Rare 1970s recordings from St. Louis avant-garde musicians available as free MP3s

Although many of the musicians associated with St. Louis' Black Artists' Group in the late 1960s and early 1970s have gone on to have substantial recording careers, there were relatively few recordings made at the time of BAG, its successors, and related groups, and most of those original LPs are now long out of print. Compared to, say, musicians from Chicago's AACM, or some of their more well-known peers from the Gateway City, St. Louis players such as Floyd LeFlore and Luther Thomas (pictured) have not been extensively documented.

However, you can now hear four rare recordings of St. Louis avant-garde jazz musicians, none of which are currently available on CD, thanks to a gentleman named James Benjamin, who lives in Oklahoma and has a music sharing blog called Nothing Is. Compared to some, he may not be a particularly prolific blogger, but the high quality of his entries more than makes up for it. Benjamin's got some very interesting stuff available in addition to the St. Louis-related material, and the entire archives are worth a look. That said, anyone who's interested in St. Louis jazz from the 1970s and doesn't already have these recordings likely will want to grab them up first thing:

Human Arts Ensemble - Whisper of Dharma: Recorded October 6, 1972 in St. Louis, MO, featuring Charles Bobo Shaw (drums, small instruments), Joseph Bowie (trombone, congas, small instruments), Oliver Lake (tenor sax, radong, flute, small instruments), James Marshall (alto sax, radong, wooden flutes), J.D. Parran (tenor and sopranos saxes, bass clarinet, small instruments), Floyd Leflore (trumpet, small instruments), Gene Lake (drums, small instruments) and Baikida E.J. Carroll (gong, small instruments). Tracks are "Whisper of Dharma" and "A World New".

Human Arts Ensemble - Under the Sun: Recorded July, 1973, featuring Lester Bowie (trumpet), Marty Ehrlich (alto sax, multi instruments, tin flute), Oliver Lake (flute, alto and soprano sax ), Carol Marshall (vocals, multi instruments), James Marshall (alto sax, multi instruments, wood flute, pungi), J.D. Parran (flute, harmonica, bass clarinet, piccolo, soprano sax, multi instruments), Victor Reef (trombone), Charles Bobo Shaw (drums) and Butch Smith (bass). Tracks are "Lover's Desire" and "Hazrat, the Sufi".

Charles Bobo Shaw & Lester Bowie - Bugle Boy Bop: Recorded live at Studio Rivbea in New York City on February 5, 1977, featuring Shaw on drums and Bowie on trumpet. Tracks are "Bugle Boy Bop," "Go Bo," "Cootie's Caravan Fan," "Latin Recovery," "The Girth Of The Cool," "Chop'n Rock," and "Finito, Benito".

Saint Louis Creative Ensemble - I Can't Figure Out (Whatcha Doin' to Me): Recorded March 3, 1979 in Paris, featuring Luther Thomas (alto sax), Joseph Bowie (trombone), Rasul Siddik (trumpet), Darrell Mixon (bass) and Charles Bobo Shaw (drums). Tracks are "Sold Not Told," "Leave Me, Savior Me," "I Can't Figure Out (Whatcha Doin' To Me)," "M.U.L.E.," ".38 Special," and "Five o'Clock Whistle "

Nothing Is has made these albums available as .zip files, downloadable from RapidShare, a file storage service whose free downloads require you to go through a few pages clicking radio buttons, waiting for download tickets and suchlike. It's a little bit of a hassle, but really, it seems curmudgeonly to complain - it's amazing just to have these recordings available, and James Benjamin certainly deserves a big thanks from fans of this music for his efforts.