The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (album)

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra is a 1968 album by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra recorded over a period of six months with Michael Mantler as composer, leader and producer.[5] Many of the key figures in avant-garde jazz from the time contributed on the album including Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, Larry Coryell, Roswell Rudd, and Carla Bley. The album's finale features a two-part concerto for Cecil Taylor and orchestra.

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Studio album by
Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Released1968 (1968)
RecordedJanuary–July 1968
GenreFree jazz
Length73:40
LabelJCOA
ProducerMichael Mantler
Jazz Composer's Orchestra chronology
Communication
(1965)		 The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
(1968)		 Escalator over the Hill
(1971)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Rolling Stone(favorable)[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[4]

Mantler "updated" the album in 2014 as The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update on ECM Records. It features the Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, an orchestra with parallel instrumentation conducted by Christoph Cech and new soloists: Michael Mantler (trumpet), Bjarne Roupé (guitar), Wolfgang Puschnig (alto saxophone), Harry Sokal (tenor saxophone), David Helbock (piano), and the radio.string.quartet.vienna.[6]

Reception

Langdon Winner's Rolling Stone review stated "This is a record which all rock musicians as well as general audiences should listen to with care. The first JCOA album is a summit meeting on the Mount Olympus of contemporary jazz which deserves wide attention... By any standard of musical excellence it is a masterpiece."[2]

Brian Olewnick of Allmusic stated: "The breadth of this piece, its expansiveness, and its tension between order and chaos is one of the single high-water marks of avant-garde jazz. Communications is a masterwork in and of itself and laid the basis for stunning work by others in decades hence, notably Barry Guy and his London Jazz Composer's Orchestra. It's an essential document for anyone interested in avant jazz and late-20th century creative music."[1]

Track listing

All tracks by Michael Mantler

  1. "Communications #8" – 14:03
  2. "Communications #9" – 8:14
  3. "Communications #10" – 13:42
  4. "Preview" – 3:29
  5. "Communications #11" (part 1) – 15:32
  6. "Communications #11" (part 2) – 18:14

Personnel

Production

  • Paul Goodman – engineer
  • Paul Haines – liner notes
  • Paul McDonough – artwork, cover design
  • Timothy Marquand – liner notes

References
  1. Olewnick, Brian. "The Jazz Composer's Orchestra". AllMusic. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  2. Winner, Langdon (February 21, 1970). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow.
  3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 189. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin Books. p. 703.
  5. ECM Catalogue accessed August 11, 2010
  6. Michael Mantler Music, 2014
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.