Jazz | Fusion 658 Items

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Studio Mule)

Release: 1988 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Doctor Umezu diva is a japanese sax player Kazutoki Umezu’s one off project which he invited two female artists, one is a legendary marimba player Midori Takada and one more is a vocalist&pianist and half of japanese newwave band colored music in the end of 80’s. This album was one of the best kept secret jazz album from Japan. Dubby from ondas tokyo(he compiled “va/midnight in tokyo vol.2” on studio mule) brought me this record. It was really hard to find as the amount of copies has been very limited. This album is a unique mixture of modern classical sound and avant-garde jazz which is kind of similar with strata east or nimbus.

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Eiji Nakayama

Aya's Samba

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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One per customer only!

Johnny’s Disk Record is an independent jazz label run by the owner of jazz cafe Kaiunbashi No Johnny located in Rikuzentakata city in Iwate prefecture, Japan. The legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning from modern jazz, avant-garde jazz to left-field pop. Albums such as “farewell my johnny / left alone” and “aya’s samba” has reached cult status among fans as some of the best works to come out of the japanese jazz scene. Another japanese jazz classic, Aya’s Samba was a debut effort by bassist Eiji Nakayama, who played as part of elvin jones’ jazz machine and toured with Don Friedman. This album is an important release in the johnny’s disk catalogue, not only because it is the first ever release, but also because the owner hearing the band play was the reason why the label came to be. “Aya’s Samba” is a mellow jazz samba in minor key that’s considered a japanese jazz classic. Slow ballad “yellow living” is drenched in melancholy with emotive keys and sax notes, while the dreamy “sea sea town” impresses with a captivating, expressive sax solo. The 4 tracker ends with “far-away road,” an uptempo tune with rhythmic keys.

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Michael Naura Quartett

Call

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Bennett

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 | 1975 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

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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Francis Coppieters

Piano Viberations

Big Business / Wind Of Change

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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V.A.

LP | 1973 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

Keith Mansfield & John Cameron

Release: 1973 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The two sides of 1973’s Big Business / Wind of Change are mainly the work of the great Keith Mansfield but there’s a killer cameo each from Alan Hawkshaw and David Snell to help deliver “a thematic suite, diverse in mood, applicable to dramatic and environmental situations”. A Be With favourite and truly one for the heads.

The Big Business of side A is all the work of Keith Mansfield. It’s heavy on the suspense and features the vital “Hot Property”, an insistent groove so good that Madlib sampled it to lace the ace “Long Awaited” by Lootpack with Dilated Peoples.

“Sleeping Giant 1” is a more fleshed out version of the equally-dazzling “Fatal Error”, evoking the orchestral magic of David Axelrod. Indeed, it conjures images of Diamond D falling over himself in the early-to-mid 90s to loop its intoxicatingly eerie soundscape. Complete with guitar fills that recall Paris, Texas-era Ry Cooder, you need this record for this piece alone.

The horn-and-flute-led "Tycoon" is a head-nodder and "Power Complex" has some fantastic percussion. Other highlights include the breezy glide of “Whistle Stop Tour” and its sister groove “Clean Air.”

Over on Side B is the more expansive Wind Of Change, which includes the David Snell and the Alan Hawkshaw contributions. But these ain’t no filler. Snell’s shuffling “International Flight” sounds like a smooth Dorothy Ashby track tossed from the heavens. Hawkshaw’s “Road And Rail” is about as luxurious and strung-out as the great man gets and it might just be the highlight of this whole set.

Not to be outdone, if Mansfield’s “Balance Of Power” doesn’t make you feel like king of the world then you must be playing it wrong. Oh, and did we mention “World In Action”?!

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Big Business / Wind of Change 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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Voices In Harmony

LP | 1973 | UK | Reissue (Be With)

LP | 1986 | EU | Reissue (BeauMonde)

Release: 1973 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Voices In Harmony was released in 1973 as “a selection of contemporary pop titles featuring voices, brass and rhythm”. We choose to describe this collection of works by Keith Mansfield and John Cameron as “a string-laced, harmony-drenched KPM classic”.

From the bright, lilting harmonies of “Liquid Sunshine” to the melting flutes of “Loving Touch” and “Gentle Persuasion”, this is warm, effervescent soul music for dreamy, idyllic moods. The supreme “Husky Birdsong” is so, so smooth, with its unrelenting bossa bassline and warm keyboards. “Half Forgotten Daydreams” is a gorgeous wordless groove.

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Voices In Harmony 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 | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Discmedi)

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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Tete Montoliu

Boleros

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

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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Volker Kriegel

Spectrum

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Monty Alexander

Here Comes The Sun

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Oscar Peterson & The Singers Unlimited

In Tune

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Bill Evans

Symbiosis

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald)

Baden Powell

Images On Guitar

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

Joe Pass

Intercontinental

Montreux II Blue Vinyl Edtion

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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Bill Evans

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Klimt)

The Definitive Album By Louis Armstrong Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Recorded live at the Montreux Festival, 1970, and originally released on CTI, this stunning album features a piano trio led by Bill Evans with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morrell.

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Louis Armstrong

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (L.M.L.R.)

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Cosmic Jazz)

The Chitinous Ensemble

Chitinous

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Certainly one of the most obscure and perhaps one of the most fascinating work of the English jazz revolution. Master of ceremonies is cellist Paul Buckmaster, known for his work with the Third Ear Band and for his (later) collaborations with Miles Davis, David Bowie and Elton John. Chitinous is his the only album as leader and it was recorded between 31 March and 13 April 1970, by an orchestra of no less than 51 players, with violins, violas and cellos. In this enormous line-up we find the cream of English musicians involved, starting with trumpeter Ian Carr and ending with drummer John Marshall. The leader is on cello, his main instrument, but also on keyboards, which he shares with the excellent Pete Robinson. The music is organized in suites, with very broad suggestions that draw from classical and contemporary music and then move back into jazz territory.

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Brotherhood Yellow Vinyl Edtion

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Klimt)

Alone White Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Most folks reading this know the story of Chris McGregor and his magnificent, fun and wild big band, The Brotherhood Of Breath, comprised of fellow South African exiles as well as the cream of the early/mid 70s British jazz scene. During their heyday, they were only able to release three studio albums and all were out of print within a few years and despite the huge acclaim they received during from the period of about 1971-1975, Chris and the Brotherhood were basically forgotten by the time of Chris' death in 1990. This 1972 session is purely magnificent. The Brotherhood's music is for sharing with the world, and that's what makes its name so apt: the musicians and the audience are brothers (and sisters), and they share the same breath, becoming merely parts of the same giant metabolism.

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Bill Evans

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Klimt)

Ara Tokatlian & Enrique Villegas

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Alone was recorded at Webster Hall in the East Village, which was reserved for two recording sessions in October 1968. A Steinway & Sons concert grand piano model D-274 was chosen by Bill Evans for this recording. Released in April 1970, the Grammy Award-winning Alone was Bill Evans' first single piano solo album following in the footsteps of his 1963 Verve session Conversations with Myself (three pianos overdubbed) and his 1967 Further Conversations with Myself, also on Verve (two pianos overdubbed).

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Inspiracion

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Altercat)

Un Hombre De Buenos Aires

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This top-notch spiritual jazz album from Argentina will leave fans of Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane astonished. Recorded in 1975 and still surprisingly off the radar, this is one of the deepest jazz albums from South America.

Inspiración is the meeting of two generations united by music: Ara Tokatlian and Guillermo Bordarampé, members of the influential 70s rock band Arco Iris (which Tokatlian cofounded with the now Oscar award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla), join forces with Enrique "Mono" Villegas, an admired jazz pianist who had been active since the 1930s.

Meditative, soothing and serene, Inspiración is music your soul yearns for.

Official reissue with sound off the master tapes, including a reproduction of the original 16-page booklet. With the blessing and support from Ara Tokatlian and Guillermo Bordarampe.

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Jorge Lopez Ruiz

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Altercat)

Singin' In The Midnight Clear Vinyl Edtion

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Here's one for your long, breezy summer afternoons by the sea. Jazz, funk, tango and bossa vibes kiss each other, all wrapped up in JLR's trademark cinematic feel. In his colourful Un Hombre de Buenos Aires, recorded in 1978, JLR puts the political outcry of his early 70s works aside and focuses on his love for the city of Buenos Aires.

As always, Jorge López Ruiz enroled for the recording of Un Hombre de Buenos Aires some of the best musicians in the country. The line-up includes Dino Saluzzi on bandoneon, Domingo Cura on percussion and his lifelong friend Pocho Lapouble on drums.

Jorge López Ruiz gets far less credit than he deserves. His crucial role in shaping Argentina's jazz history should place him right next to Gato Barbieri and Lalo Schifrin, giants who found success abroad. It's an honour do dig deeper into his vast discography after having already reissued his masterpiece Viejas Raíces and his historical milestone album Bronca Buenos Aires.

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Chet Baker Quartet

LP | 1987 | EU | Reissue (Klimt)

Story Of Wind Behind Left Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1987 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Recorded during Christmas time 1986 in Holland together with Jon Burr on bass, Ben Riley on drums and Harold Danko on piano, this album will be released only in Japan the following year. It is a rare compilation of mostly standard songs reinterpreted by Chet with his personal decadent, intense and timeless taste.

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Masahiko Togashi

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Cinedelic)

Nana Nelson Angelo Novelli Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Recorded in September 1975 at Columbia Studio, “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is a symphonic poem in the shape of a suite. In the album, Masahiko Togashi uses music to communicate the same feelings evoked by nature. The drummer demonstrates unique composition and performance skills in the way he imitates the sounds of nature or takes inspiration from nature itself to make music. With “Story Of Wind Behind Left,” Masahiko Togashi revolutionized the Japanese jazz scene. The record includes an insert with the original liner notes translated into English.

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Naná Vasconcelos

LP | 1975 | Reissue (Altercat)

Release: 1975 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

Majoie Hajary

La Passion Selon Judas

25,49 €* 29,99 € -15%

Bemowe Frazy Yellow Vinyl Edtion

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Majoie Hajary is an atypical musician. Born in Paramaribo (Suriname) to Indian parents and raised in Amsterdam. In 1970, in France, accompanied by the best Jazz musicians and with arrangements by Roger Guerin, she recorded “La Passion Selon Judas”.

The result was an incredible fusion of Psych, Funk, Indian and Jazz elements – deep religious Jazz in the vein of Jef Gilson.

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Bemibem

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Warner)

25,64 €* 26,99 € -5%

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Siegfried Kessler

Solaire

Pop Music Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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Structure

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Sommor)

Vivre La Mort Du Vieux Monde

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Cool library-styled French album from 1970. Psychedelic, proggy jazz-funk with Brazilian/Bossa touches! Groovy flute by Bernard Wystraëte plus heavy bass, drums (by André Ceccarelli), violin, occasional fuzz-wah guitar and Urszula Dudziak-like scat vocals. In 1970, the AFA label asked flautist Bernard Wystraëte to register a “pop” album after the worldwide impact of progressive bands like Aphrodite’s Child and Jethro Tull. Bernard recruited some of his friends who were professional musicians and Structure was born. He wrote a collection of songs influenced by progressive rock, jazz and Brazilian music. The “Pop Music” album was recorded live in the studio to give a “live show” feel. It was released later that year housed in a superb psychedelic sleeve. The band even toured across France and several countries at the same time that Bernard and other Structure members started backing famous French singer Marie Laforêt live. After the good reception given to the album, another label asked Bernard to record a Structure 45. “Dilatation” / “Scale” was released under a new line-up. Both tracks of this 45 are included as bonus tracks on the Digital Download version and the CD.

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Maajun

Khan Jamal's Creative Arts Ensemble

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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

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Drum Dance To The Motherland

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Aguirre)

Blues And The Soulful Truth

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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Leon Thomas

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

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Aguirre)

Release: 1972 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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Seikatsu Koyji Iinkai

Akira Ishikawa & His Count Buffalos

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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African Rock

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

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Francois Tusques

Piano Dazibao N°2

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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Francois Tusques

Piano Dazibao

Jothan Callins & The Sounds Of Togetherness

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In Paris in 1965, F. Tusques mixed with Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Aldo Romano or Jacques Thollot. He also met Don Cherry and above all recorded, with other like-minded Frenchmen (Portal and Jeanneau alongside Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and Charles Saudrais), the first album of free jazz in France. Years later his thirst for freedom led him to isolation; between May and September 1970, the pianist recorded, at his home, the first of two albums that he would release on Futura Records: »Piano Dazibao« and »Dazibao N°2«.

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Winds Of Change

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

The Franklin Street Arterial

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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The Franklin Street Arterial Colored Vinyl Edition

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Petit Cherie)

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1980 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Jacques Thollot

Watch Devil Go

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

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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Eddie Marshall

Dance Of The Sun

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

Sonny Greenwich

Sun Song

Release: 1974 / CA – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ted Curson

Pop Wine

Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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

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Hozan Yamamoto & Yu Imai

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Mr Bongo)

Picture In Three Colours Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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

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Eero Koivistoinen

LP | 1984 | EU | Reissue (Svart)

Malagasy At Newport-Paris

Release: 1984 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Deluxe vinyl reissue!

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Jef Gilson

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Sylvin Marc / Del Rabenja

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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

Album Release

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Madagascar Now

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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Malagasy / Gilson

Malagasy

Betty Lou Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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

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

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Betty Lou Landreth

2LP | 1979 | UK | Reissue (Backatcha)

LP | 1982 | EU | Reissue (Verve)

Release: 1979 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Officially licensed. Reissue on two discs.

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

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

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

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Nina Simone

Fodder On My Wings

Release: 1982 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Blue Note)

Elvin Jones

Mr.Jones

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1970 | US | Reissue (Blue Note)

Reuben Wilson

Blue Mode

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Verve)

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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Stan Getz & Bill Evans

2LP | 1980 | UK | Reissue (BBE)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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More information coming soon.

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Ralph Thomas

Eastern Standard Time

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Far Out)

Release: 1980 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Antonio Adolfo

Viralata

Gary Burton & Chick Corea

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Crystal Silence

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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Dave Holland Quartet

Conference Of The Birds

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Jan Garbarek

Places

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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Ralph Towner

Solstice

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Underdog)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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Janko Nilovic

Funky Tramway

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (ECM)

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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Sam Rivers

Contrasts

Release: 1979 / 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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LP | 1980 | US | Reissue (Muse)

Vic Juris

Horizon Drive

Companionship Jazz Joint 2

Release: 1980 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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sampled by DJ Premier for Gang Starr 'mass appeal'

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Sahib Shihab

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Rearward)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1972 | US | Reissue (Nodlew)

Weldon Irvine

Liberated brother

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes

Release: 1972 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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early release on his own label ... real nice!

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Astral Travelling

LP | 1973 | UK | Reissue (BGP / Flying Dutchman)

2LP | 1972 | CA | Reissue (Mucho Gusto)

Release: 1973 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, keyboard player Lonnie Liston Smith moved to New York in 1963 playing with the likes of Dakota Staton, Al Hibbler, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln and Roland Kirk. He made his first recordings with Kirk and in 1968 entered into a mutually rewarding and instructive partnership with Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas. In 1971-2 he toured Europe with saxophonist Gato Barbieri appearing on his 1973 albums “Under Fire” and “Bolivia”. His growing reputation was also burnished by playing Fender Rhodes with Miles Davis electric band.

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L'infonie

Volume 333

Release: 1972 / CA – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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John Carter / Bobby Bradford

Self Determination Music

LP | 1971 | UK | Reissue (BGP / Flying Dutchman)

Jon Appleton & Don Cherry

Release: 1971 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The John Carter and Bobby Bradford Quartet/Quintet were critical to the progressive jazz movement around Los Angeles in the late 60s alongside the likes of Horace Tapscott. Both hailed from the Watts area and trumpeter, Bradford played with a woodshedding Ornette Coleman for two years in the early 60s when the legendary free movement leader decided not to record for a while but wanted to hone his trademark sound on the saxophone. Multi-reed player, Carter also worked with Coleman who brought them together to lead their own band.

Their first outing on Flying Dutchman was “Flight For Four” as the Carter Bradford Quartet that was released in 1969. This is the second album they recorded where Carter and Bradford were supported by Tom Williamson (bass), Buzz Freeman (drums) and another uncredited bass player on four extended improvisations – ‘The Sunday Afternoon Jazz Blues Society’, ‘The Eye Of The Storm’, ‘Loneliness’ and ‘Encounter’.

The album has been out of print on vinyl since 1971 and Ace are delighted to release it with audio taken from hi-res digital transfers from the original masters.

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Human Music

LP | 1970 | UK | Reissue (BGP / Flying Dutchman)

LP | 1970 | UK | Reissue (BGP / Flying Dutchman)

Release: 1970 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A forward thinking collaboration between electronic music pioneer Jon Appleton and trumpet great Don Cherry, that explores the relationship between the humanity and the manufactured robotic future.

Using the techniques associated with Musique Concrete the ensuing improvisations create a unique entry into the great trumpeter's discography. It was an in vogue attempt to render the music of tomorrow, and today sounds more like the soundtrack to a truly great sci-fi movie

Reissued in a fascimile of the original gatefold sleeve, and remastered from new 24/96 transfers, this is part of Ace's HiQ LP series

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Ornette Coleman

Friends And Neighbors

The Gypsy (Shirley Bunnie Foy)

Release: 1970 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This is an unusual album in the catalogue of Ornette Coleman, and one that passes by most critics. It is however a unique insight into the ‘free jazz’ pioneer’s way of working in the early 70s. Recorded at his large loft space in downtown New York which inspired a whole scene of experimental musicians who were locked out of playing established venues.

The music is a romp showing Ornette playing trumpet as well as saxophone. His quartet which featured second saxophonist Dewey Redman alongside long term cohorts Ed Blackwell and Charlie Haden prove to be the perfect foil for this legendary set.

This is the first vinyl reissue in nearly 20 years and utilises a fresh 24/96 transfer from the original production master.

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Way-O

LP | 1974 | EU | Reissue (Mono Jazz)

Butterfly HHV Summer Of Jazz Exclusive Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 1974 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This extraordinary album, which we are re-issuing on the occasion of RT 30 (the celebration of Right Tempo's thirty years of activity), is a tribute to the great Trinidadian pianist Sonnie Taylor who in these recordings, accompanied by the singer Bunnie Foy, expresses all his musical nature connected to Africa and the spiritual roots of jazz music. Many of you will recall Mayfra Combo, well, the leader of that seminal soul jazz ensemble was Sonnie Taylor. “I'm a Harlem Flower” sais Bunnie “I was born right in Harlem, where I've listened to an infinite number of popular songs of all kinds since I was a child. That's why I learned to sing spirituals, blues, classic and modern jazz pieces by Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerlad, and even calypso and African music. These are things that are all equally familiar to me. On this record, for example, I interpret a Gershwin medley but also Go Down Moses which is spiritual, Uelelé which is an Angolan piece and Way-O Comin' home which comes from the Caribbean”. Her real name is Shirley, but the nickname - which in Italian means bunny - grew up with her. She arrived in Italy in 1968 after a very flattering career start, during which she collaborated with famous names such as Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. When she decided to settle in Milan she had already been to France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and North Africa. Sonnie Taylor, the distinguished pianist and organist who leads the nine recordings contained herein, is a native of Trinidad. He has performed in England, Spain and Italy with a rhythm and blues ensemble. He currently leads a quintet that plays Afro-Cuban music. For about a year he has been working with Bunnie Foy on her concert tours.

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Bra Sello

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Afrodelic)

Story Of Wind Behind Left HHV Exclusive Green Vinyl Edition

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Limited edition of 100 copies for the 2023 Summer of Jazz campaign, focused on South-African jazz. Only available at HHV.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the
CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.
Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group The Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jawdropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.
For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As Shams / The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.

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Masahiko Togashi

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Cinedelic)

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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HHV Exclusive edition on green wax, limited to 100 copies

Recorded in September 1975 at Columbia Studio, “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is a symphonic poem in the shape of a suite. On the album, Masahiko Togashi uses music to communicate the same feelings evoked by nature. The drummer demonstrates unique composition and performance skills in the way he imitates the sounds of nature or takes inspiration from nature itself to make music. With “Story Of Wind Behind Left,” Masahiko Togashi revolutionized the Japanese jazz scene. The record includes an insert with the original liner notes translated into English.

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Malombo Jazz Makers

Malompo Jazz

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Malombo Jazz Makers Volume 2

Malombo Jazz Makers

LP | 1971 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1983 | EU | Reissue (Beaumonde)

Zepiss

Natibel

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Release: 1983 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Edmony Krater grew up on the side of Morne Rouge in Sainte-Rose, north of Guadeloupe. His mother sang in church, but Edmony was drawn to the sound of Gwo Ka, which was frowned upon but very present in ceremonies or funeral vigils. As both a fashion designer for the theater and a musician (percussion, trumpet, vocals) in the group Gwakasonné, formed by Robert Oumaou and Georges Troupé, Edmony left Guadeloupe in 1983 to settle in mainland France just after recording their first album. Upon his arrival in Paris, with the desire to give his own version of Gwo Ka, he founded the group Zepiss with Eddy Lebouin, Freddy Tisseur, Philippe Augusty, and Rico Toto and immediately recorded a first album, Natibel. In a singular way, Natibel perpetuates Gwo Ka Modèn, a movement initiated by the iconic jazz guitarist Gérard Lockel, who was the first to theorize and politicize this music previously transmitted only orally. In just six tracks, Natibel combines the sophistication and roughness of its root music, as Gwo Ka combines an intense rhythmic section with intoxicating melodies. In the tradition of other Gwo Ka musicians who took the music further such as Guy Conquet, Fabriano Fuzion, Gwakasonné, Erick Cosaque, and above all legendary drummer Marcel Lollia aka Vélo, Edmony Krater and his group Zepiss have contributed to preserving its heritage and bringing an obvious touch of modernity.

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Lesiman

High Tension Volume 1

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (Mab About)

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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Following the release of Lee Selmoco's "Mosaico" we continue our journey with Vedette Records to bring back to life part of their incredible catalog, with the reissue of the first instalment of the "High Tension" series by Lesiman. Born in Florence in 1935, Paolo Renosto, the man behind the moniker Lesiman, was an incredible composer, experimenter, music teacher and piano player whose amazing skills and sound research brought him to work with Luigi Dallapiccola and Bruno Maderna, as well as being a member of the Associazione Nuova Consonanza of Roma. He obviously joined, for some time, the renowned Gruppo d’Improvvisazione, with Franco Evangelisti and Domenico Guaccero. Released exactly 50 years ago and packed with dramatic tension, obscure drums and asphyxiating atmospheres revolving around the theme of war, composed with the additional input of Romolo Grano, Sandro Brugnolini and Guido Baggiani, this first volume in the series is a holy grail in Italian libraries as well as a prime example of "music especially crafted for films, television, radio, publicity and industrial use". Now available on vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 500 copies.

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Joyce Hurley

Joyce

26,09 €* 28,99 € -10%

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Mad About)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Daniel Bechet

Songs To My Father

26,09 €* 28,99 € -10%

A Message From Mozambique

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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Juju

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

Mystery Man Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Leon Redbone

LP | 1982 | EU | Reissue (Reel)

Release: 1982 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Siegried Kessler / Gus Nemeth / Stu Martin

Solaire

Une Bien Curieuse Planète

Release: 1971 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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François Jeanneau

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

LP | 1978 | EU | Reissue (La Matta)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Stani Labonia

Amarsi

Mosaico (Le Tastiere Di Lee Selmoco)

Release: 1978 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Lee Selmoco

LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

Philippe Maté / Jef Gilson

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Workshop

LP | 1973 | EU | Reissue (Souffle Continu)

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

Release: 1973 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Like A Ship Without A Sail Ice Wind Vinyl Edition

LP | 1971 | US | Reissue (Numero Group)

Release: 1971 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ndikho Xaba And The Natives

50th Anniversary Remaster 2022

LP | 1971 | UK | Reissue (Matsuli)

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

Release: 1971 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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

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

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Smegma

Glamour Girl

26,99 €* 35,99 € -25%

Sun Ra Arkestra & Salah Ragab

Release: 1979 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab In Egypt

LP | 1983 | Reissue (Strut)

Bravo Pravo Yellow Vinyl Edition

Release: 1983 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Patty Pravo

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Rca Label)

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 1972 | EU | Reissue (Holy Basil)

V.A.

Underground Mood

Rendez-Vous Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1972 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Bruno Nicolai

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

26,99 €* 29,99 € -10%

LP | 1979 | EU | Reissue (Edition Hawara)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves, Soundtracks

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

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Robert Ponger

LP | 1980 | EU | Reissue (Glossy Mistakes)

Release: 1979 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

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Stu Cisco

Amanita