Produced by Siegfried Loch
Jazz is World music in the best possible sense. Ever since jazz began to exist in the multicultural melting pot of New Orleans it was basically a mixture of musics from Africa and Europe and is the most important music created in the 20th century. Jazz is the musical language that fulfills the vision of a modern society of people getting together to create, work, and communicate by searching for one common goal: freedom of the individual within a group of equals.
Just as African-American musicians like John Coltrane rediscovered their musical heritage and made it part of their musical expression, likewise European musicians such as Bengt-Arne Wallin have become fascinated by their own rich and musically valid folk music.
For me world jazz = cultural crossovers is very much a part of the ACT labels’ philosophy. On ACT you can find records by eminent, world-class artists as well as some of the most exciting new voices in improvised music. This anthology is a selection of new ACT releases from 1997 and 1998.
Siegfried Loch
