Jazz — All Formats  

Wild early work from Joe McPhee – and actually pretty darn funky! This rare 1970s release features 3 long tracks – two of which were recorded live, with a tight combo that includes a very funky drummer! The album kicks off with the hard wailing "Nation Time", which begins with a shout from Joe, and which rolls into a vamping modal groove (almost Pharoah Sanders-ish) filled with spiritual tenor work by Joe, and some nice electric piano, sounding very off-kilter. Next up is "Shakey Jake", an excellent 13 minute funk number – with bubbling organ, vamping rhythms, and a nice extended jazz dance groove! It's a killer cut, and is the kind of number that Dusty Groove fans will totally love. Last up is "Scorpio's Dance", a pretty raw and somber track, with a nice open-ended loft jazz quality to it. Great stuff – and very nicely packaged!

Funky soul, righteous jazz, and hip production made the Flying Dutchman label one of the greatest imprints of the early 70s! The label was the brainchild of producer Bob Thiele, and was a post-60s project to bring together unheard voices in African American culture – recording heavily in a number of genres that included jazz, funk, soul, and Latin – cutting records that were destined to become instant classics, most of which are still pretty darn influential today! This set does a great job of starting to unpack the wealth of work on Flying Dutchman – bringing together tracks by a few familiar acts, and other lesser-known artists, a few who have rarely been reissued. Titles include "Carnavalito" and "Maria Domingas" by Gato Barbieri, "Mama" and "Chains Of Love" by Esther Marrow", "Baja Bossa" by Oliver Nelson, "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" by Pretty Purdie, "Save The Children" and "I Think I'll Call It Morning" by Gil Scott Heron, "The Creator Has A Master Plan" by Louis Armstrong & Leon Thomas, "Echoes" by Leon Thomas, and "Footprints" and "Astral Travelin" by Lonnie Liston Smith.

Incredible work from one of Sun Ra's most enigmatic periods! The album was recorded in Italy in 1978, right around the same time as "Disco 2000" (and not too far off from Languidity) – and it features Ra playing around with lots of cool spacey keyboards, in a spare cosmic style that's really out of this world! The overall sound is incredible – with an incredible sense of otherness that has Ra pushing the limits of the moog and organ to a level never heard before on record – and in a way, the set is everything you might have imagined when you first heard of Sun Ra as some strange jazz musician who claimed to be from outer space! The group is a quartet, with Michael Ray on trumpet, John Gilmore on tenor, and Luqman Ali on drums – and titles include "Saturn Research", "Media Dreams", "Year Of The Sun", "Constellation", and the haunting straight jazz piece "Twigs At Twilight". Expanded 2CD version features a huge amount of unheard music – a full disc of bonus tracks that includes "Friendly Galaxy", "An Unbeknown Love", "Of Other Tomorrows Never Know", "Images", "The Truth About Planet Earth", "The Shadow World", and even a version of "Space Is The Place"!