Michael Gibbs with Gary Burton Live 1969

[felser]

From theseconddisc.com   https://theseconddisc.com/2018/10/and-on-the-third-day-jack-bruce-joins-gary-burton-michael-gibbs-on-live-festival-69-concerts/

And On The Third Day: Jack Bruce Joins Gary Burton, Michael Gibbs On Live “Festival ’69” Concerts

OCTOBER 9, 2018 BY JOE MARCHESE LEAVE A COMMENT

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Later this month, Cherry Red’s Turtle Records is turning back the clock almost 50 years for the first official release of two 1969 concerts from longtime friends and collaborators Michael Gibbs and Gary Burton.  Festival ’69, due September 28, is a 3-CD set of performances from Gibbs at Lancaster University (February 1969) and Burton with Gibbs at Whitla Hall in Belfast (November 20, 1969) primarily featuring Gibbs’ own compositions.

Students of Herb Pomeroy, trombonist Gibbs and vibraphonist Burton met while attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music.  Burton’s early fusion records on RCA such as Lofty Fake Anagramand Duster (both 1967) featured Gibbs’ compositions and a heady blend of jazz and rock that translated to the stage as heard on Festival ’69.  The first two discs present the Belfast concert which was split between straight Quartet performances (by Burton, guitarist Dave Pritchard, bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer Bill Goodwin), and songs with an all-star British big band consisting of Gibbs and Chris Pyne on trombone, Kenny Wheeler and Trevor Barber on trumpet, Alan Skidmore, Ray Warleigh, and Tony Roberts on saxophone, and Chris Spedding on guitar.  Almost all of the material performed was written by Gibbs, Swallow, or Burton, and many of the songs were familiar from Burton’s recordings on Duster, Tennessee Firebird (1967), Throb (1969, Atlantic), and Country Roads and Other Places (RCA, 1969).  One lone cover, a vibes solo by Burton of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade,” had first been surveyed by Burton on his 1966 LP The Time Machine.

The third disc of the collection features Gibbs’ Lancaster University big band performance sans Burton, but with a very special guest in the form of Cream’s Jack Bruce on bass.  Gibbs and Bruce had previously played alongside each other in the New Jazz Orchestra, but Bruce brought all of the rock energy he’d invested in Cream to this performance, dynamically soloing on the closing “Some Echoes, Some Shadows.”  For this 55-minute set, Gibbs and Bruce were joined by a strong line-up of British jazz’s best players including John Marshall on drums and John Surman on both baritone and soprano saxophones.  All seven songs played were penned by Gibbs, who went on to record many of them on his own albums for the U.K. Deram label.

The three CDs are housed in individual sleeves within a slipcase, and a 24-page book features copious liner notes by Colin Harper.  Simon Murphy has remastered from best available non-compressed files which have been restored for the first time, under Mike Gibbs’ supervision, to the correct speed and original pitch (improving upon previous unofficial digital issues).  Note that sound is generally good on the Lancaster show and less so, though still listenable, on the Belfast discs.

This release is historically significant both for documenting an early onstage collaboration of Gibbs and Burton (who would go on to release the joint album In the Public Interest for Polydor in 1974) and for capturing Jack Bruce’s appearance at a Gibbs set.  This historical value should outweigh the sonic deficiencies for most.  Festival ’69 is due from Cherry Red’s Turtle Records imprint on September 28.  It can be pre-ordered at the links below!

Michael Gibbs with The Gary Burton Quartet, Festival ’69 (Turtle Records TURBXM 503, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Live at Whitla Hall, Belfast, November 20, 1969

1. General Mojo’s Well Laid Plan
2. Announcement
3. Arise, Her Eyes
4. Announcement
5. Ballet
6. Announcement
7. And On the Third Day
8. Chega de Saudade (Vibes Solo)
9. Announcement
10. Portsmouth Configurations (Portsmouth Figurations)
11. Announcement

CD 2: Live at Whitla Hall, Belfast, November 20, 1969

1. Announcement
2. Tanglewood ’63
3. Sojourn/June the 15th, 1967
4. Walter L
5. Nowhere
6. Announcement
7. Doin’ the Pig

CD 3: Lancaster University, 2/69

1. Sweet Rain
2. Family Joy, Oh Boy!
3. Nowhere
4. Fly Time Fly (Sigh)
5. Feelings and Things/June the 15th, 1967
6. And on the Third Day
7. Some Echoes, Some Shadows

[mjzee]

Yes, I saw this listing and it does sound interesting.  Burton was on fire in those days.  I'm not too sure about Michael Gibbs; I only know him from Burton's ECM release "Seven Songs For Quartet And Chamber Orchestra", and didn't much enjoy it.

[JSngry]

There was this one, from back in the yonder days:

I liked the cover a lot more than the music, but it's not bad.

[medjuck]

I like the Mike Gibbs bands.  Saw him with Jack Bruce (IIRC on acoustic bass) in Hampstead 40+ years ago and really like his recent Gil Evans tribute record. 

[sidewinder]

Caught a Mike Gibbs Big Band performance here in the UK during the past year. He was and is excellent - draws much inspiration in his arrangements from Gil Evans but very much his own man in integrating other elements in. Also a fine trombonist - very active on that instrument in his earlier career. Check out his playing on Graham Collier ‘Deep Dark Blue Centre’.

I am very partial to his two early Deram albums - reissued by  Vocalion. I look forward to picking up that Turtle Records release.

Edited October 11, 2018 by sidewinder

[Simon Weil]

4 hours ago, felser said:

an all-star British big band consisting of Gibbs and Chris Pyne on trombone, Kenny Wheeler and Trevor Barber on trumpet

Strictly speaking, Wheeler was Canadian.

 

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I liked the cover a lot more than the music, but it's not bad.

I haven't played it for a while, but I liked the music a lot.

[sidewinder]

6 minutes ago, Simon Weil said:

Strictly speaking, Wheeler was Canadian.

Honourary Brit - nay, to us he was a Brit. Lived and worked here for most of his life.

Edited October 11, 2018 by sidewinder

[Simon Weil]

4 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

 

And Mike Gibbs was born in Southern Rhodesia?

[sidewinder]

Eh?

[Simon Weil]

Your post was empty.

[sidewinder]

The Herb Pomeroy connection is an interesting one. Gibbs and Burton were at Berklee School of Music around the same time as Collier, although I don’t think that they rehearsed/gigged that much with the latter.

Another good Gibbs recording is ‘The Only Chrome Waterfall Orchestra’ put out on Bronze in the mid-70s. Have a copy of that one somewhere.

Edited October 11, 2018 by sidewinder

[Ted O'Reilly]

13 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Honourary Brit - nay, to us he was a Brit. Lived and worked here for most of his life.

Very much Canadian was Kenny Wheeler.  So too, Robert Farnon, and Art Ellefson...  (Some people just can't get over the days when most of the world's maps were the red, and the sun never set on the British Empire.  )

[sidewinder]

5 minutes ago, Ted O'Reilly said:

Very much Canadian was Kenny Wheeler.  So too, Robert Farnon, and Art Ellefson...  (Some people just can't get over the days when most of the world's maps were the red, and the sun never set on the British Empire.  )

Oh dear - we have opened up a proverbial hornet’s nest here.   I regard Wheeler as both a Canadian and a Brit. I say that as a proud Canadian and Brit myself, end of story..

Edited October 11, 2018 by sidewinder

[Ted O'Reilly]

Just now, sidewinder said:

Oh dear - we have opened up a hornet’s nest here.   I regard Wheeler as both a Canadian and a Brit. I say that as a proud Canadian and Brit myself, end of story..

 No hornet's nest here.  Just, as you'll know,  we Canadians do get encompassed into other dominant cultures, eh?  (Didja know Oscar Peterson was Canadian? )

[JSngry]

That's no excuse!

[sambrasa]

I have this, it's good. Must buy if you like vintage Gary Burton bands (and I do). The 2nd concert as a bonus disc 3 is an overkill, though, IMHO. Just the Belfast concert would have done nicely, sound quality is much better as well. But even better recent Michael Gibbs Orchestra disc is Birmingham 1991 with John Scofield. Go for it!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-Hall-Birmingham-1991-Gibbs/dp/B07CQKKFKD/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1540007863&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=michael+gibbs+manchester

[jeffcrom]

The only other released document of the Burton Quartet with David Pritchard in the guitar chair is a 1969 Nice, France concert (presumably from the same tour as this new issue) released as Green Apple on Moon and on some other issues. I'm in for this one.

[felser]

17 hours ago, sambrasa said:

I have this, it's good. Must buy if you like vintage Gary Burton bands (and I do). The 2nd concert as a bonus disc 3 is an overkill, though, IMHO. Just the Belfast concert would have done nicely, sound quality is much better as well.

I also just received this and agree that the 2nd concert is not as vital or as well recorded.  But I paid about $16 for the 3-CD set, so very happy with hit.  Not for audiophiles, but the sound does not detract from the enjoyment, it's fine for the rest of us.

[medjuck]

I made reference earlier to seeing The Gibbs band with Jack Bruce on acoustic bass in Hampstead in the early '70s, but I can find no record of such a concert on a site that lists every known Bruce gig.  Does anone in the UK remember this or have a reference to it or did I just hallucinate it? 

[king ubu]

On ‎11‎.‎10‎.‎2018 at 9:06 PM, Ted O'Reilly said:

 No hornet's nest here.  Just, as you'll know,  we Canadians do get encompassed into other dominant cultures, eh?  (Didja know Oscar Peterson was Canadian? )

Art Ellefson, too, speaking of tenor saxophonists as in the other thread ...

[sidewinder]

5 hours ago, king ubu said:

Art Ellefson, too, speaking of tenor saxophonists as in the other thread ...

Sad to say that he passed away recently, I understand (reported by Jazz Journal, although no info on wiki).

Edited October 23, 2018 by sidewinder

[king ubu]

13 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Sad to say that he passed away recently, I understand (reported by Jazz Journal, although no info on wiki).

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. There's that one Kenny Wheeler album from the seventies with him ... and I've got at least one disc of his own, this one here:

[sidewinder]

Not to mention of course the minor masterpiece that is Ronnie Ross ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’, made during his London years.

[king ubu]

Yeah ... but this is about Barry Gi ... uhm, Michael Gibbs here  

 

Has anyone heard the release by now? How is sound quality on the first two discs?

I quite like this one (what's the state of the Dutton Vocalion jazz reissue programme - still breathing?):

 

And I guess I could do with some more, so maybe this new release would be just that?

 

 

[felser]

4 hours ago, king ubu said:

 

Has anyone heard the release by now? How is sound quality on the first two discs?

 

 

See posts from Friday (10/19) and Saturday (10/20) on the sound quailty.  Plenty good enough on the first two discs, more dicey but still quite listenable on the third.