Charles Marville

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history. Charles Mingus consciously designed the six-part ballet as his magnum opus, and – implied in his famous inclusion of liner notes by his psychologist – it's as much an examination of his own tortured psyche as it is a conceptual piece about love and struggle. It veers between so many emotions that it defies easy encapsulation; for that matter, it can be difficult just to assimilate in the first place. Yet the work soon reveals itself as a masterpiece of rich, multi-layered texture and swirling tonal colors, manipulated with a painter's attention to detail. There are a few stylistic reference points – Ellington, the contemporary avant-garde, several flamenco guitar breaks – but the totality is quite unlike what came before it. Mingus relies heavily on the timbral contrasts between expressively vocal-like muted brass, a rumbling mass of low voices (including tuba and baritone sax), and achingly lyrical upper woodwinds, highlighted by altoist Charlie Mariano.

This 5-CD box set in ECM’s Old & New Masters series, issued in time for Charles Lloyd’s 75th birthday in March 2013, looks back at the beginning of the great saxophonist’s association with ECM. It includes the albums “Fish Out Of Water”, “Notes from Big Sur”, “The Call”, “All My Relations” and “Canto”. All five albums were recorded in Oslo (between 1989 and 1996) with Manfred Eicher producing and they chart a particularly rich and creative period in Lloyd’s musical life. “Fish Out Of Water” marked Lloyd’s comeback, after long years in retreat from the jazz scene. He was partnered by Scandinavian players who had been inspired by his trailblazing music of the 1960s and who were able both to support and challenge him.

“Sangam” is the first release from Charles Lloyd’s exciting new trio with Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland, the gifted drummer from his ‘regular’ quartet. The album – Lloyd’s first live disc for ECM – was recorded in California in 2004. Taped at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the context of a memorial concert for Billy Higgins, it brings to the surface some ‘Eastern’ enthusiasms that have been part of Lloyd’s palette for a very long time.

Stunning performance in front of a huge audience at the open air Odeon of Herodes Atticus, as Charles Lloyd, uniquely-expressive saxophonist, and Maria Farantouri, Greece’s voice of resistance, come together. Friends for some years, this is their first recorded collaboration. Lloyd’s brilliant quartet is on hand - with Jason Moran in especially creative mode - augmented by lyra player Socratis Sinopoulos and second pianist Takis Frazio in a marvelous programme that includes songs by Mikis Theoedorakis, suites of Greek traditional music, Eleni Karaindrou’s “Journey to Kythera” and Lloyd originals including his classic “Dream Weaver”. “Athens Concert” is a major event, a very special live album indeed.

Teddy Charles - Seven Classic Albums (2017) {4CD Set Real Gone Jazz RGJCD532 rec 1956-1959}
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© 1956-59, 2017 Real Gone Jazz | RGJCD532
Jazz / Cool / Third Stream / West Coast Jazz / Vibes / Piano

4 CDs, packaged in a double wide digipak. Digitally remastered and enhanced for superior quality. Includes the albums "Collaboration West (with Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne & Jimmy Giuffre)", "Evolution (with Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Jimmy Giuffre & Charles Mingus)", "The Teddy Charles Tentet", "Word From Bird", "Vibe-Rant", "Coolin' (with Idrees Sulieman, John Jenkins & Mal Waldron)" and "Salute To Hamp, Flyin' Home".

Like 1999's Voice in the Night, The Water Is Wide features Charles Lloyd in the company of one of his dearest friends, drummer Billy Higgins, who would pass away less than a year after the album's release. Guitarist John Abercrombie also remains on board, but Lloyd extends the group's generational span by recruiting two younger players: pianist Brad Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier. The album begins with a straightforward, elegant reading of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia."

Charles Lloyd teams with a different band here, replacing Bobo Stenson's piano with John Abercrombie's guitar, bassist Anders Jormin with Dave Holland, and drummer Billy Hart with Billy Higgins. The title references the feeling on the album in that Lloyd was going for more of a jazz sound, something more basic and lyrical as opposed to exotic and unusual.

“Hagar’s Song”, the newest release from long-time ECM luminary Charles Lloyd, is an interactive duo recording with Jason Moran, the pianist who has been a key member of Lloyd’s latter-day quartet, contributing to the albums Rabo de Nube (2008), Mirror (2010) and Athens Concert (2012). The album features pieces especially dear to Lloyd, ranging from compositions by Billy Strayhorn (“Pretty Girl” a/k/a “Star-Crossed Lovers”), Duke Ellington (“Mood Indigo”), George Gershwin (“Bess, You Is My Woman Now”) and Earl Hines (“Rosetta”) to a standard strongly associated with Billie Holiday (“You’ve Changed”), Brian Wilson’s most famous Beach Boys ballad (“God Only Knows”) and a Bob Dylan song definitively interpreted by the Band (“I Shall Be Released”).

Charles Mingus - The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65 (2012) {7CD Box Set Mosaic Records MD7-253}
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© 1964-65, 2012 Mosaic Records | MD7-253
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Bass

We are pleased to announce "Charles Mingus - The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65 (Town Hall, Amsterdam, Monterey '64, Monterey '65 & Minneapolis)." It chronicles the essential live performances of this genius of modern music as his compositions achieved a depth and complexity we would come to know as Mingus's most signature work. It includes (on the earlier recordings) the brilliant Eric Dolphy, along with Jaki Byard, Dannie Richmond, Johnny Coles, and Clifford Jordan – certainly one of the best assemblages of musicians ever. And the music, recorded across the world's concert stages and intended for release by Charles Mingus Enterprises, dashes once and for all every previously-held notion about what is, and isn't, jazz.