Excellent stuff – and one of Don Cherry's first global jazz experiments on record! The set is a super-hip concert performance recorded at the US Embassy in Turkey, featuring a band of eastern-flavored players that includes Okay Temiz on percussion, Selcuk Sun on bass, and Irfan Sumer on tenor. Tracks are shorter and a bit tighter than some of Cherry's other work from the early 70s – but they also have a strong amount of world influences, and the record is perhaps one of his greatest achievements at cross-breeding musical cultures. Tunes include "Gandalf's Travels", "St John & The Dragon", "Water Boy", "Kara Deniz", "Man On The Moon", and "Two Flutes". LP, Vinyl record album

The team of Al & Zoot are wonderfully reunited in this classic 70s session – an album that still crackles with all their best twin-tenor frontline styles, but which also has a more fluid, free, and easygoing feel than their work in the 50s! The rhythm session on the set features some great work by Horace Parlan on piano, giving the set a nice gutbuckety bottom, and making the whole thing come across with a lot more soul than you might expect. Titles include "Motoring Along", "Fallin", "What The World Needs Now", and "Stockholm LA". CD also features 3 bonus tracks too! CD

The icy voice of Norwegian singer Karin Krog is a perfect match for Dexter's deep soulful saxophone, and the two of them perform wonderfully together in this rare set of tracks recorded in 1970 with Kenny Drew on piano and Niel Henning Orsted-Peterson on bass. Krog has always been tremendously respectful of the players that she records with, and unlike other jazz vocal recordings, where the soloists take back seat to the singer, her recordings have them coming out front, and really sharing the spotlight – both in solo space, and in the interplay between the singer and musicians. Tracks include "Blue Eyes", "How Insensitive", "Some Other Spring", "Blue Monk", and her "Tribute To Jimmy Scott". (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

One of the rarest free jazz albums of the European 60s scene – a set that was originally intended for release by Sonet Records, pressed up in test records for the musicians, then denied release because they felt that they'd already moved past the performance! Yet in the space of over 50 years, the music still sounds remarkably fresh – an early, striking, and stunning example of the way that the European avant jazz scene was not only overtaking the American one, but also providing the kind of energy that would be a key inspiration for artists like Albert Ayler or Cecil Taylor! Pianist Tom Prehn offers up a lot of the latter here – boundless piano lines that leap forward into space with a frenzied, yet tuneful approach – followed by tremendous tenor from Frits Krogh, a player we don't know at all – but who blows powerfully and soulfully, at a level that maybe even prefaces some of John Coltrane's more outside material to come. The rest of the group features Poul Ehlers on bass and Finn Slumstrup on drums – and the album features the full "Axiom (parts 1 & 2)" performance from the Sonet album – plus a more contemplative number titled "Percussive Anticipations", recorded by the same group in 1966, and appearing here for the first time ever! CD

(Folk/Country, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool set from Bengt Arne Wallin – very cool larger arrangements, set up with guest vocals from Sylvia Vrethammar, alto from Arne Domernus, tenor from Lennart Aberg, trumpet from Clark Terry, and even percussion from Sabu Martinez! LP, Vinyl record album

One of two great records that Cherry cut for the Sonet label while working in Sweden. The album features Cherry in the company of Swedish players like Bernt Rosengren, Agneta Arnstrom, and Bengt Berger – all of whom play in a very world jazz vibe, adding in lots of strange percussion, gongs, pianos, and other percussive instruments to the mix. Cherry even vocalizes a bit on one track, and he plays no trumpet at all on the recording – which shows an even greater commitment to exploring new modes of expression than you might expect. Titles include "Tibet", "Moving Pictures For The Ear", "Love Train", and "Gamla Stan – The Old Town By Night". LP, Vinyl record album

A mid 70s reunion of some of the key figures in the early New York bop scene – all recorded here in great fidelity, and on tracks that run a lot longer than their initial 78rpm recordings! The lineup includes Dizzy on trumpet, Sonny Stitt on tenor, John Lewis and Hank Jones on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Max Roach on drums – making a rare 70s appearance in a straight set like this. Tracks are all bop standards, played in versions that allow for plenty of solo space – and titles include "Confirmation", "Groovin High", "Lover Man", "All The Things You Are", and "Lady Bird". LP, Vinyl record album

A 70s trad revival set from Ruby Braff – recorded in Sweden as part of the excellent Sonet catalog. The group on the set features Ruby on cornet, alongside Dick Katz on piano, Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Bill Crow on bass, and Connie Kay on drums. Tracks are short, and dominated nicely by Braff's classic solo style – and titles include "Love Lies", "Them There Eyes", "Swinging On A Star", "Same Old South", "Yesterdays", and "Why Was I Born". LP, Vinyl record album

With Ray Santisi on piano, Johnny Chiodini on guitar, Mike Richmond on bass, and Randy Jones on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderful mellowness recorded by Art during the 70s – a beautiful little session done in Stockholm with some really great touches! At the beginning, things start out in typical Farmer ballad mode, but as the album moves on, Sabu Martinez comes in with some added percussion – and the lineup of guitar, bass, and two drummers picks things up with a nice little pace. The whole thing hits its stride on the tune "Green Witch" – a track that has a slight Latin pulse on the bottom, and which almost threatens to go modal – but enjoys its skittish approach to percussion and the way it keeps things edgey! Other tracks include "Smiling Billy", "A Bitty Ditty", and "A Sleeping Bee". CD

Incredible work from one of the greatest groups of the New York avant scene of the 60s – the legendary New York Contemporary Five, a combo that features Archie Shepp on tenor, John Tchicai on alto, Don Cherry on cornet, Don Moore on bass, and JC Moses on drums! This 1963 recording, originally done in Copenhagen, is one of the group's most lasting statements – a bold, bracing bit of jazz that seems to pick up energy from Ornette Coleman's dimming flame, prefacing Albert Ayler inferno to come, wrapped up with some of the sensitivity of Eric Dolphy in his final years – a record that rivals the best that any of those three players had to offer. Shepp's got an intensity that almost blows away his Impulse sides, and Tchicai has hardly ever sounded better – and even Cherry seems to be unlocking a whole new side of his spirit in the process of the recording! Titles include "Mick", "The Funeral", "When Will The Blues Leave", "Crepuscule With Nellie", "OC", and "Cisum". LP, Vinyl record album

Cooking is right! You might imagine by the mid 80s, these jazz greats were past their prime, but this set has Woody Shaw, Dizzy Reece & Johnny Griffin blowin' hard in a front line that also features Slide Hampton & Nathan Davis, all important American players who made their mark in the Paris scene of the 60s and 70s – hence the name – and they're brought together here for a festival tribute to Kenny Clarke, who was supposed to join them on the date. These studio sides were cut shortly thereafter and find the group working in a mode that recreates the unbridled creativity they had during their years in Paris – the groove is open-ended, in a soul bop mode that recalls the best work of Shaw, Hampton, and Davis from the 70s. . Includes "Klook's Theme", 'the Burner" & "Callitwatchawanna". LP, Vinyl record album

The team of Al & Zoot are wonderfully reunited in this classic 70s session – an album that still crackles with all their best twin-tenor frontline styles, but which also has a more fluid, free, and easygoing feel than their work in the 50s! The rhythm session on the set features some great work by Horace Parlan on piano, giving the set a nice gutbuckety bottom, and making the whole thing come across with a lot more soul than you might expect. Titles include "Motoring Along", "Fallin", "What The World Needs Now", and "Stockholm LA". LP, Vinyl record album

A warm reunion of two legendary west coast players from the 50s – recorded in Sweden in the 70s, in a style that seems to bring out new talents from both of them! The setting is extremely spare, with only Barney's guitar and Red's bass in the studio – blending electric and acoustic strings together wonderfully, in a sweetly swinging style awash in chromatic hues and mellow tones. The sound is incredibly gentle – as much about sound in space as it is about jazz – with a feel that almost recalls the best work of the time by Jim Hall. Titles include "Wave", "Summertime", "Walkin & Talkin", " Alone Again Naturally", and "Killing Me Softly". LP, Vinyl record album

With Walt Fowler on trumpet and flugelhorn, David Garfield on synthesizers, Rhodes, and piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Gregg Bissonette on drums. LP, Vinyl record album