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CD
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CVSD 079CD
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Danish pianist Tom Prehn was one of the first Europeans to deeply explore free music. With his quartet featuring Fritz Krogh on tenor saxophone, Poul Ehlers on bass, and Finn Slumstrup on drums, Prehn recorded Axiom in October, 1963, for Sonet, though it went unreleased until 2015 because the band felt that their music had moved beyond it already. To hear the music they were talking about, one could only turn to two privately-made reel-to-reel tapes, Centrifuga and Sohlverv, recorded in August, 1964, and January, 1965, respectively. Both sessions took place under casual circumstances at Prehn's summer cottage outside Aarhus, but the music was dead serious -- some of the most adventurous improvising yet made by a group on the continent. These tapes have been the stuff of legend. Only a couple copies of them exist, and they're spoken of in hushed tones by folks in the know, most of whom have never heard what they sound like. The earlier recording, which consists of a single magnificent 44-minute track, is one of the group's free jazz pinnacles, with Slumstrup featured as a soloist, playing in top form, with the band building structures around his propulsive and sensitive kit-work. On Sohlverv, which translates as "solstice," the band enters completely unknown terrain, working through a series of four sections with solos featured by each bandmember. Here Krogh reveals his incredible force as an idea generator. As Mats Gustafsson says in his liner notes: "Close-miked percussive sax-pad treatments that swing like mad and give the music a VERY radical profile and color. I have NEVER heard anything like it." This reissue is the product of a long process, working Prehn and with the generous and patient Center for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research. Mastered directly from the original reels, with notes by Gustafsson and facsimile reproductions of both tape covers. Never reissued in any form until now. Seriously, as the old adage goes, this is music that needs to be heard to be believed.
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CD
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CVSD 019CD
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2015 release. A reissue of arguably the rarest LP of European free jazz, Axiom, recorded in 1963 for the Swedish label Sonet. Test pressings were released to the musicians, but they were not approved and the label never printed more than the two first copies. Tom Prehn's music, which is exclusively known from a 1967 release that was reissued on the Unheard Music Series, is not only impossibly uncommon, it is also exceptionally wonderful, featuring an extended tenor saxophone solo by Frits Krogh that is clearly influenced by Sonny Rollins but has a unique character. The rhythm section is deep into non-metrical time, something unusual in a European context before 1965, and comparisons to Cecil Taylor are valid, though Prehn's playing has little in common with the American master, exploring chords and clusters rather than linear runs. The two tracks of the original LP, mastered from both extant copies of the test master, are augmented by a single track from 1966, never before released. Personnel: Frits Krogh - tenor saxophone; Tom Prehn - piano; Poul Ehlers - bass; Finn Slumstrup - drums. Recorded in Copenhagen, October 13th, 1963. Mastered at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, January 2015. Produced by John Corbett.
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LP
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RALP 313LP
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It will always be difficult to pinpoint where free jazz started, but it´s reasonable to say it was shaped and cultivated in New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor were important players, as was Ornette Coleman. Axiom has significant historical importance by being what is quite possibly the first European free jazz record, even if it was not released at the time. Recorded in Copenhagen in October 1963, it should have been Tom Prehn Quartet's debut album for the Sonet label. But by the time the test pressings arrived - a couple of months later - the music already sounded old to them and Sonet subsequently pulled the plug. This, in itself, is quite remarkable, knowing that they were so far ahead of their time. A few sleeves and labels had been printed but only two complete copies survived, making it one of the rarest jazz albums ever. Axiom is expressive, full frontal free jazz of the highest order, and to think it was created by Danish musicians, most of them barely into their twenties, in 1963, is frankly mind-boggling. On the other hand, Scandinavian audiences, especially in Denmark and Sweden, had already welcomed controversial musicians like Ayler and Taylor with open arms. They also imposed a serious impact on many local jazz musicians, the Swedish sax phenomenon Bengt "Frippe" Nordstrøm even recorded Albert Ayler, in Sweden, with Swedish musicians, for his Bird Notes label as early as in 1962 , three years before his first ESP record. Elsewhere in Europe pioneers like UK´s Spontaneous Music Ensemble would debut on record in 1966, while Germany´s Peter Brötzmann would release his first record the year after. First vinyl release. Previously released as a CD by Corbett vs. Dempsey in 2015. Painstaking re-creation of original sleeve by Kim Hiorthøy.
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