"Improvisations"

(no cover image)

Description

Unreleased. At first this was believed to be the "working title" of the 1988 release Out of Nowhere, but a surprising discovery has caused me to question this. I have no idea about the whereabouts of this item; the only hint in the UCLA Don Ellis Collection is this:

(Under "7 Inch Reels":)

"Turk's Works, Improv. For Quintet".

Perhaps the album is on that reel.

In any event, this is an interesting discovery. The year 1960 cannot possibly be a correct date; the tunes indicate Don's budding fascination with odd meters (we recognize Turk's Works from Pieces of 8 and 33 222 1 222 from Live at Monterey, both recorded at least six years after 1960), which would not really begin to develop in any real sense for at least another two years. The earliest this could be from is 1963, which is, according to his liner notes for Live at Monterey, when he was experimenting with different subdivisions of 19, and "this one worked the best".

Lastly, another quote from Erik Ragen's book series, "Jazz Records":

"The above titles [below, here] were scheduled for release on a Candid LP ("Improvisations"). It has not been verified whether this LP was released but at least a test pressing existed."

Exciting news. Anyone have any leads?

Track Listing

1. Turk's Works
2. Improvisation for Quintet
3. 33 222 1 222 [!]
4. Thematic Development No. 1
5. Thematic Development No. 2
6. Thematic Development No. 3
7. Thematic Development No. 4
8. Seven Ate For (sic)
9. Four Steps

Personnel

Unknown.

Recording Information

Recorded in New York City in 1960.

Issues

No pressings are known to exist, test or otherwise.