Jazz | Fusion 515 Items

Original US pressing.

Cover close to VG+

Damaged back spine. Vinyl is Close to VG+.

Price tag.

Includes both the mono and stereo versions of the album!

Strut presents an all-time classic of South African music, the definitive remastered edition of Miriam Makeba's 'Pata Pata', her first album recorded for Reprise in 1966.
The album marked a significant international breakthrough for Makeba. Moving to the US after the anti-apartheid film 'Come Back, Africa' gained international attention and staying there in exile, she quickly built her career in New York during the '60s, mentored by Harry Belafonte. Signing with Reprise after a period with RCA, she returned to one of her older songs: "I wrote 'Pata Pata' back in 1956, back in South Africa", remembered Makeba in her autobiography. "It was a fun little song and I was thinking of a dance that we do at home ("pata" means 'touch" in Zulu and Xhosa)".
The track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 12 and the album. Other songs on the album included a version of the traditional Xhosa classic, 'Click Song Number One' ('Qongqothwane'), the atmospheric 'West Wind', later famously covered by her friend Nina Simone, and a version of Tilahun Gessesse's 'Yetentu Tizaleny' which Makeba learned on a trip to Addis to perform for Haile Selassie at the Organisation Of African Unity.

In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with Nyaq (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven." Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, "Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion."

In his 1967 DownBeat review of the initial release, Amiri Baraka wrote: "The music is beautiful on this album... These two players... are making some of the deepest music anywhere. It wants nothing."

Peter Margasak included the album in his list of "Favorite Albums of 2020," and wrote: "Essential coupling of two insanely rare duo albums from a 1966 concert at Yale University: Pullen at his most ferocious and probing, Graves making a huge step in establishing his radical approach to polymetric movement."

In a review for Point of Departure, John Sharpe commented: "The five pieces represent a true dialogue... Although intensity levels vary, the exchanges remain resolutely non-melodic and non-metric throughout... Even after all this time the music still challenges preconceptions. It remains a classic of the genre and deserves to be widely heard."

Thurston Moore included Nommo in his "Top Ten From The Free Jazz Underground" list, first published in 1995 in the second issue of the defunct Grand Royal magazine, calling the interplay between the musicians "remarkable."

The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era – he is, simply put, free jazz royalty. In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with Nyaq (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven." Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, "Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion."

180 Gram 45RPM Audiophile Vinyl, Numbered Limited-Edition

The wonderful Post-Bop album Miles Smiles (1967) was recorded by Davis's second great quintet, which featured saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. The album showcases Davis' deeper exploration of modal performance with looser forms, tempos, and meters. Although it did not follow the conventions of Bop, the album did not follow the formlessness of Free Jazz.

180g vinyl.

The last of the collaborative LPs Miles Davis recorded with Gil Evans for Columbia, Quiet Nights is easily the most controversial. Following the success of Sketches Of Spain, Davis and Evans aimed to further the Latin explorations, this time pointing to Brazil, as heard on the adaptation of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Corcovado’ and Joao Gilberto’s ‘Aos Pés Da Cruz,’ with its stellar Ron Carter bass accompaniment, though some were surprised by the brevity of the proceedings, including Miles himself. Nevertheless, those who get to know the album will appreciate its intricacies, the product of the pair’s unique creative chemistry.

2LP, 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl, Numbered Limited-Edition

'Miles in Tokyo' is a live album recorded on July 14, 1964, by the Miles Davis Quintet (featuring Sam Rivers, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams) at the Tokyo Kosei Nenkin Kaikan, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It is the first recording of Davis in Japan and the only album to showcase an early incarnation of his Second Great Quintet featuring Sam Rivers on tenor saxophone, following George Coleman's departure. After this, Wayne Shorter's appointment completed the classic line-up which recorded such albums as 'ESP' and 'Miles Smiles', through to 'Miles in the Sky'. The legendary 'Miles in Tokyo' album is now available on vinyl in Europe for the first time. The heavyweight gatefold contains a 4 page-booklet glued inside, like the original 1969 Japanese LP version.

'Miles in Tokyo' is a live album recorded on July 14, 1964, by the Miles Davis Quintet (featuring Sam Rivers, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams) at the Tokyo Kosei Nenkin Kaikan, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It is the first recording of Davis in Japan and the only album to showcase an early incarnation of his Second Great Quintet featuring Sam Rivers on tenor saxophone, following George Coleman's departure. After this, Wayne Shorter's appointment completed the classic line-up which recorded such albums as 'ESP' and 'Miles Smiles', through to 'Miles in the Sky'. The legendary 'Miles in Tokyo' album is now available on vinyl in Europe for the first time. The heavyweight gatefold contains a 4 page-booklet glued inside, like the original 1969 Japanese LP version.

It's 1964 and the first Berlin Jazz Festival is about to reach its absolute peak: the final concert on the night of Friday, 25th September by Miles Davis. And the European subsidiary of Columbia Records, CBS, couldn’t wait to release this legendary event on LP.
The new quintet, for the first time with Wayne Shorter on the tenor sax (and not yet as composer), thrilled and roused the audience in the Philharmonie from the first minute to the very end. The classics "Miles(tones)", "So What" and "Walkin’" were performed at an astonishingly fast pace, the ballads were tender and dreamy. Such a magical atmosphere was rarely evoked at later concerts, which was probably due to the excellent acoustics of the large concert hall. The audience were also seated behind the stage, so Miles couldn't turn his back provokingly on people; sometimes he just squatted on the stage. However, this didn’t prevent him from performing his solos lyrically and tenderly, most of them finely nuanced, soft and gentle, yet audible right into the furthest corner. The rhythmic structure created by the young drummer Anthony Williams provided the necessary excitement.
Miles at the top of his form, an enthusiastic audience, impressive acoustics and, to top it all, excellent recording technology and a fantastic pressing on virgin vinyl - what more does a jazz fan want? Now’s the time to dig out your credit card!

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

Price tag.

180 gram audiophile vinyl
Sleeve finished with linen laminate
Recorded live at the Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, New York, February 12, 1964
Featuring Herbie Hancock, George Coleman, Ron Carter and Tony Williams
Album produced by Teo Macero
Black vinyl

Recorded at the same Feb. 12, 1964 New York concert that yielded the more balladic album My Funny Valentine, Four & More showcases the Miles Davis quintet at their blistering best. The great trumpeter and bandleader (1926-1991), and his stellar group, which was less than a year old at the time of this recording, mostly essayed tempos that ranged from Indianapolis 500 to Bonneville Salt Flats. Offering a well-balanced, albeit reconfigured, repertoire featuring the familiar hard-bop strains of “Four” and “Walkin’,” newer, original free bop compositions like “Joshua” and “Seven Steps To Heaven,” and the standard “There Is No Greater Love,” which the ensemble performed relatively infrequently and is the only tune herein not taken at a supersonic pace, the quintet electrified a sold out Philharmonic Hall. Spurred on consistently by the mercurial rhythm section of pianist Herbie Hancock (23 years old at the time), bassist Ron Carter (then 26), and especially by the cross rhythms of 18-year old genius drummer Tony Williams, Davis’ work, particularly in the upper register, was seldom more commanding. As for his front line partner, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, Davis would write in his autobiography that he “played better that night than I ever heard him play.”

Four & More is available on black vinyl and comes in a sleeve finished with linen laminate.

Tear in spines.

Red vinyl is Close to VG+.

On June 27th, 1969, Michel Portal pushed the door of the Pathé Marconi studios. With him were drummers Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark and pianist Joachim Kühn. They hadn"t rehearsed anything, as if entering the studio to record an album without any plan was something normal. The musicians were obviously very used to playing with each other, as the five tracks on Our Meanings And Our Feelings seem to flow perfectly without any hint of improvisation. The zokra, an oriental clarinet that Michel Portal plays on "Walking through the land" and "Dear old Morocco" brings a singular touch to this album. This singularity is transcended by Joachim Kühn"s ability to easily go from the piano to the saxophone alto, from supporting to soloing, before playing the bells, then the tambourine, opening the soundscape. Our Meanings And Our Feelings may not be the first French free jazz record - as it was preceded by the fantastic Free Jazz by François Tusques, released in 1965 and on which Michel Portal plays as well - but it remains one of the most important. Its incredible outburst of sounds and melodies is completely free yet never turns into cacophony. 44 years after its release, it is still urgent to listen to Our Meanings And Our Feelings and what these five talented musicians had to tell us.

The most important artists in the history of Japanese free jazz, Masahiko Togashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Mototeru Takagi and Motoharu Yoshizawa. A solemn and crazy improvisation work originally recorded in 1969! "It was not until 1969, when this album was recorded, that the quality of Japanese free jazz works reached a world-class level. The most important artists in the history of Japanese free jazz feast the solemn and insane improvisation has not faded away even in the present age of 2022." - Kouki Hanawa (Craftman Records)

Recorded in November 1969 at Teichiku Kaikan Studio, Tokyo, "Speed and Space - The Concept of Space in Music" is one of those landmark works in which Masahiko Togashi is accompanied by talented musicians who possess a unique style and innovative approach. The album is an exploration of Togashi's notion of the “Time Law" and can be seen as a study of how texture, rhythm and differing rates of change effect our perception of the passage of time in music. Sounding quite obscure and contemplative, the brief introductory theme signed as “Presage” prepares the listener for powerful and scathing Free Jazz. In a pace of increasing intensity, “Panorama” remits us to the liberating ways of an absorbing percussion where the more muscular interventions are interspersed with moments of enormous sensitivity. Grounded by Togashi’s varied percussion, the disconcerting piano of Masahiko Sato and the vigorous bass of Yoshio Ikeda mark the guidelines of this long abstract exercise. Among several solo notes and brilliant moments played through an energetic improvisation, this theme of 14:35 minutes flows into a grand finale with the involvement of all the musicians. “Expectation” closes the A side in a short but intense reverie of percussion, bass and flute, guided by an improvisation free of harmonic prejudices. The floating world of 'Expectation' closes side A in a brief but intense reverie of percussion, bass and flute, guided by an improvisation devoid of harmonic prejudices. At the piano (and gong), Masahiko Sato (another illustrious representative of Japanese music) assumes a mediation function, granting some harmony traits to the, almost always, abstract and corrosive concepts of this collective. Certainly less known, bassist Yoshio Ikeda (which in the 70s recorded, among others, with trumpeter Terumasa Hino and in the early 80s with the renowned pianist Aki Takase) through a valuable contribution, imprints a decisive mark to the robust rhythm-section as to the overall sound of this date. Even with a less active participation, Mototeru Takagi helps impart a tonal diversity and a colorful exoticism through his forays into the tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute. Of sharp forms dominated by technique and irreverence, side B continues with the title track, divided in two distinct but equally penetrating parts. With a depth marked by Togashi’s percussion, “Speed & Space # 1” unfolds on a fast tune over 11 minutes of a harsh and incisive improvisation. The interaction of an irreverent rhythm section finds its complement in the disturbing screams of a delirious saxophone. Shorter, the 2nd part gives voice to an ambiental and minimalist concept in which the central role of Togashi finds an interesting matching in Masahiko Sato’s piano as well in the saxophone and flute of Mototeru Takagi. In this challenging exercise, the flank “space” reaches its fullness before culminating in an entrancing performance by Togashi (percussion, vibraphone, bells, etc.). Includes OBI and insert

An impressive live album by Marvin Peterson who was one of the finest trumpetersin the 60's-70's is making its return on vinyl format. These tracks were performed by the band led by Hannibal Marvin Peterson, though he had yet to add "Hannibal" to his name at the time of recording. Here, he performed with eight musicians in his hometown of Texas, and theirperformance crossed the boundaries of jazz, soul and funk with skilled musicians. These included organistEugene Carrier who also participated in the BB King Band and drummer Emry Thomas who would later participate in the band led by Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

With a glance at the cover art, you can get a sense of the powerful and passionate live recording that brought joy to its many fans. The opening "Groove for Otis" (m1) with a jazz-funk whose edgy beat excites rare groove fans. "Our Groove" (m4) is also a fine track whichhas a slick bassline and Eugene'sorgan fusing in harmony. P-vine are very proud to be repressing this record with its intimate feeling akin to being there in the crowd as the mighty Peterson walks up to take center stage.