Cool Europa European Progressive Jazz

[Tom 1960]

Any thoughts on this release? Is it a legit release? Sounds good from what I've heard on Spotify.

Edited December 11, 2024 by Tom 1960

[Rooster_Ties]

First Google hit, fwiw…

https://sonoramarecords.bandcamp.com/album/cool-europa-european-progressive-jazz-in-germany-1959-63

[Rooster_Ties]

Full liners to the 2LP issue are visible here…

https://www.discogs.com/release/10360001-Various-Cool-Europa-European-Progressive-Jazz-In-Germany-1959-63
 

Discogs notes say:  Track A1 previously released on Francy Boland Ensemble; track C1 previously released on Bongo Jazzand C3 on Jazz Da Camera.
All other music previously unreleased.

[Big Beat Steve]

That cover photograph is odd ... and ill-suited ...

This is a pic by renowned jazz photographer Susanne Schapowalow and shows trumpeter Fred Bunge in war-devastated Hamburg in 1949! Far outside the time frame of the record and showing a musican who did not figure on that release either (he had virtually left jazz by the period of the recordings and died in 1960 in a car crash). Reconstruction in Europe had progressed rather more by the late 50s /early 60s (and Germany, in partuicular - cf. the German "Wirtschaftswunder" period). So there would have been better period pics to illustrate the feel of the era, i.e. through 50s/late 50s modernism.
What were you thinking, you artworkists??

Apart from that, Sonorama is an interesting label that goes where few others bother to tread.

 

Edited December 14, 2024 by Big Beat Steve