TONE JANSA QUARTET – Bouyancy (LP-1976-78)

Label: Cosmic Sounds – CS-15 LP

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation; Country: UK - Released: 2001

Style: Post Bop, Modal, Free Jazz

Previously released in Yugoslavia on RTB label on two albums:

Tone Janša Kvartet - RTB LP 4202, 1976 (tracks 1,2)

Tone Janša Kvartet - RTB LP 4205, 1978 (tracks 3,4,5,6)

Compiled By – Zeljko Kerleta

Phonographic Copyright (p) – Cosmic Sounds

Limited edition high-quality Vinyl LPs reissue.

A1 - Yudach (Juda) . . . 15:52

A2 - Milky Way (Rimska Cesta) – Herald Neuwirth - piano . . . 8:38

A3 - Vision (Vizija) . . . 4:37

B1 - Motive (Motiv) . . . 16:23

B2 - Bouyancy (Vzgon) . . . 3:40

B3 - Sun (Sonce) . . . 9:36

TONE JANSA — Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor)

ANDRE JEANQUARTIER — Piano

EWALD OBERLEITNER — Bass

JOHANN PREININGER — Drums

In 70's Pharoah Sanders wasn't listening to Tone Jansa, neither Tone was listening to Pharoah but two musicians at two different parts of the world were creating at the same time unbelievably similar music. It is obvious where both of them got inspiration - Coltrane. Two albums that Tone recorded in 70's for RTB label are masterpieces of Yugoslavian Jazz. The third one that he did at the same time and in a same quality came out on Helidon label and is well worth checking.

Tone's music is not worth explaining, it has to be heard. It is very spiritual at the moments, very deep and soulful and sometime just cheerful and moving, giving you urge to dance or just wiggle. Couple of the tracks might sound to long for you but if you listen to them carefully, when they finish you want more and the main theme stays in your had all day long........

"Rare recordings from Yugoslavian sax player Tone Jansa - a free-thinking 70s talent with a post-Coltrane spiritual approach to jazz! Jansa's working here in a quartet with piano, bass, and drums -- and he plays alto, tenor, and flute in long spiralling solos that branch out, searching sonically for new horizons, in the mode of some of the better early 70s work by Americans like Carlos Garnett or Pharoah Sanders. "

"Black americas sound of the 70's, wasn't something that the YU jazzmen of the same period did hang on to. Tone is a precious jewel of what may be called the fusion sound of YU jazz."

"Yugoslavian rare groove. 'Vision' instantly reminded me of Courtny Pine new album, kind of soul jazz vibe going on and yes, very nice indeed. The rest of the album is very straight ahead, very spiritual, very much in a kind of John Klemmer, Pharoah Sanders kind of mid 70's vibe..."

"This compilation taken from two seminal albums in the history of Eastern European jazz — particularly in what used to be Yugoslavia — is a welcome find in the bins of the United States and England. Saxophonist Tone Jansa is a giant of a man, and a saxophonist who has much in common with both Pharaoh Sanders and the giant who influenced him, John Coltrane. This quartet made a total of five records, and one in quintet and sextet settings. But the two that are referred to here should be reissued in their entirety. Oh well, what can I do? The first two tracks of this outrageously beautiful, spiritually motivated open modal jazz is from the Tone Jansa Jazz Kvartet disc on RTB in 1976, and the last four are from the Tone Jansa Kvartet disc on the same label from 1978. There is a quiet fire in Jansa's playing; like Sanders, he seeks out the melodic propensity in scalar problems — especially in contrapuntal situations with pianist Andre Jeanquartier on 'Motive' and 'Yudach.' Both men tend to emphasize the mode inside the interval that creates sparks of lyrical fire between them and generates the most intricate of solos. The rhythm section here, Ewald Oberleitner and drummer Johann Preininger, is above journeyman status as well, but far from virtuosos in their own rights. Still they move rhythms and meters through some interesting color phases throughout this collection, turning the time against itself on 'Sun,' which closes the album so that both soloists have to reinvent the mode each time they solo. These recordings are so fine in their spiritually transcendent way, they would have been right at home on the Strata East label a few years earlier. There is no higher compliment one can pay than that." (AMG)

If you find it, buy this album!