Record date: March 10, 1980
Like he did for so much time of his life, Mal kept on touring in Europe. And when he toured he hardly ever used a real touring band. Most of the times he would appear solo or play with local musicians. Roy Burrowes is one of those musicians. He is probably most well known for his appearances in the Duke Ellington band. Part from that he made a few appearances as a sideman with Archie Shepp and Clifford Jordan and he lived in Paris most of his life. Then there is Richard Raux, a French saxophonist who was mostly known in the local scene. Patrice Caratini who played an excellent bass part on Mal’s ‘Blood and Guts’. And there is George Brown, an American drummer residing in Paris most of his life. He definitely had some experience with the free jazz scene playing with names like Frank Lowe, Archie Shepp, David Murray and later in his career: the great Sonny Simmons.
Now this record is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some nice suprises on it and also some dissapointmens. What stands out the most is the huge gap between some of the more free oriented musicians and the more traditional players. Both Burrowes and Raux sound a bit uncomfortable at times, while Waldron, Caratini an Brown sound as if they play with a foot on the breaking pedal.
The opener ‘Compton Blues’ , which is composed by Burrowes, is very, very boring. Really if someone wants to hear a more exciting peace on Compton one should play NWA’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’. The song is a very simple blues and it sounds like a jam session in a local cafe. Every musician sounds uninspired and it all sounds very, very old fashioned. Fortunately there are some Waldron compositions too. ‘Hard Talk’ is probably one of the more exciting tracks. You could really hear that it asks a lot more from all the players. Both Burrowes and Raux struggle to get by and the contrast with Lacy and Schoof is pretty big. Yet both leave their comfort zones and that is worth something. The whole rhythm section really flourishes here. Mal is great and Caratini shows what he’s worth of. Brown has some more freedom to stretch out and plays an excellent solo.
Except ‘Seagulls of Kristiansund’ all of the compositions are by Burrowes and they all fail to really impress. Mal was on an artistic peak here but doesn’t have any space to show off. 'Jamaica' has a pretty lame Caribbean feel which really feel way too smooth for something Waldron would play. The version of Seagulls is ok but pretty forgettable in comparison to the other versions with names like Lacy, Woody Shaw or Charlie Rouse. Perhaps it’s not fair to compare but when you know those records you immediately do that.
‘Live at the Dreher’ was issued twice on cd and never on vinyl. The first issue is from 1993 and the second is a digipack version from 2014. I have got that one and it is excellent in sound, but as with all of those Marge digipacks there is no liner notes or whatsoever. That’s a pity as the band is pretty unknown and some more info would be more than welcome. It’s on Bandcamp, Spotify and Amazon Music too. This really is for completists only. The music never is disturbing but it is very, very average.
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