The Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet Never Let It End 180g LP

"The freest Mangelsdorff there ever was," wrote Joachim Ernst Berendt in 1970, introducing Albert Mangelsdorff's LP Never Let It End. That sense of freedom, an unbridled joy in playing, gave the album its name. Today, the link between jazz and freedom feels almost self-evident. Back then, it was still a revelation.

By 1970, the Mangelsdorff Band, now a quartet with Heinz Sauer on saxophone, Günter Lenz on bass, Ralf Hübner on drums, and Mangelsdorff on trombone, had fully embraced free playing and collective improvisation. Mangelsdorff himself called Never Let It End "a milestone, a turning point," the culmination of a concept forged in countless live performances. The night before the recording at Frankfurt's Walldorf Studio, the quartet electrified the Frankfurt Jazz Festival.

From the record's title track, a Spanish waltz dedicated to the legendary flamenco dancer La Singla, to the breathtaking trombone solo on "Wide Open," Mangelsdorff demonstrates a technical mastery that borders on the impossible. The album conveys a rare balance of spontaneity and structure, offering a vivid portrait of jazz at its most exploratory.