Trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff was a major innovator, one of only a few Europeans who has had an influence on jazz instrumentalists worldwide. He refined multiphonics, a technique utilizing vocalizing into the horn to produce chords and overtone effects. Often performing as a soloist, he also played/recorded with Elvin Jones, John Lewis, Wolfgang Dauner, and Lee Konitz. Trilogue, Live in Montreux, and Triple Entente are all played in trio with Albert’s amazing technique and multiphonics in full display.

Trilogue

Legendary Weather Report electric bassist Jaco Pastorius and quintessential jazz-fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon join Mangelsdorff at the 1976 Berlin Jazz Days for a combustion of creativity. Trilogue starts off solo with a multiphonic melody line and then opens up with free-wheeling give-and-take between the three. Zores Mores is straight ahead swing with Mangelsdorf’s masterful oblique phrasing and the pyrotechnical playing of Pastorious and Mouzon. There’s a bit of Spain and Flamenco in Foreign Fun with Mouzon laying down a complex carpet of sound and Pastorious setting up drone-like riffs. Accidental Meeting doesn’t seem to be so accidental after all. Albert writes three musical phrases, each composed in a different city, and then three separate musical beings converge as if predestined. Ant Steps On An Elephant’s Toe has a mix of the quick and the ponderous as Albert prances, plunger mute in hand, to a funky fusion rhythm. Multiphonics galore.