Sunday, November 23, 2014

CIRCLE / Corea, Braxton, Holland, Altschul – Paris - Concert (2LP-1972)




Label: ECM Records – ECM 1018/19 ST
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1972
Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on February 21, 1971 at the Maison de l'O.R.T.F., Paris.
Design [Cover] – B & B Wojirsch
Photography By – Jean-Pierre Leloir
Engineer – Jean Deloron
Producer – Manfred Eicher
Realisation by Andre Francis "Jazz Sur Scene"

A1 - Nefertiti ...................................................................................................... 19:17
         (Composed By – Wayne Shorter)
A2 - Song For The Newborn ............................................................................... 7:00
         (Composed By – David Holland)
B1 - Duet ........................................................................................................... 10:37
         (Composed By – Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea)
B2 - Lookout Farm / 73° Kalvin (Variation - 3) .................................................. 16:13
         (Composed By [73° Kalvin (Variation - 3)] – Anthony Braxton)
         (Composed By [Lookout Farm] – Barry Altschul)
C  -  Toy Room - Q & A ..................................................................................... 24:46
         (Composed By – David Holland)
D  -  No Greater Love ........................................................................................ 17:41
         (Composed By – Isham Jones, Marty Synes)

Anthony Braxton – reeds, percussion
Chick Corea – piano
Dave Holland – double bass, cello
Barry Altschul – drums, percussion

This 1971 document of one of the greatest jazz groups reveals a high level of musicianship and creativity in this quartet, used to make wonderful, huge, beautiful music. "Nefertiti" and "There Is No Greater Love" are stunning comments by the group in the context of the songs' forms and harmonies. These men have gotten inside of these tunes, down to the guts, where they can explore the farthest possibilities of their souls. (There is NO "free" playing on these tunes, which remains a challenge to those of us who wish to follow in these mens' footsteps.) The quartet appears again on Dave Holland's "The Toy Room" and "Q-A," an almost ambient cut. Mr. Braxton takes out the flute and clarinet on his Composition 6F ("73 Kalvin"), a classic Braxton fusion of composition and group improvisation. "Song for the Newborn" and "Lookout Farm" are superb solos by Dave Holland and Barry Altschul, respectively. Chick Corea and Anthony Braxton improvise an exciting duet. This is an album you'll have trouble putting away. Masterpiece.
_ By Michael G. Mcneill




...It's a very, very good recording. Corea of course is fine here, my prejudices notwithstanding; all four members are in top form. I often have some trouble with Altschul, finding him to be generally overbusy and there's some of that, though his percussion feature, "Lookout Farm", is rather impressive. But it's Holland and Braxton who steal the show. The former's "Q & A", which would be reprised the following year on "Conference of the Birds", is a wonderful hide 'n' seek piece, a fine balance between the Bailey-esque music Holland had been playing and the theme-driven work he'd settle into...
...They do a rocking rendition of Shorter's "Nefertitti" [sic] as well as closing out with "No Greater Love". At the time, it was a bit shocking to hear Braxton waxing so romantic! Little did we know....
...Strong concert, worth hearing, on purely musical grounds...
(By Brian Olewnick)



I wanted to note in passing another nostalgic fact: The smell of the original ECM pressings. Very unique and heady and still manifest 40+ years later! Not sustained when Polydor began printing the albums for US consumption. Mmmmm....ECM smell......



If you find it, buy this album!

28 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. New link:

      CIRCLE / Corea, Braxton, Holland, Altschul – Paris - Concert (2LP-1972)
      Vinyl Rip/FLAC+Cover

      1fichier:
      https://1fichier.com/?2ysxmlta5e

      Delete
  2. Thanks! This is VERY much appreciated. Wonderful music by wonderful musicians (it's almost possible to forgive Corea in advance for all his later stuff....)

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  3. Yay! Stolen years ago, now returned by Vitko! Thank you, thank you.

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  4. Yes, the smell of those German ECM pressings!

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    Replies
    1. I have never really thought about it, but I guess there is something to it. I wonder what they mixed in with the vinyl / PVC. Or is it the lamination?

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  5. Thanks Vitko! I've been too lazy to digitize anything, but I may pull this one out just to give it a sniff.
    Mmmmm....Yellow...

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  6. Great rip of an often underappreciated early-ECM classic. Many thanks for posting!

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  7. A true classic. Thank you very much Vitko.

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  8. Thanks so much for both Braxton outings. Your blog is a revelation for me.

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  9. This is a nice surprise...had ripped one side of this one a while ago then got sidetracked... now I don't need to bother... appreciate your hard work and thanks for saving me some time...

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  10. Hi Vitko, like other guys here, i have this one on vinyl so is nice to be able to listen to it in my ipod, but... i have problems with gamefront so if you could post it in zippy i'd be very happy.
    thanks in advance

    roman

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll look to get it done as quickly as possible, but it is quite a pain in the ass, "zippy" receives only 200 MB, so I'll have this to share in the two links. But and you're a bit lazy, you can easily downloaded from the Mega and yourself compress to MP3. It would be much simpler :)
      What do you say, can you make a little effort?
      V

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    2. Ok Vitko i'll try. Thanks
      The blog goes better day after day. Great music and reviews.
      Greetings

      Roman

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    3. You see, criticism is bore fruit :) If you do not succeed, tell me.
      Regards.

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  11. WOW simply a classic. Thanks Vitko!

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  12. Thank you very much!

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  13. Replies
    1. You have two links, GameFront works completely normal.

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  14. both links are dead, would it please be possible to re-upload it? Thanks!

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  15. Many thanks for the renewed link, Vitko...

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  16. Vitko you have introduced me to so much beautiful music. I just picked this album up last weekend for $12.00 THANKYOU!!

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  17. Vitko, thank you so much for so much amazing music. This one is a favourite. This site is an amazing resource.

    ReplyDelete