Vertical Invaders

June '78 is when I first met Leroy Jenkins. A glorious time, compared to nowadays, when this town (Milan) was still active and stimulating for a young jazz fan as I was, and many extraordinary musicians used to come by to both play and record - this last opportunity mainly given to the foreseeing view of Black Saint owner/producer Giovanni Bonandrini. I was totally mad about music, and with no internet or quick time info we had to take our time, go see things, read about what we were into and buy records, to just know what was goin' on. Cool. There I go, a recording studio where I met for the first time my teacher, mentor and friend Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis and Leroy . The air was full of of Stravinskij - Anthony D. playing excerpts from "The Firebird Suite" -soon to be followed by a Monk blues, the juxtapposition of the two becoming a guideline thought in the years to come. Later that Summer, August the 15th, I was in N.Y., still in recording studio with Andrew and Leroy, this time together with George Lewis and Richard Teitelbaum. Night-time session, small studio in Christopher Street, no air conditioning, good luck.
Many years after, those sounds and images still come to mind very vividly, and listening to the music we've recorded here you may guess how much they inspired my visions. Thank you forever, Mr. L.J. (Tiziano Tononi)