Horace Tapscott

* Art Edition issued with different art work and sleeve design. * On a Sunday in the early 70s in South LA, you could easily find yourself standing in a high school auditorium, watching Horace Tapscott conduct the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra as they poured out music like a benediction. No tickets, no VIP list—just the community, gathered. This was music as civic duty, as spiritual practice, as revolution by other means. Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 captures one such afternoon, previo…

Solo piano from the heart of the Los Angeles underground. Horace Tapscott completely alone at the keyboard, recorded in the early '80s when the Nimbus label was documenting his every move. This is contemplative music of the deepest order - yet the closing piece devastates. "As A Child", Tapscott's own composition dedicated to Adele Sebastian who died just four days before this recording in 1983, aged only 27. She was a pillar of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, and this was her favorite Tapscot…

Few copies available. The Los Angeles based pianist, band leader, and composer, Horace Tapscott, always stood apart from the pack. A true visionary who was fiercely principled and independent, across the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, leading his legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, he produced a tour de force of sound, seeded by social, political, and community-based action. For the entirety of their run together, Tapscott and his Arkestra, which continues to this day, were among the most impo…

The only live recording the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra ever released - and arguably the most complete document of this extraordinary musical community in full flight. Recorded between February and June 1979 at the Immanuel United Church of Christ on 85th & Holmes in Los Angeles, where P.A.P.A. played every second Sunday, developing their sound and building an audience rooted in the community. As a culturally radical, communal big band with a visionary approach to American Black music, the Arke…

Specially priced bundles drawn from the catalog of Nimbus West — the American label widely regarded as the greatest single depository of West Coast avant-garde jazz. With the label's future uncertain and no represses planned, this is a final opportunity to explore one of the most vital and visionary corners of recorded jazz before it disappears from circulation for good.Nimbus West bundle six contains the following LPs: Curtis Clark "Amsterdam Sunshine" Curtis Clark "Deep Sea Diver" Horace Taps…

Specially priced bundles drawn from the catalog of Nimbus West — the American label widely regarded as the greatest single depository of West Coast avant-garde jazz. With the label's future uncertain and no represses planned, this is a final opportunity to explore one of the most vital and visionary corners of recorded jazz before it disappears from circulation for good.Nimbus West bundle four contains the following LPs: Curtis Clark "Amsterdam Sunshine" Curtis Clark "Deep Sea Diver" Horace Tap…

Geography lesson: "Riding the San Andreas" - living on a fault line, waiting for the shake. "Southwester Avenue Shuffle" - street-level LA, the neighborhood Tapscott never left. "On the Nile" - Africa, always Africa, even from a piano bench in South Central. Then the portraits: "Amanda's Tone Poem," "Sonnet of Butterfly McQueen" - dedicated to the actress who refused to play maids after Gone with the Wind, who said no when no was dangerous. "Yesterday's Dream" looks back. Thelonious Monk's "'Rou…

October in Los Angeles. Horace Tapscott sits down, plays for 38 minutes, gets up. No audience, no applause. Just Tom Albach and his tape machine. This is how monuments get built - one session at a time, one composition at a time, nobody watching. "Ancestral Echoes" opens - nearly thirteen minutes tracing lineages back through time, the piano as time machine. Then Roy Porter's "Jessica," a beautiful detour into someone else's melody, proof that Tapscott could interpret as powerfully as he compose…

Solo (Steinway) piano. Los Angeles, September 1982. Just read the titles: "A Dress for Renee" - infectious melody, keeps coming back like a persistent thought. "Shades of Soweto" - South Africa seen from South Central. "The Hero's Last Dance" - whoever that hero was. "First Call of the Humming Bird" - nature breaking through concrete. And then "Forgiving" - as a closing statement, as a breath. Horace Tapscott was a fierce critic of racial bigotry, and his music never hid it. But here there's als…

Solo piano. Recorded March 1983, Los Angeles. Five pieces, forty-one minutes. Where Sun Ra meets Erik Satie. This is the third volume in what would become Tapscott's monumental series of solo recordings - over thirty hours captured between 1982 and 1985, documenting his own compositions alongside works by unknown Black composers in the Los Angeles area. Producer Tom Albach considered these the most important music Horace Tapscott ever made. The titles read like chapters from a life: "The Tuus," …

Solo piano. Recorded November 15, 1982 at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara. A Steinway piano and one man's soul, nothing else. Producer Tom Albach believed the solo sessions were the most important music Tapscott ever made. Between 1982 and 1985, over thirty hours of solo piano were captured - Albach made it his life's mission to release them all. This is volume two, and it cuts deep. The centerpiece: "Struggle X, An Afro-American Dream" - nearly twenty minutes of Tapscott wrestling with the un…

Nine rare tracks from the Nimbus West archive, a map of Los Angeles underground jazz the world never heard enough of. Horace Tapscott, Nate Morgan, Jesse Sharps, Dadisi Komolafe, Roberto Miranda - the names that built UGMAA and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, the movement that kept spiritual jazz alive in South Central for decades while the music industry looked elsewhere. "Desert Fairy Princess," "U.G.M.A.A Ger," "Prayer Of Happiness," "Mrafu," "Calvary" - titles evoking the Pan-African consc…

The second night. October 11, 1979. Same club, same sextet, completely different energy. Where Volume 1 leaned heavily on UGMAA repertoire, this follow-up session finds Horace Tapscott diving deep into the Great American Songbook with results that border on the transcendent. The personnel remains unchanged from the previous evening: Reggie Bullen on trumpet, Gary Bias on alto, the twin-bass attack of Roberto Miranda and David Bryant, and George Goldsmith holding down the drums. But the setlist t…

Recorded on October 10, 1979 at the legendary Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California, this unearthed treasure captures Horace Tapscott in the very temple of West Coast jazz, the club where Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Lee Morgan, and Elvin Jones had left their mark in previous decades. Under Rudy Onderwyzer's management, the Lighthouse continued hosting music of the highest caliber, and this evening stands as irrefutable testimony. The sextet reunites some of Tapscott's most trusted…

In 1979, Horace Tapscott traveled to New York and recorded In New York with Art Davis on bass and the immortal Roy Haynes on drums. That album captured something approaching magic - a West Coast visionary meeting East Coast rhythm masters on neutral ground. Five years later, Tapscott returned to NYC for another trio date. The results sat in the vaults for fourteen years. Dissent Or Descent pairs Tapscott with Fred Hopkins on bass and Ben Riley on drums - two musicians whose credentials need no e…

The final volume in the Tapscott Sessions series, Vol. 11 is gentler than some of its predecessors - stretched out and moody, with a contemplative feel that rewards patient listening. Twelve tracks recorded in 1982, released twenty-five years later as Tom Albach continued excavating the Lobero Theatre archive. What distinguishes this installment is the breadth of its sources. Tapscott opens with Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream," moves through the Mexican standard "Bésame Mucho," then lands on Sun …

Drawn from two different recording sessions at the Lobero Theatre, The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 10 showcases Horace Tapscott in an especially exploratory mode. Nearly all original compositions here - "Miguel," "Roses In Bloom," "First Love," "Searching," "Upside Down," "Maya & Me" - hauntingly introspective pieces performed with a sense of creative searching that's incredibly powerful despite the absence of other instrumentation. The album runs seventy-five minutes. That's a significant amount of …

Between 1982 and 1985, whenever Horace Tapscott felt ready, Tom Albach would hire an engineer, a crew, and a mobile sound truck to record him at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. Sessions typically ran between 2 and 4 a.m., when auto traffic fell quiet and the room's natural acoustic could breathe. Albach believed these solo recordings represented his greatest accomplishment as a producer - a conviction some found puzzling given its commercial futility. Solo piano albums by unknown pianists p…

Recorded on February 26, 1980 at United-Western Studios in Hollywood, Dial B For Barbra stands as one of the absolute peaks of Horace Tapscott's output for Nimbus West. Following his monumental orchestral sessions with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Tapscott here condenses his vision into a sextet of extraordinary cohesion, achieving with just six musicians the same sonic vastness of his larger ensembles. The album opens with "Lately's Solo," where Tapscott weaves Miles Davis's "Milestones" t…

The Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, built in 1872 by local composer José Lobero, has witnessed over a century of California cultural history. On the night of November 12, 1981, it became the site of one of the most powerful trio recordings in the Horace Tapscott discography. Tom Albach captured it all for Nimbus West. The group is a study in complementary forces. Roberto Miranda, born in New York to Puerto Rican parents but raised in Los Angeles since the mid-1950s, had been a member of UGMAA a…

Twenty years in a vault. That's how long I Want Some Water waited before anyone outside of a Los Angeles studio could hear it. Recorded on April 29 and May 3, 1980, at United Western in Hollywood, it wasn't released until 1999 - a small CD run that most collectors never saw. The vinyl pressing came forty years after the tapes were made. Billie Harris was born in Laurel, Mississippi, on February 15, 1937. He picked up the saxophone at fourteen, served four years in the Air Force, and landed in Lo…

Seventeen years. That's how long it took the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra to make their first record. Founded in 1961 by Horace Tapscott as the Underground Musicians Association, the orchestra had weathered the Watts uprising, the ferment of the Black Arts Movement, a decade-long residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - all without committing a single note to vinyl. Not for lack of industry interest, but by choice: Tapscott wanted to build a community, not a recording career. It was T…

For nearly two decades, Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra made music without making records. They played in parks, on street corners, at fundraisers, churches, community centers - anywhere the people needed them. While the rest of the jazz world chased contracts and critics, Tapscott was building something else entirely: an ark for the Black arts in the heart of Los Angeles. The story of The Call is inseparable from this larger project. When long-time jazz devotee Tom Albach f…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. This May 1979 concert brings the goods, several tracks were selected for inclusion on the original 1979 “LIVE at IUCC” 2LP..  “Future Sally’s Time”, “LTT”, and “Village Dance” are presented as fresh transfers alongside extended takes of “Sea Wife” and “Many Nights Ago”… Lester Robertson killing it this afternoon…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra n concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. Completely unheard concert from March 30, 1980

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra live in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. Completely unheard concert from February 1980

“Between 1974-77 Elaine Brown led the Black Panther Party, the 1st and only woman to do so. Seize The Time is a curiously elegiac and somber affair. Five of the tracks also features arrangements written by pianist/composer Horace Tapscott and performed by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra” A milestone of the Black music movement, originally released on Vault in 1969. The debut album of Elaine Brown was arranged by piano player and composer Horace Tapscott, conducting the Californian Pan-Afrikan P…

Deluxe CD edition with Obi. The title of Horace Tapscott's debut release is apt, if not self-referential, for indeed a giant of West Coast jazz had awakened with this, the pianist / composer / bandleader's 1969 album for the Flying Dutchman label. Tapscott went on to form two groups crucial to the flowering of modern jazz in the Los Angeles area, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (or P.A.P.A.; the name is an homage to Tapscott's predecessor and peer, Sun Ra), which eventually became part of a lar…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - September 30, 1979. This is the seventh concert that Tom Albach recorded at Immanuel United Church of Christ.  A wild and beautiful performance from beginning to end. Opening with an angelic take of Coltrane’s ‘Equinox’ which turns into a Coltrane medley, this recording is obviously a special one from the start… the existence of an unheard Sabir Mateen composition from 1979 (‘A C…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - March 25, 1979. This is the third concert that Tom Albach recorded at Immanuel United Church of Christ.  This recording finds the Arkestra on new feet following the departure of bandleader Jesse Sharps. Featuring two of Jesse’s classics, including a totally different take on ‘Mykowski’s’, and the now iconic live version of ‘Desert Fairy Princess’, this concert also marks the debu…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - April 29, 1979. This is the fourth concert that Tom Albach recorded at Immanuel United Church of Christ.  Featuring fiery takes of ‘Village Dance’ and ‘Mykowski’s First Fifth’, this concert also marks the only known recording of Tapscott’s ‘Song of Emanon’. Rounded out with the Jesse Sharps tune ‘Sea Wife’ and Tapscott’s homage to David Bryant ‘Dee Bee’s Dance’, this recording ma…

**333 copies, one-time pressing**  Volume 11. 2 disc set documenting the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - April 27, 1980. This is the eleventh and final concert that Tom Albach recorded at Immanuel United Church of Christ. Easily ranking as one of our favorite performances of the series, its also destined to be considered one of the greatest Arkestra live recordings, brimming with intense energy and culminating in the 1-2 punch of a blazing “Lelan…

** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** 2CD SET in gatefold slipcase  2 disc set documenting the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - November 25, 1979. This is the eighth in a series of eleven concerts recorded at the church. This month sees the Arkestra stretching out and reaching blissful heights… the 30+ minute long version of “Carnival” is worth the price of admission alone, but the same could be said for the monumental “Nation Rising” or the deep ta…

Previously unreleased recordings from every decade of the Arkestra’s history, kicking off with a session in Horace Tapscott’s garage in 1961 (involving Linda Hill and Arthur Blythe, amongst others), and running right through to the new generation of young musicians, in a rambunctious closer recorded live in Los Angeles during 2019, featuring Angel Bat Dawid on bass clarinet. Highlights in-between include the surging, militant Nation Rising in 1971 — check Juan ‘Jujigwa’ Gray’s electrifying vocal…

** CD Edition ** This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 and was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic "The Giant Is Awakened" which was released that year.The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA’s jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading behind-the-scenes…

Volume 2 out of 11. Edition of 333 copies, one-time pressing. This is the last recording with Jesse Sharps as the Bandleader before he left for the Army. An incredible afternoon of music and a fitting “Departure” for a Jesse, a true pillar of the 70’s Arkestra. Macrame was originally released in 1979 on the IUCC 2LP, it is presented here, in a raw transfer of the master reel. Mykowski’s 1st Fifth is nothing but pure fire with those blistering solos by Sharps, Session, and a very special reading …

**333 copies, one-time pressing**  Volume 6 out of 11. This is the last recording with Jesse Sharps as the Bandleader before he left for the Army.. An incredible afternoon of music and a fitting “Departure” for a Jesse, a true pillar of the 70’s Arkestra. Macrame was originally released in 1979 on the IUCC 2LP, it is presented here, in a raw transfer of the master reel. Mykowski’s 1st Fifth is nothing but pure fire with those blistering solos by Sharps, Session, and a very special reading by Kam…

A never before issued recording of Horace Tapscott leading his legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, 'Live at I.U.C.C. 11/26/78' documents the entirety of a nearly two-hour performance that rises as one of the most beautiful, striking, and historically important releases of the year. The first in a series of eleven volumes planned by the label for 2023, this 2CD set is limited to 250 copies only and is already sold-out at source. A joyous explosion of sound, seeded by social, political, and co…

*2022 stock* On October 14th 1989, Horace Tapscott, founder of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, performed alongside his close friend and musical partner Michael Session at the Théâtre du Chêne Noir in Avignon, France. This was during a tour in which they traveled across Europe. The duo presented compositions by Leimert Park musicians Jesse Sharps, Nate Morgan and Tapscott himself. The stark instrumentation of this concert led to minimal arrangements of compositions typically performed by much l…

Previously unpublished live recording, under exclusive license from the Horace Tapscott Family. The first opportunity to listen to Horace’s working quintet from the '90s! Includes a 16-page booklet with liner notes by the original producers of those recordings: Don Snowden and David Keller, photos by Warren Berman and some rare documents.