Bassist Mike Richmond billed as the leader of this trio LP recorded in Hamburg, Germany in the early summer of 1988 was a guest performer at the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) radio big band together with the two American colleagues, Larry Schneider (saxophone) and Adam Nussbaum (drums). When they were not rehearsing or playing with the big band, they formed a trio and started developing a program for the recording for SteepleChase. So here’s the youthful Schneider/Richmond/Nussbaum coalition to present an engaging trio jazz. “The leader … (with) steadfast mainstream- modern reputation pilots the trio with great enthusiasm.” (The Penguin Guide to Jazz - on SCS 1237)

Monsoon

This recording, the fifth release by trumpeter/composer/educator John McNeil on SteepleChase took place during the summer of 1983 in Denmark at jazz club Montmartre as a part of the graduation concert of the famed Jamey Aebersold Jazz School. John toured Europe as a member of the staff of the Jamey Aebersold Jazz School and led this exciting group consist of the fellow “all-star teachers”: Dave Liebman, Jim McNeely, Ron McClure and Ed Soph. McNeil made this concert as a field study of “how-to-make-a-live-recording” for the students in the audience.

Guitarist and bandleader Larry Coryell was one of the first musicians to combine jazz with rock and received wide recognition as the key member of Gary Burton Quartet. Coryell besides leading his own group formed duo with the Polish-born fusion violinist Urbaniak. This studio recording took place during their European tour.

Song For Biko

The House That Love Built

Three And One

Teddy Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was born in Jackson, MS. He started to play alto sax as a child and later changed to tenor when he was invited to join Howard McGhee’s group in the late 1940s. Since 1945 he has been living in Los Angeles, where he has played and recorded with the bands led by Benny Carter and Gerald Wilson. Edwards is also known for his scores for TV and radio. Edwards toured in Europe frequently in the 70’s and 80’s. This recording was made late 1980 for SteepleChase. Although the pianist Kenny Drew and Edwards have long known each other, this is the only recording the two friends made together. “Edwards is a wonderful and distinctive tenor player, with a smooth tone in the middle and lower register, a bit brassier in the upper, and a great sense of swing. His work is replete with melodic ideas, a gestural sense of variation in dynamics, and a lot of freedom with the beat — here relaxed and behind, there right on top of it or a little ahead.” (Larry Koenigsberg – AAJ) “His sole SteepleChase outing found Teddy in his prime and in excellent company. The outcome was among his finest quartet sets - no hokum but simply pure jazz all the way.” (Mark Gardner)

Teddy Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was born in Jackson, MS. He started to play alto sax as a child and later changed to tenor when he was invited to join Howard McGhee’s group in the late 1940s. Since 1945 he has been living in Los Angeles, where he has played and recorded with the bands led by Benny Carter and Gerald Wilson. Edwards is also known for his scores for TV and radio. Edwards toured in Europe frequently in the 70’s and 80’s. This recording was made late 1980 for SteepleChase. Although the pianist Kenny Drew and Edwards have long known each other, this is the only recording the two friends made together. “Edwards is a wonderful and distinctive tenor player, with a smooth tone in the middle and lower register, a bit brassier in the upper, and a great sense of swing. His work is replete with melodic ideas, a gestural sense of variation in dynamics, and a lot of freedom with the beat — here relaxed and behind, there right on top of it or a little ahead.” (Larry Koenigsberg – AAJ) “His sole SteepleChase outing found Teddy in his prime and in excellent company. The outcome was among his finest quartet sets - no hokum but simply pure jazz all the way.” (Mark Gardner)

Light And Lively

Phantoms

One of the best assets of the Count Basie Big Band in the 50s, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis was a frequent guest player in Europe in the 70s. In the Spring of 76 Lockjaw went into a studio in Copenhagen with “the excellent Danish rhythm section” which “manage to coax some of the best playing from the tenor saxophonist since his days with Basie” (Gramophone). “...The mood, as always with Davis, is a happy one. With the help of the fine, supportive rhythm section it becomes contagious, and ...it is an awful lot of fun to listen to.” (Fanfare) “Thankfully, the girls haven’t come home yet, so this rhythmic set of eight tunes (11 on this CD) swings out nicely...” (Billboard)

Scorpio Rising

Just In Time

Reflections Of Monk - The Final Frontier

Here is the second volume of “In The Tradition” with all titles in first takes to complete the session which started with Volume one. The session was originally meant for Dexter Gordon. As Dexter was taken ill at the time of recording, Braxton filled in and the rest is history. “ This music confirms Braxton’s talent for striking a fine balance between the purely experimental and the more conventional.” (Jazz Journal)

“This is hard bop at its best, superior playing by pianist Galper and tenor saxist Mike Brecker ...good contrast between ballads and exciting up-tempo lines.” (Don Lass, Asbury Park Press) “So the Brecker Brothers can play jazz after all!...You won’t find a drop of funk on this record, just good old, straight-ahead, swinging jazz....Hal Galper must be given credit for channelling the music in the right direction...” (Carl Brauer, Cadence) “...in pianist Hal Galper’s acoustic progressive jazz combo, trumpeter Randy and saxophonist Michael Brecker play with conviction and emotion...Good stuff.” (Oakland Tribune)

Music is the air I breathe and the planet I inhabit. The only way I can pay my debt to music is by bringing it to others, with all my love. (Cathy Berberian) Cathy Berberian was born in the United States of Armenian parents. While proficient in the traditional concert repertoire, Miss Berberian was renowned for her contribution to contemporary music. Her enormous flexibility and range together with a strong sense of theater and innate musicality have been acclaimed by press and public alike, and have inspired the creation of compositions by major contemporary composers such as Berio, Bussotti, Cage, Milhaud, Maderna, Pousseur, etc. One of the highlights of her career was her musical relationship with Stravinsky who made the final version of the "Elegy for JFK" for her voice and with whom she gave concerts and made Columbia recordings of Stravinsky's vocal music.