Jackie McLean & Michael Carvin - Melodies Record Club 001: Four Tets Selects (Melodies International)

Format:  12" Vinyl Single
Cat No:  MRC001

Melodies International announce the launch of a new release series: “Melodies Record Club”, a string of DJ and artist curated mini compilations in loud 12” format. This first instalment was put together by Four Tet, selecting two big peak-time Jazz tracks he used to spin regularly at Plastic People.

On one side, all time jazz greats Jackie McLean and Michael Carvin’s De I Comahlee Ah, taken from their seminal album Antiquity recorded in Denmark back in 1975. Steeplechase, the original label in the outskirts of Copenhagen, informed Melodies International that at the time, the track was cut short as it didn’t fit on the full LP. They were kind enough to provide the tape of the full original recording, allowing the release of the full extended version for the first time, capturing twelve and a half minutes of studio magic.  Every song on that album was recorded without any overdubs - they had taken their shoes off and organised the studio in such a way that they could move from instrument to instrument during the take!

On the flip, we have Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath – MRA. Back in 70s London, the Brotherhood had brought together musicians who had sought refuge from South Africa’s apartheid regime and the best of a new generation of British jazz musicians. Music journalist Richard Williams, who had originally reviewed the band in the 1970s tell us: “They made music that appealed in equal measure to the head, the heart and the feet, taking the jazz legacy of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus and adding to it the fantastic dance rhythms and gorgeous harmonies of the townships and untethered collective improvisations of the new free music”.

This first press comes with a folded A2 insert with words from and about the artists. Graphic design by Studio ChoqueLeGoff, illustration and animation by Nevil Bernard and for the audiophiles out there, remastered and cut at half speed by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios!

TRACKLISTING:

A1. Jackie McLean & Michael Carvin – De I Comahlee Ah (extended)
B1. Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath - MRA