Coon Bid'ness

Reception

The editors of AllMusic awarded the album 4½ stars, and reviewer Scott Yanow wrote: "The music throughout is quite avant-garde but differs from the high-energy jams of the 1960s due to its emphasis on building improvisations as a logical outgrowth from advanced compositions. It's well worth several listens.".

Writer Richard Williams stated that, on "The Hard Blues," "Hemphill seemed to have fused the harsh, elemental sound of John Lee Hooker, the warmth and colour of an Ellington small group and the collective exuberance of a Mingus ensemble into something that pointed a way to the future."

Critic Gary Giddins also praised "The Hard Blues," commenting: "How startlingly fresh that music remains: the sinuous, sensuous, riveting directness of his blues is at once fiercely elemental and engagingly modern."

Musician Henry Kuntz noted that the first four tracks (Side A of the LP) function "as a single composition," and suggested that "Hemphill... likes to work with several layers of sound, to slowly take them apart – to the point of near dissolution – then to put them back together again (though not necessarily the same as they were before)." He remarked: "In the U.S., it seems, the Seventies have been more a period of consolidation rather than of innovation (as if the advances of the last decade had to be justified before being built upon)... Hemphill's album offers music of this sort, and it's recommended."

Track listing

All tracks by Julius Hemphill

1. "Reflections" – 2:30
2. "Lyric" – 7:24
3. "Skin, No. 1" – 10:07
4. "Skin, No. 2" – 2:28
5. "The Hard Blues" – 20:07

Personnel

Tracks 1–4:

• Julius Hemphill – alto saxophone, flute
• Arthur Blythe – alto saxophone
• Hamiet Bluiett – baritone saxophone
• Abdul Wadud – cello
• Barry Altschul – drums
• Daniel Zebulon – congas

Track 5:

• Julius Hemphill – alto saxophone, flute
• Baikida Carroll – trumpet
• Hamiet Bluiett – baritone saxophone
• Abdul Wadud – cello
• Phillip Wilson – drums

References

References

1. "Julius Hemphill - Coon Bid'ness".
2. Lane, Joslyn. "Julius Hemphill: Reflections".
3. McElfresh, Suzanne. (January 1, 1994). "Julius Hemphill Interview".
4. (April 27, 2011). "Greg Tate Launches Print On Demand Magazine Coon Bidness".
5. "Coon Bidness".
6. (1999). "The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide". Random House.
7. (2004). "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz". Virgin Books.
8. Yanow, S. [http://allmusic.com/album/coon-bidness-r140531/review Allmusic Review] accessed July 12, 2011
9. Williams, Richard. (March 28, 2021). "Hemphill bid'ness".
10. Giddins, Gary. (1998). "Visions of Jazz: The First Century". Oxford University Press.
11. Kuntz, Henry. (1975). "julius hemphill: coon bid'ness".