''Communication'' is the debut album by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra featuring compositions by

Michael Mantler Michael Mantler (born August 10, 1943) is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music. Career: United States Mantler was born in Vienna, Austria. In the early 1960s, he was a student at the Academy of Music and V ...

and Carla Bley performed by

Paul Bley Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ...

, Steve Lacy,

Jimmy Lyons Jimmy Lyons (December 1, 1931 – May 19, 1986) was an American alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit. Lyons was the only constant member of the band from the mid-1960s until his death. Taylor never ...

Roswell Rudd Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. (November 17, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist and composer. Although skilled in a variety of genres of jazz (including Dixieland, which he performed while in college), and other genres of musi ...

Archie Shepp Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz. Biography Early life Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...

John Tchicai John Martin Tchicai ( ; 28 April 1936 – 8 October 2012) was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer. Biography Tchicai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father. The family moved to Aarhus, where he st ...

, Fred Pirtle,

Willie Ruff Willie Henry Ruff Jr. (born September 1, 1931) is an American jazz musician, specializing in the French horn and double bass, and a music scholar and educator, primarily as a Yale professor from 1971 to 2017. Personal life He was born in Sheff ...

, Ken McIntyre,

Robin Kenyatta Robin Kenyatta (March 6, 1942 – October 26, 2004) was an American jazz alto saxophonist. Early life Born Robert Prince Haynes in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, Kenyatta grew up in New York City and began playing the saxophone at age 14. He w ...

, Bob Carducci,

Kent Carter Kent Carter (born June 14, 1939 in Hanover, New Hampshire) is an American jazz bassist. His father, Alan Carter, founded the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. He is also the grandson of American artist, Rockwell Kent. He worked in Steve Lacy's group, ...

Steve Swallow Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. ...

Milford Graves Milford Graves (August 20, 1941 – February 12, 2021) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, Professor Emeritus of Music, researcher/inventor, visual artist/sculptor, gardener/herbalist, and martial artist. Graves was noteworthy for his e ...

, and

Barry Altschul Barry Altschul (born January 6, 1943, New York City) is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea. Biography Altschul is of Russian Jewish heritage, the s ...

. The album was released on the Fontana label in 1965.Jazzdisco: Jazz Composer's Orchestra discography
accessed February 5, 2020

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

described it as "one of the masterpieces of creative music in the '60s".

Track listing

# "Roast" (Carla Bley) - 11:49 # "Day (Communications No. 4)" (Michael Mantler) - 2:25 # "Day (Communications No. 5)" (Michael Mantler) - 24:55 :Recorded at Judson Hall, New York City, December 29, 1964 (track 1) and the Contemporary Center, New York City, April 10, 1965 (tracks 2 & 3).

Personnel

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Steve Lacy soprano saxophone *

- alto saxophone * Fred Pirtle baritone saxophone *

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

(track 1) *

- alto saxophone (track 1) *

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(track 1) *

Eddie Gómez Edgar Gómez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist, known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1966 to 1977. Biography Gómez moved with his family from Puerto Rico at a young age to New York, where he was raised. ...

- bass (track 1) *

- drums (track 1) * Ray Codrington - trumpet (tracks 2 & 3) *

, Ken McIntyre - alto saxophone (tracks 2 & 3) * Bob Carducci - tenor saxophone (tracks 2 & 3) *

- bass (tracks 2 & 3) *

- drums (tracks 2 & 3)

References

{{Jazz Composer's Orchestra Jazz Composer's Orchestra albums 1965 live albums Fontana Records live albums