Jazz | Fusion Vinyl 565 Items

LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

Release: 1982 / JP – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Pop

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Yumi Murata’s second album with Mariah.
It’s a beautiful, stateless ambient record with its halting vocals, which reflect the sonic experiments of Shimizu Yasuaki.

Mariah, at a time when she was leaning towards hard rock; she used this song as a starting point to steer her into the new wave.

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Idris Muhammed

Kabsha

LP | 1984 | UK | Reissue (Outernational)

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

This little-known album by New Orleans-born drummer Idris Muhammad (1939-2014) was originally recorded for Theresa at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey on September 12, 1980 with George Coleman & Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophones & Ray Drummond on bass.

The six powerful tracks include originals from Muhammad & Drummond and an impressive version of Billy Eckstine's 'I Want To Talk About You' featuring Sanders.

'Kabsha', which is dedicated to Muhammad's youngest daughter, is recommended to anyone who appreciates inventive and passionate modern jazz.

Drummer Idris Muhammad's strongest jazz date as a leader. Muhammad, who had often been heard in funky or more commercial settings, really excels in this sparse setting, showing off what he learned from hearing bands in his native New Orleans. In addition, both the underrated Coleman and Sanders are heard in top form, stretching out on originals, basic pieces, and "I Want to Talk About You" (during which Sanders lets out a few trademark screams so everyone knows that he is not John Coltrane). Highly recommended. Scott Yanow/AMG

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Nate Morgan

Retribution, Reparation

22,99 €*

LP | 1972 | UK | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

Release: 1984 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1984, Outernational Sounds proudly presents Build An Ark pianist Nate Morgan’s second outing for the celebrated Nimbus West label – the conscious and spiritualised sounds of Retribution, Reparation.

Pianist Nate Morgan (1964-2013) was a central figure on the Los Angeles jazz undergound. A core member of the circle around the legendary bandleader, pianist and community organiser Horace Tapscott, Morgan had been part of Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (Union Of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension) since he was just a teenager, and was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, known as ‘The Ark’. Through the 1980s and 1990s he kept the PAPA flame alive, organising the Ark’s sprawling songbook, running legendary jam sessions, and keeping LA’s deep jazz roots well watered. By the early 2000s he was bringing hard won knowledge to a new generation as part of the Build The Ark collective. He was a musician’s musician, at the beating heart of the radical, community-minded Los Angeles jazz network that Tapscott and his associates had first put together in the early 1960s.

Retribution, Reparation was the second of the two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach’s storied Nimbus West imprint. His first, Journey Into Nigritia (Outernational Sounds OTR- 008), had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, with nods to Herbie Hancock (‘One Finger Snap’) and Ellington (‘Come Sunday’), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist and Black nationalist sentiments inspired by Marcus Garvey, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the soundworld of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualised modal jazz. With Danny Cortez on trumpet and Ark stalwart Jesse Sharps on saxophones the frontline is explosive (this set is also one of the few places the extraordinary Sharps can be heard in a small group setting), while Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos and bind the music together. From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (‘U.G.M.A.A.GER’) to the propulsive militancy of the title track, Retribution, Reparation spreads the word: ‘Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!’

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Blacknuss

Guilherme Coutinho E O Grupo Stalo

Release: 1972 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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As deep as a soul record can be and as hot as any jazz record has a right to call itself. deep

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LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1982 | EU | Reissue (Verve)

Nina Simone

Fodder On My Wings

Release: 1982 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Turkish Delight Black Vinyl Edition

Matao With Atilla Engin

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Arsivplak)

Africa - Live At The Carnegie Hall 1971

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Some hard-hitting rhythm section blending into a prime example of the swingin' sound of the cool influences of Jazz, Funk and Folk music, with a Turkish flavor.
It's fantastic funk jazz groove built on a titanium synth bassline!
An instrumental library of traditional Turkish Jazz session reaching a great climax in drums and percussion sets + electro-bass break with moog and synthesizers from the beginning to the end.
Traditional Turkish songs are based on drums and synth bass over moody 5/8 fuzz guitars...
Album recorded & released in Denmark, 1979, and it has never been released in Turkey.

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Alice Coltrane

LP | 1972 | UK (Alternative Fox)

LP | 1981 | EU | Reissue (Favorite)

Release: 1972 / UK

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The musician and spiritual seeker Alice Coltrane was much more than just John Coltrane’s second wife. One of the few harpists to feature prominently in jazz, she was also a renowned pianist and composer and her interest in spiritual matters greatly helped steer her husband deeper into Krishna consciousness, which had significant bearing on his music, most notably evident on A Love Supreme. This mesmerising performance, held at Carnegie Hall four years after John’s untimely passing as part of a benefit event for Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga Institute, comprised a stunning and largely improvised rendition of Coltrane’s “Africa,” with Alice’s subtle piano and harp expressions excellently framed by the wailing saxes of Pharaoh Sanders and Archie Shepp, Cecil McBee and Jimmy Garrison trading non-standard bass lines, a dual drum onslaught from Clifford Jarvis and Ed Blackwell, along with members of the Institute on harmonium and tamboura.

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Twylyte '81

The First Coming

LP | 1983 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1981 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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We are very proud to presents this official and first ever reissue of The First Coming, by Twylyte ’81, an extremely rare and underrated Soul-Jazz album produced and released in 1981.
Twylyte ’81 was a 3 pieces band composed of Frank Jones Jr., Alfred Brown Jr. and John Belzaguy, who, except for John, have never recorded anything else than this incredible album. The First Coming is primarily standing out by a superb composition, mixing touch of Soul, Jazz, and Disco together. It secondly shines thanks to the amazing deep and spiritual voice of the band leader, Frank Jones Jr., whose vocals style can sometime remind of John Lucien. Even more impressive is the fact that these 3 fellas were all less or close to 18 years old when composing and recording this beauty. As did others brilliant hidden projects such as Ted Coleman Band, or Minority Band, it was also useful for Twylyte ’81 to receive the support of JSR Records, a kind of non-profit label dedicated to help young bands and artists in recording and producing their own records.
Here are a few words from Al Brown Jr. about this release: “After 38 years, I still have the euphoric feeling while listening to this album. I would say that this was one of my greatest achievements. I want to say "Thank you" Pascal Rioux and associates for sharing the group's vision with the rest of the world. I pray the listeners will feel a portion of what we tried to convey through these songs. When I first began this project, I thought it was just killing time. Being 17 years old at the time, I didn't see the music we worked on being recorded. We (Frank and I) were in a basement practicing each song. Who knew that this music would be recorded let alone picked up 38 years later? I still remember every beat, drum roll, every stop/start; everything. Wow, the nostalgia of it all. I wish this album much successful and I hope in the future I can perform this album live.”

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Victor Cavini

Japan

2LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (Matsuli)

Release: 1983 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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The first Be With foray into the archives of revered German library institution Selected Sound is one of our favourites on the label - the super in-demand Japan from Victor Cavini, originally released in 1983. Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that never turn up. With Daibutsu the giant Buddha of Kamakura’s presence gracing the hefty front cover, this is a record bursting with dope samples for adventurous producers: it’s koto-funk madness! Victor Cavini was the library music pseudonym of prolific German composer and musician Gerhard Trede. He was known for exploring instruments and styles from around the world (he played over 50 different instruments himself) and Japan is his collection of 14 musical sketches painted with traditional Japanese wind and string instruments. These are the sounds of traditional Japanese folk music re-interpreted through Western ears, with the occassional contemporary twist.

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Hugh Masekela & Company

Live In Lesotho

31,99 €*

Kimiko Kasai with Herbie Hancock

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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“Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba’s double-bill Lesotho concert was a daring, defiant and ultimately dazzling act. For the first time since its limited release in South Africa in 1981, Matsuli Music is proud to re-issue this gem of a pan-African, funk-infused, extended audio double album with unpublished photographs and new liner notes from Atiyyah Khan.

The Christmas-weekend stadium-filled concert deeply challenged and disturbed South Africa’s apartheid regime. Makeba and Masekela were banned from entering South Africa, yet tens of thousands of their South African fans invaded Lesotho to party with their musical heroes.

Live in Lesotho documents an inspired Hugh Masekela and his stellar New York band putting a new spin on crowd favourites.

Another South African jazz gem from Matsuli Music’s growing catalogue of essential high-quality reissues. For an artist as prolific and famous as Hugh Masekela, it is a real surprise that this particular recording took so long to resurface.”

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Butterfly

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Be With)

34,99 €*

2LP | 1982 | UK | Reissue (Honest Jon's)

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-09-20

This is the 2020 repress. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie / Headhunters jazz-funk.

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Company

Epiphany

Charles Tolliver's Music Inc

Release: 1982 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Offcial info: Epiphany \ i-ˈpi-fə-nē \ (1) a manifestation of the essential nature of something (usually sudden) (2) an intuitive grasp of reality through something (usually simple and striking) (3) an illuminating discovery or disclosure.
All three definitions apply perfectly to this span of music recorded at London’s ICA in July 1982. It’s a miracle of group interaction, wonderfully paced, moving steadily between moments of mounting intensity and tension. The passage about halfway through — when Derek Bailey’s harmonics ring out above a sheen of inside piano tremolos and shimmering electronics, topped off by Julie Tippetts’ soaring vocalese — is simply sublime. After which it’s fun to try and tell the two pianists apart. Are those runs Ursula Oppens, with her formidable technique honed from years performing some of the twentieth century’s most difficult notated new music, or are those Keith Tippett’s crunchy jazz zigzags? Are those intriguing twangs from one of Akio Suzuki’s invented instruments or could they be Fred Frith’s or Phil Wachsmann’s electronics? Bah, who cares?

There’s plenty of room for the more delicate instruments too, like Anne LeBaron’s harp picking its way gingerly through a pin-cushion of pings and scratches from Bailey and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa. Of course, some performers are instantly recognisable: Tippetts, as lyrical and flighty on flute as when she sings, Phil Wachsmann, sinuous and sensitive on violin, and trombonist George Lewis, who, as John Zorn once put it, swings his motherfucking ass off.

So many magical moments abound, from the opening dawn chorus of Tippetts’ voice and Frith’s guitar swooping through a rainforest of exquisite piano cascades, to the Zen calm of the closing moments.

Epiphany, indeed.

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Live At The Loosdrecht Jazz Festival

LP | 1972 | UK | Reissue (Strata-East)

51,99 €*

LP | 1970 | CA | Reissue (Return To Analog)

Release: 1972 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Charles Tolliver began his professional career and simultaneously his recording debut with the saxophone giant Jackie McLean on Blue Note Records in 1964. Since then he has become one of the all-time preeminent trumpeters in Jazz as well as one of its most gifted composer/arranger bandleaders. He is also a Grammy nominated recipient for his Blue Note Records recording "With Love".

With a career that has spanned five decades he has recorded and/or performed with such renowned artists as Roy Haynes, Hank Mobley, Willie Bobo, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Booker Ervin, Gary Bartz, Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Oliver Nelson, Stanley Cowell, Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill, Louis Hayes, Roy Ayers, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, and owned the trumpet chair with the great Max Roach for some years. https://charlestolliver.com/

This LP is jazz of high energy and high sincerity. Jazz at it's best. One of Tolliver's (and jazz's) masterpieces. It is a live recording from 1972. On another occasion, Tolliver recorded with another quartet with Stanley Cowell on piano, and some critics prefer that quartet. However, this quartet is the equal of that one. I think John Hicks did a masterful job of piano playing here. Hicks equalled Charles in energy. The bass playing of Reggie Workman (who was John Coltrane's bassist) is equally smouldering. Drummer Alvin Queen is a perfect match for the other three.
Passionate Jazz Fan.

Tolliver's music (which holds on to one's attention throughout the live set) has its connections to the bebop tradition but also forges ahead and can be quite passionate. Recommended. By Scott Yanow/AMG Personnel: Roberto Miranda - Bass
Everett Brown Jr. - Drums
Aubrey Hart - Flute
Adele Sebastian - Flute, Vocals
Fundi Legohn (tracks: B1) – French horn
Virjilio Figueroa - Percussion
Linda Hill - Piano, Vocals
Sabir Matteen* - Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet
Jugegr Juan Grey - Vocals

Produced by Tom Albach

Recorded & mixed by Dennis Moody in 1981

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Marius Cultier

Release: 1970 / CA – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Cecil McBee

Mutima

LP | 1975 | US | Reissue (Black Jazz)

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A landmark recording in early creative improvised modern music, bassist Cecil McBee's recording for the Strata East label is an important document introducing him as a leader from the international jazz-based scene in New York City via his native Tulsa, OK and following a brief mid-'60s stint in Detroit. McBee as a pure musician has staggering technique, rich harmonic ideas, and an indefatigable swing, but it is as a composer that he is set apart from other musicians of this mid-'70s era. "Life Waves" is a stunning piece of composed and improvised music, with a brief clarion horn section setting off McBee's chordal strumming and harp bop drive. Trumpeter Tex Allen's brash lines, the incendiary tenor saxophonist George Adams, and more thoughtful alto saxophonist Allen Braufman dig into hefty but contrasting solos, while drummer Jimmy Hopps stokes the coals. The other premier piece, "Mutima", has a soaring longer melody switching on and off onto a samba palate that is pretty, beautiful, and much more introspective than other wild and woolly cuts. The legendary but under recognized flutist Art Webb shines on the floaty free "A Feeling", and the atypical but wholly contemporized "Tulsa Black", a portent to the music that would be made later in this time period by Sonny Fortune, and featuring the wah-wah electric bass guitar work of Cecil McBee, Jr. The two-minute "Voice Of The Seventh Angel" sports the disparity of a complex arrangement alongside the beautiful singing of a young Dee Dee Bridgewater, while the marathon "From Within" has McBee performing solo, but overdubbed on two basses in opposite stereo channels, using serene long-toned arco and static pizzicato in arresting sounds that meld into a bridge squawk reminiscent of the saxophone playing of bandmate Adams. In retrospect, McBee's great career was ostensibly launched well before this recording, having worked with prominently with Charles Lloyd, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Charles Tolliver, and countless others. "Mutima" (translated as "unseen forces") undoubtedly solidified his stature and brilliance as a major player.

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Cleveland Eaton

Plenty Good Eaton

Release: 1975 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

Ted Moses Quintet

Sideral Time

23,99 €*

Release: 1974 / CA – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Otoroku)

Louis Moholo Octet

Spririts Rejoice

23,99 €*

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Wewantsounds)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Otoroku is extremely proud to present the first vinyl reissue of one of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced. Originally released in 1978 on Ogun recordings, Louis Moholo Octet’s Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody

Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti and Kenny Wheeler, this is former Blue Note artist Louis Moholo’s first album under his own name and is a classic example of the cross-pollination between South African and British players. Mongezi Feza’s ‘You Ain’t Gonna Know Me ‘Cos You Think You Know Me’ alone is enough to make your life a better place.

From Matthew Wright’s new liner notes:

The South African melodies, now so familiar, were wholeheartedly taken on board by the individual musicians, their unity of purpose mirroring the belief in the strength of the collective. Stunning solos, often close to the edge, feature throughout – Evan Parker and Keith Tippett on “Shine Wherever You Are”; the contrasting trombone styles of Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti on “You Ain’t Gonna Know Me...”; the octet sounding like a full big band; and behind them, the relentlessly rhythmic urgency of the piano, bass and drums. Add to this Kenny Wheeler’s moving and all-encompassing trumpet on the elegiac “Amaxesha Osizi” and the joyous flamboyancy of “Wedding Hymn” with Parker’s relatively straight-ahead tenor and Tippett’s dextrous piano solo over a bed of riffing horns, fast walking bass lines and a supreme sense of swing. Louis’ early hero, Big Sid Catlett, would have loved it!

This 2019 re-issue has been made with permission and in association with Ogun records. Features an exact reproduction of the original artwork and liner notes along with new liner notes from Matthew Wright. Remastered by Giuseppe IIelasi and packaged in a high gloss sleeve this is the definitive release of one of the absolute free jazz classics of the 20th Century.

Edition of 1000 copies.

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Yukihiro Takahashi

Saravah!

34,99 €*

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Paul Baillargeon & Dean Morgan

Viens, Mon Amour

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Tresor National)

20,89 €* 21,99 € -5%

LP | 1970 | US | Reissue (Blue Note)

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Tresor Notional is a new Montreal-based record label dedicated to reissuing long lost gems recorded in Quebec (Canada). Their inaugurational release will be o 180g vinyl-only official reissue of the 1970 cult classic “maple syrup porn” soundtrack “Viens, mon amour’ (Love in a 4 letter World), composed by Paul Baillargeon (Star Trek TV series, Jean- Pierre Ferland's Soleil, Curious Georges) and Dean Morgan.
Between 1968 and 1974, Quebec was exposed to unabashed exploitation cinema. Erotic and taboo, these B-movies took on the name of films de fesses (titty films) or “maple syrup porn”. The genre produced some of the most delectable and collectable soundtracks at the time while “Viens, mon amour” easily stands out as one of the sexiest example ever recorded in La Belle Province! Original pressings are scarce and have been highly sought-after for decades by collectors from around the world. This remastered reissue highlights every sensual, psychedelic and
funky side, where rare grooves mix with delicate pop songs and Moog- infused, fuzz-driven titles with hard-hitting brass. A true gem for cinephiles, DJs and all diggers of exotic sounds... with a distinctive Québécois feel.
This first-ever reissue also includes extensive liner notes, rare artwork and exclusive commentaries from the composers. Pressed at 1000 copies, the album will be released in June 2019.

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Reuben Wilson

Blue Mode

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Amercia)

Release: 1970 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

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Noah Howard

Space Dimension

41,99 €*

Rise And Shine: Live At The Aketa's

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Noah Howard was born in 1943 in New Orleans and, like many of his contemporaries, first played music in church as a child. In his 2010 book, 'Music in My Soul', Howard reflected upon his childhood in New Orleans and the influence the city had on him: “Growing up in New Orleans was like receiving a steady diet of music, and my taste in music became increasingly more sophisticated. In the neighborhood where I grew up kids around me were listening to Rhythm and Blues and Jazz; Rock came only much later. One of the great moments of my life was when I was around 13 years old and heard Duke Ellington with Paul Gonsalves playing a twenty-some minutes chorus solo on tenor sax at Newport. We had never heard anything like this before; a saxophone player doing so many choruses, this was years before Coltrane opened up. That experience meant there was no turning back; my ears were open and my desire was burning for music.”
He first learned to play the trumpet before moving on to alto, tenor and soprano saxophone. And his musical journey initially took him to Los Angeles where he worked with Dewey Johnson and then later moved to New York to join the Sun Ra Arkestra. Like most forward thinking saxophonists of the time, Howard was influenced by the evolving expressionism of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler and it wasn't long before he became a key member of the mid-60s free jazz movement, a stepping stone to his elevation into one of the world’s most notable saxophonists.
Howard's debut LP as leader, 'Noah Howard Quartet' was recorded in 1965, and the follow up, 'Noah Howard at Judson Hall', in 1966 but not issued until 1968, both for the groundbreaking ESP Records label (incidentally, both albums featured British trumpeter Ric Colbeck). However, Howard's view of ESP was not positive, calling it “ a monster of deception... I am aware of ESP's adventures...they continue to make money off the artists and they refuse to pay any royalties.”

Like many of the black jazz musicians of the 60s, Howard left the USA and settled in Europe (making the permanent move to Paris in 1972). In an interview in 2005, Howard explained his move: “When I first came to Europe it was 1969 and I came to play in a big festival and after that we had a lot of concerts, recalls Howard. "Then we left and we came back to the States, I was based in New York at that time. About six months later, we had some more concerts, we came back and this went on for years, going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth... I decided that instead of going back and forth all the time, it was more advantageous for me to stay over here and live and work.”
It was in Paris that Howard took part in sessions for the Frank Wright albums 'One For John', cut for the leading French free jazz label BYG Actuel and another Wight session, 'Uhuru Na Umoja', for the America label. Another album on America that featured Howard was Archie Shepp's 'Black Gipsy'. This session also featured , among others, Sunny Murray on drums and Clifford Thornton on trumpet.
America Records was to be home to Howard's third album, 'Space Dimension'. On this album, Frank Wright was reunited with Howard once more, and Wright also composed one track, 'Church Number Nine' (Wright would also do his own version as the title track on his 1970 album, initially only released in Japan. That album would also feature Howard.) 'Space Dimension' also features bop drummer Art Taylor on three tracks, with Muhammed Ali (brother of Rashid), on one. They're joined by alongside pianist Bobby Few, longtime member of Frank Wright's group and an alumnus of Archie Shepp's band.
'Space Dimension' has never seen an official reissue since its original release in 1970 and remains, among a few aficionados, one of the most in demand - and little known - albums in Howard's discography. The blend of free improvisation with a tough rhythmic foundation make for an edifying listening experience. The spectral disjointed afro-blues of the title track, with Howard's soaring, searing horn, introduces an exceptional album of weight and significance, a real statement piece. 'Viva Black' starts as a lush groove, rich with texture and tone. Bobby Few's piano is sparse and disciplined, allowing space for the interweaving angles of the horns and drums to cross and jostle and build in intensity, with Muhammad Ali's drum solo acting as a cathartic release.
'Song for Poets' is blistering in its attack, an intense assault from the whole group – urgent and imperative, a call to action that seemed to resonate with the tumult of the late 60s and early 70s and, perhaps, still resonates now. The album closes with the extended piece 'Blues for Thelma'. It starts like a sort of angular, shattered New Orleans first line march band; Howard visceral horn and Few's piano joust and punch like fighters in a ring; Ali's drums hammer a solid undertow of power and energy, relentless in its fire.
All in all, 'Space Dimension' announced Howard's arrival into a new decade, a decade that was to see not just jazz but music and wider society undergo profound change.
Howard's third record was the widely acclaimed 'Black Ark', which featured Arthur Doyle on his first recording. 'Black Ark' soon became a landmark free jazz recording and elevated Howard into the first division of globally renowned free jazz players.

He spent much of the next decade or so exploring new ideas and places to work, including Europe and Africa, moving to Nairobi in 1982 and finally Brussels, where he had a studio and ran a jazz club.
In his autobiography, Howard described going to Africa: “It was a Sunday morning with bright blue skies and I reached down and grabbed a handful of earth, holding it in my hands. It was red earth. As the first of my family to make this voyage back to my community, I was filled with emotion and started to cry – thinking about all those before me who didn’t survive the middle passage and slave trade. I thanked the few strong survivors of which I’m a descendant and was grateful to be a live and to make it back to Africa in my lifetime. The feeling of coming back home, after generations had gone through abuse and suffering, was upon me. I would put some of this into music later on when recording with James Emmanuel, the poet on 'Middle Passage'”
He recorded steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, mostly with his own label AltSax and continued to expand his repertoire, exploring a range of sounds from ethno-funk to world music in his latter decade. He returned to his free jazz roots in the 90s, mixing the myriad of influences and styles he had encountered throughout his journey.
Noah Howard recorded 35 albums, and their styles reflect the ceaseless musical searcher he was: blues, free jazz, world music. He covered it all.
Noah Howard died on September 3rd, 2010 while on holiday in the South of France. He died a day before finishing the first draft of his autobiography.

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Fumio Itabashi Trio

LP | 1977 | EU | Reissue (Studio Mule)

David Wertman & Sun Ensemble

Release: 1977 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This is the third reissue of fumio itabashi on mule.

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Earthly Delights

2LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (BBE)

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Return To Analog)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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‘Earthly Delights’ is a forgotten 1978 free-jazz masterpiece by bass player, composer and improviser David Wertman, alongside his Sun Ensemble.

Born in 1952 and raised in Queens NY, Wertman’s distinctive upright playing style was entirely self-taught. He cut his teeth in the notorious New York Jazz lofts, jamming for hours and hours with the likes of Billy Bang, Arthur Blythe, Marion Brown, Steve Reid, Dave Pike, William Parker, Brandon Ross and Charles Tyler to name but a few.

‘Earthly Delights’ is the first recording by the Sun Ensemble band and features the original line-up of Greg Wall (Baritone Saxophone), Jay Conway (Drums), John Sprague Jr. (Flute and Percussion), David Swerdlove (Soprano/Alto Saxophone), and John Zieman (Synthesizer). John Sprague Jr. financed and produced the album, releasing it on his own label Sweet Earth Records, a short-lived but bountiful imprint, perhaps best known for issuing Sun Ra And His Arkestra’s 1979 album “The Other Side Of The Sun”.

‘Earthly Delights’ is perhaps best described as loosely composed, or highly improvised, depending on where you stand on such subjective matters. Containing just 4 compositions, ‘Earthly Delights’ explores man’s relationship with nature; at times subtle and delicate, at times wide and sweeping in its gestures. The record’s spiritual message is conveyed by heartfelt, virtuoso performances from all six players, drifting together seamlessly from one sonic wave to the next.

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Billy Robinson

Evolution's Blend

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Croatia)

Tihomir "Pop" Asanovic

Majko Zemljo

Karlton Hester And The Contemporary Art Jazz Movement

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This release comes on 180 gram vinyl in a fold out cover with an insert.

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Hesterian Musicism

LP | 1982 | EU | Reissue (Cool Cult)

14,99 €*

LP | 1975 | US | Reissue (ORG Music)

Release: 1982 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Musicism is the core concept of transcultural artistic research that rose to prominence at the beginning of the 80s thanks to the ingenious mind of Karlton Hester. Composer, flautist and saxophonist Hester set himself as the promoter of a multidisciplinary idea in which musicians, visual artists and poets collaborate in a synergic manner to produce new art forms. Hesterian Musicism is an avant-garde spiritual jazz record composed and issued by Hester on his San Francisco based label Hesteria in 1982.

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Cecil Taylor

Silent Tongues

33,29 €* 36,99 € -10%

Release: 1975 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1981 | US | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

Adele Sebastian

Desert Fairy Princess

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

Release: 1981 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Adele Sebastian was an Afro American jazz flutist and singer, active from the early 70s (when she was still a teenager) until her untimely death at the age of 27 (!) in 1983 from a kidney failure. In fact she had been depending on monthly dialysis to stay alive for years. She lived through and for the music and you can hear it on her only solo album “Desert Fairy Princess” which was first issued in 1981. The mostly acoustic instrumentation brings a very natural and therefore rather retrospective sound considering the year the album was recorded. Adele and her band pull it off right from the start as if it had been 1966 and it was time for a revolution to shake the dust from the old time jazz. In a perfect way she mixes classic American vocal jazz elements with playful and more free passages, Latin music and tribal African sounds in the lengthy and quite rhythm oriented “Man From Tanganyika” and makes the title track start with a mystical “Allahu akbar“ chant while it turns more and more into a dark and gloomy song with something like a psychedelic edge reminiscent of Pharoah Sanders on his early works. Wild rhythms from drums, percussions with tons of bells and chimes weave a thick groove carpet and conjure a magical atmosphere. Those jazz aficionados who love the mid 60s John Coltrane, his sidekick Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane will go crazy for this album.

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Derek Bailey & Tony Coe

Time

LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

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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John Hicks

Hells Bells

LP | 1979 | EU | Original (Nyami Nyami)

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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John Hicks (1941-2006) gave much to jazz over several decades but never really received the appreciation he so richly deserved. As a pianist, he proved himself in the Art Blakey and Betty Carter universities. He was also the prototypical musician's musician, a first-call pianist for many jazz greats and a magnificent accompanist to the art's best saxists, including Pharoah Sanders, Arthur Blythe, Chico Freeman, Archie Shepp, and David Murray.
He was often accused of hovering in McCoy Tyner's shadow, which is unfair and untrue. But he evinced a great fondness for Coltrane's music and was often heard on many a Coltrane tribute, showing affection for the saxophonist and his appreciation for Tyner's contribution to Coltrane's finest music.
Another facet of John Hicks' career, which gets even less attention than his wondrous playing, is his ability to craft identifiable compositions that are wandering and melodic, suggestive and malleable yet memorable all at once.
It would be difficult to conceive the ideal tribute to John Hicks. As a jazz contributor, he wasn't easily pigeon-holed. While he was always a (straight) jazz player, he skirted the edges of free jazz and pure romanticism that neither side ever appreciates in the other. But both camps could find moments of joyous life in all the ways Hicks chose to express himself. He was an unmistakably perfect accompanist in any mode.

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New Tutenkhamen

I Wish You Were Mine

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Music On Vinyl)

Release: 1979 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A lost piece of Zimbabwean musical history: the only album from local legends the New Tutankhamen, combining Jazz, Soul, Folk and Township rhythms. With only 2 copies of the original LP known to exist and no trace anywhere on the internet, the band's magnum opus is available for the first time in over 40 years.

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Herbie Hancock

Crossings

29,99 €*

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Out-Sider)

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Crossings is the second album in the experimental sextet trilogy Herbie Hancock released early
1970s. His electronic movements are further explored and the whole sound comes alive in the three
long tracks this album consists about. The album opens with some African drums before moving on
the to some of the unearthed sounds the sextet created for this album. Centerpiece "Sleeping Giant" is
nearly 25 minutes long and is divided into five funky and groovy parts. A transcendent experience that
has grown over time into one of the most moving, powerful and innovative artistic statements of the
modern era. Over forty years later this album still sounds incredibly ahead of its time.
Herbie Hancock is one of the most prolific jazz pianists of the 20th century. A child prodigy, he played
with the greats such as Donald Byrd and Miles Davis. As he was a bit of a geek, he enjoyed gadgets &
buttons and he was one of the first to embrace and master the electric piano, but he always stayed
true to the acoustic sound. In fact, he always bounced back and forth between his electronic and
acoustic sound, touching upon almost every development in R&B, Funk and Jazz while retaining an
original and distinctive voice.

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Tony Branker

For The Children

An Evening With The Devil

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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First ever vinyl reissue of this Spiritual / Modal Jazz private album from 1980, originally released on the RPC custom label from the US. Including top modal tracks like “Do Dat” or “Circles”, the terrific jazz-funk of “Unicorn” and more.
"For The Children" was written and produced by Anthony "Tony" Branker while he was a senior in the Princeton University Department of Music in 1980. It features Branker on trumpet, a young Stanley Jordan on guitar (this is his earliest recorded work), Glenn Cashman on alto, soprano and tenor sax, Gary Monhein on piano, Dan Krimm on bass and Jeff Penney on drums.
Remastered sound, original artwork.

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Wendell Harrison

LP | 1972 | UK | Reissue (Pure Pleasure)

2LP | 1981 | EU | Reissue (Outernational)

Release: 1972 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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»The compositions we play are reflective of the music of our times whereby we play Jazz, Rock, and African music with its poly or many rhythms. I wrote all the tunes on this particular LP and it is written as a suite in 5 movements which means that the music can be performed along with poetry and dancers. On our last LP called “Message From The Tribe” we featured the compositions of our very talented composer, arranger, and trombonist Phil Ranelin. On one side he wrote all the compositions and on the flip side I wrote all the tunes. This album was produced by us on the Tribe record label. As far as the music on “Evening With The Devil” is concerned it really speaks for itself. In addition to the music it features some relevant poetry by two very talented young poets named Oba and Vajava who are also members of a very excellent theatre group in Detroit called The Black Messengers.«
Extract from the sleeve notes of this album by Wendell Harrison.

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Creative Arts Ensemble

One Step Out

32,99 €*

Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Bennett

Release: 1981 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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“Sounds from the Great House! Outernational Sounds proudly presents a Nimbus West spirit jazz essential: the Creative Arts Ensemble’s classic debut One Step Out. Mastered at 45rpm on double vinyl for enhanced sound, this release features all tracks at full length for the first time on wax.

One of the most sought after and highly regarded titles to have appeared on Tom Albach’s celebrated Nimbus West imprint, the Creative Art Ensemble’s One Step Out is a timeless work of spiritualised jazz. A true gem from the Los Angeles jazz underground, the album was pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali’s first recording as leader of the Creative Arts Ensemble, the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott’s legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra community jazz group.

A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was introduced to the Tapscott circle in the late 1970s. His first experience of the Arkestra’s ethos was through PAPA tenorist Michael Session, who took him to the famous ‘Great House’ at 2412 South Western Ave., LA – a large mansion house which members of the Arkestra had taken over as a space for communal living. Life in the Great House was a continuous stream of music, dance and community events. ‘When I walked in there,’ recalled Kaeef, ‘it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door…It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with ‘Flashback of Time’, and that was my first arrangement.’

Kaeef quickly became a significant contributor of compositions to the Arkestra’s songbook – his piece ‘New Horizon’ would be recorded by Horace Tapscott for the latter’s Tapscott Sessions series. But ‘Flashback of Time’ would eventually appear on One Step Out, played by the new group he had put together from stalwart Arkestra members. Inspired by both Tapscott’s example and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef had wanted to follow their lead by assembling a larger unit. ‘I would like to form a group that would be an extension of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra,’ he told Tapscott. The group was to be known as the Creative Arts Ensemble, and One Step Out, released in 1981 by Nimbus West, was their debut.

Featuring seasoned Arkestra regulars including reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, drummer Woody ‘Sonship’ Theus and altoist Gary Bias, with veterans Henry ‘The Skipper’ Franklin on bass and George Bohannon on trombone, One Step Out is a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground. Featuring the sanctified vocals of Kaeef’s sister, B. J. Crowley, the album is a tour de force of spiritually energised independent jazz music. Community uplift and sacred vision straight from the Great House, back on vinyl for the first time since 1981!

One Step Out is released as a limited, 2LP vinyl-only edition. 180g pressing, mastered at 45rpm for enhanced sound. Fully licensed from Tom Albach.”

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Synthesizer And Percussion

LP | 1974 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

LP | 1974 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Released in the same year as Synthesis over on KPM, 1974’s Synthesizer and Percussion is its essential companion piece. “This record features the many distinctive sounds of the ARP Synthesizer plus percussion in various moods and tempos” is the even more underwhelming than usual library record sales pitch for Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett’s second collection of what is basically minimal G-funk, with overtones of primitive acid house. This is ridiculously good.

This is one of Hawkshaw and Bennett’s wilder joints and aeons ahead of its time. Bennett’s tough drums provide the underpinnings for the prominent bass, keys and bubbling synths high up in the mix, alongside Hawkshaw’s deranged clavinet-funk-rock. There are heavenly break loops galore.

Opener "Mon Amour" is ultra-smooth funk, all inter-weaving melodic lines whilst the seminal "Oddball" is an incredible hard electro strut with a knocking break. "Mile High Swinger" is a tranquil Spaghetti Western whistling theme over double tempo rhythmic movement and the pulsating "Auto Pilot" has a percussive groove elevated by electric piano and synthesizer. Check "Driving Force”, “Home Run” and "Pacesetter" for electroid prog-funk dripped in acid squelch.

All five final tracks are beatless synth workouts, because they can.

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Synthesizer and Percussion comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

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James Clarke

Mystery Movie

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Sommor)

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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James Clarke’s Mystery Movie was released in 1974 as “modern, small group compositions in various moods. Ideally suited to the new Americanised style of T.V. and cinema film where music is used to create the mood and carry the action”.

So this collection covers a lot of bases, but it does so brilliantly and has absolutely no right to be such a fantastic listen from start to finish.

Mystery Movie is best known for the slick drum breaks underpinning the top-notch jazz-funk chase theme “Car Patrol”, the fuzz riffing and ARP soloing of “The Heavies” and the slow-mo strut of “Mystery Moll”. “Study In Fear” and “Empty Streets” are horror soundtrack fodder of the finest sort.

However, it’s the understated, plaintive pieces that we find the most rewarding. Ambient feels and strung-out fried-folk treats, full of cyclical naïve melodies. Music that evokes the ‘downlifting’ Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood instrumentals from their great Mahoney’s Last Stand LP, as well as the beautiful soundtrack work of Jack Nitzsche and Ry Cooder. You might also recognise “Waiting Game” from being sampled by melodic downbeat masters Express Rising.

Check “Relaxed Theme”, “Quiet Girl”, “Routine Procedure” and “Quietness Sustained” for a melodic, melancholic set, with the last three performed on just acoustic guitar and harp. Gorgeous work.

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Mystery Movie comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

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Benoit Widemann

Tsunami

LP | 1975 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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Second album, released in 1979, by French keyboard wizard Benoit Widemann (ex-Magma). “Tsunami” is an incredible mix of electronics and jazz-fusion with prog / avant-garde /minimal elements. Treated Minimoog, Oberheim synths, Rhodes, early computer sequencing plus bass, drums, guitar, sax… Featuring Jean-Pierre Fouquey (ex-Magma), Jean-Pierre Grasset (Verto) and Jean-Paul Ceccarelli among others.
"Digital computer-based sound in 1979! We were the avant-garde!" - Benoit Widemann.

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Francis Coppieters

Piano Viberations

LP | 1986 | EU | Reissue (BeauMonde)

Release: 1975 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Piano Viberations’ “small group jazz featuring piano and vibes with rhythm” makes for a gorgeous Francis Coppieters showcase, surely one of Belgium’s best-kept musical secrets. Released in 1975, and arguably the most low-key of the KPM and Themes records we’re re-issuing, this is easily our current favourite.

“The Open Highway” is the appropriately-named opener, and immediately demonstrates Coppieters’ dexterous interplay between piano and vibes in assured, joyous fashion. The shuffling bossa of “Sales Notes” is a jaw-dropper, well-mined by samplers with impeccable taste. The mellow head-nod drum-break that is “Funky Chimes” brilliantly demonstrates Coppieters’ quiet majestic side with its slow-motion funk rhythm with beautifully reflective notes throughout.

The upbeat and joyful “Cross Talk” closes out side A. Vibes and piano are definitely at the heart of the arrangement here. The quick cut movement of “Piano In Transit” is another gem, driven principally by piano but those vibes along for more than just the ride. On a more gentle, elegiac note, “To Shearing With Love” is a warm, slow, romantic piece in the style of George Shearing. It’s plaintive and sublime.

Piano Viberations is one of those rare library records the original description of which makes as much sense now as it did when it was first released. Piano and vibes with rhythm indeed.

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Piano Viberations comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

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Digital Caresse

Demain

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Speakers Corner)

Release: 1986 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Produced by Serge Fabriano (of Fabriano Fuzion fame) in 1986, Digital Caresse is considered one of the holy grails of West Indies electronics made in Guadeloupe. Fulle remastered and limited to 700 copies!

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Al Di Meola

Casino

33,99 €*

Melodic Energy Commission

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Master of the strings, Al Di Meola, who turn his back on over-ambitious manual dexterity as in "Elegant Gypsy" to concentrate more on musical substance, demonstrates his intensive work with the material in the follow-up album "Casino". For example in "Egyptian Danza", an amalgamation of melodies which circle around one another and evoke with light electronics the contrasting worlds of the Orient, Occident and New World. A far sharper sound is conjured up in "Chasin‘ The Voodoo", which escalates to an extremely tightly-knit continuous fire, infused with the maestro‘s familiar guitar sound. Di Meola - with himself alone - combines the idea of multiple rhythms and parts: In the "Fantasia Suite For Two Guitars", four miniatures with percussive zapateado and whirling flamenco, he accompanies himself thanks to multi-tracking. All great stuff, but the best comes last: in the lengthy title number "Casino" all powers come together to create a magnificent performance with varying tempos, layered patterns, deceptive metrical changes and, of course, guitar playing of the highest order.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under www.pure-analogue.com.
All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: May - September 1977 at Electric Lady Studios, New York, by Dave Palmer
Production: Al Di Meola

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Migration Of The Snails

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Telephone Explosion)

LP | 1981 | EU | Reissue (Rebirth On Wax)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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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."

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Louis Xavier

Ladja

22,99 €*

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

Release: 1981 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Recorded in 1981 in France.. Great compositions here, Jazz with West Indies soul!

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Jeff Majors

For Us All (Yoka Boka)

2LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (BBE)

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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Ralph Thomas

Eastern Standard Time

26,99 €*

LP | 1986 | US | Reissue (Musique Plastique)

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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Colman

Daedalus

LP | 1981 | EU | Reissue (Warner Music Poland)

Release: 1986 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance, Classical Music

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Musique Plastique (Visible Cloaks, Pedro) rescue a nearly lost soundtrack to a Belgian avant-theatrical work from the 80s. For fans of Nuno Canavarro, Roberto Musci and Vito Ricci.
Like the wings Daedalus crafted for his son Icarus, John Gilbert Colman’s score for sampler, voice and chamber orchestra almost melted away completely, disappearing into the tides of time.
The album originally served as the score to an avant-garde production of the Greek myth that toured the Belgian theatre circuit in 1986. Director Guy Cassiers cast the play with 45 developmentally disabled actors enrolled at the Krauwelenhof school in Antwerp, working for six months with the young actors (aged 12-17) to discover and develop their talents, creating (by all accounts) a deeply moving piece of visual theatre. Rather than using dialogue, Cassier used movement, costumes and music tell the fable, words were only present as text fragments within the score, spoken by members of the chorus or sung by Rolande van Der Paal. Colman's compositions elevate the experimental narrative with broad shifts in mood, utilizing a pop-concrète style by incorporating sampled squeaking balloons, environmental recordings, tuned percussion, drum computer, and voice to accompany the traditional small chamber instrumentation. The music is reminiscent of other avant-theatrical pieces from that era by Nuno Canavarro, Milesi & Bacalov, Todd Barton, Vito Ricci and Roberto Musci, while standing on its own as a unique and moving piece of minimal music. Remastered DMM pressing.

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Stanislaw Sojka

Blublula

Release: 1981 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1974 | US | Reissue (BMG)

Weldon Irvine

Cosmic Vortex

LP | 1975 | US | Reissue (Chiaroscuro)

Release: 1974 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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180 gram vinyl!

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Dollar Brand

Soweto

Release: 1975 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1977 | US | Reissue (Chiaroscuro)

Dollar Brand

Cape Town Fringe

Max Roach & Clifford Brown

Release: 1977 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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180 gram pressing!

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Daahoud

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Mainstream)

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1979 | US | Reissue (CTI)

Joe Farrell

Outback

Release: 1979 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Harold Vick

Don't Look Back

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Norman Connors

Love From The Sun

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1978 | US | Reissue (Philadelphia)

Dexter Wansel

Voyager

Release: 1978 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1977 | EU | Reissue (Mental Experience)

Wild Havana

Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook

Release: 1977 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Obscure Dutch private pressing from 1977. Laid-back instrumental psychedelic / progressive sounds with jazz-funk-groove and abstract / experimental / Latin-indigenous touches. Stoned homemade atmosphere with treated / distorted electric & acoustic guitars, flute, electric piano, primitive drum machines / homemade electronics...Much in the vein of the experimental-underground scene of France & Germany during the early 70s but actually recorded and released in Holland.
Wild Havana was the project of guitar player Johan Smith, helped by his brother Cor on flute. Influenced by artists like Zappa and Herbie Hancock, Johan recorded the “Wild Havana” album at his home studio on a 4-track, using effect devices developed by himself, like a modified proto-drum machine taken from a Hammond organ. He also used effects like phase shifter, chorus, etc and experimented with putting wool on the guitar strings and electric effects on the mandolin. The result sounded like nothing else at the time.
Buried for many years, we’re excited to bring to life this unique album.

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Ella Fitzgerald

2LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Waxtime)

28,99 €*

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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SAC - School Of American Craftsmen

Jeff Resnick

LP | 1978 | UK | Reissue (Outernational Sounds)

23,99 €*

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Discmedi)

Release: 1978 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Organically funky, laced with avant-garde synth textures, and studded with breakbeats, the second Outernational is Jeff Resnick’s unique, ultra-rare, 1978 promotional recording for the School for American Craftsmen, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Five tracks of soul jazz and modal fusion — re-modelling Trane, and opening with a variation of Norwegian Wood — by a local group including trumpeter Jeff Tyzik and pianist Sonny Kompanek; then Resnick mostly solo for the second side, when the money ran out, multi-tracking synthesizers on his home set-up, in an engrossing blend of reflective abstraction, grooving electro and spiritualised fourth-world tropicalism.
Bim!

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Tete Montoliu

Boleros

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Everland Jazz)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A reissue of a fine Spanish jazz-album, recorded in 1975. Here Tete Montoliu is accompanied by Manuel Elias (bass), Peer Wyboris (drums) and Rogelio Juárez (percussion).

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John Gordon

Erotica Suite

Very Special Stash: Best Of Reefer Songs

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Official reissue of mega rare 1978 LP! Licensed by Strate-East.

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V.A.

LP | 1981 | US | Reissue (Stash)

Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe, The

Release: 1981 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Originally released in 1981, now available again on vinyl, this is a very stoned collection of jazz tunes about - or dedicated to - grass, weed, marihuana, Marie-Jane or whatever you call it in your neighborhood.

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A Spirit Speaks

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Wagram)

Release: 1974 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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One of the most unique albums on the Strata East label – and that's saying a heck of a lot, given the creative energies flowing through that legendary jazz outlet! "Descendents Of Mike & Phoebe" is a righteous little project put together by Spike Lee's father, Bill Lee, and his brothers and sisters (Cliff Lee, Grace Lee Mims, and Consuela Lee Moorhead) – working here in a group named after their slave ancestors, who are paid tribute in a beautifully flowing batch of tunes! Lee's round, warm bass tones are firmly at the head of the group on most numbers – recorded at a similar level to his excellent work with Clifford Jordan on Strata East during the same time – and other instrumentation includes piano from Consuela, flugelhorn from Cliff, and percussion from Sonny Brown and Billy Higgins – all used in a wonderfully evocative style that's even better than some of Lee's later soundtrack work. A few numbers feature vocals from Grace – singing wordlessly and with a really heavenly sort of quality – and together, the whole group have an undeniable sense of power and majesty, yet also one that's touched by a really personal sense of poetry too. Titles include a great version of Lee's "Coltrane", which was more famously recorded with Clifford Jordan.

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Billie Holiday

Strange Fruit

15,99 €*

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1982 | EU | Reissue (High Jazz)

Potter & Tillman

…Space…Rapture

29,99 €*

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (BBE)

Release: 1982 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Reissue from this soul/jazz-funk fusion album originally released in 1982 on Poet Records. 500 copy LTD edition!
This sought-after album is an amazing and unique creative project produced and composed by David Eric Tillman including outstanding performances by some of the highest-level musicians whose common thread was their ability to kill up tempo and modal bop and excel in this jazz-funk/fusion style thanks to their up bop think quick knowledge.

This gem contains nothing but brilliant tracks like “…Space…Rapture”, “Love Is How”, “New Anniversary Waltz”, “It Must Be E.S.P.” and “(Sing) A Simple Song Of Praise”. Incredible golden lead and backing vocals, a super tight rhythm section, forward thinking arrangements, and an amazing combination of piano, Rhodes and various remarkable synthesizers makes this recording timelessly fresh. The beautiful “Time Is Love”, a tune of positive outlook written during her jazz composition studies, is performed by the one and only Carmen. Killer from the beginning to the end, one of our all-time favorite soul/jazz-funk LPs.

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Bert Myrick

Live N' Well

12" | 1980 | US (Prelude)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Rescued from relative obscurity by DJ Amir’s 180 Proof Records, BBE is delighted to present a gem from the tiny yet highly influential catalogue of Strata Records, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ‘n Well’. This is the first in a long line of reissues focusing on the Strata catalog details attached.

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The Nick Straker Band

A little Bit Of Jazz

13,99 €*

2LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1980 / US

Genre: Organic Grooves

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/ space age

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Circle

Paris Concert

34,99 €*

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Circle was a band on fire with creativity. Corea and Holland had just left Miles Davis' band, keen to explore all parameters of new music in an improvised context. Braxton, equally inspired by Stockhausen and Coltrane, brought in new directions from the AACM. Altschul's resume included extensive work with Paul Bley. Together they were, for a while, matchless.

The short-lived Chick Corea outfit outdoes itself in this 1971 live recording. A delicate piano intro primes us for an extended rendition of Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertitti” to start. Once Braxton throws himself on top of incoming bass and drums, however, what began as contemplative awakening quickly turns into a spastic jaunt into more upbeat territory. The gnarled unity of the quartet paints in bold strokes, all the while flirting with total breakdown. Braxton’s perpetual motion and uncompromising tone make a superb tune out of a great one. “Song For The Newborn” gives Holland a moment in the spotlight. Swaddled in all the innocence of its title and bound by a mature sense of structure, this is an engaging interlude to the Braxton/Corea duet that follows. Corea’s frenetic style in the latter works its way through a host of rhythmic options before settling into a row of block chords. Braxton’s heady phrasing tears a page from the book of Coltrane, while his solitary diversions crackle with the urgency of a broken mirror, as yet unframed by the bastion of mundanity. Altschul delights in “Lookout Farm,” in which he dives headfirst into his percussive arsenal. The tinkling of icicles and cowbells in an open field give way to an extended solo, thus providing ample segue into “73 degrees Kelvin,” a beautifully convoluted organism that could only come from the mind of Braxton. Below its cacophonous surface pulsates a vast network of instrumental veins, through which flows the passionate immediacy that is Circle’s lifeblood, and from which Holland’s rapture sings with detail and imagination. “Toy Room Q&A” (Holland) boasts Corea in notably fine form, leaving plenty of elbowroom for Braxton to flex his reeds. The freer aesthetic crashes in on itself by the end, leaving us craving a familiar foothold. This, we get in the standard “No Greater Love,” capping things off with notable turns from all.

Corea busts out with some of his most captivating fingerwork, proving himself finely attuned to the mechanisms of his caravan at every rest stop along the way; Braxton’s “Pharaonic” sound titillates the ear; and one could hardly ask for a tighter rhythm section at one’s side. As a collective unit, Circle doesn’t so much make music out of as inhabit its raw melodic materials. This recording is a lasting testament to a vibrant formative period for ECM. The audience’s enthusiastic reactions give the listener the feeling of being present in the making of history.

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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

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Decca)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Following the recent reissues of Pop Impressions, Super America, Soul Impressions, and Chorus, Underdog Records label follows-up to the series with another brilliant album by French underrated composer and producer, JANKO NILOVIC.

JANKO NILOVIC certainly was one of the greatest studio talents of Europe in the 70s!
He is a musician who devotes himself to music, which resulted in a great number of published works, but most of them made for library music labels and also not available for sale.
His oeuvre stretches from classical, jazz and funk to pop, psyche and easy listening. And has been sampled many times by hip-hop artists such as JAY-Z, DRE, DAFUNIKS or GUTS...

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David Axelrod

The auction

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Cohelmec Ensemble

22,99 €*

A Me Stesso Con Simpatia Limited Colored Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Next' (originally from 1972) is even more audacious than its 1971 predecessor 'Hippotigris Zebra Zebra'. Relatively brief tracks follow hot on the heels of one another, bolstered by a poly-instrumentality which stands out even more than in the past, giving the album the feel of a contrasting suite. Limited to 700 copies in a gatefold sleeve with an obi.

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Giacomo Dell’Orso

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Cinedelic)

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

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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Miles Davis

LP | 1970 | US | Reissue (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab)

62,99 €*

LP | 1974 | US | Reissue (Muse)

Release: 1970 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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SOURCED FROM THE ORIGINAL ANALOGUE MASTER TAPES
MOBILE FIDELITY’S NUMBERED-EDITION 180G SUPERVINYL LP PRESENTS 1971 LANDMARK IN EXUBERANT, FULL-RANGE SOUND

Miles Davis' A Tribute to Jack Johnson is the best jazz-rock record ever made. Equally inspired by the leader's desire to assemble the "greatest rock and roll band you have ever heard,” his adoration of Johnson, and Black Power politics, Davis created a hard-hitting set that surges with excitement, intensity, majesty, and power. Bridging the electric fusion he'd pursued on earlier efforts with a funkier, dirtier rhythmic approach, Davis zeroes in on concepts of spontaneity, freedom, and identity seldom achieved in the studio — and just as infrequently accepted by the mainstream.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and housed in a Stoughton jacket, Mobile Fidelity's 180g LP reissue brings it all to fore with startling realism. Benefitting from SuperVinyl’s nearly inaudible noise floor, superb groove definition, and clean, ultra-quiet surfaces, this 180g LP showcases everything — from the bold tonality of the headliner's white-hot trumpet solos to the decay of crashing cymbals, carry of wiry guitar notes, and echoes of the studio — in reference fashion.

Bristling with exuberance, Davis' high-register passages explode with authority and commanding presence. Around him, a barrage of urgent backbeats, knifing riffs, and supple bass lines emerge amidst black backgrounds. One of the most prominent differences long-time fans will notice is how much more aggressive, immediate, and vibrant the music sounds, with those aspects central to the composer's original desires.

Utilizing wah-wah and distortion, the go-to instrumentalist of the performances— guitarist John McLaughlin — attacks with a nasty edge, slashing style, and vicious streak that allows A Tribute to Jack Johnson< cross the until-then-impenetrable divide between rock and jazz. Davis puts both feet in the former camp and erases any gap. The stories of the record’s creation are nearly as legendary as the sounds within: Two sessions, multiple jams, different sets of musicians (several uncredited), and near-miraculous production perfectionism that made it all appear cohesive.

The least-well-known masterpiece of Davis' career, the 1971 record — seamlessly assembled and spliced together by producer Teo Macero — was a victim of limited record-label promotion. Audiences also didn’t immediately know what to make of its original cover art — faithfully replicated here. In addition, the powers that be at Columbia Records were directing the public’s attention to Miles at Fillmore, a completely different kind of album guided by two keyboardists. A Tribute to Jack Johnson practically lives in a different universe, one from the future. To many listeners who did manage to hear it — among them critic/musician Robert Quine, Stooges leader Iggy Pop, and renowned critic Robert Christgau — it surpassed everything that came before.

Indeed, Davis treated it as a personal manifesto: An opportunity to salute the Black championship boxer admired for his threatening image to the establishment and impeccable taste in clothes, cars, women and music. Davis explains in the liner notes his affinity for Johnson — a stance mirrored by the defiant music, which hits with a prize fighter's force and reflects the graceful elegance with which a pugilist navigates the ring — and closes the album with a Johnson quote read by Brock Peters.

Inspired not only by Johnson but by Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, Davis changed his approach and his band. He surrounds himself with a cadre of musicians in their 20s and, in the case of bassist Michael Henderson, a 19-year-old fresh from touring with Stevie Wonder. Henderson gives Davis what he requested: boogie-based grooves that don’t lose shape or direction. Soprano saxophonist Steve Grossman, drummer Billy Cobham, and organist Herbie Hancock adhere to a similar aesthetic that prizes brazenness, innovation, and energy.

In that vein, during a portion of “Yesternow,” Davis segues into a separate performance (which became known in its entirety as “Willie Nelson”) played by guitarists McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, bass clarinetist Bernie Maupin, keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Dig it!

Talking with jazz scholar Bill Milkowski — who himself noted how McLaughlin’s unrestrained style, decibel-forward volumes, and rapid-fire power chords engendered himself to the rock crowd at the same time that his harmonics and syncopation still definitely made him a jazz player — guitarist Henry Kaiser summed up part of the appeal of A Tribute to Jack Johnson as well as anyone, saying: “It’s a jazz record that way way more open than other jazz records at the time, but still not free jazz. [McLaughlin’s] rhythm guitar playing on ‘Right Off’ — the use of different chords in a rock shuffle than what anybody had used before — was revolutionary.”

And to think that’s just one aspect of a record that contains multitudes. “Never let them forget it.” Indeed.

MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world’s quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label’s engineers hear in the mastering lab.

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Lester Bowie

Fast Last

Release: 1974 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Cobblestone)

Sonny Stitt

Constellation

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Cedar Walton / Hank Mobley Quintet

Breakthrough!

LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Cobblestone)

16,99 €*

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Joe Pass

Intercontinental

Babs Robert & The Love Planet

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Joe Pass (born Joseph Passalaqua) knew how to conjoin melody and chords. Moreover, he brought the walking bass line into the jazz guitar repertoire, as heard in his duo performances with Ella Fitzgerald. Deftly accompanied by German bass virtuoso Eberhard Weber and English drummer Kenny Clare, the music runs the gamut of genres – a meditative Jobim bossa nova, a lusciously relaxed version of the jazz standard, “Stompin' at the Savoy”, a blues-drenched rendition of the Bobby Gentry pop classic, “Ode to Belly Joe”, and a display of dynamically controlled guitar pyrotechnics on the exhilarating “I Love You”.

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LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Alpha)

44,99 €*

Until It's Time For You To Go

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Folks, this is a must have for any Spiritual Jazz fan! Despite its modest role on the world stage, Belgium has produced a number of internationally renowned musicians and composers. There is the iconic gypsy jazz guitar maestro Django Reindhart, whose position remains unassailable, and guitarist/harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who became an internationally renowned artist performing and recording with Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn and Quincy Jones. The other key Belgian figure is composer/arranger Francy Boland, co-leader with US bebop drumming legend Kenny Clarke of Europe's leading big band of the 60s, the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

Whereas the post-war modern jazz scene produced a few notable successes, trad and New Orleans style jazz remained popular and bebop and swing were still played during the peak post-bop and free jazz years of the late-60s and early-70s. Despite the overwhelming popularity of ‘historic’ forms, there were a few worthy exceptions who pointed the way to the future: composer and pianist Marc Moulin formed his first trio in 1961 as a backing band for expatriate American musicians such as Johnny Griffin and Don Byas. He later collaborated with Philip Catherine to form Placebo, a group that mixed jazz, funk, rock and electronic sounds. Their influences ranged from Jimi Hendrix to James Brown, via Herbie Hancock and Soft Machine, and they experimented with the Moog and early synthesizers. Between 1971 and 1975 Placebo released three albums that have become much sought after by DJs and producers for beats and grooves to sample.

Moulin also contributed sleeve notes to one of the most sought after European deep jazz recordings of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it’s a Belgian recording no less: ‘Babs Robert and the Love Planet’ (Alpha 7003, 1970) is one of the few examples of Belgium avant-garde jazz and was originally released on the Alpha label, a tiny enterprise based in Jette, Belgium. Alpha released renaissance / baroque music and the Babs Robert album is a wonderful aberration that is such an outlier as to be seemingly from another planet – the very Love Planet name-checked in the title perhaps?

The initial original quartet line-up was Babs Robert (sax), Paul Dubois (bass), Johnny Brouwers (piano), and Johnny Peret / Robert Pernet (drums). On the album session, the quartet was augmented with the addition of John Van Rjimenant (saxes) and Michel Gobbe (bass). As well as their main instruments, the band members also played an array of unusual instruments, principally percussion.

This is the first official re-release of the ‘Babs Robert and the Love Planet’. Original copies of the album fetch many hundreds of Euros on the collecting circuit and it remains a curious and fascinating window into a moment in time that still resonates some forty years later.

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Rusty Bryant

LP | 1974 | US | Reissue (Prestige)

16,99 €*

Release: 1974 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)

The Journey

LP | 1977 | US | Reissue (Chiaroscuro)

Release: 1977 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Sam Rivers

Contrasts

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Keith Jarrett / Dennis Russell Davies

Ritual / Piano

LP | 1977 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1977 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Seven Songs For Quartet And Chamber

Gary Burton

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Jean-Jacques Birgé, Francis Gorgé & Shiroc

Défense De

LP+DVD | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Fauni Gena)

17,99 €* 19,99 € -10%