Third Ear Band "Magic Music" & "Live"
(UK Raga-Rock 1990, 1996)
"Magic Music" (Materiali Sonori MASO CD 90016, 1990), recorded in the studio except for the live 1989 14-minute 'Third Ear Raga', introduced Neil Black's microtonal MIDI violin and the soprano sax and flute of Lyn Dobson (formerly with Soft Machine). Dobson brought a flowing, often lyrical free jazz dimension to the existing ethnic pulse; Sweeney affixed the label "free ragas".
*Not to be confused with the Magic Music (aka New Age Magical Music, Blueprint BP257 CD, 1997)
No date(s) or venue(s) given for the previously unreleased performances on "Live" (Voiceprint VP 157 CD, 1996), though the Sweeney/Carter/Dobson/Black line-up suggests the festival gigs of 1989, prior to Magic Music of 1990. Live features pulsating versions of 'Sun Ra Raga', 'Third Ear Raga' and 'Behind The Pyramids' (here titled 'Pyramid Song'), all from Magic Music, and 'Live Ghosts' from Live Ghosts (1988). 'Hymn To The Sphynx', new to me, is a promising jazz influenced raga, yet marred by fade-in/fade-out editing. Most powerful is the version of 'Egyptian Book Of The Dead' from the 1969 debut Alchemy - an engaging collision of ethnic, free jazz and noise improvising with Dobson's fiery soprano in fine fettle.
(UK Raga-Rock 1990, 1996)
"Magic Music" (Materiali Sonori MASO CD 90016, 1990), recorded in the studio except for the live 1989 14-minute 'Third Ear Raga', introduced Neil Black's microtonal MIDI violin and the soprano sax and flute of Lyn Dobson (formerly with Soft Machine). Dobson brought a flowing, often lyrical free jazz dimension to the existing ethnic pulse; Sweeney affixed the label "free ragas".
*Not to be confused with the Magic Music (aka New Age Magical Music, Blueprint BP257 CD, 1997)
No date(s) or venue(s) given for the previously unreleased performances on "Live" (Voiceprint VP 157 CD, 1996), though the Sweeney/Carter/Dobson/Black line-up suggests the festival gigs of 1989, prior to Magic Music of 1990. Live features pulsating versions of 'Sun Ra Raga', 'Third Ear Raga' and 'Behind The Pyramids' (here titled 'Pyramid Song'), all from Magic Music, and 'Live Ghosts' from Live Ghosts (1988). 'Hymn To The Sphynx', new to me, is a promising jazz influenced raga, yet marred by fade-in/fade-out editing. Most powerful is the version of 'Egyptian Book Of The Dead' from the 1969 debut Alchemy - an engaging collision of ethnic, free jazz and noise improvising with Dobson's fiery soprano in fine fettle.
posted by Lizardson at 7:04 PM
2 Comments:
thank you so much for this - i bought my first 3rd ear lp in '72 and have continued slowly over the years magic music escaped me somehow.
thank you for this...great blog.
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