Different Perspectives In My Room...!

Label: Ayler Records – aylCD-034

Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 2006

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert at Glenn Miller Café, Stockholm, on October 3 and 4, 2005.

Composed By – Dörner, Flaten, Strid, Ericson

Cover – Åke Bjurhamn

Executive-producer – Jan Ström

Mixed By [Cd] – Billström, Strid, Ericson

Photography By – Lars Jönsson

Recorded By, Mastered By – Niklas Billström

Excellent session at Ayler's favorite Glenn Miller Café, free blowing yet tight arrangement with an open-minded approach to improvisation, including the minimal and fascinating "Electrance." Exciting and cutting edge music.

Axel Dörner

Ayler Records first documented this quartet with Sture Ericson on reeds, Axel Dörner on trumpet, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, and Raymond Strid on drums during a live set on their first tour back in 2000. This release captures the group five years later during a run at the venerated Glenn Miller Café in Stockholm. In the intervening years, Dörner, Håker Flaten and Strid have gone on to record and perform in a wide variety of contexts (Ericson, a figure from the '80s Swedish jazz scene has still remained elusive based on his scant recorded output.) Like their first outing, this is another free blowing session and it is clear that the four revel in it. While Håker Flaten and Strid are known for this kind of setting, it is a kick to hear Dörner let loose in full free-jazz mode. While many think of him in settings like his trio with John Butcher and Xavier Charles, he's continued to show his passion for jazz-based outings like his recordings with Otomo Yoshihide's New jazz Orchestra or Alex Von Schlippenbach's Monk workouts. Ericson is more of an unfettered firebrand, whether sparring with Dörner or careening over the thundering pulse of the music. Yet he can also drop down to subtle textural abstractions, whispering his clarinet against the quiet shudders and creaks like the start of a piece like "Electroots". Here the four show that they are about more than just brawn and buster, kicking things off with a spare, floating, collective improvisation and slowly ratcheting up the activity level as the piece progresses. On the closing "Electraps", Ericson's bubbling bass clarinet, Dörner's muted trumpet smears, Håker Flaten's scraped arco, and Strid's pin-prick percussion etch out pointillistic interactions that builds with eddies of activity. This is the sort of session that showcases how the Northern Europeans continue to carve out their take on the free jazz tradition.

_ By MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN

Ayler Records: http://www.ayler.com/cd-catalogue.html

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Label: MPS Records – MPS 15 226 ST

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: West Germany - Released: 1969

Style: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz-Chanson

Recorded at MPS-Tonstudio Villingen / Black Forest, Febr. 1969.

Written-By – Friedrich Gulda

Producer, Engineer – Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer

Recorded By [Recording Director] – Willi Fruth

...But the greatest discovery in this respect is, of course, Golowin - a singer who can't be heard because he doesn't give a damn about a musical careeer or anything connected with it...

A1 – Sonatine - 1. Satz . . . 4:58

A2 – Sonatine - 2. Satz . . . 6:18

A3 – Sonatine - 3. Satz . . . 3:25

A4 – Die Reblaus . . . 3:38

B1 – Wann I Geh . . . 11:02

B2 – Du Und I . . . 3:35

B3 – Wann Du Mi Einmal Loswerd'n Willst . . . 3:01

B4 – Auf Visit' . . . 4:13

Friedrich Gulda – piano

J. A. Rettenbacher – bass (tracks B1-B4)

Manfred Josel – drums (tracks B1-B4)

Albert Golowin – vocals (tracks B1-B4)

Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 - 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist.

Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the age of 7; in 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx. After winning first prize at the International Competition in Geneva four years later, in 1946, he began going on concert tours throughout the world. Together with Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda, Gulda formed what became known as the “Viennese troika”.

Although most famous for his Beethoven interpretations, Gulda also performed the music of J. S. Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel.

From the 1950s on he cultivated an interest in jazz, writing several songs and instrumental pieces himself and combining jazz and classical music in his concerts at times. Gulda wrote a Prelude and Fugue with a theme suggesting swing. Keith Emerson performed it on Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s The Return of the Manticore. In addition, Gulda composed Variations on The Doors’ Light My Fire. Another version can be found on As You Like It (1970), an album with standards such as ‘Round Midnight and What Is This Thing Called Love. In 1982, Gulda teamed up with jazz pianist Chick Corea, who found himself in between the breakup of Return to Forever and the formation of his Elektric Band. Issued on The Meeting (Philips, 1984), Gulda and Corea communicate in lengthy improvisations mixing jazz (Someday My Prince Will Come and the lesser known Miles Davis song Put Your Foot Out) and classical music (Brahms’ Wiegenlied).

This album is a contribution by Ricardo.

Thanks.

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: Foghorn Records – FOGCD006

Format: CD, Album; Released: 01 Apr 2006

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live at the 291 Gallery, Hackney Road, London E2, on Tuesday August 17th 2004.

Post-production and Mastering: Asa Bennett at sonic studios.

Engineer by – Ashley Wales

Design by Paul Dunn @ diablo based on original artwork by Ashley Wales

Gig of the year – Derek Bailey’s return in triumph from Barcelona to East London. – Phillip Clark, Jazz Review

01. Search . . . 20:50

02. Locate . . . 16:01

03. Destroy . . . 34:02

BRUISE is:

Tony Bevan – bass saxophone

Ashley Wales – soundscapes, electronics

Orphy Robinson – electronics, marimba, percussion, steel drums, trumpet

John Edwards – double bass

Mark Sanders – drums, percussion

with

Derek Bailey – electric guitar

Tony Bevan is an improvising virtuoso on Soprano and Tenor saxophones, but perhaps is best known for his work on the Bass saxophone, on which he is probably Britain’s only major modern performer (“the world’s greatest improvising Bass saxophonist” - Timeout). He is closely linked with the late Derek Bailey, with whom he appeared and recorded many times, as well as with Free Jazz legend Sunny Murray, who, along with Edwards, he has been playing with for more than a decade, releasing a number of award winning recordings and appearing in Antoine Prum’s award winning film “Sunny’s Time Now”. He recently curated with Prum a 3 day festival on British Improvised Music in Berlin, which is released on film in late 2012, following more filming in the UK in early 2012 . His playing covers all bases from rock group Spiritualised (on whose new album he is a featured soloist) to Classical Avant-Garde composer Luc Ferrari, with the likes of Barre Phillips, Matthew Bourne, Joe Morris, Marc Ribot and Tony Buck of The Necks in between.

He runs the Foghorn label.

Derek Bailey (29 January 1930 – 25 December 2005)

Sonically this is maybe not the best document (a straight-to-DAT recording from a gig at London’s 291 Gallery, acoustically somewhat muddled though quite acceptable) but it’s essential listening for Derek Bailey fans. As usual, the guitarist sought out the company of younger players – in this case, the acoustic/electronic (not electroacoustic) quintet responsible for Bruised, one of last year’s best and most overlooked improv records. The new disc is, among other things, the final chapter in the longstanding relationship between Bailey and bass saxophonist Tony Bevan. It’s hard not to hear real poignancy in Bevan’s playing here, which is stripped down so far it’s as if he’s trying to make an entire musical language out of achingly isolated notes. There’s also the tickle of hearing Bailey with the blue-chip UK free-improv rhythm section of John Edwards and Mark Sanders. The off-balance recording makes it harder to parse the electronic input from Orphy Robinson and (especially) Ashley Wales, but they’re certainly responsible for the haunting, elusive soundscaping (I was also surprised at the closeness in timbre between Robinson’s steel drums and Bailey’s distorted guitar). Derek Bailey was the kind of player an Oulipian would love, someone for whom obstacles were occasions for necessary creativity. By the time this disc was recorded in August 2004 he was already suffering from what was initially diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome but later turned out to be degenerative motor neurone disease. In response, he simply went calmly about refashioning his entire approach to the instrument. I’ve always loved the spacious, floaty interludes that occur on his discs, when isolated sound-events: a slow-swelling discord, a quiet scrape over the length of a string are dropped into silence like pebbles cast in a well. His playing throughout this album is like an album-length exploration of that particular corner of his music. His tone on the instrument is much softer than before by this point he was playing without a pick and his improvisations are constructed out of quiet, separately twisted fragments. There’s nothing overtly valedictory about the music the three tracks are called ‘Search’, ‘Locate’ and ‘Destroy’, after all but it is nonetheless hard not to be moved by a few moments here. Bevan’s soft-spoken duet with Bailey near the end of the album, in particular, serves as an achingly beautiful farewell to his mentor, so much so that it’s almost a relief when the full band regroups for a final pummelling blowout.

– ND “ParisTransAtlantic”

Foghorn Records:

http://www.foghornrecords.co.uk/shop/

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Label: Private Recording / DP-0821

Format: CD, Album; Released: 2008

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

VPROJazzLive vanuit het Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Artwork and Complete Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO
December 6, 2008, Amsterdam, (Netherlands)in collaboration with VPRO Radio6 – VPRO Jazz Live from the Bimhuis

This is a radio broadcast of their concert at Bimhuis (December 6, 2008) and the announcement of the start of their long awaited European tour. Beautiful recording.

01 Intermission (Bimhuis, Amsterdam 2008) - set 1 . . . 49:25
02 Intermission (Bimhuis, Amsterdam 2008) - set 2 . . . 51:47

Intermission:
Klaas Hekman - bass saxophone

Hideji Taninaka - double bass, singing bowls, sho

William Parker - double bass, shakuhachi, zurna, guimbri, doson ngoni, poetry

Wilbert de Joode - double bass, singing bowls

With its three double bass players the quartet Intermission emphasizes the lowest sounds and makes them tangible. After a break of several years New Yorkers William Parker and Hideji Taninaka once again meet Wilbert de Joode and initiator Klaas Hekman, who plays bass saxophone. ‘Feel the deep boneshake’ (Downbeat).

See also:

INTERMISSION with Derek Bailey

http://differentperspectivesinmyroom.blogspot.com/2013/10/intermission-with-derek-bailey-chris.html

Label: hatOLOGY – hatOLOGY 2-604

Format: 2 × CD, Album, Reissue, Limited Edition

Country: Switzerland - Released: 2004

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

Recorded live on 23 January 1979, at Stadttheater Basel, Switzerland

Design [Graphic Concept] – fuhrer vienna

Liner Notes – John Corbett

Mastered By – Peter Pfister

Photography By [Cover Photo] – Thomas Wunsch

Producer – Werner X. Uehlinger

This double-CD reissues the nine numbers from a former double LP, adding three previously unreleased tunes from the same Switzerland concert. The Steve Lacy Five is at its best on scalar-based instrumentals such as the near-classic "Blinks." The many strong solos by Lacy and the highly underrated altoist Potts makes this two-fer of interest for followers of advanced jazz. This was always a well-organized and highly original group.

1-01 Stamps . . . 5:46

1-02 Blinks . . . 10:45

1-03 Troubles . . . 9:59

1-04 Raps . . . 11:31

1-05 Dreams . . . 9:17

2-01 Existence . . . 8:40

2-02 The Way . . . 8:30

2-03 Bone . . . 8:50

2-04 Name . . . 12:57

2-05 The Breath . . . 12:00

2-06 Life On Its Way . . . 11:05

2-07 Swiss Duck . . . 5:53

STEVE LACY – Soprano Saxophone

STEVE POTTS – Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone

IRENE AEBI – Cello, Violin, Voice

KENT CARTER – Double Bass

OLIVER JOHNSON – Drums, Percussion

The great Steve Lacy, recently departed, made many records, but this one captures a great ensemble at the peak of its creative powers. It's a two-CD set from one concert in Basel in 1979, and it's hard to believe that so much great music was played in one sitting.

"Stamps has Lacy's signature angular, repeated (almost minimalist, à la Terry Riley or Steve Reich) phrases that function in the role of the traditional jazz head. Drummer Oliver Johnson plays through the repeated motives with waves of drums and cymbals that subsequently provide a bridge into improvisations that start over an A and D drone. They are both sensitive and bold, modern yet linked to an ancient inner human voice. The band falls back into the repeated motives naturally, ends, and after a very brief pause launches into "Blinks. Here Kent Carter's perfectly calibrated bass playing propels altoist Steve Potts through a gratifying solo. Then Lacy himself takes center stage and delivers a solo with sophisticated lines, growling effects, and minimalist motives building to a roar and then subsiding to a whisper, dovetailing perfectly into Irene Aebi's cello solo.

In "Troubles, we get the rare treat of hearing Steve Lacy's singing voice. Irene Aebi plays the role of the "straight voice against Lacy, who purposely alters each melodic phrase while they both sing the same words. Johnson and Carter provide a broad swing beat for intense, swirling improvisations. "Dreams sets up an impressionistic soundscape, complete with sensitive sound effects. Brion Gysin's words end the piece in a touching, concise way.

Disc two is where the suite "The Way begins. The music, inspired by the text to the "Tao Te Ching, is incredible. "Existence becomes a swinging, chromatically rising bass figure that never fails in energy or inspiration. Irene Aebi may have her detractors, but her vocal performances throughout the suite are really powerful. Indeed, the entire band is incredibly focused and we get to hear more nuance and depth from everyone in a way that we don't experience on the first CD. "Bone starts with a kind of cartoon conga-line rhythm. Again the collective improvisation is breathtaking, but always with the overview of the form in mind.

The final section of the suite, "Life On Its Way, starts with a very sensitive drum solo that segues into the two soprano saxophones playing "off stage and the violin evoking the Chinese erhu. "Life On it's Way draws the listener in as perhaps the most dramatic and narrative piece of the suite, and it ends with what seems like appropriate thoughtfulness. The audience reaction swells, almost as if people quickly realized the incredible journey the suite took them on, and the rhythmic clapping brings on "Swiss Duck, the encore.

The last vocal line from this version of "Bone is "...vitality clings to the marrow, leaving death behind. Lacy's music lives on, leaving death behind. The Way is an easy contender for best reissue of 2005.

_ By FRANCIS LO KEE, June 16, 2005 (AAJ)

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: MPS Records ‎– CRB 759, BASF ‎– CRB 759

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1970

Style: Style: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz-Chanson

Recorded at MPS-Tonstudio Villingen, February 1970

Written-By – Friedrich Gulda

Photos By – Hubmann, Wien

Produced and Recorded By – Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer

"Music is like a large tree that has different branches, but they all grow out of the same tribe." _ Gulda

A1 - Die Schöne Musi . . . 8:55

A2 - Donau So Blue . . . 5:45

A3 - Hau Di In Gatsch . . . 5:18

B1 - Selbstgespräch Im Kasgraben . . . 6:24

B2 - Requiem . . . 7:15

B3 - Andrerseits . . . 4:21

Friedrich Gulda – piano

Albert Golowin – vocal

J. A. Rettenbacher – acoustic bass

Manfred Josel – drums, percussion

Albert Golovin; pseudonym for vocal performances by the pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda

Friedrich Gulda can not assign a certain style of music is , he never wanted to leave to cram in a Spate . His styles range from classical to jazz to rock and techno. But with his " musical Changes" he had never given a direction entirely . Even as he turned to jazz , he let lose from the classic little direction . In classical piano music, he was of the opinion that Mozart is the greatest musician who has ever lived , and it is very difficult to interpret it , although they are of medium to slight difficulty. He was himself, and above all Mozart interpreters to be very critical , and said, " you can not just down to play that way." In his childhood he often said : " First I want to learn to play Beethoven, Bach and then finally the master of all masters Mozart. " Gulda also is not without reason as the best interpreter of Beethoven, Mozart and Bach. He did not have many as a model , except Alfred Cortot he mentioned often with positive reviews and is even traveled after him Classical pianist. Cortot was a Franco -Swiss pianist , who had lived in Paris. He was a very good teacher and played in concerts as it had occurred to him . He did not play clichéd what Friedrich Gulda was very impressed . In the jazz world, he of course had several role models , especially at the beginning of his jazz - time . Most of all he mentioned the trumpeter Miles Davis, but he also learned much from Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul , Herbie Hancock , etc. Most likely , you can assign him nor the "Free Music " , in which the randomness is considered as a principle. The only rule is to recognize no rules . Therefore it has to be very intrigued totally free to improvise because of his jazz experience . Free music is something not -composed , so nothing you can hold in grades, she has no rhythm, harmony , melody or shape. He thinks the transmission of free music is on the medium of the record or the tape only as a suggestion for the people allowed and they can not therefore re-enact the same style. The message of the music is free , do not go into a store and buying records , but even to make music , and is in contrast to today's consumerist and commercialized world . However, by turning to outdoor music there was great financial losses at Friedrich Gulda and his classic work had restricted itself . At the end of his life career to be playing the piano had drastically reduced because he was of the opinion , for this kind of music , the piano is not very suitable. Later also strengthened its Gulda Jazz music activity with singing. Under the pseudonym Albert Golovin he sang of love, death and loneliness in the Viennese dialect. Gulda had a technique like no one else , he did not need to concentrate on playing games. He could afford to listen to the games themselves . He was his best audience , his own biggest fan , but also his own harshest critic .

In front of you is another intriguing album by Friedrich Gulda, who has prepared Ricardo.

Thanks.

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: Hungaroton/Pepita – SLPX 17475

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Hungary - Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

MHV recording; Side A: 1974, Side B: 1973, Hungary

Artwork By [Design] – Imre Kolma

Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Endre Radányi

Photography – László Fejes

Producer [Musical Producer] – Dóra Antal

Rare Hungarian LP, Szabados Quartet - The Wedding (Hungaroton SLPX 17475, 1975) it's first Szabados recording and represents a truly masterwork.

A1 - Az Esküvő

A2 - Improvisatio - Zongora - Hegedű Duó (Duo For Piano And Violin)

B1 - Miracle

B2 - Szabó Irma Vallatása (The Interrogation Of Irma Szabó)

György Szabados – piano, zither

Lajos Horváth – violin, double bass

Sándor Vajda – double bass

Imre Kőszegi – drums, percussion

György Szabados (13 July 1939 – 10 June 2011) was a Hungarian jazz pianist, and is sometimes referred to as the "father" or "unofficial king" of the Hungarian free jazz movement since the 1960s.

Szabados was born in Budapest. Even though he started performing in 1962, his rise to fame is generally considered to have started with his quintet winning the renowned San Sebastian Jazz Festival Grand Prize in the free jazz category in 1972. His first album that was recorded with a quartet in 1975 was entitled Wedding. Despite the abstraction of the music, the record was well received in Hungary and abroad, thereby setting the scene for his subsequent albums. International recognition is probably noted by including the album in The Essential Jazz Records compiled by Max Harrison, Eric Thacker and Stuart Nicholson (Volume 2: Modernism to Postmodernism). Even though he could not record again until 1983, he maintained his status by establishing the Kassák Workshop for Contemporary Music, in which a new generation of musicians acquired a free and intuitive manner of playing jazz, with a distinct Hungarian sound. Generally, his collaborators would make up the next generation of Hungarian jazz, including acclaimed saxophone player Mihály Dresch. Further international recognition followed in the 1980s, through his collaboration with Anthony Braxton on their duo record Szabraxtondos. In Hungary, he proceeded to form MAKUZ, or the Royal Hungarian Court Orchestra, which membership varied, but always consisted of at least nine musicians that were committed to free, improvised music. Subsequently, he still collaborated with Roscoe Mitchell on their 1998 record Jelenés (Revelation) and again with Braxton and Vladimir Tarasov this time for the live recording Triotone. He was awarded the Kossuth Prize, the most prestigious cultural award in Hungary, in 2011 by the President of Hungary. He died in Nagymaros on 10 June 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Szabados

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Label: Hat Hut Records – ART 2001

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Switzerland – Released: 1983

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded on 1st (A1, B, C, D2) & 2nd (A2, A3, D1) November 1983 at IRCAM Espace De Projection, Paris.

Credit for Percussion on Side C actually says 'Cyrille Few and his friend'.

Artwork and Complete Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO

(Original hat Hut cover included also)

Producer – Pia & Werner X. Uehlinger

Recorded By – Peter Pfister

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composed

Steve Potts – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Irene Aebi – cello, violin, voice

Bobby Few – piano

George Lewis – trombone

Jean-Jacques Avenel – bass

Oliver Johnson – drums, percussion

Sherry Margolin (tracks: C, D2) – percussion

Early 80's Larger Steve Lacy group, featuring longtime cohorts Jean-Jaques Avenel on bass and Bobby Few on piano, along with George Lewis, Steve Potts, Irene Aebi and Oliver Johnson. As always, Lacy's brilliant melodicism and remarkable songcraft provide a platform for a colletive of impressive soloists and deft group interplay.

This session from 1983 is the original rare double LP (Hat Hut Rec.-ART2001) and is called the "Prospectus."

The Steve Lacy Sextet sessions with the addition of George Lewis on trombone are truly startling for the reason that they show this band at the absolute peak of its creative and intuitive power. Recorded as a portrait of the "state of things" within the band at the time, it is really no more than that -- and perhaps that's why it looks so large. Lacy's compositional style had been evolving for some time toward larger groups and, by the time the sextet had hit its stride, he was offering his musicians works to play that were originally written for much larger ensembles. On "Stamps" and "Wickets," one hears the arrangement style of Charles Mingus in the foreground; the long, asymmetrical, repetitive foreground lines are shadowed by the rhythm section playing a deep blues that echoes the piano playing of Bobby Timmons. When the horns join in the blues reverie, it's time for pianist Bobby Few to step out and let Lewis hold down the fort. It's blues, blues, and all blues -- though they certainly are a different shade of blues. Next up is the crazy "Whammies," which Lacy claims is based on lines from Fats Navarro. And it is crazy and even unbearable, with all that intensity happening at one time and all those conflicting harmonies, adding up to one big musical mess! But as the album's shining diamonds -- "The Dumps" and "Clichés" -- come into view, it's easy to hear the near telepathic communication among this band's members. Lacy doesn't even have to lead; he only needs to name the tune. At this time in his career, Few was a pianist with no peers; coming from equal parts bop and vanguard jazz, he is the ballast for the group, and all roads lead from him to Lacy and from Lacy into the stratosphere. Lacy and Lewis have a tremendous rapport, particularly on "The Dumps," where they counter and then play each other's solos! As the record closes with the rollicking abstraction that is "Clichés," listeners can feel the closeness of this "chamber" ensemble, even with Lewis in the mix. Both the percussive and rounded edges of the piece offer aspects of listening in a mode seldom heard on jazz records anymore. This record is a bouquet of essences, amplifications, dissonances, and complex melodic invention. It was one of the Steve Lacy Sextet's closest steps to perfection. Highly recommended.

_ Review By THOM JUREK

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On The Trail Of Old Albums

Label: Prestige – P-7115, Esquire 32-050

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Released: 1957

Style: Bop, Improvisation

Recorded: Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, March 29, 1957.

Composed By – Phil Woods

Engineer – Van Gelder

Liner Notes – Ira Gitler

Supervised By – Bob Weinstock

This album should be part of any jazz collector. These players both show a later bebop style patterned after Parker; In fact, Woods has a real knack for quoting "Bird" licks as part of his individual style. Quill keeps up with Phil in almost all areas, so you get a jam-session/battle of the horns feel throughout this LP.

Highly recommended.

A1 - Creme De Funk . . . 5:09

A2 - Lazy-Like . . . 5:53

A3 - Nothing But Soul . . . 6:47

B1 - A Night At St. Nick's . . . 6:48

B2 - Black Cherry Fritters . . . 5:27

B3 – Altology . . . 6:30

PHIL WOODS – alto saxophone

GENE QUILL – alto saxophone

GEORGE SYRAN – piano

TEDDY KOTICK – bass

NICK STABULAS – drums

Prestige original design: – well, what is there to say? Hi Phil, Hi Gene.

This one is another great album from 1957 the jazz zenith, the perfect year. Phil and Quill were both alto men, were both Parkerian so it's not that easy to recognize who's playing for the jazz novice. Anyhow I'll help saying that Woods has a more beautiful, autoritathive sound. He's the "boss" here (the rhythm section is quite good but we don't have the biggest stars here), Quill has a smaller sound and less fantasy I might say. Phil Woods is in splendid shape here blowing a bebop phrease after another (quoting Parker here and there, what a musical delight!) being always interesting. Quill is good too, don't get me wrong, very good. But Woods's the Boss and you can easily hear that. The track list is quite interesting. The opener is a minor blues medium tempo, funky blues. Funky in the jazz sense ... every phrase is in place, the attitude is right, bad, absolutly ok. Funky! Dont' think to James Brown here! "Lazy like" is a major tune again mid tempoed. "Nothing but soul" is a little faster. "A night at St. Nicks" is a fast bopper thing. Woods delight me here! 100% parkerian!! Great! "Black cherry fritters" is a kind of soul jazz thing even if soul jazz is a sixties trend. They anticipate it here because this is another medium tempo tune with a "soul" theme. With "Altology" we come back to up tempo things. Some breaks here and there.

When you're considering an album like this it's difficult to understand which kind of tunes you're going to find under the titles. If you read the title of a standard ok, you know what you'll going to listen, but when you read "Creme de funk" chances are you don't know what you will find. And then you discover that it's a simple minor blues. So I think it helps to read reviews where every tune is described. Blues, minor blues, anatolls are so commonly contrafacted and titled differently that it helps to know in advance what you' ll find under strange titles. Anyway this is an extremely consistent album. I'll call it essential to own a really complete jazz collection. Buy it with confidence. Moreover it is true, it is recorded very well, the overall sound is clean and warm. (_By Jazzcat)

If you find it, buy this album!

On The Trail Of Old Albums

Label: Verve Records – MG V-8238

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: US - Released: 1957

Style: Free Jazz, Post Bop

Recorded live at Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1957 (tracks A1 to A3) and July 5, 1957 (tracks B1 to B3).

Liner Note By – Bill Simon
Photographer By – Burt Goldblatt

Jazz on a Summer’s day, the audience is cool, Newport Rhode Island sounds a great place to have been, Freebody Park.

Cecil Taylor Quartet is almost easy-listening, with the rhythm section holding down the base, Steve Lacy’s straight horn carrying melody, while Taylor begins to disassemble the piano convention. At times, it sounds like Taylor is playing a different number to the rest of the band. Perhaps that’s the thing.

The short-lived Gigi Gryce Jazz Laboratory quintet was formed to extend and seek out new directions for bebop. It’s all in the American pronunciation: I get Ceecil Taylor, now I learn it’s G.G. Gryce, not Gigi. This was apparently the only live recording of the Jazz Laboratory.

Cecil Taylor Quartet:

CECIL TAYLOR (piano); STEVE LACY (soprano saxophone); BUELL NEIDLINGER (bass); DENIS CHARLES (drums)

A1 - Johnny Come Lately . . . 7:13

A2 - Nona's Blues . . . 7:40

A3 - Tune 2 . . . 10:22

Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory Quintet:

GIGI GRYCE (alto saxophone); DONALD BYRD (trumpet); HANK JONES (piano); WENDELL MARSHALL (bass); OSIE JOHNSON (drums)

B1 - Splittin' (Ray's Way) . . . 8:32

B2 - Batland . . . 7:21

B3 - Love For Sale . . . 7:34

The young pianist Cecil Taylor and saxophonist Gigi Gryce

At first combining a set by Cecil Taylor with another by the Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory seems like an odd pairing, but it ends up working rather well. These live recordings, which come from the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, have stood the test of time rather well.

It is a fascinating contrast between an original angle on the then popular hard-bop style (Byrd/Gryce) and the revolutionary Taylor's extraordinary evolution beyond it. Steve Lacy plays soprano saxophone throughout Taylor's set, and he foreshadows John Coltrane's sound on the same instrument a few years later. Lacy's unlubricated, slightly sour tone and eventually curiously hopping swing develop the spontaneous possibilities of Billy Strayhorn's Johnny Come Lately against Taylor's relentlessly angular piano figures. The original Nona's Blues is a mid-tempo, nearly-swinging tune for the leader's pounding chords and fragmentary melodic clusters alongside Lacy's loose and exuberant solo. Taylor's evolution explicitly deployed a lot more European contemporary classical elements later, but his jazzy momentum and affection for Thelonious Monk are exhilaratingly up-front here.

The Gryce/Byrd band, though closer to the usual jazz grooves of the day, is enhanced by Gryce's distinctive writing. Pianist Hank Jones plays with gleaming urbanity, the young Donald Byrd with a crackling boppish bounce, though Gryce's Parker-influenced alto lines are a little thin. But it is the mix of styles here, pointing up Cecil Taylor's astonishing independence, that makes the set so attractive.

_ By JOHN FORDHAM, The Guardian

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: BYG Records – 529.205

Series: Double Actuel – 205

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation; Country: France - Released: 1971

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A/B - Recorded In Paris 11. August 1969

Side C/D - Recorded In Paris 04. November 1969

Executive-producer – Claude Delcloo

Producer – Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young

Two seminal sessions from avant soul trombonist Grachan Moncur III. Beautiful recordings.

New Africa (1969)

A1 - New Africa . . . 17:30

1st Movement: Queen Tamam

2nd Movement: New Africa

3rd Movement: Black Call

4th Movement: Ethiopian Market

A2 - Space Spy . . . 6:55

B1 - Exploration . . . 10:45

B2 - When . . . 12:00

Grachan Moncur III – trombone

Roscoe Mitchell – alto saxophone, saxophone [piccolo]

Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone (track: B2)

Dave Burrell – piano

Alan Silva – contrabass

Andrew Cyrille – drums, percussion

Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) - 1969

C1 - Aco Dei De Madrugada (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 7:02

C2 - Ponte Io (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 6:46

D1 - Osmosis . . . 9:25

D2 - Tiny Temper . . . 5:28

Grachan Moncur III – trombone

Fernando Martins – piano, vocals

Beb Guérin – contrabass

Nelson Serra De Castro – drums, percussion

Grachan Moncur III

In 1969 Grachan Moncur III - jazz trombonist and composer - recorded two albums for the legendary French free jazz record label BYG: "New Africa" and "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)".

Moncur had come to France via Algiers, where he had played at the First Pan-African Cultural Festival. This Festival, which focused on Black African ethnic identity politics, had been held in Algeria from the 21st of July to the 1st of August 1969 by the new-fled Organization of African Unity. Moncur had come to the Festival together with Archie Shepp, with whom he had been playing since 1967 (i.a. on 'Life At The Donaueschingen Music Festival' and 'The Way Ahead') and with whom he would remain closely associated in further years (on 'Things Have Got To Change' and 'Kwanza'). Besides Moncur, Shepp brought with him cornet player Clifton Thornton, pianist Dave Burrell, bass player Alan Silva, and avant drummer Sunny Murray.

At the Festival, the whole group was invited to record in Paris by BYG Actuel's Jean Georgakarakos and Jean-Luc Young, and record they did: in a very short time span, working in ever-changing constellations, they created scores of beautiful free jazz records. "New Africa" was recorded on august 11th 1969, only ten days after the end of the Festival; "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)" was recorded only a little later, on september 10th and november 4th 1969.

But the jazz corpus created by those invited to record by BYG Actuel - though one of the most enticing on record - was marred by greed: to this day, BYG's mainmen Bisceglia, Young and Georgakarakos have apparently not paid any royalties to the artists involved. The financial problems this created for Moncur initiated a downward spiral, which was worsened by health problems. The result was that Moncur was able to record only rarely after the early 1970's, apparently became quite depressed, and didn't even merit a personal entry in the 7th (2004) edition of "The Pinguin Guide To Jazz On CD".

It is ironic that where a Festival (the First Pan-African Cultural Festival) provided the main impetus for BYG Records, another festival proved to be it's undoing. BYG Records organized a festival together with the countercultural magazine Actuel called 'Le Festival Actuel'. It was planned to take place from October 24th to 27th 1969 in Paris. However, the French authorities denied the organizers the necessary permits, fearing that either a Woodstock-like chaos or a repetition of the may 1968 student riots might ensue. This forced the organizers to move the entire Festival at a very late stage to Belgium, to a place called Amougies (or Amengijs in Flemish) which is near the French-Belgium border. The Festival had a very ambitious line-up, featuring Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine and Ten Years After. Also, much of BYG Records roster of Free Jazz performers participated; Grachan Moncur III appeared on Saturday night, together with Don Cherry, saxophonist Arthur Jones and pianist Joachim Kurt Kuhn. Frank Zappa was master of ceremonies at the Festival. Though an audience of 15-20,000 attended the Festival, the financial strain it caused was too much of a burden for BYG Records, which finally went bankrupt in the early seventies.

Bisceglia went on to become a Jazz photographer; Jean Georgakarakos founded Celluloid Records; and Jean-Luc Young founded the record label Charly Records in France in 1974 and moved operations to England in 1975. Living up to his reputation for shady deals, Young ran into legal trouble due to copyright infringement in 2000 while still working for Charly Records.

The trombone - Moncur's instrument - has held a particular fascination for me ever since I saw drone metal band Earth perform live, Steve Moore - who has roots in Free Jazz - providing beautiful trombone gravitas to Earth's haunted Americana. But Moncur's trombone playing is light years removed from Moore's drones: his style is firmly rooted in Jazz tradition.

Moncur's music is not Free Jazz of the chaotic and noisy, Merzbow kind; and it is also devoid of the cheap quasi-mystical exoticism which can spoil Indian/Jazz-fusion-type Free Jazz. Notwithstanding the influence of Shepp's ethnopolitical protest music, both albums present a rather lyrical style of Free Jazz, elegant rather than intransigent, poetic rather than acerbic, a mélange rather than a hotchpotch. Moncur comes across as a good-natured progressive who chooses to explore both the heartlands and the borders of the Jazz tradition, rather than as a revolutionary firebrand who aims to scorch the earth of that tradition.

But that does not mean that Moncur's music lacks passion - on the contrary!

'New Africa' features Roscoe Mitchell (alto sax), Dave Burrell (piano), Alan Silva (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums). It opens with the eponymous seventeen-and-a-half minute suite, which consists of four movements. Over the course of these movements, the relaxed, steady bass work by Silva binds together the energetic performances of the other musicians. The drums and the piano on the one hand and the sax and the trombone on the other maneuver around each other in benevolent aerobatic dog-fights. In 'Space Spy' Dave Burrell provides a suspenseful piano tune that gives the track a tense feel appropriate to it's title: that of a Free Jazz afro-futurist espionage thriller. The third track ('Exploration') is the 'Free-est' of all. It is thoroughly informed by Alan Silva's musical style: spiritually ecstatic, with an interplay of instruments that is as writhing as a mass of Cthulhoid tentacles. Archie Shepp appears on the fourth and final track of 'New Africa', where a self-confident (but never swaggering) swing provides the two musicians with a theater stage on which to perform their powerful art.

I'm also very fond of the second part of this double LP, the album "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)". It was recorded after 'Le Festival Actuel'. This album presents two songs which are interpretations of Brazilian traditionals: "Aco Dei De Madrugada" and "Ponte Lo"; and two originals: "Osmosis" and "Tiny Temper". On this recording, Moncur was assisted by French bass player Beb Guérin, Brazilian pianist Fernando Martins and Brazilian drummer Nelson Serra De Castro. More laid-back than 'New Africa', the Latin influence gives his music an immensely graceful swing. - Enjoy!

_ Text: Documents, By Valter

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: Arista – AL 1906, Freedom – AL 1906

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1976

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

Recorded in New York City, 6th February 1968 except East Side Colors (9th September 1968)

Art Director – Bob Heimall

Artwork [Cover Art] – Benno Friedman

Design – Nancy Greenberg

Liner Notes – Stanley Crouch

Photography By – Raymond Ross

Producer – Alan Douglas

Producer [Additional Production] – Michael Cuscuna

"High Won-High Two" is the second studio album released by jazz pianist Dave Burrell. It was recorded on February 9, 1968 and was first released as an LP record later that year by Black Lion Records.

A - West Side Story (Medley) . . . 19:48

(Arranged By – D. Burrell, Composed By – L. Bernstein)

B1 - Oozi Oozi . . . 3:11

B2 - Bittersweet Reminiscence . . . 3:45

B3 - Bobby And Si . . . 2:13

B4 - Dave Blue . . . 2:37

B5 - Margie Pargie (A.M. Rag) . . . 3:02

C - East Side Colors . . . 15:52

D - Theme Stream Medley . . . 15:35

a. Dave Blue

b. Bittersweet Reminiscence

c. Bobby And Si

d. Margie Pargie (A.M. Rag)

e. Oozi Oozi

f. Inside Ouch

DAVE BURRELL – Piano, Composed, Arranger

SIRONE (Norris Jones) – Bass

PHAROAH SANDERS – Tambourine

BOBBY KAPP – Drums (tracks: A to B5, D)

SUNNY MURRAY – Drums (track: C)

Dave Burrell has long been a favorite pianist for his remarkable ability to play across stylistic boundaries in jazz. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1965 with a degree in composition, arranging and performance, Burrell dedicated himself to the pursuit of creative music that combines his dual talents as composer and free jazz improviser, performing alongside artists such as Marion Brown, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and David Murray. Few pianists have so successfully and consistently performed improvised music containing influences ranging from Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington to classical composers such as Puccini—see Burrell's LP, "La Vie de Boheme" (BYG/Get Back Records, 1969) and this a front of you, Leonard Bernstein trio LP "High Won-High Two" (Douglas/Black Lion, 1968 - Arista/Freedom, 1976) with Sirone and Sunny Murray. His predecessor, pianist Jaki Byard was similarly able to seamlessly employ the entire history of jazz in a single solo with Charles Mingus' 1964 sextet...

... Dave Burrell has long had a highly original style on piano, not quite outside but far from conventional. This LP, a trio set with bassist Sirone and either Bobby Kapp or Sonny Murray on drums. Most intriguing is a 19½-minute "West Side Story Medley" that features Burrell playing many of the songs from Leonard Bernstein's work in abstract fashion. There is also the lengthy "East Side Colors," five brief (around three-minutes apiece) versions of five of Burrell's originals and the "Theme Stream Medley" which has reprises of the five songs plus a sixth piece ("Inside Ouch").

_ By Scott Yanow

Extremely good set.

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: America Records – 067 867-2

Series: Free America – #07

Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Limited Edition - Released: 2004

Style: Free Jazz

Recording Date: 1970, Paris, France.

Art Direction, Design, Painting – Gilles Guerlet, Jérôme Witz

Photography By [Paintings] – Fredéric Thomas

Producer [For America-musidisc] – Pierre Berjot

Reissue Producer [Prepared For Reissue By] – Bruno Guermonprez

Supervised By [Reissue] – Daniel Richard

Transferred By [Transfers], Mastered By [Mastering] – Alexis Frenkel

Part of the reissue series of recordings from the French America label, this CD cleans up the sound from the original's horrible French pressing c. 1970 and holds up 44 years later as one of the best recordings of the free jazz diasporic period.

01 After Love Part 1 “Questions and Answers” (D. Burrell) . . . 21:42

02 After Love Part 2 “Random” (D. Burrell) . . . 7:03

03 My March (D. Burrell) . . . 22:03

Dave Burrell, leader, piano

Alan Silva, amplified cello, violin

Ron Miller, mandolin, bass (track 1)

Don Moye, drums

Bertrand Gauthier, drums (track 1)

Roscoe Mitchell, reeds

Michel Gladieux, bass (track 3)

When, in 1969, a young journalist named Paul Alessandrini proposed a series of “exspress Portraits” to Jean-Louis Ginibre, Chief Editor of “Jazz Magazine”, to be published under the title “The New Heads of the New Music”, Dave Burrell, aged 29, was probably the most discreet and apparently the most “serious” (no doubt because he wore glasses!) of the eleven musicians chosen. Musically - he’d already produced some phonographic evidence - this pianist was neither the least ‘turbulent’ nor, literally, the least iconoclastic. This was reason enough for him to have been selected among the whole ‘bunch’ of freejazzmen who’d just landed in Paris from New York and Chicago, and who immediately scattered throughout the capital’s studios and jazz clubs (not to mention other spaces, sometimes institutions, which had never heard as much…). A few jazz fans, and also professionals who were novices where ‘new jazz’ was concerned, but were excited by the scent of surprise inherent in this music, undertook the financial risks; after all, wasn’t their aim to sell this music that seemed to turn its back on most of the commercial criteria reigning over the music business? As for Burrell (no relation to guitarist Kenny Burrell, nor the New Orleans pianist Duke Burrell), if his biography remains extremely concise (are lucky musicians those without a story?), at least Alessandrini informed us that he ‘was born on September 10th, 1940 in Middletown, Ohio of parents originating in Mississippi and Louisiana. When he was still a child he lived in a musical atmosphere: his mother played piano and organ, and sang spirituals in a Baptist Church (Note: Baptist religious services were the most propitious in terms of musical paroxysms and collective trance phenomenal. His father, a union man, defended black workers rights. For four years he studied music at Berklee School of Music and at the Boston Conservatory, then for two years at the University of Hawaii. He lived in the heart of the Black ghetto, in Cleveland and Harlem, while making frequent trips to the ‘paradise’ of Hawaii. He recorded with Giuseppi Logan, Marion Brown (Juba-Lee, Three for Shepp). Pharoah Sanders (still spelt ‘Pharaoh’ at the time), (Tauhid), then under his own name for Douglas (High). Deeply marked by his recent stay in Algiers, he’s just recorded two compositions conceived over there, under the general title of ‘Echo’: with himself leading, there are Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur, III , Sunny Murray, etc’ (In ‘Jazz magazine’ No. 171, October 1969). We would later learn that his name was actually Herman Davis Burrell III: that is was his mother who initiated him to jazz: that in Boston he sometimes played with the very young drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Sam Rivers (two indispensable pioneers who later appeared in the Blue Note catalogue and then alongside Miles Davis); that in 1965, in New York, he’d formed the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with Byard Lancaster (reeds), Sirone (bass), and Bobby Kapp (drums); that three years later with Moncur (trombone) and drummer Beaver Harris, he’d created a musical variable-geometry collective, the 360 Degree Music Experience, with the motto: ‘from ragtime to no time at all.” Such a stance of absolute openness is something that would cross the pianist composer’s entire output, from prime percussion to Giaccomo Puccini (he was indeed to tackle a re-reading of some of the great arias from ‘La Vie De Boheme’) with amongst other decisive moments, his sole physical contact with the African continent during the Algiers Pan-African festival. Like other pianist-composers, notably Sun Ra and Jaki Byard , Dave Burrell invented an approach for himself which might be superficially qualified as ‘plural’, indeed ‘schizophrenic. Classical, traditional here, and unbridled, ‘free’ there… Like a kind of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. In fact, here as there (and as in Stevenson’s novel), it’s a question of one and the same being, the same ‘soul’, ensuring the indisputable continuity of this apparent stylistic patchwork. The continuum of which saxophonist Archie Shepp spoke not long ago, that Great Black Music returning to the words of the musicians in Chicago’s A.A.C.M. (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), or again in all the music that exists, in the phrase of the Philadelphian Byard Lancaster, between ‘Sex machine (James brown) and ‘A Love Supreme’ (John Coltrane): such is the profound unity of the Burrell universe with, obviously, a whole range of singularities, ‘distinctive features’ with a juxtaposition and mingling of his taste for classical forms and virtuosities, notably with the piano’s African-American pioneers (ragtime, stride, boogie…), or, as in this ‘After Love’ for a March tempo that’s distended and distorted to anamorphosis and verbal explosions. This reminds us that these were joyous militant years, and that forbidding was still forbidden - even to mix the sounds of an electric cello, or a violin and a mandolin, to associate a multi-blower from Chicago (and The Art Ensemble’ Of…) Roscoe Mitchell, the Art Ensemble’s percussionist (Don Moye), a former partner of Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra (Alan Silva) with young Parisian rhythmicians (Michel Gladieux, who was part of the Dharma quintet, and Bertrand Gauthier, who dropped his sticks in favour of a camera), and therefore to play-enjoy without hindrance. Who mentioned nostalgia? It’s just a moment in history.

_ By Phillippe Carles

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: Goody – GY 30001, Goody – GY 30.001

Goody Series Vol. 1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Unofficial Release

Country: France - Released: 1969

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on July 22, 1967 at Sound City Studios in New York City.

(Track 2 - ''Babe's Dilemma'', bonus track, is not on the original release)

Engineer – Orville O'Brien

Liner Notes – Archie Shepp

Photography By – Philippe Gras

Producer [Serie Directed By] – Claude Delcloo, Jean Luc Young

For those who don't know better, the free jazz movement is considered a sharp break with the past heritage of the music. That really wasn't the case. As Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp hearkened back to field hollers and very basic folk forms, musicians like Clifford Thornton went in the opposite direction, building on the music of the sophisticates and expanding the possibilities for jazz. Listening to music with this much space in it, it might be hard for some listeners to hear the Mingus. But it's there. And because that's there, Ellington is here in heaping handfuls as well. Sure this stuff is rough in spots. But the myriad of tones this man uses to express himself keeps things interesting and alive — the bright clarion of cornet and trumpet, the somber, thoughtful vibes, and a rhythm section that embraces two bass players to keep things rooted. The leader plays valve trombone, an enormously flexible instrument that allows him to meld with a variety of moods and produce music at once heartachingly simple and brain-twistingly complex.

For those with open ears — and minds.

Trombonist/trumpeter Clifford Thornton, is a natural extension of the music of Ornette Coleman.

Recorded one day after John Coltrane’s funeral, this session features Trane sideman Jimmy Garrison on two tracks and Joe McPhee (playing trumpet) on three. Thornton, who rehearsed across the hall from Ornette’s trio, certainly was listening. His piano-less quintet and extended New Art Ensemble pursue Coleman’s breakthroughs in melody and rhythm with different instrumentation. They certainly prove that free principals can be applied to the vibes, as Karl Berger does here and on later recordings with Don Cherry. Alto saxophonist Sonny King (we should find out more about this guy) tears through songs bridging bebop and freedom principles.

Thornton’s valve trombone is the payday here. He floats lines, setting moods or barking replies to the cornet. Thornton’s trombone later recorded with Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp. The liner notes point out he was denied a visa to enter France because they suspected him of belonging to the Black Panthers. His revolutionary music and self-produced LP’s received little attention in the mainstream press, as he had no access to distribute his music, and in the late 1960s and 1970s, American record companies were withdrawing their support of creative music. The Cecil Taylors, Anthony Braxtons and Joe McPhees of this world either became exiles or recorded for small foreign labels. Clifford Thornton moved to Europe and died in relative obscurity in the mid-80s. This document of significant music calls for further exploration of the ever-neglected free jazz past.

_ By MARK CORROTO,

Published: November 1, 2001 (AAJ)

Originally issued on Third World Records in 1969 as Third World LP 9636.

http://www.restructures.net/Thornton/thornton_disco_home.htm

http://www.jazzdisco.org/clifford-thornton/discography/

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/JAZZ-LP-CLIFFORD-THORNTON-NEW-ART-ENSEMBLE-FREEDOM-UNITY-THIRD-WORLD-/181410145726

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: hat ART – hat ART CD 6197

Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition; Country: Switzerland - Released: 1996

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded At WBAI's Free Music Store, N.Y. N.Y., October 30, 1971.

Design Concept [Graphic Concept] – fuhrer vienna

Liner Notes – Chris Albertson, Joe McPhee

Liner Notes [Producers Note] – Werner X. Uehlinger

Mixed By [Mix], Mastered By [CD Master] – Peter Pfister

Photography By [Photo] – Ken Brunton

Producer – Pia And Werner X. Uehlinger

Recorded By – Chris Albertson

The Hat Art label (Werner X. Uehlinger) was formed in the mid-'70s partly to document the music of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. The tapes of this live concert, which was broadcast by the small New York radio station WBAI, were released for the first time on this 1996 CD. Doubling on tenor and trumpet, McPhee is joined by Clifford Thornton (heard on baritone horn and cornet), Byron Morris (on soprano and alto), pianist Mike Kull, and percussionist Harold E. Smith. Due to the passionate nature of much of this fairly free music and the use of Thornton's baritone horn, one does not really notice the absence of a string bass. The six lengthy pieces (which are sandwiched by somewhat stilted announcing) are full of fire but also have their quiet and lyrical moments. A strong all-around performance that should not have taken 25 years to release.

McPhee – the Poughkeepsie-based saxophonist/trumpeter/composer – came on the scene in the late 1960s and appeared on a now-reissued recording by his mentor Clifford Thornton (whose Gardens of Harlem is in desperate need of reissue, by the way). After a few releases on CJR (all now available on Atavistic’s Unheard Music Series), Uehlinger released McPhee’s Black Magic Man and the relationship has existed ever since, resulting in some of the finest improvised music of the period. The music – by McPhee on tenor and trumpet, Thornton on baritone horn, Byron Morris on soprano and alto, Mike Kull on piano, and Harold E. Smith on percussion – is hot and intense, coming straight from McPhee’s most fiery period. It features the core of McPhee’s repertory at the time, including the acetylene torch intensity of “Black Magic Man,” the declamatory “Nation Time” (where the horns blend with wonderful color), and the gorgeous ballad “Song for Lauren,” where McPhee really begins to establish his powerful lyric strain that would become so recognizable on later recordings. McPhee already sounds in full command of his horns – listen to his lovely trumpet intro to “Message from Denmark” – and the band sounds great too (the underrated Kull just crushes on “The Looking Glass I”). They’re at their most powerful on the intensely dark rise-and-fall of “Harriet,” an exceptional document of free improvisation from one of the music’s true masters.

_ By JASON BIVINS, 1996

hat Hut catalog: http://www.hathut.com/home.html

If you find it, buy this album!

Label: Ayler Records – aylCD-013

Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 2005

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert at the Glenn Miller Café, Stockholm, Sweden, August 25 & 26, 2004.

Design, Cover art By – Åke Bjurhamn

Layout By – Stéphane Berland

Photography By – Lars Jönson

Executive producer By – Jan Ström

One of the joys of recorded jazz is rediscovering a deserving artist that fell into the cracks of history. You've probably never heard of alto saxophonist Ulander, for example, unless you followed Swedish jazz in the 1960s, when he was actively recording with the likes of Berndt Egerbladh, a talented pianist who composed hip post-bop tunes, and Lars Lystedt, a valve trombonist and longtime fixture on the scene, or remember him as a member of radical pianist Per Henrik Wallin's mid-'70s free trio.

The problem was that few of those LPs were distributed outside of Sweden then, or survive now, and Ulander recorded less than a handful of sessions between 1975 and today, preferring a career as full-time producer at Swedish Radio to the rigors of the road. Live at the Glenn Miller Café is, in fact, Ulander's debut session as a leader, and displays his circuitous, lyrical improvising in five lengthy performances from 2004. In his younger days, Ulander exhibited a bit of Jackie McLean's biting tone and edgy urgency when playing more straightahead material, but now, exploring freer territory, he's neither extravagant nor overly expressionistic, engaging in open, conversational interplay with bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.

Lars-Göran Ulander

Sedona, Arizona is home to a series of peculiar structures. To the layperson eye they are little more than cobbled together cairns slowly crumbling to dust. But to the local populace of crystal-wearing, chakra-obssessed mystics these stone piles are focal points, dots on a metaphysical map where spiritual energy pools in abundance and believers gain regular ingress to other states of consciousness. To the jazz fan the imperfect analogues are legendary clubs, venues where doyens stride the stage and make history as they build on the music night after night. The Village Vanguard, The Velvet Lounge, The Vortex, The Bimhaus, these are but a few. Thanks to the assiduous efforts of Ayler Records the Glenn Miller Café is earning a ranking among the number.

Jan Ström refers to the Café as the label’s “number one ‘studio’.” That’s no errant boast given that at least seven of the imprint’s releases to date were birthed within its walls. I can’t help pondering what the cafés supper club friendly namesake would have thought of much of the improv-centric music radiating from the stage. Whatever his possible opinion of the place, the incongruity often makes for some delightful irony; especially when ensembles like the Lars Göran Ulander Trio are the purveyors for an evening. In common with certain others on the Ayler roster including Anders Gahnold and Martin Küchen, Ulander represents relatively obscure surname to most non-European jazz listeners. His work on the Ayler-released Per Henrik Wallin compilation The Stockholm Tapes helped reverse the tide of American anonymity, but those recordings dated from the 70s. This recent one connotes his commercial debut as leader and presents a saxophonist still in possession of considerable creative skills.

Joining Ulander in the trio are two seemingly incongruous compatriots. My experience with Palle Danielsson is pretty much limited to his work on various ECM outings, mostly in the company of talented, but sometimes overly-sedate pianist Bobo Stenson. Paal Nilssen-Love frequently represents the other side of the coin, a powerhouse drummer comfortable in the company of Brötzmann and Gustafsson and one who a breaks a heavy beading sweat every time behind his kit. The two players meet beautifully in the middle between their respective poles, Danielssonn producing a full-bodied tensile thrum when it comes to pizzicato and Nilssen-Love favoring nuance as much as brawn in his myriad rhythms. Ulander trolls the lower regions of his alto, brushing the tenor range with a tone furrowed by emotive veracity.

“Tabula Raasa G.M.C.,” first of three lengthy collective improvisations, finds the three reaching a flexible consensus that sustains for nearly the entire set. The Mingusian anthem “What Love” serves as a fitting median piece. The leader engages Danielsson in a dialogue worthy of the source incarnations, mixing dialects of Dolphy and McLean in a continuation of a conference initiated on the earlier, enigmatically-titled “Intrinsic Structure I.” Sprawling in scope, “Ionizacion- Variaciones E.V.” borrows kernels from Varese’s epochal percussion ensemble piece and injects slivers of jazz time. All three tracks feature propulsion-packed, texture-stacked solos by Nilssen-Love. Ulander’s own “J.C. Drops” closes the concert and he shows an even stronger abiding influence of Art Pepper in his velocious, often piercing lines.

Add Ulander’s name to those of others like James Finn, Bill Gagliardi and Stephen Gauci, saxophonists of the far-better-late-than-never fraternity who are finally receiving some measure of their due. And thanks to the Glenn Miller Café, a venue slowly accruing legendary status, for help making it happen.

_ By DEREK TAYLOR

September 5, 2005 (Dusted)

Here you can buy ayler albums:

http://www.ayler.com/cd-catalogue.html

Buy this album!

Label: Impetus Records – IMP CD 18203

Format: CD, Album, Reissue; Country: UK - Released: 2000

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Staccato Studios, Stavanger, Norway on 11th October 1982

Track C previously unreleased, recorded in 1985, no other details.

Original cover artwork (front cover reproduced above) 1 2 NO 1 by John Stevens

Original LP design by Fay Stevens

Engeneer By – Kjell Arne Jensen

The free jazz group Detail, co-founded by Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad and British drummer John Stevens, was most often a trio. In the beginning the third member was Norwegian pianist Eivin One Pedersen. Pedersen left shortly after bassist Johnny Dyani joined. After Dyani's death in 1986, Kent Carter took over as bassist. Detail continued performing and recording until Stevens' death in 1994. The group's seven recordings were released on Impetus, Cadence, and Gjerstad's label, Circulasione Totale.

Frode Gjerstad is one of the few Norwegian musicians playing modern improvised music outside the 'ECM-school'. He has chosen to play with foreign musicians because there is no tradition in Norway for free improvised music.

His relationship with John Stevens which started in 1981 and lasted up until Stevens' death in 1994 was of great importance both musically as well as on a personal level. Through Stevens, he became acquainted with the playing of some of the finest British improvisers. His longstanding group with Stevens, 'Detail', started as a trio in 1981 with keyboardist Eivin One Pedersen, though Johnny Mbizo Dyani came in on bass in 1982 and Pedersen left later that year. The group played mainly as a trio until Dyani's death in 1986, though they did invite occasional guests to fill out the lineup; they undertook a tour of Britain in 1986 as a quartet with Bobby Bradford on cornet. Bradford did another tour with Detail with Paul Rogers on bass and then one with Kent Carter on bass; a quartet tour of Norway was organised with Billy Bang in 1989. The group then continued as a trio with Carter till 1994 when Stevens died.

_ By Joslyn Layne, Rovi

Impetus Records:

http://www.impetusdistribution.co.uk/css/pages.ID/imp.id.html

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Label: Nessa Records – N-19

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1979

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded May 21, 1979 Van Gelder Studio.

Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder

Liner Notes – Robert Palmer

Producer, Photography By – Chuck Nessa

A - Images . . . 19:15

B1 - The Burning Of Stones . . . 9:47

B2 - Spirit Catcher . . . 9:54

Leo Smith – trumpet, flugelhorn

Bobby Naughton – vibraphone [vibraharp] (tracks: A, B2)

Dwight Andrews – clarinet, tenor saxophone, flute [wooden flute] (tracks: A, B2)

Wes Brown – bass, flute [wooden flute] (tracks: A, B2)

Pheeroan AkLaff – drums (tracks: A, B2)

Carol Emanuel – harp (track: B1)

Irene Smith – harp (track: B1)

Ruth Emanuel – harp (track: B1)

"The dry and often esoteric trumpeter Leo Smith is featured with his quintet (consisting of Dwight Andrews on tenor, clarinet and flute, vibraphonist Bobby Naughton, bassist Wes Brown and drummer Pheeroan AkLaff) on the 19-minute "Images" and the colorful "Spirit Catcher.""The Burning of Stones" (dedicated to Anthony Braxton) has Smith's trumpet joined by three harpists for some unusual music. Throughout the LP the performances are unpredictable, and it's frequently difficult to know where the arrangement ends and the improvising begins. This is thought-provoking music that grows in interest with each listen."

_ By Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Spirit Catcher finds Smith in a key period of his career. Having already played with kindred spirits in Anthony Braxton and in Derek Bailey’s Company, he was moving from solo improvisation to experimenting with radical new group compositions, underpinned by his own personal theories. Spirit Catcher came soon after the highly regarded Divine Love (ECM, 1979) where his muted trumpet was joined by those of Kenny Wheeler and Lester Bowie in an awesome threesome. On Spirit Catcher Smith creates contexts that are just as innovative as those on the ECM album.

The album opens with “Images,” a quintet piece which, as on the ECM album, is immediately given a cool, tranquillity by the inclusion in the rhythm section of Bobby Naughton’s vibes. Also retained from Divine Love is clarinetist Dwight Andrews; the two feed off each other and their lines interweave, complementing and enhancing one another. Throughout, the economy of Smith’s trumpet is worthy of comparison with Miles, foreshadowing his later Yo’ Miles group with Henry Kaiser.

More radical still takes of “The Burning of Stones,” on which the trumpet is accompanied by three harps. This setting takes Smith’s music way beyond the boundaries of “jazz.” Instead, this is almost a concerto for solo muted trumpet. But such distinctions become meaningless when the resulting music is this beautiful, this piece was not improvised but composed, the interactions between harps and trumpet being finely judged to display both to best effect. Dedicated to Braxton, it is Braxtonesque in its vision and its daring.

_ By JOHN EYLES (Dusted Reviews)

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Label: ECM Records – ECM 1143

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: W. Germany - Released: 1979

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, W. Germany in September 1978.

Artwork By [Design] - Peter Brotzmann

Composed By – Leo Smith

Engineer By – Martin Wieland

Photography [Back] – Dani Lienhard, Signe Mahler, Roberto Masotti

Photography [Front] – Roberto Masotti

Producer By – Manfred Eicher

A1 - Divine Love . . . 21:47

B1 - Tastalun . . . 6:38

(Trumpet - Kenny Wheeler , Lester Bowie)

B2 - Spirituals: The Language Of Love . . . 15:28

(Bass - Charlie Haden)

Leo Smith – trumpet, flugelhorn, steel-o-phone, gongs, percussion

Dwight Andrews – alto flute, bass clarinet , tenor saxophone, triangles, mbira

Bobby Naughton – vibraharp, marimba, bells

Charlie Haden – double-bass

Lester Bowie – trumpet

Kenny Wheeler – trumpet

Leo Smith refused the advances of the ECM label for a few years, but eventually created this album for them and continued to record with them sporadically. His working group of the time is largely featured, along with a piece for three trumpets that puts him in the company of both Lester Bowie and Kenny Wheeler. His scores from this time were very well-thought-out and demanded a special type of concentration from the performers, moving into areas quite different than the usual intensity build-up of free jazz or the theme-improvise-theme standards of much that came before. Whether his intentions are best served by the likes of Bowie and Wheeler -- both working in an area that might not be their forte -- was a decision that didn't seem to bother the production staff, and the results are at the very least a memorable meeting of three brass masters. The presence of vibraphonist Bobby Naughton was typical of this period, heralding a new layer of lyricism and romantic beauty in Smith's music, which one would think would be perfectly suited to the ECM treatment. That sympathetic connection was never quite made, however, as the producer was probably busy finding the ultimate reverb setting for Smith's horn.

(by Eugene Chadbourne)

Bobby Naughton, Wadada Leo Smith, Dwight Andrews - Stuttgart, West Germany, September 1978 (Photo by Fridel Pluff)

"The music I have written since 1970 represents two types of systems that I have utilized in my music; the systems of rhythm - units and ahkreanvention. The rhythm unit concept is one that accepts a single sound or rhythm, a series of rhythm - sound, or a grouping of more than one series of sound rhythm as a complete piece of music and thus need not be so- called developed further to be appreciated as a whole fresh realized work or piece, IMPROVISATION. The correct understanding of each unit is: the value given to an audible unit is followed by the relative equivalence of silence. "Divine Love" and "Spirituals: The Language Of Love" are good representations of the rhythm unit concept.

Since 1971 I have been concerned with creating alternatives for a world music, one which utilizes the fundamental laws of improvisation and composition while retaining a uniqueness of its own. I began to design a notation system for scoring sound, rhythm and silence, or for scoring improvisation, a technique I term ahkreanvention. Ahkreanvention literally means to create and invent musical ideas simultaneously, utilizing the fundamental laws of improvisation and composition, Within this system, all of the elements of the scored music are controlled through symbols designating duration, improvisation, and moving sounds of different velocities. These symbols are depicted on two types of staffs sound staffs divided into low, medium and high, and sound staffs of adjustable sound partials. Since this system was designed, all of the music I have worked on has dealt with the philosophical and technical attitude upon which it is based. "Tastalun" is an ahkreanvention piece scored for three muted trumpets, and it represents my experimentation with this system of notation. In prior years I have been able to record solo ahkreanvention pieces, but this was the first time I have recorded an ensemble ahkreanvention piece. My purpose and mission as a creative musician is to bring about an understanding and appreciation for all the instruments found throughout the world and to advance the concept of equality of both the instruments and their creators in the world arena."

_ By LEO SMITH , 9.23.1978

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Label: ECM Records – ECM 1069

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: W. Germany - Released: 1976

Style: Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded June 1975, Generation Sound Studios, New York City.

Composed By – Kenny Wheeler

Engineer – Tony May

Mixed By – Martin Wieland

Photography By [Cover] – Tadayuki Naito

Producer – Manfred Eicher

A - Heyoke . . . 21:47

B1 - 'Smatter . . . 5:56

B2 - Gnu Suite . . . 12:47

Kenny Wheeler – fluegelhorn

Keith Jarrett – piano

Dave Holland – bass

Jack DeJohnette – drums

Pure Lyricism from the Trumpet

From Louis Armstrong through Dizzy Gillespie and the hard bop master Woody Shaw, the trumpet has usually attracted extroverts and dazzlers. Kenny Wheeler, the enormously talented trumpeter and composer, began to change that in the 1970s—his playing emphasizes softer textures and less grandstanding approaches. On the astounding Gnu High, he plays the flügelhorn, a close relative of the trumpet that has a slightly more rounded tone, and favors scampering, musing phrases over reveille bursts that scream, "Look at me!" With this record and several that follow it, Wheeler suggests that brass can sing, and sing sweetly.

Few jazz musicians treat it that way. And even fewer write tunes that demand such tonal nuance. Wheeler specializes in languid, questioning themes that practically force him to think in expansive terms when soloing. The title suite, which lasts nearly thirteen minutes, moves through long rubato passages into broken samba-like grooves and, eventually, a more assertive choppy swing. When Wheeler makes his entrance, he doesn't barge in; rather, he glides, taking care not to step too heavily on any one beat. Follow closely as he develops his solos, however: Wheeler frequently ventures into the trumpet's extreme upper register, where brute force is often needed, and somehow hangs onto his innate sense of lyricism. Believe the title: His high notes are a new kind of high.

Gnu High is also notable as the rare date from this period where Keith Jarrett appears in a supporting role. The pianist totally "gets" Wheeler's tunes—at times on "Smatter," which features a solo-piano interlude, Jarrett generates flowing melodies with such facility, you might think he wrote the tune. That's also a function of tone: Because Wheeler's sound is so warm and inviting, everyone around him plays that way too.

When Kenny Wheeler expatriated from his native Canada to England, it was not headline news. But upon the release of Gnu High, he became a contemporary jazz figure to be recognized, revered and admired. Playing the flugelhorn exclusively for this, his ECM label debut, Wheeler's mellifluous tones and wealth of ideas came to full fruition. Whether chosen in collaboration with label boss Manfred Eicher or by Wheeler alone, picking pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette was a stroke of genius. They support the elongated and extended notions of Wheeler's in many real and important ways. What is also extant is a sense of self-indulgence, real for listeners with short attention spans. "Heyoke" is such a piece rife for this discussion at nearly 22 minutes. This lilting waltz is at once atmospheric and soulful, a fairly fresh and inventive style turned more dramatic near the finish of this magnum opus. It's all fueled by the reinvented swing of DeJohnette. Jarrett's vocal whining is kept in check, as his pretty pianistics buoy Wheeler's notions in Zen inspired time and eventually no time improvisations. "Gnu Suite" is similarly rendered in an unforced 4/4 rhythm, but Wheeler is more animated. There's a plus-plus solo from Holland before the group merges into a floating and flowing discourse again in free time. The special track is "Smatter" and at just under six minutes works better, not only for radio airplay, but also in its concise melodic construct by means of the regal and happy persona Wheeler portrays. Pure melody and a repeated anchoring seven-note phrase insert sets this tune apart from the rest. It also clearly identifies the warm and cool stance only Wheeler wields, making seemingly simple music deep and profound. Certainly this was an auspicious starting point, albeit long winded, for a magical performer whose sound and smarts captured the imagination of so many fellow musicians and listeners from this point onward.

Review by Michael G. Nastos

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