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ROAR 045LP
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2022 restock. Roaratorio's survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy. Consisting of recordings from Sun Studios (aka Ra's house in Philadelphia) from 1968-1969, the album features nine tracks: six compositions which have never been heard before in any form, plus fresh coats of paint on such 1950s classics as "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia", and an early rendition of "Why Go To The Moon". Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees. Includes download coupon.
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ROAR 046LP
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At age 78, Joe McPhee shows no sign of slowing down. Plan B is the master improviser's new trio, with James Keepnews on guitar and laptop and David Berger on drums. A soundtrack to a science fiction movie existing only in their heads, From Outer Space finds McPhee and company envisioning the first encounter between alien life and a delegation of earthlings (while giving a nod to jazz's original man from another planet, Sun Ra, with a side-long suite dedicated to him). It's quite unlike anything else in McPhee's vast discography. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom. Includes download coupon.
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ROAR 044EP
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2016 release. A companion EP to the recent double LP retrospective This Song Was Borne (ROAR 039LP, 2016), Flight Of The Light Air Force features three exclusive tracks by cult favorite psych-folk duo Fraser and DeBolt. The majestic title track is an outtake from their second Columbia LP, With Pleasure (1973). On the flip side, are two cuts recorded live at a February 1970 concert in upstate NY, as performed by Fraser, DeBolt, and violinist Ian Guenther.
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ROAR 042LP
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2016 release. Molecular Affinity is a first ever meeting among Nels Cline, Thollem McDonas, and Pauline Oliveros. Thollem McDonas, "This is the third trio album Nels and I have made together, each time with a different 3rd partner. The previous two were The Gowanus Session (2012) with William Parker and Radical Empathy (2015) with Michael Wimberly. Though each session has been unique in itself (different prescribed approaches, the environment and of course the uniqueness that each individual brings), there are definitely overarching themes pollinating each album. As the instigator of each of these sessions, I've always been curious about the sonic experience created each time a unique combination of musicians gather. So, in a sense, this is really kind of a scientific experiment with a control and a variable. I also love the trio format: there's plenty of room for everyone, yet still many possible depths of complexity in relationships between the individuals. The three of us seemed immediately intertwined, psychically and sonically; it was an amazing place to record with amazing musicians/human beings. I think it all comes through in the recording; it's an experiment with fascinating results" Pauline Oliveros, "This recording brought us together for an unusual musical conversation. There was no plan or guiding structure. Thus the conversation set the pace between electric guitar, accordion and piano. Each of us contributing, conversing in response to the other from our own individual perceptions. The music develops as a result of those moments of conversation. As different subjects are triggered or introduced the conversation shifts, turns and integrates making the music." Nels Cline, "It started on a beautiful sunny day in a rental car to Accord, NY, Thollem at the wheel, his lovely partner Angela riding shotgun. Thollem had instigated yet another miraculous and rather unexpected improvisatory recording session. This time, I was really going to meet the legendary Pauline Oliveros and improvise with her, and Thollem, of course! We met at a market and caravanned it to a beautiful barn studio. Pauline was immediately welcoming and gracious, a good start! A few improvisations, some bucolic photos, and precious lungfuls of sweet air later we were headed back to the city. How was that? Did that really happen? Yes, it really did. A concentrated portion of our probing explorations is thankfully here, on this petrochemical slice, Molecular Affinity. It's a good thing!" Jacket and label feature confocal microscopy images of a Coleochaete green algae, by Fernán Federici.
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ROAR 043LP
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2016 release. Roaratorio present Salt, Ashes, Goat Skin, their second release with Portuguese composer David Maranha. "In an everlasting process that continuously repositions and reevaluates infinity as a consciously unachievable but ultimately rewarding goal since the early '90s, David Maranha's music has been riding that arc with ferocity and aplomb. A unique vision that has been translating the eternal in a sprawling language through countless performances, approaches and records like Marches of the New World (2017) and the Roaratorio-released classic Antarctica (2010). Always the unsettled mind, Maranha conveys his spiraling vision towards its core with this new ensemble. Comprised of Diana Combo on drums, Filipe Felizardo on electric guitar and David himself on organ and violin, they are a speculative tour de force around animic and sensory principles of movement, stillness and reaction. Long drawn out semi-riffs feedback along the drifting textures of the violin and the organ; like rock's ultimate coda stretched into nowhere. Drums plod in restraint, sustaining the drone-like vortex of electricity without ever reaching any sort of conclusion in four pieces that inhabit their own universe continually; as it should be."--Bruno Silva
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ROAR 040LP
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2022 restock. One might think, with a discography as extensive as the one that Sun Ra boasts, that the scope of his work has been fully apprehended by this point, but The Intergalactic Thing demonstrates its seemingly bottomless depths. This is not a complete surprise; anyone who saw Ra and the Arkestra perform will remember the sight of the band quickly shuffling through an imposingly thick stack of sheet music, when Sunny would call the next tune on the program with an encrypted hint on his keyboard. Band members tell stories of spending long hours practicing a newly-written composition, only to never play it again. Here, we have a taste of what's been hidden: drawn from rehearsals at the Sun Ra house in Philadelphia from 1969, The Intergalactic Thing introduces a dozen never-before-heard pieces from Ra's songbook. These are tunes that may have never even made it to the bandstand, let alone the recording studio, along with a handful of reworkings of such Ra classics as "Spontaneous Simplicity" and "The Exotic Forest." Without a doubt, this is one of the most important augmentations to the Sun Ra catalog in many a moon. This double LP set comes in a beautiful gatefold jacket, with extensive liner notes by Ra discographer Robert L. Campbell.
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ROAR 039LP
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2016 release. Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt met in the summer of 1969. They had both been working individually on the coffeehouse circuit in their native Canada; over the next five years, as the duo of Fraser and DeBolt, they created a sublime body of work that still sounds remarkably fresh decades later. They recorded two albums (With Ian Guenther, 1971 and With Pleasure, 1973) for Columbia which garnered rave reviews at the time, but saw little commercial success. Both have since become cult classics in psychedelic folk circles, with the first, With Ian Guenther, being particularly beloved amongst a coterie of die-hard fans. Their combination of ragged-but-right salt & pepper harmonies, evocative lyrics, and beautiful songs shot through with occasional dissonant grace notes combined with careful arrangements that still managed to sound off-the-cuff made for some of the most beguiling music of its era. Now, Roaratorio is proud to present This Song Was Borne, a double LP collection of previously unreleased demos, studio outtakes, radio sessions, and live recordings from Fraser and DeBolt's archives, spanning their entire career, in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket with detailed liner notes from Allan and Daisy.
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ROAR 041EP
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2016 release. The Cleveland Wrecking Company were formed in San Francisco in 1965. Their members came from jazz, flamenco, and R&B backgrounds, but together their psychedelic brew verged on Blue Cheer heaviness. The two tracks on Say There's A Reason hail from 1967-8: one studio and one live (the sonics on the latter may remind of the Velvet Underground's "guitar amp" boot, but with a solo as overdriven and atonal as this, it's a plus). Liner notes by band member Jim Moscoso and rare photographs.
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ROAR 037LP
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2015 release. For decades, Crystal Syphon were, at most, a footnote in the music history books, a name on posters from the psychedelic ballroom days, and a fond memory to those who'd seen the Merced, California band perform on the west coast circuit in the late 1960s. That changed with the release of Family Evil (ROAR 025LP, 2012). That debut album, evidence that the mine of hidden gems from the original psych era had not yet been picked clean, caught the ears of fans worldwide, garnering raves and equal-footing comparisons to Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and the Byrds; the group reunited and began playing out again, with their vintage sound intact. Now, Roaratorio is proud to present Elephant Ball, a second helping of unearthed material from the band's archives. Starting with three tracks from their earliest recording sessions under the Crystal Syphon name, in 1967 Elephant Ball then moves on to a Fillmore West gig from November 1969, featuring the final incarnation of the group during their original run. With the same complex harmonies, nuanced songwriting and top-drawer musicianship that won Family Evil its accolades, the half-dozen tunes range from the crunchy riffs of the title track and "It's Winter" to the lightly jazzy "Don't Fall Brother" and the Latin-tinged moves of "There Is Light There".
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ROAR 036LP
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2014 release. "Les Barricades Mistérieuses," the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears, who provides the "singings and screamings" of the album's subtitle. It moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative take on Couperin's composition, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast, recorded with wildly over-saturated levels, the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out storm clouds of overtones from Corner's piano. Edition of 318 copies, with Corner's calligraphy silkscreened on Kozo rice paper and mounted onto the jacket.
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ROAR 031LP
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2013 release. Black Phoenix Blues is the third Roaratorio collection of the best of Rodd Keith's vast output. Dating from 1966 to 1974, these sixteen previously unreissued songs showcase the scope of his work: the should've-been-a-hit "You And I", the elegant exotica of "I Love Lovely Chinese Gal", the history lesson of "The Explosion Of Holden 22 Mine", the harrowing psycho-killer musings of the title track, "I'm Proud To Be A Hippie From Mississippi," the stoner's answer to Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee", the lo-fi "The Game Of Love" (which, in the tradition of Keith's infamous "I'm Just The Other Woman," prompted the dissatisfied customer to request a more conventional re-take), the disturbingly desperate "Sing My Death Note," which was discovered on one of Keith's private reels, and the unclassifiable WTF?-ness of "Abidin' Tuh The Rule." To call Rodd Keith the king of the song-poems (also known as the "send us your lyrics" quick buck-demo mill) is damning him with faint praise; no one else in that shady backwater of the music industry possessed an array of talents as distinctively individual as his. As gifted a singer, composer and arranger as he was, his genius was destined to remain a well-kept secret during his lifetime by virtue of the complete disregard, verging on invisibility in which song-poem records were held. He was a commercial musician in the most literal sense of the word, but within those confines, he displayed an oddball, personal vision that frequently transcended the work-for-hire nature of his music. Black Phoenix Blues is presented here as limited-edition LP with artwork by Josh Journey-Heinz and liner notes from blues guitarist Debbie Davies, one of Keith's musical and personal collaborators from the early 1970s.
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ROAR 030EP
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2013 release. A sheer metal-esque maelstrom and free jazz makes it on Dissipated Face with Daniel Carter's Live At CBGB 1986. These archival recordings from the legendary punk club CBGB capture a moment in time when open-minded musicians from the downtown scene were exploring the possibility of bringing Lou Reed's feedback-infested Metal Machine Music (1975) together with Albert Ayler's Love Cry (1968). Dissipated Face guitarist Kurt "Hologram" Ralske and special guest saxophonist Daniel Carter provided that implausible link between punk rock and avant garde jazz on these 1986 live recordings.
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ROAR 028LP
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2022 restock. In June of 1977, Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland. Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, for which McPhee elected to bring out his own soprano saxophone. The main part of Lacy's performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP (1978); after 36 years, here is The Rest. This one-sided, limited LP marks the first and only time that these two master musicians played together, but the simpatico meshing of their distinctly individual voices points towards a shared history on a different plane. Previously unreleased material licensed from Hat Hut Records. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included. "This 20-minute improvisation shows two stylists of the soprano sax jousting, jabbing, dovetailing and slithering around each other. At times, it sounds as if Lacy is going to go into one of his compositions and McPhee, for his part, holds his own against the master, his more visceral soprano sound contrasting nicely with Lacy's elegance. This limited-edition, one-sided vinyl is truly an unearthed gem." ?Robert Iannapollo, New York City Jazz Record
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ROAR 027LP
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2022 restock. A major figure in 20th century arts and music (and beyond), Philip Corner studied with Henry Cowell and Olivier Messiaen, and was one of the original fluxus conspirators, among other highlights of his long and storied career. As part of the body of his Metal Meditations work, Gong / Ear is a decades-long series of improvisations with dancers. Utilizing his favorite Paiste tam-tam, these two recordings from Corner's New York City Leonard Street loft in 1989 are a feedback loop of perceptions between gong and dance: "the initiating sound (or is it the dancer's posture?) is made physically audible. Responsive movement is turned back into sound. Musicianly attentiveness sends it back and it continues." Gong / Ear : Dance-Ing, 1 & 2 is released in a limited edition of 305 copies, each with a hand-cut facsimile brass gong, silkscreened with Corner's calligraphy and mounted onto the jacket. Download coupon included.
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ROAR 026LP
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2024 restock. Scraps And Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under A Double Moon (ROAR 022LP), which featured McPhee's alto saxophone, Scraps And Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, the album consists of seven dedicatory pieces, from the delicate balladry of "For Adrienne P" to the appropriately combustible "For Han Bennink". Corsano's stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee's free-soul love cries weave a master latticework together. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included.
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ROAR 025LP
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2012 release. Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest "lost" groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965. Originally a Beatles/Byrds-influenced unit called The Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970. Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it's imbued throughout with a distinctive sound that arose from practicing up to six nights a week. The band entertained offers from various labels during their existence, but as they insisted on complete artistic control and ownership of their music, no deals were struck. Now, some 44 years after its creation, Roaratorio is proud to make the music of Crystal Syphon available for the first time ever. Drawn from studio tracks, rehearsal tapes and a live recording from the Fillmore West, Family Evil features cover art by Norman Orr and extensive historical liner notes in an old-style tip-on jacket. "Family Evil is a very cool archival release by an all-but-unknown quintet from Merced, California, recorded in 1967-8. Their sound has shades of Quicksilver, Kak, and the Youngbloods, with stinging quavery guitar leads winding through downer-blues-moves and neo-pop vocals. Considering what a signing frenzy there was in the Bay Area at the time, it seems odd these guys never even did a single, but this LP was worth the wait." --Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, Arthur.
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ROAR 024LP
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2012 release. When psycho-spatial composer Nelson Gastaldi passed away in 2009 at the age of 77, he left behind a unique musical legacy that is only now beginning to be unveiled. A self-described "musical nihilist with noble and mystic origins" (as well as an accomplished visual artist), Gastaldi supported himself and his family with a job at an electric company in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while creating an astonishing body of work that went virtually unheard during his lifetime. Synthesizing his wide-ranging interests (medicine, linguistics, Chinese and German philosophy) into his music, he welcomed paranormal /initiatic experiences into the compositional process, creating homemade Sibelius-meets-Sun Ra symphonies. The only previous publication of his work was in Bananafish magazine, which featured an excerpt of Symphony No. 3 , presented here in full, on an accompanying CD. The same issue also contained his sole English-language interview, in which he waxed, "The human being runs at the side of a river. When he is young, he runs faster than the river; in mid-life he runs at the same speed as the river; and at last he falls down and the river keeps going." Take a dip into the strange and beautiful river of Nelson Gastaldi.
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ROAR 023LP
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2022 restock. "Song Poems Wanted" read the ads. "We need new ideas for recording!" The send-us-your-lyrics business was a borderline scam, taking whatever lyrics came their way from would-be songwriters and -- for a fee -- setting them to music. None of the results ever came close to being a hit, and to be sure, the vast majority was sufficiently bland or clumsy to insure no great karmic loss in their instant obscurity and miniscule press runs. But Rodd Keith -- the late, great genius whose prolific output was almost completely confined to the song-poem industry -- had a knack for turning sow's ears into silk purses. The nature of the business required him to work quickly, with no second takes, and his skill at writing and arranging on the fly was not unlike that of a master improviser. When at his best, he put his unique musical stamp on some lucky customer's submission. My Pipe Yellow Dream is the second Roaratorio anthology of the highlights of Rodd Keith's work. Compiling fifteen previously un-reissued songs from 1966 through his death in 1974 -- including a never-before-heard cover of "Choo Choo Train" -- My Pipe Yellow Dream showcases the full range of his talents. From exquisite mid-60s pop balladry ("Deep Velvet") to blue-eyed soul ("You Don't Have To Alibi") to folk-rock ("Tired Of Waiting") to solo Chamberlain creations ("Red Sports Car") to gospel testifying ("O Jesus My Savior") to a pair of patriotic screeds (the all-spoken word "America The Not So Beautiful" and the bizarre-world lounge funk of "Search Out Your Soul, American"), this collection continues the rehabilitation of Rodd Keith's recorded legacy from thrift-shop throwaway to celebrated cult artist. A limited-edition LP in a gorgeous gatefold jacket, with artwork by Josh Journey-Heinz and liner notes from song-poem vocalist Dick Kent. Download coupon included.
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ROAR 020LP
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2010 release. When one thinks of the musical centers of New Zealand, the city of Tauranga doesn't have as celebrated a history as Dunedin, Auckland or Christchurch. Which is apt, in a way, as the artist known to us only as Rotate The Completor makes music that sounds unconnected to any scene in NZ or elsewhere. A chance encounter with an enthusiastic passerby while busking on the streets led to the receipt of a home-recorded cassette, which caught the ears of the outsider music community, although any attempts at personal correspondence with its creator from his new admirers went ignored. Armed with a guitar, kick-drum, and vocal stylings which wouldn't sound out of place on an early Residents record, Rotate The Completors: Completed Rotations Of The? is the sound of a one-man band playing at a carnival that's gone off the rails. RTC's other-/inner-worldly songs are a strangely addicting brew of lo-fi bedroom pop, proggy loner folk and bouncy children's music, with such lyrical concerns as beer-stealing cantaloupes, dead albino hedgehogs, and emphatic denials of insanity. Roaratorio is proud to present Rotate The Completors: Completed Rotations Of The?, newly mastered for vinyl, to a wider audience for the first time.
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ROAR 019LP
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2010 release. Rag captures the best from a series of freely improvised meetings between saxophonist George Cartwright and percussionist Davu Seru, recorded at various Minneapolis venues over the course of 2009. Cartwright, longtime leader of Curlew, and with credits that include Ornette Coleman, Half Japanese, Alex Chilton and Loren Mazzacane can be restlessly melodic or jaggedly guttural on the reeds, although his bedrock lyricism is never far from the surface. Seru's playing is a "trompe l'oreille" marriage of forward motion and suspended stasis; over the past decade, he's performed with Milo Fine, Paul Metzger and Evan Parker, among others. From the anthemic opening of "Titus" to the miniature coda of "I Think Eudora Knows," Rag is a lively dialogue between two masters of their craft. Edition of 300 on colored vinyl, each with a unique cover print by Anne Elias and download.
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ROAR 016LP
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2009 release. Since 2003, New York City's Talibam! have been charting a course through the improv waters in a way that few other groups can pull off. Rock, jazz, noise, and all stops in between collide in an aggressive mix that defines free music in the best sense of the term: nothing is deemed out of bounds. Too much fun to be a po-faced postmodern exercise, and too expertly played to be sunk in a morass of good intentions, The New Nixon Tapes hurtles through two side-long pieces in an agile cascade of rhythmic and melodic ideas. Kevin Shea (drums) and Matt Mottel (synthesizer) have worked with Cooper-Moore and Rhys Chatham, among others; here they're joined by master saxophonist/trumpeter/flautist Daniel Carter. Recorded live in the WFMU studios. Digital download coupon included. "The synth and percussion duet of Talibam! is well-served by the addition of reedsman Daniel Carter, a fixture of the NYC free jazz scene... Melodies shoot in every direction but for as free as it is, it's expertly guided and adheres to a viscous vision." ?Justin Wunsch, Dusted
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ROAR 013LP
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2008 release. Formed in Minneapolis in 2004, Knife World have converted many unwary bystanders into true believers through their frenetic gigs in underground venues and the occasional club, and hope to do the same with Knife World . The band worships at the riff temple, swapping pomposity for a mischievous intelligence. Guitarist Jon Nielsen plays as if part of some skewed arena-rock mash-up, while drummer Josh Journey-Heinz avoids the obvious backbeats by carving out the spaces around them instead. Together they have a fuller sound than most groups with more appendages. A self-released cassette and a cd-r served up hints at their potential, but now their debut LP delivers the goods. "This is rock in a mode which reminds us of classic-era oddball indie stuff of the SST/Homestead era . . . the playing is defiantly expert and filled with non-generic psych moves and references." --Byron Coley and Thurston Moore, Arthur. Packaged in a pleasantly eye-gouging 3D gatefold jacket, with glasses mounted into the vinyl.
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ROAR 014LP
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2022 restock. Paul Metzger continues to pile up the plaudits from critics and peers alike for his virtuosic string-slinging, gaining notice through Three Improvisations On Modified Banjo (2005) and his split LP with Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano on Roaratorio (2006). Metzger's modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although the compositions on Gedanken Splitter are informed by much more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as Deliverance (2007), this is a more jagged and aggressive (although no less accessible) affair. Metzger winds these improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and while never turning completely abstract, Gedanken Splitter moves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. This is mesmerizing and singular playing. "If Paul Metzger's last album Deliverance evinced his yearning to free the banjo from the shackles of convention, Gedanken Splitter shows what comes after the chains hit the earth; Metzger's attack is unmatched in the new American Primitive camp." --Bill Meyer, The Wire.
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ROAR 010CD
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2005 release. Rodney Keith Eskelin, aka Rodd Keith, aka Rod Rogers, would've certainly found the recognition during his lifetime that his talent demanded, if he hadn't chosen to work in the lowest depths of the music industry: the "send us your lyrics" field, known today as the song-poem genre. Saucers In The Sky gathers together twenty-six previously uncollected Rodd Keith gems from the hundreds upon hundreds of songs that he recorded before he leapt from a highway overpass in 1974. It would be inaccurate to call this a collection of forgotten pop classics; "forgotten" implies that they were known in the first place. Outside of the aspiring lyricists who bankrolled the proceedings, plus a few of their friends and relations, none of Rodd Keith's records registered the slightest blip on the musical radar of their time. The irony runs deep; the song-poem business was a stylus's breadth away from being an outright scam, capitalizing on the dreams of would-be songwriters and filling their heads with visions of breakout hits and fame and fortune. In reality, if the lyrics themselves weren't unwieldy or strange enough to hobble any chances of entering the charts with a bullet, the assembly line production style of the recording insured that the majority of the songs were musically undistinguished. The best of Rodd Keith's work, however, easily transcends its lowly, no-hope origins, and therein lies the kicker: if the pressing runs for songs like "Magic In Her Eyes" or "Go Go Girlie" had broken the triple digit mark, or found their first point of sale in a Sam Goody rather than a thrift shop, they could've undoubtedly attained some measure of the popular success that their hapless creators were led to believe would follow. While such tunes as "Ravens" or "Sawdust" were too lyrically bent for Billboard glory, they remain prime examples of Rodd's brilliance as a singer, composer and arranger. Saucers In The Sky also includes two never-before-released tracks: a cover of "Here Comes The Judge" from a soul-sound-alike session, and "Get On My Honda, Rhonda," written as a birthday gift for Rodd's best friend's son. Packaged in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve, with liner notes from Del Casher, inventor of the wah-wah pedal and guitarist on many of Rodd's early recordings, and Stacey Keith, Rodd's daughter.
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ROAR 004CD
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2002 release. A revelatory debut album by a 64-year-old pianist/composer may beg the question: where has Carei Thomas been all this time? Born in a culturally diverse neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Thomas cut his musical teeth in Chicago during a particularly fertile period for that city: gigging with Sun Ra as an improvising vocalist in 1959-60, joining up with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians for one hot minute in 1966, co-founding a group called The Light with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (which also included Jerome Cooper and Wadada Leo Smith), and forming the compositional concepts that would provide a springboard for tireless exploration in the ensuing decades. Thomas moved to Minneapolis in 1972, where, in the mode of Horace Tapscott, he eschewed the industry-driven career path, choosing instead to work within the Twin Cities' community. Recorded live with a group that features, most notably, the unfettered talents of Curlew saxophonist George Cartwright, Mining Our Bid'ness represents the range of Thomas's no-boundaries Feel Free Ensemble, running the gamut from gorgeous Ellingtonian ballads to combustible free jazz testifying. Packaged in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve, with cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom, and liner notes by, among other contributors, Douglas Ewart and Anthony Cox. Until now, Thomas's name has been known mostly to fellow musicians (David Murray, Sunny Murray, and James Newton are counted among his admirers); this CD serves as the first opportunity for the general public to hear this important figure in the world of creative improvised music. "His compositions, in true AACM style, are harmonically complex and allow for numerous changes of tempo and instrumentation... 'Tippy/One Ahead' says more in nine minutes than most musicians do in a whole album..." ?Dan Warburton, The Wire
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