Internationales Musikforum, Ossiach, Austria, 1969
Ossiach is a very beautiful lake in Austria. At this particular festival they had Flamenco dancers, classical music, and of course jazz. I worked with Dexter Gordon at this festival, and I had worked with him at the famous jazz club in Copenhagen, the Montmartre, for a couple of weeks. We were at the festival for a week, but we really only played one day. We rehearsed, jammed, and swam the other days. Pianist Frederick Gulda, one the premier Beethoven specialists also took part in the festival. He was a fine jazz pianist and recorded a live jazz album for RCA at Birdland in the 50s.
Dexter was a very relaxed cat. If the groove was good, everything was great. Opening before us was Jean-Luc Ponty and his group, and they played some pretty outside stuff. Before we went on, Dexter said, 'Let's burn out the space cadets.' But Ponty was a hip player, and took Coltrane as an inspiration.
By the way, Bosendorfer was a major advertiser in the program.
Click on thumbnails below to view program.
