Jeanne Lee & TTT – Don't Freeze Yourself To Death Over There In Those Mountains

Label: Not On Label – none
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition
Country: Germany
Released: 1984
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Wonderfully meandering free jazz improvs from the esteemed American artist / composer / poet Jeanne Lee and German trio TTT led by painter / sculptor A.R Penck.  Mind-blowing design.  *** just a few unplayed deadstock copies ***

Artists making records, musicians making art.  It’s all the same in the end.  Penck’s distinctive, instantly recognisable neo-expressionist painting style taps deep into our love for primitive / outsider art / Art Brut, so it’d be impossible not to pick this one out.  Whilst musically some of Penck’s sprawling discography feels like just another excuse to make a new cover, this collaboration with the excellent Jeanne Lee (responsible for that incredible 1975 LP Conspiracy) is not just a pretty sleeve. 

It’s an exercise of restraint and tension.  Plump upright bass notes keep the piece moving forward, joined soft drum brushes and sauntering alto sax notes, but it’s Lee’s ad-libbed vocals that lift everything to a higher plane.  Resembling Maggie Nichols or Meredith Monk albeit with more soul, she interjects in the spaces and manages the intensity of the piece, thankfully never letting it boil over into a dissonant free-for-all.  Don’t freeze yourself to death over there in those mountains!  What a stunner??!?  (Mint / New - unplayed deadstock - some copies have very slight storage warp but doesn’t affect playback).

Tracklist
A        Don't Freeze Yourself To Death Over There In Those Mountains
B        Sorry, Brother