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Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – Egypt Strut (1974) (2021 RSD Strut reissue)


Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – Egypt Strut
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC & mp3|  300 dpi scans | Jazz
2021 RSD Strut Records , Ltd. ed 3000 copies | Original release 1974

 

Original copies of this flabbergasting bit of rare groove jazz, released by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture,  change hands for thousands of dollars. It’s seen a couple of CD releases but was reissued as a double LP with extras by Strut Records for RSD 2021 with a later, single-LP version planned for the fall. But forget the scarcity factor: the music is jaw-dropping good, like Lalo Schifrin met Perez Prado and early Sun Ra for a jam at the Great Pyramids. 

Celia Cruz and Willie Colón – Celia y Willie (1981) (2021 Craft Recordings)

Celia Cruz y Willie Colón – Celia y Willie
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC  & mp3|  300 dpi scans | Latin, Salsa
2021 Craft Recordings CR00375 || RSD, limited to 2000 copies ||
Original release 1981 Vaya

 

The cover may seem to invoke the glory days of the Palladium (or perhaps even the Cotton Club), but the music on this album fits mostly comfortably with any ‘salsa dura’ recorded during the 1970’s peak of that style, albeit with a bit less jamming and more focus on fitting a lot of vocals into 47 minutes. 

Lonnie Smith – Think! with Lee Morgan & David Newman (1969)

Lonnie Smith
Think!
Original release 1969 Blue Note
This 2019 reissue, Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series

This week the world of music lost one of the greats of the jazz organ, “Dr.” Lonnie Smith.  I regret never having caught him live during his return to the spotlight, as he had quite the career.  He was part of a second (or third?) wave of soul-jazz organists that hit the scene in the latter half of the 1960s.

Tito Puente – The Latin World of Tito Puente (1964, Mono)

Mambos, cha chas, son montunos, pachangas, Latin jazz… Tito Puente played all of those, and he apparently never liked the catch-all term “salsa” (and he stayed out of Fania Records’ orbit, for the most part).  And he has a point – each of the sub-genres and rhythms (and there are many more than those listed here) have their own backstory and sensibility….