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In the post World War II era, dozens of young African Americans in South Central Los Angeles found their way to careers in music. In a community facing challenging social conditions and with little to no outside support, they would become artists, supported by the best that their community and culture had to offer, from neighborhood and family to schools and churches, private teachers, formal and informal spaces and institutions, and more than a few unsung heroes.
“The neighborhood was tough, b…
Rare private press Jazz-Funk with breaks and some spiritual influences reminiscent of Brother Ahh at times. The group cover Stevie Wonder’s You Are the Sunshine of My Life and play originals that include Sweet Heritage, Free Will, One of a Kind (Love Affair), Serene Beauty, and In the Fall of the Year. This is a beautiful sounding record with elements of straight Jazz, Soul-Jazz, and some funky stuff including some Free and Afro-centric influences.The main man is Jaman himself (J.E. Manuel) on k…
**Seminal Spiritual Jazz from Detroit, 1977. Officially licensed and re-mastered re-issue**. Comes with fold-out insert of Ade Olatunji’s Poetry that features on the album and never before seen artwork designed by New Zealand based designer David Broome. Oracy' by The Positive Force & Ade Olatunji belongs to the body of 1970s recordings that joined two of the great African American vehicles for expression, jazz and poetry, into a single, powerful force. A profoundly inspiring that doubles as an …
Borrowing its title from an infamous Australian jazz composition, Pyramid Pieces is a long overdue compilation which documents a period of Australian modern jazz that flourished during the late 1960s and 70s. A brief yet vital survey which examines an isolated yet thriving vibrant scene that was largely unheard outside of its own country. Whilst many local musicians found success abroad in the UK or the USA, those that remained found limited support for jazz from the commercially-minded mainstre…
Blacknuss was a trend-setting iconic contribution to jazz. Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s creative force helped to define musical culture. From its opening bars, with Bill Salter's bass and Rahsaan's flute passionately playing Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine", you know this isn't an ordinary Roland Kirk album (were any of them?). As the string section, electric piano, percussion, and Cornel Dupree's guitar slip in the back door, one can feel the deep soul groove Kirk is bringing to the jazz fore here. A…
A later album by Pharoah, but one of his best! The record has a solidity that matches all of the soulful spirituality of his Impulse years with the a tightness that really sends the message home. Sanders on this LP is next to perfect
Pianist Lonnie Liston Smith began his true professional career with Pharoah Sanders and then moved on to the very electric Miles Davis band before embarking on his own journey -- one that took him deep into the waters of pop music and disco by the late '70s. On "Visions Of A New World", Smith, accompanied by his working unit the Cosmic Echoes, digs deeper into the soul-jazz vein that he had begun exploring on "Expansions" and "Funk Extraction" in 1973 and 1974, respectively. In 1975, Smith was l…
Tip! **350 copies, to be released on 30.05.2020** Second release from Finland’s finest underground jazz collective, four new tracks in the same spiritual-energetic playful bag we dig! Limited edition 10", comes numbered and with download code insert.
"Some albums show you right away what kind of spirit backs them. Ronald Snijders solo debut from 1977, Natural Sources, is one of these. It begins with a free improvised, sometimes scatting flute and while the flute goes more and more crazy some scat vocals join in to make this first track a kinda strange affair. Jazz, free and spirited, seems the way but Ronald Snijders, son of Surinamese composer Eddy Snijders, outwits us in all our tiny minded expectations with the next song already. An everg…
**2020 stock, sold out at the label** LP version. Numbered edition of 1000 copies. The album Premonition is a masterpiece of spiritual jazz, and reflects the spiritual awakening of a natural musical genius, Umlah Sadau Holt. In the 1970s, Holt was involved in all kinds of jazz, reggae, and world music projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over time he absorbed the global rhythms that can only come from extensive involvement with a variety of international musicians, and he integrated them into…
**CD version** New Rituals is exploring the relation between form and freedom, between modern Western culture and traditional Eastern culture, and between written and open musical material. The piece is written in three parts for (1) ensemble and a chant-choir, (2) ensemble, and (3) solo bass.The three parts are all rooted in and based on the same source material: 10 ancient Zen Buddhist sutras, or chants. The music is presenting Buddhist philosophy in a nutshell: What we experience as an indepe…
"Argentinian pianist Fernando Gelbard's killer debut (and only) '74 LP. Didi is a potent mix of Fender Rhodes & Moog with scatting percussionists and fierce tenor sax -- Coltrane meets candombe!" Gatefold sleeve. "If I was asked to name some great Argentinian jazz musicians, I'd probably draw a blank after Gato Barbieri, but this rather nice slab of vinyl has added a couple more to the list. Fernando Gelbard played piano with tenorist Horacio Borraro, whose quartet peddled a fiery if unoriginal…
2016 release. This is a previously unreleased 1966 live club performance from Yusef Lateef, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist whose mixing of jazz and Eastern music was a great influence on some of the finest musicians of the era including John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders. Accompanied at Ronnie Scott’s by the house band of pianist Stan Tracey, double bassist Rick Laird and drummer Bill Eyden, most of the repertoire played comes from Lateef’s earlier recordings for Savoy and Prestige such as …
Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1984, Outernational Sounds proudly presents Build An Ark pianist Nate Morgan’s second outing for the celebrated Nimbus West label – the conscious and spiritualised sounds of Retribution, Reparation.
Previously unreleased Spiritual Jazz from Norway recorded in Asker Church in the mid 1970s. Playful rhythmical jazz with Modal and Latin influences with band members from That's Why, Ruphus and En Tiempo.The Jan Simonsen Quintet was an active mid 1970's, Norwegian jazz group. Drawing up influences from Herbie Hancock to McCoy Tyner the group’s very rhythmical approach fell positive with the crowd and landed them regular gigs at the famous Club7 venue in Oslo, the group also performed at Molde Ja…
Black Saint present a reissue of John Carter Octet's Dauwhe, originally released in 1982. Dawhe is the first chapter in John Carter's Roots and Folklore saga. A five-part epic journey through the African American heritage conceived by the great clarinetist-composer and performed by a stellar line-up featuring Carter himself, Bobby Bradford (cornet), James Newton (flute), Charles Owens (soprano sax, oboe, clarinet), Red Callender (tuba), Roberto Miranda (bass), William Jeffrey (drums), and Luis P…
Rare Brazilian spiritual jazz reissued for the first time worldwide from the original master tapes. Legendary sessions produced by Amado Maita, deluxe numbered limited edition with OBI and thick cover. Recorded live at São Paulo in 1982, the album was originally issued on Amado Maita’s small indie label called Poitou in the '80s, and features one of the best Brazilian sax players, the legendary Nestico and his sister composer, piano player Lilu. Nestico joined several Jazz ensembles in São Paulo…
**Super limited** The musician and spiritual seeker Alice Coltrane was much more than just John Coltrane’s second wife. One of the few harpists to feature prominently in jazz, she was also a renowned pianist and composer and her interest in spiritual matters greatly helped steer her husband deeper into Krishna consciousness, which had significant bearing on his music, most notably evident on A Love Supreme. This mesmerizing performance, held at Carnegie Hall four years after John’s untimely pass…
A beautiful, dreamlike expression of spiritual jazz recorded at a time when the idiom was completely out of vogue, Gary Bias' East 101 remains little known even by cult-classic standards, but its free-flowing approach demands attention from listeners who believe this kind of LP ceased to exist somewhere around the late 1970s. Recorded with a stellar supporting cast including vibist Rickey Kelly, bassist Roberto Miranda, and pianist David Tillman, Bias unspools a suite of deeply soulful and profo…
**Limited bundled edition, 100 copies made.** "Bubbha Thomas is a revolutionary, spiritual jazz bandleader, drummer, and activist from Houston. This is the definitive collection of his four classic albums with his Lightmen band, each mastered from the original tapes, expanded with bonus tracks and alternate mixes. Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and s…