IRA COHEN

THE MAJOON TRAVELER

  1/  Blind Violinist                            (Cohen,Sabbah)                0.45
  2/  Imagine Jean Cocteau                       (Cohen,Sabbah)                1.16
  3/  Song To Nothing/Letter To Caliban/         (Cohen,Sabbah)                5.19
                End of a Line
  4/  Kathmandu Dream Piece                      (Cohen,Sabbah)                5.37
  5/  Cembalism                                  (Cohen,Sabbah)                4.41    
  6/  Tangier Telegram From the Majoon Traveler/ (Cohen,Sabbah)                8.23
           From the Moroccan Journal 1987
  7/  Allah Moulana Jilala                       (Cohen,Sabbah)                8.30
  8/  Even the King of the Ginza Must Sometimes  (Cohen,Sabbah)                4.27
         Sleep/ for Yamaguchi Kenjiro
      Tokyo Birdhouse/forKazuko Shiraishi
  9/  Ornette Comes Home                         (Cohen,Sabbah)                3.50
  10/ This Is Real Timing                        (Cohen,Sabbah)                0.36
  11/ Djemaa el Fna                              (Cohen,Sabbah)                4.40

          Tracks 1,6 and 11 recorded by Ira Cohen in Marrakesh, 1987
          Kumbh Mela recording on track 4 by Ira Cohen and Ira Landgarten,
            Hardwar 1986
          Track 7 recorded by Paul Bowles & Brion Gysin for Ira Cohen, Tangier 1961
          Don Cherry recorded at Earwax by Hans Christian Reumschussel
          Ira Cohen's voice on tracks 4,6,8 and 9 recorded by Bill Laswell
          Ira Cohen's voice on tracks 2,3 and 10 recorded by Naut Humon
          Steven Kent recorded by Naut Humon
          All tracks engineered and assisted by Naut Humon at Bloody Angle Studios
          Produced by DJ Cheb I Sabbah
Ira Cohen: readings; DJ Cheb I Sabbah: editing, mixing, cut-ups; LIGHTS IN A FAT CITY (3) - Stepehn Kent: didgeridoo; Kenneth Newby: suling, piri, samples; Eddy Sayer : ching chimes, cymbals, bells; ANGUS MACLISE AND THE TRIBAL ORCHESTRA (4) - Angus MacLise: percussion; Loren Standlee: flute; Hetty MacLise: organ; Raja Samyana : guitar; Ziska Baum: chants; Angus MacLise (5): cembalum; Don Cherry (8): dousso n'gouni, flute, keyboards; Ed Blackwell (8): drums; Ornette Coleman (9): alto sax; Robert Palmer (9): clarinet; The Master Musicians of Jajouka (9): raitas, percussion.

          1994  -  Sub Rosa (Belgium),  SR 062  (CD)

REVIEWS :

A spoken word recording from the poet/photographer/filmmaker/New York bohemian Ira Cohen, THE MAJOON TRAVELER is an interesting musical artifact as well, featuring cut-ups and mixes by DJ Cheb I Sabbah plus some improvisatory excerpts by Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, and a cembalum performance by original Velvet Underground drummer Angus Maclise. Cohen's exotic, visionary, yet curiously down-to-earth poetry dominates the disc, however. He has a richer voice than Allen Ginsberg and reads his poems in an ingratiating cigar store Brooklynese even as he evokes faraway places. (Cohen is also the director of the 1968 psychedelic cult film THE INVASION OF THE THUNDERBOLT PAGODA and developed the patented fun-house mirror photography most prominently featured on Spirit's THE TWELVE DREAMS OF DR. SARDONICUS.)

Richard Mortifoglio courtesy of the All MUsic Guide website)