NOW
STARK REALITY
CD/LP
Label: Stones Throw
Re-release date: 2003
For those who haven't heard The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop, this mysterious fetish, so highly prized by collectors, is an album of Hoagy Carmichael material, stripped and recreated as soaring hillbilly space jazz. It's also, officially, a children's album. Recorded for a kids' TV show on Boston's avant-garde public television station, WGBH, the album was part of Hoagy Carmichael's son's attempt to keep his father's work relevant for a generation more attuned to rock and subversion than music hall nostalgia. To this end, he hired the Stark Reality band made up of WGBH's resident music guys. This group of extremely talented musicians was led by the eccentric Oklahoma native and vibraphone virtuoso, Monty Stark, and included John Abercrombie, now jazz label ECM's guitar poster boy.
While difficult to describe, anyone attempting to capture the result of this improbable constellation would likely use the words "acid" and "whoa."
Fast forward 20 years. Although Stark Reality gained some popularity initially, the story of this album's eventual admission into vinyl geek mythology begins in the early '90s, when clearing a hip-hop sample suddenly necessitated a cadre of record company lawyers. Reacting to this, hip-hop producers and beat hungry scavengers began to search outside the predictable Parliament and James Brown catalogues for more obscure, less litigious breaks.
Stark Reality matched these criteria and how. After Large Professor sampled the album on his 1996 single, "The Mad Scientist" [Geffen], the record's popularity snowballed. From an already hefty asking price of around $100 in 1995, the ticket increased, and in 2000 the record was selling for around $600. It was at this point, years after first hearing the album at the house of a friend who invited him to listen to the "trippiest" record in his collection, that Egon decided he had to have it. Luckily, he found someone willing to trade for the album. Or, willing to trade conditionally. Egon recalls: "This guy said, 'I'll trade it to you, under the assumption that you're not going to reissue this.'" Egon agreed. Frankly, he "really wanted that album."
But, of course, his commitment to his fellow collector crumbled the moment he had a re-listen. Oozing enthusiasm, he explains his reaction: "I thought to myself, 'Damn. I've gotta go back and find Phil Morrison [Stark Reality's bassist] and try to reissue this record, because this record - it's just too good to be sitting here, just in my collection.'"
Three years later, after a lot of work rounding up the material, securing the rights and making sure all the musicians were accounted for, the album was released. The result, Stark Reality's Now, contains all[sic] of the Hoagy Carmichael material, along with some outtakes and additional music recorded for Say Brother, an afro-centric TV show on WGBH.
While the collecting community may grumble, Egon is content. He repeats his egalitarian message: "This is just great music. This is music that, even if you don't like it, or don't get it, you should get to hear it, and make up your own mind."
Hi guys!! Thanks for accepting my request. I've been a huge fan for years, I first heard John's music for his solo projects(I have on vinyl)thats when I learned about stark reality. Genious work, the fusion era of jazz is what made me believe jazz can be more progressive then just convention be-bop type stuff.
take care fellas, your in frequent roataion on my turntables.
