COWELL STANLEY TRIO – ILLUSION SUITE LP

Opis

Recorded in a single session on November 29, 1972 at Sound Ideas Studio in New York City and released the following year, Illusion Suite stands as Stanley Cowell‘s only album for ECM — and one of the most quietly commanding piano trio records in the label’s early catalogue. Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album captures Cowell at the height of his powers: a pianist equally at home in the post-bop tradition and the more exploratory currents of early-1970s creative music, drawing on a breadth of influences that ranges from the jazz mainstream to non-Western musical forms. All six compositions are originals, each bearing the name of a person — friend, mentor, or kindred spirit — as a form of musical dedication.

The trio is completed by two exceptional voices: Stanley Clarke, whose bass work here predates his fusion stardom and reveals a more lyrical, acoustically grounded side, and drummer Jimmy Hopps, whose playing throughout is both propulsive and impressionistic. Maimoun opens with deceptive restraint before unfolding into Cowell’s characteristic rolling chords and octaval doublings; Cal Massey tips its hat to hard bop with a driving, twangy energy; Miss Viki glides on wah-pedaled electric piano; and Emil Danenberg — named for a former director of the Music Conservatory at Oberlin College — serves as the album’s sole true ballad, its dense harmonics navigating the darkest emotional terrain. Astral Spiritual closes the record with an aptly titled sense of elevation. DownBeat awarded the album 4.5 stars upon its release, noting that its charms are quiet but insistent — music that “creeps up on you and hits you in the ear in subtle ways.”

Now reissued as part of ECM’s Luminessence series — the label’s ongoing audiophile vinyl programme dedicated to shedding light on the jewels of its deep catalogue — Illusion Suite is presented in a premium tip-on gatefold jacket. The Luminessence series is built around elegant, high-quality editions of albums that have changed perceptions of creative music-making, with many reissues cut from the original analog master tapes and pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands.