Chris McGregor

Vinyl edition of this joyous improvised music drawing on South African roots and European free jazz from Chris McGregor and a group including Evan Parker, Louis Moholo, Barre Philllips, &c.  This album only had a few test pressings at the time of recording and this is therefore the first vinyl release of this classic work. In 1969 the Chris McGregor Group were riding high on the London jazz scene, playing and hanging out with all the rising stars of British free jazz. Sessions for the previously unreleased Up To Earth brought together a dream team of South African exiles and some of the finest young players on the British scene -- Chris McGregor piano, Dudu Pukwana alto saxophone, Mongezi Feza trumpet, Louis Moholo drums, John Surman baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, Evan Parker tenor saxophone with Barre Phillips or Danny Thompson on double bass. Up To Earth was produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood at Sound Techniques studio in London, during the same months they were also working with several other luminaries of the Witchseason stable -- Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and the Incredible String Band. The album was mastered and test pressings produced before the project was shelved. The group morphed into the spectacular big band -- the Brotherhood of Breath -- and all energies were transferred to recording the Brotherhood's debut album. Fledg'ling Records are very proud to release this remarkable album as part of our campaign to reissue Chris McGregor's wonderfully creative recordings from the late '60s and early '70s."