condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (general wear)

The first documented outing of the trio that became the American Quartet. Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian recorded The Mourning Of A Star for Atlantic in 1971, and the chemistry is already complete: Haden playing those enormous, slow, rooted lines, Motian dissolving the beat into texture, and Jarrett moving between gospel-inflected melody and free abstraction with no announcement in between. He also plays soprano saxophone and flute on parts of it, which he did rather more often in this period than the later reputation suggests. Loose, exploratory, warm.

Atlantic pressing. Where the whole American Quartet project begins.