Jazz /
Afro Soco Soul Live
He was born in Sierra Leone in the 1930s. Fact is that Gerald Pine was son to a lawyer working in Nigeria, lost his mother and sister at a very young age and found relief in music. He played social clubs by the early 60s with his newly founded band The Heartbeats delivering cover-versions of American hits and Congolese rumba tunes that were then utterly popular in the West Africa area. Due to the influence of Congolese popular musicians Franco and Dr. Nico he adopted the more exotic sounding sta…
In The Groove
First official reissue ever! Nigeria had an utterly strong popular music scene in the 1970s, “Afro Beat” and “Afro Funk” were the hottest musical creations of the day and garage rock oriented bands like Ofege or funky monsters Akwassa were at the forefront of the movement. I deliberately call it their second album despite three albums that were released under the monicker Heads Funk Band with exactly the same line up as Akwassa from 1975 to 1978. However, the main difference between “In the groo…
Hearts and Minds
“Sometimes it’s dumb fun to think up impossible supergroups. Maybe they help you imagine a sound you’ve never considered, a combination of histories and vectors that contradicts those that might be steered by normal forces, such as geography or genre or circle of colleagues. A parlor game designed to transcend time and place.Here’s one: John Carter, Bernard Parmegiani, Mike Ratledge and Tony Williams. Think of the possibilities, Ratledge offers fudgy bass keyboards, circa 1970, Soft Machine’s Th…
A Uis?
Not Two Records presents a live concert by Jubileum Quartet recorded at the 23rd Cekno Jazz Festival, in Cerkno, Slovenia, on May 18th, 2108, by Borut Celik.
The album includes four tracks performed by Joëlle Léandre - acoustic bass, Evan Parker - tenor sax, Agustí Fernández - piano and Zlatko Kaučič - drums and objects.
Prism
The tenth Conference Call album and the first with drummer Dieter Ulrich taking over for former drummers Matt Wilson, Han Bennink, George Schuller and Gerry Hemingway, the 20 years journey for this transatlantic band leading to this album captured in the studio in Central NY while on tour, performing 3 original compositions from Ullman, 2 from Fonda, and 2 from Stevens.
"The gift of playing music together with the same people over 20 years is priceless. A long-standing musical ensemble becomes a…
Nights of Ballads & Blues
As the title implies, this McCoy Tyner release is a low-key, after-hours affair. Far removed from the intensity of work with then-boss John Coltrane, Tyner stretches out on a fine mix of standards and bebop classics. The pianist, of course, always had his own fleet and rich way with ballads, in spite of the galvanizing marathon solos he became known for on live dates and his later experimental recordings with Coltrane. His ballad style is even touched with a bit of sentimentality, which thankful…
Cracklin'
The six tracks include originals by Ervin "Scoochie", pianist Ronnie Mathews "Dorian" and "Honeydew", and Haynes "Bad News Blues" as well as tremendous versions of Randy Weston's "Sketch of Melba" and Hubert Giraud's "Under Paris Skies." Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ on April 6, 1963, this soulful and adventurous album deserves a place in any modern jazz collection. Personnel: Booker Ervin - tenor saxophone; Ronnie Matthews - piano; Larry Ridley - bass; Roy Haynes…
House Party
House Party is the fourteenth album by American jazz organist Jimmy Smith featuring performances recorded in 1957 and 1958 and released on the Blue Note label. Rudy Van Gelder used the Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom in New York City for recording sessions in 1957-1958, while he was still using his parents' Hackensack, N.J. home studio to record artists for Blue Note. House Party was the first of two Smith albums recorded on two dates, the second was Smith's next album The Sermon!, released in 1…
Up At Minton’s
A very welcomed reissue of this long out of print and hard to find Turrentine's Live album. Originally released on Blue Note as two separate volumes, "Up at Mintons' catches the Stanley Turrentine quintet live at the mythical Minton Club in NY, in 1961, when the tenor saxophonist was leading a super tight quintet featuring Grant Green - guitar, Horace Parlan - piano, George Tucker - bass and Al Harewood - drums. This is hard swinging soulful Jazz at its Best!
A Jazz Delegation From The East
This great document consists of two different 1956, Hollywood, studio sessions with the young John Coltrane leading a true Jazz delegation from the east, in other words a NY/ Philly based quartet featuring young lions such as pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. These are good solid blowing sessions, originally not even scheduled for a release and consisting of fine and surprising renditions of Charlie Parker's "Dexterity", Benny Golson's "Stablemates" and Cole…
Newest Sound Around
Here is the long awaited vinyl reissue of the debut masterpiece of Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake. Produced by "Third Stream" genius Gunther Schuller and originally released in 1961 "The Newest Sound Around" stands as one of the most original and creative vocal-piano duet albums in Jazz history. This is deep, intimate and atmospheric music that naturally flows through transformed jazz standards, mournful gospels and highly imaginative originals. It's time to rediscover Jeanne Lee's enchanting voice a…
New Faces, New Sounds
What style of piano does Elmo Hope play? It would be easy to answer “The same as Bud Powell,” but this would not do justice to a musician who, while coming along the same route as Bud for so many years, is now ploughing a separate path for himself, though in a similar general neighborhood. His original material, though it has the intense, rapt quality of Bud’s, remains personal, whether it be the relatively serene approach of Happy Hour or the minor Moroccan mood of Stars Over Marakech. When you…
New Star On The Horizon
The date took place just a week before Brownie took off for Europe, as a member of that vast edifice built by the master of multiple decibels, the Lionel Hampton orchestra. Like Gigi Gryce, the alto saxophonist and fellow-Hamptonian whom Brownie pressed into service for this session, the young hornman found the occasions for expressing his individual personality few and far between in so large and monolithic an organization. The opportunity to record with a small, compact group, aimed at the cre…
Chico Hamilton Special
Typical Chico genius of the era. This is one of only two recordings by Chico's fourth quintet lineup, Bye Bye Birdie - Irma la Douce being the other. Featuring Charles Lloyd on alto sax and flute. The numbers featuring Lloyd on flute (like "Autumn Leaves", "New Rhumba" and "Afternoon of a Breeze") are especially cool.
Coolin'
An obscure and excellent 1957 session produced by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on Prestige Records. A tight sextet with a distinctive sound run by vibraphonist Teddy Charles, featuring great pianist Mal Waldron and some fine and often underrated musicians such as Idrees Sulieman – trumpet, John Jenkins – alto saxophone, Addison Farmer – bass and Jerry Segal – drums. The album consists of one standard and five originals, all based on complex melodies and hard swinging rhythms.
Brown And Roach Incorporated
Recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles in August 1954, this is the first Emarcy recording of the legendary Brown & Roach Quintet featuring the great Harold Land on tenor sax, Richie Powell on piano and George Morrow on bass. Under the direction of two modern Jazz masters such as trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach the quintet shines through a fine set of classic standards, including "Stompin' at the Savoy", Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick out of You" and a couple of Brown-Roach origin…
Southern Horizons
This is Harriott on the verge of the free form/abstract period, but here, still anchored in the hard bop mode. This is stylish, elegant, tight, swinging; whatever label of appreciation you want to attach to it, this is still fresh music creation. This record sticks to the quintet line-up of sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums (as on Movement), but with the added pizzazz of a superb bongos player on a couple of tracks, just to heighten the sense of hepness to the proceedings. Partly original comp…
Les McCann Sings
Here's a true West Coast soul-jazz gem originally released on pacific jazz in 1961. Les McCann's warm and emotional singing shines over some gorgeous big band arrangements signed by the great conductor and bandleader Gerald Wilson. McCann's usual trio with Herbie Lewis on bass and Ron Jefferson on drums is augmented by a phenomenal bunch of West Coast top musicians including clarinetist Buddy Collette, tenor sax lions Charles Lloyd, Teddy Edward, and Harold Land, and two absolute guest stars: te…
The Fox
Harold Land, one of the greatest West Coast tenor saxophone voices of all time. A strong player rooted in Bop language, famous for his role in the legendary Max Roach and Clifford Brown quintet and later as part of another great Los Angeles based combo such as bassist's Curtis Counce group. The Fox is a 1960 album originally released on the Hifijazz label and reissued by Contemporary in 1969. Here Land is at the head of a marvelous quintet, some sort of who's who of the LA jazz scene: Dupree Bol…
Letter From Home
Released on Riverside records in 1962, "Letter from Home" was the debut album of Jazz vocalist Eddie Jefferson. Often credited as the founder of vocalese, Jefferson wrote memorable lyrics to classic jazz standards including "Parker's Mood.", "Lady Be Good," "So What," "Freedom Jazz Dance,"... Eddie Jefferson is backed here by a bunch of Jazz heavyweights, all at the top of their game. Among them: tenor sax masters Johnny Griffin and James Moody, trumpeter Clark Terry, pianists, Winton Kelly, an…