Slide Hampton & Václav Zahradník Big Band

Supraphon, CSSR, 1971 (Discogs)

A1 The End Of Love (4:40), Written By Slide Hampton , Václav Zahradník
A2 B&S (Suite In 3 Parts) (7:35), Written By Slide Hampton
A3 Gardener’s Waltz (7:00), Written By Slide Hampton
B1 Jeanette (10:40), Written By Václav Zahradník
B2 Fashank In Blues (8:35), Written By Rudolf Dašek

(play all)

Artwork By - Miloslav Žáček
Bass - Barre Phillips
Clarinet, Saxophone - Dušan Húščava , Jan Václavík , Jaoslav Hájek (tracks: B1, B2) , Miroslav Krýsl , Rudolf Ticháček (tracks: A1 to A3)
Drums - Stu Martin
Flute - Jiří Stivín , Jiří Válek
Guitar - Rudolf Dašek
Photography - Vilém Sochůrek
Piano, Electric Piano - Laco Gerhardt
Recorded By - František Řebíček , Tony Matzner
Saxophone - John Surman
Trombone - Jan Hynčica , Josef Petržilka , Miroslav Koželuh , Slide Hampton , Zdeněk Pulec
Trumpet - Jan Čapoun (tracks: A1 to A3) , Jiří Hlava , Jiří Jelínek (tracks: B1, B2) , Miloslav Bureš , Nikola Janev (tracks: A1 to A3) , Nikola Janev (tracks: B1, B2)
Tuba - Petr Fleischer
Vibraphone - Karel Velebný

Recorded at the Supraphon Studios Prague on March 31, April 1 and 2 1972.

Another record by Václav Zahradník, this time with Slide Hampton. Zahradník and Hampton had been performing together at the International Jazz Festival Prague in 1969 and Hampton was so impressed by Zahradník that he came back in March 1971 with a few friends. Most known might be Stu Martin who was the drummer for Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones for some time. And the drumming is one of the best parts of this record.

This record is definately in my Overall-Top5. The unique approach of Zahradník I refered to earlier is extremely well done on this record, it is amazing how he manages to combine BigBand-Sound with raw Jazz. Especially noteworthy is A2 - B&S (Suite in 3 parts), an absolute masterpiece in my book. Have fun with this. Also noteworthy is that Tony Matzner obviously experimented with Cutting-Tape-Technics, B2 - “Fashank in Blues” contains a rather audible cut at 7:36, probably done with the Master-Tape (no computers back then, remember).
A funny sidenote is also that A3 - Gardener’s Waltz (written by Slide Hampton) is actually a hommage to Václav Zahradník because “Zahradník” means “Gardener” in czech.

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