Private press Free Jazz lp from Bennington University in Vermont by Trumpeter Art Brooks. What originally got my attention when I dug this up in a local antique shop was that the liner notes were written by Bill Dixon, and that Brooks dedicates the lp to his teachers – Dixon, Cecil Taylor, and Milford Graves. How could I possibly go wrong? Sure enough it's quite good. It's a rather large group (9 players) and consists of one 30 minute piece that spans the length of both sides. Though recorded in 1977 the sound is somewhat of a throwback to the heyday of his teachers. It's quite easy to imagine it having been some lost session from a label like ESP-disk in the late 60′s or early 70′s which is just fine by me. Seems to be fairly obscure too.
Filed under: Jazz
Brooks was a student of Dixon’s. Musically I find Nightcaller to be very similar in structure and mood to Dixon’s – Intents and Purposes and RCA.
yeah, you’re right. I love Intents and Purposes!
Arthur Brooks has done a number of performances in Vermont, Massachusetts, and NYC (the 1999 Vision Festival, for one) over the past few years. He’s playing with dancer Penny Campbell on April 1 at this year’s Improvised And Otherwise festival in Brooklyn
(http://www.improvisedandotherwise.com/)