Sonny Simmons
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Price:		 Sonny Simmons
Global Jungle
no label / private release
LP
$32
First LP edition of this 1982 Sonny Simmons session previously issued on cassette & CD. Hand-numbered pressing of 100 copies, issued December 2024.

From the CD liner notes: "Sonny Simmons is a revered & unrelenting pioneer, one of the remaining few. His dozen or so recordings from 1961-1970 established him as one of the most exciting new horn players of that era. During the '70s and '80s, Simmons stayed true to his art form, writing some of his major compositions, working with local musicians, and 'dealing with it.' Unfortunately, this time period produced little recorded material.

"Global Jungle is one of the rare recordings that captures Simmons' prolific work of the 1980s. Listening to these compositions, one hears searing white hot saxophone, the long winded legato, & multiple tonguing techniques for which Simmons is noted. The fluidity of this recording is further enhanced by the spontaneous and direct response from the rhythm section. Global Jungle is raw and real. It is life drama."

Notes & background regarding this LP edition: "In 1982, I booked time in a home studio in Oakland, California. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the name of this studio. I had been studying & performing with Sonny Simmons in the Bay Area in the early ’80s. I thought it was important to get into a studio to record this music. We recorded 4 tracks. Later we would return with a different bassist & record three more. In my youth, & broke as a joke, it seemed logical at the time to quickly mix the first 2-inch tape & then re-use that same tape for the second recording date, thus erasing the original master tape. Eight years later, I released a cassette tape, Global Jungle, followed by a remix on CD. 42 years later, I found a cassette tape of the very first rough mix of the original session that had been erased. The mix was very different from the released Global Jungle & contained a composition that I had written for Sonny, titled 'H.P.S. Zoarious.' This session, as Sonny would say, captures a real life drama, & a 'Play for your life Mother**ckers' moment in time." -Kirk Heydt

The compositions found on this LP edition: "The Global Jungle," "Steel Foundry of Love," The Global Prayer," & "H.P.S. Zoarious." Notable also for a rare 1980s appearance by Earl Freeman.

Sonny Simmons: alto saxophone
Kirk Charles Heydt: cello
Earl Freeman: electric fretless bass
Perry Thoorsell: acoustic bass (on 3 of the 4 tracks)
Dylan Morgan: drums