The trombonists Ray Anderson, George Lewis, Craig Harris and Gary Valente have cooperated continuously in various ensembles. There is, for instance, a record published by Hat Art, called Slide Ride. An earlier form of cooperation was the Heavy Metal Quartet, which unfortunately did not leave any traces in form of official recordings to posterity. George Lewis, who was occupied with teaching activities during the time of Jazz Festival Berlin in 1994, was replaced by tuba player Bob Stewart for this occasion. I recorded two pieces from this concert when they were broadcast on a German analog FM radio station in 1994 or 1995. The conditions of the tape storing and the ripping equipment I used were far from ideal, but the result is audible and the musicians are simply stunning! The two long pieces are both starting out from some structured, obviously composed riffs and then delve into free passages. Here a brief overview over the data:
Ray Anderson (tb), Craig Harris (tb), Bob Stewart (tu), Gary Valente (tb)
Recorded Jazz fest Berlin 1994
1. Radio speaker's announcement
2. Black Out and the Square Root of Soul (Craig Harris)
3. Ravening (Ray Anderson)
The entire recording is about 23 minutes long, saved as mp3 in 320 kb/s. There's an excerpt from Ravening - a rather free passage - in the jukebox at the side of this blog, the bitrate in this jukebox is only 192 kb/s.
Recorded Jazz fest Berlin 1994
1. Radio speaker's announcement
2. Black Out and the Square Root of Soul (Craig Harris)
3. Ravening (Ray Anderson)
The entire recording is about 23 minutes long, saved as mp3 in 320 kb/s. There's an excerpt from Ravening - a rather free passage - in the jukebox at the side of this blog, the bitrate in this jukebox is only 192 kb/s.
Download (mediafire)
As so many things on this blog site, this post is inspired by and indebted to Lucky from Psychic Hut again. I need to thank him for being aware of the historical importance of a Heavy Metal Quartet recording and for his encouragement in making a rip of this.
