Jazz /
Inside Ourselves
Perhaps Larry Nozero's single most-recognizable contribution to popular music is the soprano sax solo on Marvin Gaye's seminal, What's Going On, the title track and tone-setter for one of soul music's most successful, not to mention conceptual, recordings. Like so many talented reedmen before him, Nozero received instruction from Detroit's Teal School of Music, creating common ground with Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, and Benny Maupin.Although Nozero flirted with the Strata groundlings briefly in…
Marchin' On!
"This obscure and difficult to find LP is the Heath Brothers' debut album and is considered to be their best. Marchin' On! is unquestionably a masterpiece and is a much sought-after release. With its wealth of riffs, it is much appreciated by beatmakers and has been sampled by various contemporary artists. It was originally released in 1976 on Strata-East, a label at the time co-owned by Stanley Cowell, who joined as pianist on the album.The album flows fluidly, meticulously in a warm rich blend…
Placebo
Marc Moulin (1942 - 2008) was a Belgian musician and journalist. In the early '70s, he was the leader of the Jazz-Rock group Placebo. Moulin was one of Belgium's jazz legends, making jazz-influenced records for over 30 years. Marc Moulin's three Placebo albums are the 'Holy Grail' for the rare groove crowd, a sector of music fans who love that unique '70s style of cool.Placebo's eponymous third album is glossy, elaborate Benelux Jazz-Rock which could be labelled Library music as well - having th…
1973
The "1973" album continues in the same vein as "Ball of Eyes", though it's definitely funkier and head boppin' than the debut. The real-ear grabber is the superb Moog soloing by Moulin. Placebo is grooving your socks off in the first half of the album and a more concentrated jazzy swing can be found on the second half. Original copies of 1973 are in short supply and overwhelming demand, making this official reissue a much-needed one!
Ball of Eyes
Placebo's debut LP "Ball of Eyes" is a remarkably focused Soul Jazz record, without the experimentation or Free Jazz moments which were still in vogue during the first half of the '70s. Excellent covers of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" and Sam & Dave's "You Got Me Hummin'" as well as his own compositions make "Ball of Eyes" a perfect example of the genius of Marc Moulin and his incredible band.
Spirits Known and Unknown
Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune The Creator Has a Master P…
Bells of Kyoto
Mitsuko & Svetlana Records present the first reissue of Bells Of Kyoto's self-titled album, originally released in 1984. Archival reissue of rare 1984 jazz-funk fusion diamond in the rough by German-Australian-British madcap ensemble Bells Of Kyoto, produced by Ollie Marland of De-Lite and Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart fame. Fusions grooves with Orient-funk detours and looking out the window of a Swissair aircraft moments of cool mid 1980s contemplation. Highly recommended to porthole dream…
Creative Music: The Complete Works
**Limited bundled edition, 100 copies made.** "Bubbha Thomas is a revolutionary, spiritual jazz bandleader, drummer, and activist from Houston. This is the definitive collection of his four classic albums with his Lightmen band, each mastered from the original tapes, expanded with bonus tracks and alternate mixes. Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and s…
Flavor
**500 copies** This is a cool jazz album all the way around. From the black and white hand drawing to the fact that it came out of Fresno, California (not exactly a hotbed for jazz) to the handful of styles present (straight ahead, funky, free, and even a raga), this record’s got it going on.High quality musicianship and some far out stoner tracks make this album stand head and shoulders above most of its private peers. Original very limited issue (rumour has it that only 300 copies were release…
For Us All (Yoka Boka)
Invisible City Editions reissues a highly sought after and impossibly rare 1986 private-press spiritual jazz LP from Washington D.C. harpist Jeff Majors. Majors was a devoted personal student of Alice Coltrane’s for three years as a teenager, taking harp and spiritual instruction at her home in the Bay Area just before she established her renowned ashram in Huntington, California. Following his tutelage with Coltrane, he returned to the East Coast, joining Sun Ra acolyte Brother Ah's ensemble Th…
Magic Cat
Guitarist Harry Case is an unsung hero of the Atlanta funk scene of the 1970s and 80s. He was part of the band that issued the legendary material credited to drummer Steveland Milne’s Alias, Stevo, put together under the aegis of Calvin Arnold, with trumpeter Tommy Stewart in charge of musical arrangements. A full decade after the baffling and highly sought-after Musica Negra release, Case’s debut solo album, Magic Cat, was issued by Ichiban Records, the label established by the british blues an…
The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream
Pioneering keyboardist Joe Zawinul will always be remembered for spearheading the fusion project Weather Report and for his input on important Miles Davis LPs. After classical training in Vienna during his youth, Zawinul began working with leading Austrian jazz musicians in the early 1950s, including the pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda, and after moving to the US in 1959 he joined Maynard Ferguson’s big band, accompanied Dinah Washington and Sweets Edison and rose to prominence in Cannonbal…
The Frank Cunimondo Trio Introducing Lynn Marino
**2019 stock, reduced price** Frank Cunimondo has an extensive discography, having recorded with nearly every artist from Pittsburgh. In addition, he has shared the stage with a number of jazz stars including: Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Urbie Green, Lee Konitz, Louie Bellson, Joshua Redman, Phil Woods and Frank Rosolino. The Frank Cunimondo Trio is also a fixture of the Pittsburgh Jazz scene. In the 80s Frank owned a jazz club in Pittsburgh called 'Cunimondo's Keyboard Jazz S…
Sagittarius
**2019 stock, reduced price** Frank Cunimondo has an extensive discography, having recorded with nearly every artist from Pittsburgh. In addition, he has shared the stage with a number of jazz stars including: Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Urbie Green, Lee Konitz, Louie Bellson, Joshua Redman, Phil Woods and Frank Rosolino. The Frank Cunimondo Trio is also a fixture of the Pittsburgh Jazz scene. Frank's most popular recording Feelin' Good (from the album The Frank Cunimondo Trio…
Alligator Bogaloo
To believe in serendipity - that’s the operative word when it comes to alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson’s soul-jazz hit, Alligator Bogaloo, the opening track from the leader’s heralded -artistically and commercially - album of the same name, released by Blue Note in 1967. The tale of its origin has been told so many times that it holds mythic status of affirming the power of improvisational jazz. For his LP session at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, N.J., studio, Lou finished recording five tr…
Ethiopian Knights
Right from the stop-start bass groove that opens The Emperor, it's immediately clear that Ethiopian Knights is more indebted to funk - not just funky jazz, but the straight-up James Brown / Sly Stone variety - than any previous Donald Byrd project. And, like a true funk band, Byrd and his group work the same driving, polyrhythmic grooves over and over, making rhythm the focal point of the music. Although the musicians do improvise, their main objective is to keep the grooves pumping, using their…
Mr. Shing-A-Ling
This 1967 recording was always the best of Lou Donaldson's funky albums. It's just amazing that Blue Note put this back into circulation on 180 gram vinyl. Mr. Shing-A-Ling is worth the investment for the ultra-funking Peepin' alone. Composer and organist Lonnie Smith lays down a basic fatback groove and manages to glean a funk anthem that set the foundation for a whole decade worth of Lou Donaldson LPs (Midnight Creeper is a mere rewrite of this classic). Among Donaldson's big funk classics - t…
Black Christ of the Andes
Pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams played with nearly every major jazz performer during her long, illustrious and varied career, in addition to recording many solo works. Born Mary Winn in Atlanta in 1910 and raised in a 'shotgun shack', where local musicians gathered to jam, she played by ear from a tender age and learned the boogie-woogie style upon moving to Pittsburgh with her older sister Mamie. While still in high school, Williams toured with the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association, br…
Pourquoi
"Pourquoi" originally released in 1978 on French Crypto label. It sounds like a new side of Cortex: songs are mainly composed around the voice and the various keyboards of the band leader, Alain Mion, who also played bass lines on synthesizer. Besides, the band gave up the live recording to use the beloved Stevie Wonder or Quincy Jones' technique of "re-recording". But, in spite of these changes, their groove remains as spontaneous and as powerful. Also, the band collaborated with great backing…
Black Fire
Matsuli Music is proud to announce the re-issue of Black Fire, the 1976 debut album of legendary Cape Town spiritual jazz funk band Pacific Express. The band was home to jazz musicians Chris Schilder, and Basil ‘Manenberg’ Coetzee as well as fusion and soul musicians Robbie Jansen, Issy Ariefdien, Paul Abrahams, Jack Momple and Zayn Adam.This album is hard evidence of that 1976 musical moment in which Pacific Express forged an entirely new South African sound and musical identity out of what was…