''Center of the World'' is an album by the Frank Wright Quartet, consisting of saxophonist Frank Wright, pianist

Bobby Few Bobby Few (October 21, 1935 – January 6, 2021) was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. Early life Few was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of the city's East Side. Upon his mother's encouragement, he stud ...

, bassist

Alan Silva Alan Silva (born Alan Lee da Silva; January 22, 1939 in Bermuda) is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player. Biography Silva was born a British subject to an Azorean/Portuguese mother, Irene da Silva, and a black Bermudian fat ...

and drummer

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. It was recorded live in 1972 and released on the French Center of the World label. The album was reissued on CD in 1999 by Fractal with two previously unreleased performances from a 1978 reunion.

Reception

In his review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Thom Jurek states "While Wright is the leader of the ensemble and was capable of blowing the hell out of his horn, the true star on these sessions is Few, who joined Steve Lacy's Sextet upon departure from this group." Writing for ''

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...

'', Derek Taylor called the album "revelatory," offering "undeniable evidence of the Reverend Frank Wright's rightful place in the pantheon of early free Jazz forefathers." A reviewer for ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'' stated that Wright's sideman are "capable of chasing and sometimes even outpacing his ever accelerating squeals," and described the album as a "high-energy apex, with Bobby Few's delicately tumbling piano transporting Wright's bluesy wailing to regions of non-stop organic flux, where the music scales peak after peak."

Track listing

# "Center of the World, Part 1" (Wright, Silva, Few) – 19:51 # "Center of the World, Part 2" (Wright, Silva, Few) – 19:45 Bonus tracks on Fractal reissue CD Recorded live 1978 at Neue Anta,

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

"No End" (Wright) – 17:32 #

"Church Number 9" (Wright) – 13:11

Personnel

* Frank Wright –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

soprano sax The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, voice *

– bass,

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

, voice *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, voice

References

{{Authority control 1972 live albums Frank Wright (jazz musician) live albums