Gilles PetersonMagic Peterson Sunshine(Release Date: April 15th, 2016)

MPS Records (LC01666) Distribution: Edel:Kultur (GSA), NaxosOf America Inc (USA), absolute (UK),Harmonia Mundi (France)

Vinyl EAN: 4029759108818Vinyl Cat.-No.: 0210881MS1CD EAN: 4029759108801CD Cat.-No.: 0210880MS1

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Keywords: MPS Records, Gilles Peterson, Compilation, Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, 2LPs,audiophile 180g Vinyl, CD www.mps-music.de

Gilles Peterson has a special love afair with MPS. To be exact, it goes back more than three decadesto the London of the 1980’s when Gilles stood at the beginning of an exceptional career as DJ, Radiopersonality, and producer. At that time he was already interested in unusual and unique jazz recordings, and so he inevitably cameacross the record label from Germany’s Black Forest (Schwarzwald), whose catalogue encompassed alarge, totally distinct repertoire that had never been released anywhere else. Naturally, there was a longlist of amazing interpretations of jazz classics from acknowledged jazz masters, but early on Gilles haddeveloped the talent to dig deeper into the depths of the archives in order to ferret out the specialfeatures of the catalogue – occasionally discovering a obscurity – and bring them to the light of day.

He seemed to be able to efortlessly show a completely new connection between classic jazzrecordings through the way they were chosen, assorted, and sequenced. Thus, every single title wasimbued with a new energy, freshness, and, above all, timelessness, always with an eye on whether thechosen recordings would possibly be compatible with the needs of clubs. This present MPScompilation is an especially good example of Gilles Peterson’s amazing talent. It delivers only a small,yet carefully chosen section out of the depths of the MPS archives.

Let’s take several steps back to where it all began – back to the town of Villingen in Germany’s BlackForest. There are many myths and stories about the label and its founder Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, simply known as HGBS. Towards the end of the 1950s he began to produce the frstrecordings under the SABA (Schwarzwälder Apparate Bau Anstalt = Black Forest ApplianceManufacture) label. Later HGBS organized his legendary house concerts in an annex to his own villa.Among the many who played there, Oscar Peterson certainly counted among the most famous.

HGBS built his studio directly over his living room where he could, with the help of the earliest videotechniques, directly record and mix the concerts. There are many legendary stories about sessions thatlasted long after midnight with very happy musicians, especially those who enjoyed catering directlyfrom Brunner-Schwer’s wife Marlies. And let’s not forget that the good pay was yet another reason themusicians looked forward to returning to the villa in the Black Forest. None of this changed when in1968 HGBS sold SABA and renamed the label to what it is known by today: MPS - Musik ProduktionSchwarzwald (Black Forest Music Production).

Over the years, HGBS built up a jazz catalogue of over 500 recordings. Additionally he recorded

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classical, martial, so-called New German Easy Listening, as well as Schlager music – HGBS was an all-around wiz. In the 1960s and 70s MPS was one of the leading, if not the leading, jazz labels in Europe.It was not until the 1980s that another German label overtook them in terms of the size of theircatalogue (ECM records out of Munich).

As the technological executive director of SABA and later as record label owner, HGBS was notaccountable to anyone for the commercial success of the productions. His fnancial backgroundallowed him to produce recordings that were unrivalled in their type and scope. He didn’t have to thinkabout the fnances – anyone who had seen his Maybach automobile collection knew why.HGBS was not responsible for all of the jazz productions; in Joachim Ernst Berendt he had anotherbustling media-efective producer on ship. Berendt was known for his gutsy, at times experimentalproductions, ranging from world music (the SABA/MPS series “Jazz Meets The World” counts as oneof the frst world music recordings) to the Avant-garde and free jazz. Two wonderful examples fromBerendt’s series are found in the present compilation: Pedro Iturralde’s Flamenco jazz album, with ayoung Paco de Lucia, as well as an extract from Georg Gruntz’s Jazz Meets Arabia album, Noon inTunesia.

By contrast, HGBS loved the classic recordings of the great pianists, especially in solo, or as duo ortrio, with Oscar Peterson leading the way. Peterson’s MPS recordings are acknowledged as some ofthe best of his long career. Stylistically, the label contains an incredibly broad artistic roster ofoutstanding artists, from Milt Buckner to Cecil Taylor, from Friedrich Gulda to Sun Ra!

Another observation concerning MPS’ pool of artists: the productions were often drawn from playerswho were already famous, but this was not always the case. Many musicians who are internationallyrenowned today are heard here in some of their earliest recordings. Musicians such as Joachim Kühnand Wolfgang Dauner especially benefted from their work with MPS. Others, such as George Duke(also represented here as producer of the group The Third Wave), and Monty Alexander, released theirfrst albums on MPS, and remained loyal to the label for a long time. Even Jan Hammer, who becameworld famous through his Miami Vice soundtrack, recorded for MPS as a still unknown pianist in 1968.Others, such as the recently deceased vibraphonist Dave Pike, celebrated the highpoints of theircareers with their MPS recordings. The label has written a lot of history.

A specialty of SABA/MPS was the extremely high quality of the vinyl pressings long before 180grpressings were used as selling points. The label produced the best possible audiophile sound, fantasticglossy foldout covers in thick album sleeves – these insured a high rate of collector inquiriesconcerning the label’s recordings, and this had also excited Gilles Peterson.

Now it’s time to be carried away by Gilles’ selections from the label’s multifaceted recordings.

We’ll start with Don Ellis, one of many American musicians who recorded for MPS. Ellis was anincredibly versatile musician who achieved fame as trumpeter (he invented a trumpet with four valvesso that he could play quartertones), as well as drummer, but he became best known as composer andband leader. He was intensively involved with the infuences of new music in jazz. Many of his albumsare noted for their extreme complexity while retaining a certain groove. His soundtrack for theAmerican cult flm “The French Connection” is an enduring classic that earned him a Grammy. Shortlyafter these successes Ellis recorded two albums for MPS, one in 1973, the other in ’74. Gilles haschosen “Dew” the last composition from the second album, Haiku. All of the titles on the album werebased on Japanese Haiku poems. It’s a relaxed beginning to this MPS compilation.

To write about Mary Lou Williams in the amount she deserves would take up more space than iscontained in this entire set of liner notes. She was the Grande Dame of jazz, perhaps the mostimportant trailblazer for women’s claims to equal status in jazz. In her long career spanning over half acentury, she played on countless recordings. Among these was the album Black Christ of the Andes,recorded in New York in 1963 and released in 1964 on her own private label, Mary Records. SABAacquired the album and released it to a much wider public in 1965. It is a distinct hybrid of modal jazz,gospel, and soul jazz. The George and Ira Gershwin classic It Ain’t Necessarily So is presented here,

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with possibly the most individual interpretation ever.

German harpist Jonny Teupen counts as one of the exotics of this compilation, and it’s not justbecause of an instrument that seldom surfaces in jazz discographies. At one point he was much betterknown as a classical harpist who enjoyed venturing into the realm of easy listening music. He recordeda total of three jazz-oriented albums for SABA/MPS. Harpadelic is the most exciting; Gilles picked outHarp Revolution from this 1969 album.

We have already spoken about the outstanding “Jazz Meets the World” series, organized andproduced by Joachim Ernst Berendt, the man who was responsible for many precedent-setting MPSproductions. Spanish saxophonist Pedro Iturralde’s album Flamenco Jazz is certainly one of thehighlights of this series, and features the then 19 year old Paco de Lucía in one of his earliestrecordings. Recorded in Berlin in 1967, it is still one of the best recordings of the fusion betweenfamenco and modern jazz, which the title Canción Del Fuego Fatuo illustrates.

Now we come to German jazz musician Gunter Hampel’s 1965 album Heartplants, one of the moststand-alone recordings in the entire SABA/MPS catalogue; Hampel, who would gain an internationalreputation as vibraphonist as well as soprano saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and fautist, purposefullyattempted to extricate himself from the dominance of America in the music and create a European-based expression of jazz. With its strongly bound forms, the album was a milestone in the earlyEuropean free jazz movement. The composition Our Chant is a terrifc choice for the collection.

George Gruntz’s composition, Nemeit, from his 1967 album Noon in Tunisia serves as the secondfantastic example from the multifaceted “Jazz Meets the World” series. Guntz is also the pianist. Alongwith jazz musicians Sahib Shihab, Jean-Luc Ponty, Daniel Humair, and Eberhard Weber, an ensembleof North African percussionists and instrumentalists complete the assemblage. Nemeit is the album’slast track, and especially represents the uniqueness of this coupling of Bedouin music with jazz – JazzMeets Arabia! The Swiss George Gruntz later went on to record a whole series of MPS albums with hisbig band, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, but Noon in Tunisia remains his most exceptionalMPS album.

Unfortunately the Austrian jazz musician Roland Kovac never received the international acclaim hedeserved. Kovac’s homeland should have recognized him as one of the most formative musicians ofthe post-war period. Not only did Kovac work as pianist, saxophonist, and clarinetist, he also wrote alarge number of compositions and arrangements for radio and TV. The album Trip to Mars, with itsappropriately futuristic cover drawn in the spirit of the times, was originally recorded as an advertisinggag for an atomic power plant. Curiously, the plant was never put into operation. Kovac was able topersuade MPS to take over the production costs of the tapes – and so an absolute cult classic wasborn. Gilles chose Service I from the 17 spacey jazz movements played by a number of musiciansfrom the Kurt Edelhagen Big Band.

The Third Wave was a fve-sister Philippine pop jazz ensemble discovered by none other thankeyboard legend George Duke, who had himself recorded a number of high-quality albums for MPS.Through Duke’s help they made the journey to Germany where they recorded the album Here andNow in 1970. The song chosen here, Love Train, was released as a single and was not on the album.As a result, it has become a much sought after rarity.

One of the groups that gave MPS a special identity to was the vocal group The Singers Unlimited.Founded in Chicago by Gene Puerling, the group found its way to HGBS through the recommendationof Oscar Peterson. During their long relationship with MPS, they recorded over a dozen albums.Among them was the 1977 production with the Roger Kellaway Quintet, Just in Time. The song StoneGround Seven is a beautiful example of the unmistakable style of this exceptional vocal group.

In 1970 the French pianist and organist Eddie Louiss along with his trio colleagues, saxophonist JohnSurman and drummer Daniel Humair recorded one of the most progressive MPS albums, Our Kind ofSabi. The piece chosen, Out of the Sorcellery, stemmed from the pen of Humair, and demonstrates

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Louiss’ broad playing spectrum on organ.

(CD bonus track) Released in 1973, British pianist John Taylor’s Decipher counts as one of the mostsought-after MPS albums. One of the island’s most important jazz musicians Taylor frst gainedprominence in 1969 when he partnered with saxophonists John Surman and Alan Skidmore. In 1977Taylor, along with his former wife singer Norma Winstone and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, formed thetrio Azimuth. Taylor’s only recording for MPS falls in the period between the two projects. Thecomposition White Magic impressively documents the power of this post-bop album.

The Modern Jazz Group Freiburg proved that active jazz scenes existed in every part of Germany.The group around pianist Ewald Heidepriem was featured on a SABA sampler that presented fourdiferent pianists to a wider public, Piano x 4. Gilles’ choice was their impelling version of Afro-American saxophonist Jimmy Heath’s composition Big “P”.

The Belgian pianist Francy Boland is one of the major musicians whose profle has been enlargedthrough his connection with MPS. Naturally, at this point we have to mention the Clarke-Boland BigBand, who recorded numerous albums for MPS. For years, they were Europe’s best big band, boastingan unbelievable list of internationally renowned soloists. Besides the CBBB albums, Boland recordedunder his own name for MPS. One of these albums was the lounge music oriented Flirt and Dreamfrom 1967. The gorgeous waltz Lillemor foats over a soundscape of a 21 piece string orchestra –heavenly!

The recently deceased American jazz singer Mark Murphy was a major force on the jazz vocals scene.During his career he received four Downbeat Male Singer of the Year awards and six Grammynominations, but with his freewheeling virtuosity and iconoclastic style Murphy deserved a wideraudience beyond the borders of jazz. His single album for MPS, the 1968 Midnight Mood, is studdedwith fantastic tracks, from soul jazz to ballads, on through to Latin jazz. It stands as one of the bestvocal jazz albums on the label. Why and How is one of the highlights of this exceptional record.

Wolfgang Lauth and Herman Impertro’s Kantate für Chor & Jazz-Combo, Denn Liebe ist stark wieder Tod represents one of the few independent compositions of European sacred jazz. The cantatawas recorded as part of a youth church service, and was released by SABA in 1968 as a 7inch single -a spirit out of the depths of the MPS archives.

Wolfgang Dauner’s track takes us back to 1962 and the beginning of MPS, or more correctly, SABA.At the time, an album appeared under the relatively technical name Jazz-Studio H.G.B.S. NumberOne a production that contained pieces from the Wolfgang Dauner Trio as well as recordings with theHans Koller Octet. What is particularly special about this album is that the original monaural pressingexclusively contains Dauner’s exquisite trio recording of his Love in Summer – the stereo version doesnot include the piece. Another extreme rarity in the seemingly endless catalogue of the recordcompany in the Black Forest, and a beautiful close to this compilation.

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Tracklisting CD:

1. Don Ellis – Dew (01:29)2. Mary Lou Williams – It Ain’t Necessarily So (04:35)3. Jonny Teupen – Harp Revolution (05:10)4. Pedro Iturralde feat Paco de Lucía - Canción Del Fuego Fatuo (05:35)5. Gunter Hampel Quintet – Our Chant (09:25)6. George Gruntz – Nemeit (05:54)7. Orchester Roland Kovac – Service I (01:28)8. The Third Wave – Love Train (02:35)9. The Singers Unlimited – Stone Ground Seven (05:15)10. Eddie Louiss – Out Of The Sorcellery (04:13)11. John Taylor Trio – White Magic (CD bonus track) (05:28)12. The Modern Jazz Group Freiburg – Big “P” (05:04)13. Francy Boland – Lillemor (02:16)14. Mark Murphy – Why And How (02:57)15. Wolfgang Lauth – Denn Liebe Ist Stark Wie Der Tod (05:58)16. Das Wolfgang Dauner-Trio – Love in Summer (04:05)

Tracklisting Vinyl:A1. Don Ellis – Dew (01:29)2. Mary Lou Williams – It Ain’t Necessarily So (04:35)3. Wolfgang Lauth – Denn Liebe Ist Stark Wie Der Tod (05:58) 4. Jonny Teupen – Harp Revolution (05:10)

B1. Petro Iturralde feat Paco de Lucía - Canción Del Fuego Fatuo (05:35)2. Gunter Hampel Quintet – Our Chant (09:25)3. George Gruntz – Nemeit (05:54)

C1. Orchester Roland Kovac – Service I (01:28)2. The Third Wave – Love Train (02:35)3. The Singers Unlimited – Stone Ground Seven (05:15)4. Eddie Louiss – Out Of The Sorcellery (04:13)

D1. Francy Boland – Lillemor (02:16)2. Mark Murphy – Why And How (02:57)3. The Modern Jazz Group Freiburg – Big “P” (05:04)4. Das Wolfgang Dauner-Trio – Love in Summer (04:05)

Promotion Contact: Hanns-Christian Gerth | Tel: +49(0)40.88 172 885 | h.gerth@herzogpromotion.comRüdiger Herzog | Tel: +49(0)40.55 616 445 | r.herzog@herzogpromotion.comStefen Mayer | Tel.: +49 (0)40. 88 172 886 | s.mayer@herzogpromotion.com

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