Jazz | Fusion Vinyl 588 Items

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Voices & Rhythms Of The Creative Profile

Harold McKinney

LP | 1974 | US | Reissue (Now-Again)

28,79 €* 31,99 € -10%

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Sonor Music Editions)

Release: 1974 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The influential Detroit pianist’s sole 1970s album. Remastered and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the denitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, Spiritual Jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America’s 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, “Music is the healing force of the universe.” Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff “Chairman” Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe’s mid-1970s heyday.

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Mandrassi & Zollinger

Rhythm & Sound

28,79 €* 31,99 € -10%

Four On The Outside Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Sonor Music Editions proudly announces a previously unknown Italian Library killer session from the golden era - Rhythm AND Sound by the mysterious 'Mandrassi & Zollinger', backed by 'I Beati' studio band. Mandrassi, alias for Anna Maria Assunta Andreassi, is one of the very first female composers of Library Music in Italy while Zollinger is linked to Sergio Pagano, brother of the famed Italian author, composer and singer Mario Pagano. Originally released in 1973 for the private studio label ‘Ludo Record’, this album remained in the obscurity for almost 50 years, it’s so rare that only very few hardcore record collectors know it, we even doubt about its existence at all.. so we're now glad to bring it back to life! A countless breaks galore, filled with outstanding funk grooves and chasing beats. The jam sounds like a missing link between The Fine Machine ‘Habitat’ and the legendary Arawak ‘Accadde a..’ recordings, with its uptempo rhythms allover and the coolest funky instrumentation played by a mysterious studio group.

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Curtis Fuller

LP | 1978 | US | Reissue (Tidal Waves Music)

28,49 €* 29,99 € -5%

Release: 1978 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

Nucleus

Snakehips Etcetera

Hardy's Jet Band / Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff / Jan Troysen Band / Orchestra Gary Pacific

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The distinctive rolling grooves, growling basslines and blasting horns of Snakehips Etcetera combined to present Nucleus's most energetic record. First released on Vertigo in 1975, original copies of Snakehips Etcetera are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has kept relevant. To steal a line from a review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”

With all restraint out the window, 1975's pimped-up Snakehips Etcetera is the outrageous - in both cover art and sound - follow-up to the brooding Under The Sun. It's perhaps not one for the jazz purists! It finds Nucleus pared down to a core group of six, with Carr, Bob Bertles (sax), Ken Shaw (guitar), Geoff Castle (keys), Roger Sutton (bass) and Roger Sellers (drums) comprising the collective. Snakehips Etcetera reflects a period where the compositions start to become a little more direct and less-cerebral in comparison to some of Nucleus' previous releases. And why would we begrudge them some fun? This one rocks, swings and funks with no little soul. And more than a little jazzy sleaze. Clearly, they were having a good time.

The album has a real live, jamming feel to it, no surprise given the extent to which they were touring at the time. The band is tight and grooving throughout, none more so than on Bob Bertles's effervescent opener, "Rat’s Bag". So darn funky it stings, it's an infectious gem full of punchy clean lines over a killer bassline from Sutton. The thick, driving jazz-rock of "Alive And Kicking" is exactly that. It has a very improvisational feel, but an inspired one at that and features a wailing guitar solo from Ken Shaw that simply slays. The funky "Rachel’s Tune" is amazing, bringing you back to Canterbury days with its fuzzed-out organ solos to close out Side A.

Opening up Side B, the cool psychedelic title track unfolds slowly and sensually over its ten-plus minutes. A stoned soul stew of sorts, each member of the crew gets their chance to shine over Sellers's steady drums. The melodic funk fusion of "Pussyfoot" pairs Carr with Bertles on ace solo flute for a bright, springy melody. This one really gleams over shuffling drums. Changing the pace to close out this memorable set, the particularly cool "Heyday" is a reflective, sober tune which reinforces the sumptuous Nucleus palette, the acoustic guitar and bass high in the mix to make the neck snap, the horns elegantly blasting to help you swoon.

This Be With edition of Snakehips Etcetera has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Cicely Balston's cut at AIR Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The striking, lascivious sleeve has been restored in all its seductive/ridiculous beauty.

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Blue Butterfly

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound, is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

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The Pyramids

Lalibela

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The debut album by the Pyramids was inspired by the group"s visit to the Lalibela monastery in Egypt, and was recorded in Yellow Springs Ohio in early 1973. Drawing on the teachings of Cecil Taylor and the influence of John Coltrane, combined with a barrage of intense percussion, the album evolves over several long-form pieces. Initially only 500 copies were pressed and sold to friends and followers in the local area.

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The Pyramids

King Of Kings

LP | 1989 | EU | Reissue (Mono Jazz)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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King Of Kings was recorded in 1974 and features a wider array of instruments including Ugandan Harp and Balafon. Perhaps best known for the expansive "Nsorama (The Stars)" a seminal work of Spiritual Jazz.

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Chet Baker

Chet On Poetry

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Four Flies)

Release: 1989 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Long time hard to find and long awaited reissue of Chet Baker’s last studio album. Lyrical, poignant, it shows Chet Baker at his best. Included the original version of Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue”. Which has become an all-time classic masterpiece in Chet’s repertoire, also heard on the “Let’s Get lost” soundtrack. HQ re-matsering

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Piero Umiliani

Paesaggi

LP | 1987 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Four Flies Records is proud to present the first reissue of Piero Umiliani’s Paesaggi – a record that, despite remaining for many years pretty obscure compared to other titles in the maestro’s discography, is now regarded by collectors and experts as the gold standard in Italian library music. By using a multitude of instruments, such as flute, vibraphone, harpsichord, sitar, gong and others, it brings together a variety of arrangements, styles, and genres spanning from bossa nova to jazz, easy listening to psychedelic, Latin, exotica, and many more.

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Gruppo Sound

Dreams For Sax

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Release: 1987 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Another gem from the extensive Flipper Music catalog, more precisely from their Flower sublabel, "Dreams For Sax" is possibly one of the most stand-out productions from their studio ensemble Gruppo Sound, this time around featuring saxophonist Paolo Russo with keyboardists Stefano Galante and Vittorio Quattrini. First released in 1987, the songs recorded for "Dreams For Sax" are a beautiful melange of easy-listening electronic and jazzy vibes, from mellow tunes such as "Dawning" and "First Class" to some killer floor-filling italo disco bangers such as "Walking On Air" and "Dance Power". A groovy Italian library banger from the 80's now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release as a limited edition of 500 copies.

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Sun Ra

Lanquidity

LP | 1984 | EU | Original (Per Tallec Trio)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Recorded overnight at Bob Bank’s Blank Tapes on 17th July 1978 after the Arkestra had appeared on Saturday Night Live, the album is unique in the Ra catalogue. “Most critics felt that it was more of a fusion-inspired record,” explains Michael Ray. “As the name suggests, the album is liquid and languid.” Bob Blank continues, “Musically, it was very ad hoc and freeform. There were horn charts but most tracks came out of improvised jams. Sun Ra just did his thing.”

Comprising five effortlessly fluid pieces, the album eases in with Lanquidity. Danny Ray Thompson remembers, “This was one of Sun Ra’s on-the-spot compositions. It is almost like an Ancient Egyptian Stargazing Ceremony, mapping out the stars and the planets.” Where Pathways Meet is “Sun Ra’s funky version of an Egyptian march. Pharaoh is sending his troops off to fight and this is his pep-talk!” continues Thompson. “The music seems to take different pathways but still converges.” The loping groove of That’s How I Feel, features the reflective trumpet lines of Eddie Gale with solos by John Gilmore and Marshall Allen: “Marshall comes in with that snake charming oboe.” Says Thompson. The funky Twin Stars Of Thence weaves around Richard Williams celebrated elastic bassline while the haunting closer, There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of), is pure “space music.” The poet Mama Nzinga described it as ‘The essence of light. Spirit takes a ride inside the deep dark space of just being.”

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Per Tallec Trio

Mannawyddan

Release: 1984 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1985 | EU | Reissue (Blind Dog)

Vladimir Furduj

Furda

Jay Richford And Gary Stevan

Release: 1985 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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180 gram vinyl

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Feelings

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

LP | 1974 | IT | Reissue (Four Flies)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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More than once Jay Richford and Gary Stevan’s Feelings has been described as the greatest library record ever released. Of course Be With can’t be seen to be playing favourites, but we have to admit, it’s pretty good. Insanely rare and immensely sought-after, it’s a tough funk, street jazz masterpiece coveted for many years by collectors of all musical genres. Since its original release on Italian label Carosello in 1974, Feelings has appeared on several labels with different sleeves and even under a different artist. Indeed cult library label Conroy put it out in one of their iconic red sleeves in 1976 and yes, Feelings has indeed had more than one modern re-issue since these “original” releases. But a record this special deserves to be kept in press and we think it deserves the Be With treatment. No, Jay Richford and Gary Stevan aren’t two of the most Italian sounding names. As the story goes these were the pseudonyms adopted by Stefano Torossi and Giancarlo Gazzani who wrote the album but couldn’t use their real names on the original release for legal reasons. But Stefano Torossi himself later both clarified and confused the tale further by explaining that Feelings was the work of four people not just Gazzani and himself. Fellow composers and musicians Sandro Brugnolini and Puccio Roelens also worked on the album and as Torossi himself explained “we all worked together”, with all four gents “dividing the royalties in equal parts… that’s the story.” Right, so, with that all sorted out let’s get back to talking about the music.

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Alessandro Alessandroni

Spontaneous

2LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Honest Jon's)

Release: 1974 / IT – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Maybe the best Alessandroni’s album ever. A true holy-grail for any collector and worldwide music lover, which we can consider nowadays as the most sought-after record of the whole legendary RCA SP 10000 series, and as the rarest album from the king of Italian libraries.
Jazz, mellow-funk, downtempo breaks, and incredible rock blends, make this record a refined portrait of the 70’s American way of life, viewed through the fully Italian lens of Alessandroni’s sensitivity.
The magic around Spontaneous is that this album is not only beautiful and astonishing, but is certainly on of those amazing records to which time gives new life and freshness, making it sounds unbelievably contemporary.
After five years of exhausting research, and three years later the finding of the original master tapes of the album, finally Four Flies can give a light to this obscure and fascinating mystery, rescuing it from the darkness. It’s not just another piece of Alessandroni’s legacy that is finally put back in the right place. This should be considered as the definitive act to re-estabilsh Alessandroni's leadership into the library music scene, and beyond.
Available again from July 19, coming in 180gr black vinyl, housed in a hard tip-on sleeve cover.
Limited Edition 500 copies

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Derek Bailey & Tony Coe

Time

Derek Bailey & Cyro Baptista

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Multi-reedist Tony Coe was born in 1934, four years after guitarist Derek Bailey. He cut his teeth as a career jazzman with Humphrey Lyttleton, before an extended stint with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band. On this rare 1979 duo outing, he sticks to clarinet. And though that instrument has an illustrious jazz pedigree, Coe’s playing here is something else.

It’s worth noting that the clarinettist has also played under the baton of arch-modernist Pierre Boulez, the kind of composer Derek Bailey enjoyed taking to task in his book Improvisation. You might think the Frenchman’s uncompromising serialism and the free playing Bailey defended with such passion all his life would have little in common, yet both men were hugely influenced by Anton Webern. It’s an influence you can hear right through Bailey’s career in his obsessive exploration of tight parcels of registrally-fixed pitches, notably those trademark ringing harmonics. Meanwhile, Coe’s meandering semitones and sinuous arabesques here recall both Boulez’s clarinet writing in Domaines, and the harmonic world of Boulez’s own teacher Olivier Messiaen.

Still, no traditional classical musical notation could ever render the extraordinary rhythmic subtlety and timbral complexity of this music. It’s at one and the same time dazzlingly virtuosic — Coe and Bailey are on stellar form throughout, and have enough sense to, yes, accompany each other where needs be — and supremely lyrical and spacious.

An absolute delight.

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Cyro

2LP | 1988 | EU | Reissue (Honest Jon's)

LP | 1988 | EU | Reissue (Telephone Explosion)

Release: 1988 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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When Cyro Baptista moved to New York in 1980 from his home city of São Paulo, he brought with him an arsenal of percussion instruments, including the cuica (friction drum), surdo (the booming bass drum associated with samba), berimbau (single-string bow with resonating gourd), and cabasas galore, in the next few years deploying them most notably in numerous ensembles curated by John Zorn, who helped set up this studio session in 1982.

As you might expect from someone whose infectious grooves have graced the work of Herbie Hancock, Astrud Gilberto and Cassandra Wilson, Baptista expertly fires off cunning polyrhythms, even traces of thumping samba, with restless fluency. Bailey the wily old fox skirts and eschews the bait, which is quickly conjured away and newly fashioned. The guitarist homes in on the delicious squeaks of the cuica and the twanging drones of the berimbau with truly awesome tonal precision. You could sing along if you wanted, after a caipirinha or two. And he gets almost as many different sounds from his instrument as Baptista can from his kit – check out the stratospheric plings and string-length fret-sweeps of Tonto, which sound more like a prepared piano than an acoustic guitar.

Wonders abound, from the berimbau/bent-string exchanges that open Quanto Tempo to the delightful collision of howling cuica and spiky bebop on Polvo, and the spare, preposterous Webernian samba of Improvisation 3.

These days, ‘improvisation’ often appears without its customary qualifier ‘free’. If there were ever a case to be made for its reinstatement, this album is the best supporting evidence. Freedom means you’re free to get into the groove, free not to, free to play with each other, free to play against each other. Sometimes frustrating, even scary, but more often than not in the hands of these two great masters it’s hilarious, exhilarating and utterly irresistible.

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Fist Of Facts

Fugitive Vesco

Melodic Energy Commission

Release: 1988 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Melodic Energy Commission is a Canadian gem and an interesting branch of the Hawkwind family tree (featuring Del Delmar on electronics.) Hailing from British Columbia, their unique blend of space rock, progressive and hippie psychedelia began in 1977 as a recording-only project titled "The Melodic Energy Commission of Collected Artists."
In 1985 Ken Man showed up in the studio with this IBM AT computer. It had a 1/2 MB of RAM and some Voyetra software that could sequence music, becoming the duo’s backing band. Fist Of Facts contributors included Mark Cunningham from Mars, Felice Rosser, Genevieve De Monvel Boutet, Carlos Vivanco, Scott Hartley from the Liquids and a whole host of others. Fist of Facts expand the natural groove that Liquid Liquid established over their quick career, with a strong political message combined with abstract dub soundscapes.

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Migration Of The Snails

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Telephone Explosion)

LP | 1986 | EU | Reissue (Invisible City Editions)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Jeff Majors

For Us All (Yoka Boka)

2LP | 1971 | US | Reissue (Now-Again)

Release: 1986 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Private Press Spiritual Jazz from D.C's Jeff Majors. Featuring harp, drum machines and synths. Jeff was one of Alice Coltrane's students at the ashram. He also played in Brother Ah's band. Each song on this album is an inspired vision of the personal and the devotional via the harps universal gilstening range and Linn drums. Comes with info booklet. TIP!

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The Lightmen Plus One

Fancy Pants

A Me Stesso Con Simpatia Limited Colored Edition

Release: 1971 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Revolutionary, spiritual jazz from Houston, reissued for the first time – expanded reissue of The Lightmen Plus One’s Spiritual Jazz classic, on sale and shipping now. (Worldwide release in March.) The second in a series of four expanded reissues of drummer and bandleader Bubbha Thomas’s lauded catalog.

Now-Again Records celebrated the expanded reissue of The Lightmen’s Fancy Pants with a pop-up record shop at Rappcats on February 24th. The sale was hosted by Egon of Now-Again, with records sourced from Bubbha Thomas and his Lightmen bandmates: saxophonist Doug Harris and bassist Don Patterson’s collections, one-of-a-kind rarities and classic soul, funk, jazz and rock LPs and 45s that inspired Thomas and his band.

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Giacomo Dell’Orso

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Cinedelic)

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Cobblestone)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This 1975 album is a studio session organized by Maestro Giacomo Dell'Orso (the husband of Edda) here released under his given name and not the Oscar Lindok pseudonym under which he made a number of recordings including The Fine Machine. This album had the simple purpose of a fun and playful session without preconceived models.

The result is a carefree album, from the friendly cover (Orso means Bear) to the music that is interwoven with bossa nova, samba, jazz and funk in a style that recalls in many ways the work of Maestro Piero Piccioni.

Dell'Orso plays organ, electric piano and Bulisacchio (a synth with metal slats that simulate bass), Nino Rapicavoli on flute and sax, Jimmy Tamborelli on guitars and Ciro Cocozza on percussion.

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Sonny Stitt

Tune-Up!

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Brian Auger's Oblivion Express

Live Oblivion 1 Remastered Edition

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Soul Bank Music)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Live albums are often a "hit or miss" affair but "Live Oblivion 1 & 2" buck that trend. Recorded across 2 nights in 1974 at the Hollywood venue The Whisky A Go Go. Now released to mark the 50th Anniversary of their recording and release it"s the first ever vinyl reissue since the original releases in the 1970"s.

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Septet Matchi-Oul

Terremoto

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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To abandon animals for music – and avant-garde jazz at that –, could seeming shocking to some people. However, it is exactly what Manuel Villarroel did, as he was a vet for three years before leaving his native Chili for Europe and a career in music. And though the animals may have suffered, the world of music can be grateful.

Born in 1944, Manuel Villarroel lent an ear to the best pianists from North America: Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner then Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor. Manuel left Santiago in September 1970 to participate in the Contemporary Music Workshop in Berlin. To pursue his musical career, he rapidly decided to remain in Europe.

The following year in Paris, Manuel began a quartet with saxophonist Jef Sicard (who would also play with his brother Patricio, in the Dharma Quintet). But the group would rapidly expand: Villarroel and Sicard added Gérard Coppéré (saxophone), William Treve (trombone), François Méchali (bass) and Jean-Louis Méchali (drums). And with the arrival of Sonny Grey, a Jamaican trumpeter heard ten years earlier with Daniel Humair, the Matchi-Oul Septet was complete.

Complete and ready: on May 8th, 1971, Matchi-Oul was in the studio for Gérard Terronès’ Futura label. The septet recorded seven of the pianist’s compositions. A succession of tracks which flow magically from one to the next: from the first drum strokes to the last deep notes of the bass, the successive waves roll over the piano and whistle through the wind instruments. And when they all come together it gives even greater force to Villarroel’s beautiful songs. Terremoto is a masterpiece of collective expression: but what else could we expect from a “supergroup’’ of this stature?

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Baikida E.J. Carroll

Orange Fish Tears

LP | 1972 | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1972, trumpeter Baikida Carroll and some of his colleagues from the Black Artists Group took the advice of their friends in the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and left Missouri to discover the bright lights of Paris. The following year they would even get the chance to record their only album which would rapidly attain mythical status and a collector’s item: »In Paris, Aries 1973«, an essential album if you are a fan of free-wheeling avant-garde music from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to Sonic Youth and including Shabaka Hutchings and Rob Mazurek

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Guy Pedersen

Maxi Music

LP | 1972 | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1972 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Guy Pedersen's magical Maxi Music, originally released on cult Parisian library label tele Music in 1972, is psyche-rock and jazz-funk gold. It's a vital Pederson outing, oscillating between the rough and the smooth, but always with those hypnotic grooves. It's a start-to-finish winner, yet the final 13-minute-long opus will blow minds. Trust!

Stirring opener, "Prétexte Pour Indicatifs" is so mighty, it was covered by Keith Mansfield on "Hot Property" from Big Business/Wind Of Change on KPM. It's a track in 4 deliberate parts, the first a rapid tour de force, the second and third presenting organ-and-wah-wah-drenched slo-mo funk workouts and the fourth a return to the frenetic energy of the opening bars. Phew, pretty sensational. "Purgatoire Mood (Interlude)" is a beautiful segue into the stunning horn-laced, swift-paced aggressive jazzy excellence of "Purgatoire Mood 1" and the more poetic "Purgatoire Mood 2". Fast-paced funk beats and dramatic interplay!

"Christophus Colombus" is another song with multiple sections; the intro a rapid wah-wah-enhanced psych-rock statement that truly thrills before settling into a more steady yet no-less unrelenting guitar-funk showcase with wordless vocals and, later, reflective guitar and piano in gorgeous harmony. Closing out this electrifying side, the elegant "Bass In Love" is a soft'n'sultry slo-mo funk instrumental, as rough cello, jazzy piano and salacious, breathy vocals combine to create the scent of lingering heat to pretty rousing effect.

Ushering in Side B, "Sing Song Bass" is a slow starter but, once the drums kick in brilliantly, we're treated to a deeply melodic, propulsive, organ-flute-piano-bass gem - it's truly memorable and absolutely fantastic. The wonky, delirious psych-pop of "Petit Moujik De Nuit" is a curiously compelling number but it serves, for us at least, only as the pre-curser to the phenomenal closing track. An absolute beast that totally slays all before it!

Yes, despite Maxi Music being that rarest of library records - a record that can stand up on its own from front to back - it really does contain that *one* absolute killer track. And Peterson saved the best until last. The real highlight - can you imagine there's better?! - is the blazing psych-rock funky burner that is the infamous 13 minute thriller "Kermesse Non Héroique". Containing a wicked flute solo it genuinely sounds like something off the first Dungen album. Yes, that good. What a way to go out!

The audio for Maxi Music has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

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Pierre-Alain Dahan

Continental Pop Sound

Pierre-Alain Dahan & Mat Camison

Release: 1972 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A Tele Music CLASSIC from 1972, Pierre-Alain Dahan's Continental Pop Sound is of those library albums with something for everyone. Breaks? Check. Fuzz guitar? Check. Slower, jazzy stuff? Double check. It's a stunning collection of psychedelic rock, soulful funk and retro pop stylings that's currently going for over £200 on Discogs. And with good reason. French drummer, percussionist and composer Pierre-Alain Dahan was a key member of the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou and Sauveur Mallia) and Jef Gilson Septet. So, you know this Be With reissue is nailed on essential.

Skip the by-numbers opener "Rock Extra" and head straight to the deeeeeep, minimalist groove of "Slowrama", a humid masterclass in low-slung, creeping crime funk with weighty breaks and beefy bass complimented by hypnotic wah-wah and warm electric piano. Sensational. It was sampled by Prince Po in 2004 for his "Love Thang" track. The galloping "Latin Pop Sound" is a percussive, Santana-esque tour de force featuring fantastic guitar shreds over a bassline to die for. "Morning Melody" is a lightweight amble whereas the brief but deliciously psych-rock heavy "Islam Blues" is a must for your mixes when requiring short segue tracks. The A-Side closes out with "Phasing Drums N° 1, 2 & 3", all completely ace. For us, N° 3 is the pick of the bunch, with particularly slooooow and deliberate drums underpinned by a droning, sinister organ. Hip-hop, before hip-hop, no less.

The genuine monster "Pacific Rock" blasts out the gate to usher in Side B, a thrilling and unrelenting pop-rock instrumental that really drives. "Quasimodo Pop" contains great slow mo funk breaks and scratchy guitars that alternate with pretty heavy riffing to create a compelling base track. "Carmel Beach" is as beautiful as the location it's named after, as insouciant guitars glide over super slo-mo beats and dramatic organ before it breaks down to a laconic, reflective electric piano showcase. Sumptuous. "Auto Moto Rallye" is a brief driving funk gem, as you might expect, complete with revved up guitars tuned and played to emulate the irresistible sound of growling race cars.

The upbeat, piano-led rock stomper "V.S.O.P Rock" is all well and good but, what you might really be here for is the trio of tracks that ensure the LP ends on an almighty high. The three most famous tracks “Rythmiques 1, 2 & 3” all come complete with *ultra*-dope breaks. N° 2 is probably our favourite, with the shuffling bassline and breaks combo augmented by the wonderful cowbell. Though on any other day, it could be N° 3! This album is often considered as the “baby brother” to Tele Music's Rythmiques, and this triptych is all the proof you need. Outstanding.

One of the very best French drummers ever, Pierre-Alain Dahan began his career at the Blue Note in Paris with Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Daniel Humair. Some start, eh?! He also participated in the recording of Serge Gainsbourg's cult album 'La Ballade de Melody Nelson' before going on to make countless KILLER library funk records and be a key member in the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou, Sauveur Mallia et al), Jef Gilson Septet (alongside Henri Texier) and many more. Some pedigree.

The audio for Continental Pop Sound has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

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Rythmiques

LP | 1973 | Reissue (Be With)

Window Of The Mind Ultra Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 1973 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Part of Tele Music Reissue Campaign, 2023 first time reissue, 140g vinyl

Wow! Pierre-Alain Dahan & Mat Camison's Rythmiques is another iconic release in the hallowed Tele Music catalogue. First appearing in 1973, it features tense funk, blunted jazz and heavy breaks all the way. Considered the rightful sequel to Continental Pop Sound, it's a vital album for producers and DJs; and you can probably guess that RHYTHM is central to the record's presentation. And you can really taste what's rhythm, to borrow a phrase. French drummer, percussionist and composer Pierre-Alain Dahan was a key member of the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou, Mallia et al!) and Jef Gilson Septet whilst his partner here, Mat Camison, was a pioneering synth LORD. So, you know this Be With reissue is absolutely crucial.

The album picks up from where Continental Pop Sound left us, opening with the tense, stabbing thriller-funk of "Rythmiques N° 4". The dubbier "Rythmiques N° 5" is no less electric and definitely has a spacey air of wonky funk about it with the slightly off-kilter rolling piano. "Rythmiques N° 6" is more percussive-focussed with a brilliantly hypnotic opening that really stretches the drama out. “Rythmique N° 7” alternates between fast-paced, skipping drums and slo-mo funk, always with the clavinet high up in the mix. Wicked. The dope jazz of “Rythmique N° 8” truly mesmerises with licks of electric piano, funky bass flourishes and varied percussion. “Rythmique N° 9” has great, sloppy-yet-hard intro drums which sound like something Daft Punk could've pilfered circa Human After All, punctuated by a guitar rock refrain that repeats til the end but is never overdone. The A-Side closes with the beautiful, melancholic "Piano + Piano", a reflective jazzy piano track which could easily open a wide-ranging set this autumn and many after it. Stunning.

Opening Side B, "Auto Rythmiques" is a hectic yet compelling funk workout but it's all about the frankly devastating breakbeats on “Rythmiques N° 10 & N° 11” with effortlessly twisted funk bass lines over open drum breaks and enough tension and rhythmic switch-ups to keep your neck-snapping and your mind lifted. Downright essential. Taking leave from the heavy funk break action, the pastoral "Océan Horizon" is perhaps an unfairly overlooked highlight. A gorgeous, softly-aquatic, ambient gem, it's gently percussive with warm, floaty keys decorating the mellow rhythmic bed. The mercifully brief "Super Carrousel" is harmless fun-fair-funk but perhaps best skipped over whilst the intriguingly titled "Gay Shopping" is another throwaway exercise in inexcusable jaunt whilst. To close out this memorable set, thankfully, we're left with "Suspense N° 1" to get us back on course with its unsurprisingly tense mix of urgent stringed instruments that flirt with rhythm and melody yet the longer the track goes on. Deep.

One of the very best French drummers ever, Pierre-Alain Dahan began his career at the Blue Note in Paris with Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Daniel Humair. Some start, eh?! He also participated in the recording of Serge Gainsbourg's cult album 'La Ballade de Melody Nelson' before going on to make countless KILLER library funk records and be a key member in the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou, Sauveur Mallia et al), Jef Gilson Septet (alongside Henri Texier) and many more. Some pedigree.

The audio for Rythmiques has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

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Billy Brooks

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Wewantsounds)

27,19 €* 31,99 € -15%

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A Message From Mozambique

Juju

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Siegried Kessler / Gus Nemeth / Stu Martin

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Strut continue their in-depth work with Oneness Of Juju"s Plunky Branch with the first ever reissue of the powerful 1973 album for Strata-East, "A Message From Mozambique". The roots of JuJu started in San Francisco after Plunky had met his musical mentor, Zulu musician Ndikho Xaba, helping to form his band Ndikho and The Natives. Three members of The Natives (Plunky, bassist Ken Shabala and vibes / flute player Lon Moshe) then joined Marvin X"s theatrical production The Resurrection Of The Dead, joining local musicians Al-Hammel Rasul (keyboards), Babatunde Lea (percussion) and Jalango Ngoma (timbales).

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Solaire

Une Bien Curieuse Planète

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Paris, 1965. Pianist François Tusqueslaid the foundation stone of French-style free jazz with his first, soberly titled, album “Free Jazz”. Also in the team were several future key names of the French scene, (Michel Portal, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin, Charles SaudraisandFrançoisJeanneau) all of whom honed their skills at the beginning of the decade in JefGilson’s groups, althoughhe was none too fond of the turbulent new face of jazz at the time.Ten years later, Jef Gilsonhad obviously changed his tune, as the label Palmthat he had created in 1973 was now the launch pad for what would become the cream of French and international avant-garde jazz. This would notably be the case for François Jeanneauand “Une Bien Curieuse Planète”. His first album as leader (after brieflyerring into pop with Triangle) was recorded in 1975, a few months after “Watch Devil Go” by his old friend Jacques Thollot, and with more or less the same casting: Jeanneau on sax of course, Jenny-Clarkon bass and percussions, Lubatreplacing Tholloton drums and Michel Grailler(plucked out of Magma) was called in as a reinforcement for his completely ‘out of space*’ synthetiser sounds. Thus began a strange trip to a very strange planet, at the border of experimental jazz and swinging avant-garde.From 1960 to nowadays, from Georges Arvanitasto Laetitia Shériff, from Manu Dibangoto “Mama” Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to play with François Jeanneauat some point. There is a good reason for this. The saxophonist is a formidable improviser, but alsoa solid composer, as he demonstrates on this record with, for example, the monumental “Droit d’Asile”, the spooky “Theme For An Unknown Island” or the Coltranesque “Mr J.C. For Ever”. Over half a century later, the planet seems far more familiar to us. And François Jeanneau is always on the front line for a guided tour. Jérôme « Kalcha » Simonneau.

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François Jeanneau

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (La Matta)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Stani Labonia

Amarsi

Mosaico (Le Tastiere Di Lee Selmoco)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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La Matta Records proudly presents the First Official Reissue of the unique LP made by Stani Labonia, an Italian Soul-Funk masterpiece originally released in 1978 on Vincenzo Micocci's It/RCA label. This rare album recorded in Naples, finally comes out after more than 40 years, carefully restored from the original tape. Among the talented musicians who worked in the recording of this album we can find names as Jenny Sorrenti of “Saint Just”, Gaio Chiocchio founding member of “Pierrot Lunaire”, Enzo Avitabile and Gianni Guarracino, former “Città Frontale” but most importantly this LP boasts the courtesy arrangement of Pino Daniele in: La Prossima Donna. Labonia, whose real name is Stanislao Smiraglia, is from Bolzano but lived most of his life in Naples, collaborating with the main musicians of that city. He cou ld be compared with the best of the Italian scene, with strong funk and Latin influences. So this is a rare italian gem to anyone interested in Latin Jazz-Funk & Soul. Fully remastered and available as LP and in all digital stores.

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Lee Selmoco

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Philippe Maté / Jef Gilson

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Francesco Anselmo, also known as Lee Selmoco, Dorsey Dodd, Alex Brown, Arsenio Bracco or Tommy Ruff, is an Italian keyboardist that covered the role of of artistic director for Vedette Records, historical Italian imprint founded by director and violinist Armando Sciascia, and also recorded for its notorious Phase 6 Super Stereo, its sub-label focused on instrumental records and production music. "Mosaico (Le Tastiere Di Lee Selmoco)" is an incredible display of his creative and composing skills, featuring 14 tracks of what could be classified as "happy music", with killer electric organ and rhythms alternating with fuzzy guitars and spacey / psychedelic hints thrown in for good measures, written alongside Guido Baggiani, alias Ruscigan. We are very happy to start a series of reissues from the Vedette Records catalog with the first ever reissue of this title after 50 years from its original release, and since the original pressing did not feature the correct track listing, it is reissued here for the first time in its correct version!

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Workshop

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In October 1974, the first number of “L'Indépendant du Jazz”, a small self-produced magazine DIY -before punk supposedly invented the concept- was launched by Jef Gilson, Gérard Terronès, Jean-Jacques Pussiau and a few other specialists of a different kind of jazz in France, it looked at the already long career of Jef Gilson and in detail at the album with saxophonist Philippe Maté : “The ‘Workshop’ is, with Philippe Maté (alto-sax), an undeniable success. Maté is genuinely ‘the’ most inventive French saxophonist since Michel Portal burst onto the jazz scene (who has also worked with Jef Gilson on both “Enfin” and “Gaveau”).” Even though the author of the article is a mysterious I.H. Dubiniou, and it is difficult to know if it is a real person or a pseudonym used by one of the merry bunch, it is also tempting to hear it as what Jef Gilson really thought about his new discovery. Even more so as the two men would work together over a long period, as Maté became one of the key figures of Gilson’s Europamerica orchestra up until the 1980s. Philippe Maté had started to make a name for himself with the Acting Trio when they released an album on the BYG label in 1969, and he was also one of the regular sidemen for the Saravah studios (he can notably be heard on albums by Higelin, Fontaine or his cult duo album with Daniel Vallancien). The album was recorded on 4 February 1972, at the Foyer de Montorgueuil, where Gilson had set up his studio, with more or less the same team found on “La Marche Dans Le Désert” by Sahib Shihab + Gilson Unit (recorded ten days later). This was drummer Jean-Claude Pourtier and pianist Pierre Moret (regular Gilson accomplices since “Le Massacre Du Printemps”), alongside Maurice Bouhana and Bruno Di Gioa on various percussions and/or wind instruments. On bass is Didier Levallet, of the now mythical Perception, (Jean-François Catoire would replace him with Shihab) and Philippe Maté who took top billing, rather than the American saxophonist afterwards. The two albums are however quite different. This “Workshop” is more abrasive, more free. Made up of two long improvisations each of over 22mn, “L'Œil” on side A and “Vision” on side B (Gilson specialists would recognise the nod to one of his albums from the 60s), the album plunges you into the depths, attempting to drown you in electronic waves, dragging you back to the surface by the collar, giving you a good shakedown, before showing you the light, leaving you breathless on the shore after 46mn of the most intense music French has to offer. “An undeniable success”, they said.

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Like A Ship Without A Sail Ice Wind Vinyl Edition

LP | 1971 | US | Reissue (Numero Group)

Release: 1971 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ndikho Xaba And The Natives

50th Anniversary Remaster 2022

LP | 1971 | UK | Reissue (Matsuli)

LP | 1979 | US | Reissue (Etats-Unis)

Release: 1971 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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• 1971 revolutionary spiritual afro jazz from exile • Fully licensed from Nomusa Xaba, and re-issued in association with Mississippi Records for the North American market • Presented with a four page insert containing unseen photographs and concert bills from Ndikho Xaba’s personal archive, together with a personal recollection from Plunky Branch and extensive sleeve notes by Francis Gooding • Audio mastered and cut for vinyl by Frank Merritt at The Carvery with heavyweight 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany

"Matsuli Music presents soul, spirituality and avant-garde jazz from South African political exile Ndikho Xaba. Its rarity has until now served to obscure both its beauty and its historical significance. Making profound links between the struggle against apartheid and the Black Power movement in the USA, Ndikho Xaba and the Natives is arguably the most complete and complex South African jazz LP recorded in the USA. It stands out as a critical document in the history of transatlantic black solidarity and in the jazz culture of South African exiles.

Ndikho Xaba and the Natives opens a fluid channel of sonic energy that courses between two liberation struggles and two jazz traditions, making them one. It is a critical statement in the history of transatlantic black solidarity, unifying voices stretching from San Francisco to Johannesburg. There is no other recording or group in which the new jazz spirituality of the late 1960s is so fully blended with an African jazz tradition."

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Smegma

Glamour Girl

26,99 €* 35,99 € -25%

Sun Ra Arkestra & Salah Ragab

Release: 1979 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Los Angeles Free Music Society (lafms) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, Lafms incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, Lafms self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. Poo-Bah Records, with its import bins and backroom jam space, attracted the pseudonymous artists forming the initial incarnation of long-running collective Smegma. Early members Ju Suk Reet Meate, Dennis Duck, Cheez-it Ritz, Big Dirty, Amazon Bambiand Dr. Id contributed to various Lafms compilations and combinations before several core members relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1975, where they recorded their debut album Glamour Girl 1941. Originally released on the Lafms label in 1979, the LP combines rock instrumentation with tape, synthesizer, horns and voice in a tempestuous cauldron of anti-academy improv and alien noise. Beyond its roots in Lafms, Smegma would help shape the early Portland punk scene in the late '70s alongside Wipers and Neo Boys. In more recent years, they have collaborated with Merzbow and Wolf Eyes. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with insert.

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Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab In Egypt

LP | 1983 | Reissue (Strut)

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Release: 1983 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Strut presents the final instalment in their series of reissues of Sun Ra's historic recordings in Egypt with The Sun Ra Arkestra meets Salah Ragab in Egypt plus the Cairo Jazz Band, originally released on Greek label Praxis in 1983.

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V.A.

Underground Mood

Rendez-Vous Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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First launched in 1971, Flirt Records was one of the many notable production music imprints distributed by Flipper Music, iconic publishing company founded by Romani Di Bari in 1968 and house to some of the best Italian library music. Back in 1972 the label released this compilation entitled "Underground Mood" featuring music composed by Emma De Angelis, Roberto Conrado, Luigi Lopez as well as Amedeo Minghi, whose anthemic "Lustful" track went on to be sampled by Justin Timberlake in 2013. An incredible 12-tracks collection of guitar driven jazz-funk tinted with fuzzy psychedelic rock vibes, making it one of the most interesting and sought-after releases of the Flirt Records catalog. Now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release as a limited edition of 500 copies.

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Bruno Nicolai

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Sounds From The Screen Black Vinyl)

26,99 €* 29,99 € -10%

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Edition Hawara)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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Licensed in 1975 by Gemelli, Rendez Vous is possibly an holy grail in Nicolai long-running career as a composer. The orchestra director and musical editor is been active for at least 30 years and his majestic opus an overwhelming data for any avantgarde freak or moviegoer obsessed. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesús Franco. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tension! Pretty much what this whole record is all about. An imaginary soundtrack that turned out to be an in-demand obscure library, Rendez Vous shows up the many skills of the composer and his alumni. Possibly Morricone is playing muted trumpet in several episodes – Diffidenza and Subdolamente – absorbing thrilling experiences similar to the Maestro soundtracks for Dario Argento early movies (not a case that Nicolai was the conductor for several adventures in movie sound theatre such as ‘L’Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo’, ‘ Il Gatto A Nove Code’ or ‘4 Mosche Di Velluto Grigio’).

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Robert Ponger

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Glossy Mistakes)

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Robert Ponger is perhaps best known as the producer for Austria’s biggest pop sensation Falco. His unparalleled production skills are on full display in the iconic hit single “Der Kommissar”, and he is also the main man behind Falco’s legendary early albums “Einzelhaft” and “Junge Römer”. But Ponger deserves at least as much credit for his solo recordings. The most sought-after of these is Ponger’s 1979 self-titled LP, which Edition Hawara is honoured to re-issue. The album contains twelve disco-inspired pieces that are unabashedly playful, but also signal serious musical knowledge and finesse. Recorded in the vicinity of Mistelbach, a village even locals struggle to find on a map, Ponger’s LP breathes the vibe of Studio 54 – with the little special extra that only Mistelbach can add. A true Austrian classic.

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Stu Cisco

Amanita

LP | 1985 | EU | Reissue (Ici Bientot)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Originally released in 1980, ‘Amanita’ is an early approach of Canadian artist Sherine Cisco, formerly known as Stu Cisco, to the limitless world of synthesizers in music, through ambient, progressive rock and drone noise. A unique combination of ambient, progressive rock and even drone noises and space-age that converged in ‘Amanita’, her first full album and a piece of music history. This LP marks a milestone in the investigation, experimentation and evolution of musical instruments, where the Mini Moog demonstrated its versatility and creative potential, opening Sherine a path of limitless possibilities.

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Nyssa Musique

Comme Au Moulin

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Warner Music Poland)

Release: 1985 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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After NEF's album in 2019, Ici Bientôt is happy to present today the reissue of Comme Au Moulin by Nyssa Musique. Paris 1985... ‘Extra-European’ Traditions meet Jazz and Minimal Music. An unusual array of instruments turn music into a dialogue. For a unique record ... vivid, full of texture, somewhere between Midori Takada, Don Cherry and Jon Hassell. Beginning of the eighties, 5 musicians rehearse in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the ‘’New Morning", renowned Music venue in Paris. Nyssa Musique is born. Passionate for a long time about traditional music, like those of the Middle East, India and East Asia, but also about African traditions, they throw a bridge between Jazz and ‘Extra-European’ traditions, resulting in what would be called "Spiritual Jazz" today, a little bit in the style of Don Cherry's Organic Music or Pharoah Sanders. With the notable difference, however, that their creations are strongly infused by contemporary classical and repetitive music, notably Steve Reich's work with whom they share a great interest for the traditional cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and its gamelans. In the original group we have Armand Amar, Ballet Music composer and John Boswell. Both specialists of traditional hand percussion which they had been studying for a long time in India and the Middle East, they are also very fond of synthesizers. Three other talented musicians quickly join them: Jean-François Roger, percussionist, marimba and vibraphone specialist, Henri Tournier, multi-flutist and Renaud Garcia-Fons, double bass player, who has a passion for the Middle East and has developed a virtuosic play of the bow, reminding that of Cecil Mc Bee. Each of them enriches the ensemble with their personality, originality and musical generosity. The rehearsal hall is rapidly invaded by the phenomenal instrumentarium put together by Armand Amar. A great opportunity for the musicians, for the dancers, to have access to an endless choice of instruments, offering infinite possibilities for mixing different colors and timbres. Their sense for being a group and their great capacity for improvising culminates, in 1985, in the composition of their first and only album Comme au Moulin (« As by the windmill"), testimony of years of creating without hidden agenda. Authentic, free and vibrant, still today, this album has no real equivalent. Even though it recalls the Fourth World current by its combination of traditional instruments with a subtle use of synthesizers, Comme au moulin gives more space to improvisation. It may also recall those of Midori Takada, less the New Age esthetics. An album that should delight as well lovers of "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane, of "Vernal Equinox" by Jon Hassell, as those of Moondog, an artist who, like them, invented a music based on the use of untypical percussions, at the confluence of 'Extra-European' traditions, Jazz and Classical, all together complex and hypnotic.

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Novi Singers

Rien Ne Va Plus

LP | 1985 | US | Reissue (Blue Note)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This is 180g vinyl.

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Bobby McFerrin

Spontaneous Inventions

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Broc Recordz)

Release: 1985 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Issued with the 75th Anniversary of Blue Note records!

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Janko Nilovic

Rythmes Contemporains

LP | 1975 | US | Reissue (Superior Viaduct)

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Reissue of the legendary album of Janko Nilovic , sampled by Dr Dre, Pop Smoke ... and more! This album recorded in 1972 with around 40 musicians making up the cream of the studio orchestras of the time, remains a centerpiece of the composer's work.

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Joe McPhee

Black Magic Man

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Farfalla)

Release: 1975 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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“Black Magic Man is arguably the pivotal Joe McPhee release. It bridged the span between the regional and the international, bypassing the national altogether. “Recorded in the same sessions that produced Nation Time, Black Magic Man consists of music not chosen for that LP. Like its much-feted sister, technically it falls under the domain of CjR, Craig Johnson’s herculean effort in support of McPhee. An erstwhile painter, Johnson became a self-taught audio engineer, acquiring equipment expressly to document McPhee’s music. In December 1970, five years after Johnson and McPhee had met, they recorded two days of activity —a concert followed by an additional day of recordings—at Vassar College where McPhee was teaching in the Black Studies department. About half of the material was used to make Nation Time. While they had planned to issue a follow-up, the money wasn’t there, so the tapes sat dormant. “Fast-forward five years—Werner X. Uehlinger, a Swiss businessman who worked for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, contacted Johnson while on a trip to the US, and over dinner with McPhee, they discussed putting out some of the unused tracks from the Nation Time sessions. With this casual encounter in 1975, Hat Hut Records was inaugurated. The new label’s maiden release was Black Magic Man, dubbed Hat Hut A, the first in what would become Hat Hut’s letter series. Along the way, the series would feature seven Joe McPhee records, including the first four in a row.” John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

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The Rainbow Orchestra

Wonderland Of Sound

LP | 1985 | EU | Reissue (Soul Note)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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To mark its 50th anniversary, Farfalla Records is proud to announce the reissue of the highly sought after German library gem "Wonderland of Sound". Originally released in 1974, the album was produced by Brillant-Musik's founder Werner Tautz and recorded in Zurich. Wonderland of Sound is the epitome of the classic 70s library sound. A jazzy bliss orchestrated by the hottest European session players making up the Big Band "Rainbow-Orchestra". A Splendidly funky and stunning set of compositions and arrangements with ultra-stylish horn section.

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Frank Lowe

Decision In Paradise

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Soul Note)

Release: 1985 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This is tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe, a major voice in the 70's New York loft scene, at the head of a stellar line-up featuring: Don Cherry - trumpet, Grachan Moncur III - trombone, Geri Allen - piano, Charnett Moffett - bass and Charles Moffett - drums. An outstanding cast of creative jazz luminaries for a hard swinging, blues driven studio session dated 1984.

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Billy Harper Quintet

In Europe

Alessandro Alessandroni / Giovanni Tommaso

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This is Texas-born tenor sax giant Billy Harper captured on tour in Europe in 1979. Mr Harper's gorgeous tone drives a highly energetic quintet featuring a young Fred Hersch on piano, Everett Hollins on trumpet, Louie "Mbiki" Spears on bass and Horace Arnold on drums. A beautiful live document from the Post-Bop era! "In Europe gives a fine glimpse at the power and intensity of Harper's compositions and his tremendous abilities as an improviser... Highly recommended music for post-bop and free jazz appreciators." Allmusic

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Open Air Parade Black Vinyl Edition

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Sonor Music Editions)

Alessandro Alessandroni / Giovanni Tommaso

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Sonor Music Editions is excited to announce this revived issue of Open Air Parade, one of the most sought-after artifacts from the golden era of Italian library music.

This holy grail was originally released in 1972 on the legendary Sermi Records label (often referred to as SR Records). It features ten tracks composed by Ennio Morricone’s whistler, Alessandro Alessandroni revealing his great talent and unrivaled sense of melody, and two by the brilliant Italian jazz bassist Giovanni Tommaso, also founder and member of the legendary prog-jazz-rock ensemble Perigeo.

Open Air Parade is a masterpiece and rightfully sits among the top five in its genre. It has a beautiful cohesiveness throughout and can only be described as sincere. The music ranges from superb psychedelic lounge funk, compelling groovy jazz beat tunes, and far-ranging mood music with lush arrangements.

It’s an essential album, officially reissued by Sonor Music Editions. This 2024 repress has been carefully remastered, and packed in a thick cardboard sleeve with fully restored artwork using the original painting by Ernst Wilhelm Nay in full fidelity.

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Open Air Parade HHV Exclusive Lime Yellow Vinyl Edition

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Sonor Music Editions)

Sounds & Colours White & Grey Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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HHV exclusive vinyl edition on yellow vinyl, limited to 300 copies.

Sonor Music Editions is excited to announce this revived issue of Open Air Parade, one of the most sought-after artifacts from the golden era of Italian library music.

This holy grail was originally released in 1972 on the legendary Sermi Records label (often referred to as SR Records). It features ten tracks composed by Ennio Morricone’s whistler, Alessandro Alessandroni revealing his great talent and unrivaled sense of melody, and two by the brilliant Italian jazz bassist Giovanni Tommaso, also founder and member of the legendary prog-jazz-rock ensemble Perigeo.

Open Air Parade is a masterpiece and rightfully sits among the top five in its genre. It has a beautiful cohesiveness throughout and can only be described as sincere. The music ranges from superb psychedelic lounge funk, compelling groovy jazz beat tunes, and far-ranging mood music with lush arrangements.

It’s an essential album, officially reissued by Sonor Music Editions. This 2024 repress has been carefully remastered, and packed in a thick cardboard sleeve with fully restored artwork using the original painting by Ernst Wilhelm Nay in full fidelity.

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Jaroslaw Smietana

LP | 1987 | EU | Reissue (Warner)

Release: 1987 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Easy! Black Vinyl Edition

Wojciech Karolak

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Warner)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Outubro Deep Aqua Colored Vinyl Edition

Azymuth

LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (Far Out)

LP | 1971 | PL | Reissue (Warner)

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Following on from their seminal Light As A Feather LP, Outubro (October) was originally released in 1980 and began Azymuth’s run of prolific output for Milestone Records throughout the decade.

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Novi Singers

Novi Sing Chopin

Release: 1971 / PL – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1975 | PL | Reissue (Warner)

Czeslaw Niemen

Katharsis

Release: 1975 / PL – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1975 | UK | Reissue (Mr Bongo)

Lonnie Smith

Afro-Desia

Drummer of the Two Worlds

Release: 1975 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The second in our Mr Bongo series opening the vault on classic recordings from the fabled Groove Merchant Records catalogue. This time the spotlight turns to the Hammond B3 organ maestro Lonnie Smith, as we proudly present a reissue of his cosmic jazz-funk journey, ‘Afro-Desia’.

Originally released in 1975, this much-loved album was produced by Groove Merchant label owner Sonny Lester and features the mysterious 'Compliments Of A Friend' on guitar. Considering Smith was part of George Benson’s quartet in the ‘60s, that not so discreet veil appears to have been lifted on who this ‘friend’ might be. However, presumably due to contractual reasons, Benson had to remain covert for this recording. The lineup doesn’t stop there though, with the likes of legendary bassist Ron Carter and Grammy award winning saxophonist Joe Lavano joining the outfit.

An album of two parts, the first side sees Lonnie Smith in a spaced-out, cosmic jazz funk setting. The opener 'Afrodesia' is a funk flexing, steamy groover. Greg Hopkins and Lavano trading off on trumpet and sax respectively, as that bassline walks its way over fluttering jazz percussion and off-kilter electronics. 'Spirits Free' is an epic 15-minute free-wheeling jazz-funk workout. A mind melting trip that rises and falls, in parts spacey and serene, with Smith’s organ playing complimented by stretched out horns. Before long it opens out into unconstrained fluid sections that do its title proud. Pure ‘70s jazz-funk at its most stellar.

Side B takes a more classic soul-jazz flavour, with touches of Latin spice. 'Straight To The Point' kicks off with a carnival zing, full-frontal horn and organ lines providing a fiery party punch. It’s a swinging jazz cut that used to receive spins by DJs at Russ Dewbury's Jazz Room's sessions in Brighton in the ‘90s.

Finally, 'Favors' and 'The Awakening' close out the release. Two sure shot, quintessential Lonnie Smith firing Hammond grooves. Each conjuring up images of packed out, smokey jazz bar jams, every player letting loose with masterful improv sections to whip the crowd up into a frenzy.

A truly wonderful album, and an archetypal release showcasing the height of jazz musician excellence from this era.

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Okay Temiz

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Caz Plak)

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Four Flies)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Licensed from "Warner Records Sweden" and remastered from original material in Warner Record's vaults by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering Bristol. 180 gr heavyweight vinyl Manufactured in Optimal Berlin.
Recorded between Istanbul and Stockholm, it captures the era between Okay Temiz's Don Cherry Trio touring and his own band Oriental Wind's sensational debut.
Mentioned distinctive elements have elevated the record to 'cult' status among record collectors, sample enthusiasts, and diggers around the world.
By 1980, Okay Temiz had already embarked on a series of dynamic collaborations and sound experiences with Don Cherry as a member of the Don Cherry Trio. This period included a noteworthy summer in the early '70s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, hosted by Jon Appleton, a notable American composer and visionary in electro-acoustic music.
"During that summer, Jon asked me, 'What kind of sound do you have in mind?' I had already given this considerable thought, using a tape recorder to capture sound frequencies influenced by the moon's position. Jon Appleton's question made me think about the extension of 'Organic Music Theory,' which we were exploring with Don Cherry at the time."
In 1982, Okay Temiz recorded the most comprehensive answer to 'What is Turkish Jazz?' at the Montreux Jazz Festival (CAZLP 004) with his band Oriental Wind, featuring Bobo Stenson (of the Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet), Palle Danielsson (of the Peter Erskine European Trio), and Lennart Åberg (of the Scandinavia New Jazz Group).
In 1980, without fully realizing he was navigating between these two worlds, Okay Temiz entered Stockholm's renowned Metronome studios to record the 'sound in his mind' as a solo artist.
`Drummer of Two Worlds` is a star map of Okay Temiz's musical worlds. Blending elements from the grand piano to his handmade drums, and from the amplified Berimbau to his cowbell array, weaving Turkish rhythms like 9/8 and 7/8 with the universality of 4/4, it presents a unique sound narrative that resonates with the dimensions of a well-traveled mind."
Haluk Damar

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Giuliano Sorgini

Scappo Per Cantare

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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Straight from the original master tapes and remastered on Limited Edition Vinyl LP for the First Time Ever 'ScappoPerCantare' by Giuliano Sorgini is one of the finest titles in his vast production. New cover artwork designed by Eric Adrien Lee.

Another dream coming true! One of Giuliano Sorgini’s finest and most sought-after titles is finally available as an official LP reissue – the first ever – remastered from the original tapes.
Originally released in 1971 on the small library music imprint FAMA, which operated as a sub-label of RCA Italy, the record contains the original music written for Scappo per cantare, a small, pseudo-psychedelic ‘musicarello’ (musical comedy film) broadcast on RAI television and starring, among others, Italian singers Gianni Morandi and Mauro Lusini.
The only credited album artist is Sorgini, but it’s impossible not to perceive, in this record, the hand of his close friend and colleague Alessandro Alessandroni.
This should not come as a surprise. In the early 70s, the two composers and multi-instrumentalists had a fruitful collaboration that saw them, under the monikers Braen (Alessandroni) and Raskovich (Sorgini), produce an abundance of works together, most of which have now gained the recognition they deserve. These include, among others, two 7” singles from their band The Pawnshop, three records in the series Alle sorgenti delle civiltà (Folkmusic), the crime/noir library albums Quarta pagina (Usignolo) and Inchiesta giudiziaria (Octopus Records), as well as the LP Tempo Libero (Panda Records), which was released shortly after the record presented here and in some ways drew rhythmic inspiration from it.
While their collaboration remained unacknowledged on the original release of Scappo per cantare (this was not uncommon at the time, especially in the field of library music), the record sounds perfectly in line with other works composed by Alessandroni in the early 70s, such as Complesso Gisteri’s Mostra Collettiva (co-written with Oronzo De Filippi), or even a landmark album like Spontaneous, where Sorgini contributed to a handful of tracks.
So, yes, the sheer beauty of Scappo per cantare is the result of an incredible synergy between two heavyweights of Italian library music! Airy and sweeping melodies à la Zoo Folle, psychedelia à la Under Pompelmo, and various percussion instruments played by Sorgini seamlessly blend and fuse with elements and touches provided by Alessandroni.
More specifically, we find Alessandroni’s signature, melancholy whistle in “Desolazione”; the peaceful and dreamy sound of his 12-string guitar in “Scogliere” and “Con Amore”; the trademark harmonies of his vocal ensemble Cantori Moderni in the last two tracks mentioned and in “Per cantare”; and his ingenious use of distortion on his Fender Stratocaster in the suspenseful transitions “Concentrazione” and “Fantocci”, as well as in the frantic/hypnotic hippie numbers “Mordente” and “Fendente” (as a side note, it is worth remembering that Alessandroni experimented extensively with distortion in the rock-infused album Underground, co-written with De Filippi and released in 1971 under the moniker Braen’s Machine, probably a reference to British psychedelic band Soft Machine).
The creative relationship between Sorgini and Alessandroni was so symbiotic that it would be useless to try to identify in more detail their respective contributions to the sound of Scappo per cantare. The alchemy between these two musical geniuses is the key to the album’s exquisitely Italian mixture of cheerful lounge, sweet psychedelia and smooth easy listening.
To do justice to the quality of the music, this remastered reissue is enriched by a new artwork by Eric Adrian Lee, who drew inspiration from the psychedelic visual culture of the period in which the album was written and recorded.

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Oscar Rocchi Quintet

Alchemy In Jazz

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Besides being a leading session musician in Milan's jazz scene between the 60s and 90s, Italian pianist Oscar Rocchi created a number of exquisite library albums in the pop-jazz genre. These include among others "Erbe Selvatiche", "Pop-Paraphrenia" and "Woman's Colours" (the latter co-written with his friend Giancarlo Barigozzi) as well as "Alchemy in Jazz", which is now available in digital format for the first time ever. Originally released on Ring, an imprint of Edizioni Minstrel, the album was recorded by a quintet featuring Rocchi on piano plus long-time collaborators Hugo Heredia (sax and flute), Sergio Fanni (trumpet), Gianni Cazzola (drums) and Furio Di Castri (double bass), and has since become a cult record in countries from the US to Japan, where it was released for the first time on CD in 2013. With a palette ranging from frenzied post-bop echoes("Gold-Fast", "Nigredo") to sentimental nocturnal ballads ("Solution", "Rubedo") to cheerful modern-jazz vibes ("Mercury", "Silver-Bop", "Sulphur"), here Rocchi paints an elegantly syncopated musical fresco that, like the magical, alchemical process referred to in the title, transmutes the harsher aspects of jazz syntax into a graceful and more euphonic style that is approachable for jazz neophytes and yet enjoyable for seasoned jazz lovers.

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Toshiyuki Honda

Burnin' Waves

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Mab About)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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We are happy to continue our series of Electric Bird reissues in collaboration with King Record with the a killer jazz-funk release, saxophonist Toshiyuki Honda's "Burnin' Waves", originally released in 1978. Son of jazz critic Toshiyuki Honda, the Japanese composer was a skillful flute and saxophone player, and in the 70's he worked with George Otsuka and the Burning Waves ensemble. In the 1980s he worked with Chick Corea, Tatsuya Takahashi, and Kazumi Watanabe, lead his own ensemble, Super Quartet as well as being a member of the ensemble Native Son. His 1978 debut album "Burnin' Waves" boasts with hectic saxophone explorations over funky bass and happy keyboards, making it one of the grooviest releases of the Electric Bird catalog, now available on vinyl again for the first time!

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Joyce Hurley

Joyce

26,09 €* 28,99 € -10%

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The first album was recorded in Sydney in 1978 by Joyce Hurley, who learned piano basics in the United States and is currently a European singer, pianist, and composer. Although it has been featured in many record guides and reviews as one of the coveted DJs for a long time, it was, for a long time, a rare LP much sought after by collectors. In addition to the standard number, it is composed of instrumental songs by David Martin Group, who serves as a backing, and Afro-Cuban numbers such as "Sambole'" and "Here and now” are the highlights and killer version of Herbie Hancock's “Maiden Voyage. Joyce Hurley's first full-length release. Joyce was a Detroit-born singer who came to Sydney to study at the NSW Conservatorium and recorded this album with the David Martin Group while she was here. The album was recorded at Earth Media Studios in late 1977 and 1978.

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Daniel Bechet

Songs To My Father

26,09 €* 28,99 € -10%

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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French drummer and Jazz musician/composer Daniel Bechet dedicated 1979 “Songs to My Father” to his father, the famous Sax/Clarinet player Sydney Bechet.

Sydney Bechet’s son-only LP is a hidden treasure we are proud to reissue. The base is a solid Fusion and Jazz Funk sound. Still, the mellow and soulful moment is wonderfully groovy with arrangements reminding George Duke’s albums, or Cortex plenty of funky Fender Rhodes.

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Siegfried Kessler

Solaire

Vivre La Mort Du Vieux Monde

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Solaire, Siegfried Kessler, that is the least we can say! Aged 4: learns piano. Aged 6: his first concert. After this: studies classical music like everyone else... until the jazz of Jack Diéval and Stan Kenton turned everything upside down. So it was goodbye to Bach...

...And hello to Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Ted Curson and Archie Shepp (who he would accompany over a long period). In 1969, with Yochk’o Seffer, Didier Levallet and Jean-My Truong, he formed a group which would mark history and create a sensation: Perception. If French free jazz exists, its thanks to Kessler (and company).

The following year, the pianist recorded his first album: Live at the Gill’s Club. On this one-night concert date can also be heard Barre Phillips and Steve McCall. But it was in 1971 that Kessler would record his greatest album; still in a trio setting, but this time with bassist Gus Nemeth and percussionist Stu Martin: Solaire. Five tracks of extraordinary music, moving back and forth between modal jazz and contemporary music.

Let’s begin at the end, with the title track Solaire, on which Kessler plays a melody on flute and piano which resists all onslaughts. It sends out powerful waves, Kessler’s jazz, bubbling like hot oil (Persécution, Drum), shaking modal jazz to its roots (De l’Orient à Orion) or upsetting the memory of a cantata (Bach Hcab). The piano is an instrument which can provide a tendency towards, demonstrative technique; with Kessler, it is something else: a joyful persecution!

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Maajun

Khan Jamal's Creative Arts Ensemble

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Before Mahjun (of which Souffle Continu reissued, in 2016, the two albums released on Saravah), there was... Maajun. Five musicians (Jean-Pierre Arnoux, Cyril and Jean-Louis Lefebvre, Alain Roux and Roger Scaglia) and three times as many instruments at the service of an electric-poetic guerrilla group moulded from folk and blues. The group’s unique album, “Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde” evokes an (imaginary) association of Frank Zappa and Jacques Higelin, of Sonny Sharrock and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Under these conditions, Long Live Death!

“The most French of all the French groups, determined to take Maurice Chevalier’s place in American hearts.” This was how Rock&Folk presented Mahjun in 1977. So be it. But when “Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde”, was issued, it was 1971, and the name, though the same group, was still spelled Maajun. So, let’s look back at the story.

At the end of the sixties, five blues fans decided to form a French group ready to break down the barriers: Jean-Pierre Arnoux (drums, vibraphone, saxophone), Cyril Lefebvre (guitar, organ), Jean-Louis Lefebvre (bass, violin, guitar, vocals), Alain Roux (saxophone, flute, harmonica, vocals) and Roger Scaglia (guitar, vocals). This was Maajun, and Vivre la mort du vieux monde would be their only album, but which would (nevertheless) be followed by those of Mahjun created later by Lefebvre (Jean-Louis) and Arnoux.

Recorded for the Vogue label, “Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde” would disturb a number of people. This is mostly due to the lyrics, many of which were written by Gérald Escot-Bocanegra, who, while summoning the spirit of Lautréamont and Rimbaud, turned the Maajun musicians on to rock and free jazz. Add a bit of politics into the mix, and the release of the album was delayed for several months. But then, wasn’t it worth waiting for?

Because “Vivre la Mort du Vieux Monde”, a real concept-album, is an important and iconoclastic statement made directly in the face of (francophone) dreamers of all countries. Over heavy guitar riffs, psychedelic interludes or fantasy-fuelled digressions, Maajun built mazes on the advice of alchemists known only to themselves before heading off on a long march on the “cracking walls”. It was an ambitious project, but Maajun could handle it, going so far as to proclaim: “Tomorrow will be a huge party!” But as we can see “tomorrow”, is now!

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Drum Dance To The Motherland

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Aguirre)

Blues And The Soulful Truth

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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There’s not another album on the planet that sounds even remotely like vibraphonist Khan Jamal’s eccentric, one-of-a-kind masterpiece, Drum Dance To The Motherland. Thirty years after its release, the album’s tapestry of sound, fearless abstractions, relentless grooves, cool swing, flashes of ecstasy, & pan cultural embrace remain powerful & beyond category. One of only three albums released on the Philadelphia-based Dogtown label, it was barely distributed beyond the city’s limits when it came out in the early ‘70s.

Finally available again, a really stunning document of musical exploration, a classic session. In its improbable fusion of free jazz expressionism, black psychedelia, & full-on dub production techniques, Drum Dance remains a bracingly powerful outsider statement fifty years after it was recorded live at the Catacombs Club in Philadelphia, 1972. Comparisons to Sun Ra, King Tubby, Phil Cohran & BYG/Actuel merely hint at the cosmic otherness conjured by The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble & by sound engineer Mario Falana's real-time enhancements.

Clearly, the members of the Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble saw African American music as a continuum that stretched from the Motherland through the blues, R&B, jazz, & free jazz, & they prided themselves on mastering the continuum. In the early ‘70s, these were fairly new ideas, but they had taken firm root in Philadelphia. The search for an African American music that is modern & culturally progressive but rooted in an African tradition is the music’s heart & soul. Its connection to the specific African American community in Philadelphia is its immediate inspiration. “My ancestors eventually show up in my music every time i play,” Jamal says. “I’ve always said that my backyard is Africa.”

Originally issued by Jamal in 1973 in an edition of three hundred copies on ‘Dogtown’ records, Drum Dance To The Motherland was effectively a myth until eremite’s 2005 CD reissue. With the master tapes long vanished, the audio was transferred at Sony Music's 54th street studio from a minty copy of the original LP. Includes an insert with Ed Hazell's detailed telling of Drum Dance's incredible history. Under License From Eremite Records.

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Leon Thomas

LP | 1972 | UK | Reissue (BGP / Flying Dutchman)

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Aguirre)

Release: 1972 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The title of Thomas’s third album for Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman referenced Oliver Nelson’s classic 1961 LP “The Blues and the Abstract Truth”. Released in 1972, “Blues And The Soulful Truth” featured an expansive all-star band that included Pretty Purdie (drums), Stanley Clarke (bass), Cecil Payne (Baritone sax) and the unsung Neal Creque (keyboards). It’s a soul meets jazz meets the blues masterpiece with arrangements from ex-James Brown horn-man Pee Wee Ellis.

This astounding album features the extraordinary ‘Shape Your Mind To Die’, ‘l-o-v-e’, a captivating vocal version of Gabor Szabo’s ‘Gypsy Queen’, the compelling ‘Love Each Other’, the plaintive ‘China Doll’ and a driving version of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boom-Boom-Boom’.

Pressed on 180gm vinyl we have remained faithful to the original pressing, replicating the Flying Dutchman label style and gatefold sleeve.

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Seikatsu Koyji Iinkai

Akira Ishikawa & His Count Buffalos

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ferocious JP / US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & liner notes by Alan Cummings.

Following hot on the heels of the first, mid-sixties generation of Japanese free jazz players like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Yōsuke Yamashita, Motoharu Yoshizawa, etc., an exciting second wave of younger players began to emerge in the seventies. Two of its leading members were the saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu and multi-instrumentalist Yoriyuki Harada. Both were post-war babies and immigrants to the city, Umezu from Sendai in the north and Harada from Shimane in the west.

They first met as students in the clarinet department at the Kunitachi College of Music, a well-known conservatory in western Tokyo. Harada was already securing sideman gigs on bass with professional jazz groups and was active in student politics, making good use of his connections to set up jazz concerts on campus. It was around this time that the two began to play together in an improvised duo, with Umezu on clarinet and bass clarinet and Harada on piano. They also experimented with graphic scores and prepared piano.

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African Rock

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Cinedelic Orient Series)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Japanese jazz drummer Akira Ishikawa has recorded countless albums with the band Count Buffalos, though few are quite as revered and sought-after as 1971 set African Rock. Of his albums, this is certainly the most dazzling and impactful, flawlessly produced. More than "African rock" it is psychedelic spiritual jazz with funky veins; the set is a brilliant blend of Akira Ishikawa's favorite styles with juicy, tribal and deep percussive elements - his drums are flanked by Kenji Shiraishi's marimba and Masami Kawahara's percussion - which in some moments they recall Fela Kuti (see the superb "Animals / Mnama") and in many other the electric Miles Davis. He bring a completely new global sound to his music with the inclusion of the electronic component with the ‘ tabbing' Kimio Mizutani's guitar solos and electric piano accompaniment by the great Hiromasa 'Colgen’ Suzuki (also on acoustic piano and composition). Undoubtedly one of the best records produced in Japan in the 70s. Unmissable!

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Francois Tusques

Piano Dazibao N°2

Jothan Callins & The Sounds Of Togetherness

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Between May and September 1970, pianist François Tusques recorded »Piano Dazibao«, an album on which he multiplied joyful escapades as a critical iconoclast. The following year Tusques recorded »Dazibao N°2«, which shows him as an incisive commentator of his times. Following in the footsteps of Don Cherry, who he had met a few years earlier in Paris, Tusques made a plea for “friendship between all the peoples of the world” to the sound of Universalist hymns which transported us from Africa to Asia. But it is really a song to America, evoking the assassination of the activist George Jackson and the mutiny in Attica prison, before covering “Seize the Time” by Elaine Brown – three years after the release of Dazibao N°2, she became the first (and only) woman to lead the Black Panther Party.

The turmoil of Piano Dazibao, was opposed, on Dazibao N°2, by long, labyrinthine tracks with alternating discords and repetitions. Often using prepared piano, Tusques was more percussive (even heady) than ever, exposing a melody with solid hammer strikes or painting an image which radiated peace in spite of the storms. Piano Dazibao and Dazibao N°2 thus form the two sides of one coin, which displays the effigy of François Tusques, an international national monument.

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Winds Of Change

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

The Franklin Street Arterial

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Rare Spiritual Jazz Funk masterpiece reissued for the first time ever worldwide with the original 4 page booklet. Jothan Callins had played with Olatunji in the late 1960s, he both joined the Sun Ra Arkestra and founded his own Sound of Togetherness. The incarnation of the band featured on this 1975 New York recording includes Cecil McBee, Norman Connors, Joseph Bonner and Roland Duval. “Winds of Change” is generally compared to the Strata East style of Jazz. Under exclusive license from Amadi Aziliwe.

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The Franklin Street Arterial Colored Vinyl Edition

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Petit Cherie)

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The Franklin Street Arterial were from Portland, Maine and are the type of band to appreciate since the beginning of A Side. Late 70s and early 80s light fusion sound (but not smooth jazz!). Definitely more on the jazz side rather than rock, but with well crafted melodies and solid professional playing from all. Sublime synthesizer, fine guitar, and fantastic sax gives an honest and touchable value to this record.

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Jacques Thollot

Watch Devil Go

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Music On Vinyl)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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To write these few lines, we spoke to saxophonist François Jeanneau, an old friend of Jacques Thollot who also played on several of his albums, including the “Watch Devil Go” which interests us here. He told us a story which, according to him, sums up the personality of Thollot. A noted studio had reserved three days for a Thollot recording session. The first morning was devoted to sound checks and putting some order in the score sheets which Jacques would hand out in a somewhat anarchic manner. Then everyone went for lunch. When the musicians returned to the studio, Thollot had disappeared. He wasn’t seen again for the three days. When he reappeared, he had already forgotten why he had left, The music of Jacques Thollot is in the image of its’ author: it takes you somewhere, suddenly escapes and disappears, returning in an unexpected place as if nothing had happened.

Four years after a first album on the Futura label in 1971, Jacques Thollot returned, this time on the Palm label of Jef Gilson, still with just as much surrealist poetry in his jazz. In thirty-five minutes and a few seconds, the French composer and drummer, who had been on the scene since he was thirteen, established himself as a link between Arnold Schoenberg and Don Cherry. Resistant to any imposed framework and always excessive, Thollot allows himself to do anything and everything: suspended time of an extraordinary delicacy, a stealthy explosion of the brass section, hallucinatory improvisation of the synthesisers, tight writing, teetering on the classical, and in the middle of all that, a hit; the title-track - that Madlib would one day end up hearing and sampling.

“Watch Devil Go” was in the right place in the Palm catalogue, which welcomed the cream of the French avant-garde in the 70s. But it is also the story of a long friendship between two men. Jacques Thollot and Jef Gilson had known and respected one another for a long time. Though barely sixteen years old, Thollot was already on drums on the first albums by Gilson starting in 1963 and would play in his big band (alongside François Jeanneau once again), ‘Europamerica’, until the end of the 70s.

In a career lasting half a century and centred on freedom Jacques Thollot played with the most important experimental musicians (Don Cherry, Sonny Sharrock, Michel Roques, Barney Wilen, Steve Lacy, François Tusques, Michel Portal, Jac Berrocal, Noël Akchoté...) and they all heard in him a pulsation coming from another world. (Jérôme "Kalcha" Simonneau)

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Eddie Marshall

Dance Of The Sun

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1974 | CA | Reissue (Return To Analog)

Sonny Greenwich

Sun Song

Release: 1974 / CA – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ted Curson

Pop Wine

Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Originally from Philadelphia, invited to New York by Miles Davis, playing at Antibes in 1960 with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, here is trumpeter Ted Curson in 1971... in Paris. With him, a legendary trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums). A new transatlantic alliance in the service of jazz of all kinds: classic, modal, fusion and even free... Pop Wine is – between Coltrane and Miles with a nod to roots in the club the Caveau de la Huchette – an explosive cocktail but which leaves no stains!

In 1960, trumpeter Ted Curson played with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy on stage at the Antibes jazz festival. Eleven years later he was in Paris to record one of the gems of his discography, with a hard-hitting French trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums).

Arvanitas was also someone who had travelled widely. Originally from Marseille, he had accompanied visiting American musicians in Paris before moving to the States. It was when he came back that the charismatic trio was created with Samson and Saudrais and who recorded, in 1970 on Futura, the unforgettable In Concert and then, the following year, Pop Wine with Ted Curson.

Pop Wine: don’t be fooled into thinking you are going to hear jazz musicians trying to play pop after uncorking too many bottles. For, although the album occasionally tends toward fusion, it is first and foremost a wonderful jazz recording; and a recording with enough fizz to make your head spin!

There are five tracks in total: Quartier Latin reminds us a little of Olé Coltrane (Curson, like the saxophonist, is originally from Philadelphia), Flip Top where the trumpet and piano play out a chase scene through the streets of Paris, Pop Wine where funk and cool jazz meet on the barricades of black and white, L.S.D. Takes A Holiday which breaks out in a style close to free jazz, and finally Lonely One, with the impression that ends this unclassifiable album. Unclassifiable, unless we decide to elevate Pop Wine to the rank of a great vintage.

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Hozan Yamamoto & Yu Imai

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Mr Bongo)

Picture In Three Colours Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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We've got a bit of an obsession with Hozan Yamamoto here at Mr Bongo! A legend of Japanese jazz, he is rightly regarded as a true master and was recognised as a "living national treasure" by the Japanese government in 2002. Over five decades he pushed the genre into new directions, absorbing fusion, funk, spiritual jazz and many other sounds, resulting in a discography studded with gems of rare beauty. Exploring his back catalogue has taken us on an engrossing journey that now sees us reissuing another work from this ground-breaking musician.

Though not translating perfectly into English 'Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku', (kitarite has not been a modern expression in Japanese) roughly means 'The Devil Comes Playing The Flute' / 'The Devil Is Coming While Blowing The Whistle' or 'Devils Flute’. It is the original soundtrack to Kôsei Saitô’s 1979 mystery and suspense movie, ‘Devil’s Flute’. The film is based on a story by the famous author, Seishi Yokomizo, and is centred around a much-loved fictional Japanese detective, Kosuke Kindaichi. A Japanese Sherlock Holmes that has been popular for generations.

Hozan Yamamoto was invited to compose the soundtrack directly by the producer of the film, Haruki Kadokawa. Mr Kadokawa also hired keyboard player and producer Yu Imai as assistant producer on the project, resulting in a stunning cosmic, breaks and beats-laden, funk, disco soundtrack extravaganza.

When it comes to the soundtrack and the technology of the time, Hozan Yamamoto and Yu Imai got inventive, tripped out, funked up, and experimented, creating a quirky soundtrack masterpiece that needed to be heard more outside of Japan. Differing from the more traditional Japanese music orientation of some of his other albums such as 'Beautiful Bamboo-Flute' (also released on Mr Bongo) the album showcases a number of genres, from lush atmospheric incidental music to disco and funk grooves, experimental nuggets, drum and flute workouts, to neo-classical and more.

A special record that showcases the further depths of this wonderful musician's talents.

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Eero Koivistoinen

LP | 1984 | EU | Reissue (Svart)

Malagasy At Newport-Paris

Release: 1984 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Deluxe vinyl reissue!

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Jef Gilson

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Sylvin Marc / Del Rabenja

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1973, Jef Gilson gave new impetus to his already long career by reforming ‘Malagasy’ with young musicians from Madagascar exiled in Paris. The group was very successful and played in clubs and festivals on the same bill as Ray Charles, Sun Ra, Terry Riley, Hal Singer or Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath. The meeting between two generations and two cultures created a new mix between jazz, traditional music and electric funk. Jef Gilson had reinvented himself yet again, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

"In May 1972, the wave of anger and the thirst for freedom that had swept the world in 1968 arrived in Madagascar. The Malagasy youth took the opportunity to exile in search of a brighter future. Several of them, all jazz musicians and often polyintrumentalists, came to Paris with their afro hair and bellbottoms. Their names were Sylvin Marc, his cousin Ange "Zizi" Japhet, Del Rabenja, Gérard Rakotoarivony and Frank Raholison.

By chance, they crossed paths with pianist and bandleader Jef Gilson, who they had already met as kids during a series of concert and workshops in Tananarive four years earlier. Gilson was far from an unknown on the French jazz scene. He had played with Boris Vian and André Hodeir at the end of the forties, he was one of the first French composers to move away from the New-Orleans style to try his hand at bebop, had launched numerous young stars (Ponty, Texier, Portal...), was a polemical critic for Jazz Hot, had opened for Coltrane at Antibes/Juan Les Pins, and was part of the Double Six... But it was tough to make a living playing personal compositions and Jef, who didn’t have enough money to return to the island and continue mining the seam of Malagasy jazz, saw an opportunity to relaunch ‘Malagasy’.

He had his recording studio in the Les Halles area, at the Foyer Montorgueil, where he was teaching jazz to a choir. He set to work with the new Malagasy group, working on a repertoire and reviving some of his compositions from the 50s/60s ("Requiem Pour Django", "Dizzy 48", "Anamorphose" here renamed "Salegy Jef" as a nod to an ancestral rhythm reworked in a contemporary style...), and also included more recent tunes ("Newport Bounce" which opens this current album is a reworking of a track called "Interlude", recorded in 69 with the drummer from Miles Davis’ first quintet, Philly Joe Jones). The group Malagasy 73 gigged a lot. One of their concerts was recorded on the 14 March in a club, ‘Le Newport’, in rue Grégoire de Tours, Saint Germain des Prés, not far from the ‘Kiosque d'Orphée’ where Gilson worked at the beginning of the 60s when he brought bebop and avant-garde jazz to the attention of a generation of musicians with his records imported from USA.

This meeting between two generations and two cultures created a new mix between jazz, traditional music and electric funk. Jef Gilson had reinvented himself yet again, and it wouldn’t be the last time." --- Jérôme « Kalcha » Simonneau

Album Release

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Madagascar Now

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Key players on the mythical albums, "Funny Funky Rib Crib" by Byard Lancaster, "Soul Of Africa" by Hal Singer & Jef Gilson and "Malagasy At Newport-Paris" by Jef Gilson, the young Malagasy musicians Del Rabenja and Sylvin Marc were able to develop their own compositions on an album for Palm in 1973. Del Rabenja takes us to the depth of spirituality with his valiha (a small Malagasy harp) while Sylvin Marc oscillates between free jazz and electro-groove.

"While he was working on the repertoire for the new version of his group Malagasy, with young Malagasy musicians he had met in Paris in 1972 (and who can be heard on the album "Malagasy At Newport-Paris"), Jef Gilson realised that two of his new discoveries, in addition to being established polyinstrumentalists (who both had sharpened their skills in the legendary seja-jazz band from La Réunion, Le Club Rythmique), were also skilled composers. They were capable of reinventing jazz and traditional Malagasy music, adding influences from the new generation inspired by pop, rock and funk into the mix. He offered them the chance to share the two sides of an album recorded on his own label, Palm, alongside their compatriots. Ange "Zizi" Japhet, Gérard Rakotoarivony and Frank Raholison.

This is how Del Rabenja and Sylvin Marc came to record this "Madagascar Now / Maintenant 'Zao". The first side really showcases the valiha (a small Malagasy harp) of Del Rabenja who uses the occasion to pay homage to the sadly missed Rakotozafy, often called the Django Reinhardt of the instrument. His three compositions are full of spirituality and invite an almost trance-like state. But Rabenja is equally a very good tenor saxophonist and organist on the other tracks. The other side displays the full range of talents of the multi-instrumentalist and composer Sylvin Marc, who moves from bass to drums, from vocals to percussion and offers four compositions ranging from free jazz to cosmic groove.

At the same period the five men could also be found amongst the cast list of the mythical albums, "Funny Funky Rib Crib" by Byard Lancaster and "Soul Of Africa" by Hal Singer & Jef Gilson. Later, Sylvin Marc would play bass for Nina Simone on her album "Fodder On My Wings" in 1982, then join the team of violinist Didier Lockwood, while Del Rabenja would be part of Manu Dibango’s and Eddy Louiss’ orchestras for a long time and would even be at the front of the top 50 at the end of the 80s with David Koven. He would also be the special guest of the Palm Unit trio (Fred Escoffier, Lionel Martin, Philippe "Pipon" Garcia) on their first album, an homage to the œuvre of Jef Gilson, in 2018." --- Jérôme "Kalcha" Simonneau

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Malagasy / Gilson

Malagasy

Betty Lou Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Gilles Peterson (Worldwide), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Four Tet or Dan Snaith (Caribou) are all crazy about this album. Not satisfied to have already opened for John Coltrane in 1965, to have participated in the legendary Double Six or to have launched the careers of several stars of French jazz (Texier, Ponty, Lubat, Portal, Vitet, Vander and many more), the pianist and bandleader Jef Gilson would become, through this recording, the unlikely catalyst of a jazz which would proudly claim its’ Malagasy identity. Historical!

"Paris, May 13th 1968. There was a general strike. One last plane left the runway, strewn with flaming oil drums. On board were three jazz musicians wondering whether they would be able to return home one day. But for the time being they really want to make it to Madagascar where concerts and workshops with young local musicians were waiting for them. Pianist and bandleader Jef Gilson was accompanied by his bassist Gilbert "Bibi" Rovère (Martial Solal Trio) and the young drummer Lionel Magal (Crium Delirium). Gilson, who already had a reputation for finding new talent (it was thanks to him that, amongst others Jean-Louis Chautemps, Henri Texier, Jean-Luc Ponty or Michel Portal first became known) was literally blown away by the standard of the young Malagasy musicians, all capable of imitating their American idols by ear. Their names were known only to jazz fans on the island; Serge, Allain and Georges Rahoerson, Arnaud Razafy, Roland de Comarmond, Joel Rakotomamonjy, Alain Razafinohatra, Samuel Ramiara... Gilson then had a vision: he wanted to encourage them to play jazz which was truly Malagasy and which would find its’ soul in the island’s culture and traditional instruments (Sodina flute, valiha, various percussion instruments...).

He would go back to the big island three times, in March (with cellist Jean-Charles Capon), in October 1969 (alone), then in February 1970 (as a trio with guitarist Raymond Boni and drummer Bertrand Gauthier). The two trips in 1969 would lead to the sessions, recorded on a simple ReVox with two Neuman microphones, which would make up the essential part of this mythical album entitled "Malagasy", and first issued in 1972 on the Lumen label, and then reissued, as early as 1973, on Palm, Jef Gilson’s own label.

Apart from the last track, recorded in Paris in 1971 with Malagasy instruments brought back from trips by the trio which would play on the avant-garde "Le Massacre du Printemps" (Futura), all the other compositions on the album are by Jef Gilson, Jean-Charles Capon and the young saxophonist Serge Rahoerson. There is also a cover of a song issued just a few months earlier and that the Malagasy musicians had only heard through bits and pieces played by Gilson on piano: the song is "The Creator Has A Masterplan" by Pharoah Sanders, and it is one of the most wild and mystical versions you will ever hear.

In May 1972, Madagascar itself would be the theatre of youth revolt. And the composition "Avaradoha" by Serge Rahoerson, the second track of the first side of this album, would be the anthem of the revolution on the streets." --- Jérôme "Kalcha" Simoneau

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Betty Lou Landreth

2LP | 1979 | UK | Reissue (Backatcha)

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Blue Note)

Release: 1979 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Officially licensed. Reissue on two discs.

Originally released in 1979, Betty Lou Landreth's Betty Lou has been expanded to a 15-song double album featuring the original studio recordings along with bonus material, alternative takes, and extensive liner notes from Joel Palmer, the producer of this Motor City holy grail.

Recorded in Detroit and produced and released by Detroit-born jazz historian Joel Palmer on his YaYa label, the album features many veteran and esteemed Detroit and New Orleans Jazzmen. Alongside Joel, producer and arranger Charlie Gabriel recruited some of the city’s top fellow musicians for the session, including his longtime friend and housemate, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, drummer J.C. Heard, Motown's Funk Brothers, keys player Emmanuel Riggins, bassist Hubie Crawford, violinist Travis Biggs, the Body sisters and many more.

"Honestly, there were never any commercial expectations or aspirations for the album. We just got together to cook up a gumbo. Detroit, New Orleans, funk, jazz, torch, country and some great, great musicians to bring the flavours together. Our only intent was to create the best work of music possible; one which would allow Betty Lou Landreth to display her extraordinary vocal skills, and that we did. The reissue serves as a monument to all of those who all those long years ago contributed their special magic to creating a very unique musical work which has endured the test of time.” Joel Palmer, 2021.

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Elvin Jones

Mr.Jones

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Verve)

Stan Getz & Bill Evans

2LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (BBE)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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More information coming soon.

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Ralph Thomas

Eastern Standard Time

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Far Out)

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Following hard on the heels of BBE delving into the archives of
Detroit’s Strata Records and delivering their widely acclaimed
and hugely in-demand exploration of J-Jazz, comes another
crate digger’s delight- Ralph Thomas’ ‘Eastern Standard Time’,
which dropped the USA back in in 1980, on the obscure Zebra
Jazz imprint.
This is the is the kind of “spiritual’ jazz gem that appears on You
Tube and upon checking it out on Discogs reveals a price well in
excess of £150.00. To have it widely available in its original
vinyl format, as well as digitally and on CD, is a real treat. So,
who is Ralph Thomas?
The self-produced ‘Eastern Standard Time’ features Thomas on
baritone, alto and tenor saxophones as well as flute and
percussion. He describes himself as a practicing ethnomusicologist
who’s musical vision evolved during the Sixties and
it’s Thomas’ multifaceted, global approach that gives the music
on Eastern Standard Time’ an engaging and distinct flavour.
"My music has always been open to different cultures and
sounds Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Mexican, Peruvian, American,
Hebrew, Turkish, African, Indian and Japanese,” declares the
Chicago born musician. While attending the Chicago
conservatory of music in 1969 he became a member of the
Chicago A.A.C.M, studying with master musicians Phil Cohran
and Richard Muhal Abrams. He also recorded with well-known
blues legends, Howlin' Wolf and Mighty Joe Young for the Cadet
imprint of Chess records.
In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles and was employed as a
session player with both 20th Century Fox and Motown – where
he recorded with Marvin Gaye, Jermaine Jackson, Smokey
Robinson and Rick James. In the early Eighties he was working
for Quincy Jones Productions appearing on the soundtrack of
Roots and The Color Purple but a passion for reggae music led
him to Jamaica where he recorded with producer Jack Ruby and
artists like Augustus Pablo and Gregory Isaacs.
In ’86 he moved to NYC where he collaborated with Boogaloo
legend Johnny Colon and played with like-minded musical
explorers Sun Ra, Don Cherry and Olatunji. However, by 1993
his restless spirit carried him to Paris where studied
Ethnomusicology and performed with trumpeter Mra Oma and
film-maker Ranaivo-Rajaona Hery. There were also gigs with
percussionist Trilok Gurtu as well as drummer Sunny Murray
and saxophone legend Archie Shepp. Upon moving to the
South of France Thomas ran an art gallery and initiated his
MusArt project – which has since toured in the US, Canada and
Japan
After a productive stint in Chiang Mai, Thailand – where he
immersed himself in Issan culture – Ralph Thomas recently relocated
back to the US to live and work.

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Antonio Adolfo

Viralata

Gary Burton & Chick Corea

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Far Out Recordings are honoured to be working with master composer, arranger and pianist, Antonio Adolfo for the first time since releasing his Destiny album in 2007. This time we present the first ever vinyl reissue of his era-defining Viralata LP: An essential album from Brazil's majorly progressive heyday of late seventies jazz-funk. Viralata is a sacred artefact of Brazilian music, which Antonio himself describes as ‘a product of my hybrid musical influences that joins together flavours of marchinhas de carnaval, frevo, toada, classical, baião, mpb and jazz, etc’.
The album’s first track ‘Cascavel’ is the emotionally charged, celebratory dance anthem, which became a London jazz-dance classic in the early ‘90s after Far Out label boss Joe Davis discovered a handful of copies in a second hand shop in Sao Paulo and brought them back to London to sell to DJs like Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge. In recent years the track has been played out by the likes of Floating Points, Mr Scruff and Andrew Ashong, it was also the last song ever to play on the hallowed soundsystem of London’s beloved club Plastic People…

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Crystal Silence

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The Corea/Burton duo was brought together by producer Manfred Eicher, and “Crystal Silence” brought a new chamber music sensibility into jazz improvisation, distinguished by an effervescence of melody and countermelody, with synchronized cascades of sound in continually changing harmonic movement.

It all begins here, with “Crystal Silence”. The title says it all: silence crystallized into dazzling melodic gems, each its own prismatic doorway into improvisatory translucence. Corea offers a fine set of five compositions (the most notable being the slick opener "Señor Mouse"), along with three beautifully realized tunes by bassist Steve Swallow ("Arise, Her Eyes" being a personal favorite), and another by Mike Gibbs (the somber "Feelings And Things"). In spite of the variety of voices represented here, the album grows like one long, extended story, a dynamic that seems to shadow the musicians wherever they set foot.

The title track is a subdued tour de force in style, presentation, and content. "Falling Grace" (Swallow) is one of the shorter pieces on tap, but what it lacks in time it makes up for in exhilaration. The album ends with an instrumental version of another Return classic, "What Game Shall We Play Today." Each piece is rendered with such dynamic sensitivity that one can immediately recognize the effect Crystal Silence must have had when originally released, and no doubt continues to have to this day. Connected as they are by the same mellow fuse, these tunes need hardly a spark to set them to glowing.

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Dave Holland Quartet

Conference Of The Birds

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This was Dave Holland's first album as a full-fledged leader. An album of driving, progressive jazz, it is also of historical significance as the only occasion when Rivers and Braxton, two of the music's most strikingly original saxophonists, recorded together. This summit meeting received raves from the press.

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Jan Garbarek

Places

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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“Places” is an important album for the Norwegian saxophonist with its stellar transatlantic line-up.

“Places” brings together another congregation of musicians that could only come from ECM. Drummer Jack DeJohnette lassoes his scurrying loops to the acoustic hooks of guitarist Bill Connors, while John Taylor supplements most of the cargo with organ. At the helm of this vessel is Jan Garbarek, whose saxophonism starts high and goes only higher. With cumulative notecraft and a heartfelt commitment to atmosphere, he and Taylor unwrap a lush nexus in the stunning opener. The occasional harmonic falls like a dandelion seed onto this pool of night as cymbals splash all around us. Taylor weaves a fine spread, anchoring us with sustained bass lines and attentive chording, leaving Garbarek to seal every crack with his sonic caulk. Connors seeks to light his surroundings, striking at the flint with his percussive gesticulations in hopes that one spark might show the way. Garbarek sharpens himself with arid flavor and carves out a miniature oasis in the crumbling image of exotic desire. The organ weaves in and out like a halo circumscribing us with subtle urgency until it pulls us beyond the point of no return, where dwells only silence in these “Reflections.” We then find the organ “Entering” into an electric guitar embrace. Bass and drums give us footholds where we might not expect to find them. Thus, what began as an elegy turns into a far-reaching journey that is over too soon. But in the next track we’re still “Going Places,” spurred by DeJohnette’s steady pulse and Garbarek’s hidden thermals. The energy comes in waves, subsiding here for a guitar solo and swelling there at Garbarek’s call. “Passing” ends where the album began, in a fluid ostinato of organ over which Connors looses his wavering song. Garbarek draws an ascendant pattern between those quiet strings, lifting us to an arena in which age curls into a semblance of time.

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Ralph Towner

Solstice

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Underdog)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Featuring a lineup of musicians who would go on to weave ECM’s significance into the fabric of time, Solstice is a tour de force of musicianship, writing, arrangement, and recording.

Each track is brimming with life and features the sensitive application of a variety of instrumental combinations and studio savvy. “Oceanus” showcases Garbarek in his prime, soaring with an unbridled emotional register. As always, Towner’s 12-string speaks in 360 degrees. Superb drumming from Christensen complements lush melodic lines from Weber, who stretches a melodic cello into infinity while his bass arises like the conical aftereffect of a water droplet. “Visitation” clouds this ardor in a nocturnal vision filled with laughing spirits. “Drifting Petals” is a slow progression, a timid look out onto a dusty plain where the promise of freedom looms larger than the possibility of danger. But then an elder’s advice rings in our ears and pushes us onward. Feet move of their volition and pull us into the ever-receding horizon as the first drops of a squall streak across our foreheads. Towner proves again that his piano musings are not to be taken lightly, as they make for one of the most evocative tracks on the album. A transcendental 12-string solo (with gentle dimensional support from Weber) opens “Nimbus,” soon blossoming into a flourish of flutes, drums, and a bowed bass that cries with the grating fluidity of a sarangi. Garbarek’s sax joins in the fray and lets loose its harmonious fire. The deftly overdubbed flutes return, spreading their wings for a few moments before fluttering off into the distance. “Winter Solstice,” “Piscean Dance,” and “Red and Black” comprise a triptych of duets: the first for classical guitar and sax, the second a prime jam for 12-string and drums, and the third for 12-string and bass. “Sand” ends our cosmic journey with one of Garbarek’s deepest meditations for sax set to the strangely compelling ululations of Christensen’s flexatone lolling about in the background.

Melodically robust while structurally yielding, this is an album to be treasured and is a must-listen for anyone desiring to know what ECM is all about. An astounding meeting of musical minds if there ever was one.

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Janko Nilovic

Funky Tramway