Featured JAZZ
Former Weather Report Drummer Alex Acuña , His First Album as a Leader in 17 Years. Runs a Stylistic Gamut from Funk to Fusion Brazilian Flavored Jazz.
The incredible journey of Alex Acuña has seen the renowned drummer-percussionist travel from his small rural hometown in Peru to being a first-call session drummer in the country's capital city, Lima, then touring the United States with mambo king Pérez Prado, gigging in Las Vegas with Elvis Presley and ultimately touring internationally with Weather Report, the premiere fusion band of the mid-1970s. An in-demand Los Angeles session musician for decades, he has appeared on nearly 900 studio records and movie soundtracks while also releasing half a dozen albums under his own name.
His latest as a leader, the dynamic Gifts, reunites him with his musical cohorts from The Unknowns -- Venezuelan keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz, Peruvian guitarist Ramón Stagnaro and New York City-born, Puerto-Rican-bred bassist John Peña -- that band that Acuña's led on 1990's Thinking of You and 2005's No Accent.
Joined by Peruvian tenor sax powerhouse Lorenzo Ferrero, this gifted and versatile crew runs the stylistic gamut from funk to fusion, soul-jazz, ambient, Latin and Brazilian flavored jazz on Gifts. "These guys can play more than one style," Acuña said. "And I like to play with musicians that I don't have to tell them what to play. It's fun to play with them. They understand my musical lingo."
Regarding the album title, Acuña said: "I call it Gifts because, first of all, God gave me the gift of music. And then each tune was a gift from some composer friend of mine." To be blessed with such immense talent was truly a gift. And now Acuña is passing on that gift to his many listeners with this heartfelt offering.
Gifts - Alex Acuña
French pianist, jazz vocalist, and songwriter Matthieu Boré grew up surrounded by music and the arts. While his great-grandfather loved to give impromptu renditions of famous opera arias, his father's tastes were more modern and Matthieu's childhood was punctuated by the sounds of Eric Clapton, Bob Marley, and the Stray Cats. At age seven, Matthieu began taking piano lessons, focusing predominantly on classical repertoire. In the 1990s he took his first steps into the music profession, singing in various punk and trip hop outfits, before pursuing his love of 1930s and '40s jazz. In early 2000, the young singer-pianist began playing the Parisian jazz club circuit and a year later, released an entire album of Fats Domino covers. In keeping with his fascination of 1950s R&B music, he issued Doo Wop in 2003. Sometimes On My Own (2007) is inspired by his idols Irvin Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, and Gershwin. 2009 saw the release of FriZZante!!, an album featuring a blend of covers and his own originals, with full orchestra. Matthieu Boré has performed at festivals and concert venues in both France and around the world, including the Montreal Festival, the Jarasum Festival (Korea), the New Morning, and the Olympia. In 2011, he released a live album recorded at Paris's iconic Duc des Lombards. Roots (2012) was a surprising cocktail -- a strong dose of New Orleans funk, from with Matthieu draws his own nonchalant style, combined with a predilection for acoustic sounds and syncopated grooves. In 2015, Grammy-nominated Leo Sidran produced Naked Songs which explores the idea of paring back songs to their defining elements. In Gumbo Kings (2019), Matthieu pays tribute to Allen Toussaint and The Meters through twelve original songs whilst his most recent release Till The Morning Light (2022) combines Jamaican ska and '60s garage rock influences.
“Orange And Blue” was first released in 1994 and is a remarkable testament of Al Di Meola’s unique sense of swing. The legendary guitarist recorded the album on the “Al Di Meola Jazz Guitar”, a custom hollow-body guitar designed in collaboration with Gibson, which allowed him a warmer tone to add to his established signature sound. The album itself is a tasteful collection of explorative compositions, with standout songs such as ‘Chilean Pipe Song’ further cementing Al Di Meola’s growth as a versatile writer and gifted guitarist.
Count Basie & His Atomic Band
Complete Live At The Crescendo 1958 (Box) [Limited Edition]
CD: $26.99 Buy
John Coltrane
Blue Train: The Complete Masters (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) [Stereo 2LP]
Vinyl: $54.98 Buy
On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder's living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey and recorded his first great masterpiece: Blue Train. It would be the legendary saxophonist's sole album as a leader for Blue Note, a locomotive five-track album fueled by the bluesy title track that featured a dynamic six-piece band with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. To mark the 65th anniversary of the album's recording, Blue Train will be released in two special editions as part of Blue Note's acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series: a 1-LP mono pressing of the original album and a 2-LP stereo pressing of Blue Train: The Complete Masters which includes a second disc of alternate and incomplete takes, four of which have never been released before, and none of which have been available previously on vinyl. The 2-LP set comes with a bound booklet featuring session photos by Francis Wolff and an essay by Coltrane expert Ashley Kahn.
Both Tone Poet Vinyl Editions were produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in deluxe gatefold tip-on jackets.
FEATURES:
- 180g Vinyl
- Double LP
- Stereo
- Second LP of Alternate & Incomplete Takes - First Time on Vinyl
- Four Previously Unreleased Tracks
- Bound Booklet - Session Photos by Francis Wolff & Essay by Coltrane Expert Ashley Kahn
- Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series
- Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
- Mastered from Original Analog Master Tapes
- Produced by Joe Harley
- Pressed at RTI
- Deluxe Gatefold Tip-On Jacket
DEETS:
- Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series.
- Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.
- Mastered Directly from the Original Analog Master Tapes!
- Pressed At RTI.
MUSICIANS:
Paul Chambers
Philly Joe Jones
Kenny Drew
John Coltrane
Curtis Fuller
That’s What Happened 1982-1985: Bootleg Volume 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. In the 1980s, popular music had moved to a smoother, electronic-based sound that traded the steam of previous years for subdued arrangements meant to elicit peace and deep reflection. Miles Davis embraced this era, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. This music on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 captures that exploration, and finds Miles beginning to re-emerge in a creative landscape far different than the one he left in 1975. He’s touched every inch of pop culture while keeping true to his iconoclastic vision of jazz as amorphous art that’s supposed to bend and flow and mutate to something else. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, we get to play in the rubble of what would become yet another period of unprecedented innovation. Beauty resides in evolution. This double LP collects highlights of Bootleg Volume 7 with over 80 minutes of unreleased studio material from 1982 to 1985 on white vinyl. Side men include a multi-generational who’s who of jazz talent from JJ Johnson, Al Foster and John Scofield to Mike Stern, Marcus Miller and Daryl Jones.
Ella Fitzgerald's "Songbook" records - with her peerless renditions of the best songs from iconic composers from Irving Berlin to Rogers & Hart to Cole Porter to George & Ira Gershwin - are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the standard for jazz vocal recordings. Ella never released a live version of these Songbooks. This record, discovered in the private collection of Norman Granz, will make the first time a live Songbook has been released from the First Lady of Song.
Gerald Wilson's 1962 album, Moment of Truth, features his dynamic big band on an action-packed 9-song set (7 of which were composed by Wilson) with highlights including the swaggering blues of the title track, the irrepressible Latin groove of "Viva Tirado," and a fleet-footed version of Miles Davis's "Milestones." Blue Note Tone Poet Series features all-analog, remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk [Deluxe Edition 2LP]
Vinyl: $34.98 Buy
Duke Ellington & Coleman Hawkins
Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins (Verve Acoustic Sounds Series)[LP]
Vinyl: $38.98 Buy
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus In Paris - The Complete America Session (UHQCD Pressing)
CD: $38.99 Buy
Charles Mingus with Danny Richmond & Hampton Hawes
Mingus Three (Feat Hampton Hawes & Danny Richmond) [Deluxe Edition 2LP]
Vinyl: $31.98 Buy