Stanko's Purple Sun

One more of those darn Calig LPs.
I recently left a link for this one at Jazz-Nekko's Pit,
but there were no proper cover-photos with it.
Now after a short shooting session here's my favourite
Tomasz Stanko LP just for you.


cheers,
Basso

Schlüssel on Calig

"Schlüssel" is the german word for key. It's the one that unlocks the door.
Another german word for key is "Taste". It's a part of the piano.
There's not much info about Key in the net (my first time using this common phrase), so I'll have to work with whats' given on the backcover. Key consists of 5 very young musicians. My guess is that they all are students at that time. The leading figure seems to be Markus Stockhausen, son of Karl Heinz Stockhausen, and he's 20 years old when recording that particular album. Actually he's the only one of the group I have ever heard about, but as you probably know my knowledge is very limited. The liner notes by Manfred Schoof report about an exciting and interesting young group ..... all compositions were written by members of the group ...... group of great promise....
The only thing I might add is that I like this LP because of the playful variation of styles. Even within the tracks. "Please be good to me" starts off rather powerful switches into funky and slips into a more loveboatish Bob James part.
My favourites are the modal "Birds flying" and the free ballad "Rheda".
It's yours.

Key (1977 Calig)
recorded @ Dierks Sudio Stommeln
Recording Engineer: Justus Liebig

Bouillabass versus Lauren

The Crew's 3rd release on Calig featuring Lauren Newton.
There's a lot more freedom in here and it's not my cup of tea.
But ( and this is a very big but) "Bouillabass" is a monster of a tune
and I like "Flying Bird" just as much (check out KEY's same titled LP
from 1977 on Calig including the wonderful "Birds Flying").
Please understand that I cannot say too much about the rest of the tracks
except from "great instrumentation" or "interesting structures" and a "voice".

Cheers,
Basso

Caritas

Back to Jazz. Here's the Frederic Rabold Crew plus Martin Ederer on guitar
from 1974. Lots of energy coming from a drawer somewhere between funky and free. Released on the small Calig (Caritas Lichtbild Gesellschaft) Label from Munich that released incredible LPs like Tomasz Stanko's "Purple Sun", two LPs by Milan Pilar's infamous Catch Up, a rather free Wolfgang Dauner album and three great LPs by Frederic Rabold and his men (later accompanied by Lauren Newton and her voice gives me a strange feeling in the back of my head so I'll not be mentioning her further on).
This is the Crew's 2nd release on Calig, "Flair" from 1972 being the 1st and "Balance" from 1977 the 3rd. (I am still missing "Flair"- offers welcome). As far as I know the Crew's output this is my favourite FRC album. There are 3 more LPs I used to have (one was silverish, one yellow and one on MPS and that tango wasn't too funky) but I got rid of them some years ago.
Back to what I like: every track on this gem (except from "Time Machine")!
Enjoy.

Cheers,
Basso

PS. Did U.F.O. sample "Yahtzee"?