Collected here are five selections from a private stash of stage recordings, capturing the band at the Shaboo Inn in Willimantic, CT, London’s Rainbow Theater, and a pair of dates on its extraordinary tour of Brazil in the summer of ‘74. Beyond the blistering performances featured therein, the Brazil tapes are a notable document of guitarist Dominique Gaumont’s brief time with the band – a tenure that began on March 30, 1974 (as captured on sides 3 and 4 of the Dark Magus LP) and lasted through the fall.
Category: Jazz
Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer :: The Closest Thing to Silence
Avant-new age pioneer Ariel Kalma joins up with younger explorers Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer for The Closest Thing to Silence, a kind of metaphysical journey through the elder electronic musician’s oeuvre.
Codona :: Willisau, Switzerland, September 1, 1978
Earlier this year, we shared a sweet Codona recording from late in the trio’s all-too-brief run. Here’s one from right near the beginning. This Swiss FM broadcast from 1978 captures Codona in full flight, with Collin Walcott’s sitar, Don Cherry’s trumpet and Nana Vaconcelos’ percussion weaving a magical web. The players waste no time getting right into it; the opening “New Light” is 16 minutes of pure joy.
John Coltrane Quintet With Eric Dolphy :: Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, November 22, 1961
While we wait for Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy, let’s enjoy this wondrous 40+ minutes of the Coltrane Quintet in Finland. Compared to the Village Vanguard tapes from just a few weeks before, the performance is relatively smooth — nothing too outward bound like “India” or “Chasin’ Another Trane.”
Keith Jarrett / Jack Dejohnette :: Ruta and Daitya
Recorded in 1971, and released two years later via ECM, Keith Jarrett’s collaboration with drummer Jack DeJohnette marks one of the last times the keyboardist would flex electric. Fresh off his two year stint behind the boards in Miles Davis’s electric band, Ruta and Daitya features seven duets produced by label head Manfred Eicher. With a palette skirting between sinuous electric funk and acoustic washes of percussion, flute and piano, the forty-one minute runtime does well to maintain a cohesive identity without feeling aesthetically schizophrenic.
Codona :: Blues Alley, Washington, DC, May 9, 1983
Courtesy of the great bigfootpegrande YouTube channel, this audience tape from Codona’s D.C. stop in 1983 captures two sets, each moment brimming with imagination and curiosity. A joyful noise, with multiple peaks, including a gorgeous “New Light” and Don’s West African train dream blues “Clicky Clacky.” All aboard …
John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman (1963)
Turning 60 this year, Coltrane and Hartman is essential listening not just for jazz aficionados, but hopeless romantics far and wide. The smokey mood of the record eclipses its genre, belonging more to an ethereal wavelength of nocturnal ambiance than musical categorization.
The Circling Sun :: Spirits
Name checking Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, The Circling Sun is collective murderer’s row of New Zealand jazz luminaries crafting modal/spiritual jazz. Spirits, released later this month via Soundway Records, is their debut.
Wadada Leo Smith :: Fire Illuminations
Late last year Wadada Leo Smith turned 81. The trumpeter and composer has been making records since the late 1960s when he was part of Chicago’s AACM, and he’s recorded for everyone from ECM to Tzadik, doing everything from solo trumpet records to string quartets. But as he gets to an age when most slow down, Smith’s been even more prolific than ever. Last year saw seven discs of string quartets, plus another five of duos between him and musicians like Jack DeJohnette and Andrew Cyrille. And now there’s another set: Fire Illuminations, a digital only release coming out via Smith’s own Kabell Records on March 31.
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium – Volume 9
Sparked by a recent re-obsession with Miles Davis’ On The Corner sessions, Abstract Truths returns with a grip of records that have been hovering around the LA hq these past few months. Electric fusion, Turiyasangitananda jams, hard bop, jazz funk, spiritual. Myriad modalities abound…all rooted by an earthy funkiness. File under: soul music.
ECM Records All-Star Night :: The Village Gate, New York City, January 1976
The most beautiful sound next to silence comes to NYC. This “all-star night” of ECM-related performers is a delight, with some unique performances and collabs. Manfred Eicher’s esteemed label had been around since the late 1960s, but Keith Jarrett’s blockbuster surprise, The Koln Concert, brought ECM closer to the mainstream in 1975. Jarrett wasn’t there for this evening’s celebration, but the All-Stars shine bright without him.
Gisle Røen Johansen :: Kveldsragg
The turns this music takes, random as they seem, are never cheap jump-scares. They are developed organically throughout, and Johansen’s crack squad of Norwegian musicians fully commits to them. Somehow they manage to weld spiritual jazz and icy ECM and martial prog and no-wave noise into an improbable, and emotionally stirring, unity. It is one of the most inventive and consistently surprising records out this year, and it might be one of the finest.
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Candid may not have the same name brand recognition as Blue Note or Impulse! But during its brief existence, the label made its mark on the jazz and blues worlds—as a recent series of remastered reissues demonstrates. The cream of the crop is Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, recorded in October 1960 and released the following year. It’s a thoroughly crackling affair, highlighting the composer at one of his many peaks and featuring an awesome lineup of musicians
Pat Metheny Group (ECM, 1978)
Guitarist Pat Metheny recently described music as a “carrot”, “I am still figuring out what the stick is,” he concluded to Ross Simonini in The Believer. That idea of constant investigation permeates Metheny’s nearly 50 year music career as well as his first s/t LP with his Pat Metheny Group.
Alice Coltrane :: Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972
This is a bootleg, make no mistake! But however you hear it, you gotta hear it (perhaps over on YouTube?). A major addition to the Alice Coltrane canon, this soundboard recording features the pioneering musician and her incredible band (Charlie Haden on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Aashish Khan on sarod, Pranesh Khan on tabla and Bobby W. on tamboura and percussion) journeying fearlessly across the astral plane. Four tracks, fours sides! Tons of AC’s intense organ hijinks – how did she get that crazy sound?