DON ELLIS QUINTET UNRELEASED'63 ALBUM 1 OF KIND ACETATE

$

821

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·       THE DON ELLIS QUINTET – UNKNOWN (AND PROBABLY UNRELEASED) 1963 ALBUM  – MIRASOUND STUDIOS MONO LP (NO NUMBER)

·       ORIGINAL  U.S. PRESSING

·       *** ULTRA-RARE ACETATE OF THE UNRELEASED (?) ALBUM *** ]

·       PROBABLY THE RAREST DON ELLIS ALBUM IN EXISTENCE

·       PLAIN WHITE MIRASOUND STUDIOS LABELS (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MIRA RECORDS, WHICH DID NOT COME INTO EXISTENCE UNTIL 1966)  WITH TYPEWRITTEN TRACK LISTING  [BECAUSE MIRA STUDIOS WAS IN IMMEDIATE PROXIMITY OF COLUMBIA’S HEADQUARTERS ON 52ND STREET – BARELY FOUR BLOCKS AWAY -  WE SUSPECT THAT THIS WAS ELLIS’ FIRST ATTEMPT TO SIGN UP WITH THE LABEL, AND THAT IT WENT UNSUCCESSFUL  -- COLUMBIA PROBABLY DECLINED)

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST (AND THE ONLY KNOWN) U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS (SLIGHTLY GREASY FROM THE GLUE, BUT OTHERWISE WELL PRESERVED)

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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OK, folks, to summarize: this is a probably a mythical, heretofore unknown, never-heard and never-seen Don Ellis Quintet album from 1963.  To the best of my knowledge and understanding, this session  has never been released in any shape, manner or form, and remains unreleased and historically undocumented to this day (please feel free to correct us if you feel we are wrong). Only one track (Turk’s Works) has been released – in live version only – many decades after this, original recording.

Before you start salivating and hyperventilating, there’s a few – in the immor(t)al words of Donald Rumsfeld  - “knowable knowables” and “uknowable knowables” about this album (translation: things we do know and things we do not know about it):

Read on:

WHAT WE DO KNOW :

-        The session was recorded in 1963. How do we know? That’s easy - -  the acetate has a hand-etched August 11, 1963 date in the trail-off vinyl.  Don Ellis did NOT have any released albums (whether studio or otherwise) between the 1962 ‘Essence’ and the 1966 Pacific Jazz Festival live set. This information ALONE places this acetate in the uncharted, undocumented waters of the Don Ellis’ “missing” years. We strongly suggest that, during this period, Don Ellis had a very hard time adjusting to the Soul-Jazz fad that was in the vogue in the early-to-mid ‘60s (Donald Byrd’s New Perspective all but dominated Jazz airwaves) and that his brand of improvisational, time-shifting Jazz was probably deemed as uncommercial and difficult to market to the masses, which might help explain why Ellis would not record another studio session for another  4 years.

-        The trail-off vinyl also has another important, telling indicator: it has DON ELLIS’ NAME hand-etched on one side, clearly indicating that this was Don Ellis’ own, private, proprietary pressing. It is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that this was his own copy at some point (or the one handed out to the session players or as promotional tool to the recording label), and that THIS IS THE ONLY COPY IN EXISTENCE.

-        This is a small-group session (obviously, the label identifies the group as a quintet), NOT a live recording (Don Ellis would not have another studio session until the Columbia’s 1967 “Electric Bath” album)

-        The music appears to be rather free-ish in and experimental in form and construction (titles ALONE are rather telling), making this session closer to his first (1961) LP on  Candid label (“…How Time Passes”) than anything else we’d heard by Ellis. However, three years lapsed between the Candid session and this one, making it virtually impossible that this is the same lineup.

-        This is all we know and all we can tell you, folks. Draw you own conclusion!

-        TRACK LISTING): SIDE A: Turk’s Works – Improvisation for Quintet – Improvisation 3,2,2,2,1,2,2,2 – SIDE B: Thematic Development parts 1-4 (not in sequential order; the parts run in sequence 4-1-2-3) – Seven Ate For (Probably mistyped; very likely the correct title was Seven-Eight-Four) – Four Steps.

WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW :

-        We do not know who plays on the album, what Don Ellis intended to do with it; if this was the final, “polished” version of the album or not; whether it was ultimately acquired (but not released) or outright rejected by some recording label or whether Don Ellis (or someone else) intended to eventually release it. Our operating assumption is that the album was initially offered to Columbia which rejected it, and that, ultimately, the project was abandoned by Don Ellis and  was never legally copyrighted, published or trademarked.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While this acetate is in a very nice state of preservation, we do expect bidders to understand that the aluminum-based, shellac-coated acetates can never be graded by using the exact, same stringent standards used by collectors for modern long-play, hi-fi LPs or singles. The buyer – if not familiar with acetate (reference) recordings - should be cautioned that these discs were intended for brief, limited use only; they were meant to be played only a few times, then discarded or destroyed. In view of this, the surface layer of the disc is manufactured in such a manner that it will wear off pretty quickly, even under normal conditions -- and specially if not handled with due care. Each subsequent playing increases wear and tear of the disc’s surface layer and diminishes the disc’s playability.

This acetate is in about VG TO VG+  condition, with numerous, but largely minor and superficial, scuffs on the surface. Absolutely NO part of the shellac (surface layer) of the disc is  missing, and the surface layer is NOT dented, chipped, broken or otherwise compromised.

ON A SCALE FROM 1-10 (where 10 is the best), WE GRADE RECORD AS 5

THIS IS A RESERVE AUCTION!

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PLEASE NOTE: THIS ACETATE APPARENTLY NEVER HAD A CUSTOM COVER;  ACETATES AND REFERENCE PRESSINGS ARE RARELY – IF EVER – FOUND IN CUSTOM (STOCK) COVERS.  This acetate will be shipped in its original, plain, generic, white cardboard cover (NOT SEPARATELY GRADED but in a very nice condition overall)

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