MIKE OSBOURNE (Osborne) – Outback (Turtle Records – TUR 300 / LP-1970)

Label: Turtle Records – TUR 300

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: UK / Released: 1970

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in London, 1970. Made in England.

Also CD released on FMR Records ‎– FMR CD07-031994 (Unofficial Release / 1994)

Artwork – John Eaves

Photography By – Geoff Collins, George Mallett, Jake Jackson, Tony Wimlow

Engineer – Robin Sylvester

Producer – Peter Eden

Executive-Producer – Mark Wastell

Matrix / Runout: (Side A etched) TUR 300 A-1

Matrix / Runout: (Side B etched) TUR 300 B-2

Notes:

Mike Osborne's name is printed as "Mike Osbourne" on this release.

A - So It Is ........................................................................................................... 24:44

B - Outback ........................................................................................................ 18:28

Personnel:

Mike Osborne – alto saxophone

Harry Beckett – trumpet

Chris McGregor – piano

Harry Miller – bass

Louis Moholo – drums, percussion

Mike Osbourne – Outback (Rare British jazz 1970 UK LP, released on the small independent free jazz label Turtle Records (home of similar rarities from Howard Riley and John Taylor) set up by producer Peter Eden, and packed with the super stars: Harry Beckett (trumpet), Chris McGregor (piano), Harry Miller (bass) and Louis Moholo (drums). The album soon is became know as an absolute classic and probably the most important record he made, with two tracks of impassioned playing of the finest order!

Absolutely major release in his short, but fiery career!

Early genius from British saxophonist Mike Osborne – his first session as a leader, recorded in the company of some of the greatest players on his scene! Osborne's got a strong vision here that's apparent from the first note of the set – a mixture of freedom and cohesive energy that resonates with the best modes of the ESP albums cut a few years before this one – stretching out with the new imagination that was setting the London jazz scene on fire at the start of the 70s. Osborne's alto is at the lead of a quintet that also includes Harry Beckett on trumpet, Chris McGregor on piano, Harry Miller on bass, and Louis Moholo on drums – and the sound is a mixture of some of the post-Blue Notes work of McGregor with bolder-blown trumpet/sax lines from Beckett and Osborne. The album features 2 long tracks – the stark, angular "So It Is", and the slower-building "Outback", which features some especially nice solos from Beckett.

_______ Out of print .   

© 1996-2016, Dusty Groove, Inc.

If you find it, buy this album!

AMALGAM – Samanna (Vinyl Records – VS 104 / LP-1977)

Label: Vinyl Records – VS 104

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock

Recorded at Riverside Studios, 26th January 1977.

Design [Cover Design] – John Fewster

Liner Notes – Trevor Watts

Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Adam Skeaping

Executive-Producer – Manfred Schiek

Producer – Trevor Watts

Matrix / Runout: (Side A Etched) A VS.104 A PF

Matrix / Runout: (Side B Etched) A VS.104 B PF

A1 - Samanna ................................................................................................... 20:47

A2 - Maas ........................................................................................................... 4:54

B1 - Unity .......................................................................................................... 14:44

B2 - Berlin Wall ................................................................................................... 6:50

Personnel:

Trevor Watts – alto Saxophone, percussion

Dave Cole – guitar

Colin McKenzie – bass (el. bass)

Pete Cowling – bass (el. bass)

Liam Genockey – drums, percussion

5th  album by the superb British Jazz / Improvised Music ensemble Amalgam, one of the precursors of British / European Free Jazz scene in the late 1960s and 1970s, founded by saxophonist Trevor Watts. On this album the lineup is a quintet, including guitarist Dave Cole, bassists Pete Cowling and Colin McKenzie and drummer Liam Genockey, which marks an extension of the quartet that recorded the previous album at beginning of the second phase of Amalgam, characterized by the dual saxophone – guitar frontline. The music is written entirely by Watts. This album was released on the tiny German independent Vinyl label, and was unavailable for many years. With the guitar and double electric bass the sound of the band becomes even more close to Fusion, but the extended improvisations and the virtuosity of the performers are still the same. This is still a classic and brilliant stuff as always!...

The opening sidelong title track is a wild fusion piece with some slightly dissonant passages, but the wild double bass-guitar attack is quite impressively funky (ala Stanley Clarke) and drives effortlessly the track throughout its 21-mins duration. Cole’s guitar shines occasionally (notably in the 2/3 to3/4 of the track. but mostly remains discrete, leaving clear the 8-lane freeway open to Watt’s wild sax meanderings.

Over the flipside, the 5-mins Mass features a cooler funky fusion, still double-bassed, where the both take turn in playing lead bass over a “simple” descending sax riff.

The B-side’s highlight is the almost 15-mins Unity, despite a slow start, where Watts lets it all hang out, but the double-bassed slowly and gradually clutch in the overdrive gear, letting Cole’s guitar get a wide chunk of funk in the mix as well. As the track climaxed around its 2/3, it slowly dies down to nought.

The 7-mins Berlin Wall closes the album in a pronounced dissonant sax spree, it is a raw, restless free-jazz sax wail over a punchy Prime Time undertow. Some of Watts' best work on record...   (Review by Sean Trane)

Well, Amalgam’s musical directions vary much from album to album, but Samanna is firmly entrenched in the funky jazz-fusion. Watts’ sax adventures are indeed still the driving force of the album, but here, the two bass-cylinder and Cole’s guitar unleash plenty of energy and power to the aural expansions...

If you find it, buy this album!

CLARKE / COREA / HENDERSON / HUBBARD / WHITE – The Griffith Park Collection 2 In Concert (2LP-1983)

Label: Elektra Musician – 96-0262-1

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1983

Style: Hard Bop, Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded Live April 3, 1982 at the Circle Star Theater, San Francisco

(US release: Elektra Musician ‎– 60262-1-I )

Cover [Painting] – Edward Hopper

Photography By [Back Cover] – Andrew Su

Photography By [Freddie Hubbard] – Ron Slenzak

Executive-Producer – John Smith

Produced by – Lenny White

Producer [Production Consultant] – Jeffrey Weber

Mastered By – Bruce Leek

Other [Administration] – Norva Smith

Liner Notes – Lenny White

Art Direction – Norm Ung/Design

Edited [Digital] by – Jeffrey Weber, Jim Wolvington, Tom MacClusky

Matrix / Runout (Side A Etching): EM-96-0262-1 A-2 -ST

Matrix / Runout (Side B Etching): EM-96-0262-2 B-1 -ST

Matrix / Runout (Side C Etching): EM-96-0262-3 C-1 -ST

Matrix / Runout (Side D Etching): EM-96-0262-4 D-1 -ST

A  -  Why Wait  (Stanley Clarke) .............................................................................. 18:53

B  -  Guernica  (Lenny White) .................................................................................. 19:35

C1 - Happy Times  (Freddie Hubbard) .................................................................... 12:30

C2 - October Ballad  (Chick Corea) ......................................................................... 14:36

D1 - I Mean You  (Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk) ........................................ 11:51

D2 - Here's That Rainy Day  (Johnny Burke, Jimmy VanHeusen) .......................... 12:22

Personnel:

Freddie Hubbard – trumpet, flugelhorn

Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone

Chick Corea – piano

Stanley Clarke – bass

Lenny White – drums, percussion

Manufactured in Germany by Record Service GmbH. ELEKTRA MUSICIAN 96-0262-1, Stereo. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Elektra/Asylum Records.

Realizing the wealth of talent that had assembled, Bruce Lundvall at Elektra/Musician asked for an album featuring just the instrumentalists. The Griffith Park Collection opens with White's "L's Bop," a 60's Blue Note paean showcasing some vintage Hubbard hornwork that evokes those sunny days when Blue Note producer Alfred Lion was repeatedly capturing the blinding brilliance of an era. Clarke's "Why Wait" is a blues that sneaks up barefooted as the bassist strums a slow amble of a walking rhythm, White riding a cymbal step-for-step, Hubbard and Henderson blowing sweet unison notes and somehow managing to create the additional harmonic of a trombone between them, when Corea's aggressive comping style finally gives the meter a push and Henderson punches a full-throated solo with his thick, unmistakable copper-and-zinc tone. A little over a minute into it when White bounces a snare roll that introduces the chorus' arrival like the low roar of an incoming tide, the boys are swinging so hard that you can feel it in your body...

... This is a stunning live recording. Magically resurrected from a soundboard cassette of one of the shows during the group's five day California tour, Griffith Park Collection 2: In Concert starts with "Why Wait," this time at a slightly slower tempo that seems to open up the arrangement and allow the soloists room to swing even harder. Like wanderers returning to their home hearth, they play with a mounting sense of urgency and passion as the night wears on, pursuing the music like it was the source of life itself.

Stalwart rhythm aces White and Clarke could both have turned in longer and more frequent solos, but this particular night they were largely content to lay down strong-shouldered support for the incendiary energies of Hubbard, Henderson and Corea—three players bursting with energy and clearly in a mood to solo on some unrestrained bop. Especially Hubbard.

These guys were certainly ready for something. Without preamble Hubbard starts by blowing a series of runs that sound like cascades of sparks sprayed from an arc welder's torch (it's tempting to imagine the other players wearing protective goggles as they watch him intently.) No question, Hubbard's unbridled, over-the-ramparts approach might have had a daunting effect on another stage, but on this spring evening it leads the charge and sets a standard. Each player's solo invites the next until it is clear that each is ready to take full advantage of this rare opportunity. White's "Guernica" is an unforgettable, hair-raising blowing session that evokes the passionate emotional landscape of that war-torn Spanish city. Hubbard's flashy, headlong bopper "Happy Times" is followed by Corea's tone poem "October Ballade," and then it's back to the races with a hard-driving "I Mean You," and finally a gently swaying "Here's That Rainy Day" with a handful of lyrical flourishes from Hubbard to close things out.

(Review By CARL L. HAGER)

The world's greatest musicians? Who knows... What is certain is that the kind of mastery and dynamic synergism on display in these performances comes from musicians who possess that exceedingly rare ability to listen as well as they blow. As Lenny White said when asked about his composition "Guernica": "When you write for musicians like this, all you need to do is give them a few notes and let them play."

If you find it, buy this album!