Late life brilliance from the legendary Charles Lloyd – a reed player who seems to have given the world more great music in the past 20 years than he had in the previous 60s! Lloyd keeps on moving forward with all these new ideas and fresh conceptions – and here, he blows tenor, alto, and flutes in a great quartet that features Jason Moran on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Brian Blade on drums – all excellent players on their own, but musicians who also put their egos aside to fold into the richness of Lloyd's music. The set's got a subtle spiritual current throughout – nicely understated, but very pure – on titles that include "The Water Is Rising", "Defiant Tender Warrior", "Beyond Darkness", "Sky Valley Spirit Of The Forest", "Balm In Gilead", "Cape To Cairo", and "Ghost Of Lady Day". LP, Vinyl record album

Late life brilliance from the legendary Charles Lloyd – a reed player who seems to have given the world more great music in the past 20 years than he had in the previous 60s! Lloyd keeps on moving forward with all these new ideas and fresh conceptions – and here, he blows tenor, alto, and flutes in a great quartet that features Jason Moran on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Brian Blade on drums – all excellent players on their own, but musicians who also put their egos aside to fold into the richness of Lloyd's music. The set's got a subtle spiritual current throughout – nicely understated, but very pure – on titles that include "The Water Is Rising", "Defiant Tender Warrior", "Beyond Darkness", "Sky Valley Spirit Of The Forest", "Balm In Gilead", "Cape To Cairo", and "Ghost Of Lady Day". CD

Hidefumi Toki is easily one of our favorite Japanese players from the 70s – an excellent alto saxophonist who always comes across with a sense of soul that's even deeper than his instrument! Toki has a way of putting together a session that's totally great – relaxed and open, with a lot of searching energy in his horn, yet never in a way that's ever forced or too outside – just kind of an organic exploration of the alto tones, but at a level that's much more common for 70s spiritual tenor players. This album's a real treasure from his Japanese catalog of the time – and features some very sweet keyboards from Mikio Masuda, plus rhythm from Ikeda Yoshio on bass and Steve Jackson on drums – on longish tracks that include "Sky View", "Rain Doctor", "Taro's Birthday", "I Love You Porgy", and "Let's Get Together". CD

Music with a message – and a wonderfully spiritual groove, too – served up here in a killer collection that goes way past the obvious, and unearths an amazing collection of work from the 70s onwards! The set's not your usual batch of post-Coltrane or Impulse Records cuts – and instead, the music comes from a very deep array of American underground records from the 70s, as well as some rare European releases from that decade and later years, plus lost tracks from the vaults – all coming together in a set of tracks that's as mind-expanding as it is righteously progressive! We'd only ever heard a few of these numbers before – which makes the whole thing a huge discovery to our ears – and titles on this second volume include "Abeba" by Mabon Dawud Quintet, "Ain't Gonna Wait That Long" by Thomas Meloncon, "Song Of Deliverance" by Roy Hytower & The Crowd Pleasers, "Leigh Ann's Dance" by Sheila Landis, "Easy Tune For Dancing" by Now, "Mystic Sky" by Deep Jazz, and "Sandance" by All Williams Quintet Plus One. LP, Vinyl record album

A tremendous recording from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – done during the same Paris stretch as their Great Black Music classics on the BYG/Actuel label – and a set that easily matches, if not tops, those classics! You can really hear the group finding their own space here – taking some of the free jazz explorations of the Chicago scene in the late 60s, and forging them with an even earthier use of both percussion, and the more offbeat sonic possibilities of their own instruments – often with a sense of surprise that you don't always get from some of their later albums. Titles include the side-long "The Spiritual" – plus "Toro", "Lori Song", and "That The Evening Sky Fell Through the Glass Wall and We Stood Alone Somewhere?" (And they wondered why they never got their songs on the radio!) CD

A tremendous recording from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – done during the same Paris stretch as their Great Black Music classics on the BYG/Actuel label – and a set that easily matches, if not tops, those classics! You can really hear the group finding their own space here – taking some of the free jazz explorations of the Chicago scene in the late 60s, and forging them with an even earthier use of both percussion, and the more offbeat sonic possibilities of their own instruments – often with a sense of surprise that you don't always get from some of their later albums. Titles include the side-long "The Spiritual" – plus "Toro", "Lori Song", and "That The Evening Sky Fell Through the Glass Wall and We Stood Alone Somewhere?" (And they wondered why they never got their songs on the radio!) LP, Vinyl record album

The title's a reference to a mis-heard Prince lyric back in the day – and it's clear that there's some influence from the purple one in the music – but at a level that's nicely distilled and taken into mellow-stepping territory that's mighty nice! The record's got a great way of bringing 80s elements future forward with a swirling sense of production – the intimacy of more personal projects by contemporary soul artists, who can deliver a grand vision of their own without needing to bring a full band into the studio! Tunes are trippingly soulful in a mighty nice way – and titles include "Sherbet Sky", "Arrive", "Pain Inside", "Peace Love Respect & Adoration", "Vilified", "Talk To You", and "All I Gotta Do". LP, Vinyl record album

A spiritual masterpiece from Matthew Halsall – a record that still has the beautiful trumpet work we've loved from the start, but which also shows just how much Halsall has been expanding his talents in search of new meanings, and new modes of expression! Matthew handles a fair bit of instrumentation here himself – including Fender Rhodes, piano, kalimba, percussion, and effects – but there's also a shifting lineup of guests throughout, coloring things in really particular ways – with performances from Chip Wickham on soprano sax and flute, Matt Cliffe on alto and flute, Alice Roberts on harp, and Liviu Gheorge and Jasper Green on Fender Rhodes. The tunes have a sense of gentle majesty that's completely sublime, as they unfold in these very righteous currents – on titles that include "Mountains Trees & Seas", "Calder Shapes", "An Ever Changing View", "Tracing Nature", "Water Street", "Triangles In The Sky", and "Natural Movement". CD

A spiritual masterpiece from Matthew Halsall – a record that still has the beautiful trumpet work we've loved from the start, but which also shows just how much Halsall has been expanding his talents in search of new meanings, and new modes of expression! Matthew handles a fair bit of instrumentation here himself – including Fender Rhodes, piano, kalimba, percussion, and effects – but there's also a shifting lineup of guests throughout, coloring things in really particular ways – with performances from Chip Wickham on soprano sax and flute, Matt Cliffe on alto and flute, Alice Roberts on harp, and Liviu Gheorge and Jasper Green on Fender Rhodes. The tunes have a sense of gentle majesty that's completely sublime, as they unfold in these very righteous currents – on titles that include "Mountains Trees & Seas", "Calder Shapes", "An Ever Changing View", "Tracing Nature", "Water Street", "Triangles In The Sky", and "Natural Movement". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best albums ever from Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi – a set that continues his development as a wonderfully expressive player on his instrument, but one that also opens up with a bit more bite at times, too – thanks to the presence of some sharp-edged contemporaries! The group's a sextet – with contributions from Hideyuki Kikuchi on alto, Akio Nishimura on tenor, and Tetuso Fushimi on trumpet – all musicians who can lay back in a soulbop groove if needed, but also come on with a bit more fire, too – almost working in a spiritual fusion mode on a few tracks, then balancing things out nicely at other times. Masabumi plays some very cool electric harpsichord on the Sadao Watanabe tune "If I Said The Sky Was Falling" – and other titles include "Matrix", "Green Dolphin Street", "In Fourth Way", and "Little Aby". LP, Vinyl record album

Really beautiful sounds from bassist David Wertman – an unsung hero of the late 70s spiritual jazz scene around New England, and one who delivers this gem in close partnership with singer Lynne Meryl! Meryl's got this warm, fluid style that's a lot like the way that some of the better Bay Area groups were using jazz vocals a few years before – a mode inspired by overseas singers like Flora Purim or Urzula Dudziak, but used here alongside soulful instrumentation that draws a lot from the more inside currents of the loft jazz scene! Wertman's bass is at the core, and tremendous throughout – full of fire and force, and sometimes matched with a bit of percussion – a musical force that's handled here more fully by Tony Vacca, who employs a range of instruments – next to piano and prepared piano from Tom McClung, and these strong trombone solos from Tim Atherton – a player who really sends the whole thing over the top with his contributions! Most tracks have a great modal groove – and titles include "Forest Dance", "Camel", "Flute Song", "New Earth", "Sing My Love Song", and "Dance Of The Mideast Madness". This expanded edition brings in more rare cuts from other releases – eight bonus tracks that include "How Come", "Up In The Sky", "Sci Fi Fantasy", "Blessing Of Love", "Golden Light", and "You Are My Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the coolest record ever put out by the Luaka Bop label – and that's really saying a lot, given all the amazing albums they've given us over the years! The set's a perfect musical tonic for the times – a set of underground singles from the 70s, most of which fall in a space between the secular and spiritual – message-oriented, but not entirely from the scriptures – with a humanist message of positivity that's completely timeless – as powerful now as it was when these gems were recorded! The source of most of these records is from a gospel perspective, but they work a lot more in the territory of righteous 70s soul – making the same sort of shift that The Staple Singers or Voices Of East Harlem did on a better-known scale. Titles include "Peace In The Land" by The Gospel IQs, "We Got A Race To Run" by Staples Jr Singers, "I'm Trying To Be Your Friend" by The Soul Stirrers, "Don't Give Up" by The William Singers, "Let Your Light Shine" by Willie Dale, "It's Hard To Live In This Old World" by Rev Harvey Gates, "Time For Peace" by The Little Shadows, "We Don't Love Enough" by The Triumphs, and a great reworking of Earth Wind & Fire in "Keep Your Faith To The Sky" by Willie Scott & The Birmingham Spirituals. CD

A beautifully earthy performance – and a set that not only has the three members of the trio on their trademark instruments, but also picking up a wide range of other elements too! Joe Morris is perhaps the most striking here – as in addition to guitar, he also uses banjo, fiddle, bass, banjouke, pocket trumpet, and even a bit of whistles – a sonic sense of variety that's matched by Parker's use of shakuhachi, sintir, n'goni, and thumb piano – all instruments that he plays with the same deeply spiritual currents of his work on bass! Hamid Drake sticks mostly to percussion – a range of drums, cymbals, and gongs – but overall, his performance feels as open and organic as the others – far beyond both standard and free jazz, into a mode that almost works in some ethnographic currents as well. The whole record's as poetic as the title – and tracks include "Profound Branches", "The Sky Was Purple Blue", "Energy Of Patience", "The Rhythm Of Butterflies", "Endless Galaxies", and "Grass Beneath The Cracked Shells". CD

A really beautiful collection of rare tracks from Sun Ra – put together by the mighty Gilles Peterson, who we've trusted for years to give us some of the most soulful, cosmic music on this planet! Gilles has a wonderful ear for a certain strand of sounds from Ra and the Arkestra – their more spacey, more spiritual moments – which are strung together in this wicked double-length collection – which also includes a few tracks never issued before! The inside is as beautiful as the cover, and the whole thing's got copious notes on the music – including some track-by-track details that never showed up on some of the original records. 2CD set features 34 tracks in all – with titles that include "When There Is No Sun", "Spontaneous Simplicity", "Love In Outer Space (voc)", "On Jupiter, "We Travel the Spaceways", "Sleeping Beauty", "Mystery Mr Ra", "Blackman", "The All Of Everything", "The World Of Africa", "They Plan To Leave", "Children Of The Sun", "Dreaming", "Black Sky & Blue Moon", "Enlightenment", and "India". CD

An amazing group, sounding even better here on their second album than they did the first time around – which is quite an achievement, as we really loved that record from this mighty trio! The group's an offshoot from the Ill Considered combo – and they've got an approach that's similar to that group, but maybe even more modal and spiritual overall – tremendous bass from Leon Brichard, tight drums from Tom Skinner, and searing reed solos from Idris Rahman – who blows tenor, flute, and clarinet over the long grooves laid down by the bass and drums! Rhythm is at the core of every track, and there's energy that flows right from the original inspiration of Coltrane's early 60s groove – but Rahman's solos are very distinct, and add a hell of a lot to the already great sound of the group. Titles include "Light In The Sorrow", "Distant Thunder", "Fire", "Mirage", "Under The Night Sky", and "Where The Wild Things Dance". LP, Vinyl record album

A great early 70s effort from Carlos Santana – one that finds him moving in a more jazzy direction, with supple rhythms underpinning his guitar solos! There's even some outright funky moments, with the overall sound leaning towards a more spiritual vibe – no doubt the influence of collaborations with John McLaughlin and Alice Coltrane, who even helped arrange one number. The set's got great work from jazz-based players too – vocals from Flora Purim and Leon Thomas, and some killer reeds from Joe Farrell – on titles that include "Love Devotion & Surrender", "Samba De Sausalito", "When I Look Into Your Eyes", "Yours Is The Light", "Mother Africa","Light Of Life", "Flame Sky", and "Welcome". LP, Vinyl record album

A great early 70s effort from Carlos Santana – one that finds him moving in a more jazzy direction, with supple rhythms underpinning his guitar solos! There's even some outright funky moments, with the overall sound leaning towards a more spiritual vibe – no doubt the influence of collaborations with John McLaughlin and Alice Coltrane, who even helped arrange one number. The set's got great work from jazz-based players too – vocals from Flora Purim and Leon Thomas, and some killer reeds from Joe Farrell – on titles that include "Love Devotion & Surrender", "Samba De Sausalito", "When I Look Into Your Eyes", "Yours Is The Light", "Mother Africa","Light Of Life", "Flame Sky", and "Welcome". CD

Really beautiful sounds from bassist David Wertman – an unsung hero of the late 70s spiritual jazz scene around New England, and one who delivers this gem in close partnership with singer Lynne Meryl! Meryl's got this warm, fluid style that's a lot like the way that some of the better Bay Area groups were using jazz vocals a few years before – a mode inspired by overseas singers like Flora Purim or Urzula Dudziak, but used here alongside soulful instrumentation that draws a lot from the more inside currents of the loft jazz scene! Wertman's bass is at the core, and tremendous throughout – full of fire and force, and sometimes matched with a bit of percussion – a musical force that's handled here more fully by Tony Vacca, who employs a range of instruments – next to piano and prepared piano from Tom McClung, and these strong trombone solos from Tim Atherton – a player who really sends the whole thing over the top with his contributions! Most tracks have a great modal groove – and titles include "Forest Dance", "Camel", "Flute Song", "New Earth", "Sing My Love Song", and "Dance Of The Mideast Madness". This expanded edition brings in more rare cuts from other releases – eight bonus tracks that include "How Come", "Up In The Sky", "Sci Fi Fantasy", "Blessing Of Love", "Golden Light", and "You Are My Love". CD

A very unique album by Curtis Fuller – quite different than any of his other records at the time! The session has Curtis blowing on tunes from the score to Cabin In The Sky – arranged by Manny Albam, and performed by a large group that includes Freddy Hubbard, Hank Jones, and Bob Brookmeyer. Far from the snoozy outing that you might guess from the title, the album's actually a deeply spiritual album that has Fuller playing in warm rich tones that he rarely achieves elsewhere. The backing is sensitive, and doesn't get in the way – and instead creates a magical pillow of sound that allows Fuller to craft these warm and sweet notes that are really wonderful. Titles include "The Prayer", "Savannah", "Love Turned The Light Out", and "Love Me Tomorrow". LP, Vinyl record album

Early soul jazz brilliance from a young Gary Bartz – music that pre-dates his Ntu Troup, and his work with Larry Mizell! Libra is fantastic early work from Gary – and probably his rarest record ever! The album was cut at a time when the young Bartz was first coming to prominence in the hip late 60s soul jazz group of Max Roach – and Bartz's playing at the time is a perfect model of mid-Coltrane searching with some of the tighter sides of soul jazz that were being forged at labels like Blue Note by players like Hank Mobley or Lee Morgan. The record's a masterpiece of youthful soulful energy – and the group includes Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, Albert Dailey on piano, and Billy Higgins on drums, all players who are perfectly matched to fit Bartz's stridently creative vision. His solos on alto are impeccable – some of the most meaningful we've ever heard on the instrument from the time – and the album's a great one all the way through! Titles include "Air & Fire", "Eastern Blues", "Libra", "Freedom Of The Day", and "Cabin In The Sky". Another Earth is amazing too – one of the first that Gary Bartz ever cut – done during a time when he'd been working with Max Roach and a super-hip group of younger soul jazz players who would go onto shape the sound of the 70s. Bartz leads a group that includes Stanley Cowell, Freddy Waits, Charles Tolliver, Pharoah Sanders, and Reggie Workman – and the music sounds like it was lifted from one of the best albums on Strata East from the 70s. There's no funk, no vocals, no weird rhythms – just pure spiritual jazz, played to perfection, and filled with a creative vitality that most of the players had lost a few years later. Tracks include the album-side "Another Earth", plus "Dark Nebula", "UFO", and "Perihelion & Aphelion". Note: CD omits the track "Disjunction" from Libra – due to space restrictions. CD

Early work by Alice Coltrane – somewhat under the shadow of her late husband, as you'd guess from the use of his name on the front cover – but really stepping out here with a voice of her own! The Monastic Trio of the set features Alice on harp and piano – alongside bass from Jimmy Garrison and drums by either Ben Riley or Rashied Ali – both really fluid players who open up nicely in this way that's never to far out, at least in the way that John Coltrane was using rhythms at the time – but which allow Alice to really take the lead as a bold musical visionary of her own! Perhaps most exciting, Pharoah Sanders sits in on one of the album's longest tracks – blowing tenor with a force that's enough to bring back The Great One – but the real charm of the set is Alice's piano work, bubbling out here with a sensitivity that we never would have expected from the harder-edge sessions cut with Coltrane – that new level of spirituality she instantly brought to her own solo sessions. Titles include "Ohnedaruth", "Lovely Sky Boat", and "Atomic Peace". LP, Vinyl record album

Very early work from this legendary Ethiopian musician – a very haunting blend of voice and piano, often recorded with a very echoey tone – in a style that's completely unique! Emahoy Tsege Marian Gebru comes across in a very intimate mode here – on songs that have a deeply personal vibe, and which really go beyond the boundaries of language because of that – communicating these moments of fragile beauty and subtle spirituality with the way that Emahoy's vocals rise, float, and drift along with her spare, watery lines on piano! Titles include "Don't Forget Your Country", "Ethiopia MY Motherland", "Tenkou Why Feel Sorry", "Clouds Moving On The Sky", "Ready To Leave", and "Is It Sunny Or Cloudy In The Land You Live". LP, Vinyl record album

A tremendous document of a legendary group – one that was even better in a live setting than they were on record – and that's saying a hell of a lot, given the great records they left behind! The quintet here features trumpeter Woody Shaw at his most righteous – working alongside co-leader Louis Hayes on drums – at the head of a brilliant lineup that features Junior Cook on tenor, Ronnie Mathews on piano, and Stafford James on bass! At some level, the vibe here is a hipper 70s extension of ideas that Cook and Hayes worked on with Horace Silver in the 60s – but there's also a lot more of the spiritual fire that Woody was bringing to his groundbreaking albums for Muse Records – which is underscored both by James' ultra-heavy work on bass, and the skyward-reaching sounds of Mathews on piano. Cook has a brilliant edge on his tenor – sometimes missing from other records – and titles on this first volume include long takes on "Sun Bath", "Ichi-Ban", "Book's Bossa", "Obsequious", and "Invitation" – plus the requisite "Moontrane". CD

Very early work from this legendary Ethiopian musician – a very haunting blend of voice and piano, often recorded with a very echoey tone – in a style that's completely unique! Emahoy Tsege Marian Gebru comes across in a very intimate mode here – on songs that have a deeply personal vibe, and which really go beyond the boundaries of language because of that – communicating these moments of fragile beauty and subtle spirituality with the way that Emahoy's vocals rise, float, and drift along with her spare, watery lines on piano! Titles include "Don't Forget Your Country", "Ethiopia MY Motherland", "Tenkou Why Feel Sorry", "Clouds Moving On The Sky", "Ready To Leave", and "Is It Sunny Or Cloudy In The Land You Live". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic live performance from Charles Mingus – recorded in Detroit, with a slightly unusual group – and done with the more open, freewheeling quality that grace his live recordings of the early 60s! The set was recorded at the Strata Gallery – and has some of the deeper spiritual currents of the work on Detroit's Strata label – as the quintet burns beautifully with contributions from Don Pullen on piano, John Stubblefield on tenor, Joe Gardner on trumpet, and the great Roy Brooks on drums! It's interesting both to hear Mingus without Dannie Richmond on drums – and Brooks at a time when he was at his most righteous – and the pairing really seems to bring a lot of the best energy out of the other players too. The super-expanded set features material from a few nights of performance, with a few alternate takes – and titles include "The Man Who Never Sleeps", "Pithecanthropus Erectus", "Peggy's Blue Skylight", "Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress Then Blue Silk", "Dizzy Profile", and "C Jam Blues". CD

Early work by Alice Coltrane – somewhat under the shadow of her late husband, as you'd guess from the use of his name on the front cover – but really stepping out here with a voice of her own! The Monastic Trio of the set features Alice on harp and piano – alongside bass from Jimmy Garrison and drums by either Ben Riley or Rashied Ali – both really fluid players who open up nicely in this way that's never to far out, at least in the way that John Coltrane was using rhythms at the time – but which allow Alice to really take the lead as a bold musical visionary of her own! Perhaps most exciting, Pharoah Sanders sits in on one of the album's longest tracks – blowing tenor with a force that's enough to bring back The Great One – but the real charm of the set is Alice's piano work, bubbling out here with a sensitivity that we never would have expected from the harder-edge sessions cut with Coltrane – that new level of spirituality she instantly brought to her own solo sessions. Titles include "Ohnedaruth", "Lovely Sky Boat", and "Atomic Peace". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic live performance from Charles Mingus – recorded in Detroit, with a slightly unusual group – and done with the more open, freewheeling quality that grace his live recordings of the early 60s! The set was recorded at the Strata Gallery – and has some of the deeper spiritual currents of the work on Detroit's Strata label – as the quintet burns beautifully with contributions from Don Pullen on piano, John Stubblefield on tenor, Joe Gardner on trumpet, and the great Roy Brooks on drums! It's interesting both to hear Mingus without Dannie Richmond on drums – and Brooks at a time when he was at his most righteous – and the pairing really seems to bring a lot of the best energy out of the other players too. The super-expanded set features material from a few nights of performance, with a few alternate takes – and titles include "The Man Who Never Sleeps", "Pithecanthropus Erectus", "Peggy's Blue Skylight", "Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress Then Blue Silk", "Dizzy Profile", and "C Jam Blues". CD

A tremendous document of a legendary group – one that was even better in a live setting than they were on record – and that's saying a hell of a lot, given the great records they left behind! The quintet here features trumpeter Woody Shaw at his most righteous – working alongside co-leader Louis Hayes on drums – at the head of a brilliant lineup that features Junior Cook on tenor, Ronnie Mathews on piano, and Stafford James on bass! At some level, the vibe here is a hipper 70s extension of ideas that Cook and Hayes worked on with Horace Silver in the 60s – but there's also a lot more of the spiritual fire that Woody was bringing to his groundbreaking albums for Muse Records – which is underscored both by James' ultra-heavy work on bass, and the skyward-reaching sounds of Mathews on piano. Cook has a brilliant edge on his tenor – sometimes missing from other records – and titles on this second volume include "Some Other Blues", "Invitation", "Round Midnight", "What's New", and "All The Things You Are". Rene McLean is featured on tenor on one track that doesn't include Cook – and all tracks are nice and long! CD

An insanely fantastic look at the strong legacy of gospel music from Savoy Records – a company who were initially a powerhouse in the fields of jazz and R&B, but who moved into the gospel world and dominated that market for decades! Savoy is a bit like Chess Records – a company who really learned how to record blues singers and soulful styles from the secular world, then used that same ability to work some real magic on songs from the more spiritual side of the spectrum – an approach that really made for top-shelf music, even as the decades moved on! Savoy's gospel legacy has always been a bit underground – not nearly as reissued for larger audiences as their jazz and blues material – but this collection does a great job of correcting that lack, by presenting their music in a wonderful format – all in a mix of rare cuts and classics from the gospel underground. This second volume features work from Savoy's prime 70s gospel years – 20 tracks by artists who include The Metro Tones, Betty Hollins, Gene Martin, Swan Silvertones, Artistic Sounds, James Moore, Holy Lights Of Baltimore, Brooklyn Skyways, World Wonders, Myrna Summers, Brockingham Ensemble, Prof Charles Taylor, Exciting Supreme Highlights, and Highway QCs. LP, Vinyl record album

Beautifully meditative music from Alabaster DePlume – a set that brings together work from a variety of recorded projects from the past decade or so – finally getting full exposure in this Transatlantic collaboration between Chicago's International Anthem label and London's Total Refreshment Centre! The sound is a great illustration of the genre-crossing modes that have been going on in both scenes – as Alabaster's music is definitely beyond easy description or definition, and comes across in a way that's as personal as it is collaborative – since DePlume works with a whole host of different musicians on the recordings, mixing flute, percussion, strings, keyboards, and other elements together in a way that follows a spiritual legacy from the more spacey side of Alice Coltrane, to the west coast experiments of Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, to the changes taking place on the planet at present. Alabaster plays tenor and guitar, and vocalizes slightly – but never really sings – and titles include "Why Buzzardman Why", "Not My Ask", "Whisky Story Time", "If You're Sure You Want To", "What's Missing", and "Song Of The Foundling". LP, Vinyl record album

Nina's folsky, but she's also jazzy too – and the album's from a key time in which she was finding a very special way to bring the two modes together! Simone could have been a straight jazz singer if she wanted – but as records like this always remind us, she was always striving for something different – a bolder, more righteous way of expressing herself – opening up with a new sort of power that was perfect for the coming change in the 60s! The album's a live one – a setting that always seems to have Nina hitting her stride – and even the familiar tunes take on new energy in the context – a sense of pride and spirituality that's already as great as her work to come for Philips Records. Titles include "Erets Zavat Chalav", "Silver City Sound", "The Young Knight", "The Twelfth Of Never", "Vanetihu", "Lass Of The Low Country", and "When I Was A Young Girl". CD