A long-lost performance by Sun Ra and the Arkestra – recorded in Amsterdam at the start of the 70s, when the group were brought in by avant saxophonist Hans Dulfer for a special performance! This album marks the first-ever issue of the material, from rediscovered tapes that finally present the group on that night in all of their glory – a horn-heavy version of the Arkestra with Danny Davis, Danny Ray Thompson, Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, and John Gilmore on reeds – as well as Kwame Hadi and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpets, June Tyson on vocals, and a surprise appearance from Alan Silva on cello, bass, viola, and violin! Ra himself plays moog, rocksichord, piano, and the Spacemaster organ – and the group has plenty of percussion, and a rich sound that really resonates strongly in the legendary venue. Titles include an early reading of "Space Is The Place" – plus "Watusa", "Walking On The Moon", "Paradiso Improviso #1", "We Travel The Spaceways", "Theme From The Stargazers", "The Solar Moog Approach", and "Second Stop Is Jupiter". CD

A long-lost performance by Sun Ra and the Arkestra – recorded in Amsterdam at the start of the 70s, when the group were brought in by avant saxophonist Hans Dulfer for a special performance! This album marks the first-ever issue of the material, from rediscovered tapes that finally present the group on that night in all of their glory – a horn-heavy version of the Arkestra with Danny Davis, Danny Ray Thompson, Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, and John Gilmore on reeds – as well as Kwame Hadi and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpets, June Tyson on vocals, and a surprise appearance from Alan Silva on cello, bass, viola, and violin! Ra himself plays moog, rocksichord, piano, and the Spacemaster organ – and the group has plenty of percussion, and a rich sound that really resonates strongly in the legendary venue. Titles include an early reading of "Space Is The Place" – plus "Watusa", "Walking On The Moon", "Paradiso Improviso #1", "We Travel The Spaceways", "Theme From The Stargazers", "The Solar Moog Approach", and "Second Stop Is Jupiter". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic document of a very cool group – one that we're not sure recorded any albums at the time, but who played on Dutch radio, with a lineup that featured some of the hippest cats on the scene at the time! The vibe is a bit like the work of Ruud Bos or Boy's Big Band – a very modern take on large ensemble material – full of life, color, and inventive phrasing – carried off by key soloists who include Ferdinand Povel on tenor, Frans Elsen on piano, Piet Noordijk on alto, Eddie Engels on trumpet, Frans Elsen on guitar, and Herman Schoonderwalt on alto and clarinet! The work is superbly recorded, and the set resonates strongly with the hippest large group material on Saba/MPS at the end of the 60s – very different than the sound of such a group just a few years before, with original material throughout, penned by members of the ensemble. Titles include "Last Moment", "Bluesy Joe", "Hobby Music", "Our Time", "Perka", "Bright Moment", "The Challenger", and "Twenty Four & More". CD

Nedly Elstak may not be a household name – and he's certainly not going to win any charm contests with his pose on the cover – but he's a hell of a great trumpeter from the Dutch scene of the 60s, and comes across beautifully here on a collection of rare live material from back in the day! The set's a real revelation to us – as we'd never heard Elstak before – and in addition to these sparkling trumpet lines that lie somewhere between Clifford Brown and Ted Curson – with the warmth of the former, and bite of the latter – Nedly also plays some piano too – an instrument that he really handles wonderfully – with a real range on the keyboard, and this thoughtful depth of sound that really blows us away. Tracks are all live, but really well recorded – and players include Theo Loevendie on alto, Dick Vennik on tenor, Rein de Graaff on piano, and Willem Breuker on bass clarinet – on titles that include great Elstak originals like "Some Astronomers Wonder", "Love You So", "The Machine", "No One Around", "Double Eclipse", and "Beautiful Mountain". CD

That's a Fender Rhodes on the cover, and there's lots of it on the record too – played by Frans Elsen with a wonderful sound, in a range of different settings – all heard here on rare tracks from the 70s that were never commercially issued at the time! Frans has a fantastic sound on the keys – an approach that's more in the European use of the Rhodes than some of the American recordings of the time – maybe the style you'd hear from Michael Naura, or some of the players on MPS – with a great focus on tone, a nicely spacious quality, and a strong ear for the other sidemen on the dates! The lineup here shifts throughout – there's initially four tracks with a septet that includes Piet Noordijk on alto, Eddie Engels on trumpet, and Wim Overgaauw on guitar – then more with Ferdinand Povel joining the group on tenor and flute, and a few others that switch bassist Victor Kaihatu for Rob Langereis, who's on the first four numbers. These tracks were mostly done for radio, and sound fantastic – with titles that include "Otta", "Skabu", "Ringebu", "Harpefoss", "Ah Mooh", "Mordor", and "Whirligig". LP, Vinyl record album