JASPER VAN'T HOF's PORK PIE feat. CHARLY MARIANO – Transitory (MPS Records – 0068.125 / LP-1974)

Label: MPS Records – 0068.125

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Repress / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1974

Style: Jazz-Fusion, Jazz-Funk

Recorded at Conny's Studio Neukirchen, Germany, May 17 & 18, 1974.

Cover, Photography By, Design – Frieder Grindler

Photography By – Hans Harzheim, Kira Tolkmitt

Liner Notes – Achim Hebgen

Recorded By – Conny Plank

Producer – Achim Hebgen

Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): 0701610 S1

Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): 0701610 S2

A1 - Epoch  (van't Hof ) ......................................................................................... 7:40

A2 - Transitory (Part 1)  (van't Hof ) ...................................................................... 4:42

A3 - Transitory (Part 2)  (van't Hof ) ...................................................................... 4:02

A4 - Angel Wings  (Catherine) .............................................................................. 5:23

B1 - Pudu Kkottai  (Trad.-Mariano) ....................................................................... 8:05

B2 - Something Wrong  (van't Hof ) ...................................................................... 2:44

B3 - Bassamba (Part 1)  (Jenny-Clarke) ............................................................... 2:51

B4 - Bassamba (Part 2)  (Romano)....................................................................... 4:39

B5 - March Of The Oil-Sheikhs  (van't Hof ) ......................................................... 3:10

Personnel:

Jasper Van't Hof – electric piano, organ [prepared], grand piano, celesta

Charlie Mariano – soprano / alto saxophone, flute, bamboo, nagaswaram

Philip Catherine – electric / acoustic guitar

J.F. Jenny-Clarke – bass

Aldo Romano – drums / percussion

Ivanir "Mandrake" Do Nascimento – congas, pandeiro, tambourine, agogô, bells

LP MPS-BASF/ 21 22099-0, MPS Records – 0068.125 (Original German Pressing), cult label

Gatefold sleeve. Black label MPS dist. by Metronome.

(track A3 dedicated to Peter Trunk)

Dutch keyboardist / composer Jasper van`t Hof was one of the most prominent young Jazz musicians on the European scene in the late 1960s / 1970s and a pioneer of the new European Jazz, which emerged like a Phoenix on the ashes of the stagnant Jazz tradition. A founding member of the legendary Association P.C., van`t Hof left the group in 1972 (to be replaced by Joachim Kühn) and a year later formed his own ensemble Pork Pie (the name being a tribute to a famous Lester Young tune) with four other excellent musicians: the veteran American (but resident in Germany) saxophonist Charlie Mariano, Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine, French bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark and Italian (but resident in France) drummer Aldo Romano. The group recorded a couple of albums on the legendary German MPS label, of which this was the first. The group played a completely innovative music, which moved freely between genres and included Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock Fusion, Psychedelic and World Music elements. All five members of the group were splendid musicians, blessed with virtuosity and inspiration, and the rapport between them was phenomenal.

Mariano's arrangement of "Pudu Kkottai"—a traditional North Indian song expanded into free territory while retaining ethnicity through use of bamboo flute and nasal double-reed South Indian nagaswarama—seamlessly fuses serpentine linearity with more turbulent undercurrent, harmonic density and a surprising blend of acoustic and electric instruments. Jenny-Clark's "Bassamba (Part 1)" is a freewheeling bass-drums duet that leads into Romano's "Bassamba (Part 2)," which refers more clearly to its namesake, a potent samba beat turned into something else by van't Hof's electric piano and Mariano's effervescent alto. Catherine's one solo spot is his own "Angel Wings," a dark Mahavishnu-like energy creating a modal backdrop for the guitarist's overdriven tone, juxtaposed with a paradoxically beautiful layered flute theme by Mariano that unexpectedly fades out.

The rest of the writing belongs to van't Hof, including the rock-inflected "Epoch," which sets the stage for Pork Pie's greatest differential. Few, if any, fusion bands of the time were using electric bass as their foundation, but Jenny-Clark didn't need 1,000 watts to create an energetic pulse; nor did Romano need a dozen rack toms to push forward with a perfect combination of groove, elasticity and unfettered freedom. At a time when keyboards and guitars ruled the day, Mariano's saxophone was a welcome contrast, while van't Hof's solo acumen and avoidance of synthesizers was refreshing, while never diminishing the group's potency.

But Transitory's high point is the two-part title track. Orchestral in scope despite limited instrumentation, van't Hof's strength as a textural player, comfortably blending impressionistic writing with freer concerns, is in full force. "Transitory (Part 2)" is a marvel of color and timbre—how Weather Report might have sounded in its early days had Wayne Shorter been a more assertive foil for Joe Zawinul's expansive arrangements. A minor classic finally receiving its due, Transitory proves that as American fusion was leading towards its inevitable implosion, a distinct lack of ego was keeping it alive and well elsewhere in the world.

This album sounds today as advanced and oracular as it did at the time of the recording, losing nothing of its freshness, a true timeless masterpiece. The Brazilian percussionist Ivanir “Mandrake” Do Nascimento appears as a guest on some of the tracks and adds his magic to the mix. In retrospect this is a superb example of what was happening on the European Jazz scene at the time, underlining the perpetual quest for new forms of expression and ceaseless search for new musical vocabulary.  (Review By John Kelman)

If you find it, buy this album!

ASSOCIATION P.C. – Erna Morena (LP-1973) Live at Auditorium Maximum of the University Freiburg, Germany

Label: MPS Records – 21 21542-3

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

Style: Free Jazz, Experimental, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert at SWF Jazz Session Freiburg April 25, 1972

Design, Photography By [Cover] – Heinz Bähr

Engineer [Recording] – Anneliese Schroeder, Rainer Pöppl

Photography By – Jochen Mönch

Producer – Joachim E. Berendt

A1 - Frau Theunissen's Kegel . . . . . . . . . . 8:51

         (Composed By – Toto Blanke)

A2 - Erna Morena Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15:13

      a) Space Erna

          (Composed By – Association P.C.)

      b) Erna In India

           (Composed By – Jasper Van't Hof)

B -  Erna Morena Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22:45

      c) Erna Aude Maxima

           (Composed By – Jasper Van't Hof)

      d) Only Grass In My Stomach

           (Composed By – Siggi Busch)

      e) Schnoor 8

           (Composed By – Pierre Courbois)

Toto Blanke – guitar

Jasper van't Hof – electric piano, organ

Siggi Busch – bass, electric bass

Pierre Courbois – drums, percussion

guest

Karl-Heinz Wiberny – alto clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones

Association P.C. was founded in 1969 by Dutch keyboarder Jasper van’t Hof along with the Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois and the German guitarist Toto Blanke. The bassist was sometimes the Dutchman Peter Krijnen, sometimes the German Sigi Busch. Association P.C released their first record “Sun Rotation” in 1971. The band produced a synthesis of jazz, rock and avantgarde music reminding sometimes Soft Machine and was highly acclaimed at the Berlin Jazztage of 1971.”Eighty percent of Association P.C. was electronics”, Jasper recalls.

In 1972 the band released their second record “Erna Morena”, the last with Jasper van’t Hof who left the band to form Pork Pie with Charlie Mariano and Philip Catherine.On the 1973 release “Rock Around The Clock”he was replaced by German pianist Joachim Kühn. The record moved away from the Canterbury oriented sound and integrated free-jazz elements. Their last record “Mama Kuku” (1974) contained live recordings from 1973, on which the band was joined by American flute player Jeremy Steig. Association P.C. continued to tour until 1975.

Erna Morena just exudes cool – the kinda cool that gives me a buzz anyway.  track two with the electronic pips and thrusts usually reserved for the brassy / reedy wind section the combination of electronic with the substantial grounding of the jazz breathes a fresh new life into a cruizy classic sound.  While its true that the postman was never likely to be whistling one of Association P.C. tunes as he did his rounds, the place music like this reaches inside is the place that life is forged. This music will change you, and change you for the better. Their aim was to: “transcend the boundaries of traditional forms” of music. This they did with considerable accomplishment, involving the talents at various times of some of Europe’s best new jazz musicians:

drummer Pierre Courbois

bassists Siggi Busch and Peter Krijnen

guitarist Toto Blanke

keyboard players Joachim Kühn and Jasper van't Hof

saxmen Karl-Heinz Wiberny and Lol Coxhill

flautist Jeremy Steig

I’ve said it before and I will say it again.  Anything that Lol Coxhill is willing to get involved in will rip you out and start you over.

“Erna Morena” is one of the two live recordings released by the band, and that was very much in keeping with what they were doing. I was fortunate enough to catch them at a gig at Brighton College of Art on England’s south coast. My memory tells me that this would have been around the time when “Erna Morena” was recorded in Freiburg – April 25, 1972. Unfortunately for what it says about my memory, they were joined on the occasion of my attendance by a young flute player, Jeremy Steig, who was already building a reputation as one of his generation’s shining stars and has since become a leading and widely- recorded jazz improviser. Officially, Steig and the band came together rather later than that, so this period is still a little hazy for me. I know, that’s what they all say…

From the liner notes: “The term “free””, in the context of “freeform music”, “after being used in the 60s mainly to mean “beyond tonality, melody and metre”…now stands for an entirely new quality of musical freedom in the music of Association P.C….it signifies really sovereign mastery over all musical areas.” Judging by what I saw, I have no grounds to dispute that statement.

_ By LISATHATCHER on February 28, 2012 In Music Reviews

If you find it, buy this album!

ASSOCIATION / PIERRE COURBOIS – Earwax (LP-1970)

Label: Munich Records – 6802 634 M1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold / Country: Netherlands / Released: 1970

Style: Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock

Recorded at "Middelhorst" Studio Wageningen by "AUDIO" geluidsregistratie, Oct. 30 (A side) and 31 (B side), 1970.

Design [Front Cover Design] – Dick Muileman

Engineer – Dick Van Schuppen

Photography By – Rinus Smit

Photography By, Supervised By – Job Zomer

Producer – Wim Wigt

A1 - Spider . . . . . 4:26

         (Written-By – Toto Blanke)

A2 - Hit The P. Tit . . . . . 10:58

         (Written-By – Jasper Van't Hof, Pierre Courbois)

A3 - Elsen . . . . 1:42

         (Written-By – Jasper Van't Hof)

B1 - Earwax . . . . . 7:18

         (Written-By – Pierre Courbois)

B2 - Round A'bout Nine . . . . . 6:39

         (Written-By – Jasper Van't Hof, Peter Krijnen, Pierre Courbois, Toto Blanke)

B3 - Jazzper . . . . . 4:01

         (Written-By – Jasper Van't Hof)

Toto Blanke – guitar

Jasper Van't Hof – electric piano

Siggi Busch – bass (tracks: A1 to A3)

Peter Krijnen – bass (tracks: B1 to B3)

Pierre Courbois – drums, percussion

drummer Pierre Courbois and keyboard player Jasper van't Hof pose on cars in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 10th June 1984. (photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns)

ASSOCIATION PC was formed in 1969 by Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois and was originally known as simply ASSOCIATION. Just look at the album cover provided here and you'll see that that was the case with this the debut album released in 1970, while Pierre Courbois' name is in smaller print on the lower left side of the album cover. The band was a multi-national group with Germans and Dutch making up the lineups over the years. This is an all-instrumental affair with the music being in the Jazz/Rock and Free Jazz sub-genres. Some of you may have heard of the guitarist named Toto Blanke who puts on a show in his unique style but then I have to say that each member blows me away with their performances on here.

"Spider" is up first and it's an energetic, uptempo track with intricate guitar sounds and lots of cymbals, bass and keyboards. We get a brief drum solo(hey it's his band and there will be more solos to come) after 2 minutes then the keyboards lead the way a minute later but not for long. A complex opening number. "Hit The P. Tit" is the longest song at 11 minutes. The guitar sounds different here as he rips it up while we get some jazzy drum patterns and bass to fill out the sound. The guitar is almost experimental sounding here. The sparse electric piano reminds me of early seventies Miles Davis. Some insanity follows that makes me believe these guys were influenced by Free Jazz. We get a calm and the bass solos after 4 minutes and this continues until around 5 1/2 minutes in. A full sound returns after 6 minutes sounding much less experimental than before and quite jazzy. Another calm arrives as we get an interesting drum solo then back to the full sound before 9 1/2 minutes. Some fuzz here as well.

"Elsen" is one I really like. Just a feel good, melodic beauty but it's so short at just over 1 1/2 minutes. "Earwax" is a top three song for me and what a pleasure to focus on the instrumental work of all these guys. So intricate and sophisticated. A drum solo before 6 minutes that lasts just under a minute. "Round A'bout Nine" and the next and final track fill out my top three songs. This one starts with a bass solo and it continues for some time. Some drum work then the guitar joins in around 4 minutes along with more of that early seventies Miles Davis sounding electric piano. So good. "Jazzper" is another beauty as keys, bass, drums and guitar impress with their intricate and melodic sounds. The title of this song is a play on words i'm sure on the keyboardists first name(Jasper).

Review by Mellotron Storm

PROG REVIEWER

If you find it, buy this album!

ZBIGNIEW SEIFERT – Man Of The Light (LP-1977)

Label: MPS Records – 68.163
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Fusion
Recorded: September 27 - 30, 1976, Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik Stuttgart, Germany.
Artwork By [Cover] – Thyrso A. Brisolla / B.R.M.
Photography – Reinhard Truckenmüller
Producer – Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Recorded By – Chips Platen

Zbigniew Seifert (6 June 1946 – 15 February 1979), Polish jazz violinist

 "Man of the Light" is a true desert island disc; one of the most exhilarating, important, and underexposed jazz albums ever recorded, and all the more tragic for its largely unfulfilled promise of even greater things to come.

Tracklist:
A1 - City Of Spring  6:37
A2 - Man Of The Light  9:45
A3 - Stillness  5:00
B1 - Turbulent Ployer  7:27
B2 - Love In The Garden  6:12
B3 - Coral  6:54
Composed By – Zbigniew Seifert, except track A3 by Cecil McBee

Musicians:
ZBIGNIEW SEIFERT – violin
JOACHIM KÜHN – piano
JASPER VAN'T HOF – electric piano, organ
CECIL McBEE – acoustic bass
BILLY HART – drums

An incredible jazz album of refreshing quality for its year. These people here have captured the spiritual intensity of John Coltrane with with the grace of classical exuberance, romantic creativity and electric dynaminism. The outstanding whoppers of "modality" such as "City of Spring", "Man of the Light" and "Turbulent Plover" are just beyond my expectation. I usually am a bit annoyed by the long formulaic modal workouts of the acoustic piano, but the classical undercurrents on this album really make these bits shine more than just the usual display of technical fludity, which is mandatory anyway for any solid jazz musician.

And the man on one of my favorite instruments of all time is fiddling away like shining star, radiating unbelievable creativity at the avant-garde/fusion galaxies where people like Coltrane or Jean-Luc Ponty used to travel. What really makes this effort even more interesting are some of these ideas that exhibit some melancholic spiritualism, such as the threnodial number of "Stillness" that carries some folk baggage within its spheres of lamentation. Such a great and simple bass riff there as well. Superb! "Love in the Garden" stumbles on the plains of the same arcane spiritualism that Mahavishnu Orchestra used explore. It even reminds me of an ambient scape. The similarities fortunately aren't overbearing as the amount of interpetrational weight is just staggering in Seifert's expressive strokes of virtuosity.

Truly stunning interaction, interpretation and execution of musical ideas.

This exceptional album by Polish violin virtuoso / composer Zbigniew Seifert was the first major exposure of his talents outside of his motherland. Legendary MPS producer Joachim Berendt, who had close ties to the Polish Jazz scene, was aware of Seifert's incredible talent and managed to pull off this recording session, bringing on board a superb team of players, which consisted of German pianist Joachim Kuhn and an American rhythm section: bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart. Dutch pianist Jasper van`t Hof also participates on one track. Seifert composed all the music on this album, which is a great example of typical Eastern European Jazz, which cleverly combines elements of modern American Jazz, especially that of John Coltrane, with Folklore and Classical influences. Seifert's "obsession" with Coltrane's music and his improvisational technique are plainly evident, especially during the up-tempo numbers. The album's title track is dedicated to Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner. Hearing the album 37 years after it was recorded makes one realize how great music gets better with time, losing absolutely nothing of its initial grandeur. Both Seifert and Kuhn play some incredible solos here and the rhythm section supports them admirably every step of the way. Tragically, just three years after this music was recorded Seifert died, stricken by cancer, before his endless potential was realized and recognized properly. Seifert managed to record several albums in the US before his untimely death, but this album is definitely his most important and most perfect legacy.
Absolutely essential!