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The Kabbalistic Dixieland of Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, joined here by saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Garrett List and vibraphonist Karl Berger, recording for the legendary Italian label Horo in 1977. The MEV in all of its discordant, subversive, improvisatory glory.
The Austrian guitarist with Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade, lyrical and grooving by turns.
A suite inspired by Eduardo Galeano’s Memory Of Fire — a history of the Americas told through indigenous myths and the accounts of European colonizers.
The wonderful pianist with Ron Miles on cornet, Liberty Ellman on guitar, Stomu Takeishi on bass, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, ranging through Pan-Americana, hardcore jazz, the blues, and African and Eastern elements.
Staunch Myra admirers, us lot, ever since her first Hat Huts.
A trio recording live in 1993, with Lindsay Horner on bass and Reggie Nicholson on drums, throwing down thrillingly engaging iterations of classic blues, jump and stride in the manner of contemporaries like Cecil Taylor and Horace Silver.
One of the great piano jazz albums. Hotly recommended.
The pianist’s Fire and Water Quintet, with Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Ingrid Laubrock, and Susie Ibarra.
In the new Luminessence series of ECM’s vinyl-reissues: audiophile pressings in elegant, high-quality editions, with tip-on gatefold sleeves including new liner notes.
Knockout, anthemic rare groove, from the 1979 album Life, Love And Harmony. Ultra-jazzy, classy, and exultant, this is Nancy Wilson at her very best. She even throws in a quickfire Louis Armstrong impression. That’s John Klemmer playing saxophone.
Backed with The End of Our Love, a northern soul floor-filler from 1968, hard to come by.
Ace.
A core member of the circle around Horace Tapscott, pianist Nate Morgan was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, known as The Ark.
Here is the second of his two LPs for Nimbus West. His first, Journey Into Nigritia had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, in 1984, with nods to Herbie Hancock (One Finger Snap) and Ellington (Come Sunday), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist Black nationalism, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the soundworld of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualised modal jazz.
Danny Cortez on trumpet and Jesse Sharps on saxophones comprise an explosive frontline. Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos bind the music together.
From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. organisation, through the propulsive militancy of the title track, Retribution, Reparation spreads the word: ‘Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!’
A moving, lovely, heartfelt tribute, seamlessly combining jazz-funk, soul, gospel, Black Jazz, bebop, Latin, spoken word and co, with palpably higher concerns than genre and market. Released in 1976 on his own imprint by the jazz veteran — sixties cohort of Eric Dolphy, Ray Charles, Donald Byrd and the rest — alongside the all-time classic If.
Wonderful, never-before-released collaborations with the brilliant pianist Georges Arvanitas and his trio, in 1966-67, kicking off with The Hip Walk.
From the 1965 LP Happy Girl, with the knockout lineup of Woody Shaw, Larry Young, Jimmy Woode and Billy Brooks. A fierce modal original by Shaw, Theme From Zoltan was revisited by Young the following year on his classic Blue Note album Unity. Davis’ own composition Mister E features blistering solos by himself, Shaw and Young.