See moreTerje Rypdal was the electric guitar innovator in the 1970s. This box set in ECM's Old & New Masters Series collects his two-LP Odyssey album - heard on CD in its entirety for the first time, including the much-requested and epically-rocking "Rolling Stone" - and Unfinished Highballs, a recently unearthed 1976 radio recording that documents the Norwegian guitarist's work for his Odyssey quartet and the Swedish Radio Jazz Group.
The complete Odyssey may address a longstanding demand from the great guitarist's many followers, but Unfinished Highballs will surprise even Rypdal's most committed fans. It reveals that not only were many of the markers which would come to define his career already in place, but the intrepid guitarist was already searching for ways to include, rather than exclude, in his approach to composition and performance.
Even that major part of the much-praised, award-winning 1975 Odyssey album that was previously available on CD has been out of the catalogue for some time, so this combination of influential recordings and the significant revelations of Unfinished Highballs makes this new box highly attractive.
"Even when the dynamics are extreme, Rypdal's sophistication is evident. There are long passages on 'Midnite', 'Adagio' and 'Farewell' which might be offcuts from a forgotten Miles Davis date...The harmonics are entirely his own and very elusive, which is why this record, and others of the time, manage to sound fresh even now." - The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of Jazz in the 1001 Best Albums
Personnel: Terje Rypdal (electric guitar, synthesizer, soprano saxophone), Torbjørn Sunde (trombone), Brynjulf Blix (organ, synthesizer, electric piano), Sveinung Hovensjø (bass guitar), Svein Christiansen (drums), Disc 3 only: Swedish Radio Jazz Group, Georg Riedel and Terje Rypdal (directors)