Lovely later work from Moondog – a set of simple instrumental tunes that almost has the same naive charm as his initial recordings in the 50s! There's definitely a bit of avant classical going on at times – use of violin, viola, and oboe – but other instrumentation is spare and often somewhat percussive – recalling the minimal, elliptical rhythms that Moondog first set on fire while living on the streets of New York during the postwar years. There's a bit of vocalization on the record, and some keyboards too – and many of the tunes have a poetic feel that really fits their titles – tunes that include "Cosmic Meditation", "Fujiyama", "Bird Of Paradise", "Marimba Mondo 1 – The Rain Forest", "Suite Equestria", and "Wind River Powwow". CD

The cover looks anime, but the music is anything but – and instead offers up some very live-action interplay between drummer Takeo Moriyama and pianist Fumio Itabashi! Itabashi's music is full of beautifully lyrical colors and tones, which get plenty of space to flow and flower on the album – on live tracks that sometimes have the drums in the lead, with piano responding strongly – sometimes with more emphasis on piano tones, slightly augmented by the drums. The combination is beautiful, and makes for a wonderfully deep record that's neither free jazz improv, nor too-familiar standards. The tunes are as poetic as their titles – which include "A School Of Fish", "Scolded", "Plovers On The Shore", "The Sea Watarase", "Red Dragonflies", and "The Paper Doll In Bridal Kimono". CD

A wonderful blend of spoken word and jazz – contemporary, but put together with the strength of similar records from the 70s – those secret texts of knowledge that often used to be sold as much in bookstores as in the record racks! AK Toney and Jasik provide the spoken passages, set to avant spiritual backings from players who include Jamael Dean on piano and keyboards, Carlos Nino on percussion, Aaron Shaw on saxes, and Mekala Shaw Session on drums – musicians who shift their presence depending on the needs of the tracks – as Toney and Jasik weave a wonderfully blend of poetic language and deeper ideas. Sharada Shashidar sings on a few tracks too – and titles include "Amun", "Neptune", "Our Greatness", "Major & Minor Aspects", "House Of Good Spirit", "We Wear The Mask", and "Afronauts". LP, Vinyl record album

Don't confuse these guys with the British group of the same name, because this Nucleus is a Canadian rock group with a very heavy sound – a heady brew of fuzz guitar and freaky organ, all recorded with a nice raw edge! The group's one of the fiercest of the late 60s psych scene on Mainstream Records – and they jam here on 6 long tracks that build, burn, and bubble over with plenty of intensity – topped with some vocals that are surprisingly poetic at points, yet never in a way that's too soft to undercut the instrumental strength of the set. Titles include "Lost & Found", "Share Your Color", "Communication", "Judgement Day", "All About Me & The Spidery Bass", and "Jenny Wake Up". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest early moments from Dianne Reeves – a set that's still steeped in plenty of jazz, but one that also has the singer coming across with a more personally poetic vibe as well – a quality that opens up Reeves in ways we never would have expected a few years before! Dianne really comes across with an intimate feel on the ballads – almost more in a soul-styled approach – but can still swing the best jazz numbers too – with some especially inventive arrangements that really keep things interesting. Titles include "Afro Blue", "I Remember Sky", "Love For Sale", "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise", "How High The Moon", "For All We Know", and "You Taught My Heart To Sing". CD

The Delmark debut as a leader from drummer Frank Rosaly – and a very unique little record! Rosaly's a player we've really dug on other folks' records, and his vision here at the helm is pretty darn great – a real change from some of the modes used by his avant Chicago contemporaries – almost more poetic at points, although filled with sharp edges throughout! The record was composed for use in a documentary about Chicago scrap recyclers working the alley of the city – and Rosaly brings a really human, personal sort of feel to his music – even though the overall approach is still based on improvisation between group members too. The lineup features James Falzone on clarinet, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Jason Roebke on bass and cracklebox, Keefe Jackson on tenor and bass clarinet, and Jason Adasiewicz on vibes – which adds some particularly great tones to the metallic narrative. Rosaly also plays a bit of percussion, piano, and electronics – and titles include "Adrian", "Bedbugs", "Driven", "Yards", "Wet Feet Splashing", "The Dark", and "Tragically Positive". CD

Heavy, soul-baring lyricism delivered with spiritual resonance and wise authority by Gil Scott-Heron – his first album shot in far too many years, and a direct hit – essential listening for longtime listeners and neophytes alike and a well worthy entry in a legendary career! Scott-Heron is documenting his world as profoundly and poetically as ever here, and the production is built with spare, haunting beats and atmospheric bits of strings, guitar, keys, loose atmospherics and hazy electronics – loosely framing his voice and giving it all the room in needs to carry the mood. Gil sings and speaks with equal authority throughout, and you can hear the years in his voice like never before, giving him the worn edges of the old soul he always evoked. This is a record we're proud to put among his treasured recordings of the 70s and early 80s. Titles include "On Coming From A Broken Home" (Parts 1 & 2), "Your Soul And Mine", "I'll Take Care Of You", "Where Did The Night Go", "Running", "The Crutch" and more, including several interludes that are pretty amazing – captures of conversation that show Gil nearly as charismatic and poetic in "off" moments as he is recording a song. Also includes 2 covers, "Me And The Devil" (the Robert Johnson song) and the title track, Smog/Bill Callahan's "I'm New Here", given a whole new life. Expanded anniversary version also features some great material recorded at the same time – the titles "Handsome Johnny", "My Cloud", "Piano Player", "King Henry IV", "Jazz", and 2010 live studio takes of "Home Is Where The Hatred Is", "Is That Jazz", and "Winter In America". CD

The title's a wonderfully poetic one, and the music is too – very open improvisations between Sabu Toyozumi on drums and Yuji Takahashi on piano – along with plenty of percussion from both musicians too! There's a very spacious approach to the music – lots of thoughtful interaction between both players, as they find sonic resonance that never overwhelms at all, yet which is still freely spontaneous – beautifully organic in approach, and stretched out on two long tracks that make up the album – "Lovely Silver 6000 KM" and "Shoulder Blade & Hip Joint". LP, Vinyl record album

Inventive percussion and amazing bass work – plus a host of other interesting elements as well – all wrapped up beautifully in this unique collaboration between Isao Suzuki and Masahiko Togashi! Both players were some of the most creative of the mainstream Japanese scene of the 70s – Togashi a drummer who'd often go out, but still maintain a sense of soul – and Suzuki a bassist who often used variations of his instrument that were a bit unusual, and which did way more than simple rhythm work! Here, Isao's working with cello, piccolo bass, and regular bass – in addition to piano and percussion – and Togashi plays lots more percussion, and a bit of keyboards too – as both players mix up instrumentation in these sensitive shadings of sound and color that are almost a Japanese equivalent of the best ECM experiments of the 70s. Tunes are all as poetic as they sound from the titles – and titles include "A Day Of The Sun", "Birth Of Yellow Eggs", "Silvery Flash", and "Awakening Of The Fresh Green". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautifully personal album from Ralph Towner – a set that's maybe got more going on than just a diary – as the whole thing has a very poetic approach to the sound, one that's really in keeping with the new modes of expression that Towner helped bring to ECM! There's a bit of overdub at times – so that Ralph also adds in a bit of piano and gong next to his more familiar work on 12-string and classical guitar – both instruments used in ways that are very different than the new acoustic underground that emerged in the 60s, and than most other jazz uses of the instruments too. It's almost as if Towner were learning lessons from Derek Bailey about unusual ways to approach the instrument – but then went off in more tuneful, melodic pursuits – on titles that include "Icarus", "Mon Enfant", "Dark Spirit", "Entry In A Diary", "Erg", and "The Silence Of A Candle". LP, Vinyl record album

Scott Walker started out as a pop star singing other peoples' lyrics – then he stunned the world when he went solo, and started to create some really amazing songs of his own! The Walker-penned contributions on the first few solo albums are still some of the most revelatory pop of the late 60s – and as the years progressed, Scott created some great words for his few projects of the 70s and 80s – then emerged as an even darker master of the pen with his reborn career from the mid 90s onward! Given the darkness and heavy quality of those records, Walker's words aren't always that easy to pull out – so it's great that this volume is strongly focused on material from albums that include Tilt, The Drift, Bish Bosch, and Soused – all of whom get really poetic presentation on the page – as the book is really more a volume of poetry than anything else. There's also a selection of new songs from 2016 and 2017, and a few selected lyrics from the early days too – in a hardcover volume of 198 pages. Book

Excellent small group work from Sadao Watanabe – easily one of the best Japanese reed players of the past 50 years – still sounding great here on a recent acoustic session! Watanabe plays alto throughout – a definite preferred horn of late – and stretches out in these expressive solos in the company of Gerald Clayton on piano, Ben Williams on bass, and Jonathan Blake on drums – a combo who step out with lots of warm sympathy on a set of tracks that's all original material by Watanabe! Sadao's tunes have a feel that's quite poetic, yet still also swinging too – a balance carried out in a wonderfully subtle way on tunes that include "I Miss You When I Think Of You", "Gemmation", "Vamos Juntos", "Simpatico", and "Warm Days Ahead". CD

The music of Robert Wyatt often comes across with a surprisingly poetic quality – one that finally gets its due here in a well-presented book that mixes words from his songs with images and other writings – most done in collaboration with Wyatt's longtime creative partner Alfie Benge! The book's got much of the appeal of Robert Wyatt album covers and CD booklets over the past few decades – many of which have Benge's contributions too – and the artwork is just in just the right balance next to the words, which are further illuminated by some non-lyrical passages that are a great addition to the book. Hardcover volume is 191 pages, with black and white images scattered throughout! Book

An album that marked a huge return to form for the legendary Tom Ze – brought back to all the power and creativity of his groundbreaking work of the 70s! The set was given huge global circulation by the folks at Luaka Bop – who were key in introducing most of the world to Tom's music – which although groundbreaking, barely made it outside of Brazil in the 70s – and every aspect of the record is done just the right way to showcase the mania that Ze always brought to his music. Some tracks are quite spare, and have the poetic structure of some of Tom's classics – while others have more of a tuneful approach, but with an offbeat vibe that really sets them apart from most Brazilian music of the period. The set marked a huge interest in Tom's music for a new generation – and for good reason too. Titles include "Dancar", "Juventude Javali", "Valsar", "Xiquexique", "Olho Do Lago", and "Politicar". CD

Mindblowing jazz from Japan – a tremendous introduction to the 70s scene in Tokyo if you've never heard this music at all – and a package that also includes a fair bit of rare tracks, even if you're not a newcomer! The Japanese love of American jazz is no secret – and the music was spread widely there by American forces after WWII – but during the 70s, something really special happened, and the scene found a voice that was all its own – exploding with new energy to create sounds that were soulful, spiritual, and powerfully poetic! By the end of the 70s, Japanese fusion would get more global exposure – but most of the tracks here are acoustic, save for Fender Rhodes lines – and feature completely inventive, imaginative sounds – often set to grooves that are modal and spiritual too. A fantastic collection throughout – with tracks that include "Blind Man" by Shintaro Quintet, "White Fire" by Takao Uematsu, "Aya's Samba" by Eiji Nakayama, "Earth Mother" by Koichi Matsukaze, "Dead Letter" by Tohru Aizawa, "Kaze" by Takeo Moriyama, "Long Neal" by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, "Unknown Point" by Mitsuaki Katayama, and "Little Island" by Fumio Karashima. CD

Mindblowing jazz from Japan – a tremendous introduction to the 70s scene in Tokyo if you've never heard this music at all – and a package that also includes a fair bit of rare tracks, even if you're not a newcomer! The Japanese love of American jazz is no secret – and the music was spread widely there by American forces after WWII – but during the 70s, something really special happened, and the scene found a voice that was all its own – exploding with new energy to create sounds that were soulful, spiritual, and powerfully poetic! By the end of the 70s, Japanese fusion would get more global exposure – but most of the tracks here are acoustic, save for Fender Rhodes lines – and feature completely inventive, imaginative sounds – often set to grooves that are modal and spiritual too. A fantastic collection throughout – with tracks that include "Blind Man" by Shintaro Quintet, "White Fire" by Takao Uematsu, "Aya's Samba" by Eiji Nakayama, "Earth Mother" by Koichi Matsukaze, "Dead Letter" by Tohru Aizawa, "Kaze" by Takeo Moriyama, "Long Neal" by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, "Unknown Point" by Mitsuaki Katayama, and "Little Island" by Fumio Karashima. 3LP set features bonus tracks – "Sea Breeze" by George Otsuka and "Ode To Workman" by Terumasa Hino and Reggie Workman. LP, Vinyl record album

Mindblowing jazz from Japan – a tremendous introduction to the 70s scene in Tokyo if you've never heard this music at all – and a package that also includes a fair bit of rare tracks, even if you're not a newcomer! The Japanese love of American jazz is no secret – and the music was spread widely there by American forces after WWII – but during the 70s, something really special happened, and the scene found a voice that was all its own – exploding with new energy to create sounds that were soulful, spiritual, and powerfully poetic! By the end of the 70s, Japanese fusion would get more global exposure – but most of the tracks here are acoustic, save for Fender Rhodes lines – and feature completely inventive, imaginative sounds – often set to grooves that are modal and spiritual too. A fantastic collection throughout – with tracks that include "Blind Man" by Shintaro Quintet, "White Fire" by Takao Uematsu, "Aya's Samba" by Eiji Nakayama, "Earth Mother" by Koichi Matsukaze, "Dead Letter" by Tohru Aizawa, "Kaze" by Takeo Moriyama, "Long Neal" by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, "Unknown Point" by Mitsuaki Katayama, and "Little Island" by Fumio Karashima. 3LP set features bonus tracks – "Sea Breeze" by George Otsuka and "Ode To Workman" by Terumasa Hino and Reggie Workman. LP, Vinyl record album