Free Jazz Music

Music that is searching and finding an atmosphere of pure abstract brillance. Free Jazz in a poetic mood. It all moves so very natural. This music is a document that will stand like a wondering monument. Beautyfull and powerfull forever. Listen and listen again. You will find yourself back smiling every time!

This is simply a great, great album. Every musician contributes to a sound that is just immense and beautiful. Joseph Jarman on alto, Bill Brimfield on trumpet, Fred Anderson on tenor, Christopher Gaddy on piano and marimba, Charles Clark on bass, Thurman Barker on drums, and Steve McCall also on drums for three of the songs. Christopher would pass away only a year or so after this was recorded, but thankfully a document of his atmospheric/melodic flights are perserved on this for us to hear. These musicians are really 'listening' and you can tell. I put this on and find myself saying over and over, "This is just fantastic!" Also check out Jarman/Moye/Dyani's Black Paladins (Black Saint), and Fred Anderson's Milwaukee Tapes (Atavistic) with Billy Brimfield, Hamid Drake, and Larry Hayrod.

Joseph Jarman's "Song For" is an early effort from the AACM movement of Chicago, or for that matter from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. While Jarman is the only Art Ensemble member featured here, the musical style of this disc, particularly the horn textures and the multi-layered, African-flavored percussive rhythms, would become the signature sound of that great group. While the Amazon editorial review designates this as an essential recording, I personally wouldn't quite go that far. (I instead would give that distinction to Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound.") However, this is an enjoyable session, with the exception of the track "Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City" -- the music is hauntingly poignant but the spoken-word "neo-dada" text is a bit dated. What I do like about this session is compared to most avant-garde jazz albums of the day it doesn't squawk and screech its head off. Instead it derives its exploratory feel from Barker and McCall's pervasive, polyrhythmic drumming (and Christopher Gaddy's earthy, subtle percussion), while the frontline of Jarman, Anderson and Bill Brimfield (on trumpet) play tight and structured, albeit creative and inventive, arrangements that for me are reminiscent of Booker Little's final recordings. In all, fans of AACM or AEOC will enjoy this disc greatly.

The fact that this album has not been reviewed yet is a sad reflection on the likely low number of people out there aware of or into it; avante-garde jazz at it's best and most challenging. If you love listening to music that you don't necessarily understand straight away then this is for you. The free sounds and attitudes of the late sixties are sadly not replicable today. This is a document of that time and for fans of DeJohnette and Corea.

Passport Audio has released two recent bootlegs: this and "Bye Bye Blackbird". Unfortunately they chose to release the discs under similar names to two Pablo discs that have been out for decades! This will no doubt cause cussing among veteran collectors.

Well, this "Live in Paris" contains four remarkable performances -

NAIMA:
This is my favourite version of "Naima" by far - and maybe my favourite Coltrane performance of all. This is a version commonly found on bootleg discs, lasting seven minutes and six seconds. It dates from a concert at Antibes, France in 1965. The "Naima" theme has never been deconstructed more thoroughly or effectively, not even by Archie Shepp! The gentle love-song slowly metamorphoses into a welter of screaming and honks, until one wonders how Coltrane will return to the original theme. Then, impossibly, the original theme returns totally unscathed, with a sense of inevitability that makes the screaming sound like an inevitable result of the original melody! A truly shattering performance.

IMPRESSIONS
This version of Impressions is from the same date. This performance leaves out the 10 minute bass solo that preceded it. In my view this is good news! The performance is as fierce as you;d expect from Coltrane in 1965 - yet Trane seems almost tired at times - it is not his best performance.

BLUE VALSE
When Coltrane performed this piece in Paris, a French radio recordist asked what the name of it was. Coltrane mumbled something incomprehensible, which the Frenchman took to be "Blue Valse" - that is, "Blue Waltz".
But put this disc on, and you'll discover that this performance sounds very familiar!
Incredibly, this is indeed a LIVE performance of "Ascension", the recording that raised the hackles of the conservative jazz press. Ascension is so conventional sounding here that it is almost amusing. Coltrane soloes every bit as fiercely as on the album. But the essential insanity of the original is lost here - Ascension sounds almost like "Naima" here - a gentle ballad. There is no "collective improvisation" and no Pharoah Sanders! In fact, without the rest of the squawking you can hear that the original tune was not just five notes, but was actually a fully constructed melody - this was obscured by all the other horns on the original disc.

AFRO BLUE
Perhaps Coltrane was referring to this tune when he said "Blue Waltz"? By 1965 Coltrane was clearly getting a little bit sick of this soprano-waltz, which he had played since late 1963. This is without a doubt the most insane version of Afro Blue I've heard (admittedly I haven't heard the Japanese concert of 1966). Coltrane's attitude to the original theme is: how can I twist this theme to get something new out of it? The answer is: break up the theme with screeching tail-sections, jump registers a LOT, and avoid stating the theme totally straight!
The result is delicious avant garde jazz, a performance that is recogniseably the old "Afro Blue" from "Live at Birdland", yet clearly at a whole new level. The Half Note version of this tune cannot compare! This is truly wild music making.

Yes, the previous reviewers are correct. "Blue Valse" is Ascension! And it's pretty amazing. Our four heroes are not going to fill all the space of the nine musicians who performed the studio event, but the opening crescendo demonstrates once again that the classic quartet can fill all the space required all by themselves.... It's really cool to hear them going straight for it, no doubt still fresh on the piece just a month after the studio session. Garrison's solo is particularly fascinating, as he jumps between plucking and (wonderful) bowing to almost recreate the studio duet with Art Davis; except here, he's almost duetting with himself. It's nice to hear Tyner's voice louder in the mix, as well. All four musicians seem to approach the piece with the same intensity as the studio version; love it. And experimental-wise, very on par with the live Love Supreme performance of two days earlier.
Sorry, I've only heard Naima & Ascension, but the latter warranted a review (and five stars) of its own. Seems to be transferred from vinyl, as the end of Garrison's solo fades out & then back in (no music is lost); a few mild (quaint, I call 'em) crackles & pops are audible during the bass solo, too. Still, excellent sound quality. How lucky we are that people happened to tape these things.
A final note~ that vocal chant just as the bass solo moves into Coltrane's re-entry......not sure if it's Garrison (who can be observed humming during his Jazz Casual solo in Impressions) or someone in the audience. But even if it's the latter, does that not merely demonstrate that the magic of this music is working.....?

It's quite obvious that this bootleg recording has been released many times over the past 40 years on various fringe labels, but anything with Coltrane wailing away will always be valuable because unlike other musicians, even legendary ones, Coltrane never played any song the same way twice. He plays a very scorching verison of "Naima" that's miles away from its "smooth ballad" original, but the real highlight is the 2-part track, "Blue Valse." Coltrane fans will immediately recognize this song as the free-jazz classic, "Ascension," and so far, unless I Google a little further, this is perhaps the only version of the song in the Quartet format. Like many Coltrane bootlegs out there, this is another great CD to add to your collection, at least until the Coltrane family releases an official version of the concert with much-better sound quality.