First House by Arthur Doyle and His New Quiet Screamers

"First House" (AMI 048) is the final recordings from free jazz legend and Birmingham, Alabama native, Arthur Doyle.

The LP was recorded live at the Stone July 11, 2012 and these six pieces are backed by His New Quiet Screamers, a Brooklyn-based ensemble adding muscle and movement to Doyle’s always already free, non-linear saxophone, flute and vocal lines.

Born in Birmingham in 1944, Doyle studied Music Education at Tennessee State University in Nashville. In his early years, Doyle worked with a wide array of musicians and in a broad range of musical styles, from R&B to Soul to traditional jazz, collaborating with everyone from future Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Walter Miller to Funk-Soul-Disco diva Gladys Knight. Doyle officially emerged on the international Jazz scene, however, playing on Noah Howard’s iconic Black Ark (Polydor, 1968), and later on Milford Graves’1976 IPS LP BaBi. In 1978 Doyle debuted as a bandleader and soloist with Alabama Feeling, released on Charles Tyler’s Ak-Ba label. Alabama Feeling features Charles Stephens (of the Sun Ra Arkestra) on trombone, drummers Rashied Sinan and Bruce Moore, and bassist Richard Williams. After the release of Alabama Feeling, Doyle continued to ignore boundaries and generic conventions, playing with Rudolph Grey as part of The Blue Humans, which introduced his music to NYC’s Downtown and NoWave scenes, including the likes of Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore. In the early 1990s, Doyle’s work was re-introduced to another generation, through releases for labels like Ecstatic Peace and Audible Hiss. Since the late ‘90s, Doyle continued a fevered pace in terms of his collaborations, most notably with Sunny Murray, Hamid Drake, Takahesi Mizutani (of the Les Rallizes Denudes) and Sabu Toyozumi, among many others.

His New Quiet Screamers consists of an acclaimed ensemble of musicians with a wide array of history and associations. Members have played with and/or include: Sunwatchers, Dark Meat, First's Western Ennisphere, Matana Roberts, among others.

This gatefold LP includes a commissioned essay from noted Jazz historian Clifford Allen who describes His New Quiet Screamers as “vault[ing] and envelop[ing] Doyle’s bursts” of sound to the point where Doyle “sounds positively invigorated.” Doyle’s final recordings offer what Allen characterizes as a kind of “unfurling” of the free jazz lexicon, offering insights on “the spidery architecture of an obliquely-referenced standard” that defined this enigmatic artist’s entire career. Standard and experimental improvisation alike, First House offers a window on Doyle’s last performances, an artist very much at the top of his playing and artistic form.

Arthur Doyle worked in a broad range of styles, from R&B to Soul to trad jazz, collaborating with everyone from Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Walter Miller to Funk-Soul-Disco diva Gladys Knight. Doyle officially emerged on the international Jazz scene playing on Noah Howard’s iconic Black Ark and on Milford Graves’1976 IPS LP BaBi. In 1978 Doyle debuted as a bandleader/soloist with Alabama Feeling.