Import CD – EWOCOMP01 – Gerardo Frisina Introduces seriE.WOC – V.A.

Notes

Series Wind of Change provides a clear and fresh breeze, breathing new life into memories, thoughts and feelings. Seeking out the rare, the forgotten, and the obscure with four principles at its heart:
Rediscover: (verb) to find something or someone again after losing or forgetting about it or them for a long time.
Nurture: (verb) to take care of, feed, and protect someone or something, and help him, her, or it to develop.
Restore: (verb) to return something or someone to an earlier good condition or position.
Preserve: (verb) to keep something as it is, especially in order to prevent it from decaying or being damaged or destroyed.

With each project carefully chosen to reflect these principles, seriE.WOC is more than a record label. It is an expression of passion and intellect, of mind and body. From the very beginning seriE.WOC set itself the highest of standards: sourcing the finest music and presenting it in as honest, original and pure form as possible. The love affair started with the warm tones of Milt Jackson Sings With The Enrico Intra Group, a sweet memory from 1964. This was followed by Vic Lewis Plays Bossa Nova at Home and Away, a trans-Atlantic conversation between London and Los Angeles by way of Brazil. Denmark was calling next when vibesman Louis Hjulmand and his friends delivered the 10″ album Jazz og Poesi. It’s poetry. It’s jazz. It’s life. Then, traveling south across Europe to Italy and the sound of Sante Palumbo’s Stasera In Casa Seduti In Poltrona Con La Luce Diffusa from 1972. Impossibly rare, out of reach for so long… now, like being reunited with an old friend once again. Welcome back, where had you been for so long? Next was a return trip to Denmark for deep spiritualism from Tordenskjolds Soldater’s Peace album: mystical modalism to feed the soul.
One of the great jazz survivors next in the form of Mal Waldron. His trio LP from 1966 has eluded the most obsessive fan. seriE.WOC satisfies that craving, reproducing 100% of the grace, power and depth that Waldron’s original vision created back in 1966 for the Karim label. Jumping into the 1970s with that great horn player Noah Howard and his Quartet Live At The Swing Club Torino Italy. Every bit as essential and extraordinary as Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler, Howard never compromised. You can hear – and feel it – here. From one master of the horn to another: Sahib Shihab. Of all the American jazz artists who relocated to Europe and Scandinavia in the 1950s and 1960s, Sahib Shihab remains one of the most highly regarded and versatile, yet least celebrated. From 1971, Sentiments was Shihab’s last album as leader, but he’ll always be a leader to us. The word Coalition means an alliance for combined action and that’s what you get with the band so named. In 1978 they released the album Birth and did their own thing, their own way covering afrocentric jazz, deep soul, post-modal impressionism and hard bop. It all worked. How did seriE.WOC follow that? By keeping true to their passion and giving love to Babs Robert & The Love Planet. Belgian deep jazz? Yes, of course, delivered to us by a Wind of Change. That wind takes us to Canada and the work of Sadik Hakim. He played with the greatest: Bird, Dizzy, Miles, Monk and Dex. He was a wandering spirit who gave the world the album named after his home for a decade between 1966-1976: Canada. That Wind of Change keeps taking us back to Denmark where we meet Torolf Mølgaard’s Lone Rider. Not alone for long, we join him on a beautiful trip to wherever the music takes us.

seriE.WOC, The Wind of Change that never stays still, that stirs the memory of the past and give us the breath of life for the future. La memoria è vita, è speranza, è futuro. – Tony Higgins, November 2014