Don Pullen

Warriors is the quartet record Don Pullen made in Milan in April 1978 for Black Saint, with tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Bobby Battle. Pullen wrote all three pieces, and the title work, Warriors Dance: Little Don, runs for more than half an hour across both sides of the original LP. It came at a busy moment for the pianist. He had spent 1973 to 1975 in the band of Charles Mingus, had signed with Atlantic in 1977, and before the year was out he was back in Milan to record Milano Strut, a duo with Famoudou Don Moye taped at Ricordi Studios in December.

The session was recorded at GRS Studios in Milan, produced by Giacomo Pellicciotti with Walter Prati as assistant producer, and engineered by Carlo Assalini Michel. Battle came from Pullen's own circle: he is the drummer on the pianist's 1977 Atlantic album Tomorrow's Promises. Hopkins was then the bassist of Air, the cooperative trio with Henry Threadgill and Steve McCall that also recorded for Black Saint. Warriors Dance: Little Don is split into a first part of about 23 minutes and a second of about eight, a single composition stretched over the length of an LP side and more. Land of the Pharoahs closes the record at about thirteen and a half minutes.

This is the Black Saint CD 120019-2, which Discogs lists as a reissue of the album first released on LP in 1978 as BSR 0019, with the title piece kept in its two parts.