Various – The Progressives

Title: Various Artists - The Progressives
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1973, Jazz Rock, Progressive Jazz, Progressive Rock, New York, New York 10/26
Matrix #: KG 31574
Condition: VG+ (LM) | Members: Various Artists (N/A)
Cultural Facts:

1. Before “Progressive” Had Rules: Columbia used The Progressives to put Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Soft Machine, Gentle Giant, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus and Keith Jarrett on the same double album. In 1973, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and progressive rock were still close enough together that a major label could present them as one adventurous movement.
2. Mingus With an Army: The compilation's “Jump Monk” comes from Charles Mingus' massive 1972 Lincoln Center concert, where his orchestra included players like Gene Ammons, James Moody, Gerry Mulligan and Randy Weston. Bill Cosby even appeared as an announcer and vocalist at the event, making it one of Mingus' strangest large-scale concerts.
3. Electronic Pioneer in the Mix: Wendy Carlos appears with “Country Lane,” only a few years after Switched-On Bach had turned the Moog synthesizer into an unlikely mainstream success. Her presence alongside electric jazz groups and experimental rock bands shows how radically electronic music was being folded into the idea of “progressive” music by the early 1970s.