Slammed at the time as a sell-out, and what a joke that is. Brimming with raw physical emotion, but reaching out — in the revolutionary year of 1968 —  to soul, rock and gospel.

Also the blues. When he was still at Cleveland High School, Albert spent two summers touring with none other than Little Walter. “The manner of living was quite different for me — drinking real heavy and playing real hard. We’d travel all day, finally arrive, take out our horns and play.”

‘Imagine having been a Black female artist & innovator in the ‘60s. Imagine being a jazz musician with a focus on the concert harp. Oh, to be alive at that time… in music… in culture… in politics. This was Dorothy Ashby, and she was so much more than her musical output. She was a true visionary; her impact is still heard in many genres and eras of music, even today’ (Brandee Younger).
Her first six studio LPs — for Regent, Prestige, Jazzland, Argo, Atlantic — remastered from master-tapes, where these survive. 180g vinyl; beautifully sleeved and boxed.
The Jazz Harpist, Hip Harp, In A Minor Groove, Soft Winds: The Swinging Harp Of Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby, and The Fantastic Harp Of Dorothy Ashby.
With a 44-page book featuring a foreword by Brandee Younger, and impassioned and deeply researched liner notes, including interviews with those that knew her best, and lovely photos.
Just one!

Twenty-five interpretations of Hardin’s compositions — from early-1950 songs like All Is Loneliness and Be A Hobo, to canons written in 1968 — by the Dedalus ensemble.
‘The melodic invention, the prodigious rhythms, and the mixture of genres, as original as they are obvious, all come together to form a music that merits consideration strictly as music.’

‘Classic Vinyl Series.’

Terrific recordings commemorating three nightclub engagements in 1964-66.
Horace is sparklingly excursive and dead funky; Joe Henderson is grooving, raucous, and reaching. The great Carmell Jones is here, subbed twice by Woody Shaw. Altogether the playing has an immediacy and abandon you only get live.
The repertoire is killer diller; cherry-picked from a string of stone classic LPs — Song For My Father, Tokyo Blues, The Cape Verdean Blues, Six Pieces, and Senor Blues. The sound is superbly restored to the label’s customary high standards by Michael Brändli.

‘Long before his death in 2014, Silver’s reputation had become occluded, or tarnished with the notion that he was a relatively slight figure, more of an entertainer than an innovator… His habit of quoting other songs in his solos, often dismissed as a shallow, crowd-pleasing trick, is a forerunner of sampling culture and hip-hop. It’s also an acknowledgement of how profoundly knowledgeable Silver was about the canon and its evolution. Here’s a line of mine, he might say, and here’s where it came from, but also here and here. His only mistake in this regard was to smile while he was playing… a challenge to the really rather recent notion that jazz should be deadly serious and played with a pained rictus.’

Warmly recommended. Do yourselves a favour.

A quartet featuring Andrew Hill, stretching out on selections from Kirk’s recent LPs Domino and We Free Kings. The original WKCR-FM broadcast, properly restored and remastered.

With Herbie, Mobley and co — and an eight-person gospel choir — in 1963.
The stand-out is a version of Duke Pearson’s Cristo Redentor. A fail-safe at funerals.
‘Classic Vinyl Series.’