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 / EX

Gatefold sleeve.

1968: Michael Mantler's monumental double LP on the self-run JCOA imprint - orchestral frames built expressly for the era's most volcanic soloists, and what soloists: Cecil Taylor across two full sides of "Communications No. 11", piano versus orchestra with both somehow winning, plus Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Roswell Rudd, Gato Barbieri and Larry Coryell each framed in Mantler's dark massed brass like storms given architecture. The avant-garde organizing its own institution - the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association, musician-run from commissioning to distribution - producing its own deluxe laminated gatefold edition, and delivering a masterpiece on the first try: self-determination with production values, the whole loft-era dream realized at symphonic scale. The Taylor sides alone justify the legend and the hunt; the rest is bounty.

Original JCOA 2LP with the booklet-style presentation intact. A cornerstone of the entire era, and one of the great orchestral documents in creative music, full stop.