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Beginning in 1967 with El Malo, Lavoe was the vocalist on ten legendary studio albums by the Willie Colón Orchestra, before going solo in the mid-70s. Produced by Colón, this hallowed third album under his own name is a stone classic.
It kicks off with his career-defining hit El Cantante, written by Rubén Blades, taking the point of view of a star performer reflecting on his humanity and vulnerabilities when he steps off the stage. It closes with another smash: a joyful, mambo-inspired reimagining of the 1930s Cuban anthem Songoro Cosongo.
Rolling Stone magazine recently ranked Comedia number three of the 50 Greatest Salsa Albums of All Time, declaring that it transformed the genre into ‘high art… a spiritual experience.’
Balouch imbibed the Islamic mysticism and devotional songs of Sindh in southeastern Pakistan, before travelling to Gibraltar in the early 1930s. There he became fascinated by the cante jondo across the border in southern Spain.
Running backwards, his book — originally published in 1955 — traces the roots of flamenco’s ‘deep song’ deep within the ancient musical culture of his homeland. It messes with geographical, musical, and spiritual boundaries, taking personal feeling and intuition, and free musical imagination, as its guide.
65 pages; with a litho printed cover and French flaps, more like a snazzy booklet than a book.
Absorbing and liberating.
The vibes and marimba player with Horace Tapscott’s Arkestra, together with Adele Sebastian, Diane Reeves, and Billy Higgins, amongst others.
A late-seventies, private-press, spiritual-jazz gem, in Jazzman’s Holy Grail series.
Yarghul player Atef Swaitat and singer Abu Ali are popular Bedouin wedding musicians extending long family traditions in Jenin and the north of historic Palestine. This stomping, swirling, surging, precious music was recorded at ceremonies across the Galilee throughout the 1970s.
It’s exhilarating, giddying, and immersive.
This is why Robert Hood is such a don.
‘A pinnacle of Detroit techno. Best-known for the lip-biting minimalism of One Circle, with its chant ‘Detroit’ and body-rocking riff-mongery, or maybe for the killer variation Explain The Style… but for us the EP’s shortest and freakiest number Modern And Ancient steals the show; a mad, half-stepping slice of Afro-futurist electro that still blows our mind today.’
‘From 1970, the first Lightmen LP pre-dates the deep-set, maverick jazz issued by the likes of Tribe and Strata East. Mostly groove-based and cohesive, though pushing further out than you might expect from later Lightmens.’ A young Ronnie Laws is here, on the verge of hooking up with Hugh Masekela, and then Earth Wind & Fire; stylistically light years away from Pressure Sensitive, his breakout for Blue Note, in 1975. Also Bubbha Thomas on drums, Doug Harris on tenor sax, Carl Adams on trumpet, Kenny Abair on guitar, and Joe Singleton on trombone.
‘A visionary blend of spiritual jazz, psychedelic funk, Moroccan traditions, and electronic experimentation.’
‘More direct than recent releases, with textures that accumulate and disintegrate with renewed urgency. A familiar trajectory, though: the irresistible pull towards dissolution, the gradual erasure of memory, the self rendered irretrievable…’
With Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Victor Sproles, John Hicks, and John Gilmore.
‘It’s a shame that this was the only recording by this particular lineup of the Jazz Messengers, as Gilmore’s strong blowing complements Morgan very well (AllMusic).
Beautifully relaxed, intimate recordings of fingerstyle guitar masterpieces by stars like Jean-Bosco Mwenda, Losta Abelo, and Emmanuel Mulemena, and brilliant but previously under-recorded artists like Tanzania’s Francis Kitime and Kenya’s Mtonga Wanganangu. From 1979-80, the sessions were set up in homes, village squares, and watering holes; you can hear laughter, children playing, and glasses clinking.
Lovely stuff.
Ignatz is the alter-ego of Belgian musician Bram Devens, who has released a string of albums for labels like (K-RAA-K)³, Ultra Eczema, Fonal, Mort aux Vaches, and Okraïna, over the last twenty years.
Devens recorded this wonderful, haunted music at home in Landen, on the family piano.
There is pervasive, ambient Dub, mesmerically shifting; sometimes aghast. Somewhere in the swirling mist are the guitarist Hans Reichel, and blues pianists like Jimmy Yancey, amongst other ghosts. Time Well Spent even musters a kind of motorik energy, determinedly mis-firing.
It is quite unlike any other piano record.
Beautifully presented, too, to the customary high standards of this label.
Check it out!
Eight poetic songs attuned to the early 1970s chanson of Brigitte Fontaine, performed by Mauricio Amarante and Marine Debilly Cerisier.
Luxuriant, mesmerizing Black Ark classics.
Improvisatory solo piano from 1965 — a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian song, with roots in Spanish Islamic culture.
Spare, pellucid, and meditative; testing out variations with madcap ivories tickler Johnny Bach at his shoulder.
Hotly recommended.
