Pushing on from his soul-jazz accomplishments — classic burners like Steppin’ Out for Blue Note, with Grant Green — this a terrific set of personal, spiritual funky jazz, self-produced in 1974 (when Vick was working for Aretha). The six original compositions are fully flavoured by an expanded horn section — including Charles Earland’s trumpeter Virgil Jones, and French horn player Kiane Zawadi, fresh from Shepp’s Attica Blues — and the Fender Rhodes of Joe Bonner, in from Pharoah Sanders’ group, and Oneness Of Juju. Vick himself is on fire.

Thrilling, angular hard bop, impatiently itching itself open to the new thing.
Dolphy plays b-flat clarinet and alto; Ron Carter plays cello. Booker Ervin is rawly eloquent as per. The seven compositions are all by Waldron, who centres proceedings with inimitable brilliance.
Feelingly recorded by Van Gelder in the summer of 1961, in the same few weeks as Ron Carter’s Where.
In this iteration — all-analogue remastering from the master-tapes, tip-on sleeve, first-class pressing — it’s a must.

From 1977.
‘Music of extreme sophistication yet perfect lucidity… A Zen-like tranquillity pervades this album of duets’ (Richard Williams in Melody Maker).
‘Quite an achievement, balancing fantasy and friction with grace as a fulcrum… calm, lucid, colourful, and captivating’ (Art Lange in Coda).

With different lineups in 1966, including pianists Ran Blake, Burton Greene and Dave Burrell; and Giuseppi Logan.

The first recording in twenty years by this path-breaking vocalist — introduced to ESP by Albert Ayler — is a 2018 concert with Burton Greene (from her 1966 debut) and bassist Mario Pavone and percussionist Barry Altschul, from the group of musicians around Paul Bley.
‘Dedicated to Cecil Taylor, who had passed away moments before she took the stage, Live preserves the mournful tension that was in the air that night. Side A comprises a set of desolate ballads, including Waters’ own classic Moon, Don’t Come Up Tonight. Fifty years after her unforgettable recording of Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair — one of the 20th century’s most harrowing, deeply political expressions of madness and grief — the B-side is a stark reminder that the fight for civil rights is far from over. Beginning with Strange Fruit, the suite’s form-bending contortions also feature Waters’ take on Ornette’s Lonely Woman.’

‘First vinyl release of the breathtaking songs Patty Waters recorded in 1970 at the Coast Recordings studio, together with the unreleased single My One And Only Love, and a live session recorded at Lone Mountain College in 1974.
‘Here is the missing link between the two groundbreaking ESP LPs from the end of the 60s and the late-90s releases. Whereas PW’s debut album Sings concerned itself with themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and yearning, You Loved Me is abundant with love, joy, and togetherness. Whilst Patti’s songs cross spiritual jazz and US folk revivalism, Touched By Rodin is a brilliant extended showcase for the uneasy Cageian minimalism of her piano playing.’
Patty Waters… admired by Albert Ayler, Miles, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono…

The duo of Bill Orcutt — on four-string guitar — and drummer Tim Koffley.
‘Taking leads from James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith’s Massacre, here is the link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt’s Trash Monkeys and the mayhem of Harry Pussy…
‘Consider the closer Wattstock, where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. And also God Are You There, It’s Me, Watt, where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt’s early solo records…
‘An early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt’s music. A foundation.’

With Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, and Dave Holland.

A ‘Luminessence’ audiophile pressing, handsomely sleeved.

‘Classic Vinyl’ series.

Parker playing doson ngoni, dudek, and flutes of bamboo, cedar & walnut; Cooper-Moore on his hand-crafted ashimba and harp; Hamid Drake on frame drum and drum kit.

‘Balancing music, antithetical to destruction. Music to draw sustenance from. Some measure of fortitude, at least, for compassionate souls in the elevating struggle against increasingly inextricable imposed realities that parse a human being’s value solely on what they are able to consume.
‘This is music for sunrise and sunset. Daily music. Healing, centering, mantra, heart music.’

As Parker puts it in his sleevenote: ‘The theory behind this music is the music itself. Empty and fill the heart and soul with sound, letting it dance. Without pretense. We are trying to get to a flow - earth, sky, and flowing water sounds that jump out of the painting… The story, the plot is, life is beautiful. Must be to be life. War is death fueled by hate. How do we stop war? Never start one.’

With Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers, Herbie Hancock and Gary Peacock.
Classic Vinyl series.

Her funky, spiritual jazz masterpiece; our favourite of her albums.
This LP is a facsimile edition of the original release on Mary Records.