Prestige/Universal (Japan), 1956.
One of the best records Mal Waldron ever made, and a blinding hard bop session featuring a tight quintet with knock-down-dead front horn lines! The record really follows strongly in the mode of some of Waldron's contributions to Prestige blowing sessions from the same period – but it's also ...
Prestige/Universal (Japan), 1955.
One of Art Farmer's pivotal mid 50s sides – recorded in the company of altoist Gigi Gryce, a great player and a budding young arranger who helped Farmer really formulate the best side of his sound! The tracks are lyrically modern – but still have a nice dose of soul in them – a ...
Holidays (Italy), 1980. 2CDs
A very cool Sun Ra performance from 1980 – recorded in Rome, and a wonderful summation of all the new directions the Arkestra took during the 70s! There's a wonderful balance here between intimate vocal tracks, sung by June Tyson, and some fuller ensemble numbers – mixed up in ways ...
Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few
Almighty
Division 81, 2024.
...
Elemental, 1995.
A magical pairing of musicians – both of whom had come together in different formats, and who here showcase a great late meeting of their genius! The vibe is maybe similar to the Super Quartet that Lacy and Waldron were leading in the early 90s, but with a slightly different lineup – ...
Jazz Detective, Mid 1970s. 2CDs
...
Elemental, 1972. 2CDs
A never-issued live set from spiritual reed genius Yusef Lateef – one that was recorded during the years he was recording for Atlantic Records, but with a nicely different vibe! The tracks are all long, loose, and very open – Yusef blowing tenor, soprano sax, and flute – shifting ...
Jazz Detective, 1972.
Two of the coolest trumpeters from the LA scene of the 50s – reunited here in a never-issued album from the start of the 70s! At the time of the set, Jack Sheldon was the real star of the date – big on TV, and a very confident, cool player – as well as a singer with a wonderfully ...
Elemental, 1969.
A killer combo from saxophonist Cannonball Adderley – a group that features George Duke on both acoustic and electric piano, stretching things out, and helping the Adderley brothers find an even more soulful groove than they had in the 60s! The George Duke approach really makes for a cool ...
Elemental, 1969. 2CDs
The hippest side of Cannonball Adderley at the end of the 60s – that loose, soulful vibe he was serving up on some of his coolest records for Capitol at the time – stretched out here over some very long tracks recorded live in France! The year alone marks the record as a great one ...
We Release Jazz (Switzerland),
...
Blue Note, 1957.
(Part of the Blue Note Tone Poet series!)
Resonance, 1953.
A beautiful set of work from this legendary pianist – material that's issued here for the very first time, but which may well top some of the most important albums in Art Tatum's catalog! As with his classic 20th Century material, the setting here is a live one – the Blue Note club in ...
Resonance, 1959.
Mindblowing work from tenorist Sonny Rollins – a set of recordings that we'd rank right up there with his groundbreaking Village Vanguard sessions for Blue Note! As with those recordings, the setting here is live, and a trio – Sonny blowing with incredible imagination in the very open ...
Psychic Hotline, 2024.
We've really loved the music of pianist Amaro Freitas in the past, but this time around he's got a special sort of something extra in his music – both in the way he approaches the sound, and the way he works with other players! The first half of the set is an exploration of landscape, both ...
Modern Harmonic, Early 70s. Gatefold
Never-issued performances from Sun Ra and his legendary Arkestra – recorded live at Slugs in New York, and featuring the group in two very different modes! Side one features "Calling Planet Earth/We'll Wait For You" – from the same performance that also gave the world the ...
Northern Spy, 2024.
A solo record, but one that's got the sound of more things at once than you might expect – as saxophonist Josh Johnson has this great way of processing the sound from his horns, then layering them with samples and other elements too – but all in a way that's never gimmicky, and really ...
Cellar Live, 1972. 2CDs
Rare material from one of our favorite jazz musicians of all time – legendary Hammond hero Jack McDuff, heard here in a really wonderful setting! McDuff in the 60s was already great – an organist who played in ways that really stood out, with a sense of rhythm that was completely ...
Cellar Live (Canada),
...
Cellar Live, 1958/1966. 2CDs
Not just jazz from the Northwest, as the set also features some California material too – brought together in this great double-length set of unissued material from this legendary jazz drummer! The set begins with Shelly Manne leading a quintet at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958 – ...
Cellar Live (Canada),
...
EMI/BGO (UK), 1971.
One of the most creative albums ever from UK composer Neil Ardley – and that's saying a lot, given the complexity of his other work! The set's got a wonderful blend of jazz arrangements and some freer passages – scored by Ardley with some of his most sensitive, most beautiful music ...
Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly
Mestizx
International Anthem/Nonesuch, 2024.
...
BYG/Charly (UK), 1969.
The Art Ensemble at the height of their powers – really letting loose on the Parisian scene of the late 60s, where they found a great audience for all the new ideas they'd been brewing up back home! The album's definitely one that has the group's unique ethos coming into focus – that ...
Young Turks, 2024. 2CD
...
Fremeaux & Associates (France),
...
Steeplechase (Denmark),
...
RCA/Soul Bank (UK), 1974.
The second smoking Live Oblivion set from Brian Auger and crew – twice as long, and maybe even twice as funky as the first! The tunes on here all really push the ten minute mark – stretching out the original Auger conception on studio sides, and featuring plenty of room for really ...
RCA/Soul Bank (UK), 1974.
Really hard-jamming work from keyboardist Brian Auger – the first of a 2-part live set from the US, and easily some of his greatest work on record! The tracks are all very long and stretched out here – an extrapolation of the territory Auger was already exploring on studio sides, taken ...
International Anthem,
(Hand-numbered pressing, with art print!)
Intakt (Switzerland),
CD ...
About May 15, 2024
...
Tribute/Liberation Hall, 1969.
A fantastic bit of late 60's funk, and a surprisingly slammin' record from Dizzy! The album's got tight, hard, choppy funk arrangements from Ed Bland – who went onto to do some great work at the Perception label – and the group features James Moody blowing hard lean funky solos right ...
Ogun (UK), 1989.
The title's a bit hokey, but the group's a great one – a saxophone quartet, led by Elton Dean and augmented by bass and drums, for a very unique sound! The style here is quite different than that of the over-used 80s sax quartet style – as the bass and drums propel the group into a ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1975.
A pretty sweet 70s set from Art Farmer – ostensibly a tribute to Duke Ellington, but really more of a gently soulful session in the mode of Art's best work of the decade! The group is the Cedar Walton trio with Walton on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – all ...
Blue Note, 1960.
One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1956.
The lyrical genius at his best – an early record from pianist Horace Silver, but one that already has him really defining that special sort of sound that made him really stand out from his contemporaries! The difference here is hard to put in words – but there's a careful ear for an ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1962.
Guitar genius Grant Green is definitely feelin the spirit here – as he mixes his lean 60s style with a host of traditional numbers from the spiritual canon – at a level that provided a whole new sense of soul at the time! There was plenty of music influenced by gospel during the decade ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1963.
One of the first true moments of genius from tenorist Joe Henderson – his debut as a leader for Blue Note, and a set that already has him knocking it out of the park, and setting a tone for a whole new generation! Right at the start, Joe was as distinct a saxophonist as recent predecessors ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1957.
One of the most obscure of the Paul Chambers albums on Blue Note – and one of the most interesting as well! Although best known for his solid rhythm work on late 50s hardbop recordings, Chambers breaks out here with a more introspective, more exploratory style on the bass – using the ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1964.
An album of incredible beauty – and one of the key early sides that Shorter cut for Blue Note! It's nearly impossible to describe the genius of these records without playing them – and upon playing, all words disappear in the brilliance of Shorter's incredible tone, solo imagination, ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1960.
One of the key classics from the hardbop years of Blue Note – the kind of album that really set the label apart from the rest at the time! Soul Station is a deceptively simple album that has tenor giant Hank Mobley playing standards and originals in a quartet with Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1970.
A funky nugget from the second Blue Note chapter of guitarist Grant Green – that wonderful point when he shifted into more funk-based styles from his hardbop work at the start – and found a way to unlock a whole new side of his talents! The approach here is similar to some of the funky ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1969.
An incredible record – the kind of album that no fan of funky jazz should be without! This album is far and away one of the greatest ever cut by Brother Jack McDuff – and it's a baroquely complicated batch of funky jazz cuts that's still light years ahead of any other record! The ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1969.
The title's a great one for this post-Coltrane cooker from Elvin Jones – as the set really has Elvin exploring some really fresh currents in jazz, with a range of complicated rhythms that really pull the whole session along strongly! Rhythm is really set free on the record – as Elvin ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1969.
A funky gem from Hammond hero Reuben Wilson – one of the last great organ players to emerge from the 60s soul jazz scene – and a musician who seemed to have a great ear for funky currents right from the start! Part of the album's charm is the drums of Idris Muhammad (aka Leo Morris) ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1969.
A stone killer from organist Lonnie Smith – one of his completely cooking early albums for Blue Note, and a hard-burner all the way through! Smith's working here with a really great group that includes Idris Muhammad on drums and Melvin Sparks on guitar – both of whom give the album a ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1966.
Easily one of the most powerful albums ever cut by Don Cherry – a searing set of tracks done for Blue Note in the late 60s – and featuring some tremendous tenor work by Pharoah Sanders! There's a tightness and level of energy here that surpasses even Cherry's other excellent Blue Note ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1968.
One of our favorite Lee Morgan albums, and one of his least known – a set recorded in the crucial last five years of his life, and a sparkling mix of hard bop, soul jazz, and slight bits of modernism – that magical mix that Lee was hitting as he reached farther and farther with his ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1967.
A sublime album by one of our favorite talents in 60s jazz – pianist Jack Wilson, making his second Blue Note appearance here amidst a group of other more likely label players that include Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, and Billy Higgins on drums! Despite the presence of those ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1965.
One of the greatest Blue Note albums of all time – a record that's even better than the look of it's cover – which is already pretty darn classic! Hank Mobley had been making records for Blue Note for a number of years before this set – but Caddy For Daddy is one in which he ...
Blue Note (Japan), Late 1960s.
Lyrical beauty from trumpeter Blue Mitchell – one of those records that really has him coming into his own, sounding fantastic on Blue Note in a way he never did on his earlier albums as a leader! it's clear that Blue learned a lot while playing in the group of Horace Silver – a way of ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1965.
Oh Baby is right – as the album's one of the best Blue Note albums by Hammond legend Big John Patton – a perfect mix of funky organ and burning hardbop! The tracks hare are all originals penned for the album – mostly by Patton, but also by other group members – the kind of ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1964.
One of the greatest modern moments on Blue Note – ever! From the cover, to the compositions, to the playing on the set – the whole album crackles with an unbelievable fire that was hardly ever matched again. A young Sam Rivers leads a quartet that includes Jaki Byard on piano, Ron ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1964.
One of our favorite-ever albums on Blue Note – a great 60s session that features one of the most unique reed players to ever record for the label! George Braith takes a bit of a page from Roland Kirk – in that he handles a variety of oddly-tuned reed instruments, but with a wonderfully ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1963.
A modernist classic from 60s Blue Note! The album's one of Jackie McLean's greatest from the time – and one of his seminal "new thing" sessions cut with young modernists Grachan Moncur III on trombone and Bobby Hutcherson on vibes – both young players who were really finding ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1962.
One of the few albums ever made as a leader by tenorist Don Wilkerson – a hell of a talent who was usually working in the background of the Ray Charles band, but got this chance to step out as a leader for Blue Note – in a session that's also one of the rarest on the label! Brother Don ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1961.
A crackling date from Jackie McLean – a set that's got a more expansive feel than some of his earlier Blue Note work – filled with fire, far from the 50s – and really pointing the way towards his new directions to come! There's a hint of modernism in the mix, mostly on the tone ...
Blue Note (Japan), 1959.
One of three incredible albums cut by trumpeter Dizzy Reece for Blue Note Records – all a bit unusual, in that Dizzy was a key part of the scene in London at the time, and not part of the regular New York group that were so important to the Blue Note roster at the end of the 50s! Yet despite ...
DIW/Super Fuji Discs (Japan), 1988.
A classic Arkestra live set from the end of the 80s – beautifully recorded, and put together with a lot more dynamic energy than some of the less professional Sun Ra live dates from the time! The set runs for nearly an hour in length, and tracks are long, but often quite focused – ...
International Anthem,
...
Cellar Live (Canada),
...
Mr Bongo (UK), 1977.
A sweet 70s groover from the great Lonnie Smith – a soulful little session that has the keyboardist really stretching out in some great ways! At the time, Smith fares a lot better than some of his late 60s jazz organ contemporaries – as he's got a great lean style, perfect for the ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1976.
One of the greatest Art Farmer recordings of the 70s – an especially sharp-edged performance, thanks to the presence of Clifford Jordan in the group! The album was recorded live at Boomer's nightclub in New York – and all tracks have a long-flowing, open ended quality – a bit ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1977.
The Village Vanguard seemed to be one of the greatest settings for the Great Jazz Trio – a place where the group of Hank Jones on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums could really stretch out in the kind of loose, open lines that made their 70s albums so great! This set's ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1980.
A slightly different lineup than usual for the Great Jazz Trio – but a great one too, and proof that the group had way more to offer than just familiar trio grooving! This time around, Eddie Gomez is on bass – making for a wonderfully full, rich sound in the rhythms – a perfect ...
East Wind (Japan), 1975.
A searing live performance from this brilliant Japanese trumpeter – working here at the height of his stretched-out, open-ended powers – but with a style that's a bit more inside than some of his work from the start of the 70s! Hino really shows himself to be a great leader here – ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1980.
The second part of a great Japanese-only session recorded in 1980 – one that features a later edition of the Great Jazz Trio – with Eddie Gomez on bass and Al Foster on drums, next to piano by usual group member Hank Jones! The set's got a hipper feel than usual for the group – ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1978.
The Great Jazz Trio really stretch out here – taking each of the album's four songs at a mighty relaxed pace – which allows even more room than ever for the creative expression of Hank Jones on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums! The cover's got a slick look that ...
Pentagon (Cedar Walton, Clifford Jordan, etc)
Pentagon
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1976.
A really wonderful album that's sometimes overlooked because of it's relatively oblique cover and name – which both hide the wonderful talents within! In truth, the set might be billed as a Cedar Walton session – or maybe almost an Eastern Rebellion one – as the vibe here is very ...
Three (Joe Sample, Ray Brown, Shelly Manne)
Three
East Wind (Japan), 1975.
Quite possibly one of the most successful Japanese piano trio recordings of the 70s – a super-session performed by a group that includes Joe Sample on acoustic piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums! Given that Sample's best known during the era for his electric keys with the ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1976.
Spare solo percussion work from Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi – a double-length set of tracks that runs through 12 "rings" – all different shorter passages that are part of a longer composition – played by Togashi on drums, percussion, vibes, marimba, celesta, and ...
East Wind (Japan), 1976.
A buttery smooth set of Japanese fusion from the 70s – featuring all-star American players like Eric Gale, Steve Gadd, Ralph MacDonald, Cornell Dupree, Michael Brecker, and keyboardist Will Boulware. The strength of the set lies on the interplay between Boulware's work on Fender Rhodes and ...
East Wind (Japan), 1975.
A searing live performance from this brilliant Japanese trumpeter – working here at the height of his stretched-out, open-ended powers – but with a style that's a bit more inside than some of his work from the start of the 70s! Hino really shows himself to be a great leader here – ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1978.
A great Tokyo meeting from this wonderful trio – and a great little record that even stands out from most of their others from the time! The set's got a surprising amount of original material by the members of the group – as each player contributes at least one title – and these ...
East Wind (Japan), 1978.
Guitarist Laurindo Almeida returns to a bit of his roots here – but he also shows off a lot of the jazz experience he's picked up along the way! The album features Almeida working solo on acoustic guitar – although possibly overdubbed alongside himself at times – and while the ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1978.
One of a number of late 70s milestones from the Great Jazz Trio – that sublime grouping of Hank Jones on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums! Like the rest of their gems from the time, the album's got this simple, subtle brilliance – a way of approaching piano trio ...
East Wind/Universal (Japan), 1977.
Wonderful work from this really unique west coast combo of the 70s – a quartet that draws plenty from key contributions of each of its members – but which also has a very special sound in the acoustic guitar of Laurindo Almeida! Almeida's a player who'd already been working in LA for ...