Founded in 2005, Corbett vs. Dempsey is a label attached to the Chicago art gallery of the same name. Featuring a mixture of new recordings and CD reissues of out-of-print LPs, CvsD's offerings focus on jazz, free jazz, and improvised music; occasional rock and rock-related noise; artist-related projects; sound art; and soon some experimentally minded dub. Many of the releases continue the archival work that John Corbett did with his Unheard Music Series, released under the Atavistic label starting in the late '90s, with Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Tom Prehn, and Sun Ra being carry-overs from UMS. Corbett's commitment to the Joe McPhee legacy led to CvsD's acquisition of McPhee's legendary Hat Hut tapes, along with the label's cache of recordings by Steve Lacy, Jimmy Lyons, and various other artists. The label's more recent offerings are packaged in tipped-on mini-LP covers, lovingly designed to reproduce the original LP packaging.
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CVSD 060CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of ICP Tentet's Tetterettet, originally released in 1977. Recorded in 1977, the Instant Composers Pool's Tetterettet is the first classic of the band's larger incarnations. Assembled out of elements recorded live in Uithoorn, Utrecht, and the band's home base of Amsterdam, with Misha Mengelberg using a cut-and-paste collage method akin to Teo Macero's work with Miles Davis, the record features an all-star lineup that added three leading lights of free music: bassist Alan Silva and saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann. In this period, Brötzmann made the long train trip from Wuppertal, Germany, to A'dam on a weekly basis to rehearse with ICP, bassist Silva coming in from Paris. Well known for his work in pioneer creative music ensembles such as the New York Art Quartet and the New York Contemporary Five and on John Coltrane's Ascention (1976), Tchicai was the Paul Desmond of free jazz, with a softer, more subtle phraseology than many of his peers. These international figures joined pianist Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink -- whose ICP co-founder Willem Breuker had broken off to form what would become his long-time working band, the Kollektief -- and their outrageous, hyper-inventive big band. Michel Waiswicz, who invented the crackle box, a user-friendly, portable electronic instrument, is a defining presence on Mengelberg's multipart "Tetterettet," and along with the heavyweight out-of-towners the band includes composer, oboist, and saxophonist Gilius Van Bergeyk, whose sequence of compositions nestle perfectly into Misha's, Han's gifted brother Peter Bennink on saxes, trombonist Bert Koppelaar, and cellist Tristan Honsinger, who has continued to work with the ensemble even after Misha's death in 2017. One of the landmark records of Mengelberg tunes, with classics like "Rumboon" and "Alexander's Marschbefehel", Tetterettet presents a program full of musical surprises, intelligence, and ICP's own brand of uproarious humor. A shaggy masterpiece, available here for the first time as a stand-alone CD, remastered from the original tapes, with Han Bennink's original cover design and a contemporaneous photo from the archives of Gérard Rouy.
ICP Tentet: Misha Mengelberg - piano; John Tchicai - alto and soprano saxophone; Gilius van Bergeyk - alto saxophone, oboe; Peter Bennink - alto and sopranino saxophone; Peter Brötzmann - alto, tenor and baritone saxophone; Bert Koppelaar - trombone; Tristan Honsinger - cello; Michel Waisvisz - crackle box; Alan Silva - bass; Han Bennink - drums, bass clarinet.
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CVSD 057CD
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Hailing from the Germantown section of Philadelphia, well known as the site of the Sun Ra Arkestra communal homestead, Sounds of Liberation were at the forefront of '70s Black liberation music. After a series of gigs in elementary schools, prisons, and community centers, the band travelled along with their manager George Gilmore (father of Linc Gilmore of Breakwater fame) to NYC in 1973 for a recording session at Columbia University. This five-song session has never been heard until now. Had it ever been issued, it would have followed on the band's debut, New Horizons, released on Dogtown Records in 1972. Sounds of Liberation formed in early 1970, initially lead by vibraphonist Warren Robert Cheeseboro, aka Khan Jamal, but it wasn't until the eventual arrival of Byard Lancaster that the band's prospects started to take off. Lancaster was a master at making a deal. This deal-making lead to more gigs and more recognition, especially from local newspapers. Sounds of Liberation was more of a community than a band at times and because of that spirit there was a strong desire by the entire group to work with schoolchildren as well as inmates. They did just that, and continued to do so throughout the early to mid-70s. Released briefly in 2018 as a special edition of 100 copies by Brewerytown Beats, the music on Sounds of Liberation has never been heard before. Shoulder-deep in groove juice, it's a record with heavy ostinato and beautiful backbeats, including the mellowing influence of Jamal's vibes and the incisive guitar of Monette Sudler, the final track featuring an unidentified vocal group singing a stone-cold soul hit, also featuring some searing saxophone courtesy of Mr. Lancaster. A treasure for fans of so-called spiritual jazz and free funk, Sounds of Liberation is a snapshot of its era and equally an inspiration in ours. The package comes with never seen photos of the band and a cover design by artist LeRoy Butler, who worked with the SoL in the era, at the same time he was designing records for Sun Ra. Lovingly coaxed from long-unplayed original tapes, Sounds of Liberation is a new line item in the soul improvisation pantheon.
Personnel: Byard Lancaster - flute, alto saxophone; Khan Jamal - vibraphone; Monnette Sudler - guitar; Billy Mills - bass; Dwight James - drums; Rashid Salime - congos; Omar Hill - percussion; vocalists on "New Horizon/Backstreets of Heaven" are unidentified. Recorded at Columbia University, NYC, in 1973.
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CVSD 059CD
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Since 2015, Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio has been the host of Option, a series of intimate concerts of improvised music. Featuring an uncommonly wide range of players representing virtually all haunts of free music, the series has fostered not only an important exchange of ideas in musical form, but it has also promoted literal conversation about the music, usually substituting a dialogue with the musician or musicians for the requisite second set. In 2018, the series was funded by a consortium of major international art galleries, each of whom underwrote a month of events. As is always the case at ESS, the music was recorded, and in the end an astonishing archive of tapes was produced, from which 15 tracks were selected and programmed onto two CDs for Option 1, the first compilation of the series. The artists featured on the program are Susan Alcorn (lap steel guitarist and winner of the 2018 Instant Award in Improvised Music), the Chicago-based team of Lou Mallozzi & Douglas Ewart (Lunch With Money), veteran percussionist Gerry Hemingway, Norwegian pianist Håvard Wiik, Luke Stewart, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen & Kent Kessler, trumpeter Greg Kelley, Ben Goldberg & Michael Coleman, Bonnie Jones, the impossible piano of Kris Davis, Wayne Horvitz & Sara Schoenbeck, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, Chattanooga's own LaDonna Smith, Booker Stardrum, Beth McDonald & Dave Rempis, and young guitar sensation Sandy Ewen. By turns haunting, abrasive, lyrical, absurd, bracing, and hilarious, Option 1 in fact offers many different options -- a smorgasbord of alternatives representing the exciting, multifaceted reality of free music in its contemporary manifestation.
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CVSD 061CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Dudu Pukwana, Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg's Yi Yole, originally released in 1979. Recorded at the ICP Jubileum, a festival in Uithoorn, Holland, in 1978, Yi Yole brings together the core of the Instant Composers Pool -- pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink -- with legendary South African alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana. Longtime member of the Blue Notes, Pukwana was a beloved figure in European free music after he left South Africa in the mid-sixties and settled in London. There he worked with all of the leading lights of free improvised music, recording extensively with the Brotherhood of Breath and eventually releasing LPs under his own leadership before his untimely passing in 1990 at the age of 51. What the three tracks on Yi Yole make clear is how surprisingly well the Dutch and South African sensibilities fit together, an overall relaxed vibe leading to unforeseen directions in the music. Han Bennink ranges far beyond his drum kit and its metallic add-ons, playing trombone, clarinet, and viola; his collage design for the record, as with all ICP productions, is brilliant and perfectly matched to the music. This is the only time these three prime movers of free music would record as a trio, hitting just at the moment when the Instant Composers Pool was gaining momentum and South African jazz was growing in international stature. Released on ICP, Mengelberg/Bennink's self-produced label, Yi Yole saw limited distribution and attention in its time, but it remains an absolute classic of improvised music, presented here in all its glory with Bennink's design, remastered from original tapes, the box of which is reproduced on the interior spread, replete with never-seen hand notations.
Personnel: Dudu Pukwana - alto saxophone, whistle; Misha Mengelberg - piano; Han Bennink - drums, clarinet, viola, trombone.
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CVSD 058CD
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If you've missed out on bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, now's your chance to play some catch up ball. He's one of creative music's most eloquent exponents, having emerged from the fertile Swedish jazz scene around 2005. With his band Torbjörn Zetterberg Hot Five, he began a fruitful relationship with the thoroughly excellent Moserobie label, run by his frequent band mate, saxophonist Jonas Kullhammar, and by the time he was making records like Skildrar Kvinnans Kamp and Och Den Stora Frågen, Corbett Vs. Dempsey were completely hooked. Zetterberg is a Mingus for our times. He's a composer of unusual means -- great sense for how to harmonize his inventive melodies; how to make a sextet sound like a big band and how to clear space for an unaccompanied solo; his slightly devious sense of humor underlying all the drive and swing that make the best in a bass player; and best of all a respect for his musicians, who have always found ways to push his great compositions up a notch. This luminous set of tracks was recorded in performance at Stockholm's famed Jazzclub Fasching. It presents a newly named ensemble, Torbjörn Zetterberg & The Great Question, with Kullhammar and Alberto Pinton on saxophones and clarinets, Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, trombonist Mats Äleklint, and drummer Jon Fält. With the exception of the opening passage, which adapts the traditional "Cherry Tree Carol", all compositions are by Zetterberg, and they make a solid case for him as a jazz writer to be taken seriously. Joyful, powerful, irreverent, and utterly fearless, The Great Question presents its case, answers the initial query, and asks more probing ones. Gatefold packaging features artwork by Karl Wirsum, one of the original Hairy Who painters of Chicago fame, and a portrait of Zetterberg by photographer Peter Gannushkin.
Personnel: Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass; Susana Santos Silva - trumpet, tin whistle; Mats Äleklint - trombone, harmonica; Jonas Kullhammar - tenor saxophone, flute; Alberto Pinton - baritone saxophone, clarinet, flute; Jon Fält - drums.
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CVSD 054CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Joe McPhee's Nation Time, originally issued in 1971. It's been nearly five decades since McPhee assembled a group of musicians to perform the weekend concerts that would become Nation Time, his second LP. It was December 1970; thirty-one-year-old McPhee was inspired by Amiri Baraka's poem It's Nation Time, and the students at Vassar College didn't know what hit them. "What time is it?", shouted McPhee. "Come on, you can do better than that. What time is it?!!" The music on Nation Time came out of a fertile, but little-known creative jazz scene in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee's home base. Two bands were deployed, one with a funky free foundation featuring guitar and organ, the other consisting of a more standard jazz formation, with two drummers and the brilliant Mike Kull at the piano. Across the concert and the next afternoon's audience-less recording session, the band was ignited by McPhee's passion and his gorgeous post-Coltrane/post-Pharoah tenor. On "Shakey Jake," they hit a James Brown groove filtered through Archie Shepp, while the sidelong title track is as searching and poignant today as it was during its heyday. Originally released in 1971 on CjR, an imprint started expressly to document McPhee's work, Nation Time has a sense of urgency and inspiration. Additional material from those December days would later appear on Black Magic Man (1975), Hat Hut's first release. In fact, the first four records on the seminal Swiss label all featured McPhee. Nation Time was largely unknown a quarter century or so later, when it was first issued on CD through the Unheard Music Series. On Corbett vs. Dempsey, the album was reissued along with all known tapes leading up to and around it as a CD box set (CVSD 011CD, 2017), but the standalone album has remained incredibly rare. In preparing to reissue the CD on its own, a new, previously unknown tape was discovered with three tracks recorded at the original concert in 1970. These include an intense version of Coltrane's "Naima"; all of them feature pianist Kull, and none have been issued before this. Personnel: Joe Mcphee - Tenor/soprano saxophones, trumpet; Mike Kull - piano, electric piano; Tyrone Crabb -, bass, electric bass, trumpet; Bruce Thompson - drums, percussion; Ernest Bostic - drums, percussion; Otis Greene - alto saxophone; Herbie Lehman - organ; Dave Jones - electric guitar.
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CVSD 053CD
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It's easy to be cynical these days, maybe difficult to imagine that music can change the world, but not for Joe McPhee and Hamid Drake. With Keep Going, they will make the planet a better place for humanity, a place to be humane, to preserve humankind. At 78 years old, Poughkeepsie multi-instrumentalist McPhee is a national treasure, and he's making more music than ever before, pushing himself to tour incessantly, issuing astonishing new records at a fierce rate. But this release, with legendary Chicago percussionist Drake, is something extremely special in the midst of many special records. The duo first recorded together in 1999, having only played together a limited number of times; the resulting music was issued as Emancipation Proclamation on the OkkaDisk label. When the opportunity arose to hit the studio for a second time, McPhee and Drake had two more decades of extensive work together under their belts, as members of the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and in many other contexts. But the session somehow consolidated their shared energy in an unexpected way; the drummer's incredible warmth and sense of buoyancy, the saxophonist and trumpeter's preternatural musicality and quest for social justice. The recording started with McPhee reciting words by Harriett Tubman, resulting in the title track; Drake's support was an achingly slow Max Roach-like beat. From this inspired, inspiring starting point, the twosome frolicked through a rich program, McPhee donning tenor and alto saxes, and pocket trumpet, Drake turning momentarily to the frame drum. Each musician contributes an introspective solo track. McPhee at one point plays trumpet into an open gong, which gives him otherworldly overtones, a sort of acoustic version of electric Miles. Drake makes too few records, so anything of his is mandatory; McPhee's been on a roll lately, releasing lots of music, but Keep Going is one not to be missed.
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CVSD 055CD
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Some recordings, the world is just not ready for them when they're made. In 2008, Swedish born, Austrian resident saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Poughkeepsie, New York multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee made a suite of studio recordings, Brace For Impact that they loved so much they immediately culled, mixed, and mastered them. A decade later, when the original label for which they were planned had not yet issued them, Gustafsson and McPhee offered them to Corbett Vs. Dempsey, and when the label couldn't believe the music. As searching and searing as anything either of them has made, the duets lived up to their explosive title. Gustafsson is known for his energy, and it's here in droves, but there are other nuances brought out by McPhee, a supple sense of melodicism (hey now, Gustafsson is a Swede, so by birthright he's melodic) and the love of experimental sound-making that McPhee displayed on his sound-on-sound recordings in the late 1960s. Although the two wind-players have worked together very extensively in Peter Brötzmann's large groups, with McPhee as a guest in Gustafsson's band The Thing, and in all manner of large and small group improvisations, they have never issued a record of duets before. This duo debut, now a decade in the can, is insanely powerful. Prepare yourself for the impact. Cover image by Charline von Heyl, interior photo of McPhee and Gustafsson bracing themselves back in 2002 by John Corbett. The package is completed by a haunting cover image by artist Cauleen Smith.
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CVSD 052CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Milford Graves's Bäbi, originally issued in 1977 on Graves's own IPS label. This is the first reissue of one of the most legendary albums in the history of free music. Recorded live in concert in 1976, when Graves' trio with saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover was at the height of its powers, Bäbi is a testament to the absolutely unique approach the drummer had established for himself. He had reconfigured the drum kit, removing the second heads on all the drums and replacing the snare with two toms, which allowed him a much more nuanced sense of indirectness in his multi-directional adventures in time. The track "Ba" remains one of the most astonishing feats of percussion alchemy ever waxed, as funky as ten slap bassists and as free as an exploding grenade. Doyle and Glover are incendiary, too, inspired by Graves to new and shocking heights of achievement, their hoarse cries and whistling split-tones carried to thrilling plateaus on the energy of Graves' hands and feet. The original tapes for the session have been lost, so the reissue was lovingly remastered from virgin vinyl, itself now worth a mint. In 2017, Graves discovered a previously unknown tape in his archives featuring the same trio at its inception, in home recordings made seven years earlier, in 1969. Graves pummels a huge gong while Glover plays an instrument that, after sounding like none ever known, turns out to be bass clarinet. Extreme music recorded up close and very hot, it is among the most searing sessions never heard, until now. Rounding out the two-CD package are three previously unpublished photos by Gérard Rouy, and the original LP cover design by Graves himself.
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CVSD 056CD
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Corbett vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Misha Mengelberg's Groupcomposing, recorded in 1970 and originally released in 1978. Comprised of a one-time international free music supergroup, and originally released as the sixth production on pianist Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink's ICP label, Groupcomposing has been largely absent from the history books. This is the case because the record has been so unavailable, certainly not as a comment on the magnitude and magnificence of the music. With its Bennink cover (take that Andy Warhol!) and its two side-long tracks, it is an improvised music aficionado's treasure. Mengelberg and Bennink are joined by Bennink's brother, Peter Bennink, on alto saxophone and bagpipes(!), with an incredible reed section of Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Derek Bailey on guitar. Moving from peaks of intensity to droning deescalation, totally improvised live in concert in 1970, Groupcomposing should be heard in the company of related records like Brötzmann's Machine Gun (CF 020LP, 2018) and Nipples (CF 013LP, 2016), early London Jazz Composer's Orchestra and Globe Unity Orchestra, and Manfred Schoof's European Echoes (CF 008LP, 2013. The music is reissued here for the first time as a stand-alone CD, with original album art and an interior salon of never-published period photographs by Gérard Rouy. The first in an ongoing series of ICP reissues on Corbett vs. Dempsey, Groupcomposing restores a classic LP to its rightful place in the canon.
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CVSD 051CD
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Repressed. Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Amarcord Nino Rota, a tribute album assembled by producer Hal Willner, originally released by Hannibal Records in 1981. If you think you know how to put a mix-tape together, take a lesson from Hal Willner, the absolute master. In 1981, Willner produced a landmark record of interpretations of music written by Nino Rota for the films of Federico Fellini. With ten tracks and as many different lineups, this record set the template for a series of brilliant tributes that Willner has made over the ensuing 35 years, covering the songbooks of Monk, Mingus, Weill, and Disney, with a mind-expanding range of performers from Eugene Chadbourne to Chuck D to Diamanda Galas to Peter Frampton. On Amarcord Nino Rota, Willner drew together an equally dazzling spectrum of musicians, compiling them into a perfect program that explores Rota's wonderful, sly, sexy oeuvre from contrasting and complementary perspectives. Pianist Jaki Byard sets the stage with the title track and ends things with "La Strada", and in his first appearance on record, guitarist Bill Frisell contributes a haunting solo acoustic version of "Juliet Of The Spirits". Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who lived in Rome early in his international years, offers a take on Rota's "Roma" and vibraphonist Dave Samuels provides interludes and transitions in a couple of spots. On the other end of the size bracket, Muhal Richard Abrams arranges and conducts his band as part of "La Dolce Vita Suite", which ends with a rock group featuring Debbie Harry singing a wordless waltz. The Carla Bley Band presents a daunting, suitably hilarious version of "8 ½", with Gary Windo's ballistic tenor saxophone, a David Amram Quintet with Sharon Freeman on French horn plays "Satyricon", and in a surprise appearance, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis plays alongside his brother Branford, tenor saxophonist George Adams, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Wilbert Fletcher, in William Fischer's arrangement of a medley of Rota chestnuts. Long out-of-print on LP and only released on CD for a hot minute in the early nineties, Amarcord Nino Rota is a certifiable classic.
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CVSD 046CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present the first CD reissue of Beaver Harris and Don Pullen 360º Experience's A Well-Kept Secret, originally released on Shemp Records in 1984. Of all the never-issued-on-CD items in history's dustbin, A Well-Kept Secret is perhaps the most egregious. The beautiful studio recording, made under the watchful ear of überproducer Hal Willner, was first issued on LP in 1985 on Willner's own Shemp label. With its unconventional lineup featuring steel drums, Latin percussion, and French horns, along with the co-leaders' drum-kit and piano, it is among the most wonderful outings of its decade. Pullen was in top form, his inside-outside approach to the keyboard perhaps optimally heard on the exuberant "Double Arc Jake", where the bright melody suddenly breaks into pieces, snapping back into miraculous shape. The band includes Hamiet Bluiett on baritone saxophone and Ricky Ford on tenor saxophone, along with Buster Williams on bass, Francis Hayes on steel pans, and a special brass section led by Sharon Freeman on the 17-minute "Goree". All compositions by Harris and Pullen. Includes original cover design by Ralph Steadman reproduced in all its glory, the CD was remastered from unplayed vinyl, as the tapes were destroyed in a fire. This is one of the classic records of creative music in the '80s, available for the first time in any digital form. Recorded by Vince McGarry at the Power Station, New York, and remixed at Skyline Recording Studio. Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York. Photos by David Gahr.
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CVSD 044CD
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Never one to shy away from unusual projects, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm set out into the mosquito-infested swamps of Florida's Everglades in search of a host of amphibious collaborators. In the night air, he bowed and plucked in conversation with the environment, especially the vocalizing frogs, which seemed to take him on as an exotic member of their own. Impeccably documented by the experienced soundscape artist and field recordist Gustavo Matamoros, working like a perverse herpetologist, Lonberg-Holm may have created a whole new genre of experimental audio: outdoor interspecies improvisation. Other features of the evening ambience are warmly embraced -- a passing car, mysterious water noises, even the incessant mosquitoes. Determining where these swamp sounds end and the maestro's cello begins is perhaps the greatest challenge of all. Not something you can say often: Bow Hard At The Frog is a genuinely unique sonic experience. Personnel: Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello; Amphibians of the Everglades - noises; Gustavo Matamoros - field recordings. Recorded at Everglades National Park the evening of February 02, 2016, as part of the January, 2016, Subtropics Artist Residency at Audiotheque: Fred Lonberg-Holm, resident artist; Gustavo Matamoros, collaborator. Gustavo used Sennheiser microphones in a midside configuration straight into a SoundDevices digital field recorder. As an integral part of his compositional practice, Gustavo Matamoros makes creative audio recordings of South Florida environments for sound diaries, artwork, performances, installations and collaborations with other artists. The title comes from a direction in the score for Iannis Xennakis's Kottos.
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CVSD 042CD
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Although he is best known as a groundbreaking experimental filmmaker, one of the architects of structural cinema, and visual artist, Michael Snow has been active as a musician since the 1950s. In Greenwich Village of the 1960s, his loft was the site of concerts by Cecil Taylor and other paragons of free jazz, and Snow's film New York Eye And Ear Control featured a soundtrack by Albert Ayler's group and starred its members (ESPDISK 1016CD/LP). A brilliant keyboardist and occasional trumpeter, Snow was a key figure in Toronto's improvised music scene, performing and recording with the ensemble CCMC, and as an improvising pianist he's worked in myriad contexts with many of the world's leading free players. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Ken Vandermark first learned about Snow as a film student in Montreal, where the classic work Wavelength (1967) confounded and fascinated him. In 2015, Vandermark and Snow performed together for the first time as a duet, resulting in three astounding long-form improvisations. Snow dug in hard at the piano, with clusters and repeated figures, while Vandermark was explosive on tenor and surgical on clarinet, opting often for the latter. The entire evening's music is released here, an early painting by Snow adorning the cover, and a still from the concert's videotaped footage spanning the gatefold interior. Personnel: Ken Vandermark - reeds; Michael Snow - piano. Recorded on June 20th, 2015 by Ted Phillips at Array Space, Toronto. Edited and mastered by Alex Inglizian with assistance from Ken Vandermark at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Painting by Michael Snow, Duol, 1960, oil on canvas, 70.2 x 45.1 inches, Collection of the estate of Signy Eaton.
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CVSD 043CD
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Discussing this impending studio date, the indefatigable saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and intrepid vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz decided to compose new pieces for one another. The resulting tracks -- which also include a hallucinogenic arrangement of "Timeless", dedicated to its composer, the recently deceased guitarist John Abercrombie -- show a markedly different side of both musicians. Quiet, at times tender, this meeting of like-minded musicians evoked a new kind of tension, not one birthed out of screams and wallops, but instead one marshaling the power of restraint. Gustafsson's work with groups like The Thing and Fire! Orchestra have made him one of the most renowned figures in contemporary energy music, and Adasiewicz's joyous noise in his own bands and with Peter Brötzmann, Rob Mazurek, and many others have likewise earned him top status in the pantheon of today's free musicians. On Timeless, they explore low dynamics, static soundscape, and melodic lyricism, infused with passion and intellect. One track features the wooden-keyed African balafon, coaxing a buoyant response on alto from Gustafsson, while their mutual boyhood love of highly select fusion records provided an unforeseen jumping off point for the whole record. On the cover, a painting by Charline von Heyl; across the interior, a photo portrait of the musicians. Personnel: Mats Gustafsson - alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; Jason Adasiewicz - vibraphone and balafon. Recorded October 1, 2017, by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago.
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CVSD 045CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Steve Lacy's Stamps, originally released in 1979 as a double-LP on Hat Hut. Stamps was Steve Lacy's first for the legendary Swiss label, and it remains one of the strongest statements of what he termed the "scratchy seventies". With the classic lineup of Lacy's soprano saxophone, Steve Potts on soprano and alto sax, Irene Aebi on cello (and singing on one track), Kent Carter on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums, the recording catches the band live, performing Lacy's angular, intervallic compositions, using arrangements that leave the rough patina, rather than buffing things to a smooth shine. This is the first time the important music has been reissued on CD, adding a bonus track, all remastered from the original tapes. The double-disc package sports a facsimile reproduction of the gorgeous artwork by Klaus Baumgärtner, with action photographs from the concerts on the interior. A must for Lacy fans and for anyone interested in creative music.
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CVSD 037CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Suns Of Arqa's Revenge Of The Mozabites, originally released on Rocksteady Records in 1980. One of the key ensembles in the history of what is now referred to as world music, Suns Of Arqa began in 1979 with Revenge Of The Mozabites, the brainchild of Michael Wadada. With a ground base of dub -- in both aesthetic and method -- made palpable by master dub rhythm section of Style Scott on drums and Lizard Logan on bass, and produced in tandem with future On-U Sound maestro Adrian Sherwood, Wadada built an incredibly eclectic and imaginative program, touching on flamenco and Irish music, as well as a Suns Of Arqa touchstone, the intersection of Indian music and dub reggae. The results are unlike anything heretofore heard, and Revenge Of The Mozabites remains one of the unsung classics of hybrid musicality to emerge from the post-punk ethos, having exerted an unexamined influence on British music in the '80s. Upon finding a copy of the ultra-rare original LP in 1982, for instance, Peter Gabriel promptly booked Suns Of Arqa to the first WOMAD festival. This release marks the first time any of Suns Of Arqa's music has been released in the US, and Revenge Of The Mozabites is restored to its original glory, with the packaging as it was in 1979, additional photos of the band, and three bonus tracks -- dubs and edits from Hyphen --, everything remastered from original tapes. Recorded in 1979 at Berry Street Studio, London and Cargo Studio, Rochdale. Personnel: Michael Wadada - esraj, sitar; Style Scott - drums; Lizard Logan - bass; Kalu Zeria - table; Aziz Zeria - harmonium; Big Red - violin; Bubblers - piano; Mothmen - cuica, percussion; Maria Aiawa - vocals; Mark Stone - flamenco guitar; I. Green - bassoon; Tony Sullivan - banjo; Moot Beret - Chinese shawm.
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CVSD 038CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Suns Of Arqa's Seven, originally released on Arka Sound in 1987. Perhaps the pinnacle of the Suns Of Arqa discography, Seven was released in 1987 and was in fact the band's fifth LP. With its stunning cover design and outlandishly ambitious sound, steeped in dub but festooned with plainchant and Indian music, it was alone in the market, its closest relatives maybe African Head Charge or New Age Steppers, but with a host of original ideas and musical intersections and an incredible, almost unthinkable cast of participants. Amongst the vocalists is the British singer-songwriter Helen Watson, punk poet John Cooper Clarke, talk-over star Prince Hammer, and comedic genius Professor Stanley Unwin, all of whom offer their unique and unconventional words to the dub stew. A powerhouse Jamaican rhythm section is filtered through sitar, shenai, santoor, and tabla, hurdy-gurdy and pennywhistle, strings and saxophone, all orchestrated by the inimitable Michael Wadada, founding father of Suns Of Arqa. On this reissue, Seven's first time available in the US, the original LP cover has been restored to its initial glory, and the original music is available complete in one package for the first time, adding five extra tracks not included on the LP. Recorded at Sawmill Studio, Cornwall, and Elephant Studio, London.
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CVSD 040CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Joe McPhee's The Willisau Concert, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1976. Asked earlier this year which of his out-of-print records he'd like to see available again, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's response was immediate: The Willisau Concert! Recorded at the Swiss festival that gave it its name in 1975, it appeared a year later as "Hat Hut B", the second of the new label's great letter series. It came packaged gorgeously in a double-gatefold with artist Klaus Baumgärtner's stunning pen-and-ink work on the inside and out, and a little hand-colored Swiss flag on the interior of each copy. Returning to the music, it's easy to hear why McPhee holds it so dear. He's in absolute top form on tenor and soprano saxophones, ranging from the relaxed and confident Afro-conscious feel of Nation Time (CVSD 011CD) to areas of more diffuse and textural investigation. John Snyder's analog synthesizer is brilliant and hyperbolic, a surprisingly hand-in-glove match for McPhee, not dissimilar to their collaboration on the CjR release Pieces Of Light (1974). South African drummer Makaya Ntshoko is the surprise element, a guest whose sensitivity and warmth are everywhere evident, even when he kicks the energy up a notch. Along with McPhee originals, this reissue includes a never-released bonus, their take on the classic "God Bless the Child", a total heartbreaker. The CD has been designed as a facsimile cover of the LP, respecting the beautiful and original graphic work on this classic record. Never before available in any digital form, remastered from the original tapes, The Willisau Concert is restored to its place as one of McPhee's masterpieces. Recorded live at Willisau Jazz Festival, Switzerland, October 11, 1975. Personnel: Joe McPhee - soprano and tenor saxophone; John Snyder - analog synthesizer; Makaya Ntshoko - drums.
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CVSD 039CD
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sold out, awaiting 2020 repress; Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Sun Ra Discipline 27-II, originally released on El Saturn Records in 1973. Arguably the last great original-era Saturn LP to be reissued on CD, Discipline 27-II has long deserved to be more familiar to Sun Ra fans and layfolk alike. Recorded during the same sessions in 1972 at Chicago's Streeterville Studios that produced Ra's most popular and best-known record, Space Is The Place (1973), it's got much the same vibe, from the 24-minute four-part suite of the title track -- an important conducted piece that Ra performed frequently in these years -- to the opening cut, "Pan Afro", with John Gilmore's sensational tenor work. Sporting a percussion-rich 18-piece Arkestra, the music can be thick, voluble, and dense or it can winnow down to a small group, as on the delightful track "Neptune", a vehicle for June Tyson's singing and the site of the indelible Sun Ra space chant: "Have you heard the latest news from Neptune, Neptune, Neptune?" This marks the first time Discipline 27-II has been reissued on CD. It has been remastered from the original tapes, includes a never published period photo of Ra by Charles Shabacon, and ends with an explosive bonus track from the same session, showing quite a different side of the same ensemble. Personnel: Sun Ra - electronic keyboard space age instruments, Moog synthesizer, vocals; John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals; Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute; Danny Davis - alto saxophone, flute; Pat Patrick - baritone saxophone, bass; Danny Thompson - baritone saxophone, flute; Eloe Omoe - bass clarinet, flute; Akh Tal Ebah - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; Lamont Kwamie McClamb - trumpet, percussion; Russell Branch - percussion, congas; Stanley Morgan - percussion, congas; with Alzo Wright, Harry Richards, Lex Humphries, Robert Underwood on drums and vocals by June Tyson, Cheryl Banks, Judith Holton, and Ruth Wright. Cover art by LeRoy Butler; cover design by Alton Abraham. Recorded by Ed Michel at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, October, 1972; LP produced by Alton Abraham for Infinity Inc.
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CVSD 041CD
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Corbett Vs. Dempsey present The Lost Eddie Chatterbox Session, a reissue of Eugene Chadbourne's album, first released as a cassette on No Prestige Records in 1988. Dateline: Christmas Day, 1977, San Francisco. On an ailing quarter-track tape deck, in a marathon session, Eugene Chadbourne recorded a series of slide guitar solos playing compositions by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman, along with a few standards and originals. Although the recording quality was imperfect, the playing was absolute genius -- enough so that Chadbourne was eventually convinced, a decade later, to issue it as a cassette tape, which he sold at concerts. Long pre-dating the slash-and-burn-and-reinvent approach to jazz songbooks now familiar from groups like News From Lulu, Chadbourne leapt into each short track with giddy abandon, introducing the piece with a nerdy credit line, then ripping and tearing at it adoringly, his improvisations forcing a new view of the familiar melodies. Anyone familiar with Chadbourne's wonderful duets with Frank Lowe on Don't Punk Out! (1979), waxed in the same period, has a general sense of his modus, but the complete commitment he gave to the project on The Lost Eddie Chatterbox Session makes it a special and wholly unique item in the manic master's chronicles. On this special CD reissue, the tracks have been tenderly but respectfully restored, eliminating some of the most distracting audio flaws but leaving the inconceivable artistry intact. Four unreleased tracks have been added to the jam-packed program, as well as the original cover photo and Chadbourne's unreadable track listing, which is carefully reproduced on the interior. Recorded December 25, 1977, in San Francisco.
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2CD
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CVSD 009CD
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2013 release. An expanded reissue of Sun Ra's Continuation, originally released in 1970. A special two CD reissue of the hyper-rare El Saturn Records album, recorded in 1963, early in the Arkestra's New York period, paired with a full disc of extra material. Loaded with John Gilmore, one of the greatest and rarest slabs of Sun Ra vinyl, on CD for the first time. Recorded on March 10, 1963 at the Choreographer's Workshop in New York City. Remastered from the original tapes by Michael D. Anderson; Reissue produced by John Corbett and Adam Abraham.
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CVSD 006CD
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2012 release. A reissue of Joe McPhee's Glasses, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1979. Glasses was recorded in October, 1977, during a highly significant period in McPhee's work, as he was pioneering the transatlantic, collaborative spirit that has helped to define the last three decades of his career. Documented in Tavannes, Switzerland, the set contains sensational tenor work, including the title piece, which finds McPhee ringing out a rhythm on a half-full wine glass, from which he extrapolates a melody on the saxophone, as well as a stunning version of John Coltrane's "Naima". The final 15 minutes are spent in duet with the Swiss percussionist Reto Weber, who was so inspired by McPhee he asked to sit in and did so with his quite extensive battery of drums. This record come from a year-long run during which McPhee recorded and released four very different, extremely wonderful solo records, of which only Tenor has ever been reissued on CD. Along with the 1979 album Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight (CVSD 007CD), this reissue was produced in collaboration with the seminal Swiss label Hat Hut Records and their chief, Werner X. Uehlinger. Recorded live by Werner X. Uehlinger on October 13, 1977 at Cafe Calvado, Switzerland. Personnel: Joe McPhee - tenor saxophone, flugelhorn, percussion; Reto Weber - percussion.
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CVSD 007CD
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2012 release. A reissue of Joe McPhee's Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1979. Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight was recorded in October, 1977, during a highly significant period in Poughkeespie, New York, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's work, as he was pioneering the transatlantic, collaborative spirit that has helped to define the last three decades of his career. Blue Line comes from a concert in Rouen, France, when McPhee played on a double bill with the Peter Brötzmann/Han Bennink duo. It features the side-length tenor excursion "Beanstalk" (dedicated to Coleman Hawkins), an alternate version of "Knox" (known from his beloved 1977 LP Tenor), and two soprano pieces, "Motian Studies" and Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight". This record come from a year-long run during which McPhee recorded and released four very different, extremely wonderful solo records, of which only Tenor has ever been reissued on CD. Along with the album Glasses (CVSD 006CD), this reissue was produced in collaboration with the seminal Swiss label Hat Hut Records and their chief, Werner X. Uehlinger. Recorded live by Claude Robert on October 11, 1977 at Salle Ste Croix des Pelletiers in Rouen, France. Personnel: Joe McPhee - tenor and soprano saxophone.
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CVSD 008CD
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2012 release. In 1981, Joe McPhee culled together one of his greatest bands to record Topology (1981), his classic outing for Hat Hut Records. Featuring an expanded version of Po Music, his ensemble with saxophonist André Jaume, guitarist Raymond Boni, and bassist François Mechali, the group included pianist Irene Schweizer, percussionist Pierre Favre, baritone saxophonist Daniel Bourquin, cellist Michael Overhage, and trombonist Radu Malfatti. One of the tracks left on the cutting room floor was a spectacular take on Ornette Coleman's composition "Lonely Woman", with McPhee on pocket cornet and haunting vocals by Tamia. Thirty one years later, Corbett Vs. Dempsey present The Loneliest Woman, the full, uncut, 13 glorious minutes of music, available on this CD single for the first time ever. Recorded in Boswil, Switzerland on March 25, 1981. Engineered by Peter Pfister; Session organized by Werner X. Uehlinger of Hat Hut Records; Remastered by Joe McPhee and Ted Orr at Sertso Studio, Woodstock, New York. Cover art by Margot Bergman.
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