Pieces Of Eight: Live At UCLA

by Rob TheakstonRecorded live at UCLA in 1967, this archival release is seeing the light of day repackaged and remastered nearly four decades after its initial performance. Pieces of Eight was assembled only once for these recordings, with Don Ellis offering up a two-disc set of frenzied but enjoyable performances. The highlights are no doubt Ellis' fascination with difficult rhythmic combinations and manic fluctuations of odd time signatures and his band, surprisingly, performs most of the material with great fluidity. There's also a surprising amount of microtonality from the players as well. Fans of Ellis' work will no doubt revel in these compositions and what is essentially a "new" recording from a truly groundbreaking composer.