRIS MCGREGOR — Brotherhood album cover Album · 1971 · Progressive Big Band Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Of the very cosmopolitan London jazz scene of the late 60’s and early 70’s, one of the most important non-UK community was the Soth-African delegation (most likely fleeing the Apartheid regime), of which the most famous was Manfred Mann, but names like Harry Miller and Chris McGregor were also white-skinned objectors. Others where definitely of an African descent; musicians like drummer Louis Moholo, trumpeter Mongezi Feza, XXX Dudu Pakwanu, but let’s not include the Barbados-born Harry Beckett, just yet. Both the Chris McGregor Brotherhood Of Breath and Harry Miller’s Isipingo might have been South-African bands had they not been based in London and featured mostly the who’s who of the scene. Indeed, in the fairer-skinned camp, we can count trombonist Griffiths and Evans, trumpeters Charig and Beckett (sorry, Harry), sax-wonders like Skidmore, Osborne and Windo, most of whom looked like a bunch of extremist hippies next to the South-African contingent. So while the extended wind section seemed very or mainly British, the rhythm section was mainly South-African with Miller (bass), Moholo (drums) and McGregor (piano).

The BoB group was always a mix of avant-garde jazz and more traditional big-band, and by all means the group’s second studio effort is mostly just that, even if the avant-garde side is often dominant. Sooooo, most of the tracks on the present are hovering between a progressive big-band universe, all the way to the dissonant near-free-jazz realm, but both genres collide, sometimes/often within a single track. Indeed, having in your band players like Gary Windo, Alan Skidmore and Mike Osborne, you can’t expect it to come out like Ella Armstrong or Duke Goodman. Indeed, if tracks like the opening Nick Tete or Think Of Something are more or less traditional or progressive big-band jazz, while other tracks like Joyful Noises and to a lesser extent Do It are definitely cross-bastardizing and transcending borders. Most casual jazz fans will find the avant-garde side a bit over-bearing, and to be honest, even an avant-head like me finds it a bit much at times. McGregor’s piano seems to be stuck on the 200 notes/second mode, though.

The BoB project is definitely not for the faint-hearted or delicate-ears, and if you feel you’re aimed at, you might want to investigate the less-extreme Harry Miller’s Isipingo, who shared a consequent number of musicians a few years later. Definitely one of the London scene’s more extreme band, the BoB is unavoidable if you want to investigate more or less extensively that era’s music scene, but it’s not like it’s all that essential a listen either.
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