Action - Original 1964 Danish Debut label 5-track LP

Very rare 1964 Danish Debut label 5-track LP - the debut album from Danish avant-garde/free jazz quartet with a strong affinity for the trans-Atlantic 'New Thing' - the freer shapes of jazz to come like displayed by Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler - recorded with drummer Sunny Murray, who was in Copenhagen for a few days in october 1964 playing at Montmartre with a Don Cherry led trio.

"...most of the compositions have the agitated, fragmentary feel of Coleman's late Atlantics, there is also a glimpse of the Danish folk lyricism Tchicai would all but trademark. Despite Steinmetz's indebtedness to Cherry, he bypassed the playfulness of Cherry's work on the early Contemporary and Atlantic dates, and articulated an intriguing approach to Cherry's slippery chromatic runs and lyrical positivism. Beckerlee had all but dispensed with Ornette as a role model, his raspy rants at times foreshadowing Peter Brotzmann. Andersen, whose jagged lines were closer to Gary Peacock than either Charlie Haden or Scott LaFaro, reinforced this departure from the model. Add Murray's spattered cymbals and surprisingly light snare touch, and the resulting music is consistently intriguing, and occasionally spellbinding."*

Vinyl is printed as a stiff and heavy vinyl pressing. The matt finish labels has the generic black and silver design with a mid-star above top fat and large fonted company name and 'Made In Denmark' text along top label rim. Labels has deep centre ring and an additional label ring ca 1,5 cm from label rim.

Vinyl is housed in a thick cardboard sleeve assembled on top and bottom by slightly rough and dark blue textured, glue-on linin - front and back artwork are subsequently pasted on - front artwork streched over the spine covering a third of the back. The remaining back artwork is a liner notes paste on.

Condition: VG++ (Vinyl)/M- (Labels)/VG++ (Cover):
Vinyl is superbly bright and shiny and has a touch of extremely superficial sleeve wear on Side 1... the kind that you have to twist and turn the vinyl under a strong light source to detect. Side 2 is plain mint. Labels are mint as well. This copy stems from a collection bought from a collector involved in the production of the album. We very much doubt that this record was ever played - if so, probably just once or twice - and with great care for the album.
Labels are graded mint - vinyl extremely close to mint.

Cover is mint except for a small production imperfection in the top right front cover slick - a very outermost top corner bend - slick is as such intact but the very corner has been bend and glued to the back of slick. Cover is otherwise immaculate - superb seams and corners, without age discolouration, smudging or other lesser imperfection - graded near mint overall.

This is a rare an any condition - extremely rare this nice.

Tracklisting:

Side 1:
1. Refraction (Hugh Steinmetz) 7:41
2. Action (Franz Beckerlee, Hugh Steinmetz, Steffen Andersen) 9:24

Side 2:
1. Catalysm (Franz Beckerlee) 5:13
2. In The Name Of Beauty (Franz Beckerlee, Hugh Steinmetz, Steffen Andersen) 4:01
3. Pre-Determination (Franz Beckerlee) 8:51

Recorded in Copenhagen ctober 1st, 1964

Credits:
Hugh Steinmetz - Trumpet
Franz Beckerlee - Alto Saxophone
Steffen Andersen - Bass
Sunny Murray - Drums

Technical Credits:
Nils Winther - Production
Birger Svan - Recording Engineer

Artwork:
Boris Rabinowitsch - Cover Design
Franz Beckerlee, Hugh Steinmetz, Steffen Andersen - Liner Notes

*Bill Shoemaker, Jazztimes, November 2001 on the review of the "Action Action: The Original Debut Recordings 1964 & 1967" Steeplechase reissue