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Lester Bowie recorded this album upon his return from Nigeria where he lived and worked with Fela Kuti. "For Fela" is his tribute. Hear, hear.

Looks interesting. But the "Free Improvisers" get only 9 pages (Chapter 31) ...

It's most unlikely that "Free Jazz" was such a tiny pressing. I didn't know François Tusques wasn't paid for these sessions. What's the story?

And how about Ronald Shannon Jackson accompanying himself on the drums?

Chinampas, his sound poetry record on Leo. He does play on that one, although not much piano.

An extra vote for the Pharoah Sanders. "Africa" was a somewhat surprising release for the Timeless label, but it's really much better than the Theresa albums.

Original copies of "Free jazz" are actually not that difficult to find (for a mid 60s European free jazz record that is). I wonder about variations in the size of the pressings of some of these avant garde titles on disques Mouloudji: I've seen ten times more "Free jazz" than "Le nouveau jazz". The same goes for two André Almuro titles from the same period: "Le condamné à mort" versus "Avec" (but that can probably be explained by the fact that the first one was a collaboration with the label boss himself...). On my turntable now: Jimmy Giuffre 3 "Music for people, birds, butterflies & mosquitoes" on Choice. Silly title and not a very attractive cover, but the music is fine.

Splendid choice! The "Nunnu" album on Blue Master Special, which features the same musicians (plus Juhani Aaltonen, Heikki Sarmanto, etc.), is another great one from the same period.

I have an original French pressing but have long been curious about the Japanese Odeon and its extra ten minutes of music. Curious, but it's hard to break the bank purchasing something you already own! I've checked again and am pretty sure now that the extra music on the Japanese Frank Wright is the '"Church number nine" track on Noah Howard's "Space Dimension" (which didn't really belong there in the first place). It's been restored (it's longer and doesn't have the fade out-pause-restart) and the sound is far, far superior. Anyway, French or Japanese, it's still one of the most exciting free jaz records ever made and it deserves a first class reissue (how about a Noah Howard & Frank Wright Complete Small Group Sessions box set?).

Crocojazz is always on my list when visiting Paris. However, last time I went there their new stock was 95 percent reissue vinyl, which I found disappointing.

Another one bought yesterday , an excellent session. Totally agree. There's a second volume from the same session, every bit as good as this one.

Liberty pressing here, which is fine. I would love to have this as an original New York label, but prices are obscene. This is one of those albums that make you wonder what would have happened if Coltrane had sticked to Steve Kuhn as his pianist.

All three are great. Finger Palace was actually recorded in Berkeley and came out on a Beak Doctor LP. Don't think it ever saw a CD release. The Vancouver concert is from a couple of days later. There is an Evan Paker solo album recorded during his 1982 tour of Japan. It's called "Zanzou" and was released on the Jazz & Now label. The back cover's got a great picture of Evan playing his soprano with two terrorized Japanese children covering their ears.

That's one advantage of living on the old continent, I suppose. If you can look past the mostly dull covers, there's some excellent free jazz on Amiga records (and a lot of other thing too, of course). Now playing: Quartetto Luigi Bonafede "Riflessioni" (Red, 1980). Two side-long improvisations with piano, two basses and drums. Next will be some Karin Krog, if there's time left before the Christmas eve obligations.

I don't think Ariel Shibolet has been mentioned. He's got a solo cd recorded at the Berlin Total Music Meeting some years back. An unreserved recommendation, if you like Evan Parker.

Friedhelm Schönfeld "Trio-Dimensionen" (Amiga, 1973). DDR free jazz trio, could have been on FMP. In fact, it's a split album with Hubert Katzenbeier Quintet on side 2, but, to be honest, I never turn the disc over.

July 2009, according tot the author of the blog post. You can listen to the complete "Sound Chemistry" track on the label's website. Now wouldn't it have been neat if Sonny had played on this in lieu of Ornette ?

I only have the French "Space Dimension". The third track on that album is part of the "Church number nine" session (Muhammed Ali replaces Art Taylor). The track starts with a bit of Bobby Few piano amidst percussion, then the music drops away (!) and starts again with Ali's drums. I think that track was restored for the Japanese issue of "Church number nine" (the extra music I was talking about in my earlier post). Both the original "Church number nine" on Calumet and the Japanese issue sound dramatically better than that track on the "Space Dimension" album. If the Japanese issue of "Space Dimension" sounds equally good, I need that one!

Okay, I can't just intrude without playing the game. Now playing: Itaru Oki "Mirage" (Trio, 1977) Next will be: Karl Berger & Edward Blackwell "Just Play (1976)" (Quark, 1979)

I've been told the Japanese "Le nouveau jazz" is a stereo pressing. If so, is it "real" stereo? I think my copy is stereo but honestly have no idea. Catalog number is "SL-5007-AX". My copy is a white label promo and all the text on the back and inner gatefold is in Japanese. The pressing quality is pristine and not a single click is to be heard which is nice. Yeah, Columbia pressed up promos of both Tusques Mouloudjis - they are also quite rare, pressings are undoubtedly better than the originals. So it goes... Funny thing, those vintage Japanese free jazz pressings. "Church number nine" on Odeon has even got 10 minutes of extra music (sort of "part 3") compared to the French Calumet.

I've been told the Japanese "Le nouveau jazz" is a stereo pressing. If so, is it "real" stereo?

Some Horo's (including the Sun Ra's) had two pressings. Dead stock copies of the second pressing do turn up quite regularly here in Europe. Sun Ra originals have a yellow label; later Horo pressings have orange labels. Both sound fine, like in fact many Horo's do.

The liner notes in the accompanying data sheet in Japanese are dated to 1974, that fits into above story. If I ever get the equipment to transfer this to CD I will let you know. Maybe I should sell this on ebay some day ..... how much does it go for? My copy of the album is an original pressing on CBS/Sony Japan, apparently dating from 1970 (SOPC-57101-J), which seems to contradict the story of the post-Weather Report deal. It was reissued in CBS/Sony's "Best Jazz Collection" series in 1974, hence the confusion perhaps. These are Miroslav Vitous' own thoughts about the session (http://www.innerviews.org/inner/vitous.html): "I made that album after Infinite Search. I was working with David Baker, the engineer, and was experimenting with different musicians and material. I had Billy Cobham, John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul there. They experimented with me. After six months, I thought I had enough material and put together an album. I think there is some excellent music on it. Purple was made before Weather Report started, but you can already hear some material that we later played with the band. There’s a song called “Water Lily,” which has an identical skeleton to a piece we recorded with Weather Report called “Morning Lake.” There’s another Weather Report piece called “Seventh Arrow” that was also on Purple. There was a development of the material on Purple that ended up in Weather Report. It was a stepping stone." Not being much of a jazz-fusion pyrotechnics fan myself, I do like the openness and spareness of the music. One would imagine this to be essential listening for Vitous fans.