Gilles Peterson has a special love afair with MPS. To be exact, it goes back more than three decades to the London of the 1980’s when Gilles stood at the beginning of an exceptional career as DJ, Radio personality, and producer. At that time he was already interested in unusual and unique jazz recordings, and so he inevitably came across the record label from Germany’s Black Forest (Schwarzwald), whose catalogue encompassed a large, totally distinct repertoire that had never been released anywhere else. Naturally, there was a long list of amazing interpretations of jazz classics from acknowledged jazz masters, but early on Gilles had developed the talent to dig deeper into the depths of the archives in order to ferret out the special features of the catalogue – occasionally discovering a obscurity – and bring them to the light of day. He seemed to be able to efortlessly show a completely new connection between classic jazz recordings through the way they were chosen, assorted, and sequenced. Thus, every single title was imbued with a new energy, freshness, and, above all, timelessness, always with an eye on whether the chosen recordings would possibly be compatible with the needs of clubs. This present MPS compilation is an especially good example of Gilles Peterson’s amazing talent. It delivers only a small, yet carefully chosen section out of the depths of the MPS archives. Let’s take several steps back to where it all began – back to the town of Villingen in Germany’s Black Forest. There are many myths and stories about the label and its founder Hans Georg Brunner Schwer, simply known as HGBS. Towards the end of the 1950s he began to produce the frst recordings under the SABA (Schwarzwälder Apparate Bau Anstalt = Black Forest Appliance Manufacture) label. Later HGBS organized his legendary house concerts in an annex to his own villa. Among the many who played there, Oscar Peterson certainly counted among the most famous. HGBS built his studio directly over his living room where he could, with the help of the earliest video techniques, directly record and mix the concerts. There are many legendary stories about sessions that lasted long after midnight with very happy musicians, especially those who enjoyed catering directly from Brunner-Schwer’s wife Marlies. And let’s not forget that the good pay was yet another reason the musicians looked forward to returning to the villa in the Black Forest. None of this changed when in 1968 HGBS sold SABA and renamed the label to what it is known by today: MPS - Musik Produktion Schwarzwald (Black Forest Music Production).

https://youtu.be/5HCdVswwo4w?si=_ead7iCcPGN8UYm6