francois tusques: free jazz

Cacophonic present a first time vinyl reissue of a pioneering album of French free jazz, François Tusques's Free Jazz, originally released in 1965. Comprising some of the earliest, uninhibited performances from musicians behind groundbreaking European records and films, Free Jazz captures the birth of an exciting movement that would soon earn its Parisian birthplace as the go-to European spiritual home of improvised and avant-garde music. Spearheaded by pianist and composer François Tusques, this 1965 French album laid the foundations -- alongside Jef Gilson's 1963 album Enfin! (OI 020LP) -- for a unique satellite brand of jazz that would later provide visiting Afro American avant-garde players with a vibrant Parisian platform. With Free Jazz, you not only hear the unique differences within the Gallic approach to the art form (combining masterful somber cinematic changes with aerated free-form percussion and erratic reed and brass), but you also witness the early, lesser savored secret ingredients that would carry France's mainstream pop culture into truly uncharted and unrivalled territories. Best known as the soundtrack composer to the horror-tica films of Jean Rollin, Tusques is joined here by sax and flute player Francois Jeanneau, who later led Triangle, France's leading French language prog-jazz-rock act. Featuring three players from Enfin!, Free Jazz combines the skills of Jeanneau, with clarinet player Michel Portal, and trumpeter Bernard Vitet. In addition to this, Free Jazz also boasts the inclusion of double bass master Bernard "Beb" Guérin, a contributor to Sonny Sharrock's Monkey-Pockie-Boo (1970). It is by no coincidence that this carefully selected ensemble would be enlisted as the backing group for politically driven singer-songwriter Colette Magny (arguably influencing Brigitte Fontaine to adopt The Art Ensemble Of Chicago as her backing band). This album also captures a rare glimpse of percussionist Charles Saudrais in free-form mode after his departure from the Barney Wilen Quartet, resulting in the follow-up record 1970's Le Nouveau Jazz (CACK 014LP) for actor Marcel Mouloudji's privately funded label. This glimpse into a seldom documented underground of a domestic, revolutionary, uncompromised spiritual art-form reveals the other-side of abstracted French music which, alongside musique concrète, protest pop, symphonic rock, and Zeuhl-skool electronic prog, created a homegrown, self-contained music industry that influenced a universe of Gallic magnetic inspiration. Taken from Tusques's master-tape archive. Features two rare original outtakes which did not appear on the original album; Includes a facsimile of the original Tusques-penned booklet.