Tony Scott

Featuring: The Indonesian Allstars

Tony Scott had left New York in 1959, played in a Hindu temple, spent years in Japan and Indonesia, and made Music for Zen Meditation for Verve in 1964. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who had been recording jazz with koto players and Tunisian drummers for SABA since 1965, put him together with the Indonesian All Stars: pianist Bubi Chen, guitarist Jack Lesmana, saxophonist Marjono and a rhythm section that includes the deep gongs of a gamelan. Djanger Bali, 1967, is the result, and MPS still lists it among its own notable releases.

Kevin Whitehead, reviewing the reissue for NPR's Fresh Air, notes that Indonesians had been playing jazz since the 1920s and Western improvisers had been borrowing exotic scales all decade, so the mix was not far-fetched. He finds the gamelan gongs exotic in a good way and hears Scott, more liberated by the meeting than his hosts, pushing them out of their comfort zone; the rhythmic interaction gets intricate, the textures on Summertime get odd, and not everything pans out, but the experimenters find things they were not looking for. UK Vibe calls it a masterpiece and singles out Burungkaka Tua, which Nicola Conte put on his Cosmic Forest MPS compilation.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's MPS series.