Organic Grooves Vinyl 481 Items

Hardly any other musician has released so little as Hasaan Ibn Ali, born William Henry Langford Jr., in 1931, who died in 1980. Just seven titles in all are his complete output, all of which he composed himself, all of them on the present Atlantic LP, and all recorded in December 1964. The saxophonist Odean Pope, who often practised with him, talks of a second recording session in 1965 for Atlantic, but the recordings were never released because Hasaan was sent to jail shortly afterwards; rumour has it that the tapes were destroyed in a fire – and it might well be that recordings with John Coltrane still exist somewhere or other.
Until then, one should enjoy the Max Roach Trio with Art Davis on the bass to the full. We have here a recording that will astound and fascinate your ears with its originality. A first impression conjures up reminiscences of Cecil Taylor and Herbie Nichols, while Hasaan himself talks of the pianist Elmo Hope as the man who brought him closer to the 'mystery of music'. When asked how the recording session with maestro Max Roach went, Hasaan said: »They scared me to death.«
According to Odean Pope, Hasaan was not an easy person to get on with, and he was convinced of his talent to the point of arrogance. But despite this – or perhaps because of this – one listens spellbound to the 40 minutes on this LP, a legacy and never-fulfilled promise of an extremely talented man. We are indebted to Max Roach, who persuaded the bosses of Atlantic Records to make these recordings. For many, many years they had vanished from the record market, but fortunately they are now available as an audiophile re-release to be listened to and admired.

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

Fat Albert Rotunda is the venture into jazz-funk by keyboardist Herbie Hancock. The record is
centered around the music Hancock wrote the Fat Albert cartoon show. It’s one of the records which
appeared in the period between his landmark album Maiden Voyage of 1965 and his 1973 classic
Head Hunters. Fat Albert Rotunda is a unique item in Herbie Hancock’s long and diverse catalog, with
funky tracks like "Fat Mama" and modern jazz-oriented tunes like "Tell Me A Bedtime Story". The
sextet which is backing Hancock consists of some of the most prominent musicians of that time, like
Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Johnny Coles on trumpet and Buster Williams on the bass.
Herbie Hancock is one of the most prolific jazz pianists of the 20th century. A child prodigy, he played
with the greats such as Donald Byrd and Miles Davis. As he was a bit of a geek, he enjoyed gadgets &
buttons and he was one of the first to embrace and master the electric piano, but he always stayed
true to the acoustic sound. In fact, he always bounced back and forth between his electronic and
acoustic sound, touching upon almost every development in R&B, Funk and Jazz while retaining an
original and distinctive voice.

This 1961 set of standards, favoring ballads, is Gene Ammons in his prime. For the most part, this session is tight and structured, keeping Ammons firmly locked in the groove more so than on some of his more wandering dates. His big-as-a-house tone stands center stage in front of a sympathetic piano-bass-drums trio of Richard Wyands, Doug Watkins and J.C. Heard, respectively.

Yet another collaboration between Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi, who also worked together on the masterpiece “Feelings”. “Musica per commenti sonori” consists of twelve amazing tracks that will excite lovers of the wildest funk, producers in search of rare breaks, and those with a penchant for the psycho-beat atmospheres of the sixties. One of the rarest library music releases ever, that’s never been re-released in any form until now!

“Musica per commenti sonori” is a cult series within the diverse world of Italian library music. In the late sixties and seventies, the small record label Costanza Records has published several releases precisely focusing on ‘background music’, including works of great composers such as Peppino De Luca, Roberto Pregadio, Franco Micalizzi, Vito Thomas, Giancarlo Thomas Puccio Roelens, Riccardo Luciani, and by the protagonists of this long-time due reissue: Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi.

The two musicians, who had also worked together on the masterpiece “Feelings” (1974), have often collaborated and delivered some of the best Italian library music of all time. “Musica per commenti sonori” is certainly one of the most interesting. On the two equally split sides of this LP, the first for Torossi and the second for Brugnolini (but it seems that this partition was exclusively dictated by legal demands), there are twelve amazing tracks that will excite lovers of the wildest funk, producers in search of rare breaks, and those with a penchant for the psycho-beat atmospheres of the sixties.

Among the most heated tracks featured on Torossi’s side, we can’t pass over the amazing “Sweet-Beat”, “Interrupted” (perhaps the best track of the album) and “Repetition” while “Polyphony”, “Motuproprio” and the closing track “Flyer” shine on Brugnolini’s. Virtually impossible to find, even at astonishing prices, this reissue puts back into the market one of the best examples of ‘The Italian Art of Library Music’: a genre worldwide envied and collected.

John Coltrane brought a new sound and style to jazz, and he applied it in his own unique way to the standard material of the storehouse of American music gathered from Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley. With the excellent rhythm team of Red Garland, Paul Chambers (both of whom had done so many concert, club and recording dates with him) and Jimmy Cobb and the Miles-directed flugelhorn of Wilbur Harden, Trane puts his personal stamp on numbers not done that often like Henry Nemo's "Don't Take Your Love from Me", Fred Ahlert's "I'll Get By" and two more familiar yet still not overdone songs, Richard Rodgers' "Spring Is Here" and Bronislau Kaper's "Invitation."

Although the name Stan Getz (tenor sax) was initially synonymous with the West Coast cool scene during the mid-to-late 1950s, he likewise became a key component in the Bossa Nova craze of the early 1960s. Getz Au Go Go (1965) is Stan Getz in his prime, recorded with perhaps one of the best quartets of his career, featuring Bossa Nova singer Astrud Gilberto.

180g vinyl.

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

180g vinyl.

Helen Merrill with Piero Umiliani!

180g Vinyl

Sylvie Vartans seminal 1962 debut LP transformed the 18-year-old collegiénne du twist into the French pop diva, whose songs (and high-profile marriage to Johnny Hallyday) would dominate the European pop charts throughout the 1960s. Songs like Est-ce que tu le sais and Le Loco-motion remakes of Ray Charles What Id Say and Little Evas Locomotionbecame two of her first smash hits.

180 Gram vinyl!

Nina Simone was one of the best Blues singers of the 20th century. Only someone the likes of Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith had the power to lay a soul bare like she could, as her stripped-down 'Be My Husband' shows. Nina Simone never, ever disappoints. Re-released for the first time on vinyl since 1965, we hope we do 'Pastel Blues' justice. Includes 'Strange Fruit'!

180g audiophile pressing.

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

Terumasa Hino is undoubtedly one of the most famous Japanese jazzmen. Learning the trumpet at the age of 9, he began his career as a professional musician by playing in the orchestra of an US Army base, before joining Hideo Shiraki"s Quintet and then forming his own band in 1964. On Hi-Nology we find his brother Motohiko Hino on drums, Hiroma Suzuki on electric piano, Kumitsu Inaba on electric bass and Takeru Muraoka ontenor sax. The inspiration from the "electric period" of Miles Davis (notably Miles In The Sky released in 1968) is felt and is even accepted, since the opening piece is entitled "Like Miles". Coincidentally, Hi-Nology was recorded on July 31, 1969, the day after the release of In a Silent Way and has nothing to envy of this great record by Miles Davis.