Evocative, engaging considerations of close relationships, a bit like a family portrait, centred on the German town of Ravensburg (home of the trumpeter’s grandmother), by a sextet including affective violin and two drummers, involving African percussion, homemade cymbals and bundles of brushwood, with ‘driving rhythm at the bottom end and soaring melody at the top.’
Alluring duets by Swedish nickelharpa and accordion, inspired by Bach’s sonatas and Pergolesi. (You might recall Matinier from sessions with Anouar Brahem and Louis Sclavis.)
That’s Maupin on Bitches Brew, and Lee Morgan’s Live At The Lighthouse, and Head Hunters. He co-wrote Chameleon. From 1977, this is killer fusion in the same dazzling tradition — as confirmed by transformative readings of two classics by the Mwandishi sextet, Quasar and Water Torture, from the LP Crossings. We’re in the same neck of the woods as Eddie Henderson’s two deadly Blue Notes around this time — Sunburst and Heritage — and the great trumpeter is here. Also Patrice Rushen, who plays a blinder: check her out on the opener. Pat Gleeson, who introduced Herbie to synths, Head Hunters mainstay Paul Jackson, Blackbyrd McKnight, from Flood and Man-Child…
Marimba, bowed vibraphone and waterphone, hang, bells, gongs, cymbals, magic drum, log drum, sheep bells, Indian cowbells, udu drum, various drums and metal-utensils… with Jan Garbarek.
‘A never-before-issued live recording of McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson leading a stellar quartet with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the hallowed lost jazz shrine Slugs’ Saloon in New York City in 1966. Recorded by the legendary engineer Orville O’Brien — behind classic 1960s jazz albums such as Freddie Hubbard’s The Night of the Cookers and Alice Coltrane’s Journey to Satchidananda — the tape has been in DeJohnette’s personal archives for nearly 60 years.’