Bando Da Lua, Grupo “X”, Anjos Do Inferno, 4 Ases E 1 Coringa – Samba da Minha Terra
1992 Revivendo RVCD 019
1 –Bando Da Lua -Saudades Do Meu Barracão
2 –Anjos Do Inferno – Vatapá
3 –Grupo “X” – Até A Lua Chorou
4 –4 Ases E 1 Coringa – Cabelos Brancos Bando da Lua, Grupo “X”, Anjos do Inferno, 4 Ases e 1 Coringa – Samba da Minha Terra (1992 Revivendo)
Fela Ransome-Kuti And The Africa ’70 With Ginger Baker – Live! (1971)
As the newly-revived “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has made abundantly clear, it is far to late to wish you all a happy new year. In fact, I managed not to post anything at all in the first month of the new decade. I had originally hoped to share this landmark Fela / Ginger Baker collaboration in late December, as a throwback to my old tradition of highlighting musicians who had passed on during the calendar year. But it was not meant to be. This record was originally issued on the obscure Signpost label in 1971. Before getting a wider release by Universal in the early 00’s, it had also been reissued in the well-curated catalogues of respectable labels like Knitting Factory and Celluloid. Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 with Ginger Baker – Live! (1971)
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album 1968 Original Release, A&M Records 2015 this 24-bit 88.1 khz Reissue This week, I’ve been enjoying the unexpected and excellent Christmas album by Los Lobos. But since… Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – Christmas Album (1968) [2015 24bit 88.1 khz]
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Original release 1976 Polydor
2016 Reissue – Polydor / The Verve Music Group B0024310-01
This 40th anniversary gold pressing is a nice reissue of one of the high points of Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s catalog. There is less vibraphone and a lot more Arp on this one. Every song a winner. Also, it seems like only a matter of time before the track “Lonesome Cowboy” gets used in a Coen Brothers film. Or maybe Tarantino. Anyway enjoy it before they ruin it. The whole album successfully grafts its cosmic jazz-funk onto the kind of broad positivity preached by pre-Riot era Sly Stone (with “People And The World” sounding like a bit like a discarded Family Stone jam).
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves The Sunshine (1976) (2016 UMG Gold Reissue)
Grateful Dead – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/9/80 & 10/10/80
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | Art scans at 300 dpi
Grateful Dead Productions / Rhino Records – R1-585396
This is a gorgeous collection of acoustic music from The Grateful Dead. The Dead were doing “unplugged” sets before anybody called them that, but in grand total of their hundreds of recorded shows, live acoustic music from the whole band was relatively rare apart from side projects. The shows captured here, along with others at Radio City in New York, would be drawn on to produce the all-wooden live album Reckoning. This is them at their most intimate, minimal, and parsimonious; well, as much as any group which brings a harpsichord on stage for just one song can ever be called minimal. Dead shows were famous for a wild crowd and scene that would eventually come to overshadow the actual music, but you could hear a pin drop during many of the tunes here. Elizabeth Cotton’s “Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie” is a poignant highlight of the first night, while the Garcia/Hunter original “To Lay Me Down” from the second night cuts wide and deep. What has always set The Grateful Dead apart for me from their ‘jam-band’ imitators was their ability to play soulfully, and to un-self-consciously tap so many distinctly American musical traditions. Those two qualities are in abundance in this special Record Store Day release.
The Grateful Dead – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/9/80 & 10/10/80
El Gran Combo – Por El Libro
1972 EGC Records LPS 003
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/96 kHz | FLAC | Art scans at 300 dpi
El Gran Combo is practically an institution in Puerto Rico, they have been around so long and had so many members over the years. The group has also served as a launching pad for a number of artists who have gone on to solo careers. This is a pretty solid early-70’s record. Particular highlights are compositions by the prolific Claudio Ferrer, and the gorgeous, moody “Estas Equiviocado” by Osvaldo Farres (of “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas” fame).