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4FFTS181
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North of Copenhagen, in the suburb of Holte, there was a cinema called the Reprise Theatre, which promoted the arts in the area by holding art exhibitions and other events and, in the Autumn of 1967, opened the theatre for a series of jazz concerts with no restrictions on musical content or style. Many young musicians presented their music here, from bebop and blues to more experimental music. The musicians in Tordenskjolds Soldater were among the core of musicians who played there regularly. The group was formed in October 1969 by musicians who could be heard in many different jazz groups playing at Reprisen. The members of Tordenskjolds Soldater were the fine saxophonist Jesper Nehammer, later a member of the Danish Radio Jazz Group and orchestras led by trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. Henrik Hove and Jon Finsen were regulars on the Reprise scene for a long time and played with Ole Matthiessen in many orchestras. In April 1970 the activities at Reprisen came to an end, but at the same time the Montmartre Jazzhouse changed its programming, relying more on local Danish jazz groups playing for longer periods. Tordenskjolds Soldater played at Montmartre every Monday from May to October 1970, and it was during this period that these recordings were made, the same time of heightened activity when the band recorded its lone commercial release, Peace, for the legendary imprint Spectator Records. Love, Tordenskjolds Soldater's first new LP in more than 50 years, includes previously unreleased recordings filled with deep grooves and driving rhythms like the previous Peace album. The LP starts with "Native Land," a joyous explosion built around the visionary piano playing of Ole Mathiessen and hypnotic cycles by Henrik Hove and Jon Finsen, with soulful lines by Jesper Nehammer on sax. "Memoires of Isadora Duncan" is the only track which was featured on Peace, but the alternate version presented here includes Ole Matthiessen winding through the intoxicating melodies of Nehammer on Fender Rhodes. From here on, every track was previously unpublished. Love, a truly striking statement that reminds you how much fun jazz can be, includes an insert with original photos as well as liner notes by Ole Matthiessen.
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4FFTS181-LTD
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Silkscreened version. "North of Copenhagen, in the suburb of Holte, there was a cinema called the Reprise Theatre, which promoted the arts in the area by holding art exhibitions and other events and, in the Autumn of 1967, opened the theatre for a series of jazz concerts with no restrictions on musical content or style. Many young musicians presented their music here, from bebop and blues to more experimental music. The musicians in Tordenskjolds Soldater were among the core of musicians who played there regularly. The group was formed in October 1969 by musicians who could be heard in many different jazz groups playing at Reprisen. The members of Tordenskjolds Soldater were the fine saxophonist Jesper Nehammer, later a member of the Danish Radio Jazz Group and orchestras led by trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. Henrik Hove and Jon Finsen were regulars on the Reprise scene for a long time and played with Ole Matthiessen in many orchestras. In April 1970 the activities at Reprisen came to an end, but at the same time the Montmartre Jazzhouse changed its programming, relying more on local Danish jazz groups playing for longer periods. Tordenskjolds Soldater played at Montmartre every Monday from May to October 1970, and it was during this period that these recordings were made, the same time of heightened activity when the band recorded its lone commercial release, Peace, for the legendary imprint Spectator Records. Love, Tordenskjolds Soldater's first new LP in more than 50 years, includes previously unreleased recordings filled with deep grooves and driving rhythms like the previous Peace album. The LP starts with "Native Land," a joyous explosion built around the visionary piano playing of Ole Mathiessen and hypnotic cycles by Henrik Hove and Jon Finsen, with soulful lines by Jesper Nehammer on sax. "Memoires of Isadora Duncan" is the only track which was featured on Peace, but the alternate version presented here includes Ole Matthiessen winding through the intoxicating melodies of Nehammer on Fender Rhodes. From here on, every track was previously unpublished. Love, a truly striking statement that reminds you how much fun jazz can be, includes an insert with original photos as well as liner notes by Ole Matthiessen."
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3FFTCJQ179
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It all started in 1958, when Hugh Steinmetz played trumpet in the school band and got in contact with Christian Mouritzen, a 19-year-old blacksmith who played alto saxophone and would soon change his name into Franz Beckerlee. They were soon joined by young bass player Steffen Andersen. By January 1962 they entered the scene at the Vingaarden club in central Copenhagen where, together with John Tchicai, they had the groundbreaking experience of hearing Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, and Albert Ayler. The next step was to enter the scene in the more international Montmartre Jazzhouse. Monday night was "avantgarde night" and The Beckerlee Quartet (still in their late teens) accepted the offer to play for an hour and therefore got the chance to further develop their music. It was there that they came into contact with The New York Contemporary Five -- Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, Don Moore, and J.C. Moses. Before The New York Contemporary Five left Scandinavia in November 1963, they collaborated with The Beckerlee Quartet for a broadcast on Danish Radio. The gifted drummer Sunny Murray, an inspiring force for the Beckerlee group, was hired in 1964 to play on Action, their first LP, issued the following year by the legendary Debut Records. It was at that time that they changed their name to The Contemporary Jazz Quartet. Action has come to be regarded by many as one of the most important early accomplishments in European free improvisation. It was at this time that members of The Contemporary Jazz Quartet were invited to perform with David Tudor and Michael von Biehl in Charlottenborg, a very important place for the avantgarde in music and visual arts. The group would eventually shift again in membership and become The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, featuring Bo Thrige Andersen, Franz Beckerlee, Hugh Steinmetz, Niels Harrit, and Steffen Andersen, and enter the studio in 1967 to record what would have been the follow up to Action, intended to be also issued by Debut. As a fascinating illumination of the moment, particularly because it predates Miles Davis' revolutionary innovation of electric jazz by roughly a year, new innovations in amplification during that moment that the band began to observe in rock music, provoked them to abandon that album and begin again, eventually producing the LP T.C.J.Q. in 1969, which featured two electrified saxophones, as well as amplified trumpet and double-bass, relinquishing their previous recordings, unreleased, to the vaults. It is those incredible, lost 1967 recordings made by The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, unearthed for the first time in nearly 60 years, that comprise Action A B C E, FormalIbera's new LP dedicated to the group. Includes an insert with liner notes by Mats Gustaffson and Anna-Lise Malmros.
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2FFCND177
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This revelatory album positions John Tchicai's large ensemble, Cadentia Nova Danica (CND), in the broad context of international new music activity. All previous releases by the group presented them as a free jazz unit. There were only three -- their self-titled release on Polydor (1968); Afrodisiaca (MPS, 1969); and Live at Jazzhus Montmartre (Storyville), recorded in 1967 but not released until 2016. They are all on jazz labels, so the bias is perhaps understandable. CND was a great free jazz group, to be sure. But the band and its leader were willing to experiment with a wide range of musical developments outside of jazz and incorporate them into their music. This LP encompasses a collaboration with classical composer Svend Erik Werner, an experiment with taped sound collage, and a remarkable sui generis composition by Tchicai. With the addition of this album to CND's discography, a broader and deeper portrait of the band's courageous spirit begins to emerge. Tchicai formed the group just after returning to his native Denmark in 1966 after four highly productive years in New York. Upon his return to Copenhagen, he immediately sought out musicians with whom he could form a band. He was soon working with an ensemble that included trumpeter Hugh Steinmetz and altoist Karsten Vogel. By late 1966, they became Cadentia Nova Danica (New Danish Cadence). They made their Danish debut at Café Montmartre and quickly developed a reputation as one of the most creative bands in Europe. They remained together until 1971, when Tchicai entered the ashram of Swami Narayanananda for an extended period of meditation during which he didn't publicly perform. The cryptically, if absurdly, titled "Mc Gub Gub, (I-VIII)" is a stunning example of the creative ways Tchicai used ostinatos to structure his compositions and provide a supporting trellis for improvisation. Recorded during a Danish Avantgarde Jazz concert that also included the Contemporary Jazz Quintet, the piece opens with the band loosely repeating a phrase. There's a constant interchange between composition and improvisation. The written passages also function as transitions between improvised sections, in one case setting up a piano solo whose fluidity contrasts starkly with the angular writing. "Ode to Skt. John" is contemporary in form and outlook but based on methods taken from Gregorian music. It also makes room for improvisation from members of Cadentia Nova Danica. Although vividly contrasting, the two modes of musicmaking speak to one another. The alto saxophone and trumpet duet has a songlike, vocal quality in keeping with the spirit, if not the form, of Gregorian music. "Pladepip," Tchicai's foray into musique concréte, another modern classical genre, is unlike anything else in Tchicai's recorded canon. Two full-band improvisations bookend a remarkable audio tape created by Tchicai. Includes insert.
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1FFJT176
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[sold out, no repress planned] Alga Marghen/Formalibera present the first of a series of released documenting the work of Danish composer and multi-instrumentalist John Tchicai. This new LP features two previously unpublished recordings, "Beautiful United Harmony Happening" with Don Cherry and "Education Of An Amphibian" with Sahib Shihab. Tchicai returned to his native Denmark in July 1966 after spending a remarkable four years in New York City. In that short span, he helped redefine and expand the relationship between soloing, collective improvisation, and composition in small free jazz ensembles such as the New York Art Quartet, the New York Contemporary Five, and on albums such as New York Eye and Ear Control with Albert Ayler and John Coltrane's Ascension. It certainly counts as one of the most fertile periods in any artist's career. Yet when he returned to Europe, Tchicai turned his attention primarily (although not exclusively) to large ensemble music. The breakthroughs made in New York were not lost, but transferred to a large group context, opening up further avenues of exploration. "The Education of an Amphibian" by the John Tchicai Octet represents a first try at "Komponist Udøver Ensemble," or "Composing Improvisers Orchestra," an approach that further blurred boundaries between improvisation and composition. Recorded in October 1966, the piece presents Tchicai as composer and guiding presence; an organizer of sounds; and an explorer of a widening musical vocabulary drawn from contemporary classical and African influences. "Beautiful United Harmony Happening" is something different -- an opportunity to embrace new modes of interdisciplinary performance. From the beginning of his return to Denmark, Tchicai sought out not only musicians, but artists in all artforms and began to organize happenings. Although rarely noted, ideas linked to Fluxus, performance art, and happenings were a large influence of Tchicai's thinking at this time. All these related movements sought to blur or erase boundaries between media and set up juxtapositions between styles and artforms that disrupted received ideas of "high" and "low" art. Participation by non-artists introduced elements that challenged ideas about virtuosity and legitimate expression. Random elements were embraced, and non-Western music and concepts were welcome. This performance, heard here in an excerpt from the full two-hour performance, is very much in this vein. It is one of the last performances involving members of Cadentia Nova Danica, but they are only one component (and hardly the focus) of an ensemble that included a five-member chorus of disciples of the Swami Narayanananda (Tchicai lived at the yogi's ashram and had organized the choir himself), the Diane Black Dance Theatre, and trumpeter Don Cherry. Includes insert.
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