A killer Unit: with Jimmy Lyons, Ramsey Ameen, Alan Silva, Jerome Cooper, & Sunny Murray.
Documenting the third of their performances during a residency in New York City, this release follows on from the classic HatHut album It Is In The Brewing Luminous, and the recent Ezzthetics CD Live At Fat Tuesday’s, February 9, 1980.
Wonderful music.

‘How Time Passes and Essence were issued at a time when jazz history was being made practically on a monthly basis. There are a few reasons why they became submerged in the tsunami of groundbreaking albums released in the first years of the 1960s. For starters, Candid and Pacific Jazz simply did not have the market clout of Atlantic, Impulse, and other labels. Furthermore, Don Ellis’ music differed significantly from that of the avatars of free jazz, occupying a space between contemporary jazz and mid-century chamber music. However, the times eventually caught up. More than sixty years after their initial release, these recordings were as prescient as they are brilliant.’

With Jaki Byard, Ron Carter and Charlie Persip, in the earlier group; then Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Gene Stone / Nick Martinis.

With Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, and Sunny Murray.
Twenty-one recordings — including the Ghosts LP — from September and November 1964, in the wake of Spiritual Unity; live at Club Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at a radio station in Hilversum, Netherlands.
Fierce, ecstatic, awe-inspiring music.

‘A soundtrack for being unstuck in time, if just for an hour. It is a glide through a rich past and present, with glimpses of a future worth reaching.’

Presents CM is unmissable. The cool and deadly b-line funk of Folk Forms gives way to a New Orleans funeral march; the Original Faubus Fables is irresistible, knockabout antifa, straight to the head of a dingus; What Love showcases brilliant interplay between Mingus and Dolphy; All The Things rages freely about Mental Health.

Pre Bird is from 1960 but ostensibly before Mingus heard Charlie Parker.
A host of stellar players — including Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, Max Roach, Marcus Belgrave, Slide Hampton, Yusef Lateef — in variously large ensembles, reading mostly tight, post-Duke scores.
It kicks off with a startling mash-up of Take the A Train, in the left channel, and Exactly Like You in the right. ( On the flip, Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me is likewise bundled with I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.)
The great Mingus art songs Eclipse — hymning black-white relationships — and Weird Nightmare are here. Apparently vocalist Lorraine Cusson fluffed the last line of Nightmare — singing ‘Bring me a heart with a love of gold’ instead of ‘Bring me a love with a heart of gold’ — but Mingus was so happy with the take, he let it go.

Vibraphone and soprano saxophone.