Hannibal

Juan-les-Pins, 20 July 1977. Hannibal Marvin Peterson was twenty-eight, six years out of Texas and a veteran of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's and Gil Evans's bands, with the MPS album Hannibal behind him. Enja taped his set at the Antibes festival and issued it the following year as Hannibal In Antibes.

The quintet has a cello in it. Diedre Murray played with Peterson for most of the next fifteen years, and her instrument is the odd element in a band that otherwise runs on George Adams's tenor and flute, Steve Neil's bass and the South African drummer Makaya Ntshoko. Adams and Peterson would record together again for Enja in 1984, on More Sightings.

Two pieces, each around twenty minutes. Ro is the one with Adams at full stretch on tenor. Swing Low Sweet Chariot has him on flute. AllMusic calls the record a live blowout with strong moments and some rambling, and suspects it was better in the hall than on the LP. That is a fair description of a lot of European festival tapes from 1977, and this one has the advantage of a front line nobody else had.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Real Jazz Classics series.