CHICO FREEMAN – Chico (LP-1977 / India Navigation ‎– IN 1031)

Label: India Navigation ‎– IN 1031

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Silver labels / Country: US / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at India Navigation Records, 1977 / Merger - Recorded in concert, New York

Artwork [Cover Art] – James Russell

Produced by India Navigation Company

Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): IN-1031-A

Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): IN-1031-B

Note: Track A2 is not listed on the label, only on the back cover.

A1 - Moments ................................................................................................ 16:30

a)      Generation

b)      Regeneration

A2 - And All The World Moved...  .................................................................. 10:00

B  -  Merger ................................................................................................... 16:00

Personnel:

Chico Freeman – tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet

Cecil McBee – bass

Muhal Richard Abrams – piano

Steve McCall – drums, percussion

Tito Sampa – percussion

Chico (LP-1977) was mostly taken up by the 17-minute two-movement suite Moments, the 10-minutes And All The World Moved... (a duet with bassist Cecil McBee), and the 16-minute jam Merger, for a piano-based quintet (McBee, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, drummer Steve McCall, percussionist Tito Sampa).

As part of the Freeman family legacy of Chicago; his father, legendary NEA Jazz Master* saxophonist Von Freeman; his uncles, guitarist George Freeman; and drummer Bruz Freeman, Chico amassed a diverse résumé of performing R&B to blues, hard bop to avant-garde. His collegiate studies in Advanced Composition and Theory at Northwestern University led him to teach composition at the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) Music School, and while attaining his Masters in Composition and Theory at Governor State University, he studied composition with NEA Jazz Master Muhal Richard Abrams...

* Note:

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians.

Although jazz was the first music Freeman was exposed to, many of his early professional gigs were at Chicago clubs with such blues artists as Memphis Slim, and Lucky Carmichael.

After arriving in New York, he immediately began working with Jeanne Lee, Mickey Bass, John Stubblefield, and Cecil McBee. Through apprenticeships in New York and abroad with such innovators as Elvin Jones, Don Pullen, Sam Rivers, Sun Ra, and Jack DeJohnette, Freeman developed his own group and rapidly rose to prominence with his energetic and exploratory style...

When superstar bands were being organized by promoters in Europe, Freeman brought together The Leaders — an all-star sextet of internationally recognized bandleaders. The group, consisting of Cecil McBee, Kirk Lightsey, Lester Bowie, Arthur Blythe, and Famadou Don Moye, set the standard for eclectic and innovative music from a band comprised entirely of composers...

Freeman elaborates, “First comes expression, and when you find yourself in need of being able to express more, you develop the technique in order to accomplish that objective.” For Freeman, Spoken Into Existence manifests in notes and tones the meaning of Michael Jordan’s dictum, “You have to see it to be it” (or, as Freeman puts it, that “you can manifest what you want to achieve or materialize it if you can see it clearly”) and the aphorism, “words are things.”

Freeman has perfected an immediately recognizable approach to music and composition, blending what he has experienced from his past and providing fluidity into a future of infinite musical possibilities.

(Excerpts from the biography of Chico Freeman)

http://chicofreeman.com/biography/

If you find it, buy this album!