Jazz /
Miles In St. Louis
This collector's LP mostly features the 1963 Miles Davis Quintet (which included tenor-saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams) during a live apperance in St. Louis. The previously unissued music is reasonably well-recorded and gives listeners additional versions of such standards as "I Thought About You," "All Blues" and "Seven Steps to Heaven." - Scott Yanow, Allmusic.com
Searching in Grenoble : The 1978 Solo Piano Concert
Searching In Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert is a previously unissued recording of jazz icon Mal Waldron's mesmerizing performance at the "Five Days of Jazz" series in Grenoble, France on March 23, 1978. Waldron was Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, played on classic sessions with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Jackie McLean among others, and recorded dozens of solo albums as a leader before his passing in 2002. Originally produced by the legendary André Francís and transferred from t…
Adam's Apple
It is unclear whether it was Wayne Shorter’s initial intention to do anything particularly ambitious during the two visits to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in February 1966 that produced Adam’s Apple. Certainly, neither the repertoire—five recently composed Shorter tunes in AABA format and “502 Blues,” by pianist Jimmy Rowles, a hard drinker, as Shorter was at the time (the subtitle denotes the police code for drinking and driving)—nor the treatments contain the radical originality of the five pieces…
Unity
'On Unity, jazz organist Larry Young began to display some of the angular drive that made him a natural for the jazz-rock explosion to come barely four years later. While about as far from the groove jazz of Jimmy Smith as you could get, Young hadn't made the complete leap into freeform jazz-rock either. Here he finds himself in very distinguished company: drummer Elvin Jones, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and saxman Joe Henderson. Young was clearly taken by the explorations of saxophonists Coleman and …
Soundnitia / Soundmagnificat / Soundmusication
Tip! This bundle includes the following items:
"Soundnitia" is the cipher under which the experimental group The Talismen constituted in 1974 and made its presence known on the Jazz scene with the first LP. The initiator and spiritus rector of the avant-garde ensemble is the saxophonist Fitz Gore, a "stormer of the valves" and unknown to the augurs of the jazz scene. As a saxophonist and a newcomer, he documents with his ultra-hard sound. Fukara (Swahili) is a clear affinity to the school of "h…
Live In Middelheim 1999
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Crossing the Atlantic to meet in Belgium for the first time in almost six months, and going their separate ways less than twenty hours later, Masada’s concert in Middleheim was under pressure from the beginning. Reaching full-out intensity in the first thirty seconds of their very first piece, this is Masada at their wildest—simultaneously out of control and yet intensely focused like a laser beam. "I felt like a squirrel being dragged behind a Mack truck." …
Copenhagen, Denmark (Fm) October 25, 1963
*In process of stocking* "Recorded on the 1963 tour of Europe, this is the definitive John Coltrane Quartet at its musical peak. My edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz suggests that the 1963 tour was ‘slightly anti-climactic’; on the basis of these tracks, I have to disagree. Although, compared with say, the Stockholm recording of the same tour, this set feels much stronger (even though the pieces are more or less the same, taken from the short set list that the Quartet toured in the October a…
Live In Sevilla 2000
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Live in Sevilla, recorded and released in the year 2000, is arguably the finest document in this extremely prolific jazz quartet's catalog. If there's anyone who still believes that John Zorn is nothing more than an avant-garde screamer, look no further. The interplay between Zorn's alto and the trumpet of Dave Douglas is nothing short of amazing, and each one's soloing is focused and intense. Joey Baron and Greg Cohen are a fantastic rhythm section; Cohen a…
Live In Jerusalem 1994
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Every working band has magical nights – nights when everything fits together and the music takes off into the stratosphere. The Masada Live series documents these unforgettable concerts recorded in venues around the world, bringing these rare special moments to you in beautiful 2 CD packages. This first set presents Masada’s historic visit to Israel, their first appearance at the world famous Jerusalem Festival. A very special moment in the life of one of th…
Masada Anniversary Edition, Vol. 3: The Unknown Masada
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* In the early 90s, John Zorn surprised a lot of people, and considering that he was a composer known for sudden, drastic stylistic shifts and pummeling noise-improv, it was a notable accomplishment. However, rather than shock his audience with sonic terror, Zorn took an alternate route: he grew up. His original Masada Quartet was a markedly different project than he had ever been involved with before: although he'd recorded straight jazz sessions (News for Lu…
Masada Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1: Masada Guitars
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* In 1993 John Zorn began composing and performing his 208 tunes that now comprise what is known as the Masada songbook. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this, his most popular musical project, John Zorn has organized a series of CDs, featuring his most illustrious colleagues performing their own unique arrangements of these classics of modern Jewish music. This first release contains three guitarists whose styles are as varied as the compositions they pe…
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 1
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* September 2003 marked the 50th birthday of John Zorn, and to celebrate, Tonic hosted a month-long celebration of Zorn's various musical groups and projects. The shows were recorded, and the best of them are being released as a new series on Zorn's "Tzadik" label.
The first offering is the entire early set by the Masada String Trio, recorded on September 4, 2003, with Zorn conducting Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on cello, and Greg Cohen, on ba…
Live At Tonic 1999
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock* With the growth of saxophonist/composer/bandleader/producer John Zorn's Masada project into a veritable cottage industry that includes Masada Recital, Masada String Trio, Masada Guitars , Electric Masada and The Unknown Masada, it may be easy to forget how, ten years ago, his Masada Quartet, with trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron burst onto the scene with a series of ten rapidly-released studio records that combined a Jewish mu…
Live In Paris (1971 - Lost ORTF Recordings)
Transversales Disques proudly presents Ahmad Jamal Trio, Live in Paris 1971. Never heard before ORTF recordings performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris. This is the first official release with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) coming in a Deluxe Edition - Classic Tip-On Jacket. Including exclusive pictures. Mastered from the original master tapes.
"While be-bop musicians practise one-upmanship in terms of speed, Ahmad Jamal develops a…
The Almoravid
*In process of stocking* Terrific session just released in 1974 on influential independent Muse. A modal masterpiece verging on spiritual jazz with a series of excellent players: from Richard Davis and Cecil McBee on bass to Ray Mantilla on congas and percussion, through Harold Vick distinctive flute and tenor sax. The major voice on this record belongs to the traps of Joe Chambers. The enormous potency combined with complete authority and tonal clarity that Chambers brings to the drums has made…
Soundmusication
Tip! “Soundmusication” is the third and final album by Jamaican born tenorist Fitz Gore, another rare and beautiful spiritual jazz LP from the late 1970s. “Fitz had a very deeputopian faith in the right music, which could change the world and develop a real condition of peace, because it was supposed to move people`s feelings and actions to spiritual truth. He was convinced that music owned the healing power of the world” (Ulrich Kurth).
Other players include Lukoki Mampasi on electric piano, Ob…
Live Europe 1960 revisited
'The Miles Davis Quintet of early 1960 was an endangered, embattled entity. Davis and his frontline foil John Coltrane had been drifting apart stylistically and temperamentally for months. United in the embrace and exploration of modal devices on the trumpeter’s seminal Kind of Blue album released the previous summer, bandleader and sideman were increasingly at odds as to where to go next with the celebrated innovations.' - Derek Taylor
French Story
* 180 gram yellow audiophile vinyl* This is a much better album than the title might suggest. Wilen still has the blend of tasteful restraint and inventiveness which marked his memorable duet with Miles Davis for the soundtrack of L’Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud and the second track here reprises some of that music. The sixth track seems to offer more but the Generique credited to Davis is actually the Benny Golson composition which opened the Jazz Messengers’ soundtrack for Des Femmes Disparaisse…
At The Blackhawk
*In process of stocking* The well-known 1962 performance by the celebrated Ahmad Jamal Trio with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier at the Blackhawk Club in San Francisco. This formation of the group wouldn't last long, as Israel Crosby died in mid-1962.
Karma
Acoustic Sounds Series edition Karma is a jazz recording by the American tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in May 1969 on the Impulse! label. A pioneering work of the "spiritual jazz" style, it has become Sanders' most popular and critically acclaimed album. It is among a number of spiritually-themed albums released on the Impulse! label in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The album's main piece is the 32-minute-long "The Creator Has a Master Plan," co-composed by Sanders with vocalist Leo…