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!