Charles Lloyd - Sangam & Friends - VINYL LP

The present LP begins with one of these standard works, Kurt Weill's InchSpeak LowInch, and thus opens our ears for 43 minutes of relaxed listening. One notices that the control has not been handed over to free jazz players of the day. The impressionist sounds of the young Keith Jarrett fit in perfectly, and Jack DeJohnette had not yet moved into the realms of Miles Davis and his electric phase. A tip for great listening is Gabor Szabo's composition InchGypsy 66Inch, which is reminiscent of their time together with the other top drummer of the day, Chico Hamilton. All in all, this is a highly successful live production by Atlantic Records! (In their archives, by the way, are about a dozen unreleased Charles Lloyd recordings that are waiting to see the light of day.) In general, the present recording is rated higher than the LP InchIn EuropeInch, because the compositions leave behind a stronger impression on the listener.

Vinyl LP pressing. There's nothing else in jazz quite like this collection recorded - astonishingly - in just one session on 20th January 1963. With liner notes written by Mingus's psychotherapist, the album uses ornate ensemble orchestration to produce a sound somewhere between jazz and folk.

Vinyl LP pressing. This 1960 session falls historically between the astounding late-1959 work Charles Mingus did for Columbia Records and his slimmed-down pianoless quartet that made the classic Mingus at Antibes. Pre Bird and the Columbia material share some common elements, most obviously the large ensemble. Mingus devoted these sessions to his pre-1940s material and other works from the prebop era, and two of the best-played works are from Ellington's pen.