Duke Pearson The Right Touch

Posthumous release of 'There Is No End' by legendary Afrobeat drummer, Tony Allen! The album features guest vocal appearances from the likes of Danny Brown, Sampa the Great, Lava La Rue, and more.

Remixes of the electronic jazz/fusionists from the likes of James Holden, Nathan Fake, Squarepusher, Clark, Portico Quartet, Machinedrum and more!

On his second Blue Note album Tender Moments, pianist and composer McCoy Tyner explored the colors and textures available in a nonet setting with some of the finest musicians of the time: Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone, James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, Bob Northern on French horn, Howard Johnson on tuba, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. Highlights of the session include dedications to John Coltrane (“Mode to John”) and Thelonious Monk (“The High Priest”) as well as the stunning ballad “All My Yesterdays.”

What happens when you combine Stanley Turrentine’s blues-drenched tenor saxophone with Les McCann’s soulful and funky piano? You end up with one of both men's best albums, an album considered to be one of the foundational sessions of soul jazz.

Turrentine and McCann are joined by bassist Herbie Lewis (a member of McCann’s group at the time) and drummer Otis Candy Finch. Stand out tracks include 'Smile, Stacey', the deep blue groove of 'Soft Pedal Blues' and the in-the-pocket soul of 'Light Blue'.

That’s where it’s at!

Blue Note 87

Mind-numbingly CLASSIC 

Madlib invades Blue Note! Hip hop producer extroardinaire and world class jazz fiend Madlib gets let loose in the Blue Note vaults with his sampler!

High quality 180 gram reissue on the Blue Note Tone Poet series of Donald Byrd’s 1961 recording, not released until 1979, and featuring Herbie Hancock and Pepper Adams. Includes an early version of Duke Pearson's haunting "Chant" which Donald Byrd re-recorded with voices two years later on his "New Perspective" album.

**Classic album/classic Blue Note sleeve!**

The trumpeter/flugelhornist’s classic 1963 album. His fourth Blue Note LP. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio on 10th October 1962 . Featuring an all-star band of James Spaulding (alto sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Clifford Jarvis (drums). The album showcases four superb Hubbard originals (the title track, ‘Prophet Jennings’, ‘Lament For Booker’, ‘For Spee’s Sake’) plus a memorable take on the standard ‘You’re My Everything’, featuring some stunning Hubbard/Hancock interplay. Produced by Alfred Lion.

One of the great Blue Note funk albums from 1969! Features Idris Muhammad on drums and Charles Earland on B3!

Seminal deep modal jazz on Blue Note w/ Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, Herbie Lewis and Freddie Watts. Produced by Duke Pearson. HEAVY!

Orig= Blue label liberty pressing Rare Original = USA Vinyl VG+ /Sleeve VG (spine wear,ageing)

High-end Audio Desk Systeme Pro Machine Utrasonic cleaned+

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1964. With Elvin Jones and Larry Young.

D. Byrd + Pepper Adams, Duke PEarson, Laymon Jackson, Lex Humphries.  New USA vinyl

Freddie Hubbard + James Spaulding, Ronnie Mathews, Eddie Khan, Joe Chambers. Deep and essential Blue Note. New USA vinyl issue

Absolutely killer compilation of some of Blue Note's finest releases - The jazz break beats that inspired hip-hop artists. Includes Donald Byrd, Eddie Henderson, Grant Green, Ronnie Foster, Herbie Hancock and many more!   

Gregory Porter solidifies his standing as his generation’s most soulful jazz singer-songwriter with his new album 'Take Me To The Alley' the much-anticipated follow-up to his million-selling Grammy-winning 2013 Blue Note debut Liquid Spirit. Includes Porter's version of 'Holding On' the hit single that he wrote with Disclosure.

Andrew Hill's best album, very highy recommended!

 One of the few albums Stanley Turrentine recorded with his wife, Shirley Scott. features Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Shirley Scott, organ; Earl May, bass & Al Harewood drums.

Original= Blue Note / United Artists pressing

New York pressing original Blue Note Stereo orig. WITH "P" (ear) and VAN GELDER Stamp w/original Blue Note inner sleeve. V. RARE!

Guitarist Grant Green's debut on Blue Note as he's joined by Baby Face Willette on organ and Ben Dixon on drums. Smokin!

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More than any other musician, Herbie Mann was responsible for establishing the flute as an accepted jazz instrument. Prior to his arrival, the flute was a secondary instrument for saxophonists, but Mann found a unique voice for the flute, presenting it in different musical contexts, beginning with Afro-Cuban, and then continuing with music from Brazil, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Japan, and Eastern Europe. As Mann once said, "People would say to me, 'I don't know where you are right now,' and I would respond, 'And you're not going to know where I'm going to be tomorrow.'"

Deep 70s roots Brazil 70

Original Brazilian pressing Vinyl VG+/Sleeve VG- (top spine part split/wear)

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Moody trio business - check the audio. Recorded in Japan

Original European Vinyl VG+/Sleeve VG+ (cutout top right)

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Take Me to the River is an inspiring, unsparing, and ultimately transforming autobiography. From a sharecropper's shack in Jacknash, Arkansas, to the absolute pinnacle of show-business success, it chronicles Al Green's career in rich detail.

Killer early Celia Cruz

Original Venezuelan pressing Vinyl VG+/Sleeve VG

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USA IMPORT HARDBACK BOOK 50% OFF. INTERESTED IN NEW ORLEANS FUNK - 100%read about New Orleans finest drummer!

There he is, drumming on "Tutti Frutti," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," and thousands of other songs. As a studio player in New Orleans and Los Angeles from the 1940s through the 1970s, Earl Palmer co-created hundreds of hits and transformed the lope of rhythm and blues into full-tilt rock and roll. He was, as a result, one of the first session men to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Palmer's distinctive voice alternates with the insights of music journalist and historian Tony Scherman in an unforgettable trip through the social and musical cultures of mid-century New Orleans and the feverish world of early rock.

Rare quality samba

Original Brazilian pressing Vinyl VG+/Sleeve VG+

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Sounds and Colours Brazil is an excellent book and CD focused on Brazilian music and culture. Comprising nearly 50 articles, plus illustrations and photos by a wide range of journalists, artists, academics and fans, this is the "Alternative Guide to Brazil".

What Kind of Love - wicked two-step tune

Original USA LP Vinyl VG+/Sleeve VG+ (cutout)
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60% off RRP!

In Brazilian Jive, David Treece uncovers the genius of Brazilian song, both as a sophisticated, articulate art form crafted out of the dialogue between music and language and as a powerfully eloquent expression of the country's social and political history. Focusing on the cultural struggles of music-making in Brazil, this book traces their journey from the rise of samba through the bossa nova revolution of the late 1950s to the emergence of rap in the 1990s.

Rare jazz vocals w/ groovy version of Son of a Preacher Man! Classic Prestige soul jazz

Original = Original USA (green label Prestige) Vinyl LP VG+ /Sleeve VG (minor wear, small crease at bottom)

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Benson: The Autobiography follows George's remarkable rise from the ghettos of Pittsburgh to the stages of South Africa, and everywhere in between. George Benson is an unparalleled storyteller, and his tales of scuffling on the Chitlin Circuit with jazz legend Brother Jack McDuff, navigating his way through the recording studio with Miles Davis, and performing with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Quincy Jones, Benny Goodman, Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, Count Basie, and Lou Rawls will enthrall devotees of both music history and pop culture.

Produced by Clive Hunt

Original Jamaican Vinyl VG+ /Sleeve VG+
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This year marks the golden anniversary of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the flagship band of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Formed in 1966 and flourishing until 2010, the Art Ensemble distinguished itself by its unique performance practices members played hundreds of instruments on stage, recited poetry, performed theatrical sketches, and wore face paint, masks, lab coats, and traditional African and Asian dress. The group, which built a global audience and toured across six continents, presented their work as experimental performance art, in opposition to the jazz industry's traditionalist aesthetics. In Message to Our Folks, Paul Steinbeck combines musical analysis and historical inquiry to give us the definitive study of the Art Ensemble. In the book, he proposes a new theory of group improvisation that explains how the band members were able to improvise together in so many different styles while also drawing on an extensive repertoire of notated compositions. Steinbeck examines the multimedia dimensions of the Art Ensemble's performances and the ways in which their distinctive model of social relations kept the group performing together for four decades. Message to Our Folks is a striking and valuable contribution to our understanding of one of the world's premier musical groups. 

Highlife master. Original Nigerian vinyl.

Vinyl G+ ONLY, sleeve G- (tape spine, some writing, watermarks, edge of opening wear)

+High-end Audio Desk Systeme Pro Machine Utrasonic cleaned+

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Cookin' examines the birth and development of two of the key jazz styles of the post-war era, hard bop and its related offshoot, soul jazz. Hard bop was the most exciting jazz style of its day, and remains at the core of the modern jazz mainstream even now. It drew on the twin poles of bebop and the blues for its foundation, spiced up with gospel, Latin and rhythm and blues influences. The book looks at the founding fathers of the form, Art Blakey and Horace Silver, and goes on to trace the music through its peak decade. 

Quality soul/disco era Mavis Staples

Original = USA Vinyl VG+ /Sleeve VG+ ( cutout)
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This is the first time the history of the uniquely British 'Jazz Dance' scene has been documented in such depth, written over a period of 10 years by Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy, the noted bandleader, DJ, club promoter, journalist and Afro-Cuban percussionist. This amazing 300 page book contains over 200 interviews and documents the scene's fast-flying footsteps through its inception in the Jazz Funk movement of the 70's, through the underground Black British dance scene of the early 80's, on to the massive Acid Jazz phenomenon and beyond! This is a labour of love by Snowboy dedicated to the dancers, the DJs and the clubs all over the UK - like The Goldmine, Electric Ballroom, Berlin and The Wag - where Jazz Dance flourished and staked it's own place in the history of British Black Music club culture.

Super heavyweight funky jazz recorded in Memphis and featuring Roy Ayers.

Original USA Vinyl VG+ /Sleeve VG-
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USA HARDBACK IMPORT 60% OFF - essential book!

"Dark Magus" is a warts-and-all look at the real Miles Davis. As told by his son, this book strips away the public perception of Davis often concocted through other books written without such intimate access to the man and gets down to the realities of his personality and quirks. Despite being a jazz superstar for decades, Davis was reclusive and deeply distrustful of other people. "Dark Magus" details Davis's Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, including his prodigious drug use, his misogynistic attitude towards women, his self-centeredness and selfishness, his obsessive chasing of young women, his use of amphetamines during concerts, and his distressing tendency to use violence to get his way or exact revenge for slights real and imagined. Other fascinating details abound, including Davis's relationship with Charlie Parker, his obsession with sports (especially boxing), his likes and dislikes, his personal philosophies, and his often gruelling work with younger musicians.

Seminal electric Miles. USA original 2XLP gatefold vinyl.

Original = Original USA Vinyl VG+ /Sleeve VG (some wear)

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Out-of-print - as new

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil is an important cradle of Afro-Brazilian culture, and home to musical styles that form the bedrock of much of today's popular sounds. In this book, author Kirk Brundage gives the reader a special and intimate glimpse into the sacred rhythms of the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé, providing context, a historical overview, and practical information on playing the rhythms.

Rare Nigerian vinyl.
HEAVY! Quality Fuji sounds!
Vinyl VG, sleeve G+(lot of wear)
+High-end Audio Desk Systeme Pro Machine Utrasonic cleaned+
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The berimbau, a musical bow, is most commonly associated with the energetic martial art/dance/game of capoeira. This study explores the berimbau's stature from the 1950s to the present in diverse musical genres including bossa nova, samba-reggae, MPB (Popular Brazilian Music), electronic dance music, Brazilian art music, and more. Berimbau music spans oral and recorded historical traditions, connects Latin America to Africa, juxtaposes the sacred and profane, and unites nationally constructed notions of Brazilian identity across seemingly impenetrable barriers.

The Berimbau: Soul of Brazilian Music is the first work that considers the berimbau beyond the context of capoeira, and explores the bow's emergence as a national symbol. Throughout, this book engages and analyzes intersections of musical traditions in the Black Atlantic, North American popular music, and the rise of global jazz. This book is an accessible introduction to Brazilian music for musicians, Latin American scholars, capoeira practitioners, and other people who are interested in Brazil's music and culture.

Nice moody version of Stevie's classic played by Ray Charles mid-70s. Funky!

Unplayed/mint  but few crackles at beginning.