1967 · Album
Almanac
Recorded 1967 at Columbia University, New York City · Improvising Artists (Paul Bley) · Released: 1977
A Rare Glimpse of Collective Improvisation
Enough adventure in the music to hold listeners' interest, exploring territory between Miles and Paul Bley.
Bennie Maupin would go on to become known as a studio session musician and a sideman on classic records, but Almanac captures him in a different role entirely — as a member of a true collective, one that recorded only this single album. The session took place in 1967 at Columbia University, a moment when Maupin was still finding his voice as a leader and bandmate, before his later work with Herbie Hancock and others would define his reputation.
The lineup around him — Mike Nock on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Eddie Marshall on drums — functioned as equals in real time. A Gramophone reviewer heard the music as existing between the Miles Davis band of that era and the sort of work Paul Bley had been pursuing, which is a fair description of the territory: modal, exploratory, but not free in the sense of abandoning structure entirely. The four musicians listen to each other closely, with Maupin's saxophone and flute work moving through the space created by Nock's harmonic thinking and the rhythm section's careful responsiveness.
What makes this record worth seeking out is precisely its singularity. A group that recorded only once, at a university venue, and then dissolved. It appeared a full decade after those sessions, released in 1977 on Paul Bley's Improvising Artists label. There's no grand statement here, no career-defining moment. Just four players working through ideas together, captured live with enough clarity that you can hear what each one was thinking.
Who's playing
