Jazz /
Live At Pep's
** High Quality reissue. Gatefold Edition ** One of Yusef Lateef’s best albums from one of the finest periods of his esteemed career, the 1964 LP Live at Pep’s showcases the reedman backed by trumpeter Richard Williams, pianist Mike Nock, bassist Ernie Farrow, and drummer James Black. Taped at a live performance at Pep’s Lounge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the album was so successful that a full second LP was culled from the same sets. The program alternates between hard bop originals and cove…
MESTIZX
MESTIZX is Bolivian-born singer and multi-medium performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and renowned Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's debut album as co-composers, arrangers and musicians.
A Passion For John Donne
*2024 stock* Ketil Bjørnstad’s passion for the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. His settings of Donne’s verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace and the ECM album The Light. “After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years, I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences – a passionate quest for meaning and …
Spacy
Spacy, originally released in 1977, boasts an impressive lineup of Japanese legends including Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Minako Yoshida, Kenji Ohmura, and Hiroshi Sato. The album features all the usual Yamashita elements, such as euphoric vocals, innovative string arrangements, glistening keyboards, and funky guitar riffs, but the rhythms on this one are a little more forceful.
Simba
Proudly presenting a new series of Mr Bongo reissues exploring the incredible back catalogue of Sonny Lester’s iconic Groove Merchant record label. First up, the spellbinding funk-fuelled, soul jazz album ‘Simba’, by guitar maestro O'Donel Levy.
Transcendence
2024 restock. "Transcendence is Alice Coltrane's most successful vocal album. Side two is especially mind-twisting for its use of surprisingly funky Hindu chants accompanied by Alice's organ and the Indian percussion of the singers. Purists might balk at calling Hare Krishna filtered through a gospel sensibility 'jazz,' but they're too busy arguing about Ken Burns' documentary to worry about Alice Coltrane reissues anyway. This is probably the most 'swinging' Alice Coltrane material since Ptah T…
Oiro Pena
** Silk-screen printed (blue color) recycled sleeve. 200 copies ** Much-needed repress of this spiritual flute jazz artifact by the mastermind Antti Vauhkonen. Originally released as a limited edition lathe-cut 10'' in a handful of copies. Cover art silkscreened on recycled cardboard-sleeves. Artwork by Arsi Keva. Mastered by Samuli Tanner. The first person to create something one may classify as instrumental music was probably alone. The mind tingles when imagining the prehistoric moment when, …
Interstellar Fantasy
A concept album of Analogue Electronic Sci Fi Library Grooves for Synthesisers and Percussion. Commissioned by Sonoton and inspired by the 70's & 80's Sonoton music Library Catalogue. Featuring Ayo Salawu on Drums (Kokoroko) and Greg Foat with his impressive collection of vintage Synthesisers. File under Library Music
Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1
Trost Records returns with a blasting gut-punch of an LP, with “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1”, a full throttle body of improvisations from the all-star quartet of Akira Sakata, Jim O'Rourke, Mette Rasmussen, and Chris Corsano - never before captured on tape - live at legendary Tokyo venue, SuperDeluxe. Riding the wire between free jazz and noise, it's nothing short of powerful, real-time advocation of socio-political importance of free improvisation that leaves you on the edge of your seat fro…
Spiritual Jazz 16: Riverside etc.
Since 2008 our Spiritual Jazz series has presented unlimited horizons. Each album celebrates the rich tradition of African-American songs based on the belief in a higher force than oneself and has also focused on geographical areas, such as Europe or Japan, thus recognizing that these territories have immense cultural riches. Religions, like Islam, whose musical traditions have vivid Arabic and North African resonances, have also been highlighted. The stylistic range of all the above is wide. Ye…
Choma (Burn)
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Harold Land's 1971 Mainstream Records LP 'Choma (Burn),' recorded in Los Angeles with Bobby Hutcherson and featuring Reggie Johnson on bass, Ndugu and Woody Theus on drums, Bill Henderson & Harold Land Jr. on piano/Fender Rhodes. Together the musicians create a superb spiritual mix of funky and modal Jazz that was the trademark of the Harold Land-Bobby Hutcherson quintet between 1968 and 72. Choma (Burn) is reissued here in its original gatefold artwork with …
Malik
Strut proudly presents the first official remastered reissue of Lafayette Afro Rock Band's elusive funk/Afro original album, 'Malik,' originally released in 1974.
Soul Makossa
Strut proudly presents the first official remastered reissue of the funk/Afro classic, Lafayette Afro Rock Band's 'Soul Makossa' from 1973.
New World
Nat Birchall returns with a new studio album with an expanded Unity Ensemble. Six original compositions played by a seven-piece group featuring the legendary UK tenor saxophonist, Alan Skidmore and guest percussionist Mark Wastell. Both musicians joined the group onstage at a John Coltrane tribute concert at London’s Café Oto last year, the resulting performance showing just how compatible all the musicians were, so Nat thought it would be propitious to record the group in the studio with their …
Causa y Efecto, Vol. 2
*200 copies edition* The New Album by Francisco Mela and Zoh Amba 'Causa y Efecto, Vol. 2' is a celebration of differences and unity. Creativity in general and experimental music in particular can serve as a conduit to the inner soul of its creators, a kind of spiritual path that goes two ways and allows a deeper understanding also of ourselves. It's a light projecting the humanity of the players that simultaneously reflects the creator and the humanity in all of us. The vulnerability of the art…
Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital
For the third release in our Mr Bongo Cuban Classics series, we reissue the iconic 1974 debut album by the mighty Grupo Irakere. Led by Chucho Valdés, son of Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés, the band would go on to become of the most influential and successful groups emanating from Cuba in this period. Their debut ‘Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital’ is an in-demand and incredible Afro-Cuban, jazz-funk masterpiece originally landing on Cuba’s state-owned imprint, Areito. One of the jewels of …
Grupo Irakere
For the second instalment in our Cuban Classics series, we proudly present this sought-after slice of sublime Afro-Cuban jazz from 1976. It comes courtesy of one of Cuba’s most influential acts, Grupo Irakere. Founded in 1973 by Chucho Valdés (son of the Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés) the group was home to many of Cuba’s finest musicians over the years. With an electrifying style and sound, they mixed traditional Cuban music with jazz, funk, and rock. This self-titled album includes t…
Mário Castro Neves & Samba S.A.
*2024 stock* The Brazilian composer, pianist and producer, Mário Castro Neves and his group, Samba S. A.'s self-titled album from 1967 is oozing with class. It possesses that archetypal 60's bossa nova, jazz, samba sound. We’d place it up there with Sergio Mendes at his finest, Tambo Trio or Milton Banana. It’s a breezy ride that touches on easy listening at times, but it holds it together with a cool swagger. Biba and Thaís Do Amaral's vocals are on point, with a relaxed delivery that complimen…
Nio & Pigeon
"New Hard, led by Toshiyuki Miyama, is one of Japan's leading big bands. Since the release of their seminal work Perspective in 1969, they've opened up new horizons in big band jazz with their cutting-edge sound. This work, Niou to Hato, is one such representative work of the new hard movement, which reached its zenith in 1972. Bandleader Kozaburo Yamaki was then in charge of the entire composition and arrangement, and deeply pursued one of his long-standing themes: Japan, the nation in and of i…
In The Groove
*2024 repress* Since it's formation in 1969, Soul Media had been advocating a fusion of jazz and rock. The next step along that line was this album, In the Groove, recorded in 1973. The sharpness of jazz is brought to the forefront, with rock melting in to give it an edge, and funk injected to imbue it with power and resilience. The result was a strong, sophisticated, and simply "cool music" that could not be categorized within existing genres such as jazz rock, jazz funk, or fusion. This work i…