Jazz /
Navarro con Polenta
* Official reissue of one of Argentina's top jazz-rock albums. First vinyl reissue. Top sound mastered from original master tapes. 8-page booklet with previously unpublished pictures and bilingual liner notes (English and Spanish) * It's safe to say that starting a jazz album with a version of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" was quite a daring deed, to say the least. In Argentina — back in 1977. And yet this is something a musician with the career of Jorge Navarro could afford. Navarro belongs to a g…
Sarava / Canto De Ossanha
Saba developed ‘world music’ beyond its jazz label remit, the eclectic ‘Jazz Meets The World’ series brought together artists from Japan, India, Tunisia, Indonesia and Brazil. Producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt travelled to Rio in 1966 to create SABA’s first Brazilian release with a giant of the scene, guitarist Baden Powell. The resulting album, one of Baden’s greatest, bore two deeply rhythmic, spiritual titles found on this 45. ‘Sarava’ is a trance-like ritualistic number designed to whip dancers…
Blue Dance / Milky Way
Original created by Roland Kovac’s studio band for an industrial commercial, Hans Georg Brunner Schwer, an admirer of Kovac’s work, released the recordings as a full length SABA album in 1968 under the title ‘Trip To The Mars’. The recording has a sound somewhere between atmospheric soundtrack, library and modal jazz. Sort after for the modal waltz dancer ‘Blue Dance’, presented here in it’s ultimate sonic form – AAA analogue mastered and cut to 45rpm. Side 2’s ‘Milky Way’ is a heady trip mixing…
Theme From Zoltan / Mister E
Another highly collectable Nathan Davis release on SABA, also recorded in 1965, ‘Happy Girl’ has remained unissued on vinyl since the 1960s. The date gathers together another top drawer line-up, with Woody Shaw on Trumpet and Larry Young, the Coltrane of the organ, uniquely found on piano for this session. Jimmy Woode again supports on bass, with a furious Billy Brooks on drums. ‘Theme From Zoltan’, a fierce modal original by Shaw, was recorded by Young the following year on his classic Blue Not…
Carmell's Black Forest Waltz / B's Blues
Nathan Davis recorded ‘The Hip Walk’ in 1965 alongside his school mate, trumpeter Carmell Jones (who a month later went on to record the Song for My Father album with Horace Silver). The quintet is backed by the tightest of rhythm sections: Francy Boland on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. One of the most beautiful, swinging jazz pieces ever captured on tape, ‘Carmell’s Black Forest Waltz’ is presented in all-analogue richness on 45 single format for the first time. On side …
Sconsolato / Just Give Me Time
Although considered to be the greatest jazz singer the world has ever known, Mark Murphy remained underground with a cult status. Perhaps the pinnacle of his recording career was Midnight Mood released by SABA in 1968, aligning his unique vocal skills with the Clarke-Boland Octet. With the arrangements of Francy Boland, Kenny Clarke playing offbeats and between-beats, and individualists like Sahib Shihab and Ake Persson, the backing on this date provided a unique dialogue for Murphy. After the l…
Ensadinado / Night Lady
Recorded in 1966, Fats Sadi’s ‘Ensadinado’ was his second recording as leader, his first album had been an early Blue Note 10”. Essentially comprising the Clarke-Boland rhythm section, with Sadi on vibes, Francy Boland on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums, this 45 features the two standout tracks from this rare SABA LP, which remains unissued on vinyl since its release in 1966. ‘Ensadinado’ finds the quartet playing a latin oriented title penned by Jimmy Woode. Boland’s ‘Night…
Respect in Yule
Respect In Yule promises to be among the most fun and eclectic holiday albums ever – the album ranges from introspective to ecstatic, from the popular to the obscure, the sacred to the secular. In choosing the repertoire, The Respect Sextet wanted to pull together some of their favorite holiday music from all genres and view them through Respect-colored glasses. Featuring compositions by Misha Mengelberg, Loudon Wainwright III, Frank Loesser, Robbie Robertson (of The Band), Thelonious Monk, Jule…
The Easywood Killer
* Edition of 100 * While working on a filmmusic job, Bjorn Eriksson started to fool around with a philharmonic orchestra plugin, and created his own crazy jazz combo. Music Iinfluenced by his heroes Django Reinhardt, Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington, Raymond Scott, Ennio Morricone, Universe Zero and many others. This collection of compositions could be a soundtrack for a East European saga or a French strange detective serie. Although The Easywood KIller is a solo project, there will be a live grou…
Live at Grenoble Jazz Festival 2010
A unique musical journey by three outstanding musicians exploring jazz, improvisation and electronic music. Percussionist/composer Roland Auzet with performer/composer Pierre Jodlowski invited the legend of French jazz and improvised music, Michel Portal (who premiered Pierre Boulez’s “Domain,” Boulez said that Portal is “blessed with an imaginative virtuosity”) to form Trio PAJ in 2007.
This daring collaboration reflects their influence of various artists and styles, from Boulez to Stockhausen…
Voices: Ten Improvisations
This superb pairing of two top-flight improvisors reminds me of why I listen to this music. It’s not about ‘music’, it’s about sounds and their making. It’s a given that these two can really ‘play’. Joe McPhee established that in the immediate post-Coltrane era, and Heward – while I know little about him except that he’s also a visual artist who recorded a duo album on Avant with Steve Lacy – I’m sure he can really whack those tubs. The point, however, is that they don’t ‘just play’, they also l…
Live In Montreal
This live concert is perhaps one of the last recordings from soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy. Lacy and percussionist John Heward first met in Paris in 1975. Though they remained in regular contact through the years, they did not actually play together until this concert in Montreal on 20 June 2003. Two months later Lacy was diagnosed with cancer, and died in June 2004.Lacy suggested to Heward that he wanted to end this improvisation with the motif Recessional for Oliver Johnson, as a tribute…
Konkan Dance
** 2021 Stock ** Following in the footsteps of the landmark 1966 double-quartet recording by Joe Harriott and John Mayer, Indian born musician Amancio D’Silva produced some of the most adventurous and sophisticated recordings within the canon of ‘indo-jazz’, a term used to define a pioneering east meets west synthesis that reflected the shifting musical and cultural landscape of post-war Britain. An experiment which reached a pinnacle in 1972 with D’Silva’s seminal recording Dream Sequence by Co…
Illuminations
** 2021 Stock ** Two outstanding performers, Carlos Santana and Alice Coltrane, collaborated to record their fantastic trip through time called Illuminations. Santana's interest in the Indian culture and different musical styles led him to the musician Alice Coltrane.
Faces (1977) & Bonus Tracks
Gabor Szabo's Faces, recorded for Mercury in 1977, is a distinctly jazz-fusion album. It was produced by trombonist and former Crusaders member Wayne Henderson, with the rhythm section coming from the soul-jazz-funk band Pleasure, with whom Henderson was working for the Fantasy label at the time. Built on gripping rough funk grooves, the music leaves plenty of room for Szabó's elegant guitar lines and meticulously constructed solos. The album, which was rather neglected when it was released, can…
Hum Dono
Vocalion presents Hum Dono by Joe Harriott & Amancio D'Silva Quartet. The combination of a Jamaican sax player and an Indian jazz guitarist getting together with a UK jazz elite in its hay day could be the stoned out fantasy. It’s also a music and cultural melting pot making up a real lost treasure in jazz music. Fantasy meeting reality. Recorded at Lansdowne Studios, London, February & March 1969. A&R – Michael J. Dutton, Oliver Lomax. Alto Saxophone – Joe Harriott. Bass – Dave Green (tracks: 1…
Painters Winter
One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, William Parker continues to raise the bar higher.
Mayan Space Station
One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, William Parker continues to raise the bar higher.
New Directions in Modern Music
Avant-garde jazz drummer Rashied Ali played with John Coltrane up until his death in 1967, appearing on final recordings like The Olatunji Concert and Interstellar Space. After Coltrane's death, Ali soon formed his own quartet, with Fred Simmons on piano, Stafford James on bass violin and Carlos Ward on alto sax and flute. The quartet's first release, New Directions In Modern Music, released on Ali's own Survival Records in 1973, exploded onto the free jazz scene, influencing the likes of Don Ch…
Unity in Isolation
** First pressing of 200 with artwork by Tiny Little Hammers ** Astral Spirits presents Unity in Isolation by Landon Caldwell & Nick Yeck-Stauffer. Crazy Doberman were holed up at A-Space in Indianapolis for their Illusory Expansion sessions, an amorphous span of organic and guided jams punctuated by smoke breaks, meals, and sleep. Players came in and went, sometimes in the middle of jams. I had never met Nick before. Most everyone went outside to smoke and give their ears a rest. I was sitting …