Jazz — Recently Added

A strong trio session from Horace Tapscott – recorded in Santa Barbara in 1981, with a trio that features Sonship on percussion and the great Roberto Miranda on bass! Miranda's tone is round and warm, and brings out some of the most soulful sides of Tapscott's playing – even when he's ... LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic Ep by UK trumpeter Emma Jean Thackray – really growing into an important role as a leader here, amidst some of her hippest contemporaries from the London scene! The album features two side-long tracks, both brilliant – built up from spontaneous interplay between Thackray ... LP, Vinyl record album

Rare material from pianist Bob James – and tracks that are a lot different than his funky Fender Rhodes albums of the 70s! The set is the first-ever issued of work recorded at Columbia University in 1965 – and the vibe is a bit like James' album for Mercury Records around the same time ... CD

Funky trumpet galore – and one of the few albums ever cut by trumpeter Billy Brooks as a leader! At the time of this 1974 LP, Billy Brooks was an overlooked LA trumpeter working in the Ray Charles band – and although this record didn't bring him instant fame when it was released, it's ... CD

Sun Ra left the planet a few decades ago, but his Arkestra has been going strong – really carrying the torch that the great one kept burning – and stepping out here in their first studio album in 20 years! The record is really something special – that core Sun Ra spirit, but ... CD

A record that's a bit of a dream come true for us at Dusty Groove – a set that features two of our favorite contemporary musicians, recording at a unique venue in our fair city – with a vibe that makes the record one of the best we've ever heard from the pair! Carlos Nino was one of ... CD

These guys have a real 70s look on the cover, and they have a strong 70s sound within – a cool contemporary take on older spiritual jazz modes – done by a largeish ensemble who recall the glory days of Impulse Records at its best! We've heard from Chilean keyboardist Enrique Rodriguez ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite albums ever from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – even though it was only issued by Blue Note nearly a decade after it was recorded! The set's an overlooked nugget from that intensely productive time when the group features one of its strongest frontlines ever – ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most ambitious albums ever from Rob Mazurek – and a set that really continues the legacy of community building and world healing that's become such an important part of his music! Rob's a player who was great at the start – a hell of a trumpeter, and a great experimentalist ... LP, Vinyl record album

Mindblowing sounds from Japanese bassist Isoo Fukui – one of a handful of 70s players on that scene who really helped reinvent the sound of his instrument in jazz! Isoo really drives the group here up from the bottom – by playing both bass and cello with these well-inflected notes that ... CD

Japanese drummer George Otsuka is always one hell of a hip cat – one of those players whose name on a record always means that we'll pick it up – and never fail to hear something wonderful! And while Otsuka first got his start working with a piano trio at the end of the 60s, this sweet ... CD

A beautiful showcase both for the piano of Masaru Imada and the bass of George Mraz – the latter of whom gets really respectful treatment on this Japanese-only session – in the best tradition of the Three Blind Mice record label! TBM always had a way of showcasing the bass that was ... CD

Keyboardist Kamaal Williams is light years ahead of his first record here – and that's saying a lot, as that album was already pretty darn far-reaching! The music still has plenty of Fender Rhodes and keyboards, and other jazz elements that include tenor from Quinn Mason – but the ... CD

One of the most ambitious albums ever from Rob Mazurek – and a set that really continues the legacy of community building and world healing that's become such an important part of his music! Rob's a player who was great at the start – a hell of a trumpeter, and a great experimentalist ... CD

A wonderfully soulful session from percussionist Babatunde Lea – and a shining example of the warm spirits and cross-cultural experimentation going on in the Bay Area scene of the 70s! The record mixes 70s soul jazz with bits of funk, Latin jazz, and breezy west coast touches – making ... LP, Vinyl record album

A rare live set from Japanese bassist Motohiko Hamase – recorded right during a stretch when he was really mixing up his modes – fusing older fusion elements with some of the more electronic experiments of his studio records of the period – all in a way that must have made for ... LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful solo work from John Hicks – one of the few straight pianists that can hold our attention in a setting like this for so long – a record that's maybe a bit more conventional than some of the other releases on the Strata East label from the 70s, but equally filled with a sense of ... LP, Vinyl record album

The guitar genius of Gabor Szabo – set to magnificent arrangements by Gary McFarland! The set's one of the most sophisticated albums Szabo ever cut – and has a slow-building style that steps off of his Impulse years with a deeper, broader vision of music. By the time of the set, ... LP, Vinyl record album

A dream of a record from the LA spiritual underground of the 70s – and one of the only records we've ever seen from reedman Gary Bias! The date's got a soulful depth that makes it one of the most compelling albums on the legendary Nimbus label – a rhythmic pulse that's often modal, and ... LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful lost performance from pianist Horace Tapscott – a set of duets with saxophonist Michael Session, recorded in France at the end of the 80s – and based around three long tracks, one penned by Tapscott himself – the other two by LA/Nimbus contemporaries Jesse Sharps and ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most righteous soul jazz albums of the 70s – a unique session of poetry, percussion, and jazz – put together by the ultra-hip Positive Force! Not to be confused with the soul group of the same name, this combo was a spiritual jazz ensemble – featuring poet Ade Olatunji ... LP, Vinyl record album

A rare non-Impulse Records album from the early days of Pharoah Sanders – but a set that ranks right up there with his classics for that legendary label! The album's one of the classics in Strata East's Dolphy Series – and it's a uniquely collaborative session from 1969, one that has ... LP, Vinyl record album

The deepest work to date from Vibration Black Finger – a group headed up by UK drummer Lascelle Gordon, and who effortlessly mix together acoustic jazz elements and other sonic elements – very much in the best spirit of some of their contemporaries on the London scene! Gordon's drums ... LP, Vinyl record album

Really wonderful work from a very overlooked talent – reedman Roscoe Weathers, a player who worked the west coast in the 60s before settling in LA – then led a group with a very strong flute sound in the lead! Roscoe's music here has plenty of echoes of the spiritualism of Yusef Lateef ... LP, Vinyl record album

Rare 70s work from Don Cherry, and one of the most perfect realizations of his organic music concept – a quartet session recorded for Italian broadcast, with long songs that have a very spun-out, meditative vibe! Cherry's on pocket trumpet, but is way more than a horn player – as his ... CD

A rare set from Zorro Five – a South African group, but one who sound a bit like some of the best Italian sound library combos of the time – really stepping out in a hip blend of riffing guitar, hard drums, and organ! That aspect is maybe no surprise, given that Zorro Five were more of ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really beautiful record from the Ambiance ensemble – a group led by reedman Daoud Abubakar Balewa – a musician with the same underground prominence as Plunky Nakabinde and Idris Ackamoor during the same generation! Like both of those artists, Daoud has a way of moving effortlessly ... LP, Vinyl record album

Lonnie Liston Smith is really tightening up his groove on this one – bringing a bit more funk into the mix, and creating that amazingly sweet glide in his keyboard sound! The record's still steeped in the righteous influences of years past, but it brings the message out to a bigger audience ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite albums ever on the legendary Nimbus label – and the only set we've ever seen from pianist Linda Hill as a leader! The set's got the same open-ended, spiritually-expressive sound as Adele Sebastian's record for the label – and Sebastian's also a key part of the group ... LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure session from Sun Ra and the Arkestra, and a great one too – a set that's maybe a bit different than some of their other material from the time! The album's from the early 80s, but maybe feels a bit more like the group in the late 50s – when they were in Chicago, and first ... LP, Vinyl record album