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Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite: We Insist feat. Abbey Lincoln (1961)

Max Roach – Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite: We Insist
Vinyl trasnsfer in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC |  300 dpi + web scans | Bebop, Hard Bop
Candid CLP 30021 | Record Store Day 2022 | Orig.rel. 1961

“The Beat has a rich and magnificent history…”  We could do worse than to commemorate Juneteenth with this epoch-defining slab of jazz directly from the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.  Max Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln (soon to be married in 1962) lead an ensemble that includes other luminaries like Coleman Hawkins, Julian Priester, Olatunji, and Booker Little. Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite: We Insist feat. Abbey Lincoln (1961)

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Cosmic Funk (1974) (2022 RGM)

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Cosmic Funk
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC | 300 dpi scans | Jazz, Spiritual jazz
2022 Real Gone Music || 1974 Orig. Flying Dutchman

So I actually crafted a new, short write-up of this record without remembering that I posted about it once before, 13 years ago, because of course I did.  You can read that screed here, if you like.  I will probably blog about this album a third time, when I get around to transferring an original Flying Dutchmen pressing I have.  I think this recent reissue holds up quite well against it, sonically speaking, so here we go….

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Cosmic Funk (1974) (2022 RGM)

Nina Simone – Nina Simone’s Finest Hour (2000)

Nina Simone – Nina Simone’s Finest Hour
2000 Verve Records (314 543 604-2)

I thought I would make a quick blog post to commemorate International Women’s Day and pay tribute to one of my heroes, the great Nina Simone.  Superlatively gifted and inspired as both a pianist and vocalist, courageous and visionary, groundbreaking, tenacious, mercurial — I could keep throwing adjectives at this woman all day and never run out of them.  Is this collection her “finest hour”?  Nina Simone – Nina Simone’s Finest Hour (2000)

Wayne Shorter – The Best of Wayne Shorter (1988, Blue Note)

Wayne Shorter
The Best of Wayne Shorter
BLUE NOTE CDP 7 91141 2
Released 1988

I had a different blog post planned for today, but the world lost one of the great forces in jazz yesterday with the passing of Wayne Shorter.  If you don’t know why you should care about that, you can read one of his obits in the Old Grey Lady, The Atlantic, or the BBC.  It’s the kind of loss that has us checking the internet to see what other giants from that generation still walk among us. And there aren’t too many. Wayne Shorter – The Best of Wayne Shorter (1988, Blue Note)

Eddie Harris – Bad Luck Is All I Have (1975)

Eddie Harris – Bad Luck Is All I Have
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | 300 dpi scans | Jazz, Jazz-funk
1975 Atlantic Records SD 1675, Presswell

This is an under-the-radar album, never released on CD, from the eclectic Eddie Harris, who gets help from Willi Bobo and Bradley Bobo in the rhythm section (as well as Calvin Barnes, who only has a few sessions to his name). Strangely, for a jazz-funk album from the middle 1970’s, there is almost no trap kit drumming on this, instead relying on timbales and other percussion for most of the groove. Some fun trumpet work from Oscar Brashear on this too.  It’s an essential album by any means, but the eclectic Eddie Harris was always worth a listen.  Eddie Harris – Bad Luck Is All I Have (1975)