Produced, arranged, and performed
by Earth People
Recorded live March 10, 2001 at CTV Studios, Staten Island NY
Composed by A.Martinez & D.Principato
Lyrics by M
Audio multi-tracked by Keith "seed" Purpura & Dan Gaydos
Mixed by Jason Candler & Doug "grand pepper" Principato at Sound
Dimensions, New York City
Mastered by Bill Siegmund at Digital Island Studios, New York City
Poster & front cover ink drawing by Lauren Martinez
Video directed by Greg Principato
Psychedelic Canvas by Peaceful John Slackman
Lyric editing & transcription by B.King
Executive producers - André Martinez, Jason Candler & Doug "grand
pepper" Principato
1. Earth People (36:23)
expressions in five episodes
- invocation
- initiation
- journey
- arrival
- transcendence of metamorphosis
2. Don't Think About It (http://?) (28:59)
André Martinez - DW "Timeless Timber" drums,
cocktail set, balafons, gongs, doumbek, talking drums & percussion
Doug "grand pepper" Principato - acoustic & electric
guitars, "piano" synth, tin whistle, sample
M - vocals & incantations
Karen Borca - bassoon+
Jason Candler - alto sax, doumbek
Daniel Carter - flute, alto/tenor saxophone, trumpet
Sabir Mateen - alto/tenor saxophone, flute, alto clarinet
Mark Hennen - B3 emulator, synthesizer
Francóis Grillot - contrabass
Gary Miles - bass clarinet, baritone guitar, electric
bass, flutophone
Matt Lavelle - trumpet, bass clarinet
Ricardo Solis - congas, bun buns, moroccan clay drums,
quataca, caixixis, djembe, jun juns, rainstick
Dan Gaydos - sitar, electric guitar
REVIEWS
Click to view, CTRL-click to download.
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Chris Forbes
Cosmic Debris / Oct. 2004 |
LINER NOTES
Earth...the planet we inhabit, third in order from the sun...a
tribe a race a nation of living creatures...Earth
People trying to wake the Living...returning all the music in the
world, putting it back together and
returning it to the Earth...every kind of music with no restrictions
in an undivided vision...
They don't say they are a band they say
they are Earth People...people who play the music of the
Earth...not a Jazz band not a Rock band but they don't like to
say that they are not any thing because they
are any thing...Free Music...Free Rock Free Funk Free Jazz...Earth
People are it...from east west south
and north...prehistoric music, 20th-century-classical-avant-garde
timeless ageless...a Free Music
revolution... magic convolution...music is free and Love is free.
Leading
us to the rhythm is a madwoman...ridiculously ethereal goddess,
high-priestess invoking
spirits...she is the hopeful lady of the Earth...the reason the
rhythm is in your head is so you can love.
Earth People they trained
for battle on a field of palettes...painted real notes with the
rhythm of the life-
force and got into the groove...hammered it out with drum and horn
and string...wrenched it calamitous,
calefactory, catastrophous out of the flood to dry land on an Earth ark...a
rhythm of roads, rivers, of feet,
hands...clouds spirits and raindrops on ancient roads...seeds and bones and
ancestors' graves and fields of
grain and fallen stars...Earth rhythm and water rhythm the rhythm of Love and
the rhythm of Space.
Standing next to you on the street, is that an Earth Person?
They say that we are all Earth People...we
listen to it, grow from it, make the music and the art of Earth...
Earth
People move...when you move it is a movement...move, People! Move
and feel the rhythm of the
day...Evolution-revolution, no more bullshit she swears...flowers
of the night inspired by Love to give you
this, a Love-text...it's the rhythm of your own heart.
You are a citizen of the Earth...
You are Earth...
You belong to the planet...
You are for movement...
The Earth's rhythm makes it clear
And sounds abound through the underground.
--Bernard King
Mercy Villa
New York City, September 22, 2001
Poem for the Earth People
by Dan Gaydos
Earth People are the common ground
The salt of the earth
Fallow ground
Where anything can grow
The people who bear witness to the far reaches
Of the human spirit
Exploding seed of human potential
A people who see no barriers between time
Past present and future
Who connect with the ancestors
And are a direct link to the cosmos
... and beyond
LYRICS
(by M, edited by Bernard King)
Earth People
The Eternalty beginning...
Oh, the rhythm of the Earth
I see all the people moved
By the rhythm of the Earth
People moved by the rhythm of Time and Space
People trying just to
Find out about all the things that they don't know about
People are speaking it, moving it
Following all over the Earth just to find out
People, Earth People
Rhythm is movement, rhythm is laughter...
People in some kind of
movement in the roads
People are being, they're moving through the jungle
Feel the rhythm of day,
Hear the rhythm of the Earth, People!
You can move to the rhythm
Earth People feel the rhythm of Life run them
Love is mystery
If Life is mystery and Love is mystery
Then where will we be?
Earth People move and Earth People groove
And Earth People feel the rhythm move around them
They feel alive, they breathe Love
People are moving, Earth People are dancing Life
Earth People move and Earth People dance freely
Sometimes the People
don't understand the reason
The reason the rhythm is in your head is to love
Somebody's gonna tell us one day that
it's always been the same
That we have to know ourselves
Somebody some day is gonna lead us to the rhythm
Some day we'll understand
the rhythm and the movement
And the flow of all the things that live on Earth
Real soon there will be no injury
And no more bullshit will prevail, I swear
Yeah, understanding every last thing,
Understanding why we move,
Understanding what we are
Beauty's water makes us all so sad
The finest thing that people ever had has been
risen to the lowest depth of being without seeing
the examples of evolution, revolution
People, wake up!
Sounds abound through the underground
making beautiful music for us all
Blues infuse the way we live
Music is, oh man, just is
Spring and fall,
The rhythm of it all
Ye, le le le, Obba So
Falling in water makes my body cold
Lake of old I clearly see
Just where that leads you back to me,
Oh polluted water
But my mind's made clear today
Because I am a person of the Earth moving on
I am a Citizen of the Earth, I belong to the planet
I am for movement
I am Earth
Don't Think About It (http://?)
Formed too soon for my pleasure, gone too quickly for me to get
it back
I gotta know, why should I think about it
Baby, it's the reason to everything but I won't think about it
Just work it out of my mind, I won't even consider
We've all gotten
it together good
To say that everything we do is Love,
Not thinking about it
It's fired by Love,
I desire my Love to sing and play for you
We are inspired by Love to give you this
We are inspired by Love to show you
In the land of imagination
If you want to be alive inside and feel your heart beat with some
pride at being alive
We learned not to think about it, yeah Love
If we want to get anywhere in life
If you want to get rid of all this trouble and strife
We learn not to think about it
Just move ahead and try to decipher what the truth is
And just try to figure it out, another way to get you through the
day
We learned not to think about it and just try to live our lives
without it
We learned how to stay together and no matter what the weather
We're gonna fight for what we know
We are here to sound
Ye, le le le, Obba So
We won't think about it
QUOTES
"hey EARTH PEOPLE- what wonderful sounds, sure increased
my bliss. thanks. hope there's more to come since sound is empty, unarisen
and unceasing. bleassings" - Phil Sentner, Peacham, VT
"Pretty cool ... you guys know
how to get out there with the best of them (sun ra , art ensemble w fontella
bass)" - Don of Don's Music, Brooklyn, NY
"Earth People is a beautiful
cd production, a labor of love..." - Jeff Schlanger
"Earth People is a Sun Ra-like cosmic blast..." - Bruce
Lee Gallater (Downtown Music Gallery)
"Outstanding CD. A beautiful job. It made my day." - Roy Campbell
"Its nice to see folks do things on
such a grand scale! Very ambitious, hell the phone calls alone must be crazy." -
Robert Aaron (Wyclef Jean)
"...Let me know when you want
to mount another major assault. Nothing but love..." - Dee Pop
(curator, CBGB Free Jazz nights)
"Your CD sounds and looks great!!! I am really digging it.
M is extraordinary!" - Kali Fasteau
"OH! The Earth People CD is great, and a splendid package it is too. Quite
a production ... Very cool." - Rick Lopez (sessionographer)
The
making of Waking
the Living by
the grand pepper of reality
On
the morning of March 10, 2001, we ascended on the CTV sound
stage like warriors preparing for battle. The clock was ticking,
we had only four hours to set up, film and record live to
my multi-track tape machines, a monstrous 13-piece band with
an arsenal of equipment and instruments. The layout was diagramed
and carefully planned in subsequent meetings we had with
director, Greg Principato, and CTV staff. Our production
yielded the need to "bend" the rules at CTV so it could be successful.
One was adding Jon Slackman's images in post production to
the chroma key backdrop. The plan was put into motion and an
air of organized insanity started to take shape. Our driver
arrived with a vanload of Earth People, most of who met at
Mark Hennen's loft in lower Manhattan. Keith Purpura, our sound
engineer, and his assistant hurried to set up microphones.
Jason Candler and I would tackle the task of mixing it down
later. The layout of the band was so expansive; its total image
could not fit in one frame. The camera crew had to shoot, literally
with their backs to the wall.
Earth
People congregated in the green room where Andre' and I handed
out the outline of musical modes and the different sections.
We explained to the band our overall concept. If we gave them
a melody, time signature, and/or musical style, we knew they
would instinctually create revealing golden tones. We created
the basic harmonic and rhythmic structures weeks prior and
rehearsed them with Jason and the rhythm section. The rest
of Earth People were in the room together existing as a whole
unit for the first time.
It
was time to "storm" the musical front when CTV producer,
Tom Merrick, announced, "quiet on the set." Tom had produced
several shows for me in the past and CTV proved to be an ideal
place to both film and record Earth People. The band took off
in a blaze of glory, operating through a collective form of
telepathy. The faulty monitors did not prevent the group from
effortlessly flowing through the different sections performing
as one powerful mind. At the end of the first piece, Earth
People, an expression in five episodes, a crewmember said, "I
felt like I was having an out of body experience." We
were all riding high on the energy as we took a break
to eat a home cooked meal provided by Angela, Tom's wife.
We were charged up for the next piece, which was to be
the funk / free jazz crafted, Don't Think About It (http://).
As the band grooved hard and long, erupting into various
stages of climax, we formed abstract landscapes with
layers of the twelve-tone theme over relentless pulses.
The entire room shook as everyone burst into dance. The
furious beat eased down into the meditative conclusion,
which led us all to believe we were in a dream, only
to realize we had been awake... waking the living.
grand pepper of reality / march 3, 2002 11:39 pm
Special Thanks to: Tom Merrick, Bern Hajdenberg, Hank Martinez & shop,
the crew at CTV Staten Island, Greg Principato, Keith "seed" Purpura,
the Museum of Sound Recording, and to all our family and friends for
putting up with our shit.
To Cecil Taylor: "Maestro, thank you for the decade of friendship, guidance, & music
we shared globally; for all the triumph and the downs we endured together,
for they all led to the inspiration for this recording; one you are sure
to understand. Thanks again. Your old friend, André."
In memory of: Anne Principato, Shleh Anemri, Dr. Ted McIrvine, Jimmy Lyons,
Frank Wright, Dennis Charles, Frank "Tito" Martinez, Angel Marrero,
Fafa Rojas, Ray Maldonaolo, Beaver Harris, Philip Wilson, Aurora DosSantos,
and to all the heroes and loved ones of September 11, 2001.
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