inner city was a small mysterious label from west 61st street in new york. they released hundreds of albums. i don't know if any of them have ever made it to cd. at one point in time, there was a web site dedicated to publishing a complete list of every album in their catalog. when i saw it last, there were still blank spots in it.
tommy flanagan's trinity is one of my favorites from the inner city repertoire. it is accessible, it swings - it is tommy flanagan's second recording as band leader, almost 20 years since his first. it seems to me that he is a pianist that has suffered from anonymity - despite the fact he had been the drummer for ella fitzgerald, had played on coltrane's giant steps and sonny rollins' saxophone colossus, and recorded with coleman hawkins and miles.
this trio is all-star. roy haynes is here and so is ron carter. check out the bass/drum break in "52nd st. theme." that is the passage that first grabbed my ear on this album. here he is on youtube playing in cologne in 1991. george mraz is on bass and bobby durham on drums; they are both incredible.
you can download "trinity" tommy flanagan here
I'm all ears for Tommy Flanagan!
ReplyDeleteinner city, as great of a label as it was (i also collected it) was basically a reissue label. i spoke with an ex-employee of IC and he confirmed that most of their recordings were licensed from other labels. sometimes, like the braxton/bailey lp they had exclusive bonus tracks but not so often. i would guess 10% of the IC catalog was original releases.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite true. This recording was made for CBS and released in Japan as "Positive Intensity."
ReplyDeleteInner city is good but it comes a time that people start to desire something different as it happens in any generation.
ReplyDeleteGreat sshare
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