Jazz | Fusion 211 Items

Art Blakey's "Live In '65" boasts an exceptional one-hour concert from Paris in 1965. This performance showcases one of the few undocumented Blakey bands, the New Jazzmen, featuring Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Jaki Byard on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, Nathan Davis on sax, and, of course, Blakey on drums.

Freddie Hubbard's incendiary playing on "Blue Moon" and the blistering 24-minute version of his own "Crisis" shows that he was one of the most innovative trumpeters in jazz history.

On this live session, the audiences seem to have been enthusiastic and appreciative. »Everywhere we’d go people would say, this is the best Jazz Messengers we’ve heard!«, according to Davis. »And because of the way Jaki would play and Reggie would go, it was like a semi-freedom thing – with Messengers heads, you know, but when we got to soloing...! And Blakey was ridin’ and oatin’ the time ... but he would always be loose enough to follow, to keep it going. He’s one helluva musician.«

One of the great line-ups of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers coalesced when saxophonist Wayne Shorter joined trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt, as heard on the 1960 album "A Night In Tunisia". Opening with a fiery version of Dizzy Gillespie’s famous piece, the rest of the set showcased new bandmember originals.

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

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with Barney Wilen provide an essential jazz soundtrack to an extended ‘surprise party’ scene in director Roger Vadim’s 'Les liaisons dangereuses'. Originally released on the Fontana label, Blakey’s lively hard-bop and latin originals were used specifically as night club and party music in the film and his ‘No Problem’ became a classic with Blakey’s band in full flight. Decca France present the original soundtrack recording on 180gm vinyl in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket with English translation of the original liner notes, and a photo from the film of Gérard Philippe and Jeanne Moreau. Included is a 2pp insert with additional notes by recording producer Marcel Romano from 1988.

Andrew Hill’s 1968 album Dance With Death stands as one of the most gratifying though under-recognized sessions of the brilliant pianist’s discography featuring his singular compositions performed by a versatile quintet with Charles Tolliver, Joe Farrell, Victor Sproles, and Billy Higgins.

Blue Note Tone Poet Edition: Stereo, produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Ahmed Abdul-Malik was best known to jazz listeners as a bassist with Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Coleman Hawkins, and many others. He made a few records as a leader, with this one being his most exotic. The Brooklyn native was of Sudanese descent; in addition to playing bass, he also plays oud, the forerunner to the lute. Originally released in 1960 the album is rich and heady, a multi-layered set of tonal grooves that are wrapped tight beneath the melody lines. The musicians on Malik's eight originals vary from track to track. On the mournful "La Ibky (Don't Cry)," Malik's oud shares the spotlight with a tenor sax (either Benny Golson or Johnny Griffin) plus trumpeter Lee Morgan. "Rooh (The Soul)" features the 72-string kanoon (which is sort of a brittle sounding and much smaller harp) played by Ahmed Yetman, along with Malik's arco bass and the droning violin of Naim Karacand. His ability to fuse Western Jazz with the driving rhythms created by his oud that seems almost sequenced, are startling.

All of You is a live album by American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal featuring performances recorded at Jamal's own club in Chicago in 1961 and released originally on the Argo label. Jamal's group had a personal sound of its own, often playing quietly and leaving space but never losing the passion. These versions of "Time on My Hands," "Star Eyes" and "All of You" in particular are well worth hearing. On the cover, photographed by Don Bronstein, one of the first staff photographers for Playboy magazine, Jamal sits in an MAA chair, designed by George Nelson.

When first released Astro-Sounds From Beyond The Year 2000 promised an uncharted trip beyond the now generation! And it certainly delivered, as soon as the needle drops onto the opening track ‘Flameout’
we are in astral freak-out territory with cosmic strings phased beats & displaced fuzz guitars... Despite being released as a budget label’s take on the burgeoning psychedelic scene Astro Sounds, delivers the real deal.
This is thanks in no small part to the central role played by Wrecking Crew guitarist Jerry Cole. Cole had previously been the involved some L.A. session colleagues and cut his own psychedelic
album: The Inner Sounds of the Id by 'The Id' and was the perfect choice to front Astro Sounds which can be considered a development from the seminal sounds of the Id.
Astro Sounds has suffered from some unofficial releases that offer poor audio quality. This Vinyl Exotica re-issue is remastered from the original tapes and is presented on coloured vinyl