New York Art Quartet: "Old Stuff"

Despite their involvement in the seminal 1964 October Revolution in Jazz concert series and a few high profile gigs in Europe the following year, the short-lived New York Art Quartet remains under-sung but legendary, with only two official studio recordings to its name—the self-titled 1964 ESP debut and Mohawk (Fontana, 1965). For years the only other commercially available document of the group was an unauthorized release of live radio broadcasts made in Hilversum, Netherlands in 1965, issued as Roswell Rudd by the America label. Featuring the same touring line-up as the Hilversum session, Old Stuff helps reinforce the quartet's place in history as a cutting-edge ensemble. Culled from two live radio broadcasts made the same year as the Hilversum date, this collection presents the quartet in front of an enthusiastic audience, capturing their freewheeling interplay with more presence and sonic clarity than the America recording.