★MPS Records
Inside: Missing Link
A 20th Century Renaissance man, cartoonist, film director, author, radio personality, record company owner, German guitarist Volker Kriegel played an important role in the European jazz-rock and fusion movements. Co-founder of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Kriegel’s own groups and collaborations with American vibraphonist Dave Pike gained him a world-wide audience, as his 14 albums for MPS as leader and 15 as sideman can attest.
Volker Kriegel assembled a band of some of the leading musical…
Infra-Red
American Vibraphonist Dave Pike may not be as well-known as contemporaries Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson, but recordings with Bill Evans, Herbie Mann, and Paul Bley evince Pike’s pedigree. His MPS albums from 1969 through the early 70s have become minor classics.
Underpinned by funk and fusion, Infra-Red ventures into country rock on Suspicious Child and trips through fractured iridescent landscapes on Attack of the Green Misers. Raga Jeeva Swara is a rock meditation and Send Me the Yellow Gu…
Music Zounds
Original copy in great condition of the first edition of Wolfgang Dauner's 1970 album on MPS with Eberhard Weber and Roland Wittich. Modal jazz weirdness by a composer loosely connected with krautrock with his band Et Cetera.
Knirsch
Original copy in great condition with laminated gatefold sleeve of the superb 2nd album from 1972 by Wolfgang Dauner's fantastic avant-garde jazz-rock band Et Cetera featuring Larry Coryell and Colosseum's Jon Hiseman.
Djanger Bali
Indonesia and jazz? Not so far-fetched! Improvisation is a part of traditional gamelan, and modal playing goes back 1000 years; jazz began seriously delving into modes with Miles Davis in the 1950’s. Clarinet icon Tony Scott proselytized jazz during his six-year sojourn in Asia, and in so doing brought Asian music masters, including players on this album, into the jazz world. Down Beat called pianist Bubi Chen “The Art Tatum of Asia”, and saxophonist Marjono, whose influences include John Coltra…
By All Means
At the time of his death in 2016 at the age of 68, drummer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Alphonse Mouzon had for decades been a major force within the jazz, fusion, R&B and pop arenas. The early eighties was a time when Mouzon toyed with disco and channelled funk. His musical amalgam was a far cry from the Saturday Night Fever brand – he brought more funk, more soul, more spontaneous creativity into the mix. For By All Means, Mouzon brought together musicians who were masters in virtually …
Total Space
Although MPS was known for his studio and brilliant recording technique, Rolf Kühn decided not to record his albums in the studio in the Black Forest. At MPS, Rolf Kühn was allowed free rein to choose the team for the recordings and so he decided to get Wolfgang Hirschmann on board, one of the most interesting sound engineers in jazz at that time. Together with him and seven other musicians, “Total Space” was recorded in January 1975 in the Cornet Studios in the south of Cologne, Germany. Having…
The Hip Walk
Considered one of Nathan Davis' best albums, and long a collector's item, The Hip Walk was recorded in 1965, a time when the Afro-American Davis lived in Europe, working with such legends as Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, Ray Charles, Dexter Gordon, Eric Dolphy and Woody Shaw. Nathan's Kansas City school mate, trumpeter Carmell Jones - who e.g. worked with Horace Silver, Paul Kuhn, Eugen Cicero - comes along for the ride. A superb album of soulful, swinging jazz - the perfect companion when you feel …
Carmell's Black Forest Waltz / B's Blues
Considered one of Nathan Davis’ best albums, and long a collector’s item, The Hip Walk was recorded in 1965, a time when the Afro-American Davis lived in Europe, working with such legends as Kenny Clarke, Eric Dolphy, and Art Blakey. Nathan’s Kansas City school mate, trumpeter Carmell Jones comes along for the ride. Jones played trumpet on Horace Silver’s classic 1965 Song for My Father – ‘nuff said about his credentials! Nathan’s rhythm section represents the underpinning of one of the greatest…