★Solid Records
Dear Prof. Leary
Villingen, 27 and 28 June 1968. Barney Wilen, the tenor of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, with a young Joachim Kühn on organ and piano, Aldo Romano and Wolfgang Paap on two drum kits, Mimi Lorenzini's guitar and Günter Lenz's bass. Ode to Billie Joe, Respect, Lonely Woman and the Supremes, dedicated to Timothy Leary.
Djanger Bali
1967, SABA. Tony Scott, the clarinettist of Music for Zen Meditation, with Bubi Chen's Indonesian All Stars: Jack Lesmana on guitar, Marjono on saxophone, gamelan gongs under the rhythm section. Jazz standards and Indonesian songs, with Summertime and Djanger Bali. One of the first Jazz Meets records.
Noon In Tunisia
Another of Berendt's meetings, SABA 1967. George Gruntz, the Basel pianist who would later run the Berlin Jazz Festival for twenty years, with Sahib Shihab on saxophones and Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, and a group of Tunisian musicians: a bendir and darbuka drum ensemble and Salah El Mahdi on ney flute. The title turns Dizzy Gillespie's tune on its head.
UK Vibe, reviewing the Nicola Conte compilation that includes Djerbi, points out that the famous names are not the point: it is the lesser-known …
Jazz Meets India
Villingen, 23 October 1967. Irène Schweizer's trio with Mani Neumeier and Uli Trepte, a year before Guru Guru, meets Dewan Motihar's sitar, tabla and tambura, with Manfred Schoof and Barney Wilen. Three pieces, two of them long, and the seventeen-minute Sun Love. All About Jazz calls it an unqualified success.
Gittin' To Know Y'All
Baden-Baden, Südwestfunk studio, 12 to 14 December 1969, the annual Free Jazz Meeting. Steve McCall had persuaded the organisers to invite the Chicago musicians living in Paris: Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, and the pianist Dave Burrell. They met sixteen Europeans: Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, Willem Breuker, Terje Rypdal, Tony Oxley, Alan Skidmore, Heinz Sauer, Gerd Dudek, Eje Thelin, Bernt Rosengren, Hugh Steinmetz, Leo Cuypers, Claude Delcloo and Karin Krog…
Globe Unity
December 1966, a month after the premiere at the Berlin Philharmonie: Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity, fourteen players, Brötzmann, Schoof, Hampel, Mangelsdorff, Dudek, Breuker, Kowald, Niebergall, Liebezeit, Neumeier. Two pieces, Globe Unity and Sun. European free jazz declaring itself.
It's After The End Of The World
Donaueschingen, 17 October 1970, and Berlin, 7 November: Sun Ra's first German concerts, commissioned by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, with the Black Forest Myth written for the astrological moment and never played again. Berendt cut five hours of tape into forty minutes. Der Spiegel called it cosmic chaos.
Eternal Rhythm
CD eissue of Don Cherry's classic Eternal Rhythm Group, recorded at the Berlin Jazz Festival, 1968. An amazing line up of: Cherry (cornet, gender and saron [gamelan], flutes), Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), Eje Thelin (trombone), Bernt Rosengren (tenor sax, oboe, clarinet, flute), Sonny Sharrock (guitar), Karl Berger (vibes, piano, gender), Joachim Kühn (piano, prepared piano), Arild Andersen (bass), & Jacques Thollot (drums, saron, gong, bells, voice). Two "side-long" pieces with gamelan under…
Payan
*2024 stock* Lovely 1972 solo work by one of the most influential European avant-garde pianists of the last half-century; a player whose improvisational flexibility puts him in the same league as Cecil Taylor, but whose ability to concentrate at moments and knowledge of jazz history make him much more remarkable! One of Alexander Von Schlippenbach's finest albums; it's beautiful all the way through, with an unfaltering inventiveness that occasionally leads to Monkish moments or Herbie Nichols wh…
In Europe
This is Texas-born tenor sax giant Billy Harper captured on tour in Europe in 1979. Mr Harper's gorgeous tone drives a highly energetic quintet featuring a young Fred Hersch on piano, Everett Hollins on trumpet, Louie "Mbiki" Spears on bass and Horace Arnold on drums. Billy Harper's seminal masterpiece, which gained more widespread recognition in the 70s, is a scorching and powerful record that exudes righteousness from start to finish. At this stage of his career, Billy has developed a strong c…
Black Saint
Billy Harper is one of the great tenor saxophonists in the post-Coltrane mold. Originally from Houston, TX and with a degree from the venerable University of North Texas College of Music, Harper emerged on the New York City jazz scene in the late 1960s performing with Art Blakey, Max Roach, Lee Morgan and others. Known for his soulful and propulsive tone, Harper was already a highly regarded and prolific session man before the release of his debut album as a leader on the cult favorite Strata-Ea…
We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
*2024 stock* One of the major statements in the history of Jazz and African American liberation movements. Originally released in 1960 on Candid Records, Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite consists of five original compositions and performances staging and celebrating different moments and aspects of the African American history and culture. Here is a wonderful cast of musicians reunited around Max Roach – drums and Abbey Lincoln – vocals. Throughout the album you can find great contributions from th…
Revolutionary Ensemble
*2024 stock* Recorded live in Australia in 1977 by the Revolutionary Ensemble, the famous loft jazz unit formed by violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone, and drummer Jerome Cooper. This is the only Enya disc by these three exciting and unique members of the New York loft scene!
Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within)
*2024 stock* A solo performance by Cecil Taylor at the peak of his powers at a jazz festival in Austria in 1976. The insane keyboard rampaging that he performed with devilish concentration is only possible with the genius Taylor, who has reached a height that no one else can reach! This is the Cecil Taylor of the 70's!
Dark To Themselves
*2024 stock* Dark to Themselves is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, Yugoslavia, on June 18, 1976, and released on the Enja label. The album features Taylor on piano with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, trumpeter Raphe Malik, and drummer Marc Edwards. (The album documents the only occasion on which Ware and Edwards recorded with Taylor.) The original LP release presented the music in edited form, while the CD reissue contains the…
Trinity
*2024 stock* Enja has released the live recordings of Masahiko Sato, one of the most famous pianists in Japan, at a broadcasting station in Germany in 1971, and this is a rare item that has only been released on CD once in the past in 1992.The performance by Sato, who came to Munich in 1971 at the invitation of Horst Weber of Enja, Peter Warren on bass, and Pierre Fabre on drums is truly a triumvirate of greatness!
Music From The Source
*2024 stock* Cecil McBee, the famous bass player behind many great recordings, teamed up with Don Moye, Steve McCall and Dennis Moorman's black jazz rhythm in 1977 to inspire Joe Gardner, Chico Freeman and others on this white-hot hidden black jazz masterpiece! First CD release in Japan!
Distant Thunder
*2024 stock* The Yamashita Trio on tour in Germany in 1975 had a miraculous encounter with free improv genius Manfred Shcoof! This is a too hot live recording of the live performance with Yosuke Yamashita, Akira Sakata, Takeo Moriyama, and Manfred Schoof, who responded aggressively with their whole heart and soul!
白い恋人たち = 13 Jours En France (Original Soundtrack Recording)
A masterpiece of film music following "A Man and A Woman" by the tag team of Claude Lelouch and Francis Ray. This is an artistic documentary film that only features footage of the Winter Olympics held in Grenoble, France, and Francis Ray's brilliant music. The performances by the actual star athletes of the time and the astonishing talent of Francis Ray, which can be described as a French soundtrack, make this a masterpiece. The theme song "White Lovers" was produced with Japanese lyrics and cov…
Swinging Macedonia
"Mal Waldron's piano, exotic ensemble and sweltering pets. This is the definitive melancholy jazz album! Long-awaited reissue at mid-price of this masterpiece from the peak of Balkan treasure Dusko Goykovich's career! This is an unquestionably treasured album full of great songs and performances, including Nicolas Conte's cover of 1 and 9 from "Tatsuo Sunaga's Night Jazz", and it has been restored in its original German Philips jacket!
It is no exaggeration to say that "Swingin' Macedonia" is th…