Kathleen Loves Music

David S. Ware
Birth of a Being
hat HUT Records

Recorded April 14 & 15, 1977
C.I. Recording, New York
Engineer: Fred Seibert
LP Released 1979

[Click on the track names for LP transfers to MP3]
Side One
1. Prayer (10:50)

2. Thematic Womb (16:35)

Side Two
1. A Primary Piece #1 (13:45)

2. A Primary Piece #2 (11:45)

David S. Ware: tenor sax, composer
Gene Y. Ashton [aka Cooper-Moore]: piano
Marc D. Edwards: drums

……
Copyrights and masters owned by their respective owners. I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. If any of them are re-released, or the copyright owners object, I’ll delete the posts.

 
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Willis Jackson
In The Alley
Muse Records MR 5100

Produced by Fred Seibert

(Read more about this session here.)

[Click on track names for LP transfers to MP3]

Side A
1. Niamani

2. Gator’s Groove

3. Blues, Blues, Blues

Side B
1. Young Man with the Horn

2. More

3. In The Alley

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When I was a budding record producer my go-to guy for album covers was my great friend from childhood, Frank Olinsky, who went on to become one of the most respected and successful music designers of the last 30 years (starting, most famously, with his co-design of the MTV logo). He selflessly went to work on whatever I asked him for, including this unreleased album cover for the unreleased (really tasty) jazz album cut by R&B pianist/singer/songwriter Rusty Cloud (Bo Diddley, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, The Blues Brothers). (Maybe I can find and post the tapes someday.)

Frank’s a great designer, but, in my eyes, an even more incredible illustrator and painter. This cover always reminded me of Eberhard Weber’s “The Colours of Chloë”, but with Frank’s trademark wry humor.

Willis Jackson
with Pat Martino
Single Action

Produced by Fred Seibert

1. Evergreen
2. Bolita
3. Makin’ Whoopee
4. You Are My Sunshine
5. Hittin’ The Numbers
6. Single Action
7. Evergreen (outtake)

Willis Jackson: tenor saxophone
Pat Martino: guitar
Carl Wilson: organ
Jimmy Lewis: bass
Yusef Ali: drums
Ralph Dorsey: percussion

Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.

Less a producer than actually a recording supervisor (my credit on this album) I arrived at our first session together with virtually no information on what we were recording or who was playing. Willis was tough and a little paranoid so this situation played out during the three or four sessions we did together. I’d never heard any of his music (it wasn’t cool enough within the jazzbo circles I [Read more…]

Hank Jones
Groovin’ High

Produced by Fred Seibert

1. Algo Bueno
2. Anthropology
3. Sippin’ at Bells
4. Blue Monk
5. Groovin’ High
6. I Mean You
7. Jackie-Ing

Hank Jones: Piano
Sam Jones: Bass
Mickey Roker: Drums
Thad Jones: Cornet
Charlie Rouse: Tenor Saxophone

As soon as we saw the incredible reaction to our first release with Hank Jones, Bop Redux , in 1977 it was clear to Muse Records’ founder Joe Fields and me we needed to record a sequel. Hank’s absence from the scene for 25 years (in the CBS Orchestra) had only made him better, and the yearning for the emotion and craft of originators of bebop was burning a hole in the hearts of 70s jazz fans. We moved recording from my base at CI Recording in Manhattan (the former Mercury Records studios) to Rudy Van Gelder’s in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the most famous studio for jazz in the world.

The moment of discord with Hank came when I insisted he replace [Read more…]

The CD reissue from 2000

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Front cover

This Cecil Taylor post has moved, please click here. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Cecil Taylor Unit
“Return Concert” (excerpted as “Spring of Two Blue-J’s”)
Town Hall, New York City
November 4, 1973
(Clickable MP3s in large fonts below)

In the early 70s, pianist/composer Cecil Taylor had teaching at the University of Wisconsin and Antioch College for several years, absent from New York performing during those tumultuous years for jazz. He returned with a vengeance in 1973, commuting from Ohio, and by the end of the year I got involved recording some of his live performances. The most anticipated was the Town Hall “Return Concert” with his quartet (stalwarts Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille, with the addition of the Revolutionary Ensemble’s Sirone).

These tapes have been sitting in my library for nearly 40 years without much of a second look, no less listen. I’ve finally converted the stereo two tracks to digital files (four tracks and digital mixing currently beyond my pay grade). There are outtakes and alternative mixes, and they’ll all be posted as I [Read more…]