The Jazz Composer's Orchestra

Featuring: Michael Mantler, Cecil Taylor, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Jimmy Lyons, Alan Silva, Steve Lacy, Andrew Cyrille, Gato Barbieri, Kent Carter

condition (records/cover): NM / VG (discoloration on front, back and spine)

Gatefold sleeve.

Second copy of the 1968 JCOA double - a record we never mind holding in duplicate, since it sits at the crossroads of every serious collection: large-ensemble writing, free improvisation, self-determined production and audiophile ambition, all operating at the highest level simultaneously, which happened approximately never before or since. Michael Mantler's "Communications" pieces remain among the most successful orchestral settings ever built around free soloists - the secret being that he treated Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry not as decoration atop the charts but as natural forces the orchestra must reckon with, brace against, survive. The dark brass voicings influenced decades of large-ensemble writing that followed, acknowledged or not.

The heavyweight gatefold production matched the musical ambition exactly, making the original edition an object as serious as its contents. If the first copy in this sale is spoken for by the time you read this - entirely possible - here is your second chance. Move accordingly.