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Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975
by Stefano Merighi
"In questo paese--sentenziò Charles Mingus--percepisco ancora intatto il puzzo delle camere a gas e dei campi di concentramento. Ma non fatevi troppi problemi: gli Stati Uniti d'America sono anch'essi un grande campo di concentramento." Il paese era la Germania Ovest, la città era Brema, l'anno il 1964. La dichiarazione è riportata da Joachim Ernst Berendt in un articolo del 1979 e ripresa come incipit dell'indimenticabile Charlie Mingus di Mario Luzzi (Lato Side, 1983) Dichiarazione ...
read moreCharles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975
by Mike Jurkovic
It is 1964 and the big bass emperor rules the old continent as he commanded every stage he set foot on. So @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 just does not sound right. Charles Mingus Swings Bad Ass and Liberates Your Body and Your Mind @ Bremen sounds way more like it. Foras much as anything in his grand, sweeping arc serves to highlight how mercurial and spot-on his real time genius wasthis previously unreleased four-disc joy bomb will certainly be ...
read moreCharles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975
by Chris May
Four hours of previously unissued, premier-league music by Charles Mingus is something to shout about, and @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 is about as good as the bassist and composer's posthumously released live albums get. Four CDs chronicle two extended, intense performances recorded in Germany by Radio Bremen. Both gigs featured all-star bands and both are typically and gloriously uplifting Mingus melanges of through-composition and in-the-moment improvisation touching on blues and roots, bop, hard bop, New Orleans marching band, swing, ...
read moreSilenced in Their Prime - Eric Dolphy & Booker Little (1961 - 1964)
by Russell Perry
From his first recordings with Chico Hamilton in 1958 until his untimely death from misdiagnosed diabetic shock in 1964, Eric Dolphy was limited to only six years in which to record the music that has defined his extraordinary legacy. Previously, in this series, we have heard from Dolphy's great 1960 recording, Far Cry and his contributions to Charles Mingus's band. The final three years of this story includes recordings under the leadership of Oliver Nelson, Abbey Lincoln, Ron Carter, Mal ...
read moreVintage Dolphy
by Duncan Heining
Vintage Dolphy appeared originally in 1986/7 on both vinyl and CD. Featuring recordings from three separate live performances from Eric Dolphy, two at Carnegie Hall, both with his own quartet and in two 'third stream' settings devised by Gunther Schuller, the album provided intriguing insights into Dolphy's improvisational skills and approach. Were this not enough, the 1996 edition added a jam session from the Carnegie Hall concert where the quartet tracks were recorded. Featuring a group of mainly hard-boppers performing ...
read moreEric Dolphy: Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Sessions
by Mike Jurkovic
2018 was a spectacular year for archival jazz. Just a quick glance at last year's releases includes John Coltrane's Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Verve), Coltrane's further adventures on Miles Davis & John Coltrane The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (Legacy), and Erroll Garner's revelatory Nightconcert (Mack Avenue Records) quickly taking its place alongside the pianist's The Concert by the Sea (Columbia, 1955) for historical importance. Towards the end of the year, lost broadcasts by Charles ...
read moreEric Dolphy: Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Sessions
by John Sharpe
This lovingly and lavishly packaged set reissues two of reedman Eric Dolphy's LPs along with outtakes from the two day 1963 sessions which yielded them, along with some unreleased later material on which Dolphy was a sideman. The set places a well-deserved focus on one of the pioneers of what became known as the New Thing, whose voice was tragically silenced less than a year later from undiagnosed diabetes at the age of 36. Even during his brief ...
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