Jazz

Though he invited in collaborators for this project, Jeff Parker is very much a solo artist on Suite for Max Brown. He constructs a digital bed of beats and samples; lays down tracks of his own on guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion, and occasionally voice; then invites musician friends to play and improvise over his melodies.

But unlike a traditional jazz session, Parker doesn't assemble a full band in the studio for a day or two of live takes. His accompanists are often working alone with Parker, reacting to what Parker has provided them, and then Parker uses those individual parts to layer and assemble into his final tracks. The process may be relatively solitary and cerebral, but the results feel like in-the-moment jams – warm-hearted, human, alive. Suite for Max Brown brims with personality, boasting the rhythmic flow of hip hop and the soulful swing of jazz.

Fellow travelers here include pianist-saxophonist Josh Johnson; bassist Paul Bryan, who co-produced and mixed the album with Parker; piccolo trumpet player Rob Mazurek, his frequent duo partner; trumpeter Nate Walcott, a veteran of Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes; drummers Jamire Williams, Makaya McCraven, and Parker's Berklee School of Music classmate Jay Bellerose; cellist Katinka Klejin of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and even his seventeen-year-old daughter Ruby Parker, a student at the Chicago High School of the Arts, who contributes vocals to opening track, "Build a Nest."

1. Build a Nest (feat. Ruby Parker)
2. C'mon Now
3. Fusion Swirl
4. After the Rain
5. Metamorphoses
6. Gnarciss
7. Lydian, Etc.
8. Del Rio
9. 3 for L
10. Go Away
11. Max Brown

Lady Blackbird didn't mean to soundtrack a revolution. But last spring, that's exactly what she did. On May 27, 2020 Los Angeles-based singer Marley Munroe released her debut single. Now, "the Grace Jones of Jazz, " as dubbed by BBC's Gilles Peterson, presents her debut album, Black Acid Soul. Minimal yet rich, classic yet timely, the album connects backwards to Miles Davis (his pianist, Deron Johnson, plays Steinway Baby Grand, Mellotron and Casio Synth throughout) and forwards to Pete Tong (he made the Bruise mix of 'Collage' his Number Two Essential Selection tune of 2020) and, yes, Victoria Beckham - Matthew Herbert's remix of second single "Beware The Stranger" soundtracked the designer's Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion show. It's 11 tracks have a sound, feeling and attitude that speak of Lady Blackbird's deep experiences in music, stretching all the way back to infancy. This is Black Acid Soul, and this is the first crucial album of 2021. Are you ready to fly with Lady Blackbird?

Tracks

1. Blackbird
2. It's Not That Easy
3. Fix It
4. Ruler Of My Heart
5. Nobody's Sweetheart
6. Collage
7. Five Feet Tall
8. Lost And Looking
9. It'll Never Happen Again
10. Beware the Stranger
11. Black Acid Soul

Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series All-Analog 180g Vinyl LP Mastered by Kevin Gray Directly from the Original Master Tapes and Manufactured at Optimal in Germany

Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the Classic Vinyl Reissue Series which presents 180g vinyl LP reissues in standard packaging mastered by Kevin Gray and manufactured at Optimal. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes.

When Lee Morgan recorded his album Caramba, he was only months away from his 30th birthday, making the fact that this was his twenty-third Blue Note recording even more astounding. A full-fledged master, his technical prowess on the horn matched by the emotional depth of his playing, and a composer who could conjure different moods and styles with his writing.

Tracks

1. Caramba
2. Suicide City
3. Cunning Lee
4. Soulita
5. Helen's Ritual

Released on the legendary Dutch jazz label Timeless Records, Chippin' In features ten sublime tracks recorded at Rudy van Gelder's Recording Studio in February 1990. Although Art Blakey passed away just eight months after these tracks were cut you certainly can't tell by the performances. For these specific recordings, The Jazz Messengers were expanded from its usual quintet or sextet into a septet and they showcase their energetic signature sound with remarkable style, musical knowledge, a dash of good humor and camaraderie you'd expect from a world-class outfit. The line-up on these fantastic sessions includes non-other than Essiet Okon, Geoff Keezer, Dale Barlow, Javon Jackson, Frank Lacy, Steve Davis and Brian Lynch...impressive to say the least!

Tidal Waves Music proudly presents the first ever vinyl release of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers' Chippin' In on deluxe colored 180g vinyl 2LP with an obi strip. The jacket features exclusive session pics shot by legendary Dutch photographer Joost Leijen (known for his work with artists such as Chet Baker and Pharoah Sanders), plus an insert with liner notes by renowned author and producer Russ Musto. Chippin' In sounds as vibrant as ever here! Expect supercharged hard bop with striking notes, no-holds-barred musicianship, high swinging solos, screaming choruses and plenty of solid virtuosity to spare. This electrifying set of tracks contains both originals and several eclectic versions of standards...making this release a bonafide hit and a must-have for any self-respecting jazz fan or collector.

Musicians:
Art Blakey, drums
Essiet Okon, bass
Geoff Keezer, piano
Dale Barlow / Javon Jackson, tenor saxophone
Frank Lacy / Steve Davis, trombone
Brian Lynch, trumpet

Features:
• Deluxe colored 180g vinyl 2LP
• First time on the format
• Includes obi strip
• Exclusive session pics shot by Dutch photographer Joost Leijen
• Insert with liner notes by renowned author and producer Russ Musto

1. Brain Stormin'
2. Byrdflight
3. Hammerhead
4. Aquarius Rising
5. Kay Pea
6. Chippin' In
7. Raincheck
8. Chandek's Den
9. Kenji's Walk
10. Love Walked In

This 45 RPM 12" Zoetrope LP includes the complete 14 track score plus never before heard music - also celebrating 75 years of Peanuts®. The Zoetrope, a Guaraldi and Peanuts first, features many scenes from the beloved special. The foundation layer of the album is an Eco Mix. Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the special, LMFP is thrilled to present the premiere release of Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack for 1975's "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown". Guaraldi's score is finally available and was mixed and mastered for audiophiles, jazz lovers, and Peanuts fans everywhere from the original 2" session tapes to a 192kHz/24bit master. Beyond the composer's playing, Seward McCain plays electric bass, Mark Rosengarden plays drums, and John Scott Trotter supervised the music. The record Includes fresh takes on "Peppermint Patty," and "Linus and Lucy," and adds a special bonus track, "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (Unused Opening Cues)" (performances left out of the special, that now start the B side). "Motocross" is the featured theme, and there are four additional bonus tracks from (1973 LMFP project) "Bicycles Are Beautiful" scored by Guaraldi, who is joined by McCain on bass and Glenn Cronkhite on drums for those tracks.

• 1 Motocross
• 2 Peppermint Patty
• 3 You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (Centercourt)
• 4 Fanfare / Fanfare (Alternate Take) / Hospital Scene / Hospital Scene (Bonus)
• 5 Bass Blues
• 6 Linus and Lucy
• 7 Motocross (Reprise)
• 8 You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (Unused Opening Cues)
• 9 The Great Pumpkin Waltz
• 10 Motocross (2nd Reprise)
• 11 Motocross (3rd Reprise)
• 12 Motocross (4th Reprise)
• 13 Motocross (5th Reprise Extended with Additional Piano)
• 14 Lunch Theme / Motocross (6th Reprise)
• 15 You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (Reprise)
• 16 Bicycles Are Beautiful (Reprise)
• 17 Bicycle Ballad (Medley)
• 18 Bicycle Bounce (And Reprise)
• 19 Bicycle Wizard (And Reprise)

Vinyl LP pressing. For his third Blue Note album Inventions & Dimensions (1963), pianist Herbie Hancock began moving away from the modernist hard bop sound that defined his first two albums Takin' Off and My Point Of View. Inspired by explorers like Eric Dolphy and Tony Williams, Hancock went in search of greater musical freedom by composing a set of ingenious originals each with their own unique inner logic that did away with what he considered the established jazz "assumptions" of the time.

• 1 Succotash
• 2 Triangle
• 3 Jack Rabbit
• 4 Mimosa
• 5 Jump Ahead, a
• 6 Mimosa - (Alternate Take, Bonus Track)

GREEN IS BEAUTIFUL (BLUE NOTE CLASSIC VNYL SERIES) 180gram Heavy Vinyl - Grant Green's musical style evolved to embrace jazz-funk as the decade turned to 1970. The guitarist's vibrant album Green Is Beautiful is a highlight of the era. With his distinctive tone, he shines on a set that includes covers of James Brown ("Ain't It Funky Now"), The Beatles ("A Day In The Life") and Burt Bacharach ("I'll Never Fall In Love Again"). Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optima.

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Ain't It Funky Now
• 2 A Day in the Life
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 The Windjammer
• 2 I'll Never Fall in Love Again
• 3 Dracula

This is Bill Evans' first trio date under his own name for Verve, and the deep communication he maintains throughout with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, two brilliant rhythm players, is sublime. All of the songs are standards of one for or another, but Evans and Co. find a depth to them that's astonishing. Bill uses the spaces between phrases in a way that broadens and deepens the emotional content. Two outstanding examples of Bill's interpretive magic here are the novelty numbers "Little Lulu" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," which both acquire a warmth, scope of imagery and sardonic touch that enlivens their musical essence like never before. This all-analog 180g vinyl LP reissue was mastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at QRP, and comes housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket.

Tracks

1. Little Lulu
2. A Sleeping Bee
3. Always
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
5. I'll See You Again
6. For Heaven's Sake
7. Dancing In The Dark
8. Everything Happens To Me

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Grant Green's Nigeria is an underrated gem in the guitarist's remarkable Blue Note catalog. Recorded in 1962, and released in 1980, the album features a top-shelf band with Sonny Clark on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and powerhouse Art Blakey on drums. The groove is deep right from the start, highlighting timeless renditions of the classic tracks.

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Airegin
• 2 It Ain't Necessarily So
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 I Concentrate on You
• 2 The Things We Did Last Summer
• 3 The Song Is You

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. The 1961 album Mosaic marked a pivotal moment in the story of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers with the drummer welcoming the arrival of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (replacing Lee Morgan) and pianist Cedar Walton (replacing Bobby Timmons). The band also expanded to a sextet with the addition of trombonist Curtis Fuller who joined existing members tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassist Jymie Merritt to establish a powerful new line-up that would perform together until 1964 and record several classic albums including Buhaina's Delight and Free for All. Mosaic opens with a flourish as the band launches into the magnificent title track composed by Walton, and the set also includes memorable compositions by Shorter ("Children of the Night"), Fuller ("Arabia"), and Hubbard ("Down Under" and "Crisis"). This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes.

• - Disc 1 -
• 1 Mosaic
• 2 Down Under
• 3 Children of the Night
• - Disc 2 -
• 1 Arabia
• 2 Crisis

These Times is a collection of polytemporal compositions inspired as much by broader cultural struggles as Makaya McCraven's personal experience as a product of a multinational, working class musician community. It's the recording that he's been trying to create for 7+ years, as it's been consistently in process in the background while he's put forth a prolific run of releases including: In The Moment (2015), Highly Rare (2017), Where We Come From (2018), Universal Beings (2018), We're New Again (2020), Universal Beings E&F Sides (2020), and Deciphering the Message (2021).

With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators – including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill – the music was recorded in five different studios and four live performance spaces while McCraven engaged in extensive post-production work at home. Featuring orchestral, large ensemble arrangements interwoven with the signature "organic beat music" sound that's become his signature, the album is an evolution and a milestone for McCraven, the producer. But moreover, it's the strongest and clearest statement we've yet to hear from McCraven, the composer.

1. In These Times
2. The Fours
3. High Fives
4. Dream Another
5. Lullaby
6. This Place That Place
7. The Calling
8. Seventh String
9. So Ubuji
10. The Knew Untitled
11. The Title

The third and final installment of Thelonious Monk's London Collection, his last recording session as a band leader, finally gets it's time to shine on vinyl. The recording features the legendary pianist/composer on six solo performances as well as five numbers with bassist Al McKibbon and drummer Art Blakey. It was remastered from original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180gram audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas in Germany.

• 1 Trinkle Tinkle (Take 2)
• 2 The Man I Love
• 3 Something in Blue
• 4 Introspection (Take 1)
• 5 Trinkle Tinkle (Take 1)
• 6 Crepuscule with Nellie (Take 3)
• 7 Nutty (Take 1)
• 8 Introspection (Take 3)
• 9 Hackensack (Take 1)
• 10 Evidence (Take 1)

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Organist "Brother" Jack McDuff came to Blue Note and made one of the most ambitious albums of his career with Moon Rappin'. Released in 1970, it features five funky, spaced-out originals including "Oblighetto," which would later be sampled by A Tribe Called Quest as the foundation of their classic tracks "Scenario," and "Check the Rhime." Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes.

All-Analog 180g Vinyl LP of Grant Green's The Latin Bit Mastered from the Original Master Tapes by Kevin Gray & Pressed at RTI: Reference-Caliber Blue Note Reissue Helmed by Music Matters' Joe Harley

Grant Green had already recorded a prolific 10 sessions of classic hard bop and soul jazz for Blue Note over a 2-year span by the time he arrived at Van Gelder Studio in 1962 to record his album The Latin Bit. The concept of the album was a departure for Green with the guitarist exploring Latin and Brazilian influences with a band featuring Johnny Acea on piano, Wendell Marshall on bass, Willie Bobo on drums, Carlos "Patato" Valdes on conga, and Garvin Masseaux on chekere. As Nat Hentoff wrote in the album's liner notes: "It is because of Green's remarkably consistent ease in many varieties of material, that this album of jazz with a Latin tinge becomes so seamless a blending of Latin idioms and blues-laced, modern mainstream swinging." The highly enjoyable set includes joyful takes of "Mambo Inn" and "My Little Suede Shoes," as well as a lyrical and beguiling version of "Besame Mucho."

Blue Note Records' acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series continues in 2022. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label's 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing "Old Style" gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version.

"The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session."
- Joe Harley

Musicians:
Grant Green, guitar
Johnny Acea, piano
Wendell Marshall, bass
Willie Bobo, drums
Potato Valdez, congas
Garvin Masseaux, chekere

Features:
• Blue Note Tone Poet Series
• Curated by Music Matters co-founder Joe Harley
• Audiophile-quality 180g vinyl LP
• All-analog mastering (direct from the master tapes) by Kevin Gray
• Manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated
• Deluxe gatefold jacket packaging

1. Mambo Inn
2. Besame Mucho
3. Mama Inez
4. Brazil
5. Tico Tico
6. My Little Suede Shoes

New edition of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album first released as a private-press album in 1970 on flautist Lloyd McNeill's own Asha Record label in Washington, DC. McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. McNeill's hypnotic Washington Suite was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC. 

1. Home Rule
2. Just 71% Moor
3. 2504 Cliffbourne Pl.
4. Fountain In The Circle
5. City Tryptych
6. Fountain In The Circle

Brownswood Recordings are proud to present Indaba Is – a compilation of current South African improvised music and jazz. The project is a collaboration with two luminaries of the South African Music scene, pianist / songwriter Thandi Nthuli and The Brother Moves On's Siyabonga Mthembu who act as curators / musical directors on the project.

Bokani Dyer's "Ke Nako" (now's the time) opens with an irony, because that was a slogan used to get voters to the polls in the first post-apartheid election. Now, Dyer's using it to remind us to think again about who we are and where we're going. That's always been the question for The Brother Moves On (TBMO: a genre-refusing, personnel-revolving performance collective named, with a twist, for The Wire's assassin: Brother Mouzone). Here, it's embodied in a meditation on relationships refracted through the distorting-glass of their context. It's the singing voices on both those tracks that reference roots even as they engage with contemporary spoken flows and instrumental improvisations.

Explicitly, trumpeter Lwanda Gogwana bookends his track with the idioms of the Eastern Cape – galloping rhythms, harmonies from bow music and split-tone singing, a spluttering trumpet reminiscent of Mongezi Feza – and grows from them a chill contemporary meditation: no spatial or temporal barriers here. Chill, though, is the last term you'd use for Wretched, vocalist Gabisile Motuba's Fanon-inspired project with drummer Tumi Mogorosi and sound artist Andrei van Wyk and the voices of Black Panther Kwame Toure and liberation leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: "What is History?.."

That, like "Ke Nako" and The Brother Moves On's bitter allusion to "black yellow and green" (the colours of the ruling ANC) is the thread of another kind of tradition – the reminders and remainders of South Africa's struggle not yet won – weaving through the album. Balm is offered by what guitarist Sibusile Xaba has described as his "modal, groove-oriented roots music". It is, he says, inspired by dreams; he sees himself as a diviner not a performer and his music as functional for healing. That echoes one of his musical masters, the late Dr Philip Nchipi Tabane. "Umdali" is a reference to the Creator, inspirer of such service.

The Ancestors weave Siyabonga Mthembu's voice into a web of musical references forward-looking and historical, including bluesy instrumentals that hark back to what South Africa's jazz bandleaders of the ‘70s and ‘80s conjured up – another aspect of South Africa's musical tradition. Then pianist/composer/vocalist Thandi Ntuli returns to the theme of identity in "Dikeledi" (‘Tears'). "Who are you?' she asks. "What do you call yourself?.. the illusion [of who you are] emerges from you." Ultimately, the song concludes, rootedness in community trumps image.

But community isn't unproblematic. The persistent fractures in South African society were deliberately engineered by apartheid, results of an attempt to impose unitary, racially-constructed identities on all. All the tracks in this collection challenge that: they demonstrate the unifying power of collective hard music work. In that context, iPhupho L'ka Biko's "Abaphezulu" ("They are coming, those who are above" – an invocation to ancestors, including the spirit of Steve Bantu Biko) is a fitting conclusion. Opening with the notes of Kinsmen's Druv Sodha's sitar, it smashes another of the walls apartheid tried to build against Black unity: between South Africans of African and South Asian heritage. The classically-inflected gospel voices of Mthembu's dialogue with Indian and modern jazz rhythms and free horn improvisations in joyous heterophony.

LP1

1. Bokani Dyer - Ke Nako
2. The Brother Moves On - Umthandazo Wamagenge
3. Lwanda Gogwana - All Ok
4. The Wretched - What is History

LP2

1. Sibusile Xaba with Naftali, Fakazile Nkosi, & AshK - Umdali
2. The Ancestors - Prelude to Writing Together
3. Thandi Ntuli - Dikeledi
4. iPhupho L'ka Biko ft Siyabonga Mthembu & Kinsmen - Abaphezulu