Search - Microscopic Septet :: Seven Men in Neckties: History of the Micros Vol.1

Steal or Buy Copies of This CD for Xmas Presents

Mark S. Lutwak | Kaneohe, Hawaii | 12/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thank god for re-issues. Otherwise the music would get lost to the ether.



The Microscopic Septet created my late-night underground soundtrack in the 1980s. No matter where I went, there they were. This jazz band (which happened to masticate, swallow, digest & excrete every other kind of music in its path) made the hoppingest, funniest, hottest music around. It was endless; every week they had new tunes. Each was a surprise, each was a joy.



Just read the titles. Then download the samples.



There is nothing else like this out there. You have to go out towards Mingus & Ellington, then take a sharp turn at Spike Jones and Slim Gaillard, and then consider everything that happened between then and now.



And now we have some of it again. For those of you who have been nursing along your wornout LPs, these CDs are clean & re-mastered, they include 8 (8!) extra tunes from the Let's Flip! live session. And the part 2 of this re-release (surrealistic swing) has some of the tunes recorded when John Zorn filled the alto chair, and, thank goodness, the never-released commercial oddity "You Know What You Know" (which is as hip and unlikely and commercial as Beefheart's Clear Spot).



Sure, it includes versions of a well-known over-ubiquitous radio theme, but they are at the end of the CD and if that's what brought you to this music, then bless it."