Burton Greene (June 14, 1937 - June 28, 2021)

Burton Greene

(June 14, 1937 – June 28, 2021)

Burton Greene, who forged a language for free improvisation on piano in the 1960s, later bringing an avant-garde sensibility to klezmer music, died on Monday. He was 84.

ESP-Disk, which released his groundbreaking 1966 debut, Burton Greene Quartet, announced his death on social media without giving a cause. Greene had been living in Amsterdam, mainly on a houseboat, for more than 50 years — and while he created new music at a steady clip, he made only occasional return visits to the United States.

A creative ecstatic with a proud resistance to any reflexive gesture, Greene was a key figure in the early articulation of free jazz, with collaborators including Archie Shepp and Marion Brown. With bassist Alan Silva, Greene created the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble — a project whose mission was perfectly stated in the name — in the early '60s. “It was risky,” Greene recalled in a 2003 interview with Dan Warburton. “We called it a grope group — when we hit it was dynamite, when we didn’t it was groping. We had to be really in the right mood for it to happen.”

The countercultural wind was blowing in the right direction, and Greene found himself navigating a few overlapping scenes. In 1964 he joined the Jazz Composers Guild, founded by trumpeter Bill Dixon. The organization’s membership included Greene’s fellow piano firebrands Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, along with Shepp, trombonist Roswell Rudd, and composer-bandleader-keyboardists Sun Ra and Carla Bley.

Greene’s energetic attack and omnidirectional flow are fully apparent on Burton Greene Quartet, which featured Marion Brown on alto saxophone, Henry Grimes on bass, and either Dave Grant or Tom Price on drums. The opening track, “Cluster Quartet,” opens with a loose-swinging premise but quickly opens up to abstract expressionism, with Greene leading the charge. By two minutes in, he is reaching into the piano to scrape and strum the strings — an extended technique he referred to as “piano harp,” and one which he pioneered in the idiom.

Greene acknowledged that Henry Cowell and John Cage had already set a precedent for piano preparation and manual interaction with the strings. But he didn’t hesitate to plant a flag. “I was the first one in free jazz to play inside the piano,” he told Warburton. “It was all random, I wanted to keep it spontaneous. I would put golf balls in there, I used to scrape the strings with the tuning hammer. I also had a garbage can cover that I found in an alley behind a delicatessen in Houston Street.”

For a celebrated iteration of Greene’s “piano harp” technique, look to another ESP-Disk release: a 1966 album by Patty Waters, simply titled Sings. On a version of the folk ballad “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” obviously inspired by Nina Simone, Waters enacts a haunted deconstruction — crucially abetted by Greene, whose playing stirs with careful precision even as it communicates a form of artlessness.

“The New Thing,” as it was branded at the time, came with a heightened race consciousness, and as a white musician, Greene drew the fire of at least one major detractor. Amiri Baraka (then still writing as LeRoi Jones) wrote an essay titled “The Burton Greene Affair,” and included it in his landmark book Black Music.

Setting the scene — a performance in Newark, N.J. with Pharoah Sanders and Marion Brown — Baraka disparages Greene as “a white, super-hip (MoDErN) pianist” on the verge of critical overvaluation by the jazz establishment. In the face of Brown and Sanders’ spirit music, argues Baraka, Greene deployed histrionics, “pushed by forces he could not use or properly assimilate.”

As a willful provocation that, like a case before the Supreme Court, invites expansive interpretation — reductively, that Black music can only be played authentically by Black musicians — “The Burton Greene Affair” has had a long and disputatious legacy. The eminent cultural theorist Fred Moten laid the essay on the examining table with his extended scholarly work In the Break: The Aesthetics Of The Black Radical Tradition, published in 2003. (“‘The Burton Greene Affair’ bears a dialectical, dialectal stammer,” Moten suggests. “It has a divided articulacy that recalibrates the rhythmic marking of racial difference.”)

Greene endured the criticism, though it must have played some role in his decision to decamp to Europe. His lone album on a major label — Presenting Burton Greene, with Byard Lancaster on alto saxophone and trumpet, Steve Tintweiss on bass and Shelly Rusten on drums — was produced by John Hammond for Columbia Records, and released in 1968. That same year saw the publication of Black Music. By the end of ’69, Greene had become an expatriate; Presenting Burton Greene was buried by the label and remains out of print. (According to Greene, it was the first appearance by a Moog synthesizer on a jazz album. He'd met its inventor, Robert Moog, in '63.)

Burton Greene was born in Chicago on June 14, 1937. He studied classical music with an Austrian piano teacher, Isadore Buchalter, at the Fine Arts Academy; he later connected with pianist-arranger Dick Marx, learning jazz harmony and theory.

As a teenager Greene was enamored of bebop, doing his best to emulate Bud Powell. As he began to circulate on the Chicago scene, he realized that was a dead end. “The lesson, especially from black musicians in Chicago, was ‘Be yourself — don’t copy nobody,’” he recalled in 2017, in an interview with Nashville Scene. “They were really irate. They didn’t care how many notes you played or how correct you were in the form or whatever. They really wanted you to be personal.”

That compulsion, ironically enough, drove Greene from Chicago to New York City, where he met Silva within his first six months. The only publicly available recording of their Free Form Improvisation Ensemble was made in 1964, largely at a Jazz Composers Guide concert at Judson Hall; it didn’t see release in any form until Cadence issued it on CD in the late ‘90s.

Greene released some 100 albums, many of them largely unheralded. But he cultivated a following with Klez-Edge, otherwise known as Klezmokum — a project that fused Jewish klezmer with the liberties of free jazz. He liked to point out that his work in this area stood alongside more famous efforts by Frank London (Klezmatics) and John Zorn (Masada). In 2008, Klez-Edge released an album on Zorn’s Tzadik label: Ancestors, Mindreles, Nagila Monsters, featuring a regular collaborator, clarinetist Perry Robinson.

A disciple of Indian religious teacher Sri Swami Satchidananda for over 40 years, Greene brought spirituality into his practice, adopting the name Narada Burton Greene.

In recent years, Greene worked extensively with German-born singer Silke Röllig, among others. And he made several productive returns to his country of origin, including a 2017 tour that stopped in Newburgh, NY (for an Elysium Furnace Works concert at Atlas) and in Cambridge, Mass. (at the Lily Pad). The latter of these was a trio performance with Damon Smith on bass and Ra Kalam Bob Moses on drums, and it yielded an album, Life’s Intense Mystery, released two years later on Astral Spirits.

A separate tour in 2019 included a performance with Patty Waters, bassist Adam Lane and drummer Igal Foni, on the October Revolution festival in Philadelphia. The deep bond between Greene and Waters was evident throughout the performance, even (or especially) when everything about the performance seemed to be up for negotiation.

Greene also kept productive over the last year, in a cloistered way. “During the relative isolation caused by the corona I have been fortunate to record many new works with a fine Yamaha grand piano on my houseboat in Amsterdam,” reads a note on his website.

The most recent of those is an album titled For Burty — 10 Etudes, featuring solo piano on all but three tracks, which are duos with flutist Tilo Baumheier. A separate concert DVD, Live at the Center for New Music, is scheduled for released in October.

Burton Greene Quartet - 1966 - Burton Greene Quartet

01. Cluster Quartet 12:08

02. Ballade II 10:34

03. Bloom In The Commune 8:04

04. Taking It Out Of The Ground 13:02

Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown

Bass – Henry Grimes

Tenor Saxophone – Frank Smith

Piano, Percussion – Burton Greene

Percussion – Tom Price

Percussion – Dave Grant

Recorded in January 1966. 

Greene rose to popularity during the 1960s on New York's free jazz scene, gigging with well-known musicians which included Alan Silva and Marion Brown, among a host of others. With Alan Silva he formed the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble in 1963.[1] He joined Bill Dixon's and Cecil Taylor's Jazz Composers Guild in 1964, and also played with a number of other artists, including Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Byard Lancaster, Sam Rivers, Patty Waters, and others. During this time, he recorded two albums under his own name for ESP-Disk.

He moved to Europe in 1969, first to Paris. Since then he has been living in Amsterdam and played with such Dutch musicians as Maarten Altena and Willem Breuker. During the late 1980s he began exploring the Klezmer tradition in his groups Klezmokum (along with Perry Robinson), Klez-thetics, and a more recent group called Klez-Edge with vocalist Marek Balata. Klez-Edge has a recent recording Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters (2008) out on John Zorn's Tzadik label. A duet with Perry Robinson, also on the Tzadik label, Two Voices in the Desert was released in January 2009.

"Although over 40 years have passed since the release of this album for ESP-Disk in 1966, Chicago-born pianist / composer Burton Greene still considers it to be one of his best recordings. All compositions are written by Greene and feature Marion Brown on alto sax, Henry Grimes on bass, Dave Grant and Tom Price on percussion and Frank Smith on tenor sax. Greene made his way to New York City in 1962 just as the free jazz movement was beginning to gain momentum. The following year he and bassist Alan Silva formed the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble, often considered the first spontaneous composition group. Greene has remained committed to music over the past four decades, most recently exploring his Eastern European Jewish roots with various klezmer-jazz projects.." - Forced Exposure

A typical ESP blowout, this CD reissue has the only recording of tenor saxophonist Frank Smith (who sounds quite intense during his lone appearance on "Taking It Out of the Ground") and features strong playing from pianist Burton Greene, long-lost bassist Henry Grimes, and either Dave Grant or Tom Price on drums. However, this set's main value is the improvising of altoist Marion Brown, who manages to sound both lyrical and very exploratory on the four Greene originals. Invigorating music from the free-jazz era.

Burton Greene Trio - 1967 - On Tour

01. Bloom In The Commune 9:50

02. Ascent 11:25

03. Tree Theme 12:35

04. Transcendence 12:42

Recorded April 1966 at Syracuse University, Buffalo, and Cornell, Ithaca.

Bass – Steve Tintweiss

Percussion – Shelly Rusten

Piano, Harp – Burton Greene

Press Quotes: 

"Pianist Burton Greene ('37) is a major figure in the free jazz revolution of '60s New York." –Portland Monthly 

"Pretty far out work from pianist Burton Greene...Steve Tintweiss on bass and Shelly Rusten on drums…give Burton plenty of space to stretch out in an open-ended, freely improvised sort of way. There's a very spacious, dynamic style to the music – with oblique segments interspersed with more wide open ones, and occasional crescendos with wide sheets of sound." – DustyGroove.com

Lost classic, recorded "live" during ESP's 1966 New York State College Tour. The "piano harp" credit is Greene's way of noting that he plays inside the piano, directly on the strings – the first jazz pianist to do so on record, taking a page from avant-gardist Henry Cowell's book. In his notes to the original LP, included complete in this reissue, Greene writes, "The tour found people largely unexposed to this music. They were often shaken up. Some were deeply moved. Those who came for a total body and soul experience were rewarded with the vibrations. The people who constantly needed the theoretical approach or 'road maps' were not.... Like the time a boat load of people left the hall at a lecture following a performance at Fredonia State Teacher's College. We had the audacity to tell people that not only was our approach to music valid but that often the results were as musically complex and often more so than, let's say Beethoven. Throughout the tour we continued to denigrate the idea of the 'sacred cow' and tried to encourage people to learn to do their own thing rather than to follow us blindly and mimic our techniques etc.

Burton Greene Ensemble - 1969 - Aquariana

01. Aquarius Suite 19:24

a) Mystery

b) Eastern

c) Piano Trio

d) Interpretation

e) Basses Painters

f) Aquariana

02. From "Out Of Bartok" 5:10

03. Two-One-Two Vibrations 19:20

Recorded June 9, 1969 - Studio Saravah - Paris

Alto Saxophone – Arthur Jones

Bass – Beb Guerin

Bass – Dieter Gewissler

Drums – Claude Delcloo

Piano – Burton Greene

Trumpet – Jacques Coursil 

Burton Greene - 1968 - Presenting Burton Greene

01. Ballad In B Minor 6:40

02. Slurp! 7:37

03. Nirvana Vibrations 8:55

04. Lebanese Turn-Around 3:45

05. Eastern Folk Song 6:30

06. Voice Of The Silences 11:39

All tracks recorded in New York City. Recording dates: 

A1, A3, B3: 4.17.68 

A2: 3.26.68 

B1: 3.26.68 & 9.11.68 

B2: 9.11.68 & 4.17.68

Byard Lancaster - Alto Sax, Trumpet

Steve Tintweiss - Bass

Shelly Rusten - Percussion

Burton Greene - Piano, Keyboards

Burton Greene figured prominently in New York's free jazz movement of the '60s, performing with such major figures as Marion Brown, Sam Rivers, Gato Barbieri, and Alan Silva. As a child, Greene studied classical music at the Fine Arts Academy in Chicago; from 1956-1958 he studied jazz with Dick Marx. Greene moved to New York in the early '60s, as the city's free jazz movement was gathering momentum. There, he formed the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble with Silva in 1963 -- reputedly one of the first groups devoted to playing a wholly improvised music. In 1964, he joined the Jazz Composer's Guild. During the mid-'60s, he recorded for the ESP-Disk label as a leader, before moving to the Netherlands in 1969. Greene became something of a journeyman, performing all over Europe while maintaining a residence on a houseboat in Amsterdam. He recorded intermittently in the '70s and '80s. Greene became one of the few free jazz musicians to experiment with synthesizers. He's played solo and led various bands of unusual instrumentation; a recent project is a klezmer group called Klez-Jazz, which features clarinetist Perry Robinson. During the '90s, Greene recorded more frequently in the U.S., notably for the Cadence Jazz and C.I.M.P. labels. Greene's autobiography is entitled Memoirs of a Musical "Pesty Mystic" -- or -- From the Ashcan to the Ashram and Back Again, published by Cadence Jazz Books.

Certainly one of the more adventurous titles in the Columbia catalog, Presenting Burton Greene is a complex and fiery affair. Greene is teamed with bassist Steve Tintweiss, percussionist Shelly Rusten, and Byard Lancaster on both trumpet and alto saxophone. Lancaster is particularly hot and, when he isn't plowing through scales at 90 miles per hour, he employs a wide, Ayler-esque vibrato. Of particular interest may be Greene's use of electronics to augment his usual instrument of choice. The result could perhaps be described as Morton Subotnick-meets-Cecil Taylor as rapid, oscillating tones match and complement Greene's upper register runs on the (acoustic) piano. Free improvisation reigns on this date although most numbers begin and end with a theme of some sort or another. Many of these themes are quite catchy and, in a sense, help counter some of the more intense and somber improvisations with a touch of warmth and humor. "Slurp!," for example, gets things off the ground with a dissonant yet bouncing and playful head before Lancaster lets loose on alto, prompting the captain to leave the seat belt sign on until the turbulence subsides.

Burton Greene - 1970 - Celesphere

01. Prins Hendrik Garden 17:10

02. Astral Projection 9:00

03. Lyric For Brother John 15:00

Bass – Maarten Van Regteren Altena

Piano, Electric Piano, Percussion – Burton Greene

Recorded November 1, 1970

This is a pretty obscure one with one of my dutch musical heroes, I found years ago in a flea market when I just moved to Amsterdam and everybody was still ditching their LP for little money. I love the dreamy feeling of the first track. I think it was around this time that he also recorded with Gong... or do I have it wrong? All info welcome!

Burton Greene - 1971 - Mountains

01. Mountains.... Expression 1 22:15

a) I Prologue

b) II Ascent

c) III Descent

d) IV Aftermath

02. Now Music 20:04

Flute, Cello – Tom Moore

Piano – Burton Greene

Deep avantgarde, rare Dutch free jazz LP from 1971. A very intriguing album

Burton Greene / Daoud Amin - 1973 - Trees

01. Suite: Variations On Darbari Kanada In Three Movements (1973) 25:55

02. Woodstock Vibrations (1967) 11:38

03. Vishnu (1972) 13:09

Burton Greene - Piano, Percussion

Daoud Amin - Percussion [Bongos]

 Recorded live at the Doelen Alternative Jazz Festival, June 1973, Rotterdam (1)

 and Central Museum Utrecht, September 1973 (2, 3)

New Age Jazz Chorale - 1976 - Light 

01. Manifesto For Angels 30:33

02. Tarot 30:44

Alto Vocals – Andrea Goodzeit (tracks: B), Wilma Bos (tracks: A)

Bass – Christian Landry (tracks: B)

Bass Vocals – Hans Van Winsen

Cello – Ernst Reijseger

Electric Bass – Christian Landry

Flute – Gerrit Jan Herring (tracks: B), Wally Shortz

Percussion – David Amin

Piano – Burton Greene

Saxophone – Harvey Wainapel (tracks: B), Sean Bergin (tracks: A)

Soprano Vocals – Cornelia Van Der Horst (tracks: B), Linda Haslach (tracks: A)

Trumpet – Charles Green (tracks: A), Frank Grasso (tracks: B)

Viola – Maurice Horsthuis (tracks: B)

Violin – Martin Koeman (tracks: B)

Vocals – Marga Arosa, Phil Arosa

"Manifesto For Angels" recorded June 1976

"Tarot" recorded June 1975

music Burton Greene, poetry Vincent Gaeta

Narada Burton Greene: Composer, Pianist, Arranger, Author

Originally from Chicago, he began his long career of many recordings and performances in New York´s legendary jazz scene of the 1960’s. He and Bassist Alan Silva contributed to the beginnings of free jazz in New York with the formation of their Free Form Improvisation Ensemble in 1963. He also co- founded the East West Trio with Indian sitarist Jamaluddin Bhartiya and percussionist Daoud Amin in 1973, one of the first World Music groups (and long before they called it that.) Since that time he has travelled all over Europe and the USA with performances and recordings of his compositions and arrangements in many different types of music styles and ensembles. As Burton says it: “Music is or should be universal, without limits.. Borders eventually become boring.. they should be transcended. I like all kinds of music as long as it´s not dull or repetitious or superficial.. as long as it´s creative and from the heart.” His 14 piece New Age Jazz Chorale (1975-78) did concerts and recordings in Europe, years before most other groups were termed as “New Age”. In the last 26 years he’s been busy with his klezmer, Sephardic, Balkan, jazz ensembles Klezmokum and Klez-Edge, and various jazz solo, trio or quartet combinations. He also has a solo orchestral electronics program, teaches jazz, world music workshops, and lectures. His autobiographical book written over 20 years: “Memoirs of A Musical Pesty-Mystic” appeared in print in 2001 (Cadence Jazz Books). His solo piano recording for Drimala Records: “Live At Grasland” was voted one of the top 10 CD releases in All About Jazz (2005). His groups in recent years based in New York and recorded on CIMP Records include a duet with bassist Mark Dresser, a quartet with trumpeter Roy Campbell, Lou Grassi, and Adam Lane. Concerts and recordings also on the CIMP label are his trio with Ed and George Schuller on bass and drums, and a quintet with the Schuller brothers, Russ Nolan on saxes and flute, Paul Smoker on trumpet. His solo piano CD “Retrospective 1961– 2005 came out in January, 2007 on the CIMP label. Burton’s group, a quintet: Klez-Edge had a CD Release in May, 2008: “Ancestors, Mindreles, NaGila Monsters” is on John Zorn’s Tzadik CD label in New York. Also Released on the Tzadik label in June, 2009 is the intimate duo CD: “Two Voices in the Desert” with Burton’s long time colleague and Klezmokum clarinetist Perry Robinson. A release (September, 2009) on Latham Records: “Groder & Greene”, spontaneous improvisations with Brian Groder, Rob Brown, Adam Lane, Ray Sage, and Burton. Porter Records brought out a rare recording: Burton Greene Quartet: “Live at the Woodstock Playhouse 1965” with Marion Brown, Rashied Ali, Reggie Johnson (February 2010). After that came 3 releases: Burton’s klezmer jazz group Klezmokum: “Where We Come From,. Where We’re Going” on the Music & Words label: (Netherlands–2011), a solo piano CD of his latest compositions: “Live at Kerrytown House”, on NoBusiness Records (Lithuania), and a duo electronics CD “Parallel Worlds” with Burton’s long time colleague Alan Silva on Long Song Records (Italy). The last 2 CD’s came out in 2012. Burton’s solo piano concert program of his recent compositions was presented in the Spring of 2013 in a 12 concert tour in the States, and in Europe together with a film about his life and music “Moldavian Blues” by the English documentary film maker Malcolm Hart. Recent releases (2015) include “A 39 Year Reunion Celebration”, a duo with Laurence Cook on Drums, (Boston– Studio 234 label), and “Flower Stalk—Burton with Open Field String Trio”, (Cipsela label– Portugal). Burton hooked up with the fine Paris label Improvising Beings in 2015 for the duo CD release with Burton’s long time “spiritual co-composing partner” composer/vocalist Silke Röllig: “Space Is Still the Place”, and a quartet with Alan Silva, Chris Henderson, Abdelhaï Bennani recorded at a Sunside/Sunset concert in Paris. Klez-Edge has a recent CD out on Burton’s label Disk Respect: “The Struggle Can Be Enobling”. Burton’s most recent release is on Improvising Beings (May 2017), his recent music on a double CD: “Compendium 2016-2017” recorded at the Goethe Institute and Bim Huis in Amsterdam. Burton’s music is featured on more than 85 recordings: records and CD’s. This year he celebrates 56 years as a professional: presenting his music to the world.

Narada Burton Greene - 1978 - It's All One

01. Buddy's Blues             5:14 

02. It's All One... Fun       9:58 

03. In Your Own Sweet Way     5:14 

04. Django                    3:02 

05. Renaissance Variations    9:43 

06. Daoud                     6:45 

07. Hey, Little Mama!         4:48 

08. Sbruce                    9:43 

09. Trees Revisited          13:05 

10. March Sun                 7:15 

11. Nicolai Covaci            6:32 

12. Cycling Thru The Cycles   5:18 

Burton Greene - piano, percussion, recorder

Recorded in Rome, April 12, 1978 at Mama Dog Studio.

Narada Burton Greene - 1978 - The Past Is Also The Future

01. Pavanne Variations 6:50

02. Siep 7:37

03. Zero 5:00

04. Milestones 8:25

05. Cycling Thru The Cycles 9:20

06. Museums 4:45

07. Khalil 9:12

09. Would'n You 3:30

Recorded Nov. 14, 1978 at Studio des Champs Elysées, Paris, France.

Piano – Narada Burton Greene

The N.B.G. Trio - 1979 - Structures

01. Come Sunday 5:30

02. Indebop 18:57

03. Impulse 10:27

04. Nicolai Covaci Variations 14:30

Bass – Mark Miller

Drums – Rob Peters

Piano, Percussion, Voice, Bells [Bell] – Narada Burton Greene*

Tenor Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Keshavan Maslak

Recorded live at the 't Hoogt Theater, Utrecht, Holland, November 11, 1978

Burton Greene Quartet - 1980 - Lady Bug Dance

01. Renephanie 10:57

02. Sunny Monk 5:00

03. Embryonic Change 10:50

04. Sphyrinx 7:18

05. Biedronka Tanz (Lady Bug Dance) 10:57

06. Na-Calm (After The Strom) 5:32

Fred Leeflang - Alto Saxophone (5), Piccolo Flute (5), Flute (4), Soprano Saxophone (1, 4), Tenor Saxophone (1, 2, 3)

Mark Miller - Bass

Max Bolleman - Drums, Percussion

Burton Greene - Piano, Piano [Prepared], Percussion

Tracks A1, B2 and B3 recorded at VARA-studio's, Hilversum, Holland, April 2, 1980; 

track A3 recored in Zürich, September 23, 1980 during the Quartet's Swiss Tour; 

tracks A2 and B1 recorded at Studio Zeezicht, Haarlem, Holland, October 13, 1980. 

Greene Burton / Silva Alan - 1980 - The Ongoing Strings

101. Side A first set

102. Side B first set

201. Side A second set

202. Side B second set

No track titles given. 

Rec. live at the Bim Huis in Amsterdam 14 February 1980

Hat Hut Fifteen 2R15 - 2LP

Greene Burton, piano, prepared piano, percussion, voice on first set

Silva Alan, bass, cello, percussion, voice on second set.

Narada Burton Greene - 1983 - Zephyr 

01. Autumn Song

02. When You're In Front, Get OFF My Back

03. Karasar Zeybegi

04. Zephyr

Narada Burton Greene, harpsichord, piano, prepared piano, percussion, voice

"Zephyr" recorded at Odeon Theater, Amsterdam, for KRO Radio on December 12, 1982. 

"Karasar Zeybegi" recorded at NOS Studios, Hilversum, Holland, for KRO Radio on April 11, 2983. 

"Autumn Song" and "When You're in Front, Get OFF My Back" recorded at a concert in France in Autumn, 1983.

Though Narada Burton Greene's best-known work dates from when he was based in New York in the tempestuous heyday of free jazz, the pianist has recorded a sizeable body of work, and not just for piano, since he relocated to Amsterdam in the early '70s. Zephyr, released on Greene's own Button Nose imprint in 1983, gives a splendid overview of the musician's diverse activities of the period. On "Autumn Song," recorded live in France, he uses that European keyboard par excellence, the harpsichord, to create a predominantly modal tapestry that reveals a fondness for and understanding of everything from the Baroque repertoire to Bartók and Klezmer. Though harpsichords aren't normally associated with high-energy freakouts, Greene's subtle use of registration takes the venerable instrument to the limit. "When You're in Front, Get Off My Back," which Greene dedicates to "all the little people in this world," is one of the pianist's typically rambunctious exercises in offbeat stride and blues piano crossed with sporadic explosions of free jazz fisticuffs (plus some assorted explosions from percussion instruments placed inside and around the instrument). In a more lyrical vein, "Karasar Zeybegi," a traditional Turkish folk song -- Greene's interest in Turkish music dates back to his encounter with percussionist Okay Temiz in the early '70s and has remained strong ever since -- reveals the gentler side of Greene's pianism, from deceptively simple folk voicings to sparingly but effectively used touches of Debussyian impressionism. The album's title track, "Zephyr," is billed as a "wind suite in four movements." Wind as in element rather than instrumentation; emerging from the bowels of the piano (Greene was the first jazz pianist to play the innards of the instrument, it should be borne in mind), a haze of wind chimes and swept strings soon lead to some decidedly Romantic tremolo work (Liszt comes to mind). It's a perfect resumé of Greene's multidirectional activities, from disarmingly naïve folk-like material via wryly ironic (self) parody to all-out free-form explosion.

Burton Greene Quartet - 1984 - One World Music

01. Portugese Impressions 16:17

02. 63rd And Cottage Groove 7:07

03. Round Robbin' 6:13

04. Cokertme 11:25

05. When You're In Front Get Off My Back 4:40

Recorded januaary 18, 1984 in Holland

music by Burton Greene except track 4, traditional

Burton Greene - piano, percussions, voice

Fred Leeflang - sax soprano alto and tenor

Raoul van der Weide - bass

Clarence Becton - drums, percussions 

Burton Greene - 2010 - Live At The Woodstock Playhouse 1965

01. Tree Theme II 11:54

02. Cluster Quartet II 19:00

03. Like It Is 27:42

Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown

Bass – Reggie Johnson

Drums – Rashied Ali

Piano – Burton Greene

Recorded August 28, 1965.

Recently discovered live recording from 1965 of pianist Burton Greene performing with saxophonist Marion Brown, drummer Rashid Ali and bassist Reggie Johnson in Woodstock, New York. During the 60s there was a clear line drawn in the sand between the traditionalists of jazz and the new school of free jazz musicians, who took in the social situations around them and channeled it through their music. This quartet stood firmly on the side of free jazz with highly creative compositions mixed with a strong dose of improvisation. An important audio recording by some of the best known musicians in the field of free improvisation.

Out there but still together. Almost great sound quality of a dedicated band working it. The sound of Coltrane just after a '63 show contemplating his next move. Great for research and new writing projects.

Burton Greene - 2012 - Live at Kerrytown House

01. Freebop The 4th 4:44

02. Tree 7:43

03. Freebop The 1st 5:42

04. Prevailence 8:17

05. Greene Mansions 12:14

06. Little Song 5:28

07. Elevation 6:27

08. Freebop The 6th 6:06

09. Don't Forget The Poet 5:35

10. Get Through It 9:01

11. Space Is Still The Place 6:48

Recorded live at Kerrytown House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA on 17th October, 2010.

Piano – Narada Burton Greene

By Martin Schray

In an interview with Dan Warburton in 2003 the pianist Narada Burton Greene made it clear that the problem jazz has today is that there is “a whole generation of copycats” who try to “recreate the museum”. He continues telling a story about his early days when he was “strutting like a peacock” after a jam session because he thought “he nailed it”. Then a man from the audience approached and told him to his utter surprise that he should go home in order to practice because he sounded like Horace Silver and if someone wants to listen to Horace Silver he goes out watching the original. So Greene realized that he had to find his voice.

Listening to Live at the Kerrytown House, a solo piano performance recorded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA in 2010, you can immediately hear this original voice. 75-year-old Greene, who has become a legend in the meantime,  is able to draw on abundant musical resources ranging from his bebop beginnings in the 1950s to free jazz and classical music like Bela Bartok up to klezmer music and almost balladesque melodies reminding of Keith Jarrett’s solo performances.

The central piece of the album is “Freebop”, which is split in “4th”, “1st”, and “6th”, a track Burton Greene composed with German vocalist Silke Röllig. All three parts follow a similar structure. They start with a jumpy bebop theme, the left hand playing a walking bass. The tracks are polyrhythmic and they seem to climb up and down a musical ladder, getting finally out of hand. Sharp strong chords cut off what has remained of the melody before the piece returns to the main theme which is then immediately deconstructed again. This part of the album is shrill, sometimes spooky and harsh. It’s what the title of the track says – free bop.

But the album has another face as well – and this one is extraordinarily beautiful. Burton Greene once claimed that playing freely also includes playing cadenzas. “Tree”, for example,  is built around a central harmonic trunk from which lyrical and lush melodic lines rise like branches and twigs. They are sometimes jubilantly dissonant and incline to getting out of hand but in the end they always return to the trunk. This is where the album is pure joy.

Live at the Kerrytown House is splendidly recorded, the piano seems to echo in the performing space, something Clifford Allen discusses in his superb liner notes.

Does the world need yet another solo piano album? Well if they are all as enjoyable as this then there would be no doubt as to the answer. Live At Kerrytown House captures veteran pianist Narada Burton Greene in pristine clarity on a well-tuned instrument, for an intimate set from Ann Arbor in 2010. Even though Greene came of age with the likes of saxophonists Marion Brown, Gato Barbieri and Albert Ayler in the 1960s, this set belies his avant-garde credentials in favor of a series of lyrical and rhythmic interpretations which largely retain both tempo and tonal center. As a basis for his extemporizations, Greene selects numbers from a mixture of sources along with four originals. Even on those penned primarily by others, the pianist takes a composer credit in acknowledgement of his idiosyncratic arrangements and extensions.

Straight from the opening "Free-bop the 4th," one of four tunes jointly written by Greene and collaborator Silke Röllig, it is clear that bass and drums won't be missed. The pianist revels in the prancing theme, pausing only to interpolate witty asides. Later on the closely related "Free-bop the 1st," the American accentuates the stride with his rolling right hand, while keeping his fabulous inventions, including some percussive clatter, firmly within the metric framework. Now in his 70s Greene retains an impish impulse and sounds like he's having a ball. On "Greene Mansions," the longest track at 12-minutes, the American alternates passages of crisp urgency with a variety of timbral diversions, one time plink plonking in the treble extremes, later rumbling with chordal sustains, in a multifaceted extravaganza. Elsewhere he delights in a waltzing excursion inspired by the clenched beauty of Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi's "Don't Forget The Poet."

It's not until the closing two cuts, which sound like improvisations, that abstraction and dissonance, make their entrance. Even here, hammer note patterns are never far away, cooling to funereal tolling on "Get Through It," but transformed into extraneous tapping on wood, among the brittle clusters cushioned by silence, on the episodic "Space Is Still The Place." But the overwhelming impression Greene leaves is of melodicism and spirit, executed with an irrepressible personal swing.