Think of all the great dormant music. Unmarked tapes languishing in basements. Life-altering records long out-of-print, available only to collectors with deep pockets.... The dustbin of sonic history: Unheard Music.
Unheard, that is, until now. Atavistic's new Unheard Music Series lets you access the heretofore inaccessible. Hand chosen by writer, producer and musician John Corbett, the series scours the earth in an ongoing treasure-hunt for rarities from the realms of action jazz, creative music and free improvisation, specializing in lost music of the '60s and '70s, but leaving room for particularly outstanding items that fall outside those stylistic and temporal waters. Drawing from radio archives, private tapes, collections of rare vinyl, and all sorts of unreleased sessions, often working hand-in-hand with the artists themselves, the series will focus on filling gaps in the historical record and illuminating otherwise dark corners of the musical continuum. The finest, most startling new discoveries and favorite forgotten moments by both world renowned and barely visible artists will be excavated, dusted off, and buffed up. Sure to surprise and delight avid fans and new listeners alike, Unheard Music Series reissues will always come equipped with original covers and new notes contextualizing the music, and first-release packages will include rare photos, historical info and, where possible, comments from the musicians themselves.
The Unheard Music Series has a few particular areas of focus, through-lines that will be issued over time. First, the series is very proud to make available once again the first four records, all released in the early '70s and long impossible to obtain, of Poughkeepsie, New York's creative jazz hero JOE MCPHEE. These little-known LPs, *Underground Railroad*, *Nation Time*, *Trinity* and *Pieces Of Light*, were released on the tiny CjR label prior to the formation of the now-famous hat Hut Records, in Switzerland, which was initially established to document McPhee's music.
The Series is also collaborating with legendary Chicago tenor saxophonist FRED ANDERSON to gather together a number of specially selected recordings, chosen by Anderson himself from his personal collection of unreleased tapes; these, along with some European radio broadcast recordings discovered earlier this summer, will constitute one area of close concern for Unheard Music. This line will bring to light various less well-documented periods of Anderson's work before the 1990s, at which time Okka Disk began doing its tremendous job keeping abreast of the saxophonist's current activities.
Another special subdivision of the series will be devoted to the work of Chicagoan multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and professional prankster HAL RUSSELL. When Russell died in 1992, he left a huge cach
For more information contact All About Jazz.
