James Brown - Please, Please, Please (1959) {Universal Music Japan Mini LP UICY-9279 rel 2003}

James Brown - Please, Please, Please (1959) {Universal Music Japan Mini LP UICY-9279 rel 2003}

James Brown and His Famous Flames scored an R&B Top Ten hit in 1956 with "Please, Please, Please," but Brown's next nine singles for Federal Records flopped. It was the next, "Try Me," his third single of 1958, that finally scored. That was when King Records (Federal's parent label) assembled this, Brown's debut album, out of some of those singles sessions.

Jordi Savall & Pedro Estevan - La Lira d'Esperia II: Galicia (2014) {Alia Vox AVSA9907}

Jordi Savall & Pedro Estevan - La Lira d'Esperia II: Galicia (2014) {Alia Vox AVSA9907}

Exactly 20 years ago (in 1994), after several years of research, experimentation and concerts, we recorded our first CD devoted to La Lira d’Espéria, performed on my three early instruments – the Rebec, the Tenor Fiddle and the Rabab (Rabel morisco) – with the indispensable percussion of Pedro Estevan. The idea was to announce the music and instruments featured in the recording using the evocative ancient names of Lyra and Hesperia. It was an obvious choice, as the whole recording was devoted to the medieval repertory for bowed instruments and consisted of music from the various Christian, Jewish and Arabo-Andalusian cultures that existed in ancient Iberia and Italica.

Sun Ra - Exotica (2017) {2CD Set Modern Harmonic MHCD-012}

Sun Ra - Exotica (2017) {2CD Set Modern Harmonic MHCD-012}

A fantastic take on the music of Sun Ra – a set that looks at the way his sounds dovetailed with the exotica movement in American music of the postwar years! Given that he claimed to be from outer space, Ra was already pretty darn exotic himself – but his music also arose at a time when artists like Martin Denny and Les Baxter were taking global sounds and fusing them into more mainstream American music, including jazz – with results that have become legendary over the years!

And while Denny, Baxter, and other contemporaries were more involved with mood music, Ra was part of a generation of jazz musicians – such as Yusef Lateef or Wilbur Harden – who were working a richer vein of the territory for jazz – as you'll hear in these wonderful tracks.

Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (1970) {4CD Set Columbia CK 65577~80 rel 2004}

Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (1970) {4CD Set Columbia CK 65577~80 rel 2004}

Columbia's continuing summation of the career of Miles Davis through lavish box-set reissues resumed in 1998 with The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, a four-disc set including all the music from the original 1970 double-album Bitches Brew plus over two additional hours of music from the six-month period during which the album was recorded. (Some of those tracks were previously released on compilations like Big Fun and Circle in the Round, but almost one-third of the material lay unissued until this release.) The music is simply fabulous -- the simultaneous birth and peak of jazz-rock/fusion, with a host of major players (John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Jack DeJohnette) and many innovations. There is a bit more evidence of tape hiss than in Columbia's last American remastering of the album, but the revelations of depth and timbre more than make up for it. Though the unreleased selections are distinctly inferior to those released on Bitches Brew, "Yaphet," "Corrado," and "Trevere" are intriguing jam sessions that reveal much about the creative process between Davis and producer Teo Macero during recording. Unlike Columbia's previous sets in the series (one treating Miles' period of collaboration with Gil Evans and one featuring the music of his second classic quintet), the Bitches Brew sessions lend themselves well to a box set of this type -- presenting the music in chronological order does no harm to original LP configurations as it did on previous sets, and the music here is another glowing testament to Miles' importance to the development of jazz in 1969, as in 1949.

Pharoah Sanders - Africa (1987) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6311}

Pharoah Sanders - Africa (1987) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6311}

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. A brilliant 80s set from Pharoah Sanders – a record that has him a much more understated setting than some of his other albums from the time – but one that's maybe even more soulful and searching overall! The great one plays blistering tenor right from the start – in a quartet with John Hicks on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, and Idris Muhammad on drums – all players who have this way of doing a lot with a little, especially in the rhythm department – where they seem to give Sanders some of his strongest sense of groove since the key albums for Theresa. Muhammad's got this tight sense of timekeeping, but with a looseness that we love – and Lundy's warm soulful bass does more than enough to give the set a sound bottom – and Hicks' free lyrical piano works nicely with Sanders' spiritual horn. Titles include a remake of "You've Got To Have Freedom", plus "Africa", "Duo", "Heart To Heart", and "After The Morning".

Personnel:
Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone
John Hicks - piano
Curtis Lundy - bass
Idris Muhammad - drums

tracklist:
01 - You've Got To Have Freedom
02 - Naima
03 - Origin
04 - Speak Low
05 - After The Morning
06 - Africa
07 - Heart To Heart
08 - Duo

Baby Huey - The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (1971) {2018 2LP Expanded Record Store Day ROGV-051} (Vinyl LP rip 16-48)

Baby Huey - The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (1971) {2018 2LP Expanded Record Store Day ROGV-051} (Vinyl LP rip 16-48)

James Thomas Ramey, better known by his stage name Baby Huey (taken from the Paramount Pictures animated giant cartoon duckling) was born in Richmond, Indiana and moved to Chicago in the early '60s to front his band The Babysitters with co-founders Melvin Deacon Jones on trumpet and Johnny Ross on guitar. By the time they recorded The Living Legend, only Huey and Jones remained (Deacon Jones would go on to play with Freddie King and John Lee Hooker). Because of a glandular disorder, Huey weighed close to 400 pounds at times, contributing to his "larger than life" stage presence, but also to a host of health issues.

The Rileys - Way Out Yonder (2018) {Sri Moonshine Music Digital Download}

The Rileys - Way Out Yonder (2018) {Sri Moonshine Music Digital Download}

Intricate shapeshifting structures containing elements of minimalism, jazz, and North Indian raga. Way Out Yonder is the second live release from The Rileys, the duo comprised of iconic American composer and minimalist pioneer Terry Riley and his guitarist/composer son Gyan Riley. The album contains spontaneous improvisations and compositions by both Terry and Gyan, captured during three performances in Canada, Japan and the US, and features the elder Riley on piano, voice, melodica and electronics. The album artwork was created by Barbara Falconer, who also painted the cover of Riley’s landmark 1978 release, Sri Camel.

Musicians
Terry Riley - piano, melodica, voice, electronics
Gyan Riley - electric guitar

Tracks
01. Out Yonder (Live)
02. Melismantra (Live)
03. The Lake (Live)
04. Folk Song (Live)
05. Garden of Earthly Delights (Live)
06. Dark Queen (Live)
07. Deep Night (Live)

Charlie Rouse - Yeah! (1960) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4038}

Charlie Rouse - Yeah! (1960) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4038}

Reissue with the latest DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. Thelonious Monk's legendary tenorist steps out on his own in this fantastic (and rare) hardbop session from the early 60s! The album's quite different than some of the work Charlie Rouse cut with Monk's classic quartet at the time – more in a hardbop mode that takes us back to his late 50s sides for Prestige – but done with a new sense sharpness, and a bit more of a soul jazz influence overall!

The group is great too – a quartet that includes Dave Bailey on drums, Billy Gardner on piano, and Peck Morrison on bass. The latter two were playing a lot with Lou Donaldson in the early 60s, and they bring a similar rhythmic flavor to this set as well – and although we've always loved Rouse's modernist tones with Monk, this session shows him as a true emotional genius, capable of laying down a tight solo that's right in the pocket! Titles include "Billy's Blues", "Lil Rousin", "Stella By Starlight", and "Rouse's Point".

George Crumb - Makrokosmos III & IV - Bojan Gorisek (1997) {Audiophile Classics APC101301-2}

George Crumb - Makrokosmos III & IV - Bojan Gorisek (1997) {Audiophile Classics APC101301-2}

Volume III
A collection of five pieces completed in 1974 and titled Music for a Summer Evening forms the third volume of Makrokosmos. It departs considerably from the previous two. Commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation for Swarthmore College, the work is scored for two amplified pianos and percussion (two players), contains fewer pieces, and does not associate any of the pieces with Zodiac signs.

Volume IV
The collection that forms the fourth instance of Makrokosmos is titled Celestial Mechanics, and subtitled Cosmic Dances for Amplified Piano, Four Hands. It was completed in April 1979.

James Brown - Sex Machine (1970) {Universal Music Japan Mini LP UICY-9293 rel 2003}

James Brown - Sex Machine (1970) {Universal Music Japan Mini LP UICY-9293 rel 2003}

James Brown cooking it live – recorded (as the cover says) "at home in Augusta, Georgia with his bad self"! The groove here is a nice extension of earlier Apollo modes – one that shows the increasing funkiness of the James Brown Band, captured with a raw power that few other groups could match – in a style that really paves the way for the James Brown/JBs sound of the 70s – with long tracks, and some killer fast versions of some of the best funky cuts from the late King Records years! The set includes a smoking 10 minute version of "Sex Machine" –plus other groovers like "I Got the Feeling", "Mother Popcorn", "Licking Stick", and a great version of "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing".

Track Listing
01 - Get Up I Feel Like Beiing Like a Sex Machine
02 - Brother Rap (Part 1 & 2)
03 - Bewildered
04 - I Got the Feeling
05 - Give It Up or Turnit a Loose
06 - I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing
07 - Licking Stick
08 - Low Down Popcorn
09 - Spinning Wheel
10 - If I Ruled the World
11 - There Was a Time
12 - It's a Man's, Man's World
13 - Please, Please, Please
14 - I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)
15 - Mother Popcorn

Terry Riley & Gyan Riley - Live (2011) {Sri Moonshine Music SMM005}

Terry Riley & Gyan Riley - Live (2011) {Sri Moonshine Music SMM005}

Well this is nice isn’t it? Famed musical genius Terry Riley has become all the more relevant in the last few years with just about everyone from The Alps to Emeralds to Sufjan Stevens pointing him out as a reference, and here we find the man performing with his son Gyan. Gyan is a guitarist, and his near-flamenco inflections sit comfortably alongside his father’s well studied North Indian-influenced piano melodies. The recordings have been culled from a series of live performances yet sound as haunting and personal as if they had been recorded in the bedroom. The interplay with father and son is magical and gloriously resonant; both players are unconcerned with useless technicality, instead heading straight for the heart. Terry Riley noted that these songs had given him more pleasure than anything in his life, and it shows.

Musicians
Terry Riley (piano, vocals)
Gyan Riley (classical and electric guitars, harmony vocals on Emerald Runner)

Track LIsting
01 - Las Puertas
02 - Work Song
03 - Turning
04 - Mongolian Winds
05 - Emerald Runner
06 - Ebony Horns

Be Bop Deluxe - Axe Victim (1974) {2008 Harvest Japan Mini LP TOCP-70358}

Be Bop Deluxe - Axe Victim (1974) {2008 Harvest Japan Mini LP TOCP-70358}

When Be Bop Deluxe's first album was released during the glam rock wave in 1974 and the band (then comprised of Bill Nelson and Ian Parkin on guitars, Robert Bryan on bass, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums) turned up on the back of the record cover in heavy makeup, it was viewed as being in the David Bowie mold, which certainly took in Nelson's thin but confident tenor vocals and the uptempo rock approach, and even ballads like "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" that sounded a lot like Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide."

George Benson - The Other Side of Abbey Road (1969) {A&M 8283930282}

George Benson - The Other Side of Abbey Road (1969) {A&M 8283930282}

Just three weeks after the U.S. release of the Beatles' swan song, Abbey Road, Creed Taylor ushered George Benson into the studio to begin a remarkably successful pop-jazz translation of the record (complete with a parody of the famous cover, showing Benson with guitar crossing an Eastern urban street). It is a lyrical album, with a hint of the mystery and a lot of the cohesive concept of the Beatles' original despite the scrambled order of the tunes.

Benson is given some room to stretch out on guitar, sometimes in a bluesy groove, and there are more samples of his honeyed vocals than ever before (oddly, his voice would not be heard again by record-buyers until he signed with Warner Bros.). Don Sebesky's arrangements roam freely from baroque strings to a full-throated big band, and Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Fortune, and Hubert Laws get some worthy solo space. Yet for all its diversity, the record fits together as a whole more tightly than any other George Benson project, thanks to his versatile talents and the miraculous overarching unity of the Beatles' songs. One wonders if the Fab Four liked it, too.

Robert Wyatt - Robert Wyatt Box Set (2009) {14CD Box Set Domino Records DOMRW1CDX}

Robert Wyatt - Robert Wyatt Box Set (2009) {14CD Box Set Domino Records DOMRW1CDX}

Out of print and hard to get 2009 UK Domino label 14CD box set comprising singlular and prominent English exp- and artrock musician and radical political singer/singwriters 9 studio albums and including the 5-disc EP's box illuminating various periods in Wyatt's long solo career - singles, odd B-sides, live cuts, alternate versions, and remixes. It begins with "Rock Bottom" (1974) which was made after Wyatt had been permanently confined to a wheelchair following a fall from a high window the previous year. Following "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" (1975), Wyatt took an extended break, returning reinvigorated in 1980 with a series of excellent singles on the Rough Trade label, with some B-sides generously given over to other artists. All are collected together on "Nothing Can Stop Us" (1982).

Al Cohn - Rifftide (1987) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6312}

Al Cohn - Rifftide (1987) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6312}

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. Although this recording of standards was made late in his career, tenor saxophonist Al Cohn was in peak form and clearly inspired by an excellent Dutch rhythm section. Cohn's very broad tone is much in evidence, as he runs through changes on tunes that he played innumerable times in his career. A distinct stylist, Cohn was never an innovator, but his lush, relaxed, carefully honed sound was perfect for the late nightclub atmosphere. Every solo was deliberately constructed, mixing just the right amounts of emotion and technique. You can hear Coleman Hawkins in his playing, but Cohn incorporated broad influences from the early history of bop. Pianist Rein de Graff is stunning throughout, and drummer Eric Ineke and bassist Koos Serierse add solid support.

Personnel:
Al Cohn - tenor saxophone
Rein de Graaff - piano
Koos Serierse - bass
Eric Ineke - drums

Recorded at Studio 44, Monster, Holland, June 6, 1987

tracklist:
01 - Speak Low
02 - Blue Monk
03 - Hot House
04 - The Thing
05 - We'll Be Together Again
06 - Rifftide
07 - Do Nothing Till You're True
08 - Secret Love