A week or so ago, WFMU blog contributor, Lukas, posted this set of 19 rather historic lo-fi recordings that were committed to tape sometime between March and August 1957. The recordings are of a series of Sunday jam sessions that were convened by avant-garde composer, Edgard Varese, and together they constitute possibly the first ever free jazz recordings in history, appearing a full 3 years before Ornette Coleman's genre-defining album, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. Although they were not released on any label, some excerpts did find their way into Varese's landmark 1958 composition, Poeme Electronique.
(PERSONNEL TRIVIA: The regular players at these sessions included Charles Mingus on bass and Teo Macero, who went on to produce Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew and Dave Brubeck's Time Out, on tenor sax.)
Posted by Warren at June 7, 2009 05:53 PM | Jazz