Carla Bley - Jazz Realities (1966)

[quoteIn 1966, producer Alan Bates spearheaded a series of avant-garde jazz releases for the Fontana label (both Dutch and UK imprints), now prized by collectors not only for the fact that they document crucial years in the music (1962-66), but for their beautiful and unique color lithography by Dutch pop artist and lithographer Marte Röling. Röling's covers are fanciful renditions of the artists' heads, filled with whimsical cutaways showing the machinations of the jazzman's mind (Tchicai's, on Mohawk, includes group protests and a saxophone; Marion brown has numerals and valves).

The lithographs themselves were culled from photographs of the artists by Guy Kopelowicz, Ray Ross and others. The sessions' origins are quite varied; live concerts make up a few of the dates, others were culled from the artists' own tapes. Two sessions are reissues of material originally released on Riverside in the US (George Russell's The Outer View and Rod Levitt's Dynamic Sound Patterns). Though the original series was short-lived, reissues have been produced in Japan, as well as collected on the Arista-Freedom and Black Lion labels - albeit with different cover art.


Tracks:

01. Doctor 7:45
02. Oni Puladi 5:25
03. J.S. 3:35
04. Walking Batterie Woman 6:18
05. Closer 5:30
06. Communications No. 7 9:34

Personnel:

Mike Mantler - trumpet
Steve Lacy - soprano sax
Carla Bley - piano
Kent Carter - bass
Aldo Romano - drums