Red Warrior

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Red Warrior
Studio album by
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Released1990
GenreJazz, free jazz
LabelAxiom Records[1]
ProducerBill Laswell
Ronald Shannon Jackson chronology
Taboo
(1990) 		Red Warrior
(1990) 		Raven Roc
(1992)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic4.5/5 stars[2]
Chicago Sun-Times3.5/4 stars[3]
Robert Christgau(2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention)[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music3/5 stars[5]
Los Angeles Times2.5/4 stars[6]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings2.5/4 stars[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide4.5/5 stars[8]

Red Warrior is an album by the American jazz drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, released in 1990.[8][9] It was rereleased by Mango Records the following year.[10]

Production[]

The album was produced by Bill Laswell.[11] Jackson opted to record the album without horns, instead utilizing a three-guitar roster.[12] Red Warrior, inspired by a tour that Jackson undertook in Africa, was recorded in one day.[13]

Critical reception[]

The Washington Post thought that the guitarists "all fall into one hard-rock or funk cliché after another ... For all the volcanic energy happening at the bottom of this music, the top is so uninspired that it dooms the album."[11] The Los Angeles Times called the album "a flawed experiment," writing that Jackson "failed to solve metal's rhythmic stolidity."[6] The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "the songs cut deeper than any Jackson has delivered since the days of his harmolodic fusion band, the Decoding Society."[3] The St. Petersburg Times relegated it to "the guitar-mag crowd."[10]

AllMusic wrote that "the mix is expanded with plenty of jazz improvisation, weaves of effects-riddled guitar lines, complex head statements, and, of course, the drummer's pan-stylistic rhythmic support."[2] Billboard called Red Warrior an "extremely uncompromising fusion" album.[14] The New York Times, in its Jackson obituary, deemed it "a fiery guitar-oriented session."[15]

Track listing[]

No.TitleLength
1."Red Warrior"4:43
2."Ashes"4:40
3."Gate to Heaven"5:14
4."In Every Face"6:06
5."Elders"13:33
6."What's Not Said"4:15

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Sounding Off". Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. April 19, 1992 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Red Warrior - Ronald Shannon Jackson | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Sachs, Lloyd (January 10, 1991). "Ronald Shannon Jackson, 'Red Warrior' (Axiom)". Chicago Sun-Times. Features. p. 56.
  4. ^ "Robert Christgau: CG: Ronald Shannon Jackson". www.robertchristgau.com.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Volume 4: MUZE. p. 540.CS1 maint: location (link)
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Snowden, Don (7 July 1991). "Charting Pop's Format Orphans". Los Angeles Times. Calendar. p. 54.
  7. ^ The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (8th ed.). Penguin. 2006. p. 684.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 353.
  9. ^ Giddins, Gary (November 15, 2004). "Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century". Oxford University Press – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Green, Tony (15 Mar 1991). "LOSING BATTLE FOR `RED WARRIOR'". St. Petersburg Times. Weekend. p. 19.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b "RECORDINGS". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  12. ^ Shimamoto, Ken (July 5, 2012). "Jazz Great Ronald Shannon Jackson Returns to DFW". Dallas Observer.
  13. ^ Flans, Robyn (July 1991). "Update: Ronald Shannon Jackson". Modern Drummer. 15 (7): 8.
  14. ^ Macnie, Jim (July 4, 1992). "Jazz Postcards From the Edge". Billboard. 104 (27): J18.
  15. ^ Smith, Steve (October 23, 2013). "Ronald Shannon Jackson, Composer and Avant-Garde Drummer, Dies at 73" – via NYTimes.com.
Retrieved from ""