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Piano / cello duets.
Kicking off with a definitive, thunderous, thrilling version of the title track; with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter.
‘Classic Vinyl’ series.
Top-notch Messengers, from the same enraged 1961 recording sessions as Freedom Rider.
Six compositions by Wayne Shorter, kicking off with the fierce jazz-dancer Ping Pong.
Bobby Timmons alternates with Walter Davis Jr.
‘Classic vinyl.’
A never-before-released studio album!
Recorded on March 8 1959 in Rudy Van Gelder’s living-room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, one month before the Birdland shows which produced the killer twin LPs Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers At The Jazz Corner Of The World, this features the same lineup: Blakey, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. Two tunes only show up here, including Timmons’ Quick Trick; besides three Mobley compositions.
The LP is an all-analogue 180g vinyl pressing.
Cor.
Trying out a more seventies, soulful groove, with the likes of Woody Shaw, Carter Jefferson, Cedar Walton — and Jon Hendricks, who sings on the revival of Moanin’, and Along Came Betty.
Buhaina was Blakey’s name after his conversion to Islam. Of course A Chant For Bu was sampled by A Tribe Called Quest for their almighty Excursions. Altogether now: ‘Back in the days when I was a teenager / Before I had status and before I had a pager…’
At Hibiya Public Hall on January 14, 1961, with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons, and Jymie Merritt, during the Mesengers’ first-ever tour of Japan.
Jet-propelled, soaring performances of jazz staples including Bird’s Now’s the Time and Monk’s Round About Midnight, and Messenger bangers like Blues March, Dat Dere, and Moanin’.
Elaborate booklets feature rare photos by Japanese photographers Shunji Okura and Hozumi Nakadaira; an essay by Bob Blumenthal; plus new interviews with Wayne Shorter in conversation with Blue Note president Don Was, celebrated saxophonist Lou Donaldson, Japanese jazz star Sadao Watanabe, renowned Japanese music critic Reiko Yukawa, Blakey’s son Takashi Blakey, and a trio of drum greats in Louis Hayes, Billy Hart, and Cindy Blackman Santana. Audio was newly transferred from the original ¼” tape reels, and the vinyl edition was mastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI.
Lee Morgan, Duke Jordan, Bobby Timmons… plus three expert Latin percussionists… and outstanding contributions by Barney Wilen, on both tenor and soprano saxophones.
‘An uninhibited sonic marvel that combines electronics, piano and drums in real time. By spontaneously recording loops grabbed on the fly and re-infusing the sonic planes with various effects, the results borne on Refract are sounds and energies rarely heard before.’
‘A thrilling mix of improvised electronica and contemporary modern jazz’ (Financial Times).
‘This is a set that constantly surprises in its sheer inventiveness and excels in its delivery (Jazz Journal).
‘Recorded in mid-1987 by a trio of Blue Notes — Dudu Pukwana, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Chris McGregor — as a memorial to their former bandmate Johnny Dyani, on the group’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
‘The final Blue Notes studio recording, For Johnny shuffles in a considerably broader range of touchstones than For Mongezi, nodding toward the band’s foundations in be-bop and post-bop without forgetting their journey onwards, including modal jazz, and free improvisation.
‘It is a startling creative statement, imbued with a tension that poses an equally radical and sophisticated challenge, like a furious tide masquerading in gentler forms, slowly revealing itself.
‘A celebration and a memorial. Joyous and tragic. A real time resurrection of personal experience, Blue Notes For Johnny dodges, dances, and mutates across its two sides, refusing to be nailed down. As the three musicians push against each other, bristling tonal and rhythmic collisions suggest something is bound to explode, without ever fully letting go.’