George Russell, Jan Garbarek

This record joins two large works George Russell made in Scandinavia at the end of the 1960s. The Othello Ballet Suite was recorded at the studios of Radio Sweden in Stockholm on 3 and 4 November 1967. The Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1 was built from material Russell improvised on the organ of Grorud Church in Oslo on 1 October 1968, then worked on and assembled in the electronic music studio of Radio Sweden. The album first came out on Flying Dutchman in the United States in 1970 and on Sonet in Norway in 1971. Soul Note reissued it in 1981 as SN 1014, remastered at Masterdisk in New York.

In the suite the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra plays with a group of Scandinavian jazz soloists. Jan Garbarek on tenor saxophone is billed on the cover as featured soloist, and alongside him are Bernt Rosengren on tenor, Arne Domnérus on alto, Rolf Ericson on trumpet and Jon Christensen on drums. Russell composed everything and produced the recordings, with Göte Nilsson as engineer and sound mixer. Othello is heard in two parts of about eighteen and twelve minutes. The organ sonata, about fourteen minutes, is a different kind of piece: its basic material was taped in the church by Bjørnar Andresen and Kåre Kolberg, and Nilsson assisted Russell in the technical work and final assemblage in Stockholm. The liner notes are by Sigmund Kvaløy, and the cover painting is by Victor Kalin.

Soul Note CD 121014-2, which Discogs lists as a reissue of the 1981 Soul Note edition, remastered by Dave Crawford at Masterdisk.