I had a wonderful day of antiquing with friends and took home some lovely musical treasures. Nothing rare or collectible, but there is incredible educational value in these specimen. File under "Great Music No One Is Looking For."
The Schulze LP is a welcome addition to my growing collection of his works.
The Django Reinhardt disc is a collection of live performances from 1935-38 in Paris with Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and others. It is my first LP to feature guitar work by Reinhardt and I'll certainly be looking for others.
But the Gil Evans record was the real surprise. The cover photo is unassuming and bland, but apparently it has little to nothing to do with Evans, himself.
According to Ashley Kahn's book The House that Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records (2006), the label's head, Creed Taylor, was in the process of being lured away by Verve Records when this album was in pre-production. They already had the cover-art for it, pre-planned as a sequel to his successful Out of the Cool, so Evans decided to treat the project as a contractual obligation.
What I have, instead is a record showcasing third stream abstract atmospheric jazz led by Johnny Carisi and the other half, weirdly, an experimental/free jazz record by Cecil Taylor playing with, among others, Archie Shepp and Sunny Murray.