Middelheim (Antwerp) - 1973

M'BOOM Repercusion
Joe Chambers, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Max Roach, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits
Middelheim Festival - Antwerp - 1973

I was very fortunate to attend the concert that M'Boom Repercusion gave at the Middelheim Festival in the summer of 1973.

Looking through some old concert memorabilia and archives, I found this folder presenting the band members.

I'm not posting the Strata East album.  It has been posted some years ago on the old Strata East Fan Club blog and copies are probably still floating around.

It was a disappointing album (Max Roach did not want it released), not representative of what I saw and heard at the concert.

If you want to have an idea of what it sounded like, the concert was filmed by the BRT (Flemish Radio & Television).  The video is no longer available on the Canvas website but someone has posted it on YouTube.  

Many thanks to the uploader for salvaging this video.  Wish someone had saved the other Middelheim videos that were on the Canvas website (Nucleus, ... ).

LOST GEM!!!

LOU MACCONNELL - REACHING FOR IT

LP High Energy  MD 0044 – BELGIUM, 1979

I collect LP by or featuring Michel Herr.  I’ve known and appreciated his music since the early days of Solis Lacus.  IMHO Michel Herr is one of Belgium’s greatest jazzmen, talented pianist, inspired composer and gifted arranger.  I was therefore quite pleased to find this album a the S&H Record Fair (Brussels) last Saturday.  I did not know what to expect exactly but considering the names in the band, I was not taking much of a risk.

I write "did not know what to expect" because I had absolutely no idea who Lou MacConnell is or was and could not find any useful info on the Net.

He played as a sideman on another rare LP, this time  by guitarist Jan Doveren, featuring also Michel Herr on piano and on two Chet Baker albums.  These are the only recorded traces of this talented saxophonist / flautist.

Reaching for It is an impressive album, it just blew me when I first heard it.  It starts with a deep version of Naima followed by a breezy version of Jobim’s O Grande Amor with Macconnell on flute and beautiful Fender Rhodes courtesy of Michel Herr.   Side A ends with a good rendition of Easy Living featuring again Macconnell on tenor and Herr on acoustic piano.

Side B starts with Miles’ Four followed by the “piece de resistance”-  Coltrane’s Like Sonny.  Side B ends on a lighter note with Horace Siver’s Gringo with Michel Herr back at the Fender Rhodes.   It’s incredible that such a record could remain completely unknown.  If ever there was a jazz record in need of immediate reissue, here it is.

If little is known about Lou MacConnell, it is not the case with his sidemen.  In addition to Michel Herr on piano (acoustic anf fender Rhodes), we have hard bop veteran Wilbur Little on bass (he was living in Amsterdam since 1977) and Vinnie Johnson on drums.   Johnson was a.o. the drummer on Stanton Davis’ Ghetto Mysticism and a member of Bill Frisell Triode with Kermit Driscoll (see the post on Good Friends, with Michel Herr also).

You can’t go wrong with a band like that!

Tracks :

1. Naima (John Coltrane)

2. O grande amor (Antonio Carlos Jobim)

3. Easy living (Rainger / Robin)

4. Four (Miles Davis)

5. Like Sonny (John Coltrane)

6. Gringo (Horace Silver)

Musicians :

Lou MacConnell - tenor saxophone, flute

Michel Herr - piano

Wilbur Little - double bass

Vinnie Johnson - drums

Recorded in July 1979 at Michel Dickenscheid's studio, Ougrée (B). Released in 1979 (MD 0044).

If that ain’t a lost treasure of European Deep / Spiritual Jazz, then I don’t know how to call it.

HANNIBAL IN LONDON

POEM SONG 
MARVIN HANNIBAL PETERSON – DON WELLER – MARTIN BLACKWELL – DAVE GREEN – BRYAN SPRING
LP MOLE JAZZ 6 – UK, 1981

The recent posting of Don Weller’s Major Surgery on OIR reminded me that I still had to post this live album of Hannibal Peterson with the Weller – Spring Quartet.

In 1981 Don Weller stood in for Michael Brecker when the Gil Evans Orchestra played at the Bracknell Jazz Festival.  He subsequently toured the UK with the Orchestra and recorded a live album with one of the band's trumpeters, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, added on to the Weller–Spring Quartet.

A strong album, four tracks with ample room for everyone to stretch out.  There is some deep playing in there.  Check the title track and 19+ minutes version of “Africa”.

Hannibal c. 1976

Credits
Trumpet – Hannibal Marvin Peterson
Tenor Saxophone – Don Weller
Piano – Martin Blackwell
Bass – Dave Green
Drums – Bryan Spring

Tracks
Poem Song (Marvin Peterson) 14:06
All Blues (Miles Davis) 13:05
Misty (Errol Garner) 12:40
Africa (Marvin Peterson) 19:16

Recorded At The 100 Club,London On Monday 2nd November 1981

Don Weller