The Squid's Ear Magazine


Melodic Art-Tet (Brackeen, Abdullah, Parker, Blank, Waters): Melodic Art-Tet [VINYL 2 LPs] (NoBusiness)

1974 recordings at WKCR in NYC from the quintet of Charles Brackeen (flute & sax), Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet), William Parker (bass), Roger Blank (drums) and Tony Waters (percussion), beautifully recorded and essential free improvisation.
 

Price: $34.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 31.00 units

Sample The Album:





Product Information:

Personnel:



Charles Brackeen-flute, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone

Ahmed Abdullah-trumpet

William Parker-bass

Roger Blank-drums

Tony Waters (Ramadan Mumeen)-percussion

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



UPC: 4779022074356

Label: NoBusiness
Catalog ID: NBLP62/63
Squidco Product Code: 17816

Format: 2 LPs
Condition: New
Released: 2013
Country: Lithuania
Packaging: 2 LPs in a Cardstock Foldover
Recorded on October 15th, 1974 at WKCR, NYC.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Ahmed Abdullah (born Leroy Bland; May 10, 1947) is a jazz trumpeter who was a prominent member of Sun Ra's band.

Leroy Bland began performing at age 13 in his native New York City. By the 1970s he was performing in New York's loft scene, and joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1976, working there on and off until 1993, when Sun Ra died. During that time Abdullah participated in more than 25 recordings and traveled extensively with Sun Ra. He has performed with Chico Freeman, Charles Brackeen, Steve Reid, John Hicks and Marion Brown, among others. He led his own "Solomonic Quintet" and recorded for Silkheart and Cadence Jazz."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Abdullah)
6/5/2026

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

"William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time."

In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.

Parker's current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan's Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others."

-William Parker Website (http://www.williamparker.net/)
6/5/2026

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

"Roger Blank (born December 19, 1938, New York City) is an American jazz drummer.

Blank's grandfather played saxophone and his father William Blank was a trumpeter who had performed with Cootie Williams. Blank worked with Hank Mobley in Harlem for several years and studied under Charlie Persip. He worked with Sun Ra starting in 1964 and recorded several times with him. He worked extensively on the New York jazz scene in the 1960s and 1970s; he played with and was influenced by Ornette Coleman, and helped found a group called the Melodic Art-Tet in 1971 which was devoted to playing in Coleman's harmolodic style. This group also included Charles Brackeen, Ahmed Abdullah, William Parker, and Ronnie Boykins. Other associations included work with Bill Barron, Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Dennis Charles, Walt Dickerson, Kenny Dorham, Frank Foster, Charles Greenlee, John Hicks, Ken McIntyre, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Charles Tolliver. He relocated to Atlanta in the 1980s and led an ensemble there, but moved back to New York in the 1990s, where he lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Blank)
6/5/2026

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


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quintet Recordings
Record Store Day

Search for other titles on the label:
NoBusiness.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Blythe, Arthur Quartet (Blythe / Booth / Abdullah / Reid)
Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 2
(NoBusiness)
One of alto saxophonist and composer Arthur Blythe's earliest recordings as a leader, this 1976 session at Sam & Bea Rivers' Studio Rivbea in New York City features four Blythe compositions performed by an exemplary quartet: Steve Reid on drums, frequent Blythe collaborator Muhammad Abdullah on congas, and long-time Sun Ra bassist Juini Booth.
Riley, Howard
Live With Repertoire
(NoBusiness)
Pianist Howard Riley recorded these twelve solo piano performances live at Leicester Jazz House at Embrace Arts in 2012, with 4 original Riley compositions and 8 drawn from jazz standards or Thelonius Monk compositions.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Bradford, Bobby / Hafez Modirzadeh / Mark Dresser / Alex Cline
Live At The Open Gate [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
West Coast cornetist Bobby Bradford captured live in 2013 for a superb set at the Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, part of the Open Gate Theatre Sunday evening concert series, in a quartet with Hafez Modirzadeh on alto sax, Mark Dresser on bass, and Alex Cline on drums.
Nilssen's, Gard Acoustic Unity (Roligheten / Eldh / Nilssen)
Firehouse [VINYL]
(Clean Feed)
Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen (Zanussi 5, Bushman's Revenge, Puma, &c.) leads his new Acoustic Unity trio of Petter Eldh on double bass and Andre Roligheten (Albatrosh) on sax through 8 tightly conceived original jazz compositions with contributions from all 3 players.
Cortex
Live! [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Clean Feed)
Four Norwegian jazz musicians--Thomas Johansson (cornet), Kristoffer Alberts (reeds), Ola Hoyer (double bass) and Gard Nilssen (drums)--representatives of a new generation of Scandinavian jazzmen playing creative music with the tools and forms of the older generation.
Wooley / Rempis / Niggenkemper / Corsano
From Wolves To Whales
(Aerophonic)
The free improvising quartet of Nate Wooley (trumpet), Dave Rempis (sax), Pascal Niggenkemper (bass), and Chris Corsano (drums), bridging ridiculously great technical skills with creative curiosity and forward thinking concepts for superb results.
Daniel's, Ted Energy Module (feat. Oliver Lake and Daniel Carter)
Innerconnection [VINYL 2 LPs]
(NoBusiness)
Trumpeter Ted Daniel's Energy Module with Daniel Carter, Oliver Lake, Richard Pierce and Tatsuya Nakamura, a post-bop free improvising quintet from the mid-70s, here in an unreleased studio session showing raw power and superb playing.
Kowald, Peter / Kent Kessler / Fred Lonberg-Holm
Flats Fixed
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Three bassists converged on WNUR Studios, in Evanston, Illinois in 1998 to record these tracks, finally released after 16 years: 5 freely improvised trio sessions, 6 miniatures suggested by Kowald and performed by the trio, and 6 duos between Kowald and Lonberg-Holm.
Parker, Evan ElectroAcoustic Septet
Seven
(Les Disques Victo)
UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.
AMM (Tilbury / Prevost)
Place Sub. V
(Matchless)
AMM (Eddie Prevost on percussion and John Tilbury on piano(+)) performing a 1 hour, 1 minute and 1 second live concert at the 2012 Festival of Traditional and Avant-Garde Music in Lublin, Poland in a beautiful melding of unconventional approaches to improvisation.
Wooley, Nate Sextet
(Sit in) The Throne of Friendship
(Clean Feed)
Unique approaches to modern jazz from NY trumpeter Nate Wooley's Sextet with Josh Sinton (reeds), Matt Moran (vibes), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Dan Peck (tuba) and Harris Eisenstadt (drums), extraordinary music from exceptional players.
Parker, Evan / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton
Live at Maya Recordings Festival [VINYL 2 LPs]
(NoBusiness)
Superb improvisation from three masters - Evan Parker on sax, Barry Guy on bass and Paul Lytton on drums - performing at the Maya Recordings Festival, September 23 - 25, 2011 at Theater am Gleis, Winterthur, Switzerland.
Ducret, Marc
Tower, Vol. 3
(Ayler)
Guitarist Marc Ducret's sextet performs comments on the music previously played in the other albums of the Tower series, either as rewritten fragments or developments of excerpts or patterns.
Wheelhouse (Rempis / Adasiewicz / McBride)
Boss Of The Plains
(Aerophonic)
The debut album from the trio of Dave Rempis (sax), Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone) and Nate McBride (bass) is a rich melodic and harmonic release with tracks that vary from sparse to zestful.
Rempis Percussion Quartet ,The
Phalanx [2 CDs]
(Aerophonic)
A 2-CD set of live concert recordings from this brilliant improvising quartet headed by Dave Rempis (sax) with prominent members Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (bass), Tim Daisy (drums), and Frank Rosaly (drums).
Mori, Ikue / Steve Noble
Prediction and Warning
(Fataka)
Drummer Steve Noble assaults his drum kit in a way that excellently parallels Ikue Mori's electronics, producing an enthralling blend of acoustic and electronic music.
Braxton, Anthony Steptet (with Ho Bynum / Halvorson / Pavone / Rozen / Siegel / Testa)
Echo Echo Mirror House
(Les Disques Victo)
Composer/saxophonist Braxton performed "Composition NO 347 + 62'37" " at the 2011 Victo Festival with the "super-group" of Braxton alumni - Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Jessica Pavone, Jay Rozen, Aaron Siegel, Carl Testa", on their respective instruments + iPods.
Rose, Jon
Rosin [3 CDs + 1 Data Disk + Book]
(Recommended Records)
A 3 CD box set with a booklet and bow hair marking violinist/conceptualist Jon Rose's 60th birthday, all previously unreleased works ranging from radio documentary and radio fiction to virtuoso performances using acoustic violin and his hyperstring interactive bow system.
Parker, Evan & Agusti Fernandez
The Voice is One
(Not Two)
A series of duos and one solo work each from European/UK Free Improvisation masters, saxophonist Evan Parker and pianist Agusti Fernandez, an astonishing display of creative interplay.
Edelin, Michel Quartet
Resurgence
(RogueArt)
French artists Michel Edelin (flute), Jacques Di Donato (reeds), Jean-Jacques Avenel (bass) and Simon Goubert (drums) in a melodic and creative jazz album that surprises in beautiful and unusual compositional structures.
Crump, Stephan / Mary Halvorson (Secret Keeper)
Super Eight
(Intakt)
Brooklyn based bassist Stephan Crump (Rosetta Trio) and guitarist Mary Halvorson (MAP, Braxton, &c) perform duos recorded at Butler Plaza in Brooklyn, 2011, thoroughly modern improvisation from two of NY's finest young players.
Bynum, Taylor Ho / John Hebert / Gerald Cleaver
Book of Three: Continuum
(Relative Pitch)
Collective improvisation from Ho Bynum's Book of Three with bassist John Hebert & drummer Gerald Cleaver, following their RogueArt CD with this exceptional album of original compositions plus works from Bobby Bradford, Salim Washington, and Jim Hobbs.
Abrahams, Chris / Magda Mayas
Gardener
(Relative Pitch)
"Four hands on one piano" from the duo of pianist Chris Abrahams (The Necks) and Magda Mayas, both improvising in Berlin at the Vivaldi Saal performance space using their piano, harpsichord, and harmonium.
Group, The (Abdullah / Brown / Bang / Sirone / Hopkins / Cyrille)
Live
(NoBusiness)
A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.) playing original compositions as well as a cover of Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".
Group, The (Abdullah / Brown / Bang / Sirone / Hopkins / Cyrille)
Live [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
A previously unreleased concert recording from 1986 of a group of leading out jazz artists (Billy Bang, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, &c.) playing original compositions as well as a cover of Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".
Cage, John / Domencio Scarlatti
Changes
(Hat [now] ART)
Pianist Pi-Hsien Chen performs both the playful and quirky sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti juxtaposed to John Cage's I Ching developed compositions, "Music of Changes", which complement each other in unexpected and sublime ways.




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC