This column is dedicated to albums and entire series that have been unavailable for some time. They are out of print and circulate in the parallel market of second-hand records. This is an area in which internationally renowned and lesser-known musicians find themselves.
Lost Recordings
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. Mike Mainieri’s Debut
At the age of 87, Mike Mainieri certainly needs no introduction. The American vibraphonist, composer, and record producer, whose father came from Ravello, has earned his place in jazz history—particularly through his musical innovations with Steps Ahead. Synonymous with fusion, the band has released a dozen studio and live albums and given countless concerts since its inception in 1979. It was a supergroup from the very beginning, with Michael Brecker, Don Grolnick, Eddie Gomez, and Steve Gadd in the original lineup. The band was born out of improvised jam sessions at Seventh Avenue South, the New York club opened by Brecker and his older brother Randy. The all-star identity of the group was never diminished, even as new members came on board—among them Peter Erskine, Eliane Elias, Bill Evans, Marc Johnson, and Mike Stern. Now approaching ninety, Mainieri’s career is well known. Admirers and detractors alike recognize both the merits […]
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A Lost Item in Hamburg: The 1975 New Jazz Festival Album
The 1. New Jazz Festival Hamburg '75 album remains a lost item today. It contains four long tracks from a festival whose lineup, half a century later, is still difficult to reconstruct: Terje Rypdal, Liebman & Beirach, Eberhard Weber, and Tomasz Stańko.
Barry Altschul: sounds from another space/time
A member of some of the most innovative groups of the seventies, a faithful partner of Dave Holland in an unforgettable rhythm section, Barry Altschul left us some important records
Tony Coe and the Pink Panther: A Canterbury Tale
Plas Johnson was the first saxophonist to take on the iconic theme—but from then on, it was the British musician’s turn to leave his mark on the later films in the series. Yet Coe did much more
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Joys and sorrows of self-management: “Groups In Front Of People”
From Guus Janssen to Evan Parker, through Maarten Altena, Günter Christmann, Paul Lovens, Terry Day, Peter Cusack, Paul Termos and Paul Lytton.
Martin Davidson’s orphans: records from the Emanem catalog
Over the years, the British producer and his wife Madaleine have built a monument to improvised music that is now in serious danger of being lost
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky: before and after the GDR
With the disappearance of the saxophonist from the former GDR, an indispensable figure in European jazz and improvised music, the protagonist of a thousand adventures, especially with his old Zentralquartett pals: Sommer, Gumpert and Bauer. We commemorate his life and work
Mort Garson and the Moog: Hair and Toupees
Summer edition of our column of assorted follies; a journey into the "new sounds" of engineer Moog's strange invention, among bald composers and jazz musicians incognito.
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The touch of Paul Buckmaster: Chitinous Ensemble and other stories
The curious artistic history of the Anglo-Neapolitan cellist and arranger who went from David Bowie to Miles Davis and from Elton John to Italian pop: why did everyone want him?
Sex, drugs and Luis Gasca: on the road between Texas and California
Between Mongo Santamaría and Santana, Janis Joplin and Joe Henderson, the Houston trumpeter lived the 1970s to the fullest, leaving some significant traces of himself