... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

The last-ever album from this legendary duo – and a set that's maybe their funkiest record too! Of course, that's probably no surprise, given that they're playing the Curtis Mayfield tunes from Superfly here – great tracks that make for a really wonderful setting for the pair's highly rhythmic style – Eldee Young on bass and Isaac Redd Holt on drums – plus great Fender Rhodes lines from pianist Ken Chaney! The set also features a bit of congas from Derf Reklaw, and organ and guitar as well – and the whole thing's a long overdue follow up to the funky electric jazz style of their earlier album Oh Girl, on Atlantic. Titles include great takes on "Freddie's Dead", "Give Me Your Love", "Pusher Man", and "Superfly" – plus a few of the group's own numbers, like "Hey Pancho" and "Mystical Man" – as well as a super-dope cover of "People Make the World Go Round". LP, Vinyl record album

An unusual chapter in the career of the Art Ensemble – yet a set that's also a key recording in their legendary time in Paris at the start of the 70s! The set was recorded in that city in 1970, and not issued in France and the US until a few years later – with less fanfare (and less reissue history) than their Nessa, Freedom, and BYG records from the same time – even though the quality here is every bit as great, if not better! The tracks are long, open, and have that wonderfully fluid sense of shifting instrumentation that the group virtually pioneered at the time – with Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell on saxes, Lester Bowie on trumpet, Malachi Favors on bass, and Don Moye on drums – and all players picking up lots of different percussion along the way. Titles include "Chi Congo", "Enlorfe", and "Hippparippp". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful little solo session from the late Mal Waldron – recorded in Paris in 1972, and featuring (as you'd guess from the title) Mal stretching out wonderfully on a well-tuned Steinway! The mood of the set is softer and more introspective than some of Waldron's other work from the time – no less inventive, but with a quality that's warmly lyrical and extremely tuneful throughout – a great demonstration of Waldron's growing confidence as a solo artist at the time – yet expressed with a thoughtfulness that makes the album one of his real standouts in this mode. Tracks are all originals – and titles include "Paris Reunited", "For Eric Satie", "One For Bud", and "Portrait Of A Bullfighter". LP, Vinyl record album

A lost landmark in early 70s roots rock – the first solo album from Bobby Whitlock – an artist who'd previously played with Derek & The Dominoes, George Harrison, and Delaney & Bonnie – and who's getting a bit of help here from both Harrison and Eric Clapton in the studio! Yet the set's definitely Bobby's own – rooted in his Memphis background, and fusing together rock and soul with the same sort of core charm you might hear from Delaney & Bonnie – a quality that's almost color-blind at times, and which has the same sort of new southern appeal as music from The Allman Brothers or some of Bobby's bigger contemporaries. Titles include "Where There's A Will", "Song For Paula", "A Game Called Life", "Back In My Life Again", "Back Home In England", and "The Dreams Of A Hobo". LP, Vinyl record album

Ruben Blades steps out here in a mix of modes – tracks from both his Swing and Salsa Plus albums, and like those cuts, done in collaboration with the group of Robert Delgado – the bassist whose arrangements really help the record soar! Ruben's vocals are wonderful – somehow even better with age, and still commanding all the power of the past – and the rest of the group has the right balance of jazzy horn work and Latin currents in the rhythms to really help set the mood. Titles include "Mambo Gil", "Watch What Happens", "Pennies From Heaven", "Paula C", "Do I Hear Four", "Cobarde", and "The Way You Look Tonight". LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the deepest work Ted Taylor ever recorded – great material done for the Jewel/Paula label – served up here on a Japanese-only compilation! LP, Vinyl record album

The soundtrack to this hit broadway play is mostly poetry – but it's poetry with sort of a hip, black edge, in the vein of Nikki Giovanni, Camille Yarborough, or Jayne Cortez – written by Ntozake Shange and read by Seret Scott, Larie Carlos, Trazana Beverley, Janet League, Aku Kadogo, Rise Collins, and Paula Moss; with titles that include "Graduation Nite", "Abortion Cycle #1", "Dark Phrases", and "No More Love Poems". LP, Vinyl record album