Songs For Laila

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Cat No: TCB37702

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Release Date: 12 January 2024

Label: Dot Time Records

Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 725095377027

Genres: Jazz

Description

In classical music, the term "piano trio" signifies a formation consisting of violin, cello and piano. From Beethoven to Brahms and beyond, there is a wealth of composition for this highly productive chamber music structure. The jazz friend, on the other hand, understands "piano trio" as a combination of piano, double bass and drums. That's what we're talking about here.
When the Swiss foundation Pro Helvetia sent us to the Ljubljana Festival in 1975, we had the opportunity to hear both Art Blakey's "Jazz Messengers" and Cecil Taylor's formation at the time. Although playing completely different music, both grandmasters performed in the same line-up: the "classical" quintet consisting of two wind instruments and a piano trio.
Clearly, the roles played by the musicians in Taylor's group weren't the same as those in Blakey's. Free Jazz was associated with the idea that all musicians should participate in the music as far as possible on an equal footing. This led to a more linear, "horizontal" way of making music, compared to the old, comparatively more "vertical" way of playing. The combination of instruments, however, remained largely unaffected by this change.
In our "Jazz Live" radio concerts in the '60s through the '80s, for which I was responsible for the musical programming, we also invited well-known representatives of free music such as the above mentioned Albert Mangelsdorff, Francois Jeanneau and Enrico Rava as soloists playing with my trio live on the program for an hour. None of them questioned the combination of solo instrument plus trio. The traditional quartet formation was also quite normal for these soloists, each of whom was wholly committed to Free Jazz at the time.
Tracklisting