Jazz /
Joy
Super rare 1970s British jazz from Joy: Chris Francis, James Dvorak, Frank Roberts, Ernest Mothle, Keith Bailey reflecting the young, multicultural, vibrant flavours of mid-70s London. Funky, hip, committed, Joy is one of the forgotten gems of London jazz.
Spirits
New Zealand’s jazz luminaries have assembled to form an all-star cluster: The Circling Sun.
Alchemy In Jazz
Besides being a leading session musician in Milan's jazz scene between the 60s and 90s, Italian pianist Oscar Rocchi created a number of exquisite library albums in the pop-jazz genre. These include among others "Erbe Selvatiche", "Pop-Paraphrenia" and "Woman's Colours" (the latter co-written with his friend Giancarlo Barigozzi) as well as "Alchemy in Jazz", which is now available in digital format for the first time ever. Originally released on Ring, an imprint of Edizioni Minstrel, the album w…
Damisi
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue for the first time Harold Land's classic LP 'Damisi,' recorded in Los Angeles for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records and released in 1972. Featuring Buster Williams (b), Ndugu (ds), Bill Henderson (keys) and Oscar Breashear (tp) the album was recorded at a crucial time when Land was shifting to a more spiritual sound. The session is a superb mix of Funk and modal Jazz and feature the monster groove "In The Back, In The Corner, In The Dark" as well as the deep, med…
Live At Lovely
Japanese master drummer Takeo Moriyama returns to BBE Music’s J Jazz Masterclass Series in a majestic live set showcasing his exemplary musicianship and stature as one of the leading names in Japanese modern jazz. Recorded in December 1990 at the jazz club Lovely in Nagoya, this set sees Moriyama’s quartet deliver an exemplary session of the finest modal, post-bop and spiritual jazz. Moriyama is backed by long-time colleague Fumio Itabashi on piano and the group perform a stunning rendition of I…
Kemo-Sabe
BBE Music continues its highly acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series with Kemo Sabe, the debut album from pianist Masao Nakajima. Recorded in 1979 on Yupiteru Records, it’s an elusive beast in the field of J Jazz and balances delicate and refined playing with power and vigour. The Kemo Sabe album features bassist Osamu Kawakami, who has performed and recorded with such J Jazz figureheads as Sadao Watanabe, Isao Suzuki, and Kunihiko Sugano. Sax duty is by Toshiyuki Honda, leader of the popular fusi…
First
*Much needed repress* BBE Music present the latest in the acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Kohsuke Mine ‘First’, the debut album by one of the leading artists in the new wave of modern jazz that swept Japan in the late 60s and early 70s. ‘First’ epitomises the shifting sound of the Japanese modern jazz scene of the time, characterised by rich textures and tones, kinetic rhythms, punctuated by urgent, angular melody lines. Reissued for the first time since original 1970 release, Mine is joine…
Tachibana
The desire to discover and delve into new and unexplored areas of music has turned attention on the Japanese jazz scene of the 1970s, often regarded as its gilded age. The recent ground-breaking sell-out BBE compilation J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984 threw much needed light on this fascinating era and presented a range of artists and music that surprised and delighted all who heard it. A key track on the compilation was one of the rarest and least known: Dead Letter by the Tohru A…
East Plants
*2023 repress* BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by …
The Piano
As with Directstep (recorded one week previously), this album was recorded, and originally only released, in Japan. It was one of Hancock's most successful albums in Japan, perhaps because it was entirely solo piano. Hancock tackles jazz standards such as "My Funny Valentine", "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" while also performing four original compositions.
Joy
Super rare 1970s British jazz from Joy: Chris Francis, James Dvorak, Frank Roberts, Ernest Mothle, Keith Bailey reflecting the young, multicultural, vibrant flavours of mid-70s London. Funky, hip, committed, Joy is one of the forgotten gems of London jazz. Originally released in 1976, Cadillac and Joy are delighted to offer the first CD/Digital reissue of this great album - remastered by Keith Bailey and including extra, previously unissued, material and a vinyl reissue of the original release i…
Sightsong
The reputation of members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), of which Abrams is a founding member, has long been one of adventurous, dangerous, and difficult music. But in fact, much of the music created out of this organization shows enormous appreciation of the blues and earlier jazz forms. Sightsong is a splendid case in point. The album opens with four duets (two dedicated to Chicago legends Wilbur Ware and Johnny Griffin) which have a swing, a groove, and a…
Happiness Is... Takin' Care Of Natural Business... Dig?
First released back in 1967 on the Touche label and impossible to find on vinyl ever since, Happiness Is Taking Care of Business, Dig was the sole album from the short-lived Al Tanner Quintet. Yet as this much-needed Jazzman reissue proves, it remains an inspired selection of spiritually enriching modal workouts that makes the most of its talented ensemble. While pianist and bandleader Al Tanner naturally makes his presence felt throughout, flautist/trumpeter George Alexander and tenor saxophoni…
Trio (LP)
Back in print by popular demand ! The expressive English pianist Mike Taylor recorded a couple of excellent albums in the mid-1960s, at the request of Denis Preston of Lansdowne Studios, before drug use got the better of him, resulting in a long period of homelessness and a tragically early death from drowning at the age of 30, in 1970. Trio, the only album Taylor cut with the jazz trio he fronted, has strikingly original renditions of jazz standards such as “Stella By Starlight” and “The End Of…
The Big 4
*2023 stock* Japan's legendary drummer steps out here with a killer combo – definitely a "big 4", given that the group features excellent tenor work from Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto, plus Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano from Hideo Ichikawa! George Kawaguchi's famous sense of swing really gets the whole thing going – that big, round approach to the drums that was somewhere in a space between Art Blakey and Buddy Rich – and which was definitely hitting some of its hipper tones by the time of this…
Ptah, The El Daoud
* Recorded in the basement studio of the Coltrane family home in Dix Hills in 1970, Alice Coltrane’s fourth album is a transcendent masterpiece of spiritual jazz. The title track is an ode to the Egyptian God, Ptah (the El Daoud meaning “the beloved”). Many moments on the album reach what Coltrane herself defined the term Turiya as: “A state of consciousness — the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life.” Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit.. *…
A Love Supreme
2023 Official reissue. Transfers from the analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging. One of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing, that at once compiled all of the innovations from his past, spoke to the current of deep spirituality that liberated him from addictions to drugs and alcohol, and glimpsed at the future innovations of his final two and a half years. Recorded over two days in December 1964, Tra…
The Gow-Dow Experience
"Following my recent phone call with Prof. Benson, I left him to continue his 92nd birthday celebrations with his family. We’d talked about his life, his music, his achievements. Throughout our conversation it struck me what a kind, humble and pleasant man he was. I felt that I was in the presence of greatness – not the egotistical greatness that emanates so often from high achievers, but that of someone who had simply won at life.“I was a music teacher. I wasn’t trying to make a record to compe…
The Gow-Dow Experience
"Following my recent phone call with Prof. Benson, I left him to continue his 92nd birthday celebrations with his family. We’d talked about his life, his music, his achievements. Throughout our conversation it struck me what a kind, humble and pleasant man he was. I felt that I was in the presence of greatness – not the egotistical greatness that emanates so often from high achievers, but that of someone who had simply won at life.“I was a music teacher. I wasn’t trying to make a record to compe…
Night Bird
*2023 stock* First recording of Eric Le Lann under his name in 1983. Around him, a group composed of Césarius Alvim on bass, André Ceccarelli on drums and Olivier Hutman on piano and Rhodes which escorts the sublime phrasing of a trumpet entirely placed on the melody. The quartet is of a remarkable flexibility, sonority and unity. A hell of a quartet!