Sarang Bang Records Archive Series vol. 1 Previously unreleased recordings Compiled by Gianmarco Liguori Bernie McGann - alto sax Kim Paterson - trumpet Bobby Gebert - piano (side A) Andy Brown – bass George Neidorf – drums Recorded by Trevor Graham in Sydney, Australia (copyright 1966) There is no more engaging nor distinctive alto saxophone sound on the planet than McGann’s. Sydney Morning Herald McGann takes the language of Bebop then bends and stretches it to fit the contours of his own remarkable im-agination. The Wire Bernie McGann’s sound is exciting and physical, as heated as any post-coltrane modernist. Downbeat A lost treasure of Antipodean jazz This compilation documents part of an exciting period in Australasian jazz. Recorded in Sydney, 1966, we can hear Bernie McGann was already one of the great Australian jazz stylists. At the time, the only publicly available recording he made was two tracks on the Jazz Australia compilation (1967) (CBS BP 233450). Two years earlier, McGann was living in Auckland, New Zealand (1963-64). It was here that he worked regular-ly with Kim Paterson, Andy Brown and pianist Dave MacRae, and the basis of this band came into being. ‘Lazy Days’, ‘Chuggin’, and ‘Sky’ were salvaged from a cassette in Kim Paterson’s collection, one of the few remaining copies. Originally intended for a radio broadcast, the master tapes were reportedly destroyed after the session. ‘Rhythm-a-Ning’ and ‘When Will The Blues Leave?’ were taped by Trevor Graham at the Wayside Chapel in King’s Cross. Graham was a Sydney music journalist and ally of the avant garde, with the foresight to capture some of what was happening at the time