By now, the dose’s love for offbeat folk and post-bop has, like Tim’s unfortunate violation at the hands of a vagrant, been established
So it should come as no surprise that I’d be very into an album whose style could somehow be described like this:
Free jazz and Sea Shanties!
If only Simoes would extend the character limit, my handle for tomorrow
Albert Mangelsdorff is one of the few musicians who could traffic in these genres
Grounded enough for folk melodies, soaring enough for free blowing
And of course it would have to be released on the legendary MPS label
Founded deep in the Black Forest
But home to avant-garde Americans seeking freedom from restrictions musical, social, and political
Albert was born and lived almost his whole life in Frankfurt
His family pushed violin on him young
But he used to listen to his older brother’s jazz records when he wasn’t home, and was seduced by the free-flowing improvisation
He picked up trombone after starting on violin and guitar
And played for the American serviceman stationed in Frankfurt after the war
He would eventually become an innovator and reference on the instrument
Not least via “multiphonics” — playing multiple notes at once
He recorded prolifically through the 50s and 60s
Including a bunch with his older bro Emil, whose records originally introduced him to jazz
At the 72 Games in Munich, he had a solo trombone performance!
That would have been prior to the Black September hostage episode, obviously
Today’s dose is from Wild Goose, a fantastic 1969 date of Mangelsdorff with the wife-husband duo of Shirley Hart and Colin Wilkie
A couple of traveling English folk singers
And Jaki Freund on soprano sax (Heinz Sauer on tenor)
My favorite is Willow and Rue, which hues more closely to the folk side of the house, but with a killer trombone solo from Mangelsdorff at the close
And beautiful brass harmonies punctuating the march rhythm throughout
Oh yeah, album cover art fits right in with the musical themes
And with 1969
The multiphonics aren’t in (obvious) evidence on this album
But the Sea Shanties are!
https://youtu.be/FETY1mc3t1I
https://youtu.be/02PSqb8K5mM
The appropriately titled Lament with strong vocals from Hart, is another worth repeated listens
https://youtu.be/SBy2zsI3Vp8
Mangelsdorff was very active right up to his passing in 2005
To get a better appreciation for his multiphonics–where the horn is playing one note, the voice another usually higher, and the overtones produced in the middle together create chords!–check out this live set with fellow virtuosos Jaco Pastorius and Alphonse Mouzon
And helped put Germany, and the trombone, on the modern jazz map
*err, hews, not hues
Tho the hues are resplendent as well