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I really like the seventies recordings with his Sunrise Orchestra (Children Of Fire, Hannibal, The Light...). At that time, he also played on a lot of other great records: the Richard Davis album mentioned above, Jazz Composers' Orchestra, Pharaoh Sanders, Billy Hart's "Enchance"... Always good to have him on board. To be honest, I didn't know about his later activities as a composer or about the Lokumbe name. @ Jim: Pat (the singer) is his sister, isn't she?

The Earle Brown curated "Contemporary Sound Series" was also issued on Time's Series 2000. The cover of the Japanese original could help to get an idea of the visualization:

It's a bit of a difficult confession, but I always wanted to love the NRG Ensemble records more than I actually do. I greatly prefer his solo side on Eftsoons.

Sometimes Discogs really is a treasure trove of disocgraphic information: "Trip Jazz" was a series of the Trip label started in 1974. They mainly reissued albums that were originally released by the EmArcy, Limelight and Mercury labels. The records mentioned by Big Beat Steve (with miniaturized b/w versions of the original covers) were part of the "Trip Jazz - Special Collectors Series". The Trip label itself was a subsidiary of Springboard International Records, Inc. Some other sublabels of Springboard were UpFront and also Catalyst. The "Kawaida" album was originally (1970) released on the O'Be label and reissued in 1974 on Trip Jazz. Like Clifford said, in Japan it was issued on Mercury (licensed by Springboard). For Europe, the album was licensed to the DJM label and marketed as a Herbie Hancock-Don Cherry title: During the CD era, the album was reissued several times under Hancock's name. Some of the more "creative" packaging ideas were:

The Tatrai SQ performed the string quartets (admirably) in the Complete Bartok Edition on the Hungaroton label. These are probably the same recordings, but I'm afraid a budget label pressing isn't the best way to enjoy them. The Household Muse ("La Muse Menagère") is actually Madeleine Milhaud, the composer's niece and also wife (she then became Madame Madeleine Milhaud-Milhaud ), to whom the piano suite is dedicated.

Excellent choice, although Mrs. Merrill deserves nicer-looking album covers. This is the Japanese original:

If you do CD's too, you can go for the "The Formative Years '69-'96" boxset, which includes all the early and expensive albums (Jazz in Paradiso, El Saxophon...). It's usually cheap, the sound is very decent and you'll also get a nice booklet with Dulfer's reminiscences of the early days, which are often quite funny.

"Distinct from the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this 2nd series curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman features mid-priced 180g vinyl releases in standard packaging" In the works: a 3rd series featuring budget-priced 140g crap vinyl releases in inferior packaging. It's a comforting thought that each market segment will be catered to.

Exactly. There are exceptions, of course, but tape/electroacoutic music by US academic composers can be very predictable and utterly boring.

There might be more music issued from that particular session. Riccardo Di Filippo's online jazz encyclopedia lists the MONO album in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band discography This is the entry: Andrew Anderson (tp) Bill Matthews, Oscar “Chicken” Henry (tb) John Casimir (cl) Capt. John Handy (as) Jesse Charles (ts) Wilbert Tillman (tu) Alfred Williams (snare-d) Williams Phillip (bass-d) Just a closer walk with thee / Lead me Saviour / Eternal peace / What a friend we have in Jesus / Nearer my God to thee / What a friend we have in Jesus (alt take) / When the saints go marching in (MNLP16) New Orleans, Settembre 1960. And according to another online discograpy the album also comprises a 1962 session by Harold Dejan's Olympia Brass Band. I'm not an expert in the field (not at all), but I recently read a quite entertaining book on Barry Martyn and his MONO-label and so I was intrigued by your question.

Red Records is a very respectable modern jazz label, whose current releases are out of my sphere of interest. However, they started out in the mid seventies as a much more adventurous label. Some of the great early titles (Mazzon, Gaslini, Schiano, and also Frederic Rzewski's own recording of his "The People United") were released under the "Edizioni Di Cultura Popolare" label. Both labels used the same numbering system (VPA prefix), with most of the first fifteen or so titles (VPA 101 to 115) released on ECP. I don't know the exact story, but I think the label (or labels) was closely connected with the left wing students movement at the Milan University. In fact, the very first release (VPA 101) was Gaslini's "Concerto Della Resistenza", recorded at the Milan University, and I have another (earlier?) issue of that record on the "Edizioni Movimento Studentesco" label.

I think that's Liberty Ellman, playing with J.D. Allen on his recent "Love Stone" album. I like this track, although I also understand felser's criticism about this being too laid back. It reminds me a bit of Charlie Hadens's Quartet West.

Strictly speaking for myself, it took me quite some time to get rid of all my conscious or unconsious prejudices against Japanese jazz musicians being at best perfect copy-cats. Nowadays, my opinion of Japanese jazz, or rather jazz in Japan, is completely different, especially with regard to the late 60s - early 70s periode. That's why I said "unfair to Hino", when these records are almost routinely (and exclusively) judged against the yardstick of Miles' contemporaneous records. But hey, I'm not American, so maybe I'm just over-sensitive about this.

I've been away for some time and just learned of his passing. This is very sad indeed. Thank you very much for the wonderful music, Mr. Jarman.

I really think that "sub-Miles" argument against "Journey To Air" is somewhat unfair to Hino. I like those "free jazz gestures". But for those who prefer a bit more structure, just consider Teo Macero's crucial role as editor/producer of Miles' celebrated free-fusion albums. Hino produced his albums himself with much more limited means (budget, studio time...). For me the results are impressive and very enjoyable.

Actually, I think Leo's name was really Cuypers, which would strongly suggest his family roots were in Flanders (Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Cuypers is a typical Flemish name, while the most common Dutch variants are Kuipers or Kuiper, like guitarist Jan Kuiper.

It's Raaijmakers, quite a common name in the Netherlands. "Raaymakers" (his artist's name) was for international use.

A short obituary notice was published in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant on January 3, without mentioning the date of his passing. He was indeed a long-standing member of the WBK. Before joining Willem Breuker, he played a lot with composer-musician-visual artist Peter van der Locht (they were both in Pierre Courbois' Free Music Quartet/Quintet). Raaijmakers and van der Locht had a short-lived band called "Group-Music" or "Group-Music International" with drummer Noel McGhie. They recorded a great abum in 1970 on which pianist Burton Greene also plays. The album's called "At Different Times"; it's a private pressing, unfortunately never reissued. I will play that record tonight in honour of Mr. Raaijmakers.

Steve Lacy in Japan 1975-2004: the complete studio and live recordings.

Not an album, but a track: NHOP's duet with Karin Krog on "Here's That Rainy Day". The whole album is great.

I'm pretty sure I have all of them too, but those Savoys are begging for a sonic upgrade.

Yes, "Dance Of Magic" is another favourite that I kept, but that's also a largely acoustic album and, like you said, more free/spiritual (especially the side-long title track) than anything "fusion" (implied by the title and Connors' subsequent albums). My remark on your evaluations was of course not a criticism, but just an observation about my own changing preferences. I really appreciate your well weighed judgements and pointed comments. In fact, I'd love to read your opinion about (and evaluation of) the recently reissued Terumasa Hino albums, discussed in another topic. They obviously don't belong to the "Mwandishi orbit", but they're not entirely incomparable with some of the more free/avant-garde titles discussed here.

These evaluations date from 2005, almost 14 years ago. I think, at that time, I would have agreed with most of mikeweil's stars. Since then, I've largely lost interest in that kind of avant/free-form fusion. Or to be more precise: I still like the music well enough, but I don't actively listen to it and I don't feel the need to have the records in my collection. So I disposed of most of these. One notable exception is Bennie Maupin's "The Jewel In The Lotus", which has always been -and still is- my favourite of this bunch, probably because Hancock's playing (mostly) acoustic piano (and there's no sight of Patrick Gleason's gadgetry).

I see what you mean. It makes you wonder what the reputation (not to mention the market value) of this album would be, if it had been released (with superior sound) on Blue Note.

Jim, am I allowed to reply seriously? The "bitter funeral beer" is brewed as part of the funerary rites of the Ghanaian Ewe people. The funeral music that Bengt Berger heard (and learned) in Ghana was the basis of his "Bitter Funeral Beer Suite" released on ECM. The band took its name from this recording.