Christian Science: Embryonic Journey

I don't have a lotta time but I need to get this up here before the end of the month so I am going for it today.

Today's honoree passed in January after a distinguished career in which he helped invent what we now call World Music.

His band -- called, fittingly, Embryo -- started in the late 1960s after he split off from the legendary Amon Düül collective after playing vibes on their first record, the seminal Phallus Dei.

It continued through uncountable albums and collaborations, right up until his death on January 17th at 71. Only death itself could stop Christian Burchard from making music.

Today's memorial share is quite a delicious tape, captured from the FM in Europe in 1980. I repaired it slightly and now it's in prime condition for everyone's auditory pleasure.

Embryo + Charlie Mariano & Ramesh Shotham

"Live im Jazzclub"

Rundfunkaufnahmen des SWF

Karlsruhe, Germany

1980

01 radio intro

02 untitled improvisation 1

03 untitled improvisation 2

04 untitled improvisation 3

05 untitled improvisation 4

Total time: 57:05

Edgar Hofmann - flute, saxophones

Chris Karrer - guitar, saxophones

Werner Aldinger - trombone

Rudi Schroeder - bass

Roman Bunka - guitar, oud

Michi Wehmeyer  - keyboards

Christian Burchard - vibraphone, marimba, darbuka

Ramesh Shotham - percussion

Charlie Mariano - saxophones

sounds like an off-air master reel of an SWF FM broadcast, repaired/optimized by EN
341 MB FLAC/January 2018 archive link

The exact date of this one is unknown, but the music is so beautifully uncategorizable, with tons of percussion and the blazing reed stylings of the immortal Charlie Mariano -- a frequent collaborator of this band, which Miles Davis himself professed was the best of the German bands of the 1970s.

I shall return in February with yet more buzz for your bin, but for now please join us in paying necessary tribute, via this simmering set, to this most genre-defining and groundbreaking Maestro.--J.

5.17.1946 - 1.17.2018