John Surman archival issue

[Roger Farbey]

Flashpoints and Undercurrents is a forthcoming double CD archival release from a 1969 session released by Cuneiform Records January 31 and details on Bandcamp. From the track/personnel/rec. date it would appear that 5 of the 15 tracks were released on Flashpoint (Cuneiform, 2011). This is a good session with the cream of UK jazz participating plus some Austrian musicians and highlights Surman's virtuoso playing and excellent compositional skills.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:24 AM by Roger Farbey
factual correction

[felser]

Sounds like a must-have, thanks!

[mjazzg]

The earlier Flashpoint is excellent so this is very interesting.

Here's the Bandcamp link

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/flashpoints-and-undercurrents
 

 

[adh1907]

The earlier reissue of Flashpoint came with a DVD film of the recording session.  Was fascinating to see the older musicians like Ronnie Scott really getting into this new music. 

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, I have (and think I reviewed) the old one. The DVD is awesome!

also, FWIW Erich Kleinschuster and Fritz Pauer are Austrian.

[Roger Farbey]

13 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Yeah, I have (and think I reviewed) the old one. The DVD is awesome!

also, FWIW Erich Kleinschuster and Fritz Pauer are Austrian.

noted and corrected, thank you.

Edited yesterday at 11:45 AM by Roger Farbey

[Roger Farbey]

Update: on checking my copy of Flashpoint (2011) this seems to my ears to be in mono, however the teaser track One Upon A Time on Cuneiform's Bandcamp site of the new release is in glorious stereo! (it is advertised as stereo). Let joy be unconfined!

Edited yesterday at 11:49 AM by Roger Farbey

[mjazzg]

Yes, I remember Flashpoint being in mono

[Roger Farbey]

Further update(!)... Steve at Cuneiform bas confirmed that Flashpoint (2011) and Flashpoints & Undercurrents are two completely different sessions, hence F & U being in stereo. I'll stop with the updates now.

[clifford_thornton]

Huh. Well, the Bandcamp credits list the recording date as April 18, 1969, which corresponds with the earlier Flashpoint so there must be some overlap at least.

[felser]

10 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Huh. Well, the Bandcamp credits list the recording date as April 18, 1969, which corresponds with the earlier Flashpoint so there must be some overlap at least.

And all five titles on Flashpoint show up on the new release, and the personnel is identical.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah. I assume Flashpoint was abbreviated to match the NDR TV program, and this is a bit more expanded. Either way, I'm glad this is coming out and will keep both in the overstuffed racks

[Roger Farbey]

I can only guess that the earlier one was taken from the mono television session as on the DVD and they then went back and recorded tracks in a proper recording studio in stereo. But I agree that some kind of explanation would have been helpful especially with the line-up/date coincidence. It certainly confused me. 

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, that makes total sense.

[corto maltese]

19 hours ago, Roger Farbey said:

I can only guess that the earlier one was taken from the mono television session as on the DVD and they then went back and recorded tracks in a proper recording studio in stereo. But I agree that some kind of explanation would have been helpful especially with the line-up/date coincidence. It certainly confused me. 

The concept of the NDR Jazz Workshop was to practise for several days, followed by a try-out session (with cameras if the workshop was also produced for TV) and then the actual concert. I suppose the previous cd/dvd release was a recording of that rehearsal session, from the same day as the concert.

I have an album released by the NDR with selections from the 1968/69 Jazz Workshops ("Die Jazz-Werkstatt '69 - Eine Skizze in 11 Stücken"). On it are two tracks from the  "Flashpoint" session that is now being released in full: "Background" and "Puzzle".

 

[clifford_thornton]

Right, another user provided some insight on the broadcast differences to me over email earlier. So the TV program and the radio session would be different days, and different performances, and this new release will contain alternate audio.

[king ubu]

On 1/6/2025 at 7:47 PM, Roger Farbey said:

Further update(!)... Steve at Cuneiform bas confirmed that Flashpoint (2011) and Flashpoints & Undercurrents are two completely different sessions, hence F & U being in stereo. I'll stop with the updates now.

Good to know, thanks for sharing!