Sealed LP: Embryo: We Keep On… Feat. Charlie Mariano

$

103

Embryo: We Keep On… Feat. Charlie Mariano

FACTORY SEALED LP

• Abdul Malek
• Don't Come Tomorrow
• Ehna, Ehna, Abu Lele
• Hackbrett-Dance
• No Place to Go
• Flute and Saz

• Roman Bunka: Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Saz, Bass (Electric), Vocals
• Christian Burchard: Percussion, Drums, Keyboards, Marimba, Mellophonium, Vocals, Mellotron, Vibraphone
• Embryo: Producer
• Charlie Mariano: Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano), Nagaswarm, Bamboo Flute
• Dieter Miekautsch: Bass, Piano, Keyboards, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes
• Othmar Schreckeneder: Producer

• We Keep On is the German art/jazz rock band Embryo's most successful recording. It's also one of their best. In late 1972, saxophonist Charlie Mariano joined Embryo along with guitarist Roman Bunka. Mariano's already encyclopedic knowledge of world music forms was a welcome addition to the band; they sought to fuse jazz and space rock -- à la their countrymen Can -- with the various rhythms and harmonic sensibilities of folk musics across the globe. Bunka also played the Turkish saz and was a great, if unconventional, vocalist. Embryo's leader, Christian Burchard, took up everything from drums to marimba to Mellotron on this set to complement pianist Dieter Miekautsch's Rhodes and clavinet work. And Mariano played not only sax and flute but nagasuram and bamboo flutes as well. Here, on "Ehna, Ehna, Abu Lele," West African rhythms danced with jazz rock and wove something entirely new from the roots of both. On "Hackbrett-Dance," saz, marimba, and percussion became something out of time and space that might have come from any North African nation, but found a place in the tripped-out world of psychedelic space music as well -- check the recordings of Angus MacLise for a frame of reference here. But it is on the Miles-influenced jazz-funk of "No Place to Go," which used the Jack Johnson groove to achieve new rock ecstasies, that the album really comes into view for its revolutionary contribution to the language of assimilation. The CD version also contains two welcome bonus tracks from the session, a nearly 16-minute "Ticket to India" and an eight-and-a-half-minute extended improv called "Flute, Saz and Marimba" that could have come from one of Don Cherry's early-'70s recordings. Highly recommended.

• One of the most original and innovative Krautrock bands, Embryo fused traditional ethnic music with their own jazzy space rock style. Over their 30-year existence, during which Christian Burchard has been the only consistent member, the group has traveled the world, playing with hundreds of different musicians and releasing over 20 records.
• Originally a jazzy space rock group, Embryo was formed in 1969 in Munich, Germany, by former R&B and jazz organist Christian Burchard (vibraphone, hammer dulcimer, percussion, marimba), Edgar Hofmann (saxophone), Luther Meid (bass), Jimmy Jackson (organ), Dieter Serfas (drums, percussion), Wolfgang Paap (drums), Ingo Schmidt (saxophone), and John Kelly (guitar). However, the lineup was already different by the time of the sessions for their debut album. The resulting record, Opal (1970), is considered the band's masterpiece of their early, more psychedelic sound. By the time of Embryo's Rache (1971), the group was already adding ethnic touches to their music.
• In 1972, the same year they played at the Olympic Games in Munich, Embryo was invited by the Goethe Institute to tour Northern Africa and Portugal. In Morocco, the band was fascinated by the different tonal scales used by Moroccan musicians, profoundly shaping the group's music to come. In 1973, the band was joined by saxophonist Charlie Mariano and guitarist Roman Bunka, who were both influential in moving Embryo towards their genre-blending mixture of space rock with ethnic sounds. We Keep On, released in 1973, was the most successful album in the group's career. However, after Surfin' (1974) and Bad Heads and Bad Cats (1975), Burchard decided the band was moving in too commercial a direction and led them on an eight-month excursion to India, where they met local musicians. Shoba Gurtu, an Indian singer the band met during their travels, would later record an album with them, 1979's Apo Calypso. Embryo also set up their own record label, Schneeball, with the rock band Checkpoint Charlie during this time. The band then took off on a two-year journey through the Middle East, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, during which the band's bus broke down in Tehran in the middle of a civil war in 1981. The double album Embryo Reise (1981) captured this musical expedition as did the documentary film Vagabunden-Karawane. After touring Asia, the Middle East, and Egypt during the early '80s, Embryo released their first studio album in seven years, Zack Gluck, in 1984. The band then toured Africa and became involved with Nigeria's Yoruba Dun Dun Ensemble. However, after internal conflicts, Embryo split up. Burchard then continued under the name of Embryo with new musicians while a new group, Embryos Dissidenten, was formed. The band released 2001 Live: Vol. 1.


• Charlie Mariano biography by Scott Yanow
• Charlie Mariano's career can easily be divided into two phases. Early on he was a fixture in Boston, playing with Shorty Sherock (1948), Nat Pierce (1949-1950), and his own groups. After gigging with a band co-led by Chubby Jackson and Bill Harris, Mariano toured with Stan Kenton's Orchestra (1953-1955) which earned him a strong reputation. He moved to Los Angeles in 1956 (working with Shelly Manne and other West Coast jazz stars), returned to Boston to teach in 1958 at Berklee, and the following year, had a return stint with Kenton. After marrying Toshiko Akiyoshi, Mariano co-led a group with the pianist on and off up to 1967, living in Japan during part of the time and also working with Charles Mingus (1962-1963).
• The second phase of his career began with the formation of his early fusion group Osmosis in 1967. Known at the time as a strong bop altoist with a sound of his own developed out of the Charlie Parker style, Mariano began to open his music up to the influences of folk music from other cultures, pop, and rock. He taught again at Berklee, traveled to India and the Far East, and in the early '70s settled in Europe. Among the groups Mariano has worked with have been Pork Pie (which also featured Philip Catherine), the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble, and Eberhard Weber's Colours. Charlie Mariano's airy tones on soprano and the nagaswaram (an Indian instrument a little like an oboe) fit right in on some new agey ECM sessions and he also recorded as a leader through the years for Imperial, Prestige, Bethlehem, World Pacific, Candid (with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1960), Regina, Atlantic, Catalyst, MPS, CMP, Leo, and Calig, among others.

FINE PRINT

• All pictures are of the exact item being sold.
• This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their leftover inventory some years later when I owned a new & used record store in Catasauqua called "Music Madness".
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