Illumination is a Jazz album by the Al Stauffer Trio.  Recorded to Analog Tape by Bob Sellman of Direct-to-Tape Recording (DTR), this album has been transferred to Stereo DSD 64 and Stereo DSD 128 by Bob Witak at High Definition Tape Transfers (HDTT) with the cooperation and permission of DTR.

All of the artists and composers involved in this recording, with the exception of Wayne Shorter, are – or were – interconnected in the fertile Philadelphia jazz sphere.

Al Stauffer and Tom Lawton regularly performed together in a MidCity venue. Joel Levine and composer/pianist Uri Caine were members of another working group. Stauffer and Bernard Peiffer were musical partners for a dozen years, an association that ended with the composer- pianist’s death in 1976. Lawton and Levine studied piano with the late French expatriate pianomaster and studied improvisational concepts with Stauffer.

Not surprisingly, all of them are intense musicians with a tenacious dedication to excellence, and their joint contributions have produced here a session of unusual cohesion and muscularity.

Al Stauffer Trio
Al Stauffer – String Bass
Tom Lawton – Piano
Joel Levine – Recorders