The 13th volume in Mosaic's limited-edition Select series showcases the late work of the late pianist and composer Don Pullen. Contained within the box are the two fine albums by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet, Breakthrough and Song Everlasting. These two recordings were the first the pair had done domestically. The band's previous output was released on Soul Note, and musically very good. Both Blue Note albums are simply stunning. The interplay between the pianist and saxophonist Adams was near symbiotic and was augmented by the stellar rhythm section of bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond. Three of the four men – excepting Brown – were alumni of the Charles Mingus band. These two albums are the best of what post-bop jazz had to offer in the 1980s.
Of all the volumes in the Mosaic Select series, this one, and the Big John Patton box, are the most satisfying, though for very different reasons. This one is a true collector's gem. For starters, all but six of the 31 cuts on this three-CD box are previously unreleased. For Hill fans who knew there was more in the can, this is a most welcoming find. The material here was completely composed by Hill and was recorded in five sessions between 1967 and 1970. The pianist and composer is found in three different settings, from trio to sextet and septet with some octet sides. The personnel here varies, too. The sextet sessions feature Hill with Bennie Maupin, Pat Patrick, Charles Tolliver, Ron Carter, and either Paul Motian or Ben Riley on drums. These are the earliest cuts here and they are solid as solid can be.
This set covers the last two years of McCoy Tyner's tenure with Blue Note, beginning with the pianist's Expansions, the first album on which his own identity as a leader-composer-pianist came ringing through. With Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter (on cello), Herbie Lewis and Freddie Waits, he fashioned a new sound, inspired by, but not mimicking his work with the John Coltrane Quartet. McCoy blended modality, Eastern music, African elements and spirituality into a music that was unmistakably his own.
This is one of the best all-round sets by the Buddy Rich big band. The original Rich in London RCA LP, which contains nine selections, is augmented by four additional numbers from the same dates that were originally issued on a British RCA LP. The Rich orchestra at the time featured the great Pat La Barbera on tenor and soprano, trombonist Bruce Paulson, and lead trumpeter Lin Biviano along with many lesser-known but talented soloists.
Woody Herman was dedicated to keeping his big band going and was focused more on music that satisfied him than focusing on making hits. Most of the selections in this three-CD set came from an overlooked period in the clarinetist's career, his early 1960s tenure on the Phillips label. At this point, Herman had recently welcomed new arrivals like trumpeter Bill Chase, tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico, and trombonist Phil Wilson, while still talented veterans like pianist Nat Pierce, tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins, and drummer Jake Hanna.
Onzy Matthews was an arranger and pianist who wrote for Lou Rawls, Esther Phillips, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and others without achieving any fame. Matthews recorded 51 selections as a leader, all of which are on the three-CD Onzy Matthews (Mosaic Select). The program, which includes 29 previously unreleased performances, features some of the top Los Angeles-area jazz musicians of 1963-64, including the legendary trumpeter Dupree Bolton, altoists Earl Anderza and Gabe Baltazar, and tenors Curtis Amy and Clifford Scott. The music, played by groups ranging from combos to big bands, includes hard-bop, bossa nova and a few commercial numbers. Capitol only chose to issue two LPs during Matthews’ life, which ended in obscurity in 1997, but Mosaic has now made it possible to fully enjoy and appreciate his overlooked talents as an arranger, pianist and (on three songs) vocalist.
Mosaic Select presents a limited edition containing all of the solo piano recordings made by Andrew Hill at the Fantasy studios in Berkeley, CA during August and October 1978. Only a fraction of this material – the first two titles on the third disc – had ever seen the light of day prior to this collection's release in the spring of 2007. Having operated throughout the '60s as an innovative composer, pianist and bandleader, Hill spent the first half of the following decade exercising his creativity by composing and instructing at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, performing internationally, and making records for Freedom, East Wind and Steeplechase.
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.
This CD, The Time and the Place, is not the album of the same name released on Columbia Records dated February 8, 1967, with pianist Cedar Walton. That recording was a studio date with live audience sounds overdubbed. This is the actual live concert date, remixed from the three-track reel-to-reel master at New York City's Museum of Modern Art's outdoor "Jazz in the Garden" series, featuring pianist Albert Dailey on August 18, 1966, and presented in its entirely. Farmer plays flugelhorn exclusively, one of the first to do so. This concert also links his time leaving the U.S. for Europe, returning briefly, then moving permanently to Vienna, Austria.