Noah Howard Quartet is the debut album by alto saxophonist Noah Howard. It was recorded in New York City during January 1966, and was released later that year by ESP-Disk. On the album, Howard is joined by trumpeter Ric Colbeck, bassist Scotty Holt, and percussionist Dave Grant.

A writer for Stereogum described the album as "a major statement, an oft-overlooked gem in the ESP-Disk catalog," and commented: "His music... has a compelling energy that never erupts into the kind of screaming frenzy that was rapidly becoming the cliché of free jazz. Instead, it makes a far subtler statement." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpEs-cLv6lI&list=RDrpEs-cLv6lI&start_radio=1

#NoahHoward #ESPDisk #FreeJazz #Jazz #Music

#8TrackTuesday #DeadFormats #TheGodz #TheFugs #SunRa

#ESPDisk' on #8Track: headscratchers for those long drives up/down the New Jersey Turnpike

Pharoah's First is the debut album by American free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, recorded in New York City at the loft of audio engineer Jerry Newman on September 10, 1964, and first released in 1965 on the ESP-Disk label. The album was originally issued with the title Pharaoh...

AllAboutJazz reviewer Clifford Allen wrote that the disc "though somewhat of an aesthetic anomaly in the ESP catalog and, at the time, given more 'could-have-been' status than it probably deserved, is a crucial workshop puzzle-piece that gives historians of improvised music one very important look at Pharoah Sanders and his young, big ideas." A Forced Exposure review stated: "...this is a fascinating glimpse of Sanders's style before he wielded the unremitting fierceness of his playing with Coltrane and the modal mysticism of his later solo albums on Impulse." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS3sV2pnBIQ&list=PLFUMHI-_VKWk_C8VdndAme4R7JMoLUBKP&index=1

#PharoahSanders #FreeJazz #Jazz #ESPDisk #Music

New York Art Quartet is the debut album by the group of the same name. It was recorded on November 26, 1964, at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, and was released in 1965 by ESP-Disk ..

Writing for All About Jazz, Clifford Allen commented: "Cooking through contradiction, the New York Art Quartet cut some of the most powerful music in the free jazz underground..Graves is defiantly in his own orbit. Rather than providing a canvas to free the soloist a la Sunny Murray, Graves is impulsive and either ignores or counteracts the soloist with non-isometric phrases, creating tension through non-unison collectivity. Yet there's propulsion and swing by dint of disparity, a pulse that's kinetic even if it's multidirectional."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY-oMH_H4Ho&list=PLGWAK_TiMgIhy6YCFoUJwMahQOmTlA0wJ&index=1

#JohnTchicai #RoswellRudd #LewisWorrell #MilfordGraves #LeRoiJones #ESPDisk #freejazz #music #thenewthing #jazz

College Tour Volume One: The Complete Nothing Is...by Sun Ra, released on ESP Disk in 2010.

In 1966 ESP-Disk’s founder Bernard Stollman put together a multi-artist tour of five New York colleges and sent audio engineer David B. Jones on the road with it. Forty-four years later, Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson pieced together some missing parts of the New York College Tour. Recorded on May 18th 1966 at St. Lawrence University in Potsdam, NY, this illuminating document represents the full 70-minute first set, from which Nothing Is... was taken. In addition, Anderson uncovered a partial second set from the same evening and some rare rehearsal footage recorded during a sound check before the concert. The over 90 minutes of additional material includes the rarely performed ‘State Street’ and alternate versions of ‘Theme of the Stargazers’ and ‘The Second Stop Is Jupiter’..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5zGm1gjt2Y&list=RDV5zGm1gjt2Y&start_radio=1

#sunra #espdisk #freejazz

Marion Brown Quartet is an album by American saxophonist Marion Brown, his debut as a leader. It was recorded in November 1965 in New York City, and was released in 1966 on the ESP-Disk label. The album features Brown on alto saxophone, Alan Shorter on trumpet, Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone, Reggie Johnson and Ronnie Boykins on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums.

Writing for Point of Departure, David Grundy described Brown as having a sound that "tended towards the abstrusely melodic, with a marked lyrical tendency offset by an astringent bite that could peel the paint off any wall", ...Ali's drums function like sparklers: they crackle and glow; Brown smears and drags high notes around careful, angular melodic figures, while Shorter is at first loud and declarative, before simmering to buzzing smears, as if someone were wailing with their hand over their mouth."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1RWMN5rkMk&list=RDS1RWMN5rkMk&start_radio=1

#marionbrown #rashiedali #alanshorter #espdisk #benniemaupin #freejazz #ronnieboykins

The Call is an album by bassist Henry Grimes. It was recorded in December 1965 in New York City, and was released by the ESP-Disk label in 1966. On the album, Grimes is joined by clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price. - Wikipedia

"...For The Call Grimes teamed with highly original clarinetist Perry Robinson ...and stalwart drummer/ESP-Disk' regular Tom Price. As a bassist, Grimes's melodic style is well up to the task of being co-equal voice with a horn, resulting in a thoughtful and texturally rewarding LP with a level of quality far above the rote sideman session cliche, and far away from equally cliched ideas of unrelentingly full-bore free jazz. It offers the sound of three excellent musicians listening to each other and responding superbly." Bandcamp

https://henrygrimes.bandcamp.com/album/the-call

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9rdlr0guMY&list=RDE9rdlr0guMY&start_radio=1

#henrygrimes #perryrobinson #freejazz #espdisk #jazzclarinet #1966inmusic

We Move Together by The Sea Ensemble, released on ESP-Disk in 1974.

"Inspiration exploding from mysterious soft depths of spirit convex convolutions of soul illuminated by brightness and long clear vision warm seers exuding life rich with wide experience gentle with wise unbitterness, transcending the inevitable sorrow of today and tommorow, in ineffable beauty yearning in the cosmic sea, freedom transpiring in sacred humaness." - Liner Notes

"An obscure late ESP session featuring Don Rafael Garrett and Zusann Fasteau Garrett in a set of duets on percussion, bass, clarinet, and voice. The sound's a bit hippy dippy in parts, with a vibe that's kind of groovy and optimistic -- but at other times, the playing is nice and spare, with a good east coast avant sound, in that mid 70s loft jazz mode. Titles include "Wave Hands Like Clouds", "Stork Cools Its Wings", and "Snake Creeps Down"." - Dusty Groove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvX-f4ZZGWY

#seaensemble #espdisk #freejazz #spiritualjazz #freejazz

Alien by Jim McCarthy (sometimes credited as being by the Godz) released on ESP-Disk in 1973

Alien Review by Dean McFarlane

New York's legendary folk/punk godfathers the Godz may have run their course after their first three albums, Contact High With the Godz, Godz 2, and The Third Testament on ESP put them in the same league as the Stooges, MC5,Monks, or even Captain Beefheart for foreshadowing punk. Alien is a deranged offering of lo-fi acoustic strum and neo-tribal noise that the group cut at the end of the '60s when going in a psychedelic direction instead of just plainly psychotic. Absolutely brilliant. The Godz' significance in the history of punk, garage, and lo-fi could never be overstated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U7EB75yd2w

#thegodz #espdisk #jimmccarthy

Eastern Man Alone is the second album by American jazz saxophonist Charles Tyler, which was recorded in 1967 and released on ESP-Disk.

After recording his debut album, Tyler returned to Indianapolis to enroll at Indiana University, where he stayed until 1968. He studied primarily with David Baker, a trombonist-turned-cellist. During his studies, Tyler waxed Eastern Man Alone. In addition to Tyler's alto and Baker's cello, the instrumentation consist of bassists Brent McKesson and Kent Brinkley on three Tyler originals and Baker's "Le-Roi", also recorded on the 1961 album Together! with the Philly Joe Jones-Elvin Jones Ensemble. "Cha-Lacy's Out East" revisits a theme from his first album.

The JazzTimes review by Lyn Horton claims "His music is seminal, even more so it seems than either Coltrane’s and Coleman’s was, because it is downright raw." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar42yGPiLbs

#charlestyler #freejazz #espdisk #charlestylerensemble