The one-and-only album by upstate New York's wonderfully trippy psych-folk Chrysalis – a buried rock treasure from 1968. Definition is a strange title for the record, as the group refuses to be bound to any one – mixing laidback, trippy psychedelia, oddball folk, and meandering strains of free and old timey jazz influences! Led by rhythm guitarist J Spider Barbour, the group featured vocals by Nancy Nairn and standard psych rock arrangements, plus leftfield acoustic instrumentation and trippy keyboards! The main album includes the tracks "That Will Be The Morning", "Lacewing", "Lake Hope", "Piece Of Sun" and "Dr. Roots Garden". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderful open-ended Ahmad Jamal music from the end of the 60s – and a set that really shows his growth as a player at the time! The "revisited" in the title refers to Jamal's earlier success on Argo records with a recording of "Poinciana" – one that forever made the tune his, thanks to a long-flowing approach that took the familiar standard, and turned it into the perfect foil for Jamal's expressive piano style. But the vibe here is very different – even more open than before, with a beautiful 9 minute reworking of the tune that's worth the price of admission alone! The trio features Jamil Sulieman on bass and Frank Gant on drums – and titles include "Poinciana", "Call Me", "Lament", "How Insensitive", and "Have You Met Miss Jones". LP, Vinyl record album

Very heady sounds from this hip French trio – one who go further than even the usual avant piano combo, by using a prepared version of the instrument for part of the set! Eve Risser handles the keys – and the piano is both standard, although played with very unusual inflections, and sometimes "prepared" – in the mode of sticking bits and pieces under the strings, in the style first pioneered by John Cage! Yet the sounds here are far from those of Cage – as the trio's got a great sense of energy that really builds on the album's two long tracks – kind of a simmering of Risser's piano, Dubocs' bass, and Perraud's drums – until things really start boiling on "Trans" and "Chant D'Entre". CD

One of the standouts in a great 70s run of albums from trumpeter Charles Tolliver – standard-setting records for the spiritual jazz scene of the time – and maybe one of his most far-reaching records for the Strata East label! Toilliver's in very strong company – as the group on the set features Stanley Cowell on piano, Clint Houston on bass, and Clifford Barbaro on drums – and although Tolliver's trumpet solos are always a treat, the interplay between Houston's bass and Cowell's piano is enough reason to buy the record! The highlight of the album is a great take of Cowell's modal groover "Effi", but the set also contains some masterful compositions by Tolliver – long versions of "Truth", "Stretch", and "Drought". Complicated, spiritual work – even more so than some of Tolliver's studio sessions – with very long live performances that really step out! LP, Vinyl record album

Martin Denny's music always takes us away to the tropics – and this set is a whole Forbidden Island of exotica tunes! The record features the classic Denny exotica quartet with Augie Colon and Julius Wechter – plus some additional guest players on flute, percussion, and guitar – rounding out things very nicely. The expanded sound works nicely for Denny's style – and the mood incorporates plenty of easy lounge arrangements of the fairly standard instrumentation in the backdrop – broadened wonderfully in the arrangements! It's sort of a blue-eyed tropical feel – one that makes it a cheeky classic! The set includes some good originals like "Goony Birds", "Cobra", "Exotica", and "Primitiva", plus the Les Baxter tunes "Port Au Prince" and "Sim Sim", as well as a perennial exotica fave, "March Of The Siamese Children". LP, Vinyl record album

A killer compilation of Daptone Gold – a funky and soulful collection that's a perfect snapshot of the sounds coming out of Daptone's House Of Soul recording studios in the aughties! The Daptone sound spins from a tight community of players with the deepest love and respect for the classic, be it funky instrumentals, gritty raw soul, with bits of Afrobeat and more. Daptone Gold includes some standard bearing label classics, rarities and previously unreleased tracks – incredible stuff from Binky Griptite, The Budos Band, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields, Menahan Streetband, Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens and Antibalas. 23 tracks in all: a funky introduction and more from Binky Griptite, "Could Have Been" by Lee Fields, "Che Che Cole Makosa" by Antibalas feat Mayra Vega, "Nervous Like Me" by the Dap-Kings, "I Need You To Hold My Hand" Cynthia Langston & The Gospel Queens, "Stranded In Your Love" by Sharon Jones & Lee Fields and more. Incredible stuff, and a totally essential overview if this your first Daptone Purchase or fiftieth! 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 record that seemed to open the music of Peter Brotzmann up for a whole new generation of listeners – in part because it features the European legend on an American label that got him some of the widest circulation he'd enjoyed here in years – and also in part because drummer Hamid Drake provides a very different foil for his music! The sound is almost an imaginary 70s meeting between the FMP and loft jazz scenes – with Hamid offering up these beautifully rich tones on standard drums, frame drum, and tablas – while Brotzmann blows tenor, alto, tarogato, and e flat clarinet – often with a sound that's searing, but more soulful than usual too – especially on some of the more spacious, open moments on the record. Titles include "It's An Angel On The Door", "Trees Have Roots In The Earth", "The Uninvited Entertainer", and "Dark Wings Carry Off The Sky". CD