Jazz /
Let Freedom Ring To Destination...Out! (Revisited)
Reflecting both early experiences and recent developments with jazz’s avant-garde,
these two albums are the most adventurous, and Let Freedom Ring quite possibly the
most personal, music Jackie McLean ever recorded. – Art Lange
A Tempo Di Jazz
Sonor Music Editions proudly presents "A Tempo Di Jazz" by Maestro Piero Umiliani. This lost gem captures the formative years of modern jazz in late 1950s Italy – alongside the legendary Basso-Valdambrini recordings in the early 1960s, as well as the early years of Piero Umiliani's long and prolific career as a composer with over 190 soundtracks, 40 library albums, and 35 TV title themes recorded. A Tempo Di Jazz includes seven original compositions by Piero Umiliani recorded in 1959. Here, at t…
Voices
"Manfred Schoof grew up perfecting his innovative jazz style, often practicing on either his jazz trumpet or his flügelhorn. By the time he reached high school, Schoof was composing his own arrangements. In 1955, Schoof decided to purse a musical career, enrolling in the Music Academy (Musikakademie) at Kassel. After studying and performing there for three years, he moved to further his studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule. While there, Schoof took a jazz class by Kurt Edelhagen, a West German…
Tension
This rare 1963 recording showcases the incredible early work of German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff and his quintet. Featuring Heinz Sauer on tenor saxophone, Gunter Kronberg on alto saxophone, Gunter Lenz on bass, and Ralf Hubner on drums, the ensemble creates a groundbreaking modernist groove comparable to the innovations of Ornette Coleman and Joe Harriott. The absence of piano and the three-horn frontline contribute to a bracing and powerful sound, striking a dynamic balance between freedo…
Matrix
Esteemed pianist Masabumi Kikuchi enjoyed a long and illustrious career in jazz that encompassed many forms. After playing in Lionel Hampton’s Japanese touring band, he played on five Sadao Watanabe albums in mid-1960s and backed Sonny Rollins before studying at the Berklee College of Music. Matrix was the first of five albums recorded with his Sextet and is rightly rated one of the greatest of his entire career, the album mixing well-executed covers of songs by Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Watanab…
Eric Dolphy At The Five Spot To Iron Man (Revisited)
"Eric Dolphy’s legacy is well represented by these performances from The Five Spot
and the sessions supervised by Alan Douglas. They confirm him to be an artist who
straddled the divide then so deep in jazz, drawing sustenance from the music’s past
as he cleared a path to its future. Dolphy’s was a sensibility that could celebrate
Fats Waller and honor Jomo Kenyatta, its inclusiveness rare in the polarized early
1960s. Fortunately, his example has not simply endured, but has become more
res…
Bahia
Another one of the albums that Prestige would issue several years after it was recorded, Bahia is drawn from a couple of sessions that the iconic tenor saxophonist recorded for the label in the late 1950s, during a time in which he was exploring different genres with various players, including pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, plus drummers Jimmy Cobb and Art Taylor. The album has plenty of Trane hallmarks in the saxophone lead, and there is noteworthy contribution from trumpeter Wilbu…
Plays Bossa Nova
Hideo Shiraki travelled to the US from Japan in 1962 and was bowled over by Horace Silver and the Bossa Nova Craze happening at the same time. When he returned to Japan he went straight into the studio and cut this Blue Note inspired Japanese Jazz Masterpiece.
With a selection of tunes ranging from the 1940's stylings of "Tico Tico" through to the samba infused "Orfeo Negro" and arriving in Silversville with "Sayonara Blues" Hideo Shiraki has hit all the sweet spots! With sleeve notes translated…
More Lost Performances (Revisited)
"The almost five year span bookended in this particular Ayler revisitation marks, in a certain sense,
the beginning and end points of the most lasting and creative portion of his remarkable, though
sadly brief, career." – Brian Olewnick
Bill Evans Duos With Jim Hall & Trios ‘64 & ‘65 (Revisited)
"The emerging credo of western society’s post-Beat counterculture was egalitarian and
anti-hierarchical, be the hierarchy social, political or on the bandstand. Evans and Ayler shared
the belief; only their lexicons were different. If hearing Spiritual Unity was akin, as Ted Joans
wrote, to someone shouting “Fuck!” in St. Patrick’s" – Chris May
Out Of The Afternoon
"Drummer Roy Haynes was just about everywhere in the golden age of jazz, recording classic albums with some of the most legendary names of the genre. The hard-bop-verging-on-post-bop Out Of The Afternoon is an excellent example of the adventurous spirit that was taking flight in the jazz world in the early 1960s. Haynes swings as the leader of this 1962 Impulse! session, featuring A-list jazzmen Roland Kirk (multiple instruments including stritch and nose flute!), Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Henr…
Change Of The Century
Saxophonist Ornette Coleman was more than just a major force in the free jazz movement. In fact, the term was coined by the album of the same name released by his quartet in 1961, his guiding ethos the erasure of fixed structures via improvisation. Released in 1960, Change Of The Century is one of the ground-breaking albums Coleman cut for Atlantic with bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Billy Higgins and trumpeter Don Cherry, which made a significant impact on the future direction of jazz. Relying …
Once In A Lifetime
Infinitely adaptable, DeMerle's power and rhythmic elasticity underlines his bold presence and command of modern jazz drumming. By the time of 'Spectrum,' Les DeMerle's dynamic 1969 United Artists debut album, Les was a known, prodigious young drumming talent who had been wowing audiences through club and TV performances since he was a teen. The unheard gems was a recorded in 1967 by his band, Sound 67, which was lost in the confusing era at Atlantic Records, never to see the light of day. The a…
Clifford Jordan In The World
In the World is an album by jazz saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1969 and released on the Strata-East label in 1972. "Whether at the helm of a record date or as a sideman, Clifford Jordan was known for giving his all. These studio recordings were originally made for Strata East, a label known for its adventurous spirit" - AllMusic
At The Golden Circle Stockholm (Revisited)
"For the followers of Ornette Coleman’s music, 1963 and 1964 were the lost years. His final session for Atlantic Records, Ornette on Tenor, was in March 1961, and though he played sporadic club dates in ’62, his self-produced Town Hall concert in December was to be his last significant appearance until he accepted a Village Vanguard gig in January 1965. The reasons for this hiatus, apparently, were personal, economic, philosophical, pragmatic, and artistic, all at the same time to varying degree…
One Step Beyond To New And Old Gospel (Revisited)
"One Step Beyond is rightly seen as a pivot point in Jackie McLean’s evolution, but its adventurousness was not without precedent. As A.B. Spellman noted in Four Lives in the Bebop Business, “Quadrangle” – the opening track for 1959’s Jackie’s Bag; it was first recorded as “Inding” for Lights Out!, a 1956 Prestige date – “involved an elaborate group construction that [McLean] was afraid was too far-out,” so he used “I Got Rhythm” changes to mainstream it, which he later regretted. His decision m…
Demon's Dance
Demon's Dance is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1967 for Blue Note, but not released until 1970. It features McLean in a quintet with trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist LaMont Johnson, bassist Scotty Holt and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
"The record retreats a bit from McLean's nearly free playing on New and Old Gospel and 'Bout Soul, instead concentrating on angular, modal avant bop with more structured chord progressions... While Demon's Dance didn't quite push McLean's soun…
Ugetsu
Ugetsu: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at Birdland is a live jazz album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers released on Riverside Records in October 1963. The album was recorded at Birdland in New York City.
The original LP had six tracks and producer Orrin Keepnews stated in the liner notes that "there were other performances taped that night that couldn't be fitted into the resulting album". The Jazz Messengers' tour in Japan had ended a few months before this live performance; then the band d…
Odysseus
Odysseus, Eero Koivistoinen's first proper jazz album, gets its title from the wandering spirit of its songs, traveling from one mood to another. Performed by the Eero Koivistoinen Quintet & Sextet, because Koivistoinen wanted to extend his standard quartet (Koivistoinen-Sarmanto-Laine-Hietanen) to a quintet and invited trumpetist Bertil Lövgren to join. Also Juhani Aaltonen is questing on two tracks. Odysseus is an excellent, youthful package of forward-thinking jazz played by ambitious young j…
Imagination!
Another legendary Lateef session cut in 1960 for the New Jazz imprint. The co-leader - bassist Doug Watkins - died tragically in a car accident in 1962 at the age of 27. However, prior to his early demise, he recorded dozens of wonderful sessions with some of the greatest jazzmen of his time, among them Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet. Imagination ! marked his second and final album as a leader, and features Watkins on cello instead of bass. The use of c…