New York Contemporary Five

The short-lived quintet known as the New York Contemporary Five had a lasting impact on the free jazz movement. It was formed in 1962 with trumpeter Don Cherry, who had been working with free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, who'd been working with Cecil Taylor, Gil Evans and more recently, Bill Dixon, Danish alto saxophonist John Tchicai (whose father was Congolese), a former member of the quintetassembled by the poet and filmmaker Jorgen Leth, who moved to New York shortly before the Contemporary Five's formation, acoustic bassist Don Moore, who had played with Shepp and Dixon, and drummer JC Moses, who had played with Clifford Jordan and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. This rare performance, given at Copenhagen's Koncertsal on 17 October 1963, has epically-extended cuts of Don Cherry's 'Consequences' and Ornette Coleman's 'Emotions,' plus a peppy take of Thelonious Monk's 'Monk's Mood.'