A really wonderful later project from the legendary poet Allen Ginsberg – a set put together by Hal Willner, and one that may well be better than any of his previous efforts to blend together words and music! The tunes often still have that hypnotic quality of Ginsberg's earlier recordings, but maybe with less of a hippie sense of self-consciousness – more understated, and handled by a very hip lineup of downtown New York players who include Steve Swallow on bass, Gary Window on tenor, Beaver Harris on drums, and Marc Ribot, Arto Lindsay, and Bill Frisell on guitars! Titles include "Scribble", "Complaint Of The Skeleton To Time", "The Shrouded Stranger", "Cleveland The Flats", "The End", "Sunset", and "The Lion For Real". This expanded 2LP version has been completely remixed and remastered – and includes eight songs not on the original album! LP, Vinyl record album

Always the master storyteller, Kip Hanrahan turns his unique musical vision to source material from 1001 Arabian Nights – interweaving stories from the text with jazz-based expression, augmented by spoken and vocal passages. Carmen Lundy sings quite a bit on the record – which is a real treat to our ears, as its great to hear her in such a left-field project – and other artists on the set include Don Pullen, Milton Cardona, Mike Cain, Jack Bruce, JT Lewis, and Henry Threadgill. Tracks include "Diente De Oro", "Aziz & Azizah", "Dunya's Nocturnal Realization", "The Hasheater's Tale", "The Angel Charles & The Caravans Of Jinns & Dreams", and "The Jewish Doctor's Tale". (Jazz, Spoken Word) CD

A really fantastic large project by Christian McBride – maybe one of his most ambitious records ever, and one that really lives up to its intention! The movement here is the Civil Rights movement – recalled through the words of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, and Dr Martin Luther King Jr – then set to jazz instrumentation by a wonderful lineup that includes Warren Wolf on vibes, Steve Wilson on alto and flute, Ron Blake on tenor and soprano sax, Michael Dease and Steve Davis on trombones, Lew Soloff on trumpet, and Geoffrey Keezer on piano. Four different figures each take on the voices, with an approach that's as great as the music – actors Wendell Pierce, Vondie Curtis Hall, and Dion Graham – plus poet Sonia Sanchez – often shifting the words of the key figures throughout a single musical work, with results that are surprisingly powerful. Titles include "Brother Malcolm", "Sister Rosa", "Rumble In The Jungle", "Ali Speaks", "Soldiers", and "A View From The Mountaintop". A fantastic record – and one that reminds us of the great power in this nation, at a time when its light is sometimes eclipsed. (Jazz, Spoken Word) CD

A real mind-trip – and an incredible document of the times – not just ideas floating around in the late 60s, but also new ways of making records too! The album is loosely based around ideas and writings from The Medium Is The Massage – McLuhan's important 1967 book, co-written with Quentin Fiore – and represented here as a wild sound collage that blends together music, sounds, media snippets, and readings by McLuhan, Fiore, and a host of other voices! The album's actually much more of a "happening" than a spoken word album – a real studio party that's cut up and messed up by all the added effects, sounds, and music – genius that comes from Jerome Agel, who put the whole project together – and delivered it to the loving hands of John Simon, who produced some other wonderful records of this nature for late 60s Columbia. A real delight throughout – and the kind of an album we wish people still kept making! Great reissue package – in a gatefold LP-styled sleeve, with additional artwork, rare photos, full notes on the sessions, and more! CD

A real mind-trip – and an incredible document of the times – not just ideas floating around in the late 60s, but also new ways of making records too! The album is loosely based around ideas and writings from The Medium Is The Massage – McLuhan's important 1967 book, co-written with Quentin Fiore – and represented here as a wild sound collage that blends together music, sounds, media snippets, and readings by McLuhan, Fiore, and a host of other voices! The album's actually much more of a "happening" than a spoken word album – a real studio party that's cut up and messed up by all the added effects, sounds, and music – genius that comes from Jerome Agel, who put the whole project together – and delivered it to the loving hands of John Simon, who produced some other wonderful records of this nature for late 60s Columbia. A real delight throughout – and the kind of an album we wish people still kept making! LP, Vinyl record album

A stunningly expansive project from Argentine jazz genius Jorge Lopez Ruiz – one that takes off in even more ambitious territory than his Bronca Buenos Aires album from a few years before! Ruiz plays all sorts of great Fender Rhodes throughout, leading a larger group that mixes tenor, alto, guitar, piano, bass, and drums with a group of singers who are often soaring in this wordless mode that's completely heavenly – next to spoken passages by writer Jose Tcherkaski, who comes into the mix from time to time, delivering these striking words in Spanish, which combine with the instrumentation in this very majestic way! The album's a full suite of tracks – similar to other larger projects from Ruiz – and sections include "Pido Perdon Por Los Muertos", "Creo Que Ayer Me Asesinaron", "Quienes Tendran La Vida Por Delante", and "Coraje Buenos Aires". (Jazz, Spoken Word) CD

A stunningly expansive project from Argentine jazz genius Jorge Lopez Ruiz – one that takes off in even more ambitious territory than his Bronca Buenos Aires album from a few years before! Ruiz plays all sorts of great Fender Rhodes throughout, leading a larger group that mixes tenor, alto, guitar, piano, bass, and drums with a group of singers who are often soaring in this wordless mode that's completely heavenly – next to spoken passages by writer Jose Tcherkaski, who comes into the mix from time to time, delivering these striking words in Spanish, which combine with the instrumentation in this very majestic way! The album's a full suite of tracks – similar to other larger projects from Ruiz – and sections include "Pido Perdon Por Los Muertos", "Creo Que Ayer Me Asesinaron", "Quienes Tendran La Vida Por Delante", and "Coraje Buenos Aires". (Jazz, Spoken Word) LP, Vinyl record album