Lloyd Miller – Orientations
Lloyd Miller – Orientations
Lloyd Miller – Orientations

Lloyd Miller – Orientations

Regular price £34.00 Sale

Label: FOUNTAINavm – FAVM 023
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 2022
Genre: Jazz, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Free Jazz

A raid on the values of oriental jazz master and pioneering ethnomusicologist Lloyd Miller.

As we’ve said before on the rare encounters we’ve had with Miller’s work, he’s quite a unique figure within the worlds of jazz, traditional Middle-Eastern folk and musicology.  Few in history seem to be so heavily embedded within local music scenes and have been capable to absorb so much from their surroundings.  His original works (almost all self-released) are extremely hard to find and are pretty much out of reach for most. 

This double LP ‘Orientations’ is really what we’ve been longing for though.  With unrestricted access to Dr Miller’s archives, local Utah label FOUNTAINavm have combed through previously unreleased recordings from the early 60’s to the early 00’s, capturing the breadth and scale of this unique artist.  The cultural clash between east and west underpins each piece, where Miller’s astonishing dexterity on at least 15 different non-western instruments is infused with European Jazz standards.  Like listening back in time, the fragrant humid air of the old orient hangs heavy in the atmosphere, capturing a time of great change in the area where the osmosis of culture between East and West would really take off, not without its problems.  But these are recordings we keep coming back to, like the lilting romance of piano piece ‘Shahin’ recorded in early 70’s Tehran, or the hypnotic South Indian inspired Carnatic Clarinet from 1960’s.  Miller’s work exists at an interesting historical intersection where jazz, folk, spirutal and documentary aspects of music all overlap.  (Mint / New - heavy 2LP gatefold).

This double LP album is sourced from Lloyd Miller’s personal archives of masters and personal recordings.

Archival, Curation, and Tape Transfers by Adam Michael Terry.

Limited pressing of 300 copies.

Tracklist
A1 Camels To Cairo (1963) 2:02
A2 Segah Leaves (1960) 5:50
A3 Orientation #1 (Kheneccordion) (1963) 1:58
A4 Carnatic Clarinet (1960's) 3:18
A5 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival Introduction (1968) 0:32
A6 Takseem It Seems "Beautiful Eyes" (1968) 3:14
A7 Orientation #2 (The Telling Of Thai'me) (1963) 2:51
B1 Mellow Cello (mid 1970's) 3:17
B2 Shahin (1972) 2:30
B3 Pentakarnatica (7/8) (1963) 2:52
B4 Orientation #3 (Poetically Past The Present) (1963) 2:53
B5 Piano, Santur And Drum Interlude (1960's) 1:45
B6 Persuasian (1990) 7:03
C1 Orientation #4(Of Mandarin Myth) (1963) 1:55
C2 Pacific Breece (Early 1980's) 4:41
C3 Humalayan (Edited Version 1998) 3:03
C4 Summer Thyme In Tehran (1972) 5:53
C5 Ketch Me If You Can (Improvisation) (1972) 2:51
C6 Orientation #5 (Central Asian Occasion) (1963) 1:16
D1 Improv In Isfahan (Extended-Full Version) (2005) 18:14
D2 Camels From Cairo 0:33