The Squid's Ear Magazine


Brown, Marion: Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Reissuing two essential albums from saxophonist Marion Brown--Why Not? (ESP, 1968) and Porto Novo (Polydor, 1969)--the first recorded in NY in a quartet with pianist Stanley Cowell, bassist Sirone and drummer Rashied Ali, the second recorded in The Netherlands in a trio with Han Bennink on drums and Maarten Van Regteren Altena on double bass; essential.
 

Price: $18.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Marion Brown-alto saxophone

Maarten van Regteren Altena-double bass

Sirone-double bass

Han Bennink-drums

Rashied Ali-drums

Stanley Cowell-piano


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 752156110620

Label: ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd
Catalog ID: ezz-thetics 1106
Squidco Product Code: 29306

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks 1-4 recorded in New York City, New York, on October 23th, 1966.

Tracks 5-9 recorded in Soest, The Netherlands, on December 14th, 1967.

Why Not? originally issued as a vinyl LP on the ESP label in 1968 as catalog code 1040.

Porto Novo originally issued on the Polydor label in 1969 as a vinyl LP with catalog code 583 724.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The mid-1960s were an astonishing fruitful time for creative music and there were a number of labels committed to advanced and avant-garde music. Perhaps the most doctrinaire and strict-constructionist of these was ESP-Disk, run by lawyer Bernard Stollman. Though there were to be exceptions, most of his catalogue was in highly advanced forms and in many cases represented the work of artists who had not recorded before, or only very little. One of these artists was a young man from Atlanta, Georgia, alto saxophonist Marion Brown, who'd studied law as well as music, and briefly considered becoming an attorney. The record Brown made for Stollman in 1966 wasn't his first, but it gave him an opportunity to showcase his own writing under conditions largely under his artistic control and without A&R intrusion.

Why Not? is a record that still takes the breath away more than fifty years on. The writing is astonishingly mature, for Brown was already 35 and not a youngster and for the session he assembled a group that, as he told me years later, represented exactly what he wanted for his music. Stanley Cowell's solo on the opening "La Sorella" opens up such a web of harmonic possibilities that Brown's own statement, when it comes, seems inevitable, foreshadowed as much as startling in its intensity. His interaction with Rashied Ali is as empathetic as anything the drummer did with Coltrane, and Sirone's solo marks a radical change in the music; when Brown re-enters, he seems to have had a vision, but one that he can't quite articulate, only hint at wistfully.

The opening track would be astonishing enough, were it not to be followed by the most beautiful ... we can't quite call it a ballad, of the decade. "Fortunata" has rarely been attempted by others, and is rarely adduced in discussion, but again it is made possible by Cowell's almost classical exposition of the chordal implications, which are richly chromatic to the degree almost anything seems possible. Where a lesser player would have built the material up, up and up into some kind of shouting climax, Brown maintains the same level of energy throughout. If "philosophical" implies "dull" to you, think again: this is music of the highest emotional as well as intellectual order.

On "Homecoming", Brown insists that his roots are in the past, and as much in the land and its people as for the characters in Toomer's Cane. Everyone in the group has a story to tell, a different road travelled across the lines of Brown's beautiful composition.

Travel is a key concept and reality in Marion Brown's life and music. He was a man never at ease with the world of jazz clubs and dances. He more than once considered giving up music, until he realised that there was a way to make the music he wanted. Brown grew up in a seaboard state and while Atlanta was a railroad town rather than a port like Savannah or Charleston, it bore a name that reminded itself constantly that there was an ocean out there and beyond it a mysterious Old World. Never a very "Southern" town in its architecture because of the influence of the north-south rail link, Atlanta had to be rebuilt after the most destructive wave of the Civil War swept through it. Brown grew up fascinated by architecture. He travelled for a time in Europe where Porto Novo (significant title!) was recorded, feeding his hunger for buildings, abstract art and an ever-widening circle of cultural associations. He told me that the post-Second World War rebuilding of Europe, which was still very much in progress when he went there in the later 1960s had affected him deeply, and particularly the presence side by side of old and new architectures; he made an

explicit connection between this and his music, which was intended to be modernist and exploratory but also drew deeply on older folk traditions.

It's significant that he somewhat turned his back on America during the decade that was - and still is - supposed to represent freedom from racial, cultural, parental, political constraints, and the right to express oneself without check. He said that what impressed him about European musicians, and there are some very fine ones on Porto Novo, was their stronger sense of continuity and the need not just to tear up old codes but to work through them to something beyond. Urban Holland was devastated by the Nazi bombardment and along with some of its loveliest buildings, whole archives of music and literary manuscripts were lost. That might seem to invite a kind of radical, blank-page freedom, but what appealed to Brown about his Dutch colleagues was their desire to remake the present in the presence of the past.

At first glance the two supporting musicians on Porto Novo are as different as one could imagine. Han Bennink, who had recorded with Eric Dolphy, is often portrayed as a showman, even something of a clown, a label that fails to acknowledge Bennink's extraordinary time-sense and respect for the earliest traditions of jazz. In contrast, Maarten van Regteren Altena is perhaps better known as a serious composer than as a jazz bassist, but he, too, understood the nature of rhythm, as well as harmony, in early jazz.

At first hearing, "Similar Limits", which opens Porto Novo, might strike a listener as something by Ornette Coleman, perhaps with the David Izenzon/Charles Moffett trio, but while the stop-start melody could be Ornette's the lyrical sweetness of the alto line is very different. Bennink's deliciously clattery drums and Altena's yawing bass help complete an altogether more individual impression. Coleman drew on the past as well, from blues, church music and field hollers, but his was a more aggressive modernism. The opening of "Qbic" might prompt a similar reaction, but listen to how subtly broken up the implied harmonies are, as if Brown was thinking about Cubism as well, with its reliance on African art models. And that gorgeous alto statement at the opening of "Improvisation" brings to mind a whole host of associations, from blues right back to the music of the Gold Coast/Ghana.

In pairing these records, ezz-thetics offers a new understanding of Brown, not just as a member of the American New Thing but as an artist who thought on an Atlanticwide scale, oceanic in breadth and depth and beauty. With this reissue, and its partner Marion Brown: Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee Revisited, ezz-thetics 1102, which put the saxophonist alongside the almost forgotten Alan Shorter, ezz-thetics has restored a valuable body of work that deserves to be acknowledged not in the fringes of modern jazz, but in its topmost rank."-Brian Morton, from the liner notes


Artist Biographies

"Marion Brown (September 8, 1931 - October 18, 2010) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane's landmark 1965 album Ascension.

Brown was born in Atlanta, in 1931. He joined the Army in 1953 and in 1956 went to Clark College to study music. In 1960 Brown left Atlanta and studied pre-law at Howard University for two years. He moved in 1962 to New York, where he befriended poet Amiri Baraka and musicians including Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Paul Bley, Clifford Thornton, and Rashied Ali. He appeared on several important albums from this period, such as Shepp's Fire Music and Attica Blues, but most notably John Coltrane's Ascension.

In 1967, Brown travelled to Paris, where he developed an interest in architecture, Impressionistic art, African music and the music of Erik Satie. In the late 1960s, he was an American Fellow in Music Composition and Performance at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Around 1970, he provided the soundtrack for Marcel Camus' film Le temps fou, a soundtrack featuring Steve McCall, Barre Phillips, Ambrose Jackson and Gunter Hampel.

Brown returned to the US in 1970, where he felt a newfound sense of creative drive. He moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to serve as a resource teacher in a child study center in the city's public school system until 1971. He composed and performed incidental music for a Georg Büchner play, Woyzeck. In 1971, Brown was an assistant professor of music at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, a position he held until he attained his Bachelor's degree in 1974. In addition to this role, he held faculty positions at Brandeis University (1971-74), Colby College (1973-74), and Amherst College (1974-75), as well as a graduate assistant position at Wesleyan University (1974-76). Brown earned a Master's degree in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan in 1976. His master's thesis was entitled "Faces and Places: The Music and Travels of a Contemporary Jazz Musician".

Throughout his tenure as an educator, Brown continued to compose, perform and record. Notable recordings during this period included Afternoon of a Georgia Faun for the ECM label in 1970 and three albums for the Impulse! label between 1973 and 1975. He played alto saxophone on the composition "Bismillahi 'Rrahman 'Rrahim" from Harold Budd's 1976 release The Pavilion of Dreams, a piece originally written by Budd for Brown's Vista LP, released the previous year.

In 1972 and 1976, Brown received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, which he used to compose and publish several pieces for solo piano, one of which was based on the poetry of Jean Toomer in his book Cane. He also transcribed some piano and organ music by Erik Satie including his Messe des pauvres and Pages mysterieuses, and arranged the composer's Le Fils des étoiles for two guitars and violin.

In 1981, Brown began focusing on drawing and painting. His charcoal portrait of blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson was included in a New York City Kenkeleba Gallery art show called Jus' Jass, which also included works by artists such as Romare Bearden, Charles Searles and Joe Overstreet.

By the 2000s, Brown had fallen ill; due to a series of surgeries and a partial leg amputation, Brown resided for a time in a nursing home in New York. By 2005 he had moved to an assisted living facility in Hollywood, Florida, where he died in 2010, aged 79."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Brown)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Maarten van Regteren Altena (born January 22, 1943) is a Dutch composer and contrabassist. Altena attended the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (he studied contrabass) and graduated in 1968. Between 1980 and 1985, he studied composition with Robert Heppener.

Altena first recorded with Theo Loevendie, after which he had the opportunity to be part of Marion Brown's trio that recorded "Porto Novo" along with Han Bennink. After graduation, Altena played in a number of ensembles, such as various formations around Willem Breuker and Theo Loevendie. He also played in the Dutch Ballet Orchestra and other orchestras. In the mid-1970s he started performing solo, playing his own pieces, partly composed, partly improvised.

Altena also founded his own ensemble, the Maarten Altena Kwartet (Maarten Altena Quartet) which expanded into the Maarten Altena Ensemble (MAE) in 1980. From that point onwards, his career focused on composition. In 1997 he stopped being an active member of this ensemble, and he left it completely in 2005 in order to be able to spend more time composing for other ensembles."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maarten_Altena)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Norris Jones, better known as Sirone (September 28, 1940 Ð October 21, 2009) was an American jazz bassist and composer.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Sirone worked in Atlanta late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s with "The Group" alongside George Adams; he also recorded with R&B musicians such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson. He moved to New York City in the middle of the 1960s, where he co-founded the "Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team" with Dave Burrell. He also worked with Marion Brown, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Sun Ra.

He co-founded the Revolutionary Ensemble with Leroy Jenkins and Frank Clayton in 1971; Jerome Cooper later replaced Clayton in the ensemble, which was active for much of the decade. In the 1970s and early 1980s Sirone recorded with Clifford Thornton, Roswell Rudd, Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor, and Walt Dickerson.

In the 1980s, he was member of Phalanx, a group with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, drummer Rashied Ali, and tenor saxophonist George Adams.

From 1989 he lived in Berlin, Germany where he was active with his group 'Concord' (with Ben Abarbanel-Wolff and Ulli Bartel.) He was involved in theater, film, and was a practicing Buddhist.

He died on October 21, 2009."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirone_(musician))
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink was born in Zaandam near Amsterdam in 1942. His first percussion instrument was a kitchen chair. Later his father, an orchestra percussionist, supplied him with a more conventional outfit, but Han never lost his taste for coaxing sounds from unlikely objects he finds backstage at concerts. He is still very fond of playing chairs.

In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as an uncommonly versatile drummer. As a hard swinger in the tradition of his hero Kenny Clarke, he accompanied touring American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon. He is heard with Gordon on the 1969 album "Live at Amsterdam Paradiso" (on the Affinity label) and with Dolphy on 1964s "Last Date" (PolyGram). At the same time, Bennink participated in the creation of a European improvised music which began to evolve a new identity, apart from its jazz roots. With fellow Dutch pioneers, pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Willem Breuker, he founded the musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967. Bennink anchored various bands led by Mengelberg or Breuker, and appeared in their comic music-theater productions.

Bennink attended art school in the 1960s, and is also a successful visual artist in several media, often constructing sculpture from found objects, which may include broken drum heads and sticks. He has designed the covers for many LPs and CDs on which he appears. Bennink is represented by Amsterdam's Galerie Espace, and has been the subject of several one-man shows, including one at the Gemeente Museum in the Hague in 1995.

In 1966, Bennink played the US's Newport Jazz Festival with the Mengelberg quartet. From the late 1960s through the '70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German, English and Belgian musicians, notably saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Broetzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Fred van Hove. Bennink, Broetzmann and van Hove had a longstanding trio well documented on FMP Records. There Bennink also showcased his talents on clarinet, trombone, soprano saxophone and many other instruments, also featured in a series of solo albums he began in 1971.

Bennink's many recordings from the 1980s include sessions with Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra (where he remains), South African bassist Harry Miller, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonists Roswell Rudd and George Lewis, and big-bandleaders Sean Bergin and Andy Sheppard.

From 1988 to'98 Bennink's main vehicle was Clusone 3, with saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger, a band noted for its free-wheeling mix of swinging jazz standards, wide-open improvising, and tender ballads. Clusone played Europe and North America, West Africa, China, Vietnam and Australia, and recorded five CDs for Gramavision, hat Art and Ramboy.

Nowadays he is frequently heard with tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius's quartet and in a trio with pianist/keyboardist Cor Fuhler and bassist Wilbert de Joode, and he still collaborates occasionally with jazz luminaries such as Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman and Ray Anderson.

A conspicuous feature of Bennink's musical life since the 1960s is the spontaneous duo concert with musicians of many nationalities and musical inclinations; in the '90s he recorded in duo with among others pianists Mengelberg, Irene Schweizer and Myra Melford, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin.

Since 2008 Han Bennink has his own Han Bennink Trio consisting of Han Bennink, Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet and Simon Toldam on piano."

-Han Bennink Website, Kevin Whitehead (http://www.hanbennink.com/music/biography/biography.php)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson (July 1, 1933) was a progenitor and leading exponent of multidirectional rhythms and polytonal percussion. A student of Philly Joe Jones and an admirer of Art Blakey, Ali developed the style known as "free jazz" drumming, which liberates the percussionist from the role of human metronome. The drummer interfaces both rhythmically and melodically with the music, utilizing meter and sound in a unique fashion. This allows the percussionist to participate in the music in a harmonic sense, coloring both the rhythm and tonality with his personal perception. By adding his voice to the ensemble, the percussionist becomes an equal in the melodics of collective musical creation rather than a "pot banger" who keeps the others all playing at the same speed. Considered radical in the 1960s and scorned by the mediocre, multidirectional rhythms and polytonal drumming are now the landmark of the jazz percussionist.

A Philadelphia native, Rashied Ali began his percussion career in the U.S. Army and started gigging with rhythm and blues and rock groups when he returned from the service. Cutting his musical teeth with local Philly R&B groups, such as Dick Hart & the Heartaches, Big Maybelle and Lin Holt, Rashied gradually moved on to play in the local jazz scene with such notables as Lee Morgan, Don Patterson and Jimmy Smith.

Early in the 1960s the Big Apple beckoned, and soon Rashied Ali was a fixture of the avant-garde jazz scene, backing up the excursions of such musical free spirits as Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Paul Bley, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Albert Ayler. It was during this period that Rashied Ali made his first major recording ("On This Night" with Archie Shepp, on the Impulse! label) and began to sit in with John Coltrane's group at the Half Note and other clubs around Manhattan.

In November 1965 John Coltrane decided to use a two-drummer format for a gig at the Village Gate; the percussionist Trane chose to complement the already legendary Elvin Jones was Rashied Ali. Thus began a musical odyssey whose reverberations are still felt in the music today--Trane probing the outer harmonic limits and changing the melodic language of jazz while Rashied Ali turned the drum kit into a multi-rhythmic, polytonal propellant, helping fuel Coltrane's flights of free jazz fancy. The rolling, emotion-piercing music generated by the Coltrane/Ali association is still being discussed, analyzed, reviewed and enjoyed as the internet and new audio technology introduces their era to a new host of the sonically aware.

After Coltrane's passing in 1967, Rashied Ali headed for Europe, where he gigged in Copenhagen, Germany and Sweden before settling in for a study period with Philly Joe Jones in England. Upon his return from the continent, Rashied Ali resumed his place at the forefront of New York's music scene, working and recording with the likes of Jackie McLean, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Gary Bartz, Dewey Redman and others too numerous to mention here.

In response to the decaying New York jazz scene in the early 1970s, Rashied Ali opened the loft-jazz club, Ali's Alley, in 1973 and also established a companion enterprise, Survival Records. Ali's Alley began as a musical outlet for New York avant-garde but soon became a melting pot of jazz styles. Although the Alley closed in 1979, its legacy continues in the New York jazz scene. During that time, Rashied recorded and released several albums on the Survival Records label and was busy gigging with a virtual Who's Who in jazz, refining his music and encouraging up-and-coming younger musicians.

In the '80s and '90s, his presence on the scene was sporadic; he performed on occasion with bassist Jaco Pastorius, and recorded with tenor saxophonist David Murray. In 1987 he recorded and performed as a member of the group Phalanx, with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, tenor saxophonist George Adams, and bassist Sirone. Also in that year Rashied formed a group with multi-instrumentalist Arthur Rhames, saxophonist Antoine Roney, bassist Tyler Mitchell, and pianist Greg Murphy. In 1991, he made the critically acclaimed album "Touchin' on Trane" with bassist William Parker and tenor saxophonist Charles Gayle, a group called By Any Means that was formed in the '80s and continued to perform until 2009. In the early '90s he formed a quintet with Ravi Coltrane, Matt Garrison, Greg Murphy and guitarist Gene Ess, later releasing his 1992 recording "No One in Particular" in 2001 on Survival Records. One tour of France with this group featured Carlos Santana and Archie Shepp. The '90s also found Ali at the helm of the band, Prima Materia, an ensemble dedicated to interpreting the late works of Coltrane and Albert Ayler. This group toured extensively and in 1994, 1995, and 1996, they recorded "Peace on Earth," "Meditations," and "Bells" for the Knitting Factory Works label. He also appeared on more than half a dozen discs with guitarist Tisziji Muñoz--the majority of which were recorded in Rashied's own Survival Studios.

In 2003 Rashied formed another version of The Rashied Ali Quintet. In 2005 they released two CDs--"Judgment Day Vol. 1" and "Judgment Day Vol. 2," both of which received significant national airplay and volumes of critical acclaim. In 2009 "Live In Europe" by the Rashied Ali Quintet was released, also on the Survival Records label. This group, which Jazz Times critic Bill Milkowski called "...one of the more potent working quintets in jazz today," developed a style that combined modern post-bop with Ali's trademark free jazz. This group toured frequently, with their final performances taking place at The Art of Jazz festival in Toronto in June and at the Zinc Bar in NYC in July of 2009.

Rashied died August 12, 2009 in a Manhattan hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism. He was 76. Besides his wife, Patricia, he is survived by two brothers, the jazz drummer Muhammad Ali and Umar Ali, both of Philadelphia, and nine children."

-Rashied Ali Website (https://www.rashiedali.org/bio.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Stanley Cowell (born May 5, 1941) is an American jazz pianist and co-founder of the Strata-East Records label.

Cowell played with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965Ð66. During the late 1980s Cowell was part of a regular quartet led by J.J. Johnson. Cowell taught in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Cowell played with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965Ð66. During the late 1980s Cowell was part of a regular quartet led by J.J. Johnson. Cowell taught in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Cowell)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. La Sorrela 11:32

2. Fortunato 8:36

3. Why Not 7:00

4. Homecoming 10:19

5. Similar Limits 6:25

6. Sound Structure 6:08

7. Improvisation 5:49

8. QBIC 6:34

9. Porto Novo 11:50

Related Categories of Interest:


Hat Art
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
Quartet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Top Sellers for 2020 by Customer Sales

Hat Art
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
Quartet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Top Sellers for 2020 by Customer Sales
Hat Hut Masters Sale

Search for other titles on the label:
ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Brown, Marion
Gesprachsfetzen & In Sommerhausen
(Moosicus)
Working with German jazz and "third stream" musician, vibraphonist & composer Gunter Hampel, New York alto saxophonist Marion Brown is heard in two live recordings from 1968 & 1969 in Munchen, Germany and Wurzburg, in quintet and sextet configurations with superb supporting musicians including Steve McCall (drums), Ambrose Jackson (trumpet), Daniel Laloux (bass) and Jeanne Lee (voice).
Brotzmann / Van Hove / Bennink
Outspan No 2 [VINYL]
(Cien Fuegos)
Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album was captured live at 1974 Ost-West-Festival in Nurnberg, Germany from the legendary, masterfully amusing and absolutely serious trio of Peter Brötzmann on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, Fred Van Hove on piano, Han Bennink on drums, clarinet, homemade junk, everything, anything.
Brotzmann / Van Hove / Bennink / Albert Mangelsdorff
Outspan No 1 [VINYL]
(Cien Fuegos)
Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album was captured live at 1974 Ost-West-Festival in Nurnberg, Germany from the legendary, masterfully amusing and absolutely serious trio of Peter Brötzmann on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone & clarinet, Fred Van Hove on piano, and Han Bennink on drums, clarinet, homemade junk, everything & anything.
Howard, Noah Quartet To
At Judson Hall Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Saxophonist Noah Howard's move from New Orleans to New York City brought him into the circle of early 60's free jazz players including Albert Ayler, joining Sun Ra's Arkestra, and performing at Slug's Saloon; this release reissues two ESP albums, his working band's 1966 Quartet album, and the extended and interestingly orchestrated sextet album, At Judson Hall.
Brotzmann, Peter / Han Bennink
Schwarzwaldfahrt [CD + BOOK]
(Trost Records)
Expanding on their 1977 FMP album of open-air improvisations by Peter Brotzmann and Han Bennink, recording in the Black Forest of Baden-Wurttemberg using wind instruments & percussion, the ambiance of birds and planes, water, drums from logs, &c.; an idiosyncratic and wonderful album of free possibilities, now paired with a book of photos from their excursion.
Smith, Wadada Leo
The Emerald Duets [5 CD BOX SET]
(Tum)
Part of his 80th Anniversary celebration and subtitled "The Art Of The Trumpeter And Drummers", this 5-CD box set brings legendary improviser Wadada Leo Smith together with four long-time collaborators and masterful drummers--Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Pheeroan akLaff and Han Bennink--with Smith performing on both piano and trumpet.
Brotzmann, Peter / Fred Van Hove / Han Bennink
Jazz in der Kammer Nr.71 [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Trost Records)
Recorded for radio for the series Jazz in der Kammer Nr 71, this 1974 concert was the first in East Germany for Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, and Han Bennink, bridging the divided German states through an energetic set of improvisations that extended traditional jazz with outrageous approaches to improv in an exciting, quirky and profoundly masterful set of European Free Jazz.
Brotzmann, Peter / Fred Van Hove / Han Bennink
Jazz in der Kammer Nr.71
(Trost Records)
Recorded for radio for the series Jazz in der Kammer Nr 71, this 1974 concert was the first in East Germany for Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, and Han Bennink, bridging the divided German states through an energetic set of improvisations that extended traditional jazz with outrageous approaches to improv in an exciting, quirky and profoundly masterful set of European Free Jazz.
Mengelberg / Brotzmann / Parker / Bennink / Rutherford / Bailey / Bennink
Groupcomposing [VINYL]
(Our Swimmer)
Authoritative and playful free improvisation in the European Free Jazz style, this 1978 album on Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink's Instant Composers Pool (ICP) label, included the pianist and drummer along with Peter Brotzmann, Peter Bennink and Evan Paker on sax, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Derek Bailey on guitar, in a much-need reissue of this seminal album.
ICP Tentet
Tetterettet
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
10 years after drummer Han Bennink, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and saxophonist Willem Breuker formed the ICP co-op, Bennink & Mengelberg formed this 10-piece "Tetterettet", an all-star international group including Peter Brotzmann, Tristan Honsinger, John Tchicai, this their first incredible and far-ranging album, remastered and available on CD for the first time.
Whammies, The (Dijkstra / Oliver / Karayorgis / Roebke / Bishop / Bennink)
Play The Music Of Steve Lacy: Vol. #2
(Driff Records)
The sextet of Jorrit Dijkstra (sax), Pandelis Karayorgis (piano), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Mary Oliver (violin), Nate McBride (bass) and Han Bennink (drums) once again take on the music of Steve Lacy in this second volume.
Whammies, The (Djikstra / Karayorgis / Bishop / Oliver / McBride / Bennink)
Play The Music of Steve Lacy
(Driff Records)
The sextet of Jorrit Dijkstra (sax), Pandelis Karayorgis (piano), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Mary Oliver (violin), Nate McBride (bass) and Han Bennink (drums) take on the music of Steve Lacy in unexpected and impressive ways.
Tsahar, Assif / Rashied Ali / Peter Kowald
Deals, Ideas and Ideals
(Hopscotch Records)
Part of bassist Kowald's 2000 US tour of solo and performances with local musicians, here with alto player Tsahar and drum legend Rashied Ali in a brilliant encounter.
Frith, Fred
Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire (Graphic Scores 1986-96)(2CDs)
(Angelica)
RESTOCKED: Fred Frith's 1999 box set, presenting a large, flexible ensemble project using marked photographs and rules as scores while Frith directs and conducts as well as performing; permanent members are Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins, otherwise the balance of the 44 strong ensemble changes; recordings here are taken from 5 concerts, including the first in 1992 at AngelicA.
Other Recommended Releases:
Shorter, Alan
Mephistopheles To Orgasm - Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
An exemplary set of explorative hard bop compositions from composer/trumpeter Alan Shorter, first Mephistopheles from Wayne Shorter's The All Seeing Eye in an octet with legends Wayne Shorter, James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Grachan Moncur III, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Joe Chambers; and then Alan Shorter's own Orgasm with Gato Barbieri, Charlie Haden, Reggie Johnson, Muhammad Ali & Rashied Ali.
Parker, Charlie
At Birdland 1950 "Revisited"
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
A remarkable feat of remastering, sound restoration and pitch correction from the tapes of this June 1950 radio broadcast at Birdland in NYC, finding the exceptional quintet of jazz pioneers led by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker in superb form, with Fats Navarro on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Curley Russell on double bass and Art Blakey on drums.
Brown, Marion Quartet
Mary Ann (Live In Bremen 1969) [2 CDs]
(Moosicus)
A beautifully recorded session at Germany's Club Lila Eule for Radio Bremen from 1969 by the Marion Brown Quartet, his touring band at the time with AACM legendary drummer Steve McCall and German double bassist Siggi Busch and trombonist Ed Kröger, performing eight solid free jazz pieces including "Ode to Coltrane" and "Juba Lee"; a spectacular addition to Brown's discography.
Shepp, Archie
Fire Music To Mama Too Tight, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Archie Shepp's second album for Impulse! merges the fire of free jazz with an incredibly eclectic set of styles, his inclusive approach to composition integrating a vast source of styles from Ellington to Ipanema; this is paired with Shepp's octet release, including an epic 20 minute work for American artist Robert Thompson reflecting his paintings in powerful thematic and abstract expression.
Coltrane, John
Favorites Live (Naima / My Favorite Things 1963 / A Love Supreme 1965) Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Well-recorded performances of Coltrane's most noted works--"Naima", "My Favorite Things" and "A Love Supreme"--in superb concerts from Berlin in 1963 and Antibes in 1965 with his classic quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, revealing the expansion and freedom these compositions receive through the flexibility of live performance.
Russell, George
Ezz-thetics & The Stratus Seekers, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Essential to any collection charting the transition from Birth of the Cool era jazz to the modern explosion of harmonic and compositional forms, are pianist George Russell's two most essential albums from 1961 & 1962--Ezz-thetics and The Stratus Seekers--in a sextet & septet including Eric Dolphy, Don Elliss, Steve Swallow, &c., remastered to reveal their vital clarity.
Ayler, Albert
La Cave Live, Cleveland 1966 Revisited [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Never-before released recordings of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1966 band recording in his home town of Cleveland at club La Cave, recorded over two nights in a superb sextet with brother Donald on trumpet, Frank Wright on tenor sax, Michel Samson on violin, Clyde Shy on double bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, performing Ayler's compositions and Don Cherry's "D.C.".
Taylor, Mike
Trio, Quartet & Composer, Revisited
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Found dead in the Thames River in 1969, pianist & composer Mike Taylor left a legacy of two solid & lyrical jazz albums, of which the complete Trio album and one track from Pendulum are remastered; but he was also a songwriter for the Eric Clapton/Ginger Baker/Jack Bruce band Cream, of which three Taylor compositions with lyrics and vocals by Baker are included.
Holshouser / Bennink / Moore
Live in NYC
(Ramboy)
A rollicking set of interwoven tunes and improvisations from the trio of Michael Moore on clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone & melodica, Will Holshouser on accordion, and Han Bennink on drums, performing live at Drom, in New York City in 2009 during a 2-week American tour, a joyfully upbeat and lyrical set of improvisations with exuberant drive.
Ayler, Albert Quartet With Don Cherry
European Recordings Autumn 1964 (Revisited) [2 CDs]
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Essential radio and live recordings from saxophonist Albert Ayler's European tour in 1964 with Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on double bass and Sunny Murray on drums, a quintessential grouping for Ayler's compositions, here in outstanding renditions of classic works including "Spirits", "Ghosts", "Vibrations", "Mothers", "Childrens", plus Don Cherry's "Infant Happiness".
Parker, Charlie
Selections From The SAVOY Recordings
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The second of two volumes in celebration of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker's 100th birthday, here remastering his landmark recordings for the Savoy label in New York City between 1945-48, performing with jazz greats including Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Lewis, Curley Russel, Max Roach, &c. for some of be-bop's finest and best known compositions.
Parker, Charlie
Selections From The DIAL Recordings
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
The first of two volumes in celebration of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker's 100th birthday, here remastering his landmark recordings for the Dial label on the US West Coast between 1946-47, performing with jazz greats including Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, Erroll Garner, Barney Kessel, Red Calender, JJ Johson, Max Roach, &c. for some of Parker's best known and essential compositions.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC