Jackson, Ronald Shannon and the Decoding Society - Montreux Jazz Festival
SKU
KnitFact 3031
Highly recommended. Buy this now! Excellent quality, now out of print live recording of the Decoding Society in the middle primo, recorded live 7/21/83. RSJ is a monster drummer, and his band was a serious killer of harmolodic punk/jazz. In my opinion, in the early 80's, the downtown punk/jazz guys (Ulmer, Curlew, Material, Massacre, etc) were THE interesting music scene happening in the USA and RSJ's Decoding Society were one of the greatest. This features Vernon Reid-guitar (and boy Vernon was great with this group!), Henry Scott-trumpet, Zane Massey-saxes, Bruce Johnson & Melvin Gibbs-basses and RSJ on drums. Great, rocking stuff!
"Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society is one of those groups that doesn't quite get the attention it should be, given that it served as the launching point for the careers of Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs and Zane Massey, among others. This formation of the band, featuring two horns (Massey on saxes and Henry Scott on trumpet), two basses (Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson), and Reid on guitar and banjo alongside drummer Jackson, was one of the most dynamic and exciting formations of the groups-- captured live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The album is more or less exciting, adventerous fusion/free funk, drawing in parts from Ornette coleman's Prime Time bands-- Scott and Massey blow with controlled abandon, each performs at least one frantic and brilliant solo (Massey on "Mother's Day", Scott on "Zane's Fangs"). Reid, for his part is remarkably restrained throughout, particularly given what his reputation is known for with Living Colour, but he plays fiercely on "Alice in the Congo", taking a manic solo that owes as much to Robert Fripp as it does to the oft-compared Jimi Hendrix. But really the most interesting work is the interaction between the two bassists, who twist and turn around each other, assume lead roles and counter now and again ("Iola") and remarkably manage to stay out of each other's way. Jackson, for his part, is nothing short of brilliant-- sitting his drumming somewhere delicately between convention and free jazz idioms."-Michael Stack