SUNDAY JAZZ
DON PULLEN
Don Pullen - Mosaic Select 13 [2005] (3 x CDs)
This Mosaic Select set captures Don Pullen at a point where his ideas were expanding in every direction. Across three discs, the box presents music recorded between 1986 and 1990, a period when Pullen was moving from the fire of the Don Pullen–George Adams Quartet into new configurations that allowed him to explore colour, rhythm and emotional weight with greater freedom. The result is a portrait of a pianist whose imagination never settled, always reaching for fresh combinations of intensity and lyricism.
The first disc returns to the final years of the Pullen–Adams Quartet, a group whose chemistry was built on contrast: Adams’ raw, vocal tenor lines against Pullen’s sharp, percussive piano attack. These sessions, recorded at RCA Studios, show a band comfortable with long forms and sudden turns. Blues figures appear, dissolve and re-emerge. Ballads stretch into open space. Fast pieces carry a sense of risk. The music feels lived-in, shaped by musicians who trusted each other enough to push without hesitation.
The second disc marks a shift. With New Beginnings, Pullen steps into a trio with Gary Peacock and Tony Williams, two players whose presence changes the atmosphere immediately. The writing becomes more spacious, the phrasing more deliberate. Pullen’s touch, often associated with explosive runs and sharp clusters, reveals a quieter side, reflective, melodic, almost tender. Yet the intensity remains, now channelled through structure rather than sheer force. It is music that listens as much as it speaks.
The final disc, Random Thoughts, presents Pullen’s working trio with James Genus and Lewis Nash. These sessions show a pianist fully in command of his language. The pieces move with clarity, shaped by rhythmic ideas that shift under the surface. There is humour, there is grit, and there is a sense of narrative that unfolds without hurry. Pullen’s compositions here feel like stories told through contrast: bright against dark, dense against open, motion against stillness.
Mosaic Select 13 preserves a crucial chapter in Don Pullen’s journey. It documents a musician who refused to repeat himself, who treated each ensemble as a new canvas, and who carried emotional honesty into every performance. The set stands as a reminder of how broad Pullen’s vision was, fearless, inventive and always searching for the next shape the music could take. (B)
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Track lists
CD1
01 Don Pullen - Mr. Smoothie 6:09
02 Don Pullen - Just Foolin' Around 6:22
03 Don Pullen - Song From The Old Country 8:15
04 Don Pullen - We've Been Here All The Time 9:11
05 Don Pullen - A Time for Sobriety 9:44
06 Don Pullen - The Necessary Blues (Or, Thank You Very Much, Mr. Monk) 13:36
07 Don Pullen - Sun Watchers 5:46
08 Don Pullen - Serenade to Sariah 7:36
09 Don Pullen - 1529 Gunn Street (For Johnny Holloway) 6:14
CD2
01 Don Pullen - Warm Up 9:53
02 Don Pullen - Sing Me A Song Everlasting 10:31
03 Don Pullen - Another Reason to Celebrate 8:47
04 Don Pullen - Jana's Delight 5:58
05 Don Pullen - Once Upon A Time 5:53
06 Don Pullen - Warriors 6:51
07 Don Pullen - New Beginnings 6:22
08 Don Pullen - At The Cafe Centrale 6:56
09 Don Pullen - Reap The Whirlwind 7:02
CD3
01 Don Pullen - Andre's Ups and Downs 5:23
02 Don Pullen - Random Thoughts 9:10
03 Don Pullen - Indio Gitano 9:43
04 Don Pullen - The Dancer (For Diane McIntyre) 6:01
05 Don Pullen - Endangered Species-African American Youth 7:42
06 Don Pullen - 626 Fairfax 6:44
07 Don Pullen - Ode to Life (For Maurice Quesnell) 8:41
08 Don Pullen - Silence = Death 10:17
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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