ESP Disk Catalog

NY: ESP Disk, 1971. Tabloid format, [8] pp. printed on newsprint illustrated with a Gilbert Shelton character on the front. Paper tanned as would be expected with some loss to the folds and edges, small light stain to middle front, else a very good example. While we've had a few copies of the 1967 catalog and the more uncommon 'Special Complete Catalog" this one is new to us and were not aware of its existence until it threw itself over our transom. Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, starting with the release of Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity, ESP became the most important exponent of the burgeoning free jazz music scene of the time releasing records by such future greats as Sun Ra, Frank Wright, and Sunny Murray among others. Along with free jazz, the label also produced music by Ed Sanders' band the Fugs, the Lower East Side folk of the Holy Modal Rounders and the primitive proto-noise of the Godz. While never much of a commercial success for the musicians, the label's philosophy of "The artists alone decide what you will hear on their ESP-Disk" led to the creation of a musical output that to this day wields a heavy influence.