Herbert Joos Quartet ‎– Ballad 1 (1979, Germany) by request

Back to the German jazz which has served us well here in these pages, to fulfill a request.  We've had some Herbert Joos (trumpet, flugelhorn) before-- most recently here, but also on the Daybreak album and in the band Part of Art.

This record is from 1978 and he's rounded out by Jürgen Wuchner on bass, Thomas Cremer on drums, & Paul Schwarz on piano. Notice he played in the Frederick Rabold group, and teamed up with Roidinger and Joos in 1975 for that great New Jazz Ensemble record.

Anyways, with this record, you get what you were expecting, no less, and no more presumably.

"All composed by H. Joos except Green Meadow by Schwarz, and Variation, by the bassist."


The lovely composition called Variation:

Fourmenonly (Herbert Joos), Michael Gibbs, Jim Hall, Volker Kriegel in the 1973 NDR Jazzworkshop

The number of luminaries here is quite astonishing as can be said by the tags next door to the right, but plus that, all of the following appear: Michael Naura, John Taylor, Peter Giger, Eberhard Weber, Stan Sulzmann, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, et al.  Think of how many of these artists, perhaps all of them, have appeared in some album or another featured on this blog!!

Herbert Joos and Fourmenonly have a track written by the former called Count Down. It's a free jazz piece and will appeal to those who have a taste for that inchoate genre.  Certainly the Daybreak album from his was a huge fan favourite here on this blog.

Michael Gibbs is one artist not previously mentioned whose work I've loved dearly due to its highly well written nature, particularly in Chrome Waterfall Orchestra and In the Public Interest.  Or let's not forget the formidable work Just Ahead from 1972's Mike Gibbs Band, an album I've listened to all my life and keep on discovering more beauty in.  (Unfortunately the other mid-70s album which was a homage to Shakespeare called Will's Power was quite disappointing for me).  (I can post all the Mike Gibbs albums if there's interest.)  He presents us here with three pieces, the first of which is the gorgeous Mother of the Dead Man by Carla Bley, which appeared earlier in the aforementioned live Just Ahead.  The other two are his own compositions called Just A Head [sic] and Fanfare, which first appeared in Tanglewood 63, not a bad album, though not comparable to the previously mentioned 70s masterpieces.

As usual, there is a throwaway jazz number which is the Jim Hall Group's Body and Soul interpretation, and equally as usual, I have to write the same comments about the sheer excruciating boringness of ordinary jazz standards, the nightmare of having to hear them millions of times in one's lifetime, like Paul McCartney's grotesque Yesterday, etc., etc.

Then this nice big thanksgiving dinner closes out with the beautiful Volker Kriegel group and a composition by Eberhard Weber called Electric Blue-- not quite as strong a dessert as one would have liked unfortunately, since it turns into a very mushy free-for-all improvisation after about the two minute mark-- making the proportion of written material to wanker material about 1 to 100.  And it's 18 minutes and 40 seconds long!!


FULL CREDITS AND SAMPLE:

A1 Fourmenonly - Count Down [Comp. by Herbert Joos]

Bass Clarinet, Flute – Wilfried Eichhorn
Drums, Flute – Rudi Theilmann
Engineer – Hans-Heinrich Breitkreuz
Piano, Flute – Helmut Zimmer

A2 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Mother Of The Dead Man [by Carla Bley]





A3 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Just A Head [by Mike Gibbs]

A4 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Fanfare [by Mike Gibbs]

A2 to A4 Credits
Bass Guitar – Roy Babbington (tracks: A2 to A4)
Bass Trombone – Geoff Perkins (tracks: A2 to A4)
Concert Grand Piano – Dave MacRae (tracks: A2 to A4)
Conductor – Michael Gibbs (tracks: A2 to A4)
Drums – John Marshall (tracks: A2 to A4)
Engineer – Werner Münchmeyer (tracks: A2 to A4)
Piano, Organ – John Taylor (2) (tracks: A2 to A4)
Producer – Michael Naura
Production Manager – Karl-Heinz Schlüter
Saxophone, Flute – Brian Smith (tracks: A2 to A4), Ray Warleigh (tracks: A2 to A4), Stan Sulzmann (tracks: A2 to A4)
Trombone – Chris Pyne (tracks: A2 to A4)
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Henry Lowther (tracks: A2 to A4), Kenny Wheeler (tracks: A2 to A4)
Vibraphone, Percussion – Frank Ricotti (tracks: A2 to A4)
Vocals – Norma Winstone (tracks: A2 to A4)


B1 Jim Hall Workshop Group - Body And Soul [comp. by who cares?]
Bass – Red Mitchell
Drums – Daniel Humair
Engineer – Günter Simon
Guitar – Jim Hall

B2 Volker Kriegel Workshop Group - Electric Blue [comp. by Eberhard Weber]
Cello – Peter Warren
Bass – Eberhard Weber
Drums – Joe Nay
Engineer – Hans-Heinrich Breitkreuz
Guitar – Volker Kriegel
Percussion – Peter Giger
Piano – John Taylor (2)
Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Stan Sulzmann
Violin – Zbigniew Seifert

Daybreak recorded in 1976, composed by Herbert Joos (requested by October Country)

Astonishingly, the gorgeous cover is not credited to Joos, though he is certainly a most capable artist (in the visual sense).

As usual this comes directly ripped in lossless from one of my dear friends' LP collections:

Herbert Joos is a German trumpet and flugelhorn player. He is also a graphic artist.

His bands during the years:

Fourmenonly, Herbert Joos Quartet, Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe, The, Part Of Art, Südpool, Sputnik 27, Vienna Art Orchestra

Now again this is an outstanding combination of modern classical music and intellectual jazz.  For me it just doesn't get any better.

And of course for a minus 10 morning with the wind chill and dusty snow covering the asphalt everywhere, what more could you ask for than to gaze lovingly at this dark blue cover, listen to the track "Black Trees" and miss the warmth and green of the summer...

Part of Art, Son Sauvage. Germany 1983

As mentioned before this is a much more stunning and impressive record from this team including Herbert Joos, who 'composed' the third song as you can see (I get the feeling it's mostly improvised).  You may be aware that a crappy mp3 was circulating online for some time now, but unfortunately, in mono, which drives me absolutely crazy, we are not living in the nineteen forties anymore...

Here is jazz plus classical music at its utmost, elevated level of performance, creation, and understanding.

As I said with regards to Morricone, for us this music makes up in beauty what it lacks in popularity.



AND OF COURSE, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Except, of course, those who don't celebrate it, like the Muslims and Jews, who I really don't want to offend, or the Confucians and Buddhists, or even the Atheists, of whom I am one, and therefore of course I couldn't care less about Christmas in any case, except for the fact my children are entitled to many many toys at this time for no apparent reason, certainly not because they are well-behaved...