Libra/Another Earth

Artist: Gary Bartz Label: Milestone Category: Music Average customer rating: Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 025218477727 EAN: 0025218477727 ASIN: B00000DFI5 Release Date: 1998-11-17

Listmania:

1. Too Dope for Ken 'safe culture for yuppie nation' Burns

Tracks:

1. Eastern Blues - Richard Davis
2. Cabin In The Sky - Richard Davis
3. Air And Fire - Richard Davis
4. Libra - Richard Davis
5. Bloomdido - Richard Davis
6. Deep River - Richard Davis
7. Freedom One Day - Richard Davis
8. Another Earth - Reggie Workman
9. Dark Nebula - Reggie Workman
10. UFO - Reggie Workman
11. Lost In The Stars - Reggie Workman
12. Perihelion And Aphelion - Reggie Workman

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1. Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard
2. The Complete Original Quartet Recordings

Customer Reviews:

2 classic late '60s 'cool fire' jazz records on 1 CD.......2000-12-10

Bottom line: Two absolutely classic jazz records that have been overlooked for too long and belong in every jazz fan's collection (the high-energy level also makes them a strong recommendation for those who only like 'fusion'). There's a special soul here that's earthy and authentic and absent from most jazz; Bartz goes beyond the Coltrane influences, adding a youthful vigor all his own that's the distilled essence of its era but fully transcendent. And best of all, the compositions are more imaginative and progressive than what you'll hear on 99% of all the jazz records ever made.

Solid --- important because he's underrecorded.......2000-04-13

The only weakness of the release is that the compositions are generally a bit pedestrian. When Bartz was given the opportunity to riff on pieces by superior composers, like McCoy Tyner, the results were electrifying. Here the playing is honest, straight-ahead swing, but there's a crucial element lacking because the material isn't where it needs to be.

Bartz's solos are always passionate, and the bands he assembled for the two dates represented here are above reproach. Two virtually forgotten jazz names, trumpeter Jimmy Owens and pianist Albert Dailey, make fine contributions on the first seven cuts, which comprised the original Milestone "Libra" release. On the remainder of the cuts, from "Another Earth," Bartz joins with Stanley Cowell on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums to form a fine late-60s young lions quartet.

The CD does present one extended piece, the title cut from "Another Earth," which runs 23 minutes and features Pharaoh Sanders on sax and Charles Tolliver, another shamefully ignored player, on trumpet. This cut, which manages to blend '60s mysticism with a cutting-session mentality, is fascinating for its contrast between Pharaoh's abandoned approach (which sounds a bit forced) and Bartz's more controlled but for me more coherent, passionate and satisfying commentary. But don't miss Tolliver, whose soaring trumpet poses a question to the jazz critics of the '60s: Why -- was this marvellous talent ignored by the press and the listening audience? Maybe they'd all moved on to Led Zeppelin.

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