1976 recordings by the Texas Twister, never before released.
‘Producer Bob Porter brought the Texan guitarist to Prestige in 1970, where he recorded three albums as a leader and over a dozen as a session player, showing himself to be a wizard at playing funky licks and energised solos.
When Porter left Prestige to set up Eastbound Records in Detroit — as a branch of Westbound Records — Sparks followed on, and Texas Twister was his label debut, in 1973. The incredible rhythm section of Idris Muhammad, Sonny Phillips, Caesar Frazier and Wilbur Bascombe make this album a sure-fire funk bomb. On the front-line, a hard hitting horn section that includes Cecil Bridgewater and John Faddis is a perfect foil for Sparks.
‘With the monster acid jazz club cut Whip Whop and the frenetic Texas Twister, as well as a beautiful rendition of the Four Tops Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I Got).’
Deadly 1990 outings by the This Heat drummer — grooving, stripped, moody assassinators — with Versions by Maxmillion Dunbar and JD Twitch, evoking Photek, Premier, Giallo, Belgian acid…
Terrific piano-trio record, originally out on Dootsie William’s LA-based Dootone label in the mid-50s. With Leroy Vinnegar and Lawrence Marable. True blue jazz. Miles loved him. Very warmly recommended.
Reaching solo-piano explorations in blues, jazz and classical music by the Free Jazz pioneer, in 1970; inspired by the revolutionary spirit of the times, and — opening with a dedication to Don Cherry — the New Thing.
A second set of piano improvisations, one year after the first, now more extended, percussive, insistent, and tumultuous; explicitly enraged by the recent murder of George Jackson by a San Quentin guard, and the massacre at Attica Prison.
An invigorating sampling of the prodigious output of this joint in Matariya, Cairo. Mahragan, or electro-shaabi, stripped down Sardena-style: auto-tuned, maxed-out vocals, thumping beats, synths, wild effects.