Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1963)

**Deep, spiritual material from 1982 by Alice Coltrane!!!! INCREDIBLE LOST ALBUM!!

'Kirtan: Turiya Sings' features Alice Coltrane at peak spirituality and is presented in this arrangement for the first time in any format. Turyia Sings was originally released in 1982 on cassette as a collection of devotional songs including vocals, organ, strings, and synthesizers available only at Alice’s Sai Anantam Ashram. Kirtan: Turiya Sings features a sparser arrangement of organ and chanting, produced by Ravi Coltrane.

This is intentional, devotional music created with the purpose of connecting to a higher power. The pared back arrangements on this new release are enchantingly haunting and encourage the listener to reach a "meditative headspace so as to channel connectiveness to a greater spirit."

Second Impluse! records release for cult UK jazz psychonauts, Sons Of Kemet! Frenetic, spiritual, cosmic jazz energy from Shabaka Hutchings, Theon Cross and crew featuring guest spots from the likes of Kojey Radical, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, Joshua Idehen, D Double E! Don't miss!

UNBELIEVABLE new compilation of deep spiritual music by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and other groundbreaking Impulse Artists.

"Orange and black. Fire and ebony. Fury and pride. Wearing its signature colors proudly and raising its exclamation point high, Impulse! Records was the go-to label for music that harnessed the searching and political stand-taking of the Sixties. Launched in 1961, Impulse grew to become an inherent part of the era’s velocity as well as its volume, pulling jazz into the age of Black Power, Afrocentricity, and Spiritual Expansion. In its balance of tradition and transition, it bridged the golden age of jazz, that brief window from the late Fifties to the Seventies when players representing every jazz era were alive and active—from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler, from the legends of lore to a new generation of energy players. Impulse treated all its musicians as innovators, revolutionaries even—from swing and bebop, to free and Afrofuturist. The performances on Impulse Records: Music, Message and the Moment draw their staying power from a wide embrace of styles and sounds, as well as a tight focus on a historic moment when the promise of change was in the air and the message of racial harmony was in the music. Today that music has lost none of its relevance: the promise still deferred, the message still on time."

Frenetic, cosmic jazz excursion from the mighty The Comet Is Coming! Remixed version of 'Super Zodiac' appears on the flipside by Noss DJ.

'Palo Alto' is a previously unknown and unreleased live Thelonious Monk recording from 1968!

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, racial tensions across
the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in California, was not
immune to the events of the day. Danny Scher, a rising junior at Palo Alto High
School, had a dream to bring Thelonious Monk to Palo Alto to perform and help
bring about racial unity in his community as well as raise funds for his school’s
International Committee.

After somehow securing Monk’s services to perform on Sunday, October27, Scher initially had trouble selling tickets and convincing people that Monk was even going to show up.

With many twists and turns along the way and several hundred people waiting inthe school’s parking lot to await Monk’s arrival before purchasing tickets, the concert eventually happened and was a triumph in more ways that Monk or Scher could have imagined. This is a recording of that historic concert.

The band is Thelonious Monk on piano; Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone; Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums.

It's the bomb!

Just landing! Release date brought forward! WILL SELL OUT!! Don't miss out!

Comet Is Coming band leader Shabaka is back with The Ancestors on 'We Are Sent Here By History', follow-up to their 2016 breakout, 'Wisdom of Elders'.

"The more urgent, unrelenting and darker feel of the album reflects its social commentary set the context of ancient traditions, with a mixture of African and Afro-Caribbean musical history. It takes the concept of the griot, one of the storytellers who keep alive the tradition of oral history in parts of Africa, and transports it to the present day."

In 1964, the National Film Board of Canada asked John Coltrane to record the soundtrack for a French-language film titled 'Le Chat dans le Sac' ('The Cat in the Bag'). Amazingly, no announcement was made that the iconic Coltrane was adding new performances to this film.

In June of that year, Coltrane’s ‘Classic Quartet’ entered Rudy Van Gelder’s studio and recorded five previously- recorded Coltrane originals. For many years, viewers of the film who recognised the music thought that they were listening to the original recordings, though in fact they were new and had never been heard. Now, with the release of Blue World, we can hear these newly-discovered recordings for the first time!

FREE UK SHIPPING ON VINYL BOX SET!

John Coltrane 1963: New Directions collects all of John Coltrane’s 1963 Impulse recordings in the order in which they were recorded. 5-LP and 3-CD sets include artwork featuring original collages. The box shows us the growth in Coltrane’s musical journey in 1963 that ultimately resulted in 1964’s Crescent and, especially, A Love Supreme. Music comes from the original albums Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Dear Old Stockholm (released after Coltrane’s death), Newport ‘63 and Live at Birdland.

Futurist jazz voyagers (lead by Shabaka Hutchings) The Comet Is Coming release their anticipated 2nd album via Impulse! A propulsive, kaleidoscopic trip deep into the cosmos - another essential release!

On March 6, 1963, John Coltrane and his classic quartet - McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones - recorded an entire studio album at the legendary Van Gelder Studios. This music, which features unheard originals, is finally released, 55 years later.

This is, in short, the holy grail of jazz music!

N.B. Tracklisting for single LP and single CD formats:

1. Untitled Original 11383

2. Nature Boy

3. Untitled Original 11386

4. Vilia

5. Impressions

6. Slow Blues

7. One Up, One Down

Classic modal jazz album from the master of deep jazz and one of the most important performer/composers ever! Modal fans will love the tranquil, melancholic ballad After the Rain while fans of the new thing will dig the hectic forward-thinking India and Impressions! Recommended!

Sons of Kemet’s third studio album, and first under the impulse! label! Shabaka Hutchings and his band incorporate sounds of spiritual jazz music, while keeping a consistent and hypnotic rhythm throughout. Essential release!

Awesome 1965 recordings from the period just after the landmark 'A Love Supreme'! Awe-inspiring deep jazz from a god-like genius! Recommended!

First Impulse original pressing (first came out on ABC in 1957)

Over half an hour of "The Creator Has A Master Plan"! Leon Thomas on vocals joins the Pharoah for one of the greatest collaborations in deep, spiritual jazz ever! Essential!

original= 1980 mca pressing

Brilliant little-known album from the king of deep jazz, John Coltrane! Features sessions from before and after the landmark 'Meditations' recordings that marked his departure into more adventurous free form improvisation - features African percussion and chanting, stripped down saxophone/drum duos, and both expanded line-ups and classic quartet recordings! Alternately fiery and tranquil, this is some of the most advanced and beautiful modal jazz you will hear! Trance-inducing, meditative, deeply magical music! Very highly recommended!

Landmark free jazz album! An essential classic for any fan of 'new thing' improvisation! John Coltrane was one of the greatest player/composers the world has ever known and this is one of his most adventurous recordings! Mammoth, large scale big band session featuring a host of key avant/deep jazz luminaries such as Alber Ayler, Marion Brown, John Tchicai, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp! This CD features both editions! Intense, extreme, transcendant music unlike anything else! Highly recommended!

100% essential deep jazz classic! Searching, yearning, BEAUTIFUL spiritual jazz of the highest order! This is considered by many to be his best album and consistently gets voted as one of the best albums of all time in any genre! It's that good! 

Two classic 60s Impulse albums from Mingus on one CD

Impulse Records

100% essential, C-L-A-S-S-I-C spiritual jazz album featuring Pharoah Sanders! Deep-as-it-gets, hypnotic, trance-like, spiritually uplifting music featuring Alice playing her harp and weird eastern sounds! Very highly recommended! This is probably Alice Coltrane's best ever album! We love Alice Coltrane! You need this!!

Archie Shepp's first major outing was recorded in August 1964 about a year before John Coltrane gathered some of these same players (Shepp and alto saxophonist John Tchicai) in the studio for the recording of Ascension.

Coltrane's first for Impulse, in 1962, was also the first recording for the classic quartet line-up and is a beautiful blend of extended modal solos, as on "Out Of This World", weaving soprano on "The Inch Worm" and masterful balladry on "Soul Eyes".

Deluxe version contains 10 bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased "Not Yet"

Lush 1961 album of post-bop modal jazz with a large band conducted by Eric Dolphy. Texturally unlike any other John Coltrane recording, this is a truly unique album featuring large scale imagenings of John Coltrane's ever-innovative forward-thinking music! Recommended!

Seminal USA Bossa Nova album by Stan Getz, João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and the vocals of Astrud Gilberto. Includes the all-time classic "Girl From Ipanema".

Official reissue of this landmark Mulatu Astatke album!

Strut do the right thing and reissue this all-time classic Mulatu album from 1966. One of the best Ethio jazz albums ever. Every home should have one!

This new instalment of New Orleans Funk subtitled 'Two-Way-Pocky-Way, Gumbo Ya Ya and the Mardi Gras Mambo' features more classic New Orleans funk in all its forms.

The syncopated percussion beat of the second line jazz parade bands, the secret language and dances of the Mardi Gras Indians, the mambo and latin rhythms of Professor Longhair and the city’s many piano players help make New Orleans a unique musical melting pot.

New Orleans long musical heritage begins at Congo Square with the creation of jazz, the original creole culture clash of African heritage and European instrumentation.

In the 1960s and into the early 1970s add to this the creative powerhouses of Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Eddie Bo and others alongside the famous musical families of the city – the Nevilles, the Marsalis’s, the Lasties – and we find ourselves at the birthplace of the original sound of funk - New Orleans Funk.

A seemingly endless line of amazing singers - Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Willie West, Eldridge Holmes – released a constant stream of stunning 45s, backed by the super-funk Meters and produced by Allen Toussaint. The multi-talented Eddie Bo, similarly wrote and produced for an elite set of artists including The Explosions, Chuck Carbo and others.

But limited local record distribution meant that most of these artists remained unknown outside of the city borders and as a consequence many of these records are serious collectors items today.

Add to this the syncopated poly-rhythm funk of Mardi Gras Indians with a rare version of the carnival classic Two-Way-Pock-A-Way, and the parade band jazz of the Rebirth Jazz Band (with their twisted take on the Blackbyrd’s rare groove classic Do It Fluid) and you have the latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records’ New Orleans Funk series.

Read Quietus large feature here

REVIEWS:
"The hallmark of a great Soul Jazz compilation is the balance between the stone cold classic and the well selected deep cut, and this compilation serves up both well." Quietus
**** 

 "The Soul Jazz label’s long-running curation of New Orleans’s funky past has already yielded several premier league collections for hungry musical gumbo fans. The latest catch from the Nola freak scene... doesn’t disappoint with its swaggering and swinging line of classic cuts."  The Irish Times

“Every New Orleans Funk release confirms that Soul Jazz Records should keep a triple A in the genre of Soul/Funk.” 90BPM

When Columbia first issued this album, 6 of the 9 tracks were shortened drastically to fit them on the LP. Later reissues (on CD) have included the tracks in their original full length, but this edition of the album had not been released on vinyl yet, until now! 50 years after its original conception, as it was intended by the Angry Man of Jazz himself.

60s boogaloo stylee from Blakey - Art Blakey + grant Green, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, John Hicks, Melba Liston & more.

Landmark free jazz album! An essential classic for any fan of 'new thing' improvisation! John Coltrane was one of the greatest player/composers the world has ever known and this is one of his most adventurous recordings! Mammoth, large scale big band session featuring a host of key avant/deep jazz luminaries such as Alber Ayler, Marion Brown, John Tchicai, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp! This CD features both editions! Intense, extreme, transcendant music unlike anything else! Highly recommended!

Classic modal jazz LP with John Coltrane's classic quartet, featuring the amazing piano of McCoy Tyner and the rhythm section of Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. This album exhibits a tender and gentle muscularity that represents a beautiful mid-point between the trademark hard bop style Coltrane developed in the 1950s with Miles Davis's first classic quintet, and the searing avant-modal style he pioneered in the 1960s. Beautiful!

Deluxe edition contains a wealth of extra material from the same sessions, most of it previously unreleased.

Recommended!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Boombox features some of the many innovative underground first-wave of rap records made in New York in the period 1979-82, all released on small, independent, often family-concern record companies, at a time when hip-hop music still remained under the radar.

This first exuberant wave of innocent, upbeat, party on the block rap records were the first to try and create the sounds heard in community centres, block parties and street jams that first took place in the Bronx in the mid-1970s. But where Flash, Kool Herc and Bambaataa were back-spinning, mixing and scratching together now classic breakbeat records like The Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache or Babe Ruth’s The Mexican, these first rap records were all made using live bands, often replaying then current disco tunes, whilst MCs rapped over the top, creating a unique sound that later became known derisively as old school.

And while hip-hop started in the Bronx, rap on vinyl began in Harlem where long-time established rhythm and blues producer-owned record companies such as Joe Robinson’s Enjoy Records, Paul Winley’s Winley Records, Delmar Donnel’s Delmar International and Jack Fatman Taylor’s Rojac and Tayster were the first off the mark to realise the commercial potential of rap music - releasing early ground-breaking records that all quickly followed in the wake of the first rap record, The Sugarhill Gang’s Rappers Delight, a million-selling worldwide hit.

This collection celebrates these first old-school rap records, bringing together rare, classic and obscure tracks released in the early days of rap.

Deluxe double CD-pack comes with slipcase, 40-page outsize perfect-bound booklet, extensive notes, exclusive photography and original label artwork. Triple-vinyl heavyweight vinyl includes full artwork, text and notes as well as free download code.

REVIEWS:

Soul Jazz has a reputation for top-notch compilations that offer crash courses in a variety of styles and genres both beloved and obscure; they are, in essence, the K-Tel of the millennial generation.

This is one of the best Soul Jazz sets in ages, a legitimate party in a box, overflowing with underground deep cuts that have seldom — if ever — been spotted on other collections - FACT

 ROLLING STONE Best Rap Albums of 2016

Following hard on the heels of BBE delving into the archives of Detroit’s Strata Records and the in-demand exploration of J-Jazz, comes another crate digger’s delight- Ralph Thomas’ ‘Eastern Standard Time’, which dropped the USA back in in 1980, on the obscure Zebra Jazz imprint. A true spiritual jazz gem reissued via BBE - recommended!

Reissue on 180g vinyl of this 1954 classic self-titled album. A selection of tracks from 1952 and ‘54 with the singer enjoying the last full flush of her talents, backed by small groups of session men – Oscar Peterson plays piano on all the songs. Original LP with 4 bonus tracks!

100% KILLER KILLER KILLER LP!

Beautiful re-press of Don Cherry's seminal work from 1976, 'Brown Rice'. A brilliant fusion of jazz with rock, African, Indian, and Arabic music traditions.

OUT OF PRINT FOR OVER 40 years on vinyl!

Features the ESSENTIAL title track Brown Rice and the beautiful, hypnotising tune, 'Malkauns' & more!

Every home should have one!

One of Cannonball's seminal 'in-studio/live' albums produced by David Axelrod. Intimate, well recorded and well-funky!

USA ORIGINAL VINYL 

Warp's playful electronic music duo, Plone, make a return on Julian House's cult, hauntological imprint, Ghost Box! The duo's signature sound is ever present - catchy, melodic and full of whimsy for fans of Sterolab, Raymond Scott, Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop.

Three hours of deep, percussive jazz from the Snoop 'tour support' and Flying Lotus collaborator, Kamasi Washington.  

Triple vinyl tracklisting:

A1. Change of the Guard

A2. Isabelle

A3. Final Thought

B1. The Next Step

B2. Askim

----

C1. The Rhythm Changes

C2. Leroy and Lanisha C3. Re Run

D1. Miss Understanding

D2. Henrietta Our Hero

D3. Seven Prayers

D4. Cherokee

E1. The Magnificent 7

E2. Re Run Home

E3. Malcolm's Theme

E4. Clair de Lune

E5. The Message

Includes the exotic Bahia!

Deep, deep funky organ jazz from Young on Blue Note, 1968. What a year!

Larry Young - organ, Byard Lancaster - alto saxophone, flute, Herbert Morgan - tenor saxophone, George Benson - guitar, Eddie Gladden - drums.

New edition of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album, the debut release from flautist Lloyd McNeill released on his private-press Asha Record label and recorded in Washington, DC in 1969 (originally only 500 copies were ever made).  First reissued on Soul Jazz Records’ Universal Sound sub-label in 2011 (long deleted) and now available newly digitally remastered on Soul Jazz Records main label.

Lloyd McNeill is a multidisciplinary artist – a painter who lived in Paris in 1965 and was a friend of Picasso, a musician who has worked with Nina Simone, Nana Vasconceles, Ron Carter, Cecil McBee and many more and a music anthropologist, poet and teacher.

In the 1960s he was involved in the civil-rights movement and produced music for ballet, paintings and installations. His music mixes jazz with Latin, Brazilian and African rhythms that McNeill learnt was studying anthropology in his travels through much of Africa and Brazil (where he joined with Dom Salvador, Paulinho da Viola, Paulo Maura and Martinho da Vila).

The album comes with extensive sleevenotes and interview with Lloyd McNeill as well as exclusive photos and text. Vinyl is heavyweight vinyl pressing + download code limited to 1000 worldwide.

Lloyd McNeill features on two earlier Soul Jazz releases, 'New Thing' and 'Freedom, Rhythm and Sound". Soul Jazz Records have also recently reissued Lloyd McNeill's stunning 'Washington Suite' album recorded in 1970.

One of the hardest working labels in the game On The Corner Records proudly present the second album from Collocutor - "The Search"

Following on from their excellent 2014 debut "Instead" the London based ensemble led by Tamar Osborn have delivered another sublime work that converges fluently between modal jazz, spritual and afro-futurist dialogues.

"The Search" has already gained plaudits from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Mulatu Astatke and anyone else who's had the pleasure of hearing the record or seeing the band perform live. An early contender for album of the year for us here at SOTU!

This one will fly - Highly Recommended!

Lush, tropical infused drone / new age / club experiments from Ramzi who completes the third part of her 'Phobiza' series (previously on Mood Hut). With an appearance from Hashman Deejay this gorgeous, brain-melting release mixes up dub, dream house and other lysergic after-hours / early morning touches. Ace!

Wicked lo-fi, mutant disco / post-punk instrumentals from Glaswegian freshman, Grim Lusk! One for LAPS, 12th Isle, Optimo, Golden Teacher, Lord Tusk, General Ludd fans - so good!

A stunning album, 'Somethin' Else' was a collaboration between three men - Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, the credited bandleader; Alfred Lion, the producer and that inescapable great of jazz, Miles Davis.

Ezra Collective finally drop their highly anticipated debut! The hotly tipped collective play a tight mix of spiritual jazz, influenced by traditional african rhythm and melody. 'Juan Pablo: The Philosopher' has been receiving a LOT of praise and getting support from the likes of Gilles Peterson and more. Mixed by Floating Points and features a guest spot by the superb Nubya Garcia - plus a stunning version of the Sun Ra classic, 'Space Is The Place'! Essential release!