Gary Bartz/NTU Troop: I've Known Rivers & Other Bodies

GARY BARTZ/NTU TROOP
I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies

Gary Bartz certainly hasn’t gotten the respect he deserves over the years since he first came to the attention of the public as Miles Davis’s replacement for Wayne Shorter. Bartz was part of Davis’s anti-funk/anti-jazz band, but didn’t do much recording with Davis. He plays on some live recordings such as Live-Evil and Isle of Wight. Interestingly, Bartz and his Ntu Troop (‘Ntu’ is the Bantu word for ‘Unity’) performed at the fledgling Montreux Jazz Festival on July 7, 1973, while Davis and his band performed there on July 8. Davis and company performed two typically murky and difficult sets. On the recently released Complete Miles Davis at Montreux you can hear the audience’s befuddlement at the end of the first set and some definite booing. Bartz’s performance was also recorded and released by Prestige in 1974. Though it’s been out of print for some time, Fantasy Records has just reissued it, and rightfully so: I’ve Known Rivers and Other Bodies is one of the best jazz fusion-influenced recordings of the time.

Not every band playing what might be called fusion was doing a heavy electrified funk thing, and Bartz here walks a wonderful line between established genres, including jazz,
R&B, funk, soul, and avant-garde. Like some other musicians, Bartz referred to what he was playing as Black Music or African-American Music rather than jazz, and I think that he meant it. There’s even some of the playfulness and theatricality of groups like the Art Ensemble of Chicago in Ntu Troop’s work.

At the time that I’ve Known Rivers was recorded, Bartz had already established Ntu Troop on a series of recordings for Prestige. The band originally featured Andy Bey on keyboards and vocals, but when Bey left Bartz could not find a keyboard player who could sing nor could he afford to hire two musicians, so he took over the vocal work himself, and that’s how it is on this live recording. Bartz is clearly operating under the spell of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, as were many other young musicians of the day. Coltrane’s theme is explicitly referenced in “Jujuman” and “Mama’s Soul” as well as being very present on “Sifa Zote” and the concluding “Peace and Love.” But he also brings a wide variety of other styles and ideas to bear on the performance: “Dr. Follow’s Dance” is pure danceable funk, as is “Don’t Fight the Feeling” while “I’ve Known Rivers” (inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes) and “Uhuru Sasa” are populist messages of the kind Archie Shepp favored. “Warrior’s Song,” inspired by Coltrane and Martin Luther King is equally expressive, even though this version contains no lyrics; the music’s weight is more than enough to convey the meaning of its subject. Bartz’s clear, sharp, inventive alto and soprano sax work is nearly always front and center, and despite the electronics and R&B trappings, you still get plenty of straight out, inspired jazz blowing.

The audience appears to dig Bartz’s amalgam of styles here, there is none of the confusion that greeted Miles’s performances between 1973 and 1975. Most of Ntu Troop’s work is only available currently as import—let’s hope that the response to this CD gives Fantasy a reason to reissue more of their work. Even if you don’t like fusion in the usual sense, you may well love this recording.

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