All music乐评
作者：Steve Huey
如果说Eternal Rhythm是Don Cherry在60年代产出的世界融合爵士杰作。那这张Brown Rice就是他在70年代的又一次复刻。
有别于Eternal Rhythm在自由爵士的框架下的世界级的影响力，Brown Rice的核心声响是相当不同的，其中包括印度婚礼音乐，非洲、阿拉伯音乐以及Miles Davis式电声爵士-摇滚融合的影响。
你可以想象到爵士纯净主义者会作何反应，就像他们对于后Bitches Brew时代的Miles Davis的评价一样。但如果以更包容的心态和评判标准来说，Brown Rice可以说是一次令人印象深刻的成功。
整张专辑的声响在低沉迷幻和高昂亢奋之间轮流转换，由此带来的听感是超现实的：复合节奏带来的律动深邃又有力，独奏部分灵性又自由，还有大量的声效带来了迷幻神秘的感受。多种多样的异域风格将专辑本就迷幻神秘的氛围提升到了一个全新的高度，在此之上，Don Cherry选择在其中三首曲子中加入非英语的人声，吟唱着如加密咒语一般的字句，就好像某些异域萨满巫师正在举行某种仪式一样。
同名曲Brown Rice自发行以来已经成为了酸性爵士的经典曲目，Charlie Haden的原声贝司接上哇音踏板配合着迷幻的电钢琴riff、电bongo鼓、无法分辨的女声吟唱和次中音萨克斯手Frank Lowe小段的自由爵士啸叫，当然也不能少了Don Cherry的低语和小号。
结束曲Degi-Degi同样也是一首复杂迷幻的作品。位于专辑中间的两首曲子则是一次漫长的探索之旅，在这里Cherry慵懒的小号独奏在永恒中回响。
在Cherry所有的世界融合爵士作品序列中，Brown Rice是最易让人接受的一个入口，通向那无边无际的朦胧且私人、独特且无暇的Cherry理想中的爵士音乐愿景之中，在这里原始与未来并存，你可以同时获得这两种感受。
尽管Cherry在此后数年间还会录制一大批好的作品，他却再也没有在想象力上再次达到这张作品的高度。
P.S. Brown Rice的专辑名原本是Don Cherry，在1975年发行后一年才易名
原文：
Brown Rice Review by Steve Huey If Eternal Rhythm was Don Cherry's world fusion masterpiece of the '60s, then Brown Rice is its equivalent for the '70s. But where Eternal Rhythm set global influences in a free jazz framework, Brown Rice's core sound is substantially different, wedding Indian, African, and Arabic music to Miles Davis' electrified jazz-rock innovations. And although purists will likely react here the same way they did to post-Bitch8es Brew Davis, Brown Rice is a stunning success by any other standard. By turns hypnotic and exhilarating, the record sounds utterly otherworldly: the polyrhythmic grooves are deep and driving, the soloing spiritual and free, and the plentiful recording effects trippy and mysterious. The various ethnic influences lift the album's already mystical atmosphere to a whole new plane, plus Cherry adds mostly non-English vocals on three of the four tracks, whispering cryptic incantations that make the pieces resemble rituals of some alien shaman. The title cut has since become an acid jazz/rare-groove classic, filtering Charlie Haden's acoustic bass through a wah-wah pedal and melding it with psychedelic electric piano riffs, electric bongos, wordless female vocals, short snippets of tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe's free jazz screeching, and, of course, Cherry's whispers and trumpet. Closer "Degi-Degi" works a similarly mind-bending mixture, but the middle two pieces ("Malkauns" and "Chenrezig") are lengthy explorations where Cherry's languid trumpet solos echo off into infinity. Of all his world fusion efforts, Brown Rice is the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words. While Cherry would record a great deal of fine work in the years to come, he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again. [Brown Rice's original title was Don Cherry, which was changed a year after its initial 1975 release.]
