LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Bermuda-born multi-instrumentalist (bass, cello, violin) Alan Silva was a major player in New York’s free jazz revolution. Silva spent the 1960s at the forefront of the jazz avant-garde, recording and performing with the likes of Bill Dixon (at 1964’s legendary Revolution In Jazz concert series), Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp, before finally joining the growing wave of musicians trading in the USA for the more musically open-minded land across the Atlantic. However, he recorded one last album for ESP-Disk’ (1970’s Skillfulless ) which prominently displayed Silva’s own hypnotic violin weaving in and out of a sublimely dissonant mix of percussion, howling vocals, flute, vibraphone and the inspired piano acrobatics of Dave Burrell. Also available on LP (GET 1027).