In the 1970s when avant-garde jazz was becoming scarce on American labels, it was up to Italian producer Giovanni Bonandrini to give the music the documentation it deserved. The Black Saint label was formed in 1975 by Giacomo Pellicciotti. In 1978 Bonandrini took it over, he founded its sister label Soul Note the following year and since then has recorded hundreds of rewarding sessions. While Black Saint tends to focus more on the avant-garde side of jazz and Soul Note features more bop-oriented sessions, there has been a lot of overlapping. Among the scores of artists who have recorded some of their finest work for Bonandrini have been David Murray, the World Saxophone Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Old And New Dreams, Steve Lacy and Muhal Richard Abrams among many others. Although Bonandrini has sometimes experienced difficulties with his American business associations (many of the parent labels have wished that he would release a lot few records so they could be marketed better), Giovanni Bonandrini has remained fiercely independent and stuck to his singular path, doing a major service for jazz. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi