We’re extremely happy to be releasing Richard “Dickie” Landry’s Fifteen Saxophones this April, making it available again for the first time in over 30 years. Recorded in 1974, Landry’s album covers everything from pure sonic drone explorations to potent, steadfastly individualist free saxophone playing. As he put it in conversation with Clifford Allen, the author of our re-issue’s liner notes, Fifteen Saxophones was about taking the saxophone as far as he could take it, a tribute to the instrument itself. Landry grew up as a young artist under the inspiration of Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed (1955), knowing that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted as an artist. So what you get with this album is a mixture of his exposure to seeing Charlie Parker and John Coltrane live and devouring jazz records, studying flute with Toscanini’s principle flute player Arthur Lora, helping to form the Philip Glass Ensemble and performing five hour concerts with them, as well as in his own ensembles during all-night jams at 112 Greene St. and Leo Castelli Gallery.
The recordings here are special, too, for their use of intricate Revox tape delay. Landry being an extremely social player, and personality, it’s no wonder that he loves the rich interaction of the saxophone through Revox tape delay. The first two pieces of the album (“Fifteen Saxophones” and “Alto Flute Quad Delay”) feature him overdubbing himself, while the side-long closing piece “Kitchen Solos” exhibits him using this method live at The Kitchen. It turns out to be one of the heaviest, most breathtaking solo sax pieces out there, and – as others have begun to note – had Landry been blowing like this regularly in the free jazz scene instead of hanging around the galleries with Philip Glass, Richard Serra and other artists, he’d certainly have been a bigger name in the scene. But that wouldn’t have been Dickie, and it’s exactly that pigeon-hole-avoiding characteristic that makes his record so special.
This release is special to Unseen Worlds, as well, because it’s our first vinyl record. We decided to do it right and cut the vinyl using DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) and packaged it in a heavy-duty, tip-on cardboard sleeve.
