Communication

The Jazz Composers Orchestra, led by trumpeter/composer Michael Mantler and his then-wife, pianist Carla Bley, was an outgrowth of the Jazz Composers Guild, an organization founded by Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and others. The Guild collapsed after less than a year, but the JCOA stayed together, providing a platform for Mantler’s compositions to be recorded and performed by the cream of NYC’s avant-jazz community. This 1968 double LP, released on their own JCOA label but later licensed to ECM, features almost 40 musicians in all, though the personnel varies somewhat from track to track. Each piece is a showcase for a soloist backed by the orchestra — the featured artists include trumpeter Don Cherry, tenor saxophonists Gato Barbieri and Pharoah Sanders, guitarist Larry Coryell, bassist Steve Swallow, trombonist Roswell Rudd, and for the entire second LP, Cecil Taylor. “Communications #11” is a nearly 35-minute concerto for piano and free jazz orchestra, and it’s overwhelming in the best possible way, a tour de force performance by Taylor and the ensemble.