Jazz /
The Straight Horn Of Steve Lacy
Originally released in 1962 on Candid Records, The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy finds a young Steve Lacy stepping forward with quiet confidence and a sound unlike anyone else at the time. Stripped of excess and focused on tone, space, and intent, these sessions reveal a musician already thinking beyond convention. The soprano sax cuts clean and direct, moving between sharp angles and lyrical calm, with a small group that listens as closely as it plays. Nothing here feels rushed or ornamental, jus…
Blue Train
"We’re listening to Blue Train, which to me is one of the most beautiful pieces on one of the most beautiful records that Coltrane recorded in the fifties. It’s his first real mature statement and he wrote all but one of the tunes on this album which was very rare in the fifties and each one is a gem, particularly the title tune Blue Train. And while it’s kind of easy to play the blues, this has a suspended and haunting kind of quality to it." - Michael Cuscuna
Wave
*Back in print!* By the time this album was released, Antonio Carlos Jobim was already an international superstar. Having recently won a Grammy (1965) for "The Girl From Ipanema", by 1967 all the big name stars from up north were breaking down his door to work with the new "Gershwin of Brazil." In fact, Jobim had just finished working on an album with Frank Sinatra when he went into the studio to record this album. Recorded in 1967, Wave is actually one of the lesser known masterpieces of Brazil…
People In Sorrow
Remastered LP edition. Finally back in print! Originally released by EMI's Pathé Marconi imprint in 1969, People in Sorrow — a 40-minute work by the four-piece lineup of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, and Malachi Favors — has long been unavailable on vinyl and CD, and then only in hard-to-find European and Japanese issues. It is arguably the finest and most ambitious of the 14 studio albums recorded by the Art Ensemble of Chicago during their 23-month sojourn in France, which laun…
Lola
On Lola, Zbigniew Namysłowski Modern Jazz Quartet fuse blazing post‑bop with Polish highlander melodies, cutting a 1964 London session that became both a historic first outside the Iron Curtain and a cult artefact of fiercely local modern jazz.
The Inflated Tear
Last pressed on vinyl in 2005, The Inflated Tear is a studio album by Roland Kirk, released on Atlantic in 1968. Roland Kirk, was a hugely influential, blind jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute, and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality, during which virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously. Pitchfork placed The Inflated Tear at number 170 on its list o…
Spellbinder Verve Vault
Gábor Szabó's groundbreaking 1966 album Spellbinder, originally released on Impulse! Records, is set for a premium all-analog reissue on March 13, 2026, as part of the acclaimed Verve Vault Series.
This quintet recording, captured at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio and produced by Bob Thiele, introduced the Hungarian guitarist to a wider American audience through its hypnotic fusion of modal jazz, Eastern European folk influences, and 1960s pop textures. Featuring all-star collaborator…
Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release
"These powerful performances from Copenhagen and Bordeaux, released officially here for the first time, and the Newport Festival in the U.S., provide further evidence of the music’s collective necessity – the true ensemble coordination which Ayler adopted, elaborated and romanticized, from his awareness of historic New Orleans precedents." - Art Lange
Europe 1964
Super tip! Holy ghost music. The real deal. The sound of four men tearing a hole in the fabric of what jazz was supposed to be and letting something else pour through - something ancient and raw and utterly new. In their short time together, Albert Ayler and Don Cherry created a body of music that genuinely exists in the moment. Oblivious to rules and aesthetic boundaries, they played what they felt on their nerve-ends, embracing mistakes and wrong turns as part of the experience of making art i…
Percussion Bitter Sweet
August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language.
The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…
Four For Trane
August 10, 1964. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A young saxophonist from Philadelphia enters the studio to record his first album as a leader for Impulse! Records. At his side, as co-producer, stands the man to whom he owes everything: John Coltrane. Archie Shepp was twenty-seven years old when Four For Trane was recorded - an age that in 1964 jazz still meant being an emerging voice. Born in Fort Lauderdale but raised in Philadelphia - the same Philadelphia as Coltrane, eleven…
A New Conception
After releasing two astonishing albums of original material with his remarkable debut Fuchsia Swing Song (1964) and the follow-up Contours (1965), multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers went another direction on his third Blue Note album A New Conception (1966) by presenting a set of standards that were given riveting interpretations with a quartet featuring Hal Galper on piano, Herbert Lewis on bass, and Steve Ellington on drums. Despite the well-worn repertoire—including the chestnuts “When I Fall I…
Much Les
Together with the saxophone player Eddie Harris, Les McCann was responsible for one of the best-sold albums in the whole history of jazz – "Swiss Movement" (Atlantic SD-1537). It was his debut album on the Atlantic label. 1968 saw the release of "Much Les" and elaborated it with new aspects of what McCann did best in his early years: his core sound was enhanced with a string section and Latin percussion. The result is convincing, appealing, and captivating throughout and is considered an underes…
Ornette!
Ornette Coleman, who died in June 2015 from cardiac arrest, must be counted as one of the most influential musicians in the jazz genre. His importance does not only lie in his ground-breaking recordings in the late Fifties and early Sixties, but lies more significantly in the educational effect of his work – in the fact that he always went beyond himself to the very end. Just a little more than a month after his ground-breaking release "Free Jazz", Coleman recorded the present album, in which he…
Live At Sogn Student Campus 1968
On Live At Sogn Student Campus 1968, Ditlef Eckhoff Quintet captures Oslo’s student underground at full boil: hard-bop heads splinter into early freebag squalls while Knut Riisnæs and Christian Reim drive the frontline with nervy, melodic fire, turning a long-lost campus tape into a vivid document of Nordic modern jazz in transition.
Our Thing
From the halls of Kashmere High School to the discographies of funk aficionados worldwide, the Kashmere Stage Band’s debut album Our Thing, self-released in 1969, stands as a defining artifact of American funk. Born from a Texas student ensemble under the exacting direction of musical director Conrad O. Johnson, the band forged a sound steeped in raw, unfiltered groove and high-velocity horn work that would resonate for decades.
Our Thing captures the Kashmere Stage Band at a pivotal moment: a r…
At The Montreux Jazz Festival
This live jazz album, recorded on June 15, 1968, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, showcases the extraordinary artistry of Bill Evans on piano, accompanied by Eddie Gómez on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Capturing the trio at a peak of creative interplay, the album presents a captivating blend of original compositions and classic standards.
The repertoire features Evans originals such as “One for Helen” and “Nardis”, alongside his masterful interpretations of timeless pieces lik…
Mama Too Tight
Originally released in 1967, Mama Too Tight stands as one of the most daring and structurally innovative albums from Archie Shepp, a pivotal figure in the free jazz movement and African-American cultural protest of the 1960s. Distinct from his more explosive works, this album showcases a refined compositional complexity, featuring avant-garde marching-band-style arrangements, masterful horn orchestrations, and a unique blend of humor and improvisational tension.
The title track, Mama Too Tight, …
1960 Sessions
The killer tandem of Lee Morgan and Clifford Jordan takes center stage in these exhilarating 1960 studio sessions, delivering an unforgettable Hard Bop experience. Known for their fiery improvisations and melodic mastery, Morgan on trumpet and Jordan on tenor saxophone demonstrate their exceptional chemistry and technical brilliance throughout the recordings.
These sessions are enhanced by a rotating lineup of jazz heavyweights, featuring the elegant piano stylings of Barry Harris or Wynton Kell…
Wranglin'
First released in 1964 under the expert production of Blackwell for Island Records, this remarkable album captures the essence of Jamaican soulful jazz through the extraordinary talent of Ernest Ranglin. As a pioneering guitarist and composer, Ranglin delivers an impeccable performance that blends the rich traditions of jazz with the vibrant rhythms of Jamaica.
Accompanied by a highly swinging rhythm section, featuring Malcolm Cecil on bass and Alan Ganley on drums, the album explores a captivat…