Jazz /
Evolution
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Evolution documents Grachan Moncur III stepping out as a composer‑leader with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. The pieces blend post‑bop structures with freer approaches to metre and harmony, resulting in music that feels constantly tilted yet never topples. Moncur’s trombone leads themes that are by turns mournful, eerie, and boldly declamatory; the band responds with solos…
Total Eclipse
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Total Eclipse, Bobby Hutcherson leads a band featuring Harold Land on reeds, Chick Corea on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The tunes are more expansive, the structures less immediately obvious; the interplay between vibes and saxophone often feels like a conversation unfolding on the spot. Even brighter passages seem to carry a shadow, a lingering sense of unresolved tension that Hutcherson’s solos trace without trying to dispel. Cor…
Oblique
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Oblique deepens Bobby Hutcherson’s quartet explorations with Herbie Hancock on piano, Albert Stinson on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The inclusion of harpsichord as well as piano opens up unusual timbral possibilities, allowing chords to glisten, clatter, or hang in space in unexpected ways. Hutcherson favours tunes that sidestep predictable resolutions, keeping the listener pleasantly off balance and heightening attention. The group plays with chamber‑like s…
Happenings
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Happenings, Bobby Hutcherson pares things back to a quartet with Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The transparency of the setting throws every gesture into relief: a single vibraphone note, a piano chord, a cymbal swell can tilt the whole mood. The tunes hover between impressionistic and singable, their harmonies unfolding slowly, their rhythms shifting between gentle propulsion and suspended drift. Hutcherson’s tone is…
Dialogue
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Dialogue finds Bobby Hutcherson at the centre of a forward‑looking sextet: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Sam Rivers on reeds, Andrew Hill on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The compositions are exploratory, blending post‑bop, free jazz, and avant‑garde impulses into structures that encourage risk‑taking. Hutcherson’s vibes oscillate between delicate, bell‑like patterns and sharply articulated lines, often bridging Rivers’ angular statements…
Dance With Death
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Recorded in 1968 but long unreleased, Dance with Death showcases Andrew Hill with Charles Tolliver on trumpet, Joe Farrell on saxes, Victor Sproles on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Hill’s themes are knotty yet singable, his rhythms subtly displaced, his harmonies rich with ambiguity. He sometimes sketches skeletal frameworks at the piano, sometimes erupts into dense, percussive passages, while the horns and rhythm section navigate shifting tempos and unexpect…
Point Of Departure
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Point of Departure, Andrew Hill convenes a dream ensemble: Eric Dolphy on alto, bass clarinet, and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Hill’s compositions bend conventional form with asymmetrical phrases, overlapping lines, and harmonies that hover between centres, creating a sense of forward motion as much psychological as rhythmic. Each soloist finds personal routes through these land…
Inner Urge
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Inner Urge finds Joe Henderson pushing his quartet – McCoy Tyner (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) – into more intense and complex territory. The title track’s driving rhythm and restless harmonic motion set the tone for a session where the stakes feel higher and the edges a bit sharper. Henderson probes motifs, worrying them from different angles, unafraid of jagged contours or sudden leaps. Tyner’s dense voicings and rolling left hand, Crans…
The Prisoner
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** The Prisoner is one of Herbie Hancock’s most ambitious large‑ensemble works, featuring Johnny Coles and Thad Jones on trumpet/flugelhorn, Garnett Brown and Jack Rains on trombones, Joe Newman on bass trombone, Hubert Laws and Romeo Penque on reeds, Tony Studd on tuba, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums, among others. Written in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the music uses orchestral textures to explore themes of oppression and …
Speak Like A Child
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Speak Like a Child, Herbie Hancock opts for subtler shades with an unusual front line of Thad Jones on flugelhorn, Peter Phillips (or Jerry Dodgion) on alto flute, and Jackie McLean on alto sax, supported by Ron Carter on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. Carefully voiced harmonies create a soft‑focus glow around lullaby‑like themes that harbour unexpected harmonic turns. Hancock’s piano is restrained and lyrical, often leaving wide spaces around simple phrases,…
My Point Of View
** Special Time-Limited Offer ** My Point of View shows Herbie Hancock widening his palette with a larger band: Donald Byrd on trumpet, Garnett Brown on trombone, Hank Mobley on tenor, Grant Green on guitar, Chuck Israels on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Patricia “Patty” T. on vocals on one track. The writing is richer and more layered, from soulful vamps to waltz‑like lyricism, yet unified by Hancock’s sense of structure and colour. The horns are given space to develop ideas; Green’s guitar…
City Lights
Tone Poet, the series created in 2019 to mark the 80th anniversary of the blue label, continues its releases. The Blue Note vinyl reissue collection was created with the intention of celebrating the musical and sonic journey of the great artists who have travelled their creative path in the grooves of the label's great albums, helping to make the brand a legend. The series stems from Don Was's (President of Blue Note) admiration for the exceptional reissues for true audiophiles produced by the i…
Tonight At Noon
"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377).
T…
Percussion Bitter Sweet
August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language.
The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…
Four For Trane
August 10, 1964. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A young saxophonist from Philadelphia enters the studio to record his first album as a leader for Impulse! Records. At his side, as co-producer, stands the man to whom he owes everything: John Coltrane. Archie Shepp was twenty-seven years old when Four For Trane was recorded - an age that in 1964 jazz still meant being an emerging voice. Born in Fort Lauderdale but raised in Philadelphia - the same Philadelphia as Coltrane, eleven…
New Trombone
Jazz fans rejoice: Curtis Fuller's seminal debut album, New Trombone, originally released on Prestige in 1957, is back in the spotlight. At just 23 years old, the Detroit-born trombonist arrived on the scene with a fluent, innovative style that marked a bold evolution for the trombone in jazz.
Backed by an all-star quintet – Sonny Red on alto sax, Hank Jones on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums – Fuller delivers a powerhouse hard-bop session. The album bursts open with three …
Golden Flower: Live In Sweden
There are musicians who play jazz and there are musicians who expand its very definition. Yusef Lateef was the latter - a visionary who brought the oboe, the argol, the shanai, the bamboo flute and countless other instruments into the jazz vocabulary decades before "world music" became a marketing category. Golden Flower: Live in Sweden presents two never-before-released concert recordings that capture this master at the height of his powers, finally emerging from the Sveriges Radio tape vaults …
Mating Call
Experience a remarkable session led by the legendary pianist and composer Tadd Dameron, recorded in 1956 and featuring the young lion John Coltrane, fresh from his tenure with Miles Davis. Mating Call is a solid and often overlooked gem showcasing six powerful and beautiful Dameron compositions. Performed by an impeccably tight quartet, the album features John Simmons on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, complementing Dameron’s distinctive bass-heavy piano style. This foundation offers a rich …
Live in Kallio
On Live in Kallio, Markus Holkko Quartet turns a Helsinki neighborhood into a pressure chamber of color and rhythm, blending proggy contours, retro-fusion heat and modern Nordic lyricism into long-form live explorations that feel both heady and immediate, cerebral yet unafraid to let the groove bite.
Live At Sogn Student Campus 1968
On Live At Sogn Student Campus 1968, Ditlef Eckhoff Quintet captures Oslo’s student underground at full boil: hard-bop heads splinter into early freebag squalls while Knut Riisnæs and Christian Reim drive the frontline with nervy, melodic fire, turning a long-lost campus tape into a vivid document of Nordic modern jazz in transition.