THE COMPOSERS COLLECTIVE – Poum! (LP-1974)

Label: Composers Collective – 721

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1974

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded at Stereo Sound Studio, NYC, 1974 / All compositions 1969.

Engineer – Jerry Newman

Composed By – John Fischer

Whitecage credited as playing chanter on "Poum!"

A1 - Sinfonia ............................................................................. 6:46

A2 - Apollo's Ragtime Journey ................................................. 9:06

A3 - t-e-s-t ................................................................................. 2:02

B1 - Moon Walk ........................................................................ 4:13

B2 - Poum! ................................................................................ 5:55

B3 - Earthlings ......................................................................... 10:48

John Fischer (lider) – piano, voice

Mark Whitecage – tenor sax, alto sax, flute

Perry Robinson – clarinet

Mario Pavone – bass

Laurence Cook – drums, percussion

This album was released 1974 on the label Composers Collective (catalog number 721)

John Fischer (born 1930 in Antwerp, Brussels) is a pianist, composer and visual artist. He is also a pioneer in the field of computer art. In the 1970s, during the loft jazz era in New York City, Fischer ran a performance loft and gallery known as Environ. He is leader of the group INTERface and he performed with among others: Perry Robinson, Mark Whitecage, Arthur Blythe, Rick Kilburn and Lester Bowie...

 John Fischer / Perry Robinson / Mark Whitecage

To be sure, the genre would never again be so closely implicated with social upheaval: between the civil rights movement, black nationalism, the black arts movement, protests against the Vietnam war, and the alternately revelatory and sinister sides of the “hippie dream,” free jazz’s supposed halcyon days reflected back onto the listener the turbulent, uncertain times they were living. For some, the deaths of two of the music’s pioneers, John Coltrane (in July 1967, of liver cancer) and Albert Ayler (in November 1970, a suspected suicide) gave pause to the music’s most elemental, fiery stage.

Certainly, support for the music dried up in the USA during this period, and many of the artists moved to Europe, often to France, where their music found greater support and acceptance (and in the BYG/Actuel label, an imprint that would help them realise their musical visions, at least for a short period of time).

But to say the music was over, and that the ‘70s was a largely fallow period for the music, now seems seriously misguided. Looking at the relative explosion of private press and artist label free jazz albums from across the ‘70s, coupled with the NYC loft jazz movement, the music was as strong as ever – still questing and still exploring. As both major and independent labels turned their backs on the music, the artists turned toward self-actualisation and DIY practices to get their music documented and out there. Of course, there were precursors for this – perhaps the most significant being Sun Ra and his Saturn label, where he released bucketloads of beguiling, sublime, fantastical Afrofuturist documents from his Arkestra.

If the loft jazz scene was contained in NYC, private press records were turning up from all over America – there are representatives in this list from Missouri, Ohio, Michigan and beyond. But somehow, loft jazz – a scene in NYC where performances of free jazz took place mostly in artist-run loft spaces – parallels the imperatives of the private press world, and you’ll find that a number of the albums detailed in that list are loft classics...

"The Jazz Composers Collective is a virtual study of the positive effects that the DIY (do it yourself) ethic can bring about. They are, in an unassuming way, producing some of the most vital improvised and composed music coming out of New York today. Playing on each other's projects, helping to organize concerts, pooling efforts to produce the smart, informative newsletter that detail their activities - everyone helps out for the massed good of the members and audience."

Born in Belgium, artist, pianist and composer John Fischer, early seventies, lives in New York and here we find the beginning of his early works. Sometime later (very significant and important period) formed "INTERface" in company, which is achieved in cooperation with loft-jazz musicians...

"Poum!" is a series of compositions (variations, also appear on the albums INTERface), in which, how J.F. himself says, exploring sound using voice and body, and therefore "Composers Collective" is not a collective improvisation, then work is strictly composer's ideas and, as such,  conducted according to the instructions, but in no way confining a certain freedom of expression themselves musicians...

"Sinfonia", adorns a spirited voice performance developed from the beginning, that was the axis to explosive free jazz, will continue to rush from spiritual intro to featuring beautiful piano a profound by turn, to the free part to move around bustling in "Apollo's Ragtime Journey", while short "t-e-s-t " goes to the abrupt expansion also gives off a strong impact.

"Moon Walk" is moist and free improvisation which leads us with lazy piano in the puzzle night, and slowly come to the absurd "Poum!", she featuring the voice performance filled with grotesque repeated without pronounced pause context. And finally, "Earthlings" closes the album, each player starts somewhere humorous theme (do you feel perhaps jazz roots), as moving to a very high track of tension that comes through is somewhere fun atmosphere.

Truly an amazing rare album, essential. Highly recommended.

Parts of the text taken from:

"20 essential records from the 70s underground"

(written by JON DALE)

If you find it, buy this album!