SUNSHIP ENSEMBLE ‎– PACIFIC RIM ( 1976,RECORDED 1974 ) + 5 ( AND ARE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED RECORDINGS,INCLUDE THE INCREDIBLE SPIRITUAL JAZZ & FREE JAZZ TRACK OF NEW ATLANTIS HOUSEBAND ).ONE OF THE BEST SPIRITUAL JAZZ RECORDS AND WITH THE 4 FREE JAZZ TRACKS IS WONDERFUL.CLYDE REED,GREGG SIMPSON,RICHARD ANSTEY,BRUCE FREEDMAN,ROSS BARRETT,ALAN SHARPE ( MEMBER OF GONZALEZ ).The evolution of Sunship can be traced back to a number of collaborations beginning with that of bassist Richard Anstey and myself in the Al Neil Trio during the latter half of the 1960s and the Al Neil Jazz Probe in 1972. In 1971, we formed a trio with guitarist Alan Sharpe, and called it The New Atlantis Houseband. During the same period in the early 1970s, tenor sax player, Bruce Freedman moved to Vancouver from Los Angeles and began playing in various small ensembles along with bassist Clyde Reed, also a recent emigrant to Canada from Vancouver, Washington. Flautist, saxophonist and keyboard player, Ross Barrett, had already been playing with Richard Anstey and me in a quartet, which also included the Montreal-born pianist Rick Kitaeff, whose music the group would eventually play...Sunship played concerts at the Western Front and at the opening of the Granville Mall in Vancouver, plus opening for pianist Keith Jarrett, at the Commodore Ballroom on June 11, 1974. Bob Smith in The Vancouver Sun wrote, "a double-header including pianist Keith Jarrett and resident quintet, the Sunship Ensemble. Putting it mildly it was a mind-blower, and the 800 who attended gave more than a glimmering of hope for jazz in this city." Guitarist, Bob Bell, who attended that concert, remembers the group’s music as a revelation to him, as not many other similar fusion ensembles were active in Vancouver at the time, although two groups, Skywalk and Pacific Salt were to emerge not long after...

Sunship Jazz Ensemble ‎– Sunship Jazz Ensemble
Sello:
Blue Minor Records ‎– 121 2004A
Formato:
CD, Album

País:
Canada
Publicado:
2004
Género:
Jazz
Estilo:
Avant-garde Jazz, Fusion


Lista de TítulosOcultar Créditos

1 Mesopotamia 5:52
2 Atlantis Rising 6:37
3 Inca 4:30
4 Great Wall Of China
Arranged By – Rick Kitaeff 5:10
5 African Village 6:59
6 Green Apple Quickstep 8:40
7 Birds Of A Feather 11:20
8 Stop-Stop 8:42
9 Nest Of The Wounded Crow 9:32


Créditos

Bass – Clyde Reed (tracks: 1 to 8)
Drums, Percussion – Gregg Simpson (tracks: 1 to 9)
Guitar – Alan Sharpe (tracks: 1 to 9)
Performer – New Atlantis Houseband (tracks: 9), Sunship Ensemble (tracks: 1 to 8)
Producer – George Laverock (tracks: 1 to 4)
Soprano Saxophone, Producer [CD Production] – Richard Anstey (tracks: 1 to 9)
Tenor Saxophone – Bruce Freedman (tracks: 1 to 4)
Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Keyboards – Ross Barrett (tracks: 1 to 8)

Notas
Tracks 1 - 4 recorded December 5, 1974 by CBC, Vancouver for play on Radio Canada International, and released on the LP RCI 428.
Tracks 5 - 8 are studio recordings from June 9, 1974, and are previously unreleased recordings.
Track 9 was recorded in June 1971 with the 3 original group members that were known as The New Atlantis Houseband, and is a previously unreleased recording.

http://www.greggsimpson.com/Music.html

https://conditionwestrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sunship-jazz-ensemble-blue-minor-records-and-cbc-transcriptions

Sunship Jazz Ensemble (Blue Minor Records and CBC Transcriptions​)​.

by Sunship Ensemble

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	Mesopotamia (Sunship Ensemble) 00:00 / 06:18

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A pioneering west coast band from the ,mid-1970's doing a variety of original material ranging from Afro-latin to free form. Comes with insert booklet with photos.

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	1.	Mesopotamia (Sunship Ensemble) 06:18
	2.	Atlantis Rising (Sunship Ensemble) 07:06
	3.	Inca (Sunship Ensemble) 04:53
	4.	Great Wall of China (Sunship Ensemble) 05:29
	5.	African Village (Sunship Ensemble) 07:03
	6.	Green Apple Quickstep (Sunship Ensemble) 08:45
	7.	Birds of a Feather (Sunship Ensemble) 12:06
	8.	Stop Stop (Sunship Ensemble) 06:01
	9.	Nest of the Wounded Crow (New Atlantis Houseband) New Atlantis Houseband (track 8): Richard Anstey-soprano sax and electric bass; Alan Sharpe-guitar; Gregg Simpson-drums, 1971) 09:34

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Richard Anstey- soprano saxophone; Ross Barrett-tenor saxophone, flute, keyboard; Bruce Freedman- tenor saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 3, 4); Alan Sharpe-guitar; Clyde Reed-bass; Gregg Simpson-drums). CD includes booklet.

credits

released March 26, 2004 

 http://www.blueminor-records.com/sunship.htm

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SUNSHIP                The evolution of Sunship can be traced back to a number of collaborations beginning with that of bassist Richard Anstey and myself in the Al Neil Trio during the latter half of the 1960s and the Al Neil Jazz Probe in 1972. In 1971, we formed a trio with guitarist Alan Sharpe, and called it The New Atlantis Houseband. During the same period in the early 1970s, tenor sax player, Bruce Freedman moved to Vancouver from Los Angeles and began playing in various small ensembles along with bassist Clyde Reed, also a recent emigrant to Canada from Vancouver, Washington. Flautist, saxophonist and keyboard player, Ross Barrett, had already been playing with Richard Anstey and me in a quartet, which also included the Montreal-born pianist Rick Kitaeff, whose music the group would eventually play. The Sunship Ensemble, which formed in 1974, was a group in tune with its times. The end of the Vietnam War gave birth to a new optimism: The New Age had begun and this manifested itself in a new pan-global musical consciousness. A whole new generation of creative musicians in Vancouver was coming of age. The incorporation of world music influences, drawn from various cultures, was evident in many celebrated jazz/fusion groups of the early 1970s, such as McCoy Tyner’s sextet, Weather Report, Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis and others. A second wave of Latin American musicians like Airto, Flora Purim and Santana brought jazz and rock closer together than ever. But Sunship also incorporated even more extended free form improvisations than many of the Latin or funk-tinged groups of the time. The ensemble included Ross Barrett (tenor sax, flute and keyboards), Bruce Freedman (tenor sax), Richard Anstey (soprano sax), Alan Sharpe (guitar), Clyde Reed (bass) and Gregg Simpson (drums). Sunship played concerts at the Western Front and at the opening of the Granville Mall in Vancouver, plus opening for pianist Keith Jarrett, at the Commodore Ballroom on June 11, 1974. Bob Smith in The Vancouver Sun wrote, "a double-header including pianist Keith Jarrett and resident quintet, the Sunship Ensemble. Putting it mildly it was a mind-blower, and the 800 who attended gave more than a glimmering of hope for jazz in this city." Guitarist, Bob Bell, who attended that concert, remembers the group’s music as a revelation to him, as not many other similar fusion ensembles were active in Vancouver at the time, although two groups, Skywalk and Pacific Salt were to emerge not long after. While international in outlook, the group played a regionally-based music, which grew out of the west coast, rainforest environment, but also incorporated exotic input from the music of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The selections on this CD reflect the multi-directional approach of the group, with free jazz material alternating with the Afro-Latin influences of the times. Some of the material for the CD was previously released on a 1975 CBC Transcription Recordings LP, entitled Pacific Rim (RCI 428), produced by George Laverock. One piece, entitled Great Wall of China, was arranged from a traditional Chinese melody by Rick Kitaeff whose group in Japan at the time, Electric Ninja, shared the album with the Sunship Ensemble. To reflect the international theme, the groups each did a composition by their counterpart across the Pacific. Sunship disbanded at the end of 1975, but in the late 1970s I went on to form the New Orchestra Workshop, which eventually included Sunship members, Bruce Freedman and Clyde Reed who still play in the NOW Orchestra today. In this sense, the Sunship Ensemble followed the pioneering efforts of the Al Neil Trio in the 1960s, to become the next step in creating a wonderful era of improvised music in Vancouver, which continues until the present time. Gregg Simpson, 2004   CBC Album Notes (RCI 428) Recorded December 5, 1974 in Vancouver, B.C. Producer: George Laverock Sound: Don Hardisty Pacific Rim is a unique endeavour, uniting a Canadian and a Japanese improvisational ensemble, each playing their own, and the other group’s original compositions, based on thematic material from each of the four Pacific continental regions. Guitarist Alan Sharpe leads the Sunship Ensemble of Vancouver, while the Electric Ninja group is headed by ex-Montreal pianist-composer Rick Kitaeff, who after traveling extensively in Asia, Indonesia and the Orient, taught literature and communications at Kobe University in Kyoto, Japan and now teaches at the University of Seattle in Washington. One of the more interesting aspects of the contemporary music scene is the breakdown of many of the artificially created barriers that divide music. Many musicians are finding that traditional categories such as “jazz”, “pop”, “avant garde”, etc., restrictive and self-limiting, and are drawing more freely on musical material from all sources, and in particular from the Third World Cultures. As Rick Kitaeff sees it: “The emphasis is now on fusion- of rock, jazz, classical, Afro-Latin – and it won’t be long before the so-called “melting pot” of North American culture fully absorbs from the Third World as it has from Europe. “…The musical materials of all the pieces were drawn mainly from the Pacific basin cultures. “Atlantis Rising” represents, for the Sunship group, a starting point of European-based modal structure, dissolving into free-flowing samba-flavoured drum and tenor solos. The titles of the Sunship compositions Mesopotamia” and “Inca” reflect their inherent sympathies with ancient, mythic cultures and present a contrast between the dense, rich textures of the former and the deft, syncopated guitar punctuation by composer Alan Sharpe in the latter. “Great Wall of China” is another piece having a background of performances with electronic elements. Sunship’s arrangement of the piece is a lush, multi-layered structure, precisely articulated to give novel harmonic proportions to the Oriental pentatonic scale. Both Electric Ninja and Sunship, as represented by their efforts on this recording, have tried to return the new music movement to its spiritual roots by intercultural diversification of their musical materials. To say that they play “earth music”, however, is not to make any claims of exclusiveness in the orientation towards universality, but simply to indicate that all music is ultimately ethnic. “The earth doesn’t belong to man; man belongs to the earth” (North American Indian saying)                            June 11, 1974 at the Commodore Ballroom -"a double-header including pianist Keith Jarrett and resident quintet, the Sunship Ensemble. Putting it mildly it was a mind-blower, and the 800 who attended gave more than a glimmering of hope for jazz in this city." -Bob Smith -The Vancouver Sun This recording was made possible through the assistance of the Canada Music Fund and the Music Section of the Canada Council for the Arts. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $27.4 million in music throughout Canada. Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 27,4 millions de dollars l'an dernier dans la musique à travers le Canada.

Gonzalez ( 1974 ) .One of the best latin jazz-funk albums,incredible DeLisle Harper ( bass ).Alan Sharpe, Bud Beadle, Chris Mercer, DeLisle Harper, George Chandler, Glen LeFleur, Godfrey McLean, GONZALEZ, Gordon Hunte, Mick Eve, Preston Heyman, Richard Bailey, Ron Carthy, Roy Davies, Steve Gregory...

Gonzalez ‎– Gonzalez 

 

 

Sello:

EMI ‎– 1 C 056 - 05 686

Formato:

Vinyl, LP, Album

País:

Germany

Fecha:

1974

Género:

Jazz, Funk / Soul

Estilo:

Jazz-Funk, Funk, Latin Jazz

Pistas

A1	Pack It Up	4:28
A2	Clapham South	4:04
A3	No Way	3:31
A4	Adelanto Nightride	3:29
A5	Underground Railroad	3:54
B1	Gonzalez	4:58
B2	Together Forever	4:53
B3	Saoco	6:47
B4	Funky Frith Street	1:29

Créditos

• Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Saxophone [Electric] – Chris Mercer
• Arranged By – Gonzalez
• Bass – Lisle Harper*
• Congas, Percussion – Alan Sharpe, Bobby John
• Drums – Glenn Lefleur*
• Drums, Timbales – Richard Bailey
• Engineer – John Burns, Rhett Davies, Tony Clarke
• Lead Guitar – Gordon Hunte
• Piano, Electric Piano [Fender], Clavinet – Roy Davies
• Producer – Neil Harrison
• Soprano Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Flute – Bud Beadle
• Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Steve Gregory
• Tenor Saxophone – Michael Eve*
• Trumpet – Ron Carthy
• Vocals – George Chandler

Notas

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios (June '74) and Island Studios (May '74) 

plus info:

Produced and Engineered by Mike Finesilver
Arranged by Gonzalez and Mike Finesilver


http://musiciansolympus.blogspot.com/2010/10/chrismercer-sax.html

Other 2 musics in the album

Godfrey McLean (percussion)
Preston Heyman (drums) 





Fraser Massey:


On a good night anytime when you went to see Gonzalez during the early to mid-’70s you could find yourself packed in so close in a sweaty little club that you’d be shoulder to shoulder with a group of like-minded music-loving strangers.
It might be uncomfortable but it would be worth it. And anyway it was some small compensation to see that up on stage the band were squeezed in even more tightly-cramming up to 13 musicians on the band stage. You felt almost short-changed on one of those rare nights that Gonzalez appeared with only their absolute minimum of 9 players.
Of course you could never be quite sure exactly which 13 or so musicians would be appearing under the Gonzalez banner on any given night – it was the band’s proud boast that they never took to the stage two nights running with exactly the same line-up.
Long before footballing coaches built themselves international reputations by fine-tuning a rotating squad system – Gonzalez had been pioneering the concept of keeping their performances fresh sounding each night by utilizing the same tactic of continually appearing with an ever-changing personnel.
“It really was like being in a football team, where different players would come in and add a little bit of their own magic on a given night”, recalls tenor sax player Mick Eve. “You’d know that whenever you played there was going to be at least one change in the line-up. It would never be a radical shake-up, just something a little bit different.”
Mick himself, together with keyboard player Roy Davies, trumpeter Ron Carthy, flute and sax man Bud Beadle and Chris Mercer on tenor sax were pretty much ever present. Guitarist Gordon Hunte was also more likely to be there than not.
But as for the rest – it was anybody’s guess who would be there on the night in question.
Though the band made a virtue of its ever changing personnel, it was really an unavoidable inevitability of the way Gonzalez worked. The sheer size of the group coupled with the number of gigs they performed – they’d be out for 250 nights a year at the height of their fame – meant it would be logistically impossible anyway to boast a steady and settled line-up.
All of them were already in constant demand to play for other groups. Though most made their living working as studio session men, they were always being asked to go out on tour with other acts. Johnny Nash and Rod Stewart were particularly partial to raiding the Gonzalez ranks for backing musicians whenever a tour loomed.
“The rule was that if you got offered another gig you gave the rest of us plenty of warning so we could bring someone else in,” says Mick. “Then, by the time you got back from whatever tour it was, whoever had been depping for you was probably off on tour with someone themselves. The fun of being in Gonzalez anyway was to play with people who just loved playing. Going out on tour with some of the big names, playing some of the big stadiums, could get a bit contrived sometimes.
So we’d have one or two members of the band who – when somebody came in and offered them a tour – would quote some ridiculously high figure for their services in the hope that they could price themselves out of the job and be able to stay with us. It didn’t always work, people would still sometimes meet their outrageous asking price and they’d reluctantly have to go off on tour with whoever it was.”
Mick had first put the band together with Roy Davies in the summer of 1971. Both were veterans of the 60′s club scene – Mick as a member of Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames and Roy with Freddie Mack. They’d just come back from working together in Italy as part of Herbie Goins and the Night Timers and were sitting in the audience at Ronnie Scotts London club one July night with some other members of the Night Timers watching Mongo Santamaria when they bumped into some players from another ’70s band, The Gas.
Members of both bands got talking about how nice it would be to play somewhere in the evenings to wind down after a day in the studios and promptly found themselves offered a spot upstairs at Ronnie’s club the following Saturday night.
About 10 people took to the stage for that first performance. “We didn’t even have any tunes,” laughs Mick. “We had about 5 or 6 skeleton ideas which we managed to stretch out for an hour or two. We’d start with riffs from Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye or Mongo Santamaria and just develop them from there.”
They also didn’t have a name. But Bob Stevens, the manager of the Upstairs room at Ronnie Scotts, promptly booked them back for the following Saturday and, sensing a Latin groove in what they were doing, christened them Gonzalez.
Pretty soon the Saturday night booking became a regular thing. Then they were playing Friday night upstairs at Ronnie’s too. In no time they found themselves doing 5 nights a week around London, turning clubs like The Speakeasy, Hatchetts, The Pheasantry and Samantha’s into regular haunts.
As their reputation grew, so did the demand for them to travel further afield – and also for them to put down on record the sort of stuff they were playing night by night.
The “Gonzalez” and “Our only weapon is our music” albums, recorded in 1974 and 1975, and collected here in this compilation, faithfully capture the spirit of the Latin jazz funk fusion that had turned Gonzalez into one of the hottest live draws in the country.
Added here as an extra bonus track is “Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet”, the bands one and only Top Twenty Hit. Initially recorded in 1977, it had been neglected when first released and only charted 2 years later when re-promoted after first finding success in the discos of New York.
The song had been written for the group by U.S soul singer Gloria Jones – who had moved to Britain as a member of T.Rex and girlfriend of that bands lead singer, Marc Bolan. Bolan and Jones would regularly turn up at Gonzalez gigs and cause something of a stir.
“We’d be playing and suddenly girls in the audience would start screaming during one of Chris Mercer’s solos and I’d turn round and see that Marc had popped his head round the corner of the stage,” Mick remembers.
The hit changed the course of events for Gonzalez, as it moved them away from the club circuit where they’d been playing to 400 people a night and into the 2,000 seater ballrooms. “The crowds then would come just to hear the single and the D.J’s in the clubs would tell us to get on and play it and get off again and not hang about because the audiences there were only used to seeing people miming to their hits anyway,” says Mick.
Gonzalez soldiered on regardless, only finally calling it a day after the death from cancer of Roy Davies in 1986. all the band had lucrative work with other musicians and in the studios to fall back on.
And had it not been for the Japanese, the story of Gonzalez might have ended there with the band remaining just a happy memory for those lucky enough to have seen them at their best.
But in the mid-’90s the track “Rissoled”, originally from the “Our Only Weapon” album resurfaced on a big-selling Japanese dance compilation CD prompting latter-day Gonzalez bass player Kuma Harada to issue an invitation to his old colleagues to come and join him in the Far East to play again and maybe even to record some new stuff.
“I don’t know about the rest of the band but I’d be sorely tempted to get on a plane and do it whenever I next need some duty frees to keep my smokers cough going,” wheezes a happy Mick Eve.