‘A lost 1975 session by the great pianist Mal Waldron, recorded in Paris with core members of the mighty Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
‘By 1975, Waldron was a decade into his self-imposed exile from the United States, having reassembled his sound after a devastating breakdown in the early ‘60s. His post-1969 output stripped jazz down to its core elements: modal intensity, locked grooves, and hypnotic repetition. Candy Girl doesn’t interrupt this trajectory—it extends it, wrapping Waldron’s minimalist mantras around the funked-up chassis of the Lafayette rhythm section.
‘Originally released in microscopic quantities on the Calumet label and long shrouded in obscurity, Candy Girl was recorded spontaneously in the studio of producer Pierre Jaubert, whose Paris HQ had become the workshop for both avant-garde jazz (Archie Shepp, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Lacy) and psychedelic funk (Lafayette Afro Rock Band AKA Ice). This session finds Waldron jamming freely with bassist Lafayette Hudson, drummer Donny Donable, and keyboardist Frank Abel on clavinet, Moog and more—laying down raw, unfiltered instrumental funk with an experimental edge.
‘Highlights include the low-slung vamp of Home Again, the crisp, break-laden groove of Red Match Box, and the mesmeric swirl of the title track Candy Girl — a minor-key electric piano waltz with hints of cosmic soul. The sombre yet meditative Dedication To Brahms deconstructs the composer’s third symphony into a sparse jazz reverie.’

A harum-scarum bloodbath of sixties rock, seventies motorik-fusion, and eighties punk.

‘The landscape Orcutt Shelley Miller inhabits lies deep in the stoner American bedrock, fed by volcanic riffage and hypnotic phrasing with rhythmic nods to the SoCal ’60s and atonal slash piled on a mid ’80s SST punk-fusionoid substrate, ultimately blasting a ‘big rock statement’ that treads the line between good times and blown minds.’

DC’s first album as leader, after leaving the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Two side-long suites, recorded in single takes on Christmas Eve, 1965. Bristling with creativity, rammed with great tunes and brilliant solo spots. Cherry plays cornet, alongside Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes and Ed Blackwell. In the same year as his own debut as leader — The Call for ESP — Grimes is terrific.

‘A deeply expressive, stylistically expansive performance. The set opens with a meditative improvisation on pipe organ, followed by the sweeping three- part suite Love is Here, the driving pulse of Pharoah’s ‘Blues, and a transcendent reading of I Want to Talk About You. Coltrane’s influence is honoured through high-octane renditions of Moment’s Notice and Lazy Bird, before reaching an ecstatic, participatory climax with Love Is Everywhere, shared joyfully with the audience.’
Twenty-page booklet.

The first official 12’ release of these two walloping classics by one of the very greatest soul singers of all time. Undimmed after forty years.

This is a blast. From 1996, but summoning the fervour of his early seventies classics, Pharaoh sparks off kora, and high-life, and various African rhythms. The dazzling lineup includes Foday Musa Suso, Michael White, keyboardist Bill Henderson, Bernie Worrell, Charnett Moffett, and Hamid Drake.

Recorded live in Paris in 1994 and New York City in 1995. The band includes Idris Muhammad, Manolo Badrena, and George Coleman. Beautifully constructed, grooving, percussive versions of a tasty mixture of standards and originals.

His first LP, from 1980. Al Campbell productions recorded with Sly & Robbie at Channel One; mixed by the hubristic teenager at King Tubby’s. Great stuff… but a non-scientific title.