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Abbey Lincoln & Hank Jones – When There Is Love (1993)

Abbey Lincoln – Hank Jones
When There Is Love
1993 Gitanes Jazz Productions / Verve Records – 314 519 697-2
Genre:Jazz || Style:Bop, Post Bop

I have been wanting to do some posts about the great Abbey Lincoln ever since I started this blog, and yet for some reason it’s never happened.  Let this be the year, then.  I also never would have imagined that I would choose this atypical album as her first entry here.  But there is something very warm, charming, and relaxing about this collaboration with Hank Jones that seems to fit the mixture of exhaustion, laziness, and regeneration of energy to face a new and unknown world that’s marked these first few days of 2019 for me.  We can get into Abbey’s more intense material later, but right now this will do just fine.Abbey Lincoln & Hank Jones – When There Is Love (1993)

Herbie Mann – Live at the Whisky A Go Go (1969)

Herbie Mann – Live at the Whisky A Go Go
Vinyl rip in 24 bit 192 khz | Art at  300 dpi
1.22 GB 24-192 khz| 24 bit 96 khz – 611 MB | 211 MB 16-bit 44.1 khz
Atlantic SD 1536 | Released 1969 | Soul-jazz / jazz-funk / fusion

Dr. Vibes’ Twelve Days of Christmas – Day 2:
I am not sure that anyone feels as passionately one way or another about Herbie Mann as they do about, say, marmite or The Grateful Dead, but he certainly seems to divide people.  Adjectives like “lightweight” and “phony” have been thrown around when I’ve posted his work here.  His recording output was prolific and many titles are very common, lining the cut-out bins of many a trusty record shop.  But one thing is hard to deny – he sure could put together a solid lineup when he wanted to.  I mean just look at the list of musicians on this.  Miroslav Vitous and Roy Ayers? Sonny Sharrock?  Since I mentioned him in yesterday’s 12 Days of Christmas post, I figured this album would provide some continuity.  But in truth Sharrock is pretty under-utilized – he plays chunky rhythm guitar through all but the last few minutes of the album, where he takes an abrupt free jazz solo on Rufus Thomas’ “Philly Dog”.  Makes me laugh a little every time I hear it.  The first side of the album is a stretched out jam of a song written by Chris Hills (of the group Everything Is Everything) which appeared on a Vanguard Apostolic album in the same year of 1969.  So I guess it is no coincidence that group’s second (and final) studio album was produced by Herbie Mann and issued on his vanity label, Embryo Records.

Herbie Mann – Live at the Whisky A Go Go (1969)

George Freeman – New Improved Funk (1974) (with Von Freeman)

George Freeman – New Improved Funk
1974 Groove Merchant GM 519
Vinyl rip in 24 bit 192 khz | Art at  300 dpi
Soul Jazz –  Hard bop – Jazz
24-bit 192 khz – 1.55GB | 24 bit 96 khz – 902 MB | 238 MB 16-bit 44.1 khz

12 Days of Christmas – Day 1:  Except for the opening title track (all two minutes of it), this is a lot more of a straight soul-jazz album than the title would imply. It’s good stuff though, with great tenor playing by the late Von Freeman throughout the whole endeavor. Bobby Blevins on the organ chugging along like a mad lorry driver (“crazy trucker”).  George’s guitar playing can switch back and forth from Albert King-like, single-note runs laden with vibrato to angular scronking ala Sonny Sharrock within the same tune (Exhibit A: “Big Finish”, which closes out the first side of the LP…..George Freeman – New Improved Funk (1974) (with Von Freeman)

Hugh Masekela – The Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga (1965/1968)

Hugh Masekela – The Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga
1996 Verve 531 630-2

“The Americanization of Ooga Booga” (1965)

01 – Bajabula Bonke (8:05) (Miriam Makeba)
02 – Ozinorabiro (6:38) (Miriam Makeba)
03 – Unhlanhia (5:22) (Miriam Makeba)
04 – Cantelope Island (5:28) (Herbie Hancock)
05 – U-Owi (5:26) (Hugh Masekela)
06 – Masqueneda (7:43) (Jorge Ben)
07 – Abangoma (4:04) (Miriam Makeba)
08 – Mixolydia (6:59) (Hugh Masekela)

“The Lasting Impression of Hugh Masekela” (1968)

09 – Con Mucho Carino (4:41) (Larry Willis)
10 – Where Are You Going? (7:42) (Hugh Masekela)
11 – Morola (5:05) (Hugh Masekela)
12 – Bo Masekela (4:40) (Caliphus Semenya)
13 – Unohilo (6:49) (Alan Salenga)Hugh Masekela – The Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga (1965/1968)

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson – From South Africa To South Carolina (1975)

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson
From South Africa to South Carolina
1975 Arista Records AL 4044

01 Johannesburg 4:47
02 A Toast To The People 5:45
03 The Summer Of ’42 4:38
04 Beginnings (The First Minute Of A New Day) 5:36
05 South Carolina (Barnwell) 4:33
06 Essex 9:19
07 Fell Together 4:26
08 A Lovely Day 3:25Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson – From South Africa To South Carolina (1975)