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Track Listing 1. Rose and Sad Song 2. Wrong Key Donkey 3. Drinking Music 4. Spangled Banner Minor And Other Patriotic Songs: / Flags / Now The Queen / King Korn / The New National Anthem
Album Notes Carla Bley Band: Carla Bley (tenor saxophone, organ); Elton Dean (alto saxophone); Gary Windo (tenor saxophone); Michael Mantler (trumpet); John Clark (French horn, guitar); Roswell Rudd (trombone); Bob Stewart (tuba); Terry Adams (piano); Hugh Hopper (bass, drums); Andrew Cyrille (drums). Engineers: Jorg Scheuermann, Michael Mantler. Recorded at Bavaria Musik Studios, Munich, Germany in September 1977. Carla Bley did indeed tour Europe in the summer on 1977--with an amazing ten-piece band. But it is important to note that this album was not recorded live. Rather, EUROPEAN TOUR 1977 was taped in the studio while the group was in Germany. The record was subsequently mixed in New York, at Bley and Michael Mantler's Grog Kill Studio. For this tour, Bley assembled a curious but highly effective band. Her ensemble integrates players from the jazz avant-garde (drummer Andrew Cyrille, trombonist Roswell Rudd), former Soft Machine members (bass guitarist Hugh Hopper and saxophonist Elton Dean), and an iconoclastic American piano player (NRBQ's Terry Adams). And that's only half of the band! Bley writes music that effectively draws on the distinct voices of her formidable soloists. The four pieces are full of Bley's musical wit, warmth, and playfulness. "Spangled Banner Minor And Other Patriotic Songs" is a dazzling parade. The other numbers are so perfectly titled as to evoke their essences in less than five words each.
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