Category: Jazz

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

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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. Continue reading

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

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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….

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Larry Coryell – Live At The Village Gate (1971)

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Larry Coryell – At The Village Gate (1971)
Vanguard VSD-6573 – Vinyl transferred at 192 khz 32-bit floating point

Most of the Vanguard material that Larry Coryell recorded is pretty distinct from the kind of music he would later become known for.  More raw, psychedelic, and bluesy than his later shred-it-to-bits fusion flexing, and with a leaner, more stripped-down sound due do its (mostly) trio format.  Is there such a thing as a jazz power trio?  If so, I guess that’s what this is. Continue reading

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

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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”?  Continue reading

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

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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. Continue reading