Recorded at various European jazz festivals between 1970-73, this compilation shows the astounding breadth and depth within the European jazz scene. The Sarmanto-Koivistoinen Group was the first Finnish band to play at the Newport Jazz Festival. Here they play at the Pori Jazz Festival in their home country. M.C. features tenor saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen, whose originality is rooted in such modernists as Shepp and Coltrane. Pianist Sarmanto adds an impressive multi-textured solo. The phenomenal Norwegian singer Karin Krog has worked with the likes of Dexter Gordon and Paul Bley. Here she breathes freshness into Break of Day in Molde, the song she co-wrote with Carla Bley. In a show of pianistic legerdemain, French maestro Martial Solal plays his own Ah non! at the jazz festival in Nice. Recorded in Budapest, Studio Blues features bass giant Aladar Pege’s group of Hungarian all-stars in a pyrotechnical display with a touch of gypsy soul. The last two pieces originate from the festival in Prague. The big band of top-flight Czech musicians includes internationally acclaimed reed player Jiri Stivin. Damned is a frenetic adventure with Stivin’s searing flute solo in the lead, and A Thousand Suns burns with a fierce unrelenting brightness revealing an underlying pathos. Powerful music that exemplifies the best of 70’s European jazz
