| The Last Wave | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 23, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | April 1995 at Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn, New York | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion, free jazz | |||
| Length | 60:23 | |||
| Label | DIW | |||
| Producer | Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Kazunori Sugiyama | |||
| Arcana chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Last Wave is the debut album by American jazz fusion band Arcana, released on July 23, 1996. This first album is largely improvised, and features the trio of English free jazz guitarist Derek Bailey, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and drummer Tony Williams.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [2] |
Brian Olewnick, writing for AllMusic, called "Broken Circle" "an astonishingly powerful piece of music," and commented: "Bailey... has his own utterly idiosyncratic approach to guitar playing and he rarely, if ever, adjusts that approach to the situation at hand. While Laswell and Williams lay down overwhelmingly strong and throbbing rhythmic grooves, Bailey soars, skronks and screams above, providing enormous and exhilarating tension. This is freely improvised rock at its finest." He concluded: "Bailey is consistently imaginative, coaxing undreamt of sounds from his guitar and providing the necessary creative fuel for this generally very successful session. In fact, listeners who have been cowed by Bailey's 'difficult' reputation could do worse than starting here." [1]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings stated that the group "packed interstellar power," and wrote: "The prospect of Bailey... recording with the most creative and open-minded drummer of his generation... was irresistable. The results were well up to expectation, clangorous, dark-toned music from territory out beyond either jazz or rock, or any conceivable industry hybrid." [2]
In a review for JazzTimes , Duck Baker stated: "The result is raucous, unique music that sounds like it's presented in the order recorded, and one hears, or imagines to hear, the musicians getting a handle on things as they progress... an extraordinarily successful set, one of Derek's best, but really a significant group improvisation." [3]
All music is composed by Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell and Tony Williams
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Broken Circle" | 11:04 |
| 2. | "Cold Blast" | 8:17 |
| 3. | "The Rattle of Bones" | 7:57 |
| 4. | "Pearls and Transformation" | 16:27 |
| 5. | "Tears of Astral Rain" | 8:06 |
| 6. | "Transplant Wasteland" | 8:32 |
| Total length: | 60:23 | |
Musicians
Production
Anthony Tillmon Williams was an American jazz drummer. Williams first gained fame as a member of Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet", and later pioneered jazz fusion with Davis' group and his own combo, the Tony Williams Lifetime. In 1970, music critic Robert Christgau described him as "probably the best drummer in the world." Williams was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1997.
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub, and ambient styles.
Future 2 Future is the thirty-eighth album by Herbie Hancock. Hancock reunited with producer Bill Laswell. The two tried to repeat the success of the three previous albums that combine jazz with electronic music.
Massacre was founded in 1980 in New York City by guitarist Fred Frith, bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher as an improvising and experimental rock band. They performed live for just over a year and recorded a studio album, Killing Time (1981). Frith and Laswell reformed Massacre in 1998 with drummer Charles Hayward, and released four more albums, Funny Valentine (1998), Meltdown (2001), Lonely Heart (2007) and Love Me Tender (2013). The last three albums were recorded live, the first in London, and the others at European festivals between 1999 and 2008.
Future Shock is the twenty-ninth album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in August 1983 by Columbia Records. It was his first release from his electro-funk era and an early example of instrumental hip hop. Participating musicians include bass guitarist Bill Laswell, guitarist Pete Cosey and drummer Sly Dunbar.
Sound-System is the thirtieth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and the second of three albums co-produced by Bill Laswell with the ‘Rockit’ Band. Guest artists include saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarist Henry Kaiser, kora player/percussionist Foday Musa Suso and drummer Anton Fier.
Perfect Machine is the thirty-second album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. It was the third and final album in Hancock’s series co-produced by Bill Laswell. Guests include bassist Bootsy Collins.
Arcana was an American jazz fusion band that formed in 1995 and originally comprised guitarist Derek Bailey, bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Tony Williams. The original lineup released one album, The Last Wave, in July 1996, before Bailey left the band. Guitar duties for the second album were recorded by guest musicians Nicky Skopelitis and Buckethead, and Arc of the Testimony was released in October 1997. The band split up after the release of their second album due to the death of Williams in February 1997.
Quiet is an album by jazz guitarist John Scofield. As with his 1992 album Grace Under Pressure, Scofield chose to integrate a horn section into his compositions. The album also features bass guitarist Steve Swallow, and drummer Bill Stewart. Quiet is unique in Scofield's discography as he plays only acoustic guitar. Veteran saxophonist Wayne Shorter appears on several tracks. Scofield returned to this album's format of a trio with orchestration on This Meets That in 2007.
I Can See Your House from Here is a 1994 jazz album by guitarists John Scofield and Pat Metheny. Scofield is heard on the left channel and Metheny on the right in this stereo recording. The band is rounded out by bass guitarist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart.
Mold is the fourth studio album made by experimental music group Praxis, released in 1998. Despite being released under the Praxis name the group's usual musicians, guitarist Buckethead and drummer Brain, are absent; frontman Bill Laswell is the only member that appeared on earlier releases to be included on the album.
Arc of the Testimony is the second and final album by the American jazz fusion band Arcana. It was released on bassist Bill Laswell's Axiom label on October 14, 1997. Unlike the trio configuration on the first album, this project features a spacier, slightly less abstract form of fusion music. Bill Laswell and drummer Tony Williams composed and developed the music, and co-produced the album together.
The Baptised Traveller is the debut album by English free-jazz drummer Tony Oxley, which was recorded in 1969, released on CBS as part of their Realm Jazz Series and reissued on CD by Columbia in 1999. The album, the first of a trilogy that Oxley recorded for major labels, has enjoyed legendary status for years as an avant-garde classic.
Last Exit is the eponymously titled live performance debut album of the free jazz group Last Exit. It was released in 1986 by Enemy Records.
Into the Outlands is the second live performance album by world music and jazz fusion ensemble SXL, released in 1988 by Celluloid Records.
Standards is an album by American jazz reedist Ken Vandermark, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the Quinnah label.
Solo Guitar is a solo album by guitarist Derek Bailey which was recorded in London in February 1971 and became the second release by Incus. A revised version of this album with alternative improvisations was released as Solo in 1978. In 1995 a CD version incorporating improvisations from the original and revised LPs was released. In 2017 Honest Jon's issued a 45 RPM double LP edition that added one more track on side D, a 1972 improvisation at York University.
Guitar, Drums 'n' Bass is an album by free improvisation guitarist Derek Bailey, released by Avant Records in 1996. After spending several years improvising his guitar to the sound of jungle and drum and bass music on pirate radio, Bailey proposed to collaborator John Zorn that he make an album of his musical fusion. Zorn then contacted Birmingham-based drum and bass producer D.J. Ninj to provide the musical backing, who recorded his contributions in spring 1995. After a failed session with engineer Mick Harris, Bailey recorded his overlaid guitar improvisations in Bill Laswell's New York City studio in October 1995, slightly altering Ninj's contributions to remove electric piano passages.
No Material is a live album by the band of the same name, featuring drummer Ginger Baker, electric guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Nicky Skopelitis, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, and bassist Jan Kazda. It was recorded on March 28, 1987, at Mühle Hunziken in Rubigen, Switzerland, and was released on CD in 1989 by the German label ITM Records. In 2013, ITM reissued the album as a two-CD set, with a second disc containing music that was recorded on March 25, 1987, at Theaterfabrik München in Munich, Germany. These additional tracks had originally been released by the Voiceprint label in 2010 with the title Live in Munich Germany 1987.
