various artists
Jazz Actuel
3 disc box set of avant garde/free jazz/psychedelia. From the BYG/Actuel catalogue, 1969-71, including Gong and daevid allen. This lovely little box set demonstrates just what an eclectic and adventurous the BYG/Actuel label was in the late '60s and early '70s. The three individually slip-cased CDs, along with a well written 36 page illustrated booklet by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, come housed in a sturdy CD-sized box. The tracks chosen touch on all areas of the wide ranging BYG catalogue - there is bound to be music here that will open your ears up! Unfortunately, the only way the musicians will benefit in any way from sales of this release is if you buy it here - otherwise they can expect no royalties on sales or publishing.
The direct Gong Family connections here are 'Memories' from daevid's 1970 Bananamoon LP and the Gong Camembert Electric track (although there are other hidden connections as well). I'm sure most of you have both those albums, but don't let that make you pass up this great value collection - there are so many other intriguing musics to investigate. The proto PHP (note the propeller!) on the cover of the box is a young Don Cherry.
tracks
disc 1
- Sunny Murray : Red Cross
- Archie Shepp : Blasé
- Steve Lacey : Note
- daevid allen : Memories
- Sonny Sharrock : Soon
- Grachan Moncur III : Exploration
- Clifford Thornton : Pan-African Festival
- Jacques Coursil : Black Suite, part 2 (excerpt)
- Dave Burrell : Echo
disc 2
- Sun Ra and His Solar-Myth Arkestra : The Utter-Nots
- Arthur Jones : Brother B
- Burton Greene Ensemble : From 'Out Of Bartok'
- Art Emsemble Of Chicago : Get In Line
- Andrew Cyrille : Pioneering
- Paul Bley : Ramblin'
- Frank Wright : One For John/China part 2
- Acting Trio : Cello Discordato No.9
- Dewey Redman : Tarik
disc 3
- Don Cherry : Teo-Teo-Can (excerpt)
- Anthony Braxton : B-Xo NO147a (excerpt)
- Jimmy Lyons : Premonitions
- Claude Delcloo/Arthur Jones : Africanasia, part 1 (excerpt)
- Musica Elettronica Viva : The Sound Pool, part 1a
- Kenneth Terroade : Blessing
- Gong : Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads/Foghat Digs Holes In Space
- Alan Silva and The Celestial Communication Orchestra : The Seasons, part 6
- Dewey Redman : Tarik