About

— Highly sought-after album only previously released in Japan in 1974.
— First ever release of the album outside of Japan and first vinyl reissue since 1974.
— Remastered from the original Masters by Colorsound Studio, Paris.
— Original artwork featuring new liner notes by Jacques Denis (Eng/Fr).

WeWantSounds is honoured to announce the first-ever international release of the legendary collaboration between Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and Don Cherry, featuring Carlos Ward. Following Ibrahim’s recent passing, this long-awaited edition is all the more relevant.

Recorded live in 1972 at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, this highly sought-after album was originally released exclusively in Japan in 1974 on the cult jazz label Trio Records via its revered Nadja imprint. An essential chapter in the musicians’ discographies, the performance skilfully blends jazz with rich South African rhythms and global influences.

This definitive reissue features fully remastered audio, the original artwork, and a booklet with new bilingual liner notes (Eng/Fr) by Jacques Denis. — (via Label)

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“The Third World-Underground” by Dollar Brand / Don Cherry / Carlos Ward documents the legendary encounter of the three musicians, now made internationally available for the first time. Wewantsounds is reissuing the live performance, recorded in 1972 at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, on LP; the edition features fully remastered audio, the original Japanese artwork, and a four-page booklet with new bilingual liner notes by Jacques Denis.

Musically, the recording fuses classic jazz with pronounced South African rhythms and worldwide influences. Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) contributes his characteristic, melody-driven piano work, Don Cherry adds his nomadically inflected trumpet lines, and Carlos Ward rounds out the sound with powerful alto playing and percussive elements; together they create an open, improvisation-centered dialogue that links traditional forms with global textures. Voices and vocal elements appear as additional layers, keeping the immediacy of the live setting clearly audible.

The release represents an important chapter in the discographies of all involved and offers researchers as well as collectors an authentic document of the period in which jazz became increasingly intertwined with Afro and world music. Issued on LP, the edition is aimed at listeners interested in historically significant live documents and in the intersection between jazz tradition and a global sonic language. — (via HHV)

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The set opens with "Don's Song," the only composition by the itinerant trumpeter then making his life on the European continent. Ibrahim kicks it off with a low-register rolling modal pattern that he develops alongside lyrical right-handed chords and quick single lines - as executed here it is a modal jazz masterpiece. Cherry's high lonesome Middle Eastern-tinged solo enters at the minute mark and quickly answers Ibrahim with meaty sheets of sound as they circle one another. Ward begins dovetailing Cherry's lines, bridging the modal piano and trumpet with exploratory, abstract lyricism that emerges from the modal and becomes its own melodic voice.

It's followed by Ibrahim's "Cherry," composed for the trumpeter. Joyful, folk-tinged South African jazz meets the New Orleans and gospel piano traditions on this cooker. Ward excels at inserting R&B-inflected alto saxophone lines. The piano's constant circular left-hand pattern becomes a hypnotic groove that Ward accents, appends, embraces, and extends with his canny soloing. Cherry enters last, blowing unfettered in support.

The music on Third World-Underground has been painstakingly remastered from original analog tapes and is wonderfully presented; the packaging contains a new liner essay from critic Jacques Denis. Fans of all three musicians should own this glorious outing. — (via AllMusic)

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Vinyl tracklist:
A1 Don's Song
A2 Cherry
B1 Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro
B2 Jabulani-Easter Joy
B3 Waya-Wa-Egoli
B4 Swazi
B5 Wayeah-Wayeah-O

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Label: WeWantSounds
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
Reissued: 2026 / Originally Released: 1974
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Jazz

File under: Jazz // Avant-Garde / Free Jazz
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