PAUL HAINES / DARN IT!

An anthology of music to poetry by PAUL HAINES returned to their natural acoustical settings by PAUL BLEY, ROBERT WYATT, EVAN PARKER, CARMEN LUNDY, GEORGE CARTWRIGHT, DEREK BAILEY, JOHN TCHIKAI, WAYNE HURVITZ, BOBBY PREVETTE, DAVID HOFSTRA, JOHN OSBORNE, MELVIN GIBBS, DK DYSON, DON PULLEN, JACK BRUCE, LEO NOCENTELLI, ROBBY AMEEN, “SMITTY” SMITH, GREG “IRON MAN” TATE, ANDREW CYRILLE, PETERSCHERER, KIP HANRAHAN, JT LEWIS, YALE EVELEV, BORNEO DRUMS, MICHEL CONTAT, ANDY GONZALEZ, IGNACIO BERROA, DANIEL FRIEBERG, DAVID SANCHEZ, MICHAEL SNOW, STEVE SWALLOW, MARY MARGARET O'HARA, GARY LUCAS, DD JACKSON, PEOPLE FROM NORTHERN BURMA, FERNANDO SAUNDERS, CARLOS WARD, TIM HAINES, AVERY HAINES, TIM WRIGHT
Produced by Kip Hanrahan and Paul Haines

Recorded August 1986 through November 1992
release: March 1993
AMCL 1014/1018

"…Darn it! Strings together an outrageous number of artists performing one after another in a polyglot line that stretches from Paul Bley’s solo piano ‘Threats That Matter’ through funky dance numbers by Greg ‘Iron Man’ Tate to a duet by trombonist Roswell Rudd and Canadian poetry Paul Haines, ‘Etait Dans La Nuit.’ Even its beautiful package, designed by artist / film maker / musician Michael Snow (who also contributes a lovely piano piece) enforces the compilation’s linearity, unfolding into a long accordion of personnel and poetry... Darn it! Overcomes stylistic impediments successfully, reveling in the way Haines’ terse writing can endure so many different kinds of interpretation."
— John Corbett, Downbeat
"...You can’t be sure where the next song will take the album stylistically or sonically, yet it forms an intriguing whole... There’s enough on this album to keep you listening, puzzling over and popping your fingers long into the night. Worth waiting the seven years it took to finish.
— Ed Hazell, Providence RI Phoenix

...The short poem–texts highlight the collapse of sound into sound, melding disparate sonic modes – music and language – as, for example, Don Pullen flies outward with his trademark cascading arpeggios. The constantly shifting ensembles make this an always interesting and worthwhile investment for the linguist and the improvised music aficionado and nearly everyone in between.
— Andy Bartlett, Acoustic Music / Victory

...Each musician is obviously working hard to convey the majesty of poetry through his or her sounds. Haines’ poems, when paired with music, are made complete. What makes this compilation rank with the more successful of these ventures is that the musicians involved have clearly been chosen for their ability to translate this music adequately rather than their marquee potential...
— Megan McLaughlin, CMJ / New Music Report

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