Don Toliver Hardstone Psycho

Don Ellis was such a talented trumpeter, composer, and organizer that everything he recorded as a leader has at least some unusual moments worth exploring. His big bands were characterized by big brassy arrangements, odd meters that somehow always swung, lots of trumpet solos by Ellis, and an often visceral excitement. Although not equal to his best records such as Electric Bath, this late recording of Ellis' band is filled with all these traits, and thus exudes lots of excitement and electricity. At this stage in his career, the trumpeter seemed to be searching for a breakthrough, perhaps on a popular level. This manifests itself with occasional Age of Aquarius vocals and spacy harmonies that appeal to a broad audience…

Coming as it did between two of Don Ellis' greatest records (Autumn and At Fillmore), New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground was a disappointment. The dozen concise performances are generally overarranged, the solos are too brief, and the melodies (with two exceptions) are not memorable. The ridiculously complex "Bulgarian Bulge" and "Eli's Coming" (which would soon join the repertoire of Maynard Ferguson) are the standouts, but the other R&B-oriented material, which often has so-so vocals by Patti Allen, is quite forgettable.

In another of those two-fers that are going to tangle discographies for some time to come, this bears the title of a Don Patterson album, The Boss Men, and includes all of the material from that LP. However, this CD, though it's also called The Boss Men, is billed to both Sonny Stitt and Don Patterson, and combines the original Patterson The Boss Men LP with another album cut in 1965, Night Crawler, that was billed to Sonny Stitt, although it featured the exact same lineup (Stitt on alto sax, Patterson on organ, Billy James on drums) as The Boss Men. Not only that, the CD adds two cuts from a Patterson 1964 LP, Patterson's People, also featuring the Stitt-Patterson-James trio. As for the original The Boss Men, it's a respectable straight-ahead jazz-with-organ session…

In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry and the Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry began a collaboration that imagined an alternative space for creative music, most succinctly expressed in Moki’s aphorism “the stage is home and home is a stage.” By 1972, they had given name to a concept that united Don’s music, Moki’s art, and their family life in rural Tagårp, Sweden into one holistic entity: Organic Music Theatre. Captured here is the historic first Organic Music Theatre performance from the 1972 Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon in the South of France, mastered from tapes recorded during its original live broadcast on public TV. A life-affirming, multicultural patchwork of borrowed tunes suffused with the hallowed aura of Don’s extensive global travels, the performance documents the moment he publicly jettisoned his identity as a jazz musician…

Avid Jazz continues its occasional Three Classic album plus series with a re-mastered 2CD release from Don Ellis complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.
“How Time Passes”; “New Ideas”; “Essence”; plus 4 tracks featuring Don Ellis from the Charles Mingus album “Dynasty”
Three early albums from vastly under-rated trumpeter, composer and bandleader Don Ellis showing the direction he was to follow over the next fifteen years or so before his tragically early death at age, just 44! If you check out the names of the guys Don was playing with in the early sixties it will give you a clue as to where his music was heading. In New York, Don had met fellow jazz searchers like Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and George Russell. On our three selections you will hear him playing with a new breed of upcoming jazz men like Jaki Byard, Ron Carter…