Jazz /
Were We Where We Were
Were We Where We Were is a recording of set of compositions by Michael Formanek, and performed here by him, saxophonist and clarinetist Chet Doxas, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, collectively as the Michael Formanek Drome Trio. These pieces were loosely grouped together as Palindrome Series 1 and Palindrome Series 2, from 2020. They started out as a series graphic scores that were then reinterpreted as conventionally notated music for this trio. The Drome trio learned the music and rehearsed outs…
Opinions
Torbjörn Zetterberg’s new record, Opinions, is not a conventional “solo” outing. It doesn’t represent the bassist, composer, and bandleader stepping away from all that to prove his mettle as a virtuoso unaccompanied improvisor. Anyone familiar with Zetterberg’s small group recordings needs no confirmation of his prowess. And anyway, strutting his stuff is not his vibe. Certainly not the vibe of this record, where the bassist plays more than bass, a solo venture on which he is occasionally joined…
Let Our Rejoicing Rise
*2022 stock* In the year that Juneteenth was finally declared a national U.S. holiday, 2021, Joe McPhee and Tomeka Reid united for a live concert in celebration. Multi-instrumentalist McPhee was deeply moved by the historical nature of the circumstances, the incredible freight of that history of oppression and liberation represented in the legislation, both the insanity of its overdueness and the joy of its institutionalization. As a preamble to the music, McPhee led off with two poems, read wit…
Eight Pieces for Two Cellos
*In process of stocking* Repertoire for cello represents a little-explored niche of the greater jazz songbook. In 2013, cellists Tomeka Reid and Fred Lonberg-Holm turned their arrangerly and composerly attention to this terrain, assembling a selection of four originals (three by Lonberg-Holm, one by Reid) and four works by other composers. The latter include “Pluck It” by pioneering jazz cellist Fred Katz, member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and soundtrack composer for Roger Corman films; “In W…
Rise Vision Comin
A breathtaking self-conscious free-jazz masterwork, 'Rise Vision Comin'' summarizes more than 30 years of musical and theoretical/political expression from renowned activist/scholar/free-jazz pioneer Haki R. Standing on the verge of spiritual jazz aesthetic, his music remains timeless & unforgettable after it's longstanding creation. The first album by the group Rise Vision Comin was released in 1976, and features among others Wallace Roney on trumpet, Clarence Seay on bass and Agyei Akoto on sa…
Medasi
If being the founder and chairman of Third World Press Organisation - the largest independent black-owned publishers - wasn't enough for activist and poet Haki R Madhubuti, he is also credited with a lesser-known yet remarkable music career. As the bandleader of Haki R. Madhubuti and Nation: Afrikan Liberation Arts Ensemble, Madhubuti combined his razor-sharp spoken-word poetry with a band of incredible musicians to create an unforgettable experience of avant-garde and spiritual jazz.
The second…
GSU Jazz Live!
*2022 stock* This is a live album performed by a band of college students from the Governor's State University in Chicago under the direction of Warwick L. Carter. Although there were many college bands that existed at the time, this is one quite unlike any other and under the strong leadership of Carter, the group rose to tower heights in a performance very fortunate to be recorded to tape.
The almighty jazz-funk cover of "Freedom Jazz Dance" under the title of "Listen Here" bursts with a stron…
Dream Queen
First time on vinyl for many years. Reissue of the sought-after deep/spiritual jazz album, the first time it’s been pressed from the master tapes. All analog lacquer by Bernie Grundman. Bobby Hamilton founded the band Anubis in Syracuse, New York, and they put out their awesome ‘Ecology’ single on Charles Bazen’s Salt City imprint. It’s a highlight, something akin to Terry Callier and Gil Scott Heron’s most soulful works. Shortly after issuing that single, Bobby put together the Bobby Hamilton Q…
Live At Théâtre Du Chêne Noir, Avignon, France 1989
*2022 stock* On October 14th 1989, Horace Tapscott, founder of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, performed alongside his close friend and musical partner Michael Session at the Théâtre du Chêne Noir in Avignon, France. This was during a tour in which they traveled across Europe. The duo presented compositions by Leimert Park musicians Jesse Sharps, Nate Morgan and Tapscott himself.
The stark instrumentation of this concert led to minimal arrangements of compositions typically performed by much l…
The Sojourner
Japanese label P-Vine sure know how to pick out the essential spiritual jazz reissues. This is another gold standard that came originally on Strata East in 1974. Vocals feature throughout and often soar to the highest of heights and make it a charismatic album. Sample hounds and hip hop lovers might well recognise the track 'Optimystical' which has been pillaged by Detroit great Andres before now. Elsewhere there is real freeform magic on 'Music Is Nothing But A Prayer', cosmic exploration on 'T…
Ptah, The El Daoud
* Grey-area LP reissue, perfect replica of the original * Ptah, the El Daoud, recorded and released in 1970, is the third solo album by Alice Coltrane. The album was recorded in the basement of her house in Dix Hills on Long Island, New York. This was Coltrane's first album with horns (aside from one track on A Monastic Trio – 1968 - on which Pharoah Sanders played bass clarinet). Sanders is recorded on the right channel and Joe Henderson on the left channel throughout. Coltrane noted: "Joe Hend…
Steppin' Out!
TIp! *Tone Poet serie. Highly recommended audiophiles new master* Muscular tenorsaxophonist featured several times in recordings for the blue label, Harold Vick signed only one album as leader for Blue Note: here it is, and it is a fine album. The company was of the most inspiring: Blue Mitchell (another underrated...) on trumpet, the tandem of friends Grant Green (on guitar) / John Patton (on Hammond organ) and Ben Dixon on drums. An album to rediscover.
Stick-Up!
TIp! *Tone Poet serie. Highly recommended audiophiles new master* An album as representative as ever of the most avant-garde wing within that extraordinary laboratory called Blue Note: the reinventor of the vibraphone Bobby Hutcherson here (this is 1966) joins Joe Henderson on tenor sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Herbie Lewis on double bass and Billy Higgins on drums to record a memorable album, including original compositions and a danceable 'Una muy bonita', a well-known Tex-Mex flavour track by O…
Philadelphia, November 11, 1966
This release presents one of John Coltrane's last preserved live performances ever. Taped in Philadelphia with excellent sound quality, this set presents Coltrane playing probably the freest version of Naima, along with readings of two more of his compositions: Crescent and a powerful version of Leo. Coltrane died shortly after this performance at the age of 40 on July 11, 1967.
At the Penthouse in Seattle September 30, 1965
Radio broadcast of a daytime performance at The Penthouse, Seattle, Washington, September 30, 1965 taped by an amateur fan.
Masaru Imada Piano
Sublime solo piano from Masaru Imada – a Japanese player with talents in a range of different styles, but who sounds especially nice up-close here in an intimate setting! Imada's got a way of letting a tune really find its way organically – almost as if the songs here are little flowers opening up in his fingers on the keyboard of the piano – although never in a style that's "flowery" at all, because Imada's a master of finding just the right notes at the right moment – never embellishing things…
Poppy
Poppy was pianist Masaru Imada's second album for the Three Blind Mice label. Imada brought the idea of playing slow ballads by himself to the TBM producer Takeshi Fujii, who greenlit the project but requested Imada to perform his original compositions with his current trio. The result was this album. Side A consists of four solo piano performances of jazz standards, and the trio takes on Imada's three originals on Side B.Produced by Takeshi Fujii. Recorded at Aoi Studio in Tokyo on January 25 a…
Itaru Oki Last Message With Masahiko Satoh
Japanese free jazz pioneer and trumpeter Itaru Oki, who passed away in August 2020, was active mainly in Europe. He was one the key players in the development of a distinctively Japanese take on free jazz in the Tokyo scene of the late 1960s and early 70s, leading his own power trio and collaborating with other formative names like percussionist Masahiko Togashi and bassist Keiki Midorikawa. His last recording (recorded live on October 7, 2018) was a 75-minute improvisation with legendary Masahi…
Rock Joint Cither – Silk Road
After the space-time experience and the translation into music of the Bible of Japanese civilization, the Fulukotofumi, the following year, in 1973, Hiromasa Suzuki pushes his research and experimentation beyond the borders of his own country by venturing, with the usual companions of adventure (Kunimitsu Inaba, Hideo Sekine, etc.), along the lights and shadows of the Silk Road. A backward journey in search of the musical and cultural sources of mainland Asia, from the gates of India to the root…
Rock Joint Biwa
The Fulukotofumi is the most important and ancient historical chronicle of Japan. The content of this work becomes an inspiration for the creation of a sound transposition of the legends and myths that most marked the spirit and inspiration of Hiromasa Suzuki, as a musician and as a high-level composer. The music that is concentrated between these grooves is a representation of the best that moved in the early seventies in the jazz-rock orbit at an international level; in addition, very strong i…