MAL WALDRON QUINTET with STEVE LACY - One-Upmanship (LP-1977)

Label: Enja Records – enja 2092

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

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on February 12, 1977 at Conny's Studio, Wolperath, Germany.

Design [Coverdesign] – Winckelmann, Weber

Engineer – Conny Plank

Photography By [Cover] – Christian Fauchard

Producer – Horst Weber, Matthias Winckelmann

A1 - One Upmanship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11:20

A2 - The Seagulls Of Kristiansund . . . . .  11:30

B  -  Hurray For Herbie . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 19:56

Manfred Schoof – trumpet

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone

Mal Waldron – piano

Jimmy Woode – bass

Makaya Ntshoko – drums, percussion

Pianist Mal Waldron and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy first recorded together in the late-'50s. Both spent most of the careers working and living in Europe, and this album was recorded in Germany. Both musicians mix a precise sense of angularity with deeply emotive poetics. The three quintet pieces, featuring a rhythm section and trumpet player Manfred Schoof, include the staggeringly beautiful "The Seagulls of Kristiansund." Lacy's playing is an apt voice for this piece's melancholy seascape. All the album's compositions were written by Waldron...

The appearance of any recording by Mal Waldron should be a cause for celebration, but this one is particularly special for a number of reasons. Not only is Waldron joined by his longtime duo partner, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, but by three other performers with a keen simpatico: trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Jimmy Woode, and drummer Makaya Ntshoko. The playing of each of these men, including Waldron, on One-Upmanship should alone be enough to give them unsung hero status.

This set includes the multifaceted title track, the delicate "Seagulls of Kristiansund," and the rousing "Hooray for Herbie." Lacy plays with emotional restraint wrapped in breathtaking virtuosity, as in his extended upper-upper-register fadeout on "Seagulls." Schoof sets him off with ferociously fluent solos at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. And Mal Waldron - well! There is a point where words fail.

Absolutely first-rate jazz. Highly, highly recommended.

If you find it, buy this album!

HEINER STADLER – Brains On Fire (2CD-2012) - [2LPs-1973/’74 + previously unreleased tapes]

Label: Labor Records – LAB 7069

Format: 2 × CD, Album - Released: 02/28/2012
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Nola Penthouse Sound Studio, NYC 1966 & recorded at O' Brien's Studio, Teaneck, NJ 1971/1973
Artwork [Illustration] By – Johann Feindt
Design By – Conni Lechner; Photography By – M. De Chiara
Engineer – Orville O'Brien / Tony May
Producer, Composed By – Heiner Stadler

Music that stretches boundaries and, yes, might sizzle the brain pan a bit.

ARTISTS:
Jimmy OWENS – trumpet (CD1: track 1; CD2: track 4); Tyrone WASHINGTON – tenor saxophone, flute (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: tracks 2-3); Garnett BROWN – trombone (CD1: track 1; CD2: track 4); Heiner STADLER – piano (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: tracks 2-3); Reggie WORKMAN – bass (CD1: tracks 1-3; CD2: track 1); Brian BRAKE – drums (CD1: track 1); The Big Band of the North German Radio Station: Manfred SCHOOF, Gerd DUDEK, Albert MANGELSDORFF, Wolfgang DAUNER, Lucas LINDHOLM, Tony INZALACO (CD1: track 4); Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER – vocals (CD2: track 1); Joe FARRELL – tenor saxophone (CD2: track 4); Don FRIEDMAN – piano (CD2: track 4); Barre PHILLIPS – bass (CD2: track 4); Joe CHAMBERS – drums (CD2: track 4)

Some recordings should come with a sticker which states: for those willing to be challenged. German-American composer, producer, pianist, arranger and bandleader Heiner Stadler’s reissued, remastered, restructured and expanded release, Brains on Fire (which initially came out as two separate vinyl volumes in 1967, which are often rare to find), certainly qualifies for such a caveat emptor. For some, Stadler is known as an interpreter of other musicians’ material, due in part to last year’s remixed reissue of his 1978 outing, A Tribute to Monk and Bird, which was also put out on Stadler’s Labor label. Stadler has also reissued other titles from his back catalog, including 1976’s Jazz Alchemy (which came out in 2000) and the 1996 compilation Retrospection (reissued in 2010). This year it is time to reevaluate one Stadler’s most original efforts, Brains on Fire. This CD version contains three tunes never before heard and marks the first CD presentation of five other works.

One reason to listen to the two-disc Brains on Fire is to hear then-current and up-and-coming jazz luminaries dig deeply into material which spans the perceived gap between avant-garde, post-bop, tone-row experiments and European serialist composition. The eight long pieces (four per disc) were recorded between 1966 and 1974 and feature 17 artists (as well as an orchestra), including trumpeter Jimmy Owens (who worked with Miles Davis in the '50s and was a founding member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra), bassist Reggie Workman (notable for his work with John Coltrane, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Yusef Lateef), and future stars such as saxophonist/flutist Joe Farrell (who subsequently had crossover success on the CTI roster) and a young Dee Dee Bridgewater (a few years before fame found her, when she was still singing with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra).

Stadler uses several ensemble configurations ranging from a bass/vocals duet to a quartet (on four tracks) to a big band. The first CD’s opener, “ No Exercise ” (taken from a 1973 session but making its debut here) features a sextet with a three-horn frontline (Owens on trumpet, Tyrone Washington on tenor sax and Garnett Brown on trombone) with a three-piece rhythm section (Stadler on piano, Brian Brake on drums and Workman). The 12-minute workout starts with Workman’s arco bass, followed by Owens’ warm trumpet and then the rest of the group steps up to help present Stadler’s avant-garde blues which is shaped by a 12-tone row. Workman’s astute bass is a highlight during this spontaneously-surging piece, but so is Washington’s unfettered sax. Since Washington later left music because of a religious conversion, Brains on Fire is one of the few places listeners can hear the obscure sax player display the width of his skills. Washington is also heard to great effect on three other tracks. The post-Coltrane “ Three Problems ” (a 1971 performance never before released) crosses the lines between hard bop and free jazz, and is an often-chaotic construction with Washington’s lacerating sax leading the charge. Workman adds a transcendent bass solo, which temporarily ebbs the high-energy level, but for the most part “ Three Problems ” is almost 13 minutes of roaring density. “ Heidi ” has a slower, spiritual treatment and listeners initially may find this to be the most coherent cut, although “ Heidi ” also eventually edges to a tumultuous portion where written and improvised sections are fused to the point where it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other commences. The other quartet tunes, “ U.C.S ” and “ All Tones ” (both on CD2), are parallel explorative compositions which delve into variations on texture, phrasing and theme akin to Coltrane’s brilliant free recitations such as Interstellar Space or Ornette Coleman’s vitality-fueled Free Jazz, where the music is elaborately extemporized and not easily absorbed in a single listen. Howard Mandel’s liner notes advise listeners to let “ U.C.S ” and “ All Tones ” sweep the listener along and it’s a good recommendation.

Two of the longer compositions employ very different approaches. The 24-minute Russ Freeman-penned “ Bea’s Flat ” (a 1974 recording offered here for the first time) is a striking, customized blues given over entirely to The Big Band of the North German Radio Station, conducted by Dieter Glawischnig. Several band members are spotlighted as soloists (sax and piano in particular) and the full ensemble actually steps away at times, emphasizing single instruments. The result is somewhat like a meeting between Duke Ellington’s and Sun Ra’s groups. Reggie Workman and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s 20-minute bass/voice pairing, “ Love in the Middle of the Air ” (a shorter take can be found on Retrospection) is nearly as remarkable in a wholly dissimilar way. Bridgewater stretches, undulates and heightens beat poet Lenore Kandel’s minimal lines, phrases and words while Workman glides and rolls on his bass with perfect sympathy: his meticulous arco work in particular is an emotional standout.

Despite recordings from four studios and engineers, there is observable and high quality engineering and audio constancy over the course of the two-hour, eight-track project. Even during the most intense moments instruments rise out from the mix rather than getting washed aside, and when the heady musical concoction is confined to just a few instruments (like bass or vocals) the sound is wonderfully expressive.

_ By Doug Simpson 
 (February 22, 2012, AUDIOPHILE AUDITION)



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MANFRED SCHOOF QUINTET – Voice (LP-1966, Re-2008)

Label: L+R Records – CDLR 710528, Bellaphon – CDLR 710528
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered; Country: Europe - Released: 2008
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded May 2nd, 1966 at Studio Walldorf / Frankfurt am Main.
Original release in 1966 as Columbia 62621
Design [Album] – Günther Kieser
Engineer [Sound] – Dieter Von Goetze
Producer – Horst Lippmann

Trumpeter/cornetist and composer Manfred Schoof isn ’ t quite as well known today as some of his peers in the free-jazz movement in Germany. Though now primarily working in radio and television music, Schoof recorded a series of extraordinary records as a bandleader in the ‘ 60s and ‘ 70s. His quintet of the mid- ‘ 60s featured saxophonist Gerd Dudek, bassist Buschi Niebergall, drummer Jaki Liebezeit (later of prog-rock band Can), and pianist/composer Alexander von Schlippenbach. The compositions are all originals by members of the group and the music here is crisp, alternately poised and volcanic. Stylistically there are clear forebears — Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, George Russell and Albert Ayler, as well as composer Bernd Alois Zimmerman (with whom Schlippenbach studied) and the inventions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, Arnold Schöenberg and Anton Webern. For all that, the music is a robust classic of European jazz, and one that shows its constituents to be aware of tradition whilst fighting to find new expressive avenues.



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NEW JAZZ TRIO (Manfred Schoof) – Page One (MPS Rec. 15276 ST / LP-1970)

Label: MPS Records – MPS 15276 ST
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded at Rhenus Studio, Godorf, January 1970
Artwork – Jörge Stever
Liner Notes – Ulrich Olshausen
Photography By – Dalchow
Producer – Cees Cee, Manfred Schoof, Peter Trunk
Engineer – Conny Plank

(Vinyl Rip) - Very rare jazz LP on German MPS Records from 1970.

CEES SEE (born 5 January 1934 in Amsterdam, † December 9, 1985) was a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist.
The self-taught first played with the Dutch band The Miller and Jack Sels, Herman Schoonderwalt, Rob Madna, Pim Jacobs, Kenny Drew, Donald Byrd, Wolfgang Dauner and Dusko Goykovich. He became known in the second half of the 1960s as a member of the quartet by Klaus Doldinger. He then played in the New Jazz Trio by Manfred Schoof, but also took up with Olaf Kübler and with Volker Kriegel. He founded his own Perkussionistenquartett, was the first jazz drummer in the Netherlands, who taught at a conservatory, and published the treatise "The drums in jazz." In 1956 he was briefly married to singer Corry Brokken.

PETER TRUNK (born 17 May 1936 in Frankfurt am Main, † 31 December 1973 in New York City) was a German jazz musician (bass, bass guitar, cello), composer and arranger. He first played with the British trumpeter Stu Hamer and the German pianist Werner Giertz. In 1957 he accompanied American jazz stars such as the tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims and drummer Kenny Clarke, 1959 the equally famous tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and the Dutch singer Rita Reys. He was well known by the early bands of Albert Mangelsdorff, in his "jazz ensemble of the Hessischer Rundfunk" he played well. In the early 1960s he was house bassist of the Berlin Jazz premises "Blue Note" (his colleagues were the Dutch and the German pianist January Huydts drummer Joe Nay).
In 1966 he took part in the recordings of the music of the film Will Tremper-film Playgirl part. Under the direction of Peter Thomas can be heard on the soundtrack released on a Philips LP also Klaus Doldinger (sax), Ingfried Hoffmann (Hammond organ) and Rafi Luderitz (drums).
Later trunk was involved with Klaus Doldinger and the orchestra of Kurt Edelhagen. In the years up to his death, he played free jazz in the tradition of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, for example, in the new jazz trio with trumpeter Manfred Schoof and drummer Cees See.
His play on the double bass was characterized by a sonorous, full, round tone, melodic and rhythmic precision and a variety of ideas. Also noteworthy are his play on the electric bass and the cello.
In the spring of 1973, Peter Trunk founded his octet sincerely pt with the sheet set Manfred Schoof, Shake Keane and Jiggs Whigham, and the rhythm section of Jasper van't Hof, Sigi Schwab, Peter Trunk, Joe Nay, Curt Cress. He self-produced their first recordings with the new lineup. During the subsequent tour Udo Lindenberg Doldinger's Passport to replace the exchanged Curt Cress. Immediately before the second tour his tragic fate overtook him in New York he was fatally injured in New Year's Eve 1973 by a taxi driver. Trunk was from the late 1950s to 1973, one of the most significant jazz musicians on the European jazz scene.

MANFRED SCHOOF (born April 6, 1936 in Magdeburg) is a German jazz trumpeter (also flugelhorn, cornet) and is considered "the great romantics among the acts in Germany jazz avant-garde" (Hans Kumpf). He has also appeared as a composer. From 1990 he was professor at the Academy of Music in Cologne.

Schoof studied 1955-1957 at the Music Academy Kassel, 1958-1963 at the Academy of Music in Cologne, where he was a composition student of Bernd Alois Zimmermann. He first played with Fritz Muenzer and Gunter Hampel and with Harald Banter. His first quintet he founded in 1965, this was a pioneering and leading role in the development of free jazz in Europe only to 1967 existing group. "Born of an elaborate compositional frame of reference and a great attention to formal details" is its documented on three albums music "quite in balance of design and compositional freedom". Schoof continued to work with artists such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron , Irène Schweizer, the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band, the Gil Evans Orchestra, the German Allstars and the George Russell Sextet together. He also works with since its incorporation in 1966 at the Globe Unity Orchestra. As an arranger and soloist, he also worked for Kurt Edelhagen.
Also Schoofs interpretations of various works of contemporary music (such as "The Soldier" by Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Johannes Fritsch) caused a sensation. After he appeared in the early 1970s with his New Jazz Trio, which he also a clever improvising string quintet combined, he founded in 1975 his second quintet, which in addition to the Luxembourg bass clarinetist Michel Pilz and the Dutch keyboardist Jasper van't Hof was the rhythm section of the classic Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet (Günter Lenz and Ralf Hübner). The quintet rehearsed with this plate Scales in 1977 "a virtuoso and also colored music, playing together in the intellectual and the emotional in a special way," honored as the great German Record Prize. Schoof in 1980 received the first Price of the Union German jazz musicians. In that year he founded the Schoof Orchestra began in 1982 and a multi-year collaboration with pianist Rainer Brüninghaus. Since 1987 he is member of the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band and the European Jazz Ensemble. From 1996 on, he played with Albert Mangelsdorff, Klaus Doldinger, Wolfgang Dauner and Eberhard Weber in the lineup Allstar Old Friends.
Although pioneer of free jazz, he has always stressed the bond to form models and chord material of tradition and placed on the desirability auskomponierter games. "His tendency to chromaticism in harmonic-melodic range corresponds to a preference for rhythmic rubato, which are used with a sure sense of tension" (Martin Kunzler). Beyond the jazz he composed choral and orchestral works, including a 1969 first performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Trumpet Concerto, written in 1975 and was commissioned for the Donaueschingen Music Days. He also wrote numerous film and television soundtracks, including the hit series WDR The sparrow from Wallraf Square. He is also involved in the design of the musical program with the mouse.
Since 1972 Manfred Schoof has been a music teacher. He was since 1981 teaches trumpet and jazz history at the Cologne College of Music. He is also a member of the Board of GEMA. He is on the board of the Union of German jazz musician.
In December 2006, Manfred Schoof was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

A pleasure for collectors. Enjoy!



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