KLAUS WEISS QUINTETT / CLIFFORD JORDAN – Live At Opus 1 (2LP-1988)

Label: Jazzline – JL 20830, Delta – JL 20830

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1988

Style: Contemporary Jazz, Improvisation

Recorded live by Christian Sodl at "OPUS ONE" Wien-February 9,1987.

Coverdesign – A. Backhausen - Köln – Foto: ZEFA

Executive Producer – Paul Polansky

Recording Engineer – Christian Sodl

Digital Mastering – Wolfgang Meyscheider / Tonstudio Kraus München

Photos – Max Mühlherr / P. Brunner

Matrix / Runout (Side A): DMM JL 20830-1 A-1

Matrix / Runout (Side B): DMM JL 20830-1 B-1

Matrix / Runout (Side C): DMM JL 20830-2 C-2

Matrix / Runout (Side D): DMM JL 20830-2 D-2

Note:

An ORF Production Recorded / Live at Opus One,Vienna, Austria

Audiophile Pressing - ADA Extended Version ________ OUT OF STOCK

DMM Direct Metal Mastering

Copyright DMM: Teldec

Deutsche Pressung - German Pressing

℗1988 – Ein Produkt der DELTA-Music GmbH

A1 - Blue'n Boogie  (Dizzy Gillespie) .......................................................................... 6:03

A2 - Eye Witness Blues  (Clifford Jordan) ................................................................. 11:12

B1 - Lush Life  (Billy Strayhorn) ................................................................................. 9:00

B2 - Highest Mountain  (Clifford Jordan) .................................................................... 8:48

C1 - L.A.Calling  (Isla Eckinger) ................................................................................ 12:32

C2 - Lover Man  (Roger Ramirez) .............................................................................. 5:38

D1 - Don't Get Around Much Anymore  (Duke Ellington) ......................................... 13:03

D2 - Una Noche Con Francis  (Bud Powell) ............................................................... 4:26

Personnel:

Clifford Jordan – tenor saxophone

John Schröder – guitar

Roberto Di Gioia – piano

Thomas Stabenow – bass

Klaus Weiss – drums, percussion

Delta Music is German label founded 1970 by Philippe Sautot and Dr. Jürgen Moll. Located in Großkönigsdorf / Frechen near Cologne.

... In the first half of the 1970s, Klaus Weiss worked with the Horst Jankowski Sextet, the trio of former Mingus saxophonist Bobby Jones and the Eugen Cicero Trio. From 1975 to 1977 he toured with Mal Waldron and with the Dusko Goykovic Big Band and then, between 1978 and 1983, Weiss led a quintet which featured various guest soloists, including Sal Nistico, Roman Schwaller, Clifford Jordan and Andy Scherrer. He also played with Catalan pianist Tete Montoliu, with Eddie "Lockjaw Davis" and with the WDR and NDR big bands.

In the 1980s toured with Clifford Jordan and Horace Parlan, played with multi-instrumentalist Jerome Richardson and toured with his new quintet. In 1984 he recorded a big band album, "Lightnin' " which was nominated for the Süd West Funk Jazz Prize...

... In a highly varied career, Klaus Weiss has made 17 albums under his own name, with formations ranging from trio, quartet, quintet and sextet to full orchestra, and has appeared on numerous other albums as a sideman.

Weiss's musical philosophy is that good jazz music - which means jazz played by consummate professionals who have a powerful rapport with one another and the same sense of musical direction - is a highly durable music. He says: "Count Basie's music will still be up to date 50 years from now."

It is significant that Klaus himself defines his approach to drumming as directly derived from some of the great American drummers which he began listening to in the early 1950s.

Says Klaus: "For me, the essence of great jazz drumming was epitomized by those giants, like Big Sid Catlett, Klook, Blakey, Buddy and Philly Joe. These have all been listening drummers, each with his own personality, but having in common a great ability to swing, to generate excitement, and to stimulate the soloists. And besides their sound and way of playing, I got really interested in the American drum rudiments because, as I discovered at the time, all great American drummers know and use those essential rudiments - but few of the European drummers in the fifties seemed to have assimilated these elements - at least, to my ears." ...

With this gorgeous double album I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Enjoy!..... Cheers !!!!!!!

If you find it, buy this album!

B. PETROVIC'S NONCONVERTIBLE ALL STARS – Swinging East / Recorded Live At The Berlin Jazz Festival (LP-1973)

Label: MPS Records/BASF – 21 21282-3

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1973

Style: Contemporary jazz, Big Band

Recorded on November 4, 1971 at Berlin Jazz Festival, W. Germany.

Also on label PGP RTB ‎– LP4345 (Yugoslavia)

Design – MPS-Atelier

Photography By [Cover] – Ralph Quinke

Photography By [Inside And Reverse] – Hans Harzheim

Liner Notes [English Translation] – Andrew Carnegie

Liner Notes [German] – Peter Baumann

Producer – Joachim E. Berendt

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 1<¬ 0666 15B S1 2121282 3 S1 ℗1973

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 1<¬ 0666 15B S2 2121282 3 S2 ℗1973

A1 - Balkan Blues ................................................................................................. 14:40

        (Written-By – Bosko Petrović)

A2 - Sigo's Garden ............................................................................................... 10:30

        (Written-By – Bosko Petrović)

B  -  With Pain I Was Born .................................................................................... 20:45

        (Folksong , Arranged By – Bosko Petrović)

Musicians:

Bosko Petrović – vibraphone, flute [darmarofon], goblet drum [tarabrooka], marimba

Ozren Depolo – alto saxophone, bass clarinet

Dan Mandrila (Mîndrilă) – tenor saxophone

Salko Mujićić – flute, alto-flute, piccolo flute

Simeon Shterev – flute

Michał Urbaniak – electric violin

Tihomir Pop Asanović – organ

Aladár Pege – double bass

Miljenko Prohaska – electric bass

Ratko Divjak – drums

German pressing / MPS Records/BASF – 21 21282-3_____Out of stock –  (never on a CD)

Note:

Darmarofon as played by Bosko on track B1 is a custom made wooden flute from Istria (now part of Croatia & Slovenia) with a sizable mouthpiece and two reeds producing a multiphonic sound.

Recorded Live at the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival, Swinging East is testimony to jazz’s ability to cross over international boundaries. Representing various Communist Bloc countries, the musicians were all-stars in their own lands, and three of the players, Croatia’s Bosko Petrovic, Polish violinist Michal Urbaniak, and Hungarian bassist Aladar Pege, gained international fame. Czech flutist Jiří Stivín and Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert were originally billed for this unique concert but due to difficulties with the officials in their countries they couldn’t travel to Berlin.

Based on a melody from the Kolo, an old Serbian folk dance, Balkan Blues starts off in 7/4 then swings into a slow blues with emotive solos, and Pege’s virtuoso bowed bass. There’s a Latin and funk feel to Sigo’s Garden, with fine flute solos and Bosko’s warm marimba play. Based on an Macedonian folk song, With Pain I was Born to Live fluctuates between a 7/4 and 4/4, with a beautiful section in which Bosko improvises on the tarabrooka, a traditional Macedonian drum, accompanying a short flute solo that captures the timeless Balkan soul. A fascinating mix of jazz and East European folk.

To pretty brian – Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!

FRIEDRICH GULDA TRIO – Fata Morgana / Live At The Domicile (LP-1971)

Label: MPS Records – 21 20886-9

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1971

Style: Fusion, Modal, Cool Jazz

Recorded Live at the Domicile, Munich, April 1971.

Design – Bernhard Wetz

Photography By – Franz Hubmann, Sepp Werkmeiste

Engineer – Willi Schmidt

Liner Notes – Ulrich Olshausen

Producer – Willi Fruth

Distributed By – BASF

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 0654 987 S 1

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 0654 987 S 2

A1 - Sunshine .................................................................................................... 8:36

A2 - Im Wald ...................................................................................................... 8:29

A3 - Encore ........................................................................................................ 5:26

B  -  Fata Morgana ........................................................................................... 17:58

        a) - Part 1: Die Wüste

        b) - Part 2: Die Oase

        c) - Part 3: Tanz

All compositions of Fritz Pauer

Personnel: 

Friedrich Gulda – piano, electric piano

Fritz Pauer – electric piano, piano

Klaus Weiss – drums, percussion

Classical and jazz pianist and composer, Friedrich Gulda was one of Austria's premiere pianists. Born in Vienna in 1930, Gulda started piano lessons at the age of seven. When he was 12, he enrolled in the Vienna Music Academy, and four years later received first place in the Geneva International Music Festival.

In 1949, Gulda toured Europe and South America, earning international acclaim for his treatments of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and the following year he successfully debuted at Carnegie Hall. Gulda became more involved in jazz from 1951 on, when he improvised with Dizzy Gillespie following a performance with the Chicago Symphony. Five years later, Gulda played his first American jazz concert at Birdland (N.Y.C.), followed by a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. After this, Gulda formed the Eurojazz Orchestra, a jazz combo and big band which drew from both jazz and classical compositions. In 1966, ten years after his Birdland appearance, Gulda organized a modern jazz competition in his native city. He was awarded the Vienna Academy's Beethoven Ring in 1970, but later returned it to protest what he regarded as a constricting educational system. This only reinforced the public's perception of Gulda as an eccentric...

_ Review By Joslyn Layne

This live 1971 recording includes Friedrich and second pianist Fritz Pauer both on electric and acoustic pianos, plus drummer Klaus Weiss. It's a cross between aspects of jazz, fusion and contemporary music.

If you find it, buy this album!

DANIEL HUMAIR / GORDON BECK / RON MATHEWSON ‎– Morning! (Musica Records – MUS 3009 / LP-1975)

Label: Musica Records – MUS 3009

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1975

Style: Modal, Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Fontana Studios in Milan, Italy in January 1972.

First recorded on label: Dire – FO 341 / Released 1972 / Country: Italy

Design – Studio Chouette

Photography By – Lucille Whan Humair

Composed By – Gordon Beck, Daniel Humair, Ron Mathewson

Producer – Alain Boucanus

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout): MPO MUS 3009 A

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout): MPO MUS 3009 B

         MORNING !

A1 - 1er Movement ............................................................................................... 12:10

A2 - 2e Movement .................................................................................................. 5:10

         (D. Humair / G. Beck / R. Mathewson)

         SUITE 5

B1 - 1er Movement ................................................................................................. 8:20

B2 - 2e Movement .................................................................................................. 5:45

B3 - 3e Movement .................................................................................................. 4:50

         (Gordon Beck)

GORDON BECK – piano

RON MATHEWSON – bass

DANIEL HUMAIR – drums, percussion

Originally recorded at Fontana Studios in Milan, Italy in January 1972 and subsequently released on the Italian Dire label on LP the same year. 

Recorded during a tour of Italy with Phil Woods, the European Rhythm Machine, consisting of Gordon Beck, Ron Mathewson and Daniel Humair, recorded this entire album in the course of one morning. The album features two long compositions; on the first page of vinyl "Morning!", composed by Gordon Beck, Ron Mathewson and Daniel Humair performed in two movements and on the other side "Suite 5", composed by Gordon Beck performed in three movements followed by the track.

Easily overlooked as a piece of obscure 1970s Britjazz nostalgia, and short and sweet at 36 minutes, this is an Italian recording of two suites that pianist Gordon Beck conceived with bassist Ron Mathewson and drummer Daniel Humair in 1972. It is short, but far from insubstantial.

The propulsive rhythm section of what at that time constituted the Phil Woods Rhythm Machine gets two extended workouts, all recorded in one morning while on a European tour. It would be fine to cite the Bill Evans primer as a major influence on Beck, but it would be selling him short. The breadth and diversity of ground covered in this session is astounding, from gorgeous postbopflurry to sparse and razor-sharp post-Webernianpointalistic free jazz. None of this should come as any surprise, Beck having worked previously with the incredible and irrepressible timbral powerhouse Tony Oxley. In other hands, such forays into experimentation might come off as mere flirtations, but the trio is obviously so comfortable with every gesture, composed or otherwise, that the album coheres beautifully and seamlessly.

In the first track "Morning!" Humair takes a driving solo that quickly turns funky and everyone follows suit with alacrity. Morning sometimes sounds like Herbie Hancock baiting Tony Williams in Miles's 1960s band before it becomes an astonishing collective improvisation, Beck's steel-hard chords calling and responding to Humair's chattering snare and lashing rimshots.

Suite 5 reflects Beck's immensely sophisticated grasp of the alternative implications of Bill Evans - his faultless timing of the turn of a fast phrase is always startling, and there's an unexpected amount of free-improv. About half way through the track, when freer terrain is traveled, Daniel Humairs brushwork is complemented beautifully by Ron Mathewsons effortless fast slides and runs on bass. Eventually, Beck can be found inside the piano, Humair and Mathewson bowing and scraping along with him. But there's a wide span leading from piano-led tunes, recognisably from the same pen as those on "Gyroscope", to free group improvisations that are exciting but not wild.

Review by MARC MEDWIN, All About Jazz, New York

If you find it, buy this album!

THE WOLFGANG SCHLÜTER COMBO – Hangover (PIL 9038 / LP-1977)

Label: Peer International Library Limited – PIL 9038

Also on: Southern Library of Recorded Music - MQLP 9038

Series: Contemporary 9000 –

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: UK / Released: 1977

Style: Contemporary Jazz, Avant-garde, Modal

Recorded at PEER - SOUTHERN STUDIOS, Hamburg, W. Germany

Design [sleeve] – Jack Mooring

Engineer – Frank Reinke

Producer – John O'Brien-Docker

Composed By – Wolfgang Schlüter

Matrix / Runout: PIL–9038.A–IV

Matrix / Runout: PIL–9038.B–2C

Very rare Peer International Library Limited – PIL 9038, LP from 1977 (UK). This is a great Jazz, LP with a soulful groovy feel.  Nice use of Vibes! ____ Sold out! –  (never on a CD)

A1 - Hangover ................................................................................................... 11:07

A2 - Consensus .................................................................................................. 4:39

A3 - Sun Up ........................................................................................................ 4:38

B1 - Dance Of The Dinosaurs ............................................................................ 7:57

B2 - Time And Tide ............................................................................................. 5:20

B3 - Thirst ........................................................................................................... 5:10

Personnel:

Wolfgang Schlüter – vibraphone, percussion

Leszek Zadlo – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute

Jan Tolf – guitar

Rob Franken – keyboards

Lucas Lindholm – bass

Alex Riel – drums, percussion

Wolfgang Schlüter, a jazz fusion vibes player, in the vein of Dave Pike. His Wolfgang Schlüter Combo album HANGOVER is notable for the Brave New World, connections of Lucas Lindholm and John O'Brien-Docker (as producer), I mean their collaboration on the 1972 album - Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley (Vertigo ‎– 6360 606). Here really goes well with rather easy listening moody jazz-fusion with Leszek Zadlo's saxes as the main solo instruments and Schlüter's cool vibes a close second.

If you find it, buy this album!