★Pure Pleasure
Capra Black
Capra Black remains one of the seminal recordings of jazz's black consciousness movement. A profoundly spiritual effort that channels both the intellectual complexity of the avant-garde as well as the emotional potency of gospel, its focus and assurance belie Billy Harper's inexperience as a leader. Backed by an all-star supporting unit including trombonist Julian Priester and drummer Billy Cobham, Harper's tenor summons the brute force and mystical resolve of John Coltrane but transcends its in…
Zodiac
The third volume in Strata East's Series, and a hard to find recording by the great baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne! Although Payne had his roots in earlier bop material, by the time of this recording, he'd emerged as an outspoken modernist – although few labels would give him the chance to prove himself in this respect – save for the legendary Strata East imprint, which gives Payne this chance to show a whole new side of his talents! The group is a perfect one to bridge the generations – with …
Cosmic Sounds
Absolutely essential Cosmic Psych masterpiece now back on Vinyl taken from Analogue Masters and like you’ve never heard it before… The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds was an album released on the ELEKTRA label in August 1967 in the U.K. It was heavily played by John Peel on his Perfumed Garden shows, where he used it as a basis for a competition (He had been sent a copy by Clive Selwood, the then head of Elektra’s London office and later to become Peel’s manager). The LP was extremely popular with Perfume…
Land Of The Blacks (Live At The East)
** restocked, very last copies ** 180-gram exact repro reissue, originally released in 1972. Hyper-afro spiritual jazz teetering between avant-garde inventiveness and free jazz madness. "This album is a mean motherfucker. It’s an amazing document of the pure fire of Black Nationalist Free-Jazz. I discovered it during a period when I was picking at the outer reaches of Leroy Jenkins’ discography (he’s a member of this ensemble). At the time I had exhausted his output as a band leader and as a mem…