ALBERT MANGELSDORFF / FRANÇOIS JEANNEAU – Jazz Live Trio 1972 and '79 (2010)

Label: Montreux Jazz - TCB Music SA 02222
Format: CD, Album; Country: Austria - Released: 2010
Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz, Modern Jazz
Swiss Radio Days/Concert Series, Vol. 22
Recorded live on Jan. 29, 1972 and May 12, 1979 at Radio Studio 2, Zurich.
Graphic Artwork – Kym Staiff
Executive radio producer – Peter Bürli
Swiss Radio Consultant – Yvan Ischer / RSR
Liner Notes by Klaus Koenig

German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and French saxophonist François Jeanneau were central figures in the European free-jazz movement of the 70?s. This release from the Swiss Radio Days series from TCB presents both musicians in individual sessions from 1972 and 1979 respectively, performing their own compositions and supported by the Jazz Live Trio of Radio Zurich. Both sessions are released for the first time in this CD.

Personnel:
Tracks 1 & 2: Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), Klaus Koenig (piano), Peter Frei (bass), Peter Schmidlin (drums)
Tracks 3 & 4: François Jeanneau (tenor and sorano saxophone), Klaus Koenig (piano), Peter Frei (bass), Pierre Favre (drums)

Excerpt from Liner Notes:

Albert – I always called him Albertus Magnus – was our guest on Jazz Live twice. The first time, in 1967, we dutifully played a series of Standards in the mainstream style. However, in 1972 he was already so deeply involved in music that had been released from its fixed structures that he suggested we play two half-hour sets without any specific written material. We immediately agreed because all of us in the trio were already infected by the zeitgeist during those years, searching for ways to achieve a “ freer ” , less predetermined approach to music beyond the traditional song forms.
There was no playing of other people ’ s pieces from sheet music, which occasionally made our radio concerts quite stressful. So the evening was both relaxed and exciting. This is actually the ideal precondition for an artistic act. We included a recording of that concert ’ s first set on this CD.

François Janneau was the first Frenchman who we invited for a Jazz Live concert. He sent us a series of themes, which we carefully prepared. When I asked him about the tempos of the pieces during the rehearsal, he laughed and said that there were no set tempos, that it was free music. But the themes definitely had harmony structures, as well as a form. We were excited by this challenge of filtering unknown results from very traditional pieces and accepting the composed patterns solely as a general reference point and not as binding structures.
Experiments for a freer approach to the composed material were in the air at that time and had also cast their spell on us. Peter Frei and I were somewhere in the middle between free and fixed playing. Our drummer Pierre Favre had spent many years in total dedication to the free jazz movement, so he obviously was not opposed to Janneau ’ s concept.

_ By Klaus Koenig



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