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Various Artists: Innerpeace: Rare Spiritual Funk And Jazz Gems
by Chris May
It took a few years for producer Bob Shad's newly formed Mainstream Records to nail its direction in the 1960s. A less than auspicious start was releasing the first singles by the latter-day Trump-boosting halfwit Ted Nugent. A better move, given hindsight, was releasing the debut album by Janis Joplin's Big Brother & The Holding Company. But by the end of the decade, Mainstream had hit its stride as a platform for jazz--in particular freedom jazz / spiritual jazz, with ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights
by Jakob Baekgaard
Close your eyes and dream for a moment. There are beaches and palm trees. Long drinks are served with parasols and consumed while relaxing in hammocks to the distant sound of bird calls and bongo drums. There is no stress and the only adventure is the kind you seek for yourself when you go out into the jungle like a version of Indiana Jones. Of course, this is all fiction. But the point is that music can ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1969 - 1984
by Chris May
There is a lovely anecdote in Charlie Laurie's introduction to The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography Of Francis Wolff (Rizzoli, 1995). Describing the first Blue Note Festival at the foot of Japan's Mount Fuji in 1986, Laurie wrote: “Where else but in Japan can one see a field packed with fifteen thousand teens and twentysomethings roar with excited recognition at the first four bars of Sonny Clark's 'Cool Struttin'?" Young Japanese musicians were as entranced by US jazz during ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Stax Singles, Vol. 4: Rarities & Best of the Rest
by Jim Trageser
Stax Records defined the “Memphis Sound" of soul music in the 1960s. With a roster that took in Otis Redding, Booker T & The MGs, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and Isaac Hayes, Stax and its sister label Volt provided the main competition to Motown as a home to classic soul acts. Three separate box sets issued in the early 1990s collectively compiled every single ever released by Stax and its subsidiaries (and the 1960s were a time ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: We Out Here
by Chris May
This vivid snapshot of young London's jazz scene, featuring nine bands and a collective pool of 35 musicians, contains close to an hour of daring and uplifting music--from rebooted spiritual-jazz through abstract experimentation to Afrobeat-flavoured dancefloor urgency, a rich mix further enlivened by shots of grime, hip hop and funk. It was recorded over three days last August under the light-touch supervision of its musical director, the saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, who leads his own line-up on one track ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: ANDINA: The Sound of the Peruvian Andes
by Chris M. Slawecki
ANDINA captures The Sound of the Peruvian Andes from vinyl singles originally released by Sono Radio, Iempsa, El Virrey and other Peruvian labels from 1968 to 1978, a most tumultuous social/musical decade. The first installment in a new Tiger's Milk Records compilation series, assembled by Tiger's Milk co-founders Duncan Ballantyne and Martin Morales with Peruvian musical expert DJ Andres Tapia del Rio, ANDINA continues the label's regional exploration of the unique musical roots and fruits of Peru (which already includes ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Christmas
by Dan Bilawsky
'Tis the season. Just ask Jazz At The Ballroom. That Bay Area-based non-profit arts organization is making spirits bright with this collection of music showcasing top-flight artists who've appeared in its concerts. Everybody from the illustrious Freddy Cole to the supremely suave Nicki Parrott to the bright-eyed Champian Fulton gets in on the action. Good vibes abound and surround across these sixteen succinct tracks. Most of this material is comforting as can be, going down as easy ...
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