The 360 Degree Music Experience - In:Sanity (1976 Japanese Black Saint Vinyl 2LP Gatefold)

Vinyl: EX/EX
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: None

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The 360 Degree Music Experience - In:Sanity | Vinyl 2LP Gatefold - 1976 Japanese Black Saint (JC 7024/25, Tokuma Musical Industries)

Beaver Harris played baseball before he played drums. He was a teenager in the Kansas City Monarchs and was scouted by the Brooklyn Dodgers before serving in the Army and arriving in New York in 1963, where Max Roach encouraged him to commit to music. He played with Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk, and founded the 360 Degree Music Experience as a cooperative built on the idea that free jazz shouldn't turn its back on tradition. The ensemble's founding members included Dave Burrell, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Garrison (Coltrane's bassist), Hamiet Bluiett, and two singular presences: Francis Haynes on steel drums and Titos Sompa on congas. The "360 degrees" in the name means what it says. No genre boundaries, no limits on instrumentation, no distinction between old and new.

Side A opens with "Tradewinds" before moving into the first two parts of the "In:Sanity Suite," a three-part work arranged and conducted by Harris, Burrell, Bluiett and Haynes. The suite is structured loosely: composed themes alternate with open improvisations, and the soloists rotate through the ensemble. Side B completes the suite with "Complete Operation," the most dense section, with individual spotlights for Bluiett, Lawrence, Garg and McBee emerging from collective passages. Side C is a single piece: "Open (For James Garrison)," dedicated to the bassist who was a founding member of the ensemble. Garrison died on April 7, 1976, less than a month after this recording was made. Side D opens with "Full, Deep and Mellow" and closes with "Sahara," where the full steel drum orchestra (Haynes conducting a six-piece pan ensemble including Roger Sardinha, Coleridge Barbour and Alston Jack) meets the jazz group.

This is the 1976 Japanese pressing on Black Saint JC 7024/25, manufactured by Tokuma Musical Industries in a gatefold sleeve.