26 December 2008

Howard Riley -Shaped 1977(mosaic lp, GCM 781)


Howard Riley, one of the great pioneers of the European 'free' scene, probably deserves to be better known than he is.
A virtuoso pianist he started playing at a very young age first appearing on record with Barry Guy in the late 60's..and continuing the association well into the present.
Beginning in 1971 with 'flight'Riley ,Guy and drummer Tony Oxley created one of the most imaginative sequences of lp's in the genre, for Me personally among the most rewarding music ever, records i can listen to with endless fascination and a complete and utter lack of listener fatigue.

Riley is also known for his associations with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, SME , Keith Tippett, Lol Coxhill,Trevor Watts , John Stevens and Jaki Byard(feathers with Jaki 1981).
Riley sometimes operates within a relatively straight jazz framework, among the great ones in that vein is 'wishing on the moon' made with one of his regular projects,'feathers' featuring Mario Castronari and Tony Marsh.

This solo performance is in Riley's own words "one extended continually evolving piano solo improvisation in which my only starting points were 4 very short musical shapes that were capable of being interrelated during the course of the improvisation."

Recorded at Riverside Studios England 9th of July 1976
enjoy!!

14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Thanks to you for this records. I also have The Day Will Come by Riley and am loving it too. He is fully the original. You are helping the great service with us listeners! I am sorry too for my bad English.

    If you have these two lost gems, I would love to be hearing those --

    Ornette Coleman ~ Sounds and Forms
    Sam Rivers ~ The Quest

    You are all the wisest!

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  3. Thanks much, I love Howard Riley's playing and have not heard this one before. -TheSuperFreak

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  4. sotise- A very nice Christmas present. Thanks for your most excellent blog. Happy 2009.

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  5. Wow he really worked the entire piano over, great performance. Thanks a bunch, I will be listening to this again.

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  6. Thank you for this and for other hard-to-find and off-the-grid recordings, all of which are leading me to exciting new (to me) artists and knowledge of the masters.

    Cheers!

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  7. NEW Much better rip
    Flac & Pics
    http://www51.zippyshare.com/v/80951067/file.html

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  8. THANKS onxidlibfor this re-up! I really love Riley solo works. Great cover too.

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  9. Thanks for waking up this rarity, onxidlib. You can never have too much by Mr. Riley!

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