Hymn To The Universe

When the mighty 12 Houses assembled in October, 2022 we had 2 goals. The first one was to record The Crop Circles Suite, part one. The second was to record tunes from our book that we developed during our year long Sunday residency at NuBlu Classic, on the LES of NYC on avenue C. We worked non-stop for 2 days, about 16 hours to try and get it all in. Crop Circles was released here on Mahakala and was well received.

The wild thing about our residency was that we had 2 sets every week to try out new material. I had a composer's dream, and why Duke kept the band going, to hear his music. We had already been performing mostly in Brooklyn for about 7 years, a period documented on our 2 releases on Unseen Rain. Being able to write new music every week, I tried everything. Sometimes I ran out of gas and arranged music from the masters instead. We had an Albert Ayler week, Ornette week, Wayne Shorter week, and Alice Coltrane week (twice for Alice). These 5 pieces were all conceived of and arranged during that time.

Hathor is the Egyptian goddess of Love. I have a spiritual connection to Ancient Egypt that is difficult to explain, but very real. An astrologer worked on my chart once and deduced that I had 6 lifetimes there. The next level was that when I started painting I suddenly drew and painted both the gods Hathor and Thoth, but had Hathor holding a tenor saxophone, while Thoth was holding a trumpet and a bass clarinet. This painting came from somewhere in an act of mysticism. Cheryl Pyle, a true believer in the flute, leads us off with Jose Luis Abreu on hand percussion. Next, I try to invoke time travel and take us to Ancient Egypt in all its glory. I took a big chance by soloing myself with my piccolo clarinet that belonged to Giuseppi Logan. I was still developing on it. I was absolutely inspired by the clarinet playing of clarinet master Sweet Lee Odom, who was playing soprano saxophone in the session. To close, the great Art Baron joined Jose once again. Art played Great Bass Recorder. Indeed, Art played recorder with Duke Ellington on his Third Sacred Concert.

I was at Ornette Coleman’s loft with him one day and he declared “The major is white, and the minor is black! What do you think?!

I was stunned by the levels this question contained. I decided to take the idea to the extreme and write a piece that was entirely a non stop back and forth of minor to major. This is as close as I have ever come to a symphonic type piece. I wrote lyrics and tried to write about the reality of the American story of Black and White. Clearly, there is so much work to be done after the tragedy and spiritual crime of slavery. Nicole Davis takes us to the center with her healing flugelhorn. Nicole has that unique relationship with sound that I refer to as the blue flame. Check out her entrance on her solo.

Next was a very special and unique moment. I heard a recording of my mother-in-law in Zimbabwe, who wrote and spoke this poem about her birth. I noticed immediately that when she said her same IVANI, she literally wrote the music for this piece, constructed on the actual notes she used in her declarative annunciation. To go even deeper, I asked my wife Sue to read the poem with us. Her very personal rendition brings core humanity to the piece. Sue had 2 requests, and that was that Ras Moshe and Lee Odom would take solos, and this is exactly what we did. Check out what happens when they join forces. After the take, Lee declared “Ivani!”

When my long time close friend and musical ally Francois Grillot was entering his twilight on Earth he asked me that if anything should happen to him, that we record his piece Hymn to the Universe and dedicate it to his daughter Charlotte. Francois wrote this waltz in tribute to his parents when he was growing up in Burgundy, France. The piece features flute player and Francois' wife, Mary Cherney in a very heartfelt performance. Stephanie Griffin and Cheryl Pyle were both close with Francois, and they joined her. Francois was my musical advisor, and when I told him I needed a flute and a viola he said “You need Mary Cherney and Stephanie Griffin.”

Here as Francois requested is Hymn to the Universe, dedicated to Charlotte Grillot.

Finally, our 12 Houses anthem NO MORE HATE! We played this many times in many different ways and it was a hit at NuBlu with the audience often joining in. No More Hate was the follow up to our other anthem, Dump Trump. One thing I learned from Matana Roberts is how to let words speak out in music in new and creative ways. Sometimes the whole band would stop and we would all just chant freely, no more hate! On this version I tried to do another 12 Houses live performance device which was me talking to the Zodiac Saxophone quartet. Pocket trumpet vs 4 saxes in a battle of love improvisation.

Claire Daly is heard here on her last time in the recording studio. She was always fond of 2 words I try to say often, and what this recording is all about.

Big Love