Live (The Group album)

Live is a live album by the cooperative jazz ensemble known as The Group, featuring saxophonist Marion Brown, trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, violinist Billy Bang, bassists Sirone and Fred Hopkins, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. The band's sole release, it was recorded on September 13, 1986, at the Jazz Center of New York in New York City, and was issued on LP and CD by NoBusiness Records in 2012, over 25 years after the concert. Despite the fact that The Group had received favorable reviews, and its members were well-known musicians, the band failed to secure a recording contract. Ken Waxman of The New York City Jazz Record's suggested that because, in the mid-1980s, "neobop had replaced fusion as the popular jazz genre," The Group was viewed as being "too outside." He commented: "Luck and circumstances determine what bands become famous.