Timelessly killer, essential music, and a humongous commercial success, this is the key record bar none in the binding of jazz into funk.

‘A playful, joyous album in which Hancock clearly had a great time, this music was composed for the pilot of a children’s TV show, redirecting the post-bop of his five-year stint with Miles towards new r&b and funk styles. Flying high with three horn players — Joe Henderson, Garrett Brown and Johnny Coles — alongside Hancock’s soaring Fender Rhodes, the group could swing freely on a track like the rousing Fat Mama and emote precisely on the subtle Tell Me A Bedtime Story.’

This is the sublime, eleven-minute version, featuring vocalist Gavin Christopher.
Big Theo Parrish record.
Backed with the promo-only disco mix of Saturday Night, lavished with percussion by Sheila E.
Murders.

Classical, no-frills, piano-trio jazz, recorded in 1977 in San Francisco, though released only in Japan at the time. VSOP without horns; more hard-bitten and introspective.
With Ron Carter and Tony Williams in Milestones and four Herbies, including a gnarled Speak Like A Child.

Takin’ Off, My Point Of View, Inventions & Dimensions, Speak Like A Child, The Prisoner.

1963-66, live in Europe, with different lineups drawn from Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, Billy Higgins, Milt Jackson, Kenny Drew, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Jimmy Meritt, and Max Roach.

Rollins’ LPs for Impulse! are neglected. Here is the first of three he recorded in 1965-66, taking fierce flight from five standards. It’s all wonderful, but check the scorching calypso, Hold ‘Em Joe — with Rollins’ characteristic carnivalesque, askance danceability, his ‘impudent swing’, writ large — and the deconstruction of Three Little Words to close, as if to say, Okay, enough of that, now watch this space.
Great sound, too, this Acoustic Sounds issue.

‘Classic Vinyl’ series.

1964 masterwork with Freddie Hubbard, Herbie, Elvin Jones and Ron Carter, tersely melding avant, modal and bop. “Wild flowers and strange, dimly-seen shapes… I was thinking of things like witch burnings, too.”

‘Classic Vinyl.’

‘Classic Vinyl Series.’

Night Dreamer, The Soothsayer, Etcetera, Adam’s Apple, Schizophrenia.

The classic Adam’s Apple album from 1965, with Herbie, Reggie Workman, and Joe Chambers, featuring the first time out for Footprints, and the samba dancer El Gaucho. And the questing Super Nova album from 1969, entangled with Miles’ Water Babies, featuring a wigged-out Dindi: three guitarists (John McLaughlin, Sonny Sharrock, Walter Booker) and three percussionists/drummers (Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Airto Moreira), plus Miroslav Vitous.
‘Michael Brändli’s sound restoration and mastering skills take Ezz-thetics’ carefully curated reissues further into exalted territory. Once again, Brändli has woven his magic and for the listener the result is almost like hearing the material for the first time’ (Chris May, AllAboutJazz).