Out There: Unissued Ornette Coleman Test Pressings, Town Hall, 1962

Notable jazz resources online and elsewhere.

Ornette Coleman’s trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett was one of the truly great bands of the 1960s. Its discography is definitely too thin, and not for lack of existing material. A couple of months ago, four most interesting uploads appeared on a YouTube channel out of Japan named taro cross. They were the full four sides of a planned but unissued double album version of Coleman’s historic December 21, 1962 Town Hall concert. Many plans were formulated for those tapes, that Coleman had self-produced: he envisioned creating his own label to release them, there was reportedly interest at Impulse and elsewhere. They were eventually excerpted on a regular LP by ESP-Disk' at the end of 1965. The dates on the test pressings shared below seem to indicate that a twice as extensive release on Blue Note was still a real possibility in the summer of 1965. The sound might not be the best, but the test pressings shared by taro cross contain a full album’s worth of magnificent unheard music. It renders most commentary superfluous, listen while it’s out there!

Ornette Coleman, Town Hall, Vol. 1, Blue Note BLP 4210, 1965, test pressing (side A and B).

Ornette Coleman, Town Hall, Vol. 2, Blue Note BLP 4211, 1965, test pressing (side A and B).