George Adams

Sound Suggestions is the only album George Adams made for ECM, and it puts his big, searching tenor saxophone at the front of an exceptional sextet. Recorded in May 1979, it pairs him with a second tenor, the German Heinz Sauer, and a rhythm section of rare quality. The five pieces run from long, open themes to a sung blues, and the tenor exchanges between Adams and Sauer are among the most exciting moments in the set.

Adams (1940-1992) was a veteran of Charles Mingus's bands, and his later quartet records with Don Pullen would carry the same fire. Here the line-up is completed by Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Richard Beirach on piano, Dave Holland on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The session was held at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, engineered by Martin Wieland and produced by Manfred Eicher. The credits note that Adams is heard in the right channel and Sauer in the left.

The writing is shared out. Wheeler contributes two pieces, Adams two and Sauer one. Wheeler's Baba opens the album with his flugelhorn, then a lyrical trumpet solo hands over to a long, rich statement from Adams. Sauer's Stay Informed is the most intense track, with Beirach's piano lines and DeJohnette's drumming pushing Adams hard. Adams's Imani's Dance rides a mid-tempo groove of horns over an uplifting theme. In his blues Got Somethin' Good for You he also sings, and the horns gather around him in full cry.

Reviewing the record, Chicago Magazine heard Mingus in the background but insisted that "Adams is an original", whose solos "roil beneath the restraints of bebop structure, then sail wildly through the roof". Writing for ECM Reviews, Tyran Grillo called Adams "a force to be reckoned with" and found Beirach's playing on Stay Informed the most enthralling passage of the set. Adams never returned to the label, which makes this meeting with Eicher's regular players a one-off in his discography.

This CD is the 2019 reissue of ECM 1141 in the Touchstones series, which returns classic albums from the label's catalogue to print, here in a gatefold card sleeve. Sound Suggestions was first released in 1979.