Double LP
Orientations is a six-decade spanning collection of recordings sourced from the archive of famed jazz ethno-musicologist, Lloyd Miller, and sequenced in collaboration with the FOUNTAINavm label also responsible for a number of other new and older works by the good Dr. I've heard talk of Miller's archive before, sound recordings allegedly numbering in the thousands, which, if nothing else, makes Orientations vital shorthand for a life's work, much of which you'd otherwise struggle to locate. The slightly dubious pun of the album title aside (and of course, acknowledging its nod to classic jazz idioms), Miller's work crucially hinges on the intersection of East and Western traditions, filtering the radicalism of avant-garde anti-orthodoxy and post-bop through the adopted argot of less explored styles such as Indian raga, Persian and Arabic classical music and elements of Japanese Enka. The results are thoughtful, expressive, and often deeply moving - Miller is first a fan, but he's no Malinowski-styled fetishist taking a peep; his work is informed by others and still clearly his own. Post-colonial discourse casts such endeavours in a different light now, but you can't really escape the artistic commitment of this output, so wide ranging and transgressive is it in its ambition. And like with food cultures, there's a flipside to every perspective - ideas migrate, understandings shift, experiences become enriched on both sides as inspiration is shared. A beautiful record of unencumbered spirit and scope, the kind of thing few others attempt let alone reach.
