MODERN JAZZ QUARTET.

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Vintage poster for concert at Auditorium Maximum, Berlin, on 25 October 1965. A striking poster for this MJQ appearance at Berlin's Auditorium Maximum in 1965, design by the noted German painter-printmaker Hermann Ober (1920-1997), with the imprint Klinzing/Ober at lower left and an the abstract design of "running dots", perhaps synesthetically representing the sound of the group, more particularly the attack and shimmer of vibist Milt Jackson's mallets. The MJQ had a keen following in Germany and this appearance pre-dates by a few days the group's headlining at the Berlin Jazz Festival (29-31 October). The venue was the impressive Auditorium Maximum, the banquet hall of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic.The jazz historian James Lincoln Collier notes that there was always a tension in the MJQ between the natural exuberance of Jackson (known as "Bags") and the cooler "European" approach of Lewis: "It was not always easy to maintain the balance. There were at times demands from an audience to "let Bags blow". Lewis continued to insist that simply blowing was not enough... But when the group found the middle road, where form provided a framework for improvisation but did not dominate it, it produced masterly jazz".

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