The Trio - 'By Contact'
As announced in the previous post, here is the final entry in the Trio discography. Nominally the third, if one discounts "Conflagration" which was not strictly speaking a Trio record, though with the Trio at its core. We have posted the first double album which has been reissued on cd and the "Live in Altena" which had a limited circulation back then and has not been officially rereleased.
This one was out on the Ogun label in 1987, 16 years after its being recorded in the Tangerine Studios in London. There's a misprint on the back sleeve saying it was recorded in 1979, but by then the Trio had long disbanded. It was remastered at the Rainbow Studios in Olso in 1986. This studio was reguarly used for ECM recordings and by then John Surman had pretty much shifted to ECM as his main outlet. So it is more than likely that Surman had kept the master tapes and asked the studio to do a remastering job on them. But ECM didn't release them.
Six pieces on this record:
Side 1
Flyover (John Surman)
Open Brown (Barre Phillips)
Side2
Utah, Oregon (Stu Martin)
Noninka (Stu Martin)
Cant (Barre Phillips)
In The Round (Martin, Phillips, Surman)
Stu Martin - drums
Barre Phillips - double bass
John Surman - baritone and soprano saxes, bass clarinet, cornet
As the other Trio records, this is very much a collabarative effort with composition credits liberally divided among the three. This one has the novelty of hearing Surman on the cornet. I'm not sure if this was a one-off thing, because I can't recall Surman playing cornet regularly later. On other tracks, he switches to bass clarinet and soprano sax, though it's the baritone that is his main instrument throughout. Moodwise, it shifts from ferocity to placidity, with Stu Martin supplying the former and Barre Phillips the latter, at least to these ears.
The final three pieces pieces on the second side pretty much run together, so I haven't put in track markers. It's fairly easy to hear the transition points as Surman picks up another instrument to head into the next tune. For more details, please consult the extensive liner notes by Charles Fox on the back of the sleeve, attached to this post.
Up next: The Berlin Jazztage 1969 concert
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28 comments:
Thanks, Kinabalu! Very happy to hear this Trio stuff (that I didn't even know existed!). But I seem to be getting only the tracks on side 2 (even after doing both flac downloads). Anyone else having the same problem?
Never mind! I see that the tracks go back-to-back.
Note to self: slow down! The music isn't degrading while you type!
by the way, that one was released back in 1971 in Japan by Nippon Columbia, but may have been out on Turtle Records too, cf. my discography of John Surman:
http://uk.oocities.com/bourbonstreet/quarter/7055/Surman/index.htm
Johann
Thank you. This is the one I needed to hear.
A real treat, thanks.
Thanks; I' enjoying your previous Trio post and look forward to this one.
Not really surprising to see that there are earlier releases of this record. Why on earth should one wait 16 years? That said, I haven't been able to locate any traces of those early ones. Snooping around the net the other day, I did come across another copy of the Ogun release. But I'll continue sniffing ...
Another Trio release worthy of hunting down is "A Matter Of Taste" on MPS from 1977 where the band is joined by Albert Mangelsdorff, and goes under the name of Mumps. (MMPS - their collective surnames).
hi kinabalu,
what a great record !!! we should expect something special from the trio (what a pity that they recorded so little) but this one is exceptionally good. it even has something like a hit for a single release :-) - the beautiful song by barre phillips titled "cant" (from canticle) played by surman on bass clarinet. also his use of cornet on "noninka" is another point of interest. really great record - so long out of print. thanks kinabalu for this gift.
paul w.
Like Anon said, this one was originally a Japan-only release, on Nippon Columbia in 1972 (recorded in 1971, not 1979 as stated on the Ogun release). I've never seen a copy of the Japanese pressing, but there is a scan of the sleeve here:
http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~bfj/con6.html#photo#7
scroll down to #128...
Thanks, Kinabalu! I love Trio, but this one is new for me.
How'd I miss this one? Must have been eating or sleeping. No, wait. I gave those up for downloading. I have no excuse. Thank you, as ever, Kinabalu.
More to come! Counting six unreleased concert recordings by the Trio and two more by the SOS trio in the archives.
Can this re-up? thank you.
New link:
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Amazing stuff, thank you kinabalu!
Marvelous!!
So good!! Thanks a lot!
Is it possible to repost this, please? Thanks!
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Wonderful, thanks Ersnt!
BIG THX!...
Thank you
Much thanks. This is very hard to obtain, and so very much appreciated. Nice blog!!
Thank you for posting this rarity! It's a shame it never got reissued on CD or digitally.
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