ESP-DISK

ESP-DISK
 
ESP-Disk is the Grandaddy of indie free jazz labels. The records released in the 1960s include some of the most legendary free jazz albums of the 1960s.

Weirdly, when Bernard Stollman created the label in 1963 it's first release was an album in the conlang Esperanto. But the second release was Albert Ayler's "Spiritual Unity" and the label's course was set.

In 1963 Ayler had just moved to New York and was already making the scene, playing with cats like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane. Not a bad way to make an entrance! Stollman was convinced by a friend to go check him out and sure enough, Stollman was blown away. He offered to record Ayler for his new label.

Ayler had just been playing with pianist Paul Bley's group, featuring the young bass prodigy Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray, the pioneering free jazz drummer, so he brought Peacock and Murray in for the session. The album was very provocative, resulting in a zero star review from Kenny Dorham. On the other hand, Coltrane was so into it he tried to get Ayler on Impulse! and even started playing like Ayler. Looking back there is no doubt this is one of the original masterpieces of the free jazz movement.

 

A week later the trio was back in the studio, along with Don Cherry, John Tchicai, and Roswell Rudd, recording another ESP-Disk album, "New York Ear and Eye Control." This was essentially a commission from experimental filmmaker Michael Snow, himself a free jazz aficionado, who wanted the music for a film soundtrack. Snow had a few stiplulations though, he wanted the music to be simultaneously improvised (rather than a sequence of solos) and he didn't want the pieces bookended by a main melody, as in the typical jazz arrangement.

Another landmark album, it almost didn't see the light of day as Snow at first didn't want the music released by Stollman as it was supposed to exist in the context the film . Luckily he agreed.

If that wasn't enough of an auspicious start, the next release was Pharaoh Sanders' first album (Pharaoh's First). Although this album is notable as the legendary tenor man's first, the paring with the straight ahead backing band makes for an odd match, as Pharaoh tries to blast for the stratosphere the back band swings along as if nothing unusual is happening. 

The next album was perhaps more seminal. The New York Art Quartet features John Tchicai on alto saxophone, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Lewis Worrell on bass, and Milford Graves on percussion. In addition, LeRoi Jones recites his controversial poem Black Dada Nihilismus on one track. This was 1964 and it was a heady time for the avant-garde. The New York Art Quartet had just played in the infamous "October Revolution in Jazz" organized by Bill Dixon, which included many luminaries fo the free jazz scene, including Paul Bley and Sun Ra.

 

1964 also saw ESP-Disk releasing the first album by the Giuseppe Logan Quartet. Logan plays alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, Pakistani oboe, bass clarinet, and flute along with pianist Don Pullen, bassist Eddie Gómez, and drummer Milford Graves.

Milford Graves recalled: "After the New York Art Quartet recording, Bernard approached me and asked me to do something. Fine, but then I thought about Giuseppi. I told Bernard, 'I'm a young guy, and I have time. Let's give it to Giuseppi.' I don't know if Giuseppi ever knew that. So I just recorded with Giuseppi as a sideman; that's how that took place." However, according to Stollman, on the day of the recording, "Milford Graves and [Logan] filed through the studio and as they walked in to record, Giuseppi turned to me and said 'if you rob me, I'll kill you.' Milford was mortified—he had asked me to record Giuseppi—I'd given him a record date and he threatened me with death." (from Wikipedia)

This album is extremely "out" and not for the meek.

1964 was a hell of a first year, and 1965 was an impressive follow up. First off the was the trio record by obscure pianist Lowell Davidson. Davidson had been recommended to Stollman by Ornette Coleman with whom he had been playing (Coleman would later refer to Davidson as his favorite pianist). For the session he was backed by Peacock and Graves who continued breaking new ground and wreaking new havoc for a jazz rhythm section. Davidson's piano stylings are very unique, with a free-flowing abstraction unheard at the time.  

The same year also saw the recording of Sun-Ra's The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, volumes 1 and 2, Paul Bley's Barrage and Closer, Albert Ayler's Bells and Spirits Rejoice, Milford Graves' Percussion Ensemble, and one of my favorites, The Marion Brown Quartet.

The album features Brown on alto saxophone, Alan Shorter on trumpet, Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone, Reggie Johnson and Ronnie Boykins on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums. A rambling, lyrical journey with Boykins and Ali driving the bus.

Another seminal recording made in 1965 was tenor player Frank Wright's first album. Wright was a bass player from Mississippi who switched to tenor after meeting Albert Ayler in Cleveland. He moved to New York and found himself playing Larry Young, Noah Howard, and Sunny Murray. He even played with Coltrane who then invited him to the legendary "Ascension" recording session. Stollman heard Wright sitting in with Coltrane and asked him what label he was with, to which Wright replied "none." Stollman told him "Well, you are now." Wright followed this up with his album Your Prayer.

1966 brought another round of great recordings. Alto sax player Noah Howard recorded his debut album The Noah Howard Quartet which was followed later that year with the live album At Judson Hall.

The label began branching out after the success of folk rock band The Fugs. There were still plenty of Free Jazz gems, such as the 1973 debut of Frank Lowe's Black Beings.

 

The label folded in 1975, according to Stollman's claims it was in large part due to rampant bootlegging. Stollman went on to become the Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York until 1991. He then licensed some recordings to various labels, eventually restarteing ESP itself in 2005.

It must be said, Stollman was not on the up and up when it came to royalties and it seems to be the unanimous opinion that he ripped off all his artists when it came to royalties. Luckily, the current incarnation of the label is reissuing a lot of this material and presumably has sorted out the financial side of things.