Label Profile: The ESP-Disk Label, Part Two [Patty Waters, Erica Pomerance, More]

In part one of Austinist's coverage of ESP-Disk, we discussed the label's jazz and free-jazz reissues, as these are in many ways the bread and butter of its history. In this installment, we'll hit upon a few other areas of note - psychedelic folk, a one-off Afro-Latin release, and earth-scorching vocals courtesy of Patty Waters, whose work could fall under jazz though her influence has catapulted her far beyond category.

Vocalist Patty Waters' ESP debut, Patty Waters Sings, is probably one of the most influential titles in the label's catalog. It had a profound effect on the laid-bare howl of figures like Yoko Ono and Diamanda Galas, though one wouldn't know it by the gorgeous Chuck Stewart cover photo and austere, dusky vocals-and-piano lyric snapshots that begin the set. Though she sang with Miles and Mingus, it was Albert Ayler who brought her to ESP - probably due to her forthright and nuanced style and the simplicity of her songs, though the tensions of the Sixties take hold in the second half. The original LP's second side consisted of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair," with Waters joined by the unruly piano-guts attack of Burton Greene, and the free rhythmic interplay of bassist Steve Tintweiss and drummer Tom Price. Waters builds from a low moan and near whisper of the lyrics into unearthly banshee wails, purring repetition of the word "black" exploding into bone-chilling shrieks and yelps. It's not unlike how Ayler would take simple folk songs and build them into a language of wide-vibrato grit and high-pitched multiphonics at fast tempos. There's something about the human voice taking such risks, however, that returns one to the primal essence of emotion - a huge part of Waters' stamp on modern music. Though her subsequent recordings are scarce, they're well worth seeking out - especially a recent archival compilation, You Thrill Me, on Water Records. Still performing on occasion, Waters' impact goes far beyond the music contained here, and she's one of the most unique and incredible singers of the last forty years.

One of the most coveted ESP titles on vinyl is Sounds of the Ghetto Youth, credited to the HARYOU Percussion Group, directed by percussionist Montego Joe and featuring teenage musicians brought together by the Harlem Youth Act of 1965. It's a heavy slab of Afro-Latin funk, albeit recorded several years before high school funk LPs became private-press de rigeur. The HARYOU Percussion Group consists of fourteen musicians, a few of whom would go on to make larger names for themselves (like trumpeter Stafford Osborne, Jr.), though most have remained obscure. Pianist-vocalist Nick Kirksey's "Feed Me Good" is a bright mélange of barrelhouse piano, scorching teenage yelps and dry trap set breaks. "Barrett's Bag" is a fantastic slice of Latin jazz, Nelson Sanamiago's brilliant and searing alto flights reaching upward as pianist Mousie Edmead's Horace Silver-like left hand holds down the rhythm. It's interesting to note, too, that there are no covers here and the young band members wrote/arranged all of the tunes except for a Montego Joe percussion feature. The new CD version also includes an interview postscript, absent from the 1995 Ubiquity reissue.

Canadian filmmaker and psychedelic priestess Erica Pomerance waxed You Used to Think in 1968 for ESP, joined by among others, tenor saxophonist Trevor Koehler and flutist Tom Moore for nine tunes, including a riff on the famed protest song "Burn, Baby, Burn." Though certainly the most dated of any of the discs reviewed here, Pomerance's record has a sort of messy charm - it seems like the group was in the midst of an acid trip throughout the proceedings. The title track is slinky folk-rock, Pomerance and second vocalist Gail Pollard in two separate worlds (hoarse and rough versus wispy and semi-flat) as guitar and snare roll sloppily through. What might otherwise be ethereal sounds gritty and charred through Pomerance's vocals and an occasional smoker's cough, lending a mean cast to the flute/piano/hand drum raga of "We Came Via." Though she credits the influence of free-jazz bassist Alan Silva and flutist Becky Friend, as well as Canadian jazz guitarist Sonny Greenwich, the session's meanderings are squarely within the realm of communal-folk improv. Certainly, ESP hit its East Village stride earlier with records by the Fugs and Holy Modal Rounders. However, lesser-known sides by artists like Pomerance, Bruce Mackay and Mij are part of the label's tireless efforts to document the underground and are significant enough to explore further. And a half decade into "ESP version 2," it appears that the label is here to stay for a little longer.