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    ‘Road Stories’ from the 2009 album ‘Sojourn’ by Venezuelan pianist Otmaro Ruiz, with Ben Wendel saxophones and bassoon, Jimmy Branly drums/percussion and Carlos Del Puerto bass.
     

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      Frank Zappa’s ‘Montana’ from the 1973 album ‘Over-Nite Sensation’ was one of the first songs that I heard after I discovered Radio Caroline later that same year at the age of 13, and realised that there was whole new world of music previously denied to me by the limited playlist of daytime Radio 1. It remains one of my favourite Zappa songs, from a period in his career where the music was at least holding its own against what for me was always Zappa’s tiresome desire to provoke, particularly lyrically. This version of The Mothers, many of the members drawn from jazz circles, was a considerable musical upgrade on what had gone before, with George Duke keyboards, Jean Luc Ponty violin, Ian Underwood saxes/flute, Sal Marquez trumpet, Bruce Fowler trombone, Ruth Underwood vibes/marimba/percussion, Tom Fowler bass and Ralph Humphrey drums. As an aside, the backing vocals on the album, including this track, were provided by Tina Turner and The Ikettes. They were removed from the album credits after Ike, who had been largely unaware of what had been going on, listened to a tape, pronounced that the music was shit, and wanted nothing more to do with it.
       

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        Auracle were a band formed by six students at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. They quickly gained a record deal with Chrysalis and their first album, ‘Glider’, released in 1978 (co-produced by Teo Macero) was well-received by the jazz critics of the time. I managed to get hold of an import copy and it was one of my most-played albums that year. A second album, ‘City Slickers’ followed in 1979, but that was as far as Auracle were destined to go. A shame as they were all fine, inventive players and for the most part their music still stands up pretty well. Maybe they were just five years too late. This is the title track from the first album, with John Serry Jr keyboards, Steve Kujala flute/saxophone, Rick Braun trumpet, Steve Rehbein vibes/marimba/percussion, Bill Staebell bass and Ron Wagner drums.
         

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          Madhouse was a Prince side project from the late 80’s, a jazz-funk instrumental collaboration with The Family saxophonist Eric Leeds. Only two studio albums (‘8’ and ‘16’) were released, and the third (provisionally titled ‘24’) never officially saw the light of day. For reasons known only to Prince (a phrase you could apply to many of the decisions that he made during his life) he wasn’t credited on either album. On the first album, aside from Leeds, the list of participants was entirely fictitious. On the second, Dr Fink and Levi Seacer Jr are both mentioned, but it is generally accepted now that Prince played pretty much everything on both albums apart from the sax and flute parts handled by Leeds. The music, particularly the funkier mid-paced tracks, has many recognisable Prince traits, but some of the jazzier pieces show him in quite a different light. This is 'One’, the opening track from the first album.
           

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            This is ‘Fifteen’ from the second Madhouse album.
             

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              The Eric Leeds solo album from 1991, ‘Times Squared’, is said to contain some of the material recorded during the latter stages of the Madhouse project, and certainly the ‘The Dopamine Rush’ from this album is virtually identical to a section from the much longer ‘21-24 The Dopamine Suite’, which is the only track from ‘24’ that I have ever come across. Prince is properly credited with playing guitar, bass, drums and keyboards on the album, with Levi Seacer Jr bass, Sheila E drums, Atlanta Bliss trumpet and Larry Fratangelo percussion also listed. This is ‘Cape Horn’.
               

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                ‘After The Monsoon’ from British-Asian clarinettist Arun Ghosh’s 2013 album ‘A South Asia Suite’, with Zoe Rahman piano, Idris Rahman tenor sax & flute, Chris Williams alto sax, Liran Donin bass and a multitude of drummers and percussionists too numerous to list.
                 

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                  ‘Glenford Crescent’ from US-born but German-based Charlie Mariano’s 1974 album ‘Reflections’, with Mariano on nadaswaram, soprano & alto saxophones, Eero Koivistoinen tenor saxophone, Jukka Tolonen guitar, Olli Ahvenlahti electric piano, Heiki Virtanen bass, Reino Laine drums and Sabu Martinez congas.
                   

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                    ‘For Marianne’ from German trumpeter Manfred Schoof’s 1976 album ‘Scales’, with Jasper van’t Hof keyboards, Michael Pilz bass clarinet, Ralf Hubner drums and Gunter Lenz bass.
                     

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                      Returning to the theme of Miles’ saxophonists from the early 70’s, it’s the turn of Dave Liebman, who played on the 1972 album ‘On The Corner’. This is ‘The Iguana’s Ritual’ from Liebman’s Lookout Farm band, taken from a 3-CD live retrospective covering 1974-75. Featuring Liebman on saxophones/flute, Richie Beirach electric piano, Frank Tusa bass and Jeff Williams drums.
                       

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                        ‘Dr Faustus’ from Liebman’s 1975 album ‘Sweet Hands’, with Richie Beirach on electric piano & clavinet, Frank Tusa bass, Jeff Williams drums and John Abercrombie guitar. I can clearly remember buying this album on a daytrip to Hastings with my family in August ‘75. As was my wont, I’d taken leave of the rest of them to trawl the local record shops. I came across ‘Sweet Hands’ in the tiny jazz section of an otherwise unremarkable back-street shop that seemed to mostly stock pop and middle-of-the-road stuff, and grabbed it immediately along with albums by Buster Williams and Art Blakey. My younger brothers thought I was mad to forego a rare afternoon on the beach but I knew better.
                         

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                          ‘On The Corner’, which saw Liebman sharing saxophone duties with Carlos Garnett was arguably the Miles album from his electric period that most divided the critics of the day. I would agree that there's way too much of Miles playing the organ instead of the trumpet, but it’s still a great album. As per his usual modus operandi in the studio at this point in his career, most tracks developed from long studio jams that were edited down in production. The sheer volume of these is evidenced by the ‘Complete On The Corner Sessions’ box set, which has something like 25 different tracks, at least half of which are between 15 and 30 minutes long. This is ‘One And One’ from the original release.
                           

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                            ‘Balance’ from Russian trumpeter Alex Sipiagin’s 2015 album ‘Balance 38-58', with David Binney saxophones, John Escreet piano, Adam Rogers guitar, Eric Harland drums and Matt Brewer bass.
                             

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                              ‘On The Nile’ from trumpeter Charles Tolliver’s 1992 album ‘The Ringer’, with Stanley Cowell piano, Steve Novosel bass and Jimmy Hopps drums.
                               

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                                A version of Robert Wyatt’s ‘Sea Song’ from Italian drummer Roberto Gatto’s 2008 album ‘Progressivamente - Omaggio Al Progressive Rock’, with John De Leo vocals, Francesco Puglisi bass, Fabrizio Bosso trumpet, Gianluca Petrella trombone, Maurizio Giammarco tenor sax, Danilo Rea keyboards and Roberto Cecchetto guitar. The album also features covers of songs by Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson and ELP. Wait! Come back.....
                                 

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                                  I’ve really enjoyed keeping this thread going for the last couple of months and although the views per post ratio may be the lowest on OTF, I hope that those of you who have tagged along for the brief ride have got something out of it. I may return to it in the future if I feel suitably inspired, but for now I’ve decided to call it a day and go back to being a largely passive member of the OTF community.

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                                    I’ve been enjoying it in pieces, and will return to it when I want to listen to stuff I don’t know while I work. Many thanks for your contributions.

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                                      What SB said.

                                      I have enjoyed everything new that I have sampled so far.

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                                        My holiday listening to the West Country included this amazing album, from one of my all time faves Freddie Hubbard. One of those 12 minute tracks which seems to last 3:30.

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                                          Currently listening to Gabor Szabo's Dreams and it's lovely in a quite down tempo way.

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                                            Writer Stanley Crouch has died, aged 74.

                                            https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/91361...tic-dead-at-74

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                                              Robert Wyatt's version of 'Strange Fruit'



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                                                Duke Ellington - Afro-Bossa

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                                                  Crossref with pandemic playlist: Ornette Coleman - The Ark

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                                                    Taking a lead from the South African tracks on p1 of this thread, this is simply exquisite.



                                                    This one features Louis Moholo (as posted by KGR - a gem I'd not previously heard) on drums. From a fantastic half-album, ruined as far as my doubtless untrained ear is concerned by the fact side 2 consists largely of 23 minutes of aimless noodling.




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