Pete La Roca - Basra ("Basra", 1965)

title number from Pete La Roca's classic Blue Note album "Basra".

Recorded on May 19, 1965 by Rudy Van Gelder at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Produced by Alfred Lion.
Remastered in 2004 by Rudy Van Gelder.

JOE HENDERSON, tenor sax
STEVE KUHN, piano
STEVE SWALLOW, bass
PETE LA ROCA, drums

Basra [Pete La Roca]

The philosophy of Indian music has affected La Roca's jazz concepts. He is interested in "how many ways can you use monotony? - or how much monotony can be used without hurting the music, without it getting to be a bore?" There is a kinship here with whirling an object around so fast that it appears to be standing still.

He feels that this kind of music can be "listened to in the foreground or in the background with your third ear." Its relation to Indian music lies in their idea of music reduced to a hum (the Indian "aum" wherein you sing that word, controlling your breath as long as you can, thereby producing gradations in pitch and tone as didacted by your physiology). "It's something to meditate on," says Pete. "You tune in to what part of it you like. It's like listening to the world - it's always going on."

His title number, Basra, which utilizes one chord throughout, is the most pertinent example in this album. Swallow's introduction takes us in a brightly-sailed boat from the waters of the Persian Gulf, up the Shatt al Arab River into the Iraqi port. Henderson then gives us a tour that is never boring as he explores the street of the song. The La Roca continues the journey with a fascinating, hypnotic solo that definitely speaks.

- Ira Gitler, original liner notes