LP, Kung Fu Bastard, Self-Titled, 2016 PRIV, Washington DC Avant Garde Jazz, NM
$
25
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Description
Jacket and LP in NEAR MINT CONDITION - no wear seen on either save for a tiny amount of corner wear on the jacket. LP stored in stiff original inner sleeve with photos and notes. LP looks rarely if ever played, very clean vinyl with no scratches on clean vinyl, will grade NM.
Here is part of a review of this LP from a local Washington DC weekly paper (it goes on for 3 more paragraphs - it can be easily found online if you want to read more...or just go ahead and buy the LP!):
"When Kung Fu Bastard debuted five years ago at Twins Jazz, they seemed to be in a perpetual state of flux. (I described them at the time as “an equation in which there is no constant.”) That’s still true, to a degree, on the self-titled debut album by multi-reedist Bobby Muncy and guitarist Anthony Pirog’s experimental jazz quartet. But Kung Fu Bastard’s metamorphoses are organized ones. Put another way, there’s still no constant, but the variables have pretty stable ranges. It’s fascinating, and it’s fun.
Appropriate to its vinyl format, Kung Fu Bastard comprises two distinct halves (not counting the download-only bonus track, the conventional-but-tasty postbop “Luchador”). The first follows the more distinct path: its three tracks placed from most to least weird; or, if you like, least to most accessible. Not to say that the opening “For the Love of Money”—a Pirog/Muncy original, not The O’Jays’—doesn’t have a hook. Indeed, Nathan Kawaller’s throbbing, ominous bass line promptly grabs the ear—and then promptly confuses it with meter-shifting rhythmic distortions. There follows a decidedly un-lyrical melody, then a long collective improvisation.
Muncy’s “It’s A Free Man Who Misses His Home,” on the other hand, does offer percussive, Ornette-esque lyricism and a melodic Ferguson solo. It’s “Nonet,” though, that transcends lyricism and achieves loveliness. It features the lush arrangement (thanks to heavy overdubs, with Ferguson doubling on drums and vibes and Muncy playing tenor, soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute) of a wistful ballad that’s equal parts Hoagy Carmichael and Hector Berlioz—though Pirog assails a notably darker bridge with a clanging-bell guitar tone. But much of the power comes from a pair of double-time Muncy solos, first on tenor, then on clarinet, with Pirog providing sinister underlines..."
R5
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