Label: MPS Records – 0068.261, MPS Records – MPS 15572
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1981
Style: Post Bop, Avant-garde Jazz
Recording Live at Casino Montreux, July 16, 1980, Switzerland.
Cover – Studio Icks
Photography By – Encore Photographics
Mixed By – Albert Mangelsdorff, J.E. Berendt*, Paul Landsiedel
Mixing dates: Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 1980.
Producer – Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout): 0703 900 S 1 0068 261 S1 3 20 A 1
Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout): 0703 900 S 2 0068 261 S2 3 20 B 1
A1- Dear Mr. Palmer........................................................................................... 16:02
A2- Mood Azur ..................................................................................................... 5:57
B1- Stay On The Carpet ....................................................................................... 5:57
B2- Rip Off .......................................................................................................... 16:08
Musicians:
Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone
J.F. Jenny-Clark – bass
Ronald Shannon Jackson – drums, percussion
“Dear Mr. Palmer” starts off with bleats of brass and bass as the band joins together for some thoughtful interplay. Blasts of trombone build choppily unaccompanied in open space. The bass and drums begin to roil the music with thickly plucked bass and nimbler percussion making for a musical high wire act. Mangelsdorff again takes a solo section making eerie sounding noises before the entire trio takes the music out with a fast and hard conclusion. The length of the performance allows the group to fully explore the possibilities the trio format offers. There is a raw and forlorn sensibility to the leaders trombone on “Mood Azure” with high pitched bass and roiling drums setting an abstract foundation for the trombone to solo over. The music is kept under control, and flurries of faster playing strain at the leash in this moody and atmospheric performance. “Stay on the Carpet” opens with drums rolling and trombone stuttering, uttering high pitched streaks and streams of notes. Bass and drums join together to make for a powerful team and show that the group can turn on a dime and take their improvisation in unexpected directions. They can work in quiet whispers as well as moving dynamically to screaming louder passages. Mangelsdorff takes “Ripp Off” in his own direction, cleaving the open space with grumbling and sputtering trombone. He probes and explores the silence to see what possibilities lay there, adrift in space and time. There is a radical shift as the bass and drums move in and he even tips a sly wink to his forbears, adding a hint of swagger like he’s in a postmodern New Orleans parade. Both Jackson and Jenny-Clarke are afforded solo opportunities, which they take full advantage of before the trio ends their concert together to rousing applause.
(Review by Tim Niland)