George Russell Sextet In K.c. - Original Swinging Instrumentals

George Russell

This release contains the outstanding studio album "George Russell Sextet in K.C." in its entirety for the first time ever on CD.

Recorded in New York and featuring some of the compositions that the sextet was asked to play in the course of a two-week engagement at a club called the Blue Room in Kansas City.


Tracklisting:

01. War Gewessen (Baker)
02. Rhymes (Bley)
03. Lunacy (Baker)
04. Sandu (Brown)
05. Tune Up (Davis)
06. Theme (Russell)


Originally issued in LP format in 1961 as Decca DL-74183.


Personnel:
Don Ellis (tp), Dave Baker (tb), Dave Young (ts), George Russell (p, arr), Chuck Israels (b) and Joe Hunt (d).

Recorded in New York City, on February 23, 1961.


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Notes:

"These sides reflect a lighter, more casual view of George Russell. The music is aggressive but not hostile, neoteric but not neurotic, ultra-jazz yet never anti-jazz. I wish that anybody, everybody, who wants to do something new in modern music could study with George Allan Russell."

Leonard Feather (from the original liner notes)


"George Russell was at a creative peak in the early '60s as he recorded one memorable small-group session after another. The pianist and composer wrote only one of the six songs on this 1961 session, while tackling two imaginative charts (the turbulent "War Gewessen" and the amusing Latin-flavored "Lunacy") by the young trombonist Dave Baker, who was a student of Russell's and would later become an important jazz educator in his own right. Carla Bley, who had also studied with Russell, composed "Rhymes," whose initial vamp suggests Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments," though the haunting unison theme by Baker and trumpeter Don Ellis takes it in a completely different direction. The leader's scoring of Clifford Brown's "Sandu" allows plenty of blowing space for the band, with a typically economical piano solo by Russell. His heated arrangement of Miles Davis' "Tune Up" is simply spectacular. Liner note writer Leonard Feather hilariously describes Russell's "Theme" as "Every Man for Himself in F Minor." This rewarding Decca LP has long been unavailable and expect to pay a premium price if you are fortunate enough to run across a copy of it."

Ken Dryden -All Music Guide

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