George Russell's New York Band - Live In An American Time Spiral (rec. 1982, rel. 1983)

Finishing up this little box set of George Russell's incredible music with the composer firmly focused on his New York Big Band, who we heard in their initial incarnation last time.  Only a couple of members from that group remained by the time of this recording at the end of July 1982, and the lineup here's as strong as any Russell band.  Just three long pieces: taking up all of the album's first half is Time Spiral, a Swedish Radio commission written in 1979.  Starting from mellow electric piano, it boils over more than once into a funk monster with plenty of scorching solo spots.  The rest of the album digs into Russell's rich back catalogue all the way to the late 40s, in a barnstroming Ezz-Thetic, and early 60s for D.C. Divertimento which gets a groove-smoking makeover.  Tons of fun from a firey ensemble.

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The rest of the "Complete Black Saint & Soul Note" box set:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Listen To The Silence

Vertical Event VI

New York Big Band

George Russell - New York Big Band (rec. 1977-78, first rel. 1982)

Getting into late 70s period Russell now, and starting to leave the Scandinavian era behind.  Not entirely though, as one track here - a great version of the Russell/Dizzy Gillespie co-write Cubano Be, Cubano Bop - comes from the same Swedish concert at which Vertical Event VI was recorded.  Otherwise, per the album title, we're in New York (possibly, per the album cover, at the Village Vanguard - the liners don't specify a venue) with hard grooving, bluesier material, especially on the vocal track Big City Blues.  A couple of re-arranged excerpts from Listen To The Silence, and one from Living Time, the 1972 suite released on CBS and featuring Bill Evans, highlight Russell's more complex work, and the album is rounded out by a piece from trumpet player Stanton Davis and an arrangement of God Bless The Child.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Listen To The Silence

Vertical Event VI

George Russell - Listen To The Silence (rec. 1971, orig. rel. 1973)

Back to George Russell with another commissioned work, this time for the 1971 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and recorded at its live premiere performance (with some studio effects added later) on 21st June 1971, Kongsberg Church, Norway.  Taking some lines from Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Nicoll, Dee Brown and snippets from Newsweek and the New York Times for its libretto, Listen To The Silence is a choral work calling for two choirs as well as jazz ensemble.  

 

The chanting voices get things underway before Russell, Garbarek & co enter to drive the music forward, and the work continues in this manner with the church acoustics giving the stentorian vocal delivery a definite atmospheric boost.  The instrumental sections are frequently more minimal and stripped-down compared to Russell's other work of the era, but this works in favour of the overall stark mood, and makes the Garbarek-Rypdal section at the start of Event IV all the more outstanding.  Subtitled "A Mass For Our Time", Listen To The Silence might be a bit 'of its time' in subject matter, but it remains a captivating listening experience to this day.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

George Russell Sextet feat. Jan Garbarek - Trip To Prillarguri (rec. 1970, rel. 1982)

More live recordings from George Russell and co taped at the Södertälje Estrad, this time back in March 1970 (although not released until 1982, when Soul Note took over their chunk of Russell's material).  This one's a belter - it may as well be Jan Garbarek's Esoteric Circle quartet from 1969 performing live with the addition of Russell on piano and Stanton Davis Jr on trumpet.  Three of the pieces here are Garbarek-penned, including two that appeared on the Esoteric Circle LP.  From Russell's catalogue we get themes from Souls Loved By Nature and the earlier classic Stratusphunk, plus a closing rendition of Ornette Coleman's Man On The Moon.  Electrifying stuff throughout, and a definite highlight in both Russell and Garbarek's discographies.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

George Russell - Vertical Event VI (rec. 1977, rel. 1981)

Funky fusion with the customary George Russell twist of his unique compositional style, here extending to the title of this work.  Vertical Event VI was another commission for Swedish Radio, composed in 1976 and recorded live at the Södertälje Estrad in March of the following year.  Numbering the works he'd composed in Scandinavia thus far, in the liner notes Russell says he considers the Othello Ballet Suite to be Vertical Form II, Souls Loved By Nature as Vertical Form III (links below), and so on, with Vertical Form VI "represent[ing] the full crystalisation of the vertical form style of notation".

 

Being a bit of a rudimentary music theorist, I'm no closer to understanding 'vertical form' in laymans' terms than when I started reading all these liner notes on Russell's albums, but the end result is just as enjoyable to blast out.  The original first side of the 1981 vinyl contained Event I, nine minutes of the large-group forces gradually gathering steam, and Event II, a fifteen-minute groove monster.  The other three respectively highlight the grungy organ, a banjo-style detuned guitar with more funky minimalist basslines, and finally a recapitulation of the work's main themes.  Probably the most accessible of Russell's big-band 'vertical forms' that I've heard so far, and certainly tons of fun.

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Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

George Russell - Othello Ballet Suite / Electronic Organ Sonata No.1 (1970)

Some more George Russell from his Scandinavian period, with Jan Garbarek making the album cover as featured soloist.  The "Othello Ballet Suite" was commissioned by Norwegian television, and this recording made by Radio Sweden in November 1967.  Othello offers just under half an hour of Russell's intricate 'vertical form' compositional style and funky arrangements.  It occasionally suggests a sort of long-form Mingus composition to my ears - complete with what sounds like little teases of Better Git It In Your Soul as a recurring theme.  All great players, including some nice skronky spots for Garbarek to cut loose, and Russell's sextet are backed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The album, originally released in 1970 by Flying Dutchman, is filled out by a solo organ piece improvised by Russell on an Oslo church organ in October 1968.  This basic recording was then manipulated at the electronic music studio of Radio Sweden, giving it much more avant-garde textures and making for a fascinating closer on the album.

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Previously posted at SGTG: Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

George Russell - Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature (three recordings)

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature is the signature work by jazz composer, theorist and pianist George Russell (1923-2009), presented today in no less than three different recordings.  Got hold of these in a Black Saint/Soul Note reissues box, so more Russell to come.  First up, The Essence Of George Russell, which may or may not contain the earliest recording of the Sonata: it's unfortunately the only thing lacking a recording year in the original double LP's notes.

First a drummer, George Russell's key contribution to jazz was as a music theorist championing the Lydian mode, which influenced everyone from Miles Davis and Gil Evans to the young Scandinavian musicians he'd work with on moving there in the 60s, many of whom would become ECM heavyweights.  Listening back to Terje Rypdal's Odyssey box set after hearing Russell is quite enlightening, for example, and it's Rypdal who is the guitarist on the "Essence" recording of Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature, the lineup also including Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen (you can probably guess by now what drew me to the Russell box).  On the original "Essence" double LP there were two additional pieces making up side four - only one of these, the enjoyably wild Now And Then (recorded 1966), is included on the CD due to time restrictions.

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature, then, is structured in 14 segued 'Events': some where propulsive basslines and funky drums drive it forward, and others where the rhythms fall away and Stockhausen-like taped sounds come to the fore, as well as African field recordings.  The writing for horns can be both tight and melodic and much freer, particularly when Garbarek takes the spotlight (Jan's credited as having a hand in composing some themes, presumably these spotlights).  Taken all together, it's a rich and rewarding immersion in early fusion, avant-garde but accessible jazz composition and judicious electronic/tape music integration.

This next recording, originally released on the Flying Dutchman label in 1971, is perhaps the best known.  Soul Note's later reissue added the "1968" to the album cover - I'm not certain why, as Russell's original liner notes state the recording was made at a concert near Oslo in April 1969.  Perhaps "1968" refers to composer revisions that year, e.g. the reduction to sextet -  the larger group of musicians is slimmed down to just the core lineup, who are the same other than Red Mitchell now playing bass rather than Andersen.  This version also ups the tempo in places compared to the "Essence" recording, the whole thing running under an hour compared to just over the hour mark on Essence. 

Russell revisited the Sonata for this 1980 version, recorded in an Italian studio in June of that year with mostly American musicians.  It's recognisably the same work, two continuous sides with seven Events apiece, so hasn't undergone any major compositional reworking.  The turn-of-the-80s studio fidelity does make the ingenuity of the writing and musicians' interplay come across clearer, so it's a worthwhile contrast to the other two recordings.

 

19?? recording (The Essence Of George Russell)

1968 recording

1980 recording

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