Received my copy of Marion Brown's "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun" yesterday. Always nice to see those old, German-issue ECMs. Sadly, this one lacked that unique aroma--what? Yes, of course I checked. I mentioned this before, no? Most of the pre-Polydor import ECMs have this wonderful smell to them, heady and nostalgic. They also have those inner sleeves that are just slightly wider than they are long, about 1/8 inch, so that it's impossible to replace the sleeve with the opening facing outward. Kind of a +/- situation: it's awkward and annoying to have to remove the whole interior sleeve to take out the vinyl; on the other hand, there's something snug and "safe" about reinserting the sleeve in the vertical position....

Anyway, very nice recording. I'm sure I've heard this a few times over the years on radio, though I can't say anything about it ever stuck with me. It's much freer than I expected, with nary a trace of the folksiness and down-home qualities that would suffuse the 70s things on Impulse!, maybe aside from the pastoral whistles and small percussion on side one. But two good collective near-improvisations, the "solos" hardly seeming such, more just emerging from the ensemble with slightly more prominence, not commanding attention. Fine Corea work on Side One as well.

Happy to have it.