Organic Grooves 543 Items

Record Store Day 2020 Release.
Limitation: 1500 copies.

The remarkable 1965 New York Concerts performances offer a rare, revealing glimpse into the discographic dark period. This captivating double LP would be valuable solely for the brilliant music, which finds Jimmy Giuffre leading otherwise undocumented trio & quartet lineups, advancing his experiments in counterpoint and abstraction into more adventurous avant-garde territory. But it also offers insight into one of jazz's most innovative thinkers at a key moment in his development. 180-gram vinyl. LP1 / Side A - 1. Syncopate 2. Introduction 3. Crossroads LP1 / Side B - 1. Drive 2. Quadrangle 3. Angles LP2 / Side A - 1. Syncopate 2. Quadrangle 3. Three Bars In One LP2 / Side B - 1. Cry, Want 2. Angles 3. Drive

Alexis Korner's third album, originally released on the Transatlantic Label in 1964, after two live albums recorded at the Cavern at the Marquee, featuring his all-time hits 'Stormy Monday ' and Chicken Shack'. A true masterpiece from one of the godfathers of the white blues movement from the 60's.

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

This is one of Eddie Harris' great records. The playing is inspired! What a band! Cedar Walton (piano) and Billy Higgins (drums), Lee Morgan's favourite rhythm section. The underrated but popular tenor saxophonist introduces his "Freedom Jazz Dance," which would become a jazz standard after featuring on Miles Davis' album Miles Smiles. Plays one of the earlier versions of "The Shadow of Your Smile," romps on "Love for Sale" and "'S Wonderful," and also performs "Born to Be Blue" and his own "Cryin' Blues." Harris is heard in prime form in a quartet/quintet with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Billy Higgins, and part-time trumpeter Ray Codrington. A gem. - Scott Yanow/AMG

Recorded 1965
Engineer – Tom Dowd

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

Clifford Jordan hailed from Chicago, hometown of hard-driving, so-called ‘tough tenorists’ like Gene Ammons and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. While Jordan shared their unnerving bravado, his tone is different, an alluring tone, simultaneously rough around the edges and ephemeral. A sought-after sideman, Jordan recorded with stalwarts as Lee Morgan and Max Roach in the late fifties and early sixties, as well as a series of high standard solo albums. Like age matures wine, Jordan’s style ripened in the early seventies, his lines becoming fluent like ripples of lake water. Jordan kept recording and performing steadily until his death in 1993.

Maybe this album, filled with interpretations of such classic tunes as Take This Hammer and Goodnight Irene, is not such a surprise act after all. The preceding year, Jordan had been part of Charles Mingus’ outfit (appearing on the hi-voltage live album Right Now: Live At The Jazz Workshop) Musical gobbler Mingus’ unfazed search for new vistas while retaining an all-embracing sense of the past’s relevance and blend of harmonic finesse with unbridled juke joint tumult surely rubbed off on Jordan.

Da Gray Goose is one of the cases in point. Tasteful harmony over the stop-time theme kicks it into action, strongly plucked bass and fiery drums inspire the soloists, creating an atmosphere of abandon. Lusty shout choruses stoke up the fire as the tune progresses. There are also some, yes, virtuoso banjo parts.

The gloomy folk blues music of Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter, whose life story reads like a combined effort of Shakespeare and James Baldwin, including oppression, hardship, addiction, treachery, murder and prison life, is excellently cast in a jazz frame. But not too jazzy, often the sound of Jordan’s top-notch group is as tough-as-nails as the sound of any one group that enlivened the back alley bars way back when. Jordan’s unpredictable phrasing overcomes the restrictions of the rigid folk blues form.

Craftily uncrafted, These Are My Roots is a spirited album of earnest, raw and ebullient swing.

Recorded on February 1 & 17, 1965 in NYC

The Avant-Garde is an album by the two jazz giants John
Coltrane & Don Cherry. Coltrane plays compositions
by Ornette Coleman accompanied by the members of
Coleman’s quartet: Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed
Blackwell. The album is a result of the mutual respect and
friendship between Coltrane and Coleman. It’s the ability
of each to complement the other that lends heavily to the
success of these recordings. Both fans of jazz music as
of one of the two jazz musicians will love this records, as
it brings the best of both to the surface. So don’t let this
record pass you

Underrated drummer’s 1965 album
His debut solo album and one of only two Blue Note albums as leader (the second emerged in 1997)
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio on 19th May 1965
Featuring Blue Note legend Joe Henderson on tenor, Steve Kuhn on piano and Steve Swallow on bass
Showcasing three fine La Roca originals (the title track, ‘Candu’, ‘Tears Come From Heaven’), Steve Swallow’s ‘Eiderdown’ and interesting takes on the standards ‘Malaguena’ and ‘Lazy Afternoon’
 Produced by Alfred Lion
Includes a famous Reid Miles cover, plus photography by Francis Wolff and liner notes by Ira Gitler

The drum hero’s classic 1963 album
 Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, during November and December 1961
The Jazz Messengers’ 11th Blue Note album
Featuring the classic Messengers line-up of Freddie Hubbard (trumpet/flugelhorn), Wayne Shorter (tenor), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano) and Jymie Merritt (bass)
Showcasing three classic Shorter compositions (‘Backstage Sally’, ‘Contemplation’, ‘Reincarnation Blues’) plus Fuller’s ‘Bu’s Delight’, Walton’s ‘Shaky Jake’ and a take on Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’
Produced by Blue Note co-founder Alfred Lion
Includes photography by BN co-founder Francis Wolff and liner notes by esteemed writer Leonard Feather

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.