Barre Phillips

As a first, this time around the individual tracks go less by titles than by explanatory cues, for in the first, “Bridging,” we find connections already being made between disparate continents. Its guitar-like exuberance and melodic percussion (courtesy of Alain Joule) skirt arco territories toward stillness. “The Flow” brings about a sense of fluidity through electronic whispers, Joule’s vivid comments accentuating the bass’s inner core and painting its outer skin with observations. Phillips elicits a range of avian effects, from twittering concealed in foliage to lanky elegance of cranes and waterfowl, both hunting and in the rapture of a mating dance. “Ripples Edge” does indeed trace the water’s rim with its opening harmonics and navigates surface tensions like a water skater.

John Surman, Stu Martin, Barre Phillips - The Trio (1970) {2CD Set, Victor–Dawn Records, Mini LP 20bitK2, VICP-62207~8}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 680 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 238 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2002 Victor Japan / Dawn Records | VICP-62207~8
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

This set was also issued as two separate LPs under John Surman’s name, Vogue VJD 505/1 and VJD 505/2. Rare bit of free jazz by this trio of British players from the early 70′s. The music is very intense, without any of the noodling that sometimes ruins Brit sessions from the time. Surman plays baritone, soprano, and bass clarinet, and he really blows like mad in some passages. The sound quality of this album is stunning! In the autumn of 1969, John Surman decided to make a break and joined forces with Barre Phillips and Stu Martin, to form a group they called The Trio. Phillips had a varied background, having worked as a sideman with Archie Shepp, Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell, as well as performing solo in Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

Paul Bley, Evan Parker, Barre Phillips - Sankt Gerold Variations (2000) {ECM 1609}
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© 2000 ECM Records | ECM 1609
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Microtonal / Piano

ECM brought this trio of innovative free jazz veterans together for the first time to make the critically-acclaimed "Time Will Tell" album in 1994 - since then, it has become a popular institution on the touring circuit. "Sankt Gerold" is a live album, taped at the Austrian mountain monastery that has been the site of many distinguished ECM recordings, and it roves through many different moods. Parker and Phillips goad Bley toward some of his most abstract and experimental playing, yet they also respond to his more lyrical improvisational impulses. All three musicians are changed by the context. This is free music making at its purest.

John Surman, Stu Martin, Barre Phillips - The Trio - Conflagration (1971) {Victor–Dawn Records, Mini LP 20bitK2, VICP-62170}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 285 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 114 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1971, 2002 Victor Japan / Dawn Records | VICP-62170
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Post Bop

John Surman, Stu Martin, Barre Phillips - Conflagration (Rare British jazz 1971 UK 6-track LP on the Dawn label, from Surman's highly regarded and influential Trio group, including the two expatriate American musicians Phillips and Martin, also starring Harold Beckett, Chick Corea, Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore, John Taylor & more. The trio joined by a variety of other musicians. The songs are challenging in an Ornette Coleman sort of way but never inaccessible. Not a recording for the casual jazz listener - it's more for the adventurous jazz lover.