His first quartet session as leader — with Herbie, Joe Chambers and Bob Cranshaw. Seven BH originals and Maiden Voyage. A kind of breather, in amongst his experiments at this time; relaxed, gorgeous and atmospheric, with brilliant playing.
Warmly recommended.
‘Classic Vinyl series.’

From 1969, this first collaboration with Harold Land — questing but chilled post-bop — is probably the best.
Steeped in the compositions of Joe Chambers, the closer Pompeian is a tour de force; opening as a waltz, detouring into moody marimba.

From 1969, with Harold Land, Stanley Cowell, Reggie Johnson, and Joe Chambers, coolly charting a path all their own, out of the tumultuous decade.

“We started with a cosmic idea that we were taught from a very young age – that the stars and planets make a sound, that deep in outer space there is audible harmony.”
Book Of Sound is the brilliant, richly resonant exploration of these interstellar low ways. By turns urgent and contemplative, funky and reflective; varied in its textures, but entirely of one piece. Underpinned by cosmology, held in place by meditation, swirling with notions of history, science, theology, ancestry — this is a heady conceptual brew. But the music speaks loudest: ‘the sound of surprise’, magnificently retrieving Spiritual Jazz from the knacker’s yard.
It’s a deeply Chicagoan record. “It’s got the vibe of the lake,’ continues trombonist Cid, “the vibe of the prairies opening up to the west.” Also the Sun Ra albums recorded there in the 1950s, and — of course, being the dad of all seven ensemblists — Phil Cohran’s wonderful albums from the 1960s.
“You know, it’s tough trying to satisfy everybody with our music. It’s hard enough satisfying ourselves, let alone the jazz scene, the hip hop guys, what have you. With this album we just dropped all that as a consideration, and tuned into deeper principles.”

Celebrating the twentieth year of ensemblehood, BBOJ delivers the band’s signature, funked-up melange of soul, afrobeat and hard riffing jazz. Or, as they call it, ‘now music’. Featuring the humdinger title track of last year’s EP, In The House, this is, as always, uplifting as hell.

Tear-up bad-boy brass-band scorchers. Just like dad crossed Sun Ra with Kool And The Gang, this crashes funkdafied New Orleans street jazz into hip hop. With Flea, Damon, Tony Allen, Malcolm from The Heliocentrics.

The landmark 1968 debut recording of pianist Ibrahim Khalil Shihab, aged twenty-two; also featuring terrific young saxophonist Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi, Coltrane acolyte, on the verge of huge acclaim for his LP Yakhal’ Inkomo.

Scandalously, Paypal blocks anyone trying to buy this from us, because of the artist’s Arabic name.

Originally released in 1975, from Milan, a one-away blend of Marco Rossi’s bluesy, free, spiritual jazz-guitar (evoking Pharaoh Sanders and Alice Coltrane); middle-eastern winds; and the masterful African percussionists Nick Eyok and Mohammed El Targhi, ranging from northern Saharan to Yoruba styles. Experimental, but warmly grooving, rootsy and accessible.

John Tchicai, Peter Brötzmann, Gilius van Bergeyk, Misha Mengelberg, Peter and Han Bennink, Bert Koppelaar, Tristan Honsinger, Michel Waisvisz and Alan Silva. Originally released in 1977.
‘One of the landmark records of Mengelberg tunes, with classics like Rumboon and Alexander’s Marschbefehel, midpoint between Fluxus and Kurt Weill,Tetterettet presents a program full of musical surprises, intelligence, and ICP’s own brand of uproarious humor. A shaggy masterpiece, available here for the first time as a stand-alone CD, remastered from the original tapes, with Han Bennink’s original cover design.’

Soul, Politics, Spirituality & Racially Encoded Girl-Boy Gun Porno In Jazz, 1967-2019.

Spiritual jazz fusion from San Francisco, impossible to find soon after it was privately pressed in a tiny run back in 1983, and highly collectible nowadays. ‘If you like John Heartsman, Aposento Alto or Minority Band, don’t miss a true killer record.’

Meditative, devotional music pondering racism and ancestorship, co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello. Featuring the saxophonist’s usual quartet, plus vocalists for the first time — including Ganavya — who shine.

The trio of Roland P. Young, Aisha Khalil and Glenn Howell, recorded in 1975 at 1750 Arch, in Berkeley, California.

“There was a vibe in the air that we connected with,” recalls Young, “along with other kindred spirits world-wide. What appeared to be ‘experimental’ was reaching for sounds and emotions that were unfamiliar. We often performed at rallies in support of various causes: Black Liberation, Women’s Movement, Anti-War Movement, Gay Liberation. While the music came out of the Black Liberation struggle our ultimate goal was a blending of cultures.”

‘A fascinating glimpse of the trio in action. It testifies to the energy that Infinite Sound channelled into their music, but also to their imaginative breadth and expressive versatility… with Howell’s buoyantly springy and resilient bass taking on a strong pivotal role around which Young’s horns and Kahlil’s voice dance and spar and soar and play. Well-defined rhythms dissolve into textures; melodic shapes soften into shadings of timbre or flare into exuberant bursts of tonal colour. The music’s mood swings unpredictably from flamboyance to introspection; pacing shifts spontaneously from languor to urgency. Moments of musical allusiveness, sly quotation or stylistic reference, mutate into passages of wild inventiveness.’