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The Magnetic Atmospher

by Clarence Peters

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    DETAILS:
    Black vinyl / 505mcn paper / Insert with extensive liner notes by Tony Higgins printed on 200 gram "Shiro Eco"paper and a special Manifesto with exclusive pictures printed on 90 gram Favini recycled paper.

    SHIPPING:
    We use only DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE TIME DEFINITE service.
    Door-to-door delivery by the end of the next possible business day.
    Records shipped into double wave mailer made to measure with stiff safety zone.

    NO DIGITAL DOWNLOAD NOR STREAMING

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Magnetic Atmospher via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €40 EUR or more 

     

  • BANDCAMP PRE ORDER ONLY "MAGNETIC" EDITION
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    DETAILS:
    Black vinyl / 505mcn paper / Exclusive Bandcamp 9 layers "Passpartout" sleeve with images printed on Translucent GSK Heliography Paper , black text printed on made to measure outer sleeve and "Star" magnet applied on magnetic tape / 30 x 60 cm insert with extensive liner notes by Tony Higgins and interview with Clarence Peter with exclusive pictures printed on 200 gram "Shiro Eco"paper and a special Manifesto with exclusive pictures printed on 90 gram Favini recycled paper.

    SHIPPING:
    We use only DHL EXPRESS WORLDWIDE TIME DEFINITE service.
    Door-to-door delivery by the end of the next possible business day.
    Records shipped into double wave mailer made to measure with stiff safety zone.

    NO DIGITAL DOWNLOAD NOR STREAMING

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Magnetic Atmospher via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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about

We're delighted to announce the reissue one the most sought-after European private press spiritual jazz albums: The Magnetic Atmospher by Clarence Peters Quartet. Never reissued in its entirety before, The Magnetic Atmosphere is a solid album of deep, post modal spiritual jazz that will appeal to fans of the Strata East, Tribe, and Black Jazz labels.

Resident in France since the 1970s, drummer Peters recorded the album with a French rhythm section: Patrick Gauthier on piano, and Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass. On sax is American-born Steve Potts, resident in France since 1970 and, like bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, alumni of Steve Lacy.

The Magnetic Atmospher features four killer tracks, all composed by Peters. This is an opportunity to hear a truly remarkable record and sells for hundreds of dollars on the collector circuit. Long thought to be missing in action, we tracked Clarence Peters down and secured the license, direct from the man himself.

EXTENDED LINER NOTES BY TONY HIGGINS

To try to begin to understand Clarence Peters’ long-lost masterpiece, The Magnetic Atmosphere, it’s important to understand another atmosphere - the cultural atmosphere in which it was created: the air, the vibration, and the light that infused Clarence Peters’ mind and body to bring forth such a powerful, profound and purposeful work.

As social tensions became increasingly strained in the United States throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, many African-American jazz artists looked to escape the seemingly endless discrimination and harassment dealt by the police, club owners and society in general. To that end, many African-American artists decided to relocate to Europe or Scandinavia.

Partly to escape embedded racial discrimination and partly to secure an appreciative audience, several African-American jazz musicians based themselves in a variety of European countries, leading to healthy exchanges of ideas and talent. Not unlike the American writers of the inter-war period who went to Europe and became Gertrude Stein"lost generation", jazz musicians also made the Atlantic crossing at a steady rate until many of the major names in jazz lived or worked almost exclusively in Europe.

France had been home to one of Europe’s most vibrant pre-war jazz scenes and after liberation in 1945, jazz in France developed quickly. The first European jazz festival was held in Paris in May 1949 at the Salle Pleyel, with performances by US artists such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, and musicians from several European countries including Britain and Sweden. The festival established Paris as the first capitol of jazz in Europe and led to several American artists moving there Of the American’s finding new homes in Europe, Sidney Bechet was perhaps the first prominent musician to relocate, moving to France in the early 1950s (he had already performed in France with Josephine Baker before the war). He became a major celebrity there and several of his most famous compositions are named after his love for the nation, most notably ‘Petit Fleur’. By the late 1950s and into the 1960s there was a considerable jazz exodus from America to Europe, some staying for only a few years, others for good. Those who made the journey to live and work in Europe included Dexter Gordon, Art Farmer, Kenny Clarke, Sahib Shihab, Benny Bailey, Johnny Griffin, Mark Murphy, Jimmy Woode Jr, Mal Waldron, Idrees Sulieman, Bud Powell, Phil Woods, Ben Webster, Don Byas and Jon Hendricks (Eric Dolphy had intended to settle in Europe but died before he could, ironically in Berlin, in June 1964). The list goes on.

What Bechet had started in 1950 led to a lively Left Bank jazz scene in which legends of bebop like Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke reigned for years. A generation later, Paris had a vibrant avant garde jazz scene, with the likes of Art of Ensemble of Chicago living and recording there alongside others such as Alan Silva, Archie Shepp, Noah Howard and Steve Lacy. They all would, in turn, have an influence on French and wider European jazz. It was into this vibrant and febrile milieu that Clarence Peters found himself, ostensibly to study architecture at the Paris Beaux-Arts, immersing himself in the artistic freedom and curiosity of a protean European culture not defined – or limited, as in America – by race but, rather, by openness, imagination, and creativity.

Introductions to musicians like trombonist François Guin, an associate of leading French composer and producer Jef Gilson, led to Peters meeting saxophonist Claude Luther, fellow devotee of Bix Beiderbecke and the leading French exponent of the New Orleans style that Peters loved so much. Joining the jamming scene of the time, Peters got to meet more players and this in turn led him to making his debut record, a 45 called Mission Control to Juju Moon.

There were several places that attracted musicians as nodes of contact. Places like the Paris house of Memphis Slim, the Memphis born blues man who had moved to France in 1962. It was here that Peters would often practice with other US emigres like saxophonist Frank Wright and bassist Bob Reid, whose 1975 album, Africa Is Calling Me, was recorded live during a performance at the Center American for Students and Artists in Paris, France on May 25, 1974.  It was also at the American Center that Peters met the members of Art Ensemble of Chicago, who had themselves relocated to Paris in the autumn of 1968, basing themselves at Théâtre des Vieux Colombier. The American Center was another crucial space for Peters - and other US artists either based in Paris or simply travelling though - to meet and exchange ideas at workshops and concerts.

Founded in 1931 in Paris as the American Center for Students and Artists, with a library and language courses, it evolved after World War II into a full-fledged cultural centre. Known as the American Center in Paris, its building on Boulevard Raspail hosted exhibitions, performances, concerts, film screenings, lectures and residencies from the 1950s through the 1970s. From Yves Klein organizing judo classes after his return from Japan in the ‘50s and Carolee Schneemann staging her first happening in Europe in 1964, to programs like Fluxus festivals and Living Theater residencies, the American Center followed cutting-edge practices.

Unbeknown to him at the time, Peters was to be followed to France by saxophonist Steve Potts, originally hailing from Columbus, Ohio and someone who had served their time as sideman to Roy Ayers, Richard Davis, Joe Henderson, Reggie Workman, and Chico Hamilton.

By the time Potts had arrived in 1970, he was regarded as among the most talented of the new young avant-garde musicians and, like Peters, his relocation to Paris gave him the opportunity to work with kindred spirits seeking musical freedom and artistic experimentation.

Over the next three years Potts worked with European and American artists including jazz guitarist Boulou Ferré, vocalist and poet Brigitte Fontaine, and gypsy guitarist Christian Escoudé, as well the great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (who had based himself in Denmark), and other American emigres such as well as Johnny Griffin, Mal Waldron, and Hal Singer. The other notable collaboration was with free jazz pioneers Art Ensemble of Chicago but it was in 1973 that was to make the connection with Steve Lacy, a relationship that would lead to a recorded legacy of over twenty albums during a thirty-year partnership.

Potts would make one major statement of intent in 1975 under his own name: his debut album Musique Pour Le Film D’Un Ami (Music for a Friend’s Film), the soundtrack to director Joaquín Lledó’s film Le Sujet ou le Secrétaire aux Mille et un Tiroirs. Despite its extraordinarily accomplished music, the album was pressed in tiny numbers on a small label and soon became a rare cult classic, highly collectable. That album has only just recently been reissued and made available to a new audience – a shared destiny that would be echoed with Clarence Peter’s own debut album, Magnetic Atmosphere: an album of supremely expressed vision, languished in obscurity for decades, only to be rediscovered, reissued and reborn. A vindication? Of sorts, perhaps.

“I met Clarence at the American Center in Paris,” recalls Steve Potts to me, over the phone. “To me I don’t remember the exact year that it was we met, but I met him for the first time at the Center here in Paris. We played together a few times and he said he would like to record with me, so we decided to record together. At the Center there were lots of musicians jamming almost every day. There were so many musicians; at the time, I was studying a bit and playing with Anthony Braxton and people like that. It was a very rich period. I played with the bass player Jean Jacques Avenel, of course. There were quite a few musicians from America, from all over Europe. But I can’t recall all the names who jammed with Clarence, there were so many, but I know Jean Jacques did, and he went on to be on the recording with Clarence. In fact, I’d met Jean Jacques even before he’s come to Paris, I met him in Le Havre, he was living there at the time, and I was there performing with Steve Lacy. I was there with Steve and Jean Jacque and I started hanging out and started playing. He eventually, came into Steve Lacy’s band, and we performed together up until Steve passed.

“So, in a way, the basis of the Magnetic Atmosphere album was the jam sessions at the American Center, with Clarence, and Jean Jacque. I can’t remember if I also first met Phillipe there, or if it was for the recording. I have no memory of the studio name or location – it was definitely Paris, though. During that period, I was recording a lot, so names and places of specific recordings are vague to me right now.”

The process of recording the album and of working out the tunes, that day in early summer 1979, was very much in the spirit of the jam sessions that had initially brought Clarence and Steve together: an organic creativity, a spirit of cooperation and exploration.

“The music for Magnetic Atmosphere was largely improvised", Says Potts. “I do recall Clarence had some pretty clear ideas about what he wanted, and that could be considered composition, to a great extent. But there was very little put on paper. The pianist, Patrick, did put a few things down on paper and we just played. We improvised on certain themes and certain things that had jammed on before. So that developed into the compositions.”

The late 60s into the mid-70s was an intense period of activity for European jazz, often serving as the soundtrack to radical politics and countercultural movements, with jazz groups sharing stages at festivals with rock, folk, and prog acts. The jazz rock/prog crossover was particularly strong at this time across Europe, whether it was bands like Nucleus in Britain, Embryo in Germany, Belgium’s Placebo or French ensembles like Full Moon Unit, Mahjun, and Le Collectif Le Temps des Cerises, or afro-funk acts like the Franco-American Lafayette Afro Rock Band/Ice.

The multiracial, multi-music scene fed and sustained the creativity of Clarence Peters and Steve Potts. It was only a matter of time before they would work together, and unite with French musicians – bassist Jean Jacques Avenel, alumnus of Steve Lacy, Noah Howard, and Le Collectif Le Temps des Cerises, and pianist Patrick Gauthier, who had studied orchestration and harmony in college and had been a member of pioneering progressive-electronic group Heldon.

Gauthier recalled what he could of that moment working with Clarence Peters, briefly floating freely within The Magnetic Atmosphere: “The bass player, Jean Jacque Avenel, whom I was close to, brought me into the quartet. The band didn’t get together that much before the session.  I remember we just gathered one day just before recording - I believe in a studio in the Marais district, but I’m not completely sure [Clarence suggests the studio was located in 15 Arrondissement, not Marais, which is 5] and we just played a little, to get a feel. I hadn’t met or worked with either Clarence of Steve before. At the recording session, we were improvising. We had a main theme and I made some chord notations. The vibe was in the spirit of freedom, free musical directions.

“My way of playing was mainly influenced by McCoy Tyner and Clarence seemed to like that very much. He was kind to me, supportive. I was very young and not really a professional musician at that time. Steve Potts was cool with me too. I learned a great deal in this one session and I improved as a player. We recorded in one afternoon, as I recall. After the recording session, I didn’t actually get a copy of the record at the time but It is an attractive album. It’s ‘one-shot music’, free-spirited, influenced by Coltrane.

“I remember, as a group, we played one gig at American Church of Paris at Quai d'Orsay in the 7th arrondissement, between the Eiffel Tower and Musée d'Orsay, on the rive gauche, the left bank.  I remember Bobby Few was playing before us with his trio. There were no problems during that time, no racial things or any of that type of mess!  Just cool people trying to play the best they can.”

For Peters, The Magnetic Atmosphere had been developing for a while, finding form and coming into existence. His interest in the Apollo missions to the Moon had captured his imagination and inspired the possibilities that could be grasped if mankind focused on goals, even goals that seem as distant and unreachable as the moon. But even beyond the Apollo Moon shots, Peters had immersed himself in the vastness of the cosmos – galaxies, space travel, black holes, different forms of matter and energy. To Peters, space – the open vast expanse of infinity – had parallels with the limitless possibilities in jazz, improvisation, creativity, imagination, spirit.

During the course of our conversation, Steve Potts reflects on the passage of time and Clarence: “After the album was made, I’d run into Clarence occasionally, but not too much. However, the last time I saw him, I was just out walking one day, near my house, and I ran into him, by chance, and we talked. We hadn’t seen each other for several years. I invited him to a concert I was giving and he came by and we hung out. We said we’d get together again but we never did. I had heard he had passed.”

Upon hearing the news that Clarence was alive and well and had personally sanctioned this reissue, Steve was overjoyed. “Clarence is alive? No shit?! That’s fantastic. I had heard that he was gone, someone told me a while ago. Oh, that’s great, man, you’ve made my day! Cos that’s one of the reasons that I’d never given permission to reissue that album. Over the years, I’ve had several companies ask me to give my ok to reproduce the record, and I always said ‘no’, because something told me that Clarence was not gone and, of course, it was not my right to give my permission, even if he is gone. That’s for him, or his family, not me. I’m very happy to hear that my musician’s intuition was right, that he had not gone over.”

As for the interest in reissuing obscure sessions from decades ago, including his own works, how does it feel?

“I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s something I learned very early in my professional life, that people are usually 20 or 30 years behind time. Steve Lacy told me that years ago, he said ‘Man, they won’t catch up to our shit until at least the next century’.”

Steve Lacy was certainly correct. There are certain artists who create within a time and place yet whose act of creation extends beyond its temporal limitations, waiting for a moment when it can be deciphered, understood, appreciated, felt. If indeed, they ever are? Maybe their creation will continue to by a mystery, an enigma, something that defies logic, judgement, or reason. Perhaps, like Clarence Peters’ himself, it can never be captured fully, will always remain just out of reach, too vast to be contained, part of the cosmic and perpetual forces that make up the Magnetic Atmosphere.

credits

released February 26, 2021

Personnel:
Clarence Peters - Drum
Patrick Gauthier - Piano
Jean-Jacques Avenel - Bass
Steve Potts - Sax

Thanks go to:
Clarence Peters and Tony Higgins for Liner Notes.

Manufactured By – Eating Standing Publishing
Copyright (c) – Eating Standing Publishing

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