Very Urgent

Chris McGregor Group
Very Urgent
Fledg'ling
2008

Recorded in 1968, Very Urgent is a different bird entirely, presenting the core Blue Notes lineup with fellow expat countryman Ronnie Beer on tenor. Originally issued on Polydor, it marks the recording debut outside South Africa of McGregor, Feza, Pukwana and Beer. Beer is decidedly less well-known than the rest of the group; he worked in Paris with Sunny Murray, Alan Silva, Francois Tusques and Kenneth Terroade in the late 1960s and early 1970s, eventually leaving music for sailing.

Though clearly derived from the same set of influences and experiences that inspired the Brotherhood of Breath, Very Urgent is less riff- and head-oriented, using simple motifs as springboards for improvisation in modes that wouldn't be out of place in the New York free milieu or early European free jazz. McGregor's warhorse "Traveling Somewhere" makes an appearance segued from Pukwana's "Marie My Dear," the most inside portion of the date and, ironically, in some ways closer to their eventual direction than the O.C.T. (Ornette/Cecil/Trane, credit due Joe McPhee) explorations elsewhere.

The three-horn front line fleshes out Pukwana's ballad, slow and easy kindling for the fire to come, McGregor's background of seeming hunt-and-peck and fragmentary runs creating tension with the thematic material. A brief solo statement from the altoist signals the township soul of the next piece, a ragged comment on Art Blakey/Horace Silver that quickly leads into Feza's brittle runs, seemingly undecided of whether he wants facility or pure force of air/sound and settling on both. McGregor's arpeggios and clusters are fully apparent in both a pared-down unit and clean recording; his affinity, whether considered or chance, with early Cecil Taylor, is in focus. Moholo's drum-circle architecture in tandem with Dyani's relentless swing is perfect driving support for Pukwana's keening flight, while piano and tenor come to near blows.

"The Sounds Begin Again" has more in common with pieces like Alexander von Schlippenbach's "Rhythm Change" and other early Euro-freedom, a quick tenor-and-trumpet line that erupts into shards, smears and squawks as the rhythm section paints a canvas of pounding gesture and suspended time. Beer's bent honks and heel-digging screams find Ayler as their jumping-off point, though Moholo's continual bomb-drops ring like chimes in opposition to Sunny Murray's cracking of glass.

The rhythmic approach is why this music, as much as it offers alms to American free jazz, will never sound Americanized (or even Afro-Americanized)-- the steady breathing of active yet suspended time and contrast of both circular and field-like motifs is African, and entirely Louis Moholo. As much as the music of Chris McGregor and his cohorts are township bop and in the tradition, they equally upend it in ways we're still dealing with.

Tracks and Personnel

Tracks: Marie My Dear/Travelling Somewhere; Heart's Vibrations; The Sounds Begin Again/White Lies; Don't Stir the Beehive.

Personnel: Chris McGregor: piano; Johnny Dyani: bass; Louis Moholo: drums; Mongezi Feza: pocket trumpet; Dudu Pukwana: alto saxophone; Ronnie Beer: tenor saxophone.