Live in Willisau Switzerland 1983 (Live - Remaster) James Newton Quartet

• 1 Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Live) 11:39
• 2 Pinkie Below (Live) 14:10
• 3 Forever Charles (Live) 17:55
• 4 The Printmakers (Live) 21:00
• Total Runtime 01:04:44

Info for Live in Willisau Switzerland 1983 (Live - Remaster)

A lost moment in jazz history is finally getting its due. Producer Stephen Mayner has unearthed recordings of the James Newton Quartet, recorded in Willisau, Switzerland in 1983.

"In the spring of 1983, a newly conceived version of the James Newton Quartet appeared on the European jazz scene. After four decades, producer Stephan Meyner contacted James Newton. They realized that, unfortunately, the quartet had never released a recording. This changed when he unearthed a 1983 recording of the quartet from Willisau in Switzerland. A few months before the tour, James Newton had heard about a fantastic young pianist, composer and scholar from Detroit who was completing her master's degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh - Geri Allen. The members of the James Newton Quartet for this European tour included Geri Allen on piano, Anthony Cox on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums. The recording from Willisau is one of the first recordings in Geri Allen's long, historic and outstanding career. Bassist, composer and bandleader Anthony Cox has immense, highly virtuosic mastery of his instrument, plays with great sensitivity, contributes to every nuance of the ensemble with incredible technical skill and responds to it with confidence, switching skillfully and fluently between different styles. Andrew Cyrille is one of the most respected drummers jazz has ever produced. His ensembles and compositions have contributed greatly to the tradition he embodies. He is known for his enthusiastic collaborations with modernists such as David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Mal Waldron, Horace Tapscott, Peter Brötzmann and Oliver Lake. The recording's repertoire includes Charles Mingus' loving tribute to Charles Christopher Parker, 'Reincarnation of a Lovebirds,' Geri Allen's masterpiece 'The Printmakers,' and two originals by James Newton: " Forever Charles,' dedicated to Mingus, and 'Pinkie Below," the nickname given to my then young son James III by one of his uncles because he was the youngest grandson in the family and was born with light skin."

James Newton Quartet:
James Newton, flute, bandleader
Geri Allen, piano
Anthony Cox, double bass
Andrew Cyrille, drums

Digitally remastered

James Newton
Newton’s work is a rich tapestry that spans chamber, symphonic, and electronic music genres, compositions for modern dance and ballet, and jazz and world music contexts.

Mr. Newton has received many awards, fellowships, and grants, including the Ford Foundation, Guggenheim, National Endowment of the Arts, and Rockefeller Fellowships, Montreux Grande Prix Du Disque, and Downbeat International Critics Jazz Album of the Year. He was also voted the top flutist for a record-breaking 23 consecutive years in Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics Poll. In May 2005, the California Institute of the Arts awarded Mr. Newton a Doctor of Arts Degree, Honoris Causa.

In 2005, Newton decided to commence the greatest challenge of his compositional career – a trilogy of large-scale sacred works: Mass, St. Matthew Passion, and a setting of Psalm 119. Mass, completed in early 2007, was premiered at the 2007 Metastasio Festival in Prato, Italy. Its U.S. premiere (an expanded choral version) occurred in 2011, with Grant Gershon conducting the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Newton completed his St. Matthew Passion in 2014. Its World premiere, with Grant Gershon conducting Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, occurred in 2015 during the Torino Jazz and La Sidone Festivals. Mr. Newton is the first Black American composer rooted in the Jazz tradition to compose a St. Matthew Passion. His research on the trilogy’s final installment, Psalm 119, began in the summer of 2017, and he completed the work in the spring of 2021.

Described as a musician’s renaissance man, Newton has performed with and composed for many notable artists in the jazz and classical fields: Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Buddy Collette, Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi, Mingus Dynasty, San Francisco Ballet, Anthony Davis, Abdul Wadud, Aurèle Nicolet, Geri Allen, Dino Saluzzi, Zakir Hussain, New York Philharmonic, Dorothy Ashby, Cecil Taylor, Emmanuel Pahud, David Murray, Anthony Parnther, The Lyris Quartet, Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Billy Hart, Jon Jang, The Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Gloria Cheng, and Frank Wess among others.

Mr. Newton’s works have been performed at notable venues including Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Opera House, The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Cité de la Musique Paris, France, Berlin National Gallery, Teatro Romano, Verona, Italy, The Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl, RAI Auditorium, Torino, Italy, Blas Galindo Auditorium, Mexico City, Mexico, Teatro Strehler, Milano, Italy, Theatre de la Ville, Paris, France, Parco Concert Hall, Tokyo, Japan, DIRECTV Music Hall, Rio De Janeiro, Severance Hall, Cleveland, Studio Koncertowe Polska Radio im. Witolda Lutoslawskiego, Warsaw, Poland, Amsterdam Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York.

In addition to significant compositions, Mr. Newton’s recent work includes his co- producing with Zev Feldman, a release of compositions and performances by notable multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. The recording, Eric Dolphy Musical Prophet (The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions), is on Resonance Records. Also, in 2023, California State University, Los Angeles, Mr. Newton’s alma mater, established the James Newton Endowed Scholarship for Composers and Jazz Performance.

Newton is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Herb Alpert School of Music, the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also held professorships at the University of California at Irvine, California Institute of the Arts, and Cal State University Los Angeles.

This album contains no booklet.