Sun Ra All Stars - Milan, Zurich, West Berlin, Paris (5 CD, 2008/FLAC)

 5 concerts from Milan, Zurich, West Berlin and Paris. Recorded on the European tour between October 27, 1983 and November 1, 1983.

• Sun Ra - piano, keyboards, vocals
• Lester Bowie - trumpet
• Don Cherry - trumpet, vocals
• Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute, oboe
• John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, vocals
• Archie Shepp - tenor & soprano saxophones, vocals
• Richard Davis - bass
• Famoudou Don Moye - drums, percussion
• Philly Joe Jones - drums
• Clifford Jarvis - drums

 

Sonny Rollins Quartet With Don Cherry - Complete Live At The Village Gate 1962 [6 CD, 2015/FLAC]

 

The 1962 live engagement at the Village Gate marked Sonny Rollins’ first recording ever with Don Cherry, as well as one of th earliest made by the saxophonist following his three-year long selfimposed musical exile. It was all recorded in a piano-less quartet format with Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

While only three tunes from the gig (“Dearly Beloved” in a highly edited form) were included on the famous LP "Our Man in Paris" (RCA Victor LPM 2612), this 6-CD collection adds all existing music taped during those live sessions, totaling more than five hours of previously unreleased material in brilliant stereo sound.

Among the many highlights here are the unedited "Dearly Beloved" (which is 10 minutes longer than the LP version), the issued Oleo with an extra minute at the beginning, Rollins’ only known reading of "Alexander’s Ragtime Band", and "Home Sweet Home", plus extended renditions of songs he only rarely recorded, such as "Solitude" and "Love Walked In".

                                                       

VA - Interpretations of Monk (w/ Muhal Richard Abrams, Barry Harris, Anthony Davis, Mal Waldron, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy) - 1981 (4 CD, 1994/FLAC)

 Three and a half months before Thelonious Monk died, two memorable tribute concerts took place at Columbia University. The lineup of musicians was perfect: soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy (long an expert on Monk's music), Thelonious' longtime tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, trombonist Roswell Rudd, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Richard Davis, either Ben Riley or Ed Blackwell on drums, and four different pianists. This legendary event was fortunately recorded, and the afternoon concert has been released in full on this 1997 double-CD set. 

Don Cherry / Dewey Redman / Charlie Haden / Ed Blackwell - Old and New Dreams (1979/FLAC)

 Formed two-and-a-half years before for a one off record date for Italy´s Black Saint Label, Old And New Dreams, a quartet comprised of former associates of Ornette Coleman was re-launched in 1979. As bassist Charlie Haden explained: „We feel that everything we experienced together playing with Ornette shouldn´t stop. That improvised acoustic music doesn´t happen now, not that way. We´re not duplicating 20-year old songs, but playing from Ornette´s harmelodic concept which each of us grew up in, playing on the feeling rather than the chord structure or melody.“

– Don Cherry - trumpet, piano

– Dewey Redman - tenor saxophone, musette (suona)

– Charlie Haden - bass

– Ed Blackwell - drums