Angel Canales – El Diferente 1982 Senelac Records LP 8881
Salsa / Latin-Jazz / Fusion
Well Brazil has jumped the shark, so I’m going to devote some musical energy to other places for a while. The U.S. still has a chance of climbing back out of the rabbit hole it’s gone down. And that is in no small part due to the ever-evolving demographic changes that terrify the White Nationalists so much. So, here’s an album from the great Ángel Canales, born in Santurce, PR, but raised in New York. His recording career began on Alegre Records with a record featuring a sexy but somewhat bizarre album cover and a hit in “Lejos De Ti”. By the 1980s, he was putting out records on his own label, SENALAC. This one features a blistering-hot band, with amazing baritone sax blowing by Pete Miranda, and charismatic Canales leading the proceedings. While “El Diferente” is still firmly rooted in salsa, bomba, and plena traditions, there is also a fusion edge to the band’s versatility and ability to surprise with their arrangements (done by no less than six different people). Continue reading
Larry Coryell – Coryell 1969 Vanguard Apostolic VSD 6547 | Vinyl rip in 24 bit 196 khz | Art at 600 and 300 dpi
Jazz-Rock / Jazz-Funk / Soul / Fusion / Psychedelic
I’ve been holding back on posting about this album until I could commemorate the 10th ANNIVERSARY of this blog. It’s a very special record to me from the great guitarist Larry Coryell, who passed away in 2017. It’s unique in that it captures him in a kind of transition between his time playing in the psychedelic rock group The Free Spirits and his future as an icon of jazz fusion, in the pre-Bitches Brew era when that genre was still fresh and nascent. And it’s soul-shaking, mind-melting grooviness from start to finish. I like to imagine that Hendrix heard this album and decided to shelve the Experience on the spot and start up his Band of Gypsies. Bernard “Pretty” Purdie on the drums and Chuck Rainey on bass are holding down a solid soul groove here, which just elevates the vibe to transcendent levels. Continue reading
Hilton Ruiz El Camino (The Road) 1988 Novus 3024-1-N
A1 West Side Blues 6:42
A2 Come Dance With Me 8:25
A3 Sometimes I 6:26
B1 El Camino (The Road) 6:19
B2 Message From The Chief 1:54
B3 Eastern Vibrations 14:55
Recorded At – Uptown Chelsea Sound
Bass – Andy Gonzalez
Congas, Percussion – Jerry Gonzalez
Drums, Guiro – Steve Berrios
Guitar – Rodney Jones
Percussion, Congas – Jose Alexis Diaz
Piano, arrangements – Hilton Ruiz
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Sam Rivers
Timbales – Endel Dueno
Trombone, arrangements on A2 & A3 – Dick Griffin
Trumpet – Lew Soloff
Engineer – Tony May
Producer – Ed Michel
Liner Notes – Leonard Feather
Recorded October 15, 1987, Uptown Chelsea Sound, New York City.
LINEAGE: Novus 3024-1-N vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica AT440-MLa cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest King Cobra cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed with Click Repair on very light settings, manually auditioning the output; further clicks removed with Adobe Audition 3.0; dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename. Transferred Summer 2017.
The blog has been way too quietly these last few weeks, as “real life” suddenly got real busy. But it’s all good stuff for once, so it seems like a good moment to post this album that’s been in the queue for a while. Plus it has nice liner notes from the late Leonard Feather which means I can keep my trap shut and let him do most of the talking. This is a tremendous sophomore album by the late, great pianist Hilton Ruiz, who played in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s band among many others. He brings some heavy weight to this session, which was recorded live to 2-track DAT. The presence of Lew Soloff on trumpet, along with fellow Kirk alum Dick Griffin (who contributes two compositions) and the brilliant Sam Rivers, pretty much insure you’re in for a great listen. As Feather writes, it grabs your right at the beginning and doesn’t let go. The closing number, the fourteen-minute Eastern Vibrations, is in a modal spiritual jazz vibe, and Hilton’s solo is off the hook, pushing into Cecil Taylor territory but never straying too far from the driving pulse of the tune. Here, have a look at the liner notes:
Hugh Masekela – The Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga