Marion Brown - alto saxophone
Gunter Hampel - vibraphone
Barre Phillips - bass
Steve McCall - drums
Tracks 1-3 recorded live at Maison de la Radio, Salle 105, on the 16th of March, 1968
Tracks 4-5 recorded at Festival de Châteauvallon, Ollioules, France on the 22nd August, 1972
| 1. | Current Events | 12:08 |
| 2. | Epiphanie | 10:03 |
| 3. | 61 to Erie Basin | 10:37 |
| 4. | Djinji's Corner | 22:07 |
| 5. | Afternoon of a Georgia Faun | 17:24 |
| Tracks 1-3 recorded live at Maison de la Radio, Salle 105, on the 16th of March, 1968 Tracks 4-5 recorded at Festival de Châteauvallon, Ollioules, France on the 22nd August, 1972 | ||
Editor's Info
On Live in Europe 1968 & 1972, Marion Brown leads a borderless quartet through two rare European concerts, pairing his singing alto with Gunter Hampel's vibes, Barre Phillips' bass and Steve McCall's drums in a sound that hovers between lyrical free jazz and chamber‑like intimacy.
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 recovers two essential but long‑unheard moments in Marion Brown's European sojourn, a period when the alto saxophonist moved fluidly between continents, aesthetic camps and collaborators. The first three tracks - "Current Events", "Epiphanie" and "61 to Erie Basin" - were recorded live at Maison de la Radio, Salle 105 in Paris on March 16, 1968, while the final two pieces, "Djinji's Corner" and "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun", come from the Festival de Châteauvallon in Ollioules, France on August 22, 1972. The two sessions are separated by over four years, yet they share a core quartet formation that bridges American and European free‑jazz sensibilities: Brown on alto saxophone, Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums.
The 1968 set captures the group in a more compressed, tightly wound mode. Brown's alto is at once lyrical and restless, tracing long, twisting lines that carry echoes of blues and folk melody even when the harmony beneath them has dissolved. Hampel's vibraphone provides shimmering harmonic pools and ringing ostinatos, his mallet work precise yet supple enough to shift from delicate filigree to aggressive, hammered clusters. Phillips, already one of the most inventive bassists in the European free scene, moves between arco sustains and darting pizzicato figures, his lines acting as both harmonic anchor and melodic counterpoint. McCall's drumming is alive with colour: cymbal washes, subtle snare accents and tom‑rolls that push and pull the time without ever settling into straightahead swing. Across "Current Events", "Epiphanie" and "61 to Erie Basin", the quartet balances collective exploration with song‑like clarity, allowing themes to surface and recede organically.
By 1972, the chemistry has deepened and the music stretches out. "Djinji's Corner" runs over twenty‑two minutes, an extended meditation that moves through multiple moods and textures: sparse duo exchanges, dense quartet blowouts, passages where Brown's alto floats alone over a bed of vibes and bowed bass. "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun", clocking in at over seventeen minutes, leans into the pastoral and elegiac, with Brown spinning long, arching melodies that feel less like improvisation and more like composed song, even as they emerge entirely in the moment. Here the quartet's interplay feels less about intensity and more about space, patience and the slow unfolding of musical ideas. Hampel's vibes shimmer like sunlight on water, Phillips bows long, humming drones, and McCall uses brushes and mallets to create an almost orchestral backdrop.
Released by NoBusiness Records and mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios, the album restores these performances with clarity and warmth, preserving the acoustic detail of the original broadcasts while keeping the live atmosphere intact. Design by Jeff DiPerna and production by Danas Mikailionis and Ed Hazell frame the music with the care it deserves, positioning it not as a historical footnote but as a vital addition to the Marion Brown discography. For listeners, Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 offers a rare glimpse of Brown working outside the New York loft scene and away from his better‑documented ESP‑Disk and Impulse! Sessions, showing how his music could thrive in partnership with European improviser‑composers who shared his commitment to lyricism, structure and risk in equal measure.
freejazzblog:
Marion Brown (1935-2010) attacked the new thing when it was really new, but he never achieved the fame of avant garde giants. If you like intense, energetic, and genuinely free jazz, listen to Why not? (ESP 1968). Or, maybe even better, Three for Shepp (Impulse 1966).
The collection here is one from the vaults. The first 3 numbers were recorded at the Maison de la Radio that same year. The last 2 at the Festival de Châteauvallon, Ollioules, France in 1972. Along with Brown's alto sax are Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Philips on bass, and Steve McCall on drums.
The Maison Ronde recordings are by far the best of the five. Brown was a pioneer of a certain kind of free composition. He takes a simple, bluesy phrase, twists it inside out, and extracts every last drop of nectar. Beyond that phrase, there is no narrative. There is, however, the slightly melancholy mood of the horn itself. Brown's sound reminds me somewhat of Steve Lacy, especially in his collaborations with Mal Waldron. His playing, on the other hand, is similar to what you might hear on Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel or, more recently, the amazing recordings of Fred Anderson. Marion Brown is one of those jazz geniuses that could expand his soul into simple horn lines with such grace as to make the angels jealous.
One caveat is that the recording is not what the music deserves. At the 1st venue, you can hear the horn just fine. The rest of the band really needs to come up at bit. The same is true for the horn on the last two cuts, but the supporting instruments are largely reduced to the sound of wind chimes. To what extent this was intended (it was 1972 and the drugs had taken effect) I do not know. It gets better as the piece, Djinji's Corner, goes on. Short of halfway through you can hear everything.
I am grateful to NoBusiness for bringing this document to my ears. I realize that margins are tight, but I do wish there was more documentation on this recording. There is a lot of cheap talent out there (yours truly, for example) who would do the research.
Meanwhile, if you have no Marion Brown in your collection, any time after 1972 is a good time to start. The recordings mentioned above are good. This one gives you some dangerous beauty.
By Kenneth Blanchard
Marion Brown był filarem nowojorskiej free jazzowej awangardy, spod znaku "The New Wave in Jazz", kreatywnym, uduchowionym saksofonistą. Najbardziej znany, jako uczestnik sesji nagraniowej przełomowego albumu Johna Coltrane'a "Ascension". Później nagrał kilka wspaniałych płyt dla ESP-Disk i Impulse!. Za sprawą Mariona Browna free jazz zyskał liryczne oblicze. Znakomity "Live in Europe 1968 & 1972" ukazuje arcymistrza ognistego free jazzu w medytacyjnym nastroju.
Nie wiem dlaczego pozostaje nieznany, nie wiem dlaczego jego dorobek płytowy jest zapomniany. Być może dlatego, że już w 1967 roku przeniósł się do Europy, gdzie doświadczył artystycznej transformacji. Nawiązał tutaj kontakty z takimi muzykami jak Gunter Hampel, Wadada Leo Smith i Karl Berger, jednocześnie pogłębiając swoje studia nad muzyką afrykańską, która odgrywała fundamentalną rolę w kulturze afrykańskiej, także funkcję komunikacyjną. Zainteresował się dorobkiem kompozytorów francuskiego impresjonizmu, co rymowało się z melancholią jego własnej muzyki. Wszystko to dało w pełni oryginalny efekt, doskonale wybrzmiewający na "Live in Europe" z 1968 i 1972 roku.
Pierwsze trzy utwory - "Current Events", "Epiphanie" i "61 to Erie Basin" - zostały zarejestrowane 16 marca 1968 roku na żywo w Maison de la Radio - Salle 105 w Paryżu. Dwa ostatnie: "Djinji's Corner" i "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun" pochodzą z występu na Festival de Châteauvallon w Ollioules we Francji (22 sierpnia 1972 roku). Pomimo czterech lat, które dzieli od siebie oba nagrania, słyszymy kwartet w tej samej obsadzie. To fuzja amerykańskiej i europejskiej free jazzowej wrażliwości: Marion Brown na saksofonie altowym, Gunter Hampel na wibrafonie, Barre Phillips na kontrabasie i Steve McCall za perkusją.
autor: MAd
Editor's Info
On Live in Europe 1968 & 1972, Marion Brown leads a borderless quartet through two rare European concerts, pairing his singing alto with Gunter Hampel's vibes, Barre Phillips' bass and Steve McCall's drums in a sound that hovers between lyrical free jazz and chamber‑like intimacy.
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 recovers two essential but long‑unheard moments in Marion Brown's European sojourn, a period when the alto saxophonist moved fluidly between continents, aesthetic camps and collaborators. The first three tracks - "Current Events", "Epiphanie" and "61 to Erie Basin" - were recorded live at Maison de la Radio, Salle 105 in Paris on March 16, 1968, while the final two pieces, "Djinji's Corner" and "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun", come from the Festival de Châteauvallon in Ollioules, France on August 22, 1972. The two sessions are separated by over four years, yet they share a core quartet formation that bridges American and European free‑jazz sensibilities: Brown on alto saxophone, Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Phillips on bass and Steve McCall on drums.
The 1968 set captures the group in a more compressed, tightly wound mode. Brown's alto is at once lyrical and restless, tracing long, twisting lines that carry echoes of blues and folk melody even when the harmony beneath them has dissolved. Hampel's vibraphone provides shimmering harmonic pools and ringing ostinatos, his mallet work precise yet supple enough to shift from delicate filigree to aggressive, hammered clusters. Phillips, already one of the most inventive bassists in the European free scene, moves between arco sustains and darting pizzicato figures, his lines acting as both harmonic anchor and melodic counterpoint. McCall's drumming is alive with colour: cymbal washes, subtle snare accents and tom‑rolls that push and pull the time without ever settling into straightahead swing. Across "Current Events", "Epiphanie" and "61 to Erie Basin", the quartet balances collective exploration with song‑like clarity, allowing themes to surface and recede organically.
By 1972, the chemistry has deepened and the music stretches out. "Djinji's Corner" runs over twenty‑two minutes, an extended meditation that moves through multiple moods and textures: sparse duo exchanges, dense quartet blowouts, passages where Brown's alto floats alone over a bed of vibes and bowed bass. "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun", clocking in at over seventeen minutes, leans into the pastoral and elegiac, with Brown spinning long, arching melodies that feel less like improvisation and more like composed song, even as they emerge entirely in the moment. Here the quartet's interplay feels less about intensity and more about space, patience and the slow unfolding of musical ideas. Hampel's vibes shimmer like sunlight on water, Phillips bows long, humming drones, and McCall uses brushes and mallets to create an almost orchestral backdrop.
Released by NoBusiness Records and mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios, the album restores these performances with clarity and warmth, preserving the acoustic detail of the original broadcasts while keeping the live atmosphere intact. Design by Jeff DiPerna and production by Danas Mikailionis and Ed Hazell frame the music with the care it deserves, positioning it not as a historical footnote but as a vital addition to the Marion Brown discography. For listeners, Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 offers a rare glimpse of Brown working outside the New York loft scene and away from his better‑documented ESP‑Disk and Impulse! Sessions, showing how his music could thrive in partnership with European improviser‑composers who shared his commitment to lyricism, structure and risk in equal measure.
freejazzblog:
Marion Brown (1935-2010) attacked the new thing when it was really new, but he never achieved the fame of avant garde giants. If you like intense, energetic, and genuinely free jazz, listen to Why not? (ESP 1968). Or, maybe even better, Three for Shepp (Impulse 1966).
The collection here is one from the vaults. The first 3 numbers were recorded at the Maison de la Radio that same year. The last 2 at the Festival de Châteauvallon, Ollioules, France in 1972. Along with Brown's alto sax are Gunter Hampel on vibraphone, Barre Philips on bass, and Steve McCall on drums.
The Maison Ronde recordings are by far the best of the five. Brown was a pioneer of a certain kind of free composition. He takes a simple, bluesy phrase, twists it inside out, and extracts every last drop of nectar. Beyond that phrase, there is no narrative. There is, however, the slightly melancholy mood of the horn itself. Brown's sound reminds me somewhat of Steve Lacy, especially in his collaborations with Mal Waldron. His playing, on the other hand, is similar to what you might hear on Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel or, more recently, the amazing recordings of Fred Anderson. Marion Brown is one of those jazz geniuses that could expand his soul into simple horn lines with such grace as to make the angels jealous.
One caveat is that the recording is not what the music deserves. At the 1st venue, you can hear the horn just fine. The rest of the band really needs to come up at bit. The same is true for the horn on the last two cuts, but the supporting instruments are largely reduced to the sound of wind chimes. To what extent this was intended (it was 1972 and the drugs had taken effect) I do not know. It gets better as the piece, Djinji's Corner, goes on. Short of halfway through you can hear everything.
I am grateful to NoBusiness for bringing this document to my ears. I realize that margins are tight, but I do wish there was more documentation on this recording. There is a lot of cheap talent out there (yours truly, for example) who would do the research.
Meanwhile, if you have no Marion Brown in your collection, any time after 1972 is a good time to start. The recordings mentioned above are good. This one gives you some dangerous beauty.
By Kenneth Blanchard