ok, so, seriously folks - we all know how few and far between frank wright recordings are. and we all know that pretty much every frank wright recording is about as good as it gets. that, combined with the fact that the frank wright albums that are actually in existence (for christ sake, for a musician of such stature, he was so poorly documented), makes us ESPECIALLY lucky that the person(s) at
inconstant sol have made available a live and previously unreleased recording of mr. wrights quintet. OMG. as i write this i am listening to it again and...just download it. it is a gem. frank wright is one of a handful of modern musicians whom words do not describe. he was someone who should be listed in jazz history next to armstrong, coltrane, davis, parker, sun ra, mingus, ayler. yet amongst his contemporaries, he was the least recorded, and the few albums that do exist, are either out of print (including the reissue), hard to find, super expensive, or unheard of. dang dog.
i've yet to be more moved by any other musician. frank wright, albeit hard to say, tops my list as my favorite jazz figure of all time. and i can say that now because for years he has been so - i was maybe 21 when i bought a copy of "kevin, my dear son" at house of records in eugene, oregon. my friend jeremiah and i went back to my house (he talked himself out of buying a copy of the album cause we had only heard ESP disk's frank wright trio, which hadn't sunk in yet) and put it on, and about 30 seconds into the first song, he says to me while staring intently at the spinning record "damn dude i should've have bought this."
next i got my hands on the fractal releases of "center of the world," both volumes. wow. later jeremiah gave me a copy of church number nine and your prayer. i bought a cd copy of uhuru na umohja at amoeba in LA.
muhammed ali is on this recording. he is the late brother of the late rashied - whom i can say (rashied) goes down in my mind as one of the best live performers ive ever seen (RIP). only mccoy and pharoah survive as the living members of coltrane's ensembles. muhammed - ferocious, swinging, rumbling, finesse. beautiful.
and jean jacques avenel, on bass, whom i have never heard before this recording, is nothing short of amazing.
go to
inconstant sol. get the links to this show. and jeeeez what i would do to have been there. but frank wright passed before my interest in him was sparked :(
...though he speaks to me as if we've always been in communion.
Rec. live at the 10th "Moers Festival", Moers, Germany,
on June 6, 1981 (mics recording)
Frank Wright,tenor saxophone,bass clarinet,vocal
Arthur Jones,alto saxophone
Bobby Few,piano
Jean Jacques Avenel,bass
Muhammed Ali,drums
1. Burkhard Hennen Intro (0:45)
2. Track #1 (25:29)
3. Track #2 (12:10)
4. Track #3 (28:03)
Total Time 1:06:29
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inconstant sol
