Hal Russell's résumé includes performances with Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Sonny Rollins and many more. In 1960, he broke away from bebop rooted music to co-found the first free jazz group in Chicago and led his own, highly adventurous bands throughout the 80s. Most of his NRG Ensemble's repertoire of 400-plus tunes stems from his pen. The Finnish / Swiss Tour, the group's ECM debut, is a live album drawn from Russell's first-ever European tour in November 1990. The wide ranging nature of the music resists capsule summarization. It combines free jazz's intensities with numerous allusions to jazz history from Basie to Ayler to Jarrett, yet also contains a healthily iconoclastic blast of rock energy. The Boston Globe called the album „one of the most detailed and coherent samplings of free jazz to be heard anywhere“ and the instrumental virtuosity of each member „stunning“. NRG's freewheeling music reflects, in differing degree, a multitude of influences yet it is also undeniably one music rather than the eclectic's fashionable patchwork quilt. "Anything this band plays comes out sounding like something Hal has written," saxophonist Mars Williams opines. "That's how strong his input and his sense of direction are. He's really one of the masters, a totally original player and composer."
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TRACKLIST
A1 Monica's Having A Baby 5:58
A2 Aila / 35 Basic 7:17
A3 Temporarily 9:39
A4 Raining Violets 5:02
B1 For MC 3:27
B2 Dance Of The Spider People 4:22
B3 Ten Letters Of Love 4:51
B4 Hal The Weenie 7:33
B5 Linda's Rock Vamp 4:04
B6 Mars Theme 9:47
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One of the culminations of a great artist
HAL RUSSELL is one of those artists who are often called “undervalued”, whose trajectory does not reflect the mastery of his works. With this live album, HAL RUSSELL exposes its full potential, both its own and others, accompanied by a powerful band that sometimes touches on the inhuman. It's ironic, that one of his culminations comes to the end of his career, and another, the solo album “Hal's Bells” too. In any case, if you like the AACM musical adventure this is your record.
