Mike Westbrook Sextet live in Montreux 1968

When I found this, my eyes went WOW! I can't believe it! This is taken from a concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968. The sextet has the following line-up:

Mike Osborne - alto
John Surman - baritone
Malcolm Griffiths - trombone
Mike Westbrook - piano
Harry Miller - bass
Alan Jackson - drums

This concert features the line-up at about the time of the first Concert Band albums on Deram from 1967 onwards to about 1970. I can't identify the tunes here - two slabs at about 20 minutes each - but I'll have a listen to the afore-mentioned albums and see if I can get any further. In the middle of the first piece, Surman slips into "The Girl from Ipanema" of all things (which is on Release) and there are some thematic passages that do sound like marching songs. To be verified if possible.

Make this an essential listening if you're into golden age British Jazz. And I mean essential!

ROBERT WOOD "SONABULAR" (EDICI, 1973)

Robert Wood, vibraphone
Gilbert Artman, drums


A1. Inspiration 03:30
A2. Edwige 05:22
A3. Words For A Tunisian Song 09:58
B1. Woodlands 08:01
B2. Shades Of Mu 12:00


EDICI ED 0061030 (Released 1973)

Note: No location or date of recording given on the cover.

(lp rip)

Brötzmann - Parker - Drake ~ Sant'Anna Arresi ~ 6th September 2016

Peter Brötzmann ~ tenor sax, taratoga
William Parker ~ bass
Hamid Drake ~ drums & percussion

Sant'Anna Arresi ~ 6th September 2016

There are four improvisations, but as they flow into each other, the file has not been edited into separate sections.

YVES BOULIANE / JOHN HEWARD ‎– MASSE AU TIERS CONTRÔLE / MASS³ CONTROL (CIAC, 1985)

A1. 1
A2. 2
A3. 3

B1. 4
B2. 5
B3. 6


Yves Bouliane, bass
John Heward, drums
Robert Lepage, clarinet (B3)

Recorded at Le Studio Utopic, Montréal, on 31 March and 5 April 1985

Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montréal ‎– no ciac-3301

LP Rip

Ahmed Abdullah Sextet live at Ali's Alley, NY, 1978

Yet another repost, from early 2013, this one with reference to another loft turned performance space in NY, Ali's Alley.

Following on from the former posting of the Group live in 1987, here is an older date from 1978 with some of the same players. As I said in that post, some of the members of the Group emerged during the loft movement in the 1970s. This was a musicians' initiative to create their own spaces for players to express themselves and interact with others. Perhaps the most well-known was Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea, and another was Ali's Alley, run by Rashied Ali who was the drummer with John Coltrane during his last days, before launching a solo career with his own group. Ali made a duo record with Frank Lowe in the early 70s and the latter can also be heard on this date.

As I said in the former post, both Abdullah and Bang emerged as major players on the loft scene during the 70s and Frank Lowe was very much a part of that scene as well, having cut his debut record for the legendary ESP label, "Black Beings" with, among others, Rashied Sinan on drums who is "coincidentally" also on this date. So it's all interlinked.

Close to two hours in all here with music, though tending towards the free side, that still has a strong rhythmic pulse and melodic core. Lively, propulsive, energetic, thorougly enjoyable. Dig in!

The sonics on this recording may not be the optimal as this clearly is an audience recording, also capturing the ambience of the space in which it was performed. But don't let detract from the joyous and uplifting music on display here!

The facts:


Abdullah Ahmed Sextet

NYC, Ali's Alley

July 12, 1978

Ahmed Abdullah - tp
Frank Lowe - ts
Billy Bang - viol
Jay Hoggard - vb
Jerome Hunter - b
Rashied Sinan - dr

No set list given, so if anyone can help out, it would be appreciated.

Jay Hoggart is here on vibraphone and today teaches music at Wesleyan. Jerome Hunter, the bassist, has played with Sun Ra, among others, another common link.

Abdullah is still active today, educator, curator and musician and writer, though his book on his years with Sun Ra still remains unpublished. He maintains his own web site which can be accessed here:

http://www.ahmedian.com/

His curatorial work in later years has been linked to thia place:

http://sistasplace.org/

which is in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, one node in a network of community organising. A place to check out for jazz-loving brooklynites and newyorkers?

There'll be more posts on the NY 70s/80s club scene, so stay tuned!

The Group live in Cambridge, Mass. 1987

I am reposting this one from late 2012 because it very much ties in with the theme of NY loft/club jazz in the 70s, although this specific one was later.

There has been jubilation in jazz circles about the release, after 26 years, of a live recording by the Group at the Jazz Center of New York on 13 September 1986. The tapes had languished in Ahmed Abdullah's possession ever since until the Nobusiness record label out of Vilnius, Lithuania, was told about them and expressed an interest in releasing them. The cd (and an lp) is now out in limited circulation of 1000 copies so readers are advised to rush out and get a copy before it disappears. However, it is not the only recording in circulation. In the course of the short life of the Group, up to the end of 1987, they also gigged around the East Coast, including a date in Cambridge, Mass., on 21 January 1987. This is briefly mentioned in Abdullah's liner notes to the cd release. There is no mention of the gig being recorded, so this is in all likelihood an unofficial audience recording.

Who was the Group? It was a collective composed of five members, some of whom had cut their teeth on the NY free jazz scene in the 60s (Brown, Cyrille) and others who had emerged as part of of the loft scene in the 70s (Bang, Sirone, Abdullah). After the loft scene had pretty much subsided, there was a scramble to look for new opportunities for players on a NY scene less hospitable to innovative jazz than before and to look for new collaborative models to work from. So, in that spirit, there was no leader of the Group and each member was encouraged to contribute their own compositions, even though the repertoire made room for covers of standards. As Abdullah writes, there have been several revivals of the Group, buth with the passing away of Brown, Bang, Sirone and also of Fred Hopkins (who is on the cd, though not on this gig), replacements have become a duty of necessity.

In the pic above (a flyer for their very first appearance, courtesy of the Nobusiness website), all five members are present and these are the five you will hear on this Cambridge date.

The Group
Cambridge, Mass. (USA)
1369 Club
January 21, 1987


Marion Brown as
Ahmed Abdullah tp
Billy Bang violin
Sirone b
Andrew Cyrille dr

1) 16:47 Assunta
2) 08:47 Warm Valley
3) 14:16 Fortified Nucleus
4) 06:21 La Placita – cut -
5) 17:39 cont´d - La Placita
6) 17:18 The Glow Of Awareness
7) 12:13 The Music In Us
8) 08:12 I Remember Clifford
9) 21:43 Restore Africa

This is a historical recording of five great musicians. I'm not going to single out anyone in particular, though I would like to say that anything that has Marion Brown on it is pretty much essential. All five should be familar to followers of the blog (and parenthetically, I should try to find more from Abdullah).

Two hours of goodness for y'all.

Dave Holland Quartet with Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul at Studio Rivbea, 1 December 1972

Getting started with the many live recordings by "orchiddoctor", we might begin with the oldest tape which was recorded at Studio Rivbea in NY in 1972. The place was set up as a performance space by Sam Rivers,  seen above with Joe Daley at Studio Rivbea in 1976. The establishment of this space set the beginning for what was to become known as the NY loft scene.

What we get to hear here is the David Holland Quartet which released a wonderful album entitled Conference of the Birds in 1973. This album was recorded on 30 November, the day before  the concert at Studio Rivbea. Naturally, the repertoire is to a great extent taken from the album. After listening to the album and to this concert, what we hear is the following, first a statement of the theme of See Saw, then Q & A, then Four Winds, then Interception rounding out the first file. The second file starts off with Now Here (Nowhere) and ends with a tune that is not on the album. I invite suggestions as to what it is.

Sam Rivers is on tenor sax and flute, Anthony Braxton on alto (and contrabass clarinet), Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on percussion. It's really great to hear the interplay of Rivers and Braxton and their strongly individual styles of playing. Very recognisable and not to be confused. As it's a concert, the tunes are considerably longer than on the album, and considerably wilder, too, not hemmed in by the atmosphere of a recording studio.

More to come!

Art Ensemble of Chicago live at the Empty Foxhole, Philadelphia, March 1976

This is a repost of a post originally published here in October 2013. The reason for reposting is basically to draw attention to the list of amateur recordings made by "orchiddoctor", mostly in the period 1975-1980. Listed by "carville" in the comments section, this is a huge collection of live concerts by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and various spinoffs as well as other bands active on the loft jazz scene in NY and outside in those years. All together, it provides an invaluable insight to a scene that is not well documented. I have now the entire set, courtesy of carville, and the idea is to post all this material in the weeks and months to come. Needless to say, this is a huge project, but one well worth doing for the historical record.

What follows is the original post with all the comments from then:

This post was inspired by a comment from reader and follower "santos curser" who went to see the AEoC at the Empty Foxhole in Philadelphia in 1980, a performance which was somewhat "interrupted" by a young amateur saxophonist who wanted to play with the band. He was eventually escorted out of the venue. It occured to me that I did have some archive files of the AEoC at the Empty Foxhole in 1976. Two consecutive nights, 12 and 13/14 March. These were recorded by "orchiddoctor" and posted on the Dime torrents site by "carville". There were 67-68 concerts posted in all, basically coverning the 1975-1980 period, many of these recorded in snall clubs in NYC and beyond. For me and other AEoC fans, invaluable historical documents. When it comes to the AEoC, critical faculties are permanently suspended. It's all good.

What we have here are two performances, two sets each, both lasting close to three hours in all. There were some dicussions at the Dime site about the exact location of these two gigs. I can't add anything to it, never been to Philly and certainly not then. Listening to these two performances, it seems obvious to me that they were not recorded in the same place. The acoustics of the 12 March performance sound as if the recording is from a small club, closer, more intimate. The 13 March performance is from a much larger locality, spacy, roomy sound.  So my guess is that the 12 March gig is at Geno's Empty Foxhole, located in the basement of the Saint Mary's Church on the Uinversity of Pennsylvania campus. The 13 March sounds as if it was recorded in the actual Church which would explain the acoustics. Reportedly the band was delayed by a snowstorm, so what we're hearing was performed from four in the morning. Must have been quite atmospheric!

The lo-down:

March 12 1976
Empty Foxhole
Philadelphia, PA

total time 177:21
1st set 88:22
1 improv including Ohnedaruth and Tutankhamen (tape flip) 44:44
2 cont'd 43:38
2nd set 88:59
1 improv including Dreaming of the Master (tape flip) 57:15
2 cont'd 31:43


March 14 1976
Empty Foxhole
Philadelphia, PA

total time 170:51
1st set 88:51
1 improv (tape flip) 61:20
2 cont'd 27:30

2nd set 81:59
1 Reese and the Smooth Ones, Odwalla (tape flip) 39:56
2 cont'd 42:03

Much more from where that's coming from. I estimate my AEoC collection runs to about 200 performances, so I'll sprinkle a little now and then.

Collage c/o the 2nd First Look website.

Enjoy!

The Reform Art Unit - For John Coltrane And Pablo Picasso (Voves 1996)

The Reform Art Unit live at the Museum of 20th Century in Vienna, April 25, 1969. An instant composition in 3 movements by Fritz Novotny.


Fritz Novotny - Flute, Soprano Sax, Percussion
Muhammad Malli  - Drums
Sepp Mitterbauer - Piano, Trumpet
Toni Michlmayr - Double Bass

1 - For John Coltrane And Pablo Picasso: One         13:11
2 - For John Coltrane And Pablo Picasso: Two     16:15
3 - For John Coltrane And Pablo Picasso: Three     12:40

Bonus track: Human Closely
Reform Art Unit Extended, live at the Alte Schmiede in Vienna, 5 January 1995.
featuring Sunny Murray. An instant composition by Paul Fields, Karl W. Krbavac, Sunny Murray, Fritz Novotny

4 - Human Closely            29:14

Paul Fields - Violin, Alto Sax
Karl W. Krbavac - Viola Da Gamba
Sandro Miori - Tenor Sax
Sepp Mitterbauer - Trumpet
Sunny Murray - Drums
Fritz Novotny - Clarinet, Flute, Soprano Sax, Percussion
Mario Rechtern - Sopranino, Alto, Baritone Sax, Oboe, Selfmade Instruments
Reinhard Ziegerhofer - Double Bass
Helmut Schiefer - Percussion

"For John Coltrane and Pablo Picasso" was produced in 1969 as RAU 1002 but released here for the first time.

Voves Productions, Voves CD 90001
 A Reform Art Unit Production , RAU 1002
Austria, 1996

MAX EASTLEY - STEVE BERESFORD - PAUL BURWELL - DAVID TOOP "WHIRLED MUSIC" (QUARTZ!, 1979)

Didn't know that I have this rip (since at least Sep. 2011) but found it several weeks ago.
Thanks to the original uploader.




Performed by David Toop, Max Eastley, Paul Burwell and Steve Beresford

Audience Side
A.     Untitled

No Audience Side
B1.     LMC (a)
B2.     LMC (b)
B3.     LMC (c)
B4.     Butlers Wharf
B5.     Suffolk (a)
B6.     Suffolk (b)
B7.     Tennessee


AUDIENCE SIDE
Recorded live in performance at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; 7th October 1979.

NO AUDIENCE SIDE
Tracks B1 to B3 recorded at the London Musicians Collective in 1979 using a stereo UHER reel with 2 AKG 224s.
Track 4 recorded outdoors on a UHER reel with 2 Sennheiser ND441s.
Tracks B5 and B6 recorded outdoors.

Quartz Publications !QUARTZ 005
(vinyl rip)

Lester Bowie, Malachi Favor, Roscoe Mitchell - Live March 31, 1979 Verrona Italy.

Here is a live recording by three totally unknown musicians.

One long improvisation with appearances of some tracks that may be familiar for some of us. Played in the fall of the seventies this music is in fact more close to the early spirit of those musicians at the time when Lester was recording number 1 & 2, at the time when the band’s name was the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble.

March 31, 1979 location unknown to me except Vienna Austria.