Jazz /
Ketchaoua
Recorded August 18, 1969 in Paris with Archie Shepp on soprano, Grachan Moncur III on trombone, Dave Burrell on piano, Sunny Murray on drums plus Arthur Jones, Beb Guerin and Earl Freeman.
Restored & remastered from the original tapes Pressed on 180-gram black vinylInsert featuring insightful essay by author & music journalist Kevin Le GendreLP original gatefold sleeve & artwork faithfully reproduced
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe
Big Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. One of the last records made by avant sax legend Albert Ayler – a really mind-expanding album that's unlike anything else he ever did! By the time of the record, Ayler had made a full round trip between the New York and European jazz scenes – leaving important influences wherever he went, and trying desperately to pick up new ones the further he moved on. Here, he's working in a style that's a bit like that of Archie Shepp at the time – still ste…
Free Yourself
Strut presents an exclusive reissue of Experience Unlimited’s 1977 debut album, Free Yourself, featuring a brand new interview with bandleader and co-founder ‘Sugar Bear.` This seminal recording blends soul, jazz, and funk-rock, laying the foundation for Washington D.C.'s go-go scene. Experience unlimited had originally started out in 1973 when they met at Ballou Senior High School in South-East D.C. and came to the attention of Black Fire Records’ Jimmy Gray after winning a school talent compe…
Chapter Two: Nia
Strut presents a brand new reissue of Juju’s powerful Afrocentric album ‘Chapter Two: Nia’ from 1974, originally released on Strata East. This is probably the rarest of the Juju/Oneness of Juju albums – and it's also one of the best! Unlike their first album on Strata East, the group's a little bit more inside, and doesn't get lost in overindulgent avant garde solos. Instead, they groove hard with a deep warm sound, in strident tracks with a mix of percussion, vibes, piano, and the excellent ree…
Tenor, The Willisau Concert, Black Magic Man
This bundle includes Joe McPhee's "Tenor", "The Willisau Concert", "Black Magic Man" LPs, released by Superior Viaduct. Recorded in the same sessions as 1971's classic Nation Time, Black Magic Man is smoldering, late-Coltrane-inspired modal free jazz. While The Willisau Concert features longtime collaborator, synth player John Snyder and South African drummer Makaya Ntshoko, McPhee unleashes his first solo LP, simply named Tenor. Together the albums represent the sound of McPhee opening up, open…
Seize The Time - Black Panther Party
“Between 1974-77 Elaine Brown led the Black Panther Party, the 1st and only woman to do so. Seize The Time is a curiously elegiac and somber affair. Five of the tracks also features arrangements written by pianist/composer Horace Tapscott and performed by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra”
A milestone of the Black music movement, originally released on Vault in 1969. The debut album of Elaine Brown was arranged by piano player and composer Horace Tapscott, conducting the Californian Pan-Afrikan P…
Furniture Of the Mind Rearranging
Chicago's Black Diamond debuts on We Jazz Records with their new album Furniture Of the Mind Rearranging on 5th July. Co-led by Artie Black and Hunter Diamond (composers, saxophones, and other woodwinds), Black Diamond appears in both quartet and duo formations. The first three album sides present the quartet, complete with long standing band members Matt Ulery (double bass) and Neil Hemphill (drums), under the heading Furniture Of the Mind. The remaining two tracks on side D fall under the titl…
New Monuments
** Black Vinyl, inside out sleeve, 12"x12" insert with artwork, liner notes & lyrics, black polylined inner sleeve. ** Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones join We Jazz Records for their third LP New Monuments. Amirtha Kidambi has long affirmed that the role of sound in the act of protest is pivotal. In the summer of 2020, the Brooklyn-based vocalist and composer was immersed in mass demonstrations across New York City in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, organizing bands to counter the violent pr…
Earth Blossom
2024 edition - 180 Gram, Tip On Sleeve. One of the rarer records of the mythical Strata East. The 1974 recording of Earth Blossom, the John Betsch Society's one and only album, seems something of an enigma nowadays. For even though Nashville is clearly one of the towns in the US with the highest number of recording studios, who would have thought that the capital of country music would give birth to one of the forgotten masterpieces of 1970s spiritual jazz. The path leading to the album starts i…
Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music
From Elemental Music comes the long overdue vinyl reissue of one of greatest and most standalone albums in both the legendary Blue Note catalog and the history of American jazz: the longtime Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Eddie Gale’s 1968 debut “Ghetto Music”. A towering hybrid of free jazz, spiritual jazz, and gospel, infused with politics of Black Nationalism and self-determination of its era that culminate in a writhing, heavy sound like nothing else, it’s one of those records that pulls the rug …
Ofamfa
Huge Tip! Original released in 1971 by the Black Artist Group group's own label “Universal Justice Records” this album has for years been an impossible to find/listen to album, and this is its first reissue ever. Ofamfa by The Children Of The Sun, a band led by poet/musicien Ajule/aka Bruce Rutlin is a heady mix of poetry/jazz/political songs/ and a document of a comunity avent. The BAG group being about all the arts theater and dance. The original liner notes by Ajule are great Insight in to th…
Parallel Universe
Chicago-based innovator and educator Isaiah Collier is opening up new dimensions in the jazzwise continuum. A saxophonist by trade whose multi-instrumental talents and compositional prowess have stretched the limits of the form, Parallel Universe represents a new chapter in Collier’s musical journey. Having already performed with a diverse range of musicians such as Chance The Rapper, Waddada Leo Smith, Chicago jazz royalty Angel Bat Dawid and his own band The Chosen Few, Collier’s latest work a…
Tenor
There are lots of outstanding Joe McPhee LPs. Nation Time being chief among them, but there's also Pieces Of Light, Oleo and Topology. The Poughkeepsie, New York-based multi-instrumentalist, by now an international star of free music, has amassed a daunting discography, no doubt. If you want to peer deeply into the soul of Joe McPhee, however, there's no way around it, you need to spend some quality time with Tenor.
" Tenor is McPhee's first solo record. He did not set out to make it. It was an …
The Willisau Concert
Joe McPhee's first international release, Black Magic Man, was issued on the newly formed Hat Hut imprint in 1975. It was a watershed moment for the 35-year-old musician. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was too far away from Manhattan to have participated extensively in the Loft Jazz happenings of the decade. European exposure, however, would give McPhee an alternative circuit, something of an escape route from the trappings of American cultural myopia.
" In support of the new record for thi…
Black Magic Man
Black Magic Man is arguably the pivotal Joe McPhee release. It bridged the span between the regional and the international, bypassing the national altogether. "Recorded in the same sessions that produced Nation Time, Black Magic Man consists of music not chosen for that LP. Like its much-feted sister, technically it falls under the domain of CjR, Craig Johnson's herculean effort in support of McPhee. An erstwhile painter, Johnson became a self-taught audio engineer, acquiring equipment expressly…
Power To The People
Remastered in 24-bit from the original master tapes. Craft Recordings and Jazz Dispensary are set to issue a wide vinyl release of Joe Henderson’s 1969 classic, Power To The People, for the first time in over 50 years. Blending a socially conscious spirit with hard bop, jazz-funk, and electronic elements, the album finds the saxophonist entering a new creative dimension, as he performs such originals as “Isotope,” “Afro-Centric” and the first recording of his classic “Black Narcissus,” alongside…
Black Survival
Huge Tip! Digitally remastered edition of this 1974 album, a true holy-grail for Deep and Spiritual Jazz collectors around the world. This album was originally independently released to raise funds to combat the ongoing drought in the Sahel region of Africa (an area covering parts of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, Darfur, Sudan and Ethiopia). During his lifetime Roy Brooks released precious few solo albums. Black Survival, the Sahel Concert at the Town Hall was originally released o…
Time Capsule
A heretical symbol of Rare Groove, with its alternative and avant-garde ferocity! Irvine Weldon's 1973 masterpiece, which continues to have a wide influence around the world even today! Although it is based on jazz, it is a work released in 1973 that is more soul/funk than the first album, and reflects more experimental and political aspects and ideas. For over 30 years, it has been loved by diggers all over the world and reigns at the top of the rare groove as a most wanted item, and today the …
Liberated Brother
Weldon Irvine was one of the most talented and influential artists of his era. Liberated Brother was his first album, originally issued on his own Nodlew label in 1972 in very limited quantities. An impressive showcase for Irvine’s skills as a songwriter, producer, and keyboardist, the collection boasts a rich array of musical textures, resulting in deep, spiritual, funky jazz with elements of soul and psychedelia. Innovative not only for its moody, nuanced jazz-funk sensibility, Liberated Broth…
Together To The Tune Of Coltrane's "Equinox"
Big Tip! Known for her contributions to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, Sarah Webster Fabio published a plethora of poetry collections and works of cultural criticism. Together to the Tune of John Coltrane’s “Equinox” is her fourth and final record for Folkways, and sees her vivid language and distinctive voice becoming enmeshed with a dynamic backdrop of exploratory jazz. Fabio pays homage to Black jazz and blues musicians Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane. F…