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A month before the pandemic hit Norway – and the rest of the world for that sake – Darling west released their fourth album, «We’ll Never Know Unless We Try». They managed to get through two or three shows before everything was canceled, and the country went into lockdown. It may sound a bit counterintuitive to records a live album while in lockdown, but that is exactly what Darling West decided to do. When Norway partly opened during the fall of 2020, the band recorded their gigs at Parkteatret in Oslo and at Folken in Stavanger, and these recordings make out the songs on «Live 2020». Even though the gigs were played at venues with restricted capacity, it’s nice to see that they can reach bigger a bigger audience with this recording. «Live 2020» consists of songs from Darling West’s entire catalogue, and you can almost hear that they’ve been longing to play live on a stage. It had been six months since they’d been in front of an audience when these recordings were made, and the energy in the rooms were very special. This record is a document of this.

Through his dedication to the Los Angeles grassroots projects that gave so much stability and focus to many younger musicians, artists and the community, Horace Tapscott became a neighbourhood hero at a time when the world wanted his presence. He stayed in Los Angeles and focused instead on building a community, rarely giving interviews and instead focusing on passing on the message from his mentors. He shaped a unique sound with his arkestra and community minded musicians. It was a close-knit family that emanated a sound that was deep and unique, flowing with a creative spirit that definitely comes through on this album.

In 1961 he founded the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra, which aimed to preserve, develop and publicise African-American music through the ever-growing family that emanated within many of the deprived areas of Los Angeles. Through his subsequent collaboration with Bruce Albach, a producer and founder of Nimbus West Records, they sought to document the importance of this music alongside many artists who were energetically linked to the ethos and understanding which came from the collective dialogue.

Here the composer leads four extensive arrangements through his 16 piece orchestra, featuring many of the Nimbus West artists including Adele Sebastian, Jesse Sharps and Linda Hill. The music weaves the sound of afro-futuristic music through changing tempos and a relentless dynamic expressive sound that is complex and beguiling with a deep spiritual sound throughout all four tracks.

The ceremonial ‘Peyete Song no. III’ is a great swirling evocative piece from the large collective, with amazing solos from especially Horace Tapscott who seems to find a sound from the piano that is from another dimension. The arrangement airs an important message of a people and their rituals.

Horace Tapscott gives Cal Massey’s composition ‘Nakatini Suite’ a splendid futuristic big band interpretation. The composition had been earlier illuminated by both Lee Morgan on his ‘Lee-Way’ album and John Coltrane on his ‘Believer’ album titled ‘Nakatini Serenade’. Through the more expansive soundscape, the interpretation allows for some great interplay between saxophonist Jesse Sharps and drummer Everett Brown Jr. with the whole orchestra led by Horace Tapscott capturing the essence of Cal Massey’s message.

Vocalist Adele Sebastian opens up the free probing arrangement ‘Quagmire Manor at 5am’ composition with a similar delivery as with her ‘Day Dream’ from the classic ‘Desert Fairy Princess’ album before the music takes off onto the mothership adding a sense of what time and space within the manner was about amongst many great musicians and artists. Their journey and moments encapsulated within the music.

There are certain albums you hear something new every time you revisit the music and this is one of those albums. An important part of Afro-American history; the politics and art which surrounded the album. If you get a chance check out the film ‘Horace Tapscott, Musical Griot’, by filmmaker Barbara McCullough, or buy the book ‘Songs Of The Unsung’: The Musical & Social Journey of Horace Tapscott’. Mark Jones/UK Vibe

"Pianist Nate Morgan (1964-2013) was a central figure on the Los Angeles jazz undergound. A core member of the circle around the legendary bandleader, pianist and community organiser Horace Tapscott, Morgan had been part of Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (Union Of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension) since he was just a teenager, and was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, known as ‘The Ark’. Through the 1980s and 1990s he kept the PAPA flame alive, organising the Ark’s sprawling songbook, running legendary jam sessions, and keeping LA’s deep jazz roots well watered. By the early 2000s he was bringing hard won knowledge to a new generation as part of the Build The Ark collective. He was a musician’s musician, at the beating heart of the radical, community-minded Los Angeles jazz network that Tapscott and his associates had first put together in the early 1960s.

Retribution, Reparation was the second of the two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach’s storied Nimbus West imprint. His first, Journey Into Nigritia had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, with nods to Herbie Hancock (‘One Finger Snap’) and Ellington (‘Come Sunday’), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist and Black nationalist sentiments inspired by Marcus Garvey, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the sound world of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualised modal jazz. With Danny Cortez on trumpet and Ark stalwart Jesse Sharps on saxophones the frontline is explosive (this set is also one of the few places the extraordinary Sharps can be heard in a small group setting), while Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos and bind the music together. From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (‘U.G.M.A.A.GER’) to the propulsive militancy of the title track, Retribution, Reparation spreads the word: ‘Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!’"

Horace Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. If P.A.P.A. doesn't have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn't ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there's a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn't record doesn't count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn't record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern -- they weren't about that. First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project.

From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But they never released a note of music. It was the intervention of fan Tom Albach that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. The album commences with the magnificent title track. It is effectively in three parts. It begins with unaccompanied pianos. Then the ensemble embark on a dense, circular and mechanical movement, a platform for horns and pianos to swoop and dive. We return to Earth with a beautiful solitary flute. The second track, the piano-centric, ‘Breeze’ is different to ‘Flight 17’ in intensity and also brevity but it is quietly as daring as the title track. It concludes with a moving lush wash from the full Arkestra, which sound almost like strings only more substantial. These first two tracks take full advantage of the texture of the unusual mix of the various instruments. Next though, it’s a significant change with ‘Horacio’, which is an exuberant Latin infused jingle. It’s unlike anything else on the album. I like to think it was named after the conductor’s Cuban alter-ego! ‘Clarisse’ gracefully switches between slow blues and bop and is bookended with a grand vaguely East Asian theme. The busy bass line introduces ‘Maui’. As with the previous track, it moves between a number of contrasting melody lines and rhythms but there’s still space for a tuneful sax solo.

This is a must-have album. I think the first two tracks on their own make this release essential. Kevin Ward/UK Vibe/Boomkat

In December of 2020, The Wild Feathers hauled
off to a pre-civil war-built cabin in VanLeer, TN,
where the ideas and songs from ‘Alvarado’ met for
the very first time.

In the past, the band typically liked to collect all the
tunes they’ve written over the past year,
brainstorm, conceptualize and rehearse isolated in
a cabin before heading into the studio.

This time, for their fourth studio album, they
decided to bring the studio to the cabin. The guys
spent a week jamming and creating while having
the ability to capture the performances while they
were fresh.

Produced by the band, ‘Alvarado’ is the truest
representation of The Wild Feathers to date. No
outside musicians, no outside opinions, just them
playing their new songs in a room with the best
mics they could find.

First non-major label release (formerly of Warner
Brothers).
 For fans of Blackberry Smoke, Jamestown Revival,
Langhorne Slim

Pokey LaFargeʼs 7th studio solo album, ‘In The
Blossom Of Their Shade’, showcases the positivity
of coming out of the darkness and into the light.
When the 2020 global pandemic hit, LaFargeʼs
rigorous work ethic powered him through the
potentially challenging creative period. As days
became a couple of months, songs blossomed
from embryonic ideas into fully-formed ones and
he was ready to move on, which typified his
mindset as a working artist.
With this record, LaFarge captures the thematic
notion of being the perfect summer afternoon
soundtrack... the type of music you want to listen
to while having a cocktail with your significant
other.
It makes sense musically as well - LaFarge
intentionally crafted songs that created space and
have melodies that can glide throughout a
composition thatʼs a far cry from the swing and
blues-infused songs of his earlier work.
LaFarge is an artist who refuses to rest on his
laurels and compromise. He's always motivated
and ready to create. ‘In The Blossom Of Their
Shade’ is one of LaFargeʼs strongest and most
mature efforts to date.
LP in gatefold sleeve.

Brian Leeds a.k.a. Huerco S' West Mineral label present a groggy Midwestern ambient doozy with Chat, the first collaborative release by Pontiac Streator and Ulla Straus
Pontiac Streator previously appeared as a guest on the first West Mineral LTD release, Pendant's Make Me Know You Sweet, while Ulla Straus is perhaps best known for her part on the cultishly adored bblisss compilation tape which introduced Huerco S.'s Pendant alias to the world at large.
Their first album together is a bedroom-crafted confection where drowsy blues and raga smudge with lounging exotica themes in a blunted style to properly heavy-lidded effect.
Chat was recorded on July 5th in Pilsen, Chicago on Ulla's bed after a long week spent dancing with friends, staying up all night typing in chatrooms, and hate-watching Fox news. The results channel that experience into four lop-sided creations that feel satisfyingly burned out and immersive, like the murmur of zonked chat between close friends.
In four parts; Chat One thru Chat Four, the record unfurls with a muggy mid-fi tension between its illusive fidelities, kindling a smoky atmosphere that colours listening spaces with seductive smells
and a muggy, keening tension that recalls the minutes before sundown
This balmy feel of the surreal comes out in a sylvan patina of sweetened cicadas and curling pads urged along by a stream of wooden drums, variously recalling Spencer Clark on some kind of
Aguirre soundtrack mission in the tropics, a heatsick Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement piece, or, in the dream-pop drift of the last part, like Leven Signs smudged by Muslimgauze.
Coolly serving to expand West Mineral LTD's remit after that spellbinding Pendant album and a 12" of ectoplasmic dubs from uon, the flux of arid/fluid textures and para-dimensional fidelities in
Chat feels somehow calming yet fraught with a somnambulant appeal that's dangerously easy to

Re-mastering by: Kevin Gray

This is a reissue of a now out-of-print album from live trio date by the legendary LA-based pianist, composer and multi-bandleader, Horace Tapscott. Pianist Horace Tapscott is always at his best when he is leading a trio. Born in 1934 in Houston, Texas, Horace came from a musical family centered around his mother, Mary Malone Tapscott, who worked professionally as a singer and pianist. When Horace was nine, the family moved to Los Angeles. As a teenager in the late 1940's, Horace was surrounded by the music of Central Avenue: Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, were among the many cats on the set. Around this time, Horace also began to take music lessons from teachers Dr. Samuel R. Browne and Lloyd Reese, whose other students included Eric Dolphy and Frank Morgan. Horace's musical studies included trombone in addition to piano.

In 1952, Horace graduated from Jefferson High, got married to Cecilia Payne and went into the Air Force. Horace played in an Air Force Band while he was stationed in Wyoming for his term of duty. After mustering out, he returned to Los Angeles where he worked around on various gigs until he joined the Lionel Hampton Big Band as a trombonist.

In 1959, Horace finally went with the Hampton Big Band to New York, where his friend Eric Dolphy introduced him to John Coltrane. A tough winter, a lack of gigs, and too many nights on the floor of a friend's art gallery finally sent Horace packing for sunny Southern California, where a life with wife and family awaited his return.

The sixties saw Horace emerge as a die-hard leader of the Avant Garde. Horace began to gain public notice playing with his own group, that included alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, bassist David Bryant, and drummer Everett Brown II. Horace also appeared on records for the first time.

Horace was always outspoken about racism, politics, stereotypes, and social ethics. His forward-minded vocal presence on and off the microphone is as much a part of his art as his piano playing. As a result, he was labeled a "dissident," categorized as an "employment risk," and black-listed from the music industry establishment in the early 1970's. None of this slowed Horace down. He began gigging sporadically at Parks and Recreation events and for churches around Watts. This "dark period," with his only regular gig at his friend Doug Weston's Troubadour on Los Angeles' "Restaurant Row", was also a time of intense creativity.

Around 1977, Horace reorganized the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with the help of several old friends and many new faces. The Arkestra performances involve singing, dancing, and poetry in addition to the music. Soon after the new group's debut, Horace came to the attention of producer Tom Albach who contracted Horace to record a number of albums for Nimbus Records. Albach also helped introduce Horace to an international audience by arranging several European tours.

The 80's saw Horace emerge as one of jazz's premiere solo pianists. He recorded several solo piano albums for Nimbus.

In James McMurtry’s new effort, ‘The Horses and
the Hounds’, the acclaimed songwriter backs
personal narratives with effortless elegance
(‘Canola Fields’) and endless energy (‘If It Don’t
Bleed’).
This first collection in seven years spotlights a
seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns
toward reflection (‘Vaquero’) and revelation (closer
‘Blackberry Winter’). Familiar foundations guide
the journey. “There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to
this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren
Zevon seems to be stomping around among the
guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He
never signed on for work for hire.”
‘The Horses and the Hounds’ is a reunion of sorts.
McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary
producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John
Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson
Browne’s Groovemaster’s in Santa Monica,
California. Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two
albums - ‘Too Long in the Wasteland’ and
‘Candyland’ - and later mixed McMurtry’s first selfproduced album, ‘Saint Mary of the Woods’.
Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist
David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, Dixie
Chicks), returns with some of his finest work.

On July 13, 2006 the Drive-By Truckers set up
shop at Plan 9 Records in Richmond, VA. It was
the 25th Anniversary of the store. The band
performed to a packed house and played a
blistering set of fan-favourites, featuring the songs
‘18 Wheels of Love’, ‘Let There Be Rock’,
‘Goddamn Lonely Love’ and ‘Daddy’s Cup’.
The performance was also set up to benefit the
Bryan and Kathryn Harvey Family Memorial
Endowment. The foundation provides, among
other things, music scholarships in the Richmond
area. Lead vocalist and songwriter Patterson Hood
ended up writing the song ‘Two Daughters and A
Beautiful Wife’ about Bryan Harvey and his family.
The updated packaging includes original artwork
from acclaimed artist and long-time collaborator
Wes Freed.
Originally available as a very limited and long sold
out vinyl-only pressing. Now available on CD for
the very first time.

Los Angeles based band Los Lobos have always
been inspired by their surroundings and the place
they call home. Their music is influenced by rock
and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B,
blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such
as cumbia, boleros and norteños.
With ‘Native Sons’ the band set out to showcase
all of these influences with their own take on the
songs of Los Angeles from some of the cities
greatest songwriters.
‘Native Sons’ features 13-songs from well known
LA artists such as Buffalo Springfield, WAR,
Jackson Browne and The Beach Boys as well as
deep cuts from The Jaguars, The Basters and The
Premiers.
The album title track is the sole original
composition written by the band.
2LP in gatefold sleeve (etching on Side 4).

Wooden Shjips, as it is today, started in 2006. The band self released a 10" and 7" that year and started playing shows shortly thereafter. Prior to 2006, Wooden Shjips was an experiment in primitive and minimalist rock. After it imploded, Ripley Johnson, guitar and vocals, assembled the current lineup of Dusty Jermier on bass, Nash Whalen on organ, and Omar Ahsanuddin on drums. West marks the first time the band recorded in a proper studio, as well as the first time with an engineer (Phil Manley). All previous recordings, either self-released, for Holy Mountain, or Mexican Summer were done more piecemeal in the band's rehearsal studio. West was recorded and mixed in six days at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco. It was mastered by Sonic Boom at Blanker Unisinn, Brooklyn, with additional mastering by Heba Kadry at The Lodge in New York.

Rock ‘n’ roll is often hard to define, or even to find, in these
fractured musical times. But to paraphrase an old saying,
you know it when you hear it. And you always hear it with
The Wallflowers. For the past 30 years, the Jakob Dylanled act has stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and
purposeful bands - a unit dedicated to and continually
honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and
storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern
musical attack.
That signature style has been present through the
decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s
‘Bringing Down the Horse’ as well as more recent and
exploratory fare like 2012’s ‘Glad All Over’.
But while it’s been nine long years since we’ve heard from
the group with whom he first made his mark, The
Wallflowers are silent no more. And Dylan always knew
they’d return. “The Wallflowers is much of my life’s work,”
he says simply. That life’s work continues with ‘Exit
Wounds’, the brand-new Wallflowers studio offering. The
collection marks the first new Wallflowers material since
‘Glad All Over’.
‘Exit Wounds’ is an ode to people - individual and
collective - that have, to put it mildly, been through some
stuff. “I think everybody - no matter what side of the aisle
you’re on - wherever we’re going to next, we’re all taking a
lot of exit wounds with us,” Dylan says. “Nobody is the
same as they were four years ago. That, to me, is what
‘Exit Wounds’ signifies. And it’s not meant to be negative at
all. It just means that wherever you’re headed, even if it’s
to a better place, you leave people and things behind, and
you think about those people and those things and you
carry them with you. Those are your exit wounds. And right
now, we’re all swimming in them.”

RAWAX proudly welcomes Kim Nazel, one of the founders of N.W.A. aka The Arabian Prince to the Family! We are happy to present you in future some classic releases and new productions, including a brand new album on the RAWAX WEST COAST EDITION. Starting with "The Arabian Prince And The Sheiks - Take You Home Girl/ Innovator" from 1985, originally released on RAPSUR Records. Our release contains for the first time the unreleased extended version of "Take You Home, Girl"!!! Another highlight is " Innovative Life" this track was done by Kim Nazel together with another legend who is Dr. Dre!!!
Highly recommended!

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Morgan was one of the most active artists in the Los Angeles underground jazz scene, and a member of the late great Horace Tapscott‘s artist collective Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA). He performed alongside Tapscott, and other Nimbus recording artists like Jesse Sharps, who he introduced to Tapscott. He also performed with Arthur Blythe, Gary Bartz, Azar Lawrence, as well as soul icons Willie Hutch (notably on the Foxy Brown soundtrack) and Rufus & Chaka Khan. Most recently he contributed to Carlos Niño’s 2016 album Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening!, and was a part of Niño and vocalist Dwight Trible’s soul-jazz group Build An Ark (which also featured Tribe’s Phil Ranelin).

Journey Into Nigritia was Morgan’s debut as a leader, and the first of three recordings he released for Nimbus West. The album has a strong post-Coltrane spiritual feel, with some modal-based melodies, and some fiery solos from saxophonist Dadisi Komolafe. The record also features a solid rhythm section featuring bassist Jeff Littleton and drummer Fritz Wise.

Review by T J Gorton

At the dawn of the Reagan years, LA jazz pianist Nate Morgan recorded his first album for Nimbus West. Journey Into Nigritia portrays an artist marked by the icons of his day, and striving for reinvention. Although he came from a solid jazz background, coming up through the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra, Morgan found more exciting work with pop bands in the seventies, including glory years with Rufus w/Chaka Khan. On Journey into Nigritia, Morgan re-embraces jazz. Included in the band are Jeff Littleton on bass, Fritz Wise on drums, and Dadisi Komolafe on alto sax.

The collection opens with the Trane-ish Mrafu. Komolafe blasts off in short order, and while the modal chording recalls Tyner, Morgan shows flashes of the nimble loquacious gift that define him. While Alice Coltrane incense perfumes "Morning Prayer, Morgan's devotional sincerity and personnel expression triumph.

Suitably complex with yearning minors, Mother features the trio performing a memorable composition. Littleton's deep-note sustain contrasts Wise's shimmering cymbals, while Morgan tells heart-wrenching truth. With a somewhat solemn theme, He Left Us a Song regularly bursts through into straight-ahead fast break sprints up and down the court. The unexpected "Study in C.T. offers an homage to Cecil Taylor and Morgan's musical roots with free improvisations on a dense and spiky theme. The exhilarating result has Morgan exploring his own way, with a winking slinging of jagged bass chords halfway through.

While a quarter century's experience has nurtured Morgan's prodigious gifts beyond this ambitious debut, Journey Into Nigritia offers enjoyable insights into his artistic evolution, while adding another precious title to the discography of one of the most woefully under-recorded greats of our time.

Nimbus West spirit jazz essential: the Creative Arts Ensemble's classic debut One Step Out. One of the most sought after and highly-regarded titles to have appeared on Tom Albach's celebrated Nimbus West imprint, One Step Out is a timeless work of spiritualized jazz. A true gem from the Los Angeles jazz underground, the album was pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali's first recording as leader of the Creative Arts Ensemble, the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott's legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra community jazz group. A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was introduced to the Tapscott circle in the late 1970s. His first experience of the Arkestra's ethos was through PAPA tenorist Michael Session, who took him to the famous "Great House" at 2412 South Western Ave., LA -- a large mansion house which members of the Arkestra had taken over as a space for communal living. Life in the Great House was a continuous stream of music, dance and community events. "When I walked in there," recalled Kaeef, "it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door -- It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with 'Flashback Of Time', and that was my first arrangement." Kaeef quickly became a significant contributor of compositions to the Arkestra's songbook -- his piece "New Horizon" would be recorded by Horace Tapscott for the latter's Tapscott Sessions series. But "Flashback Of Time" would eventually appear on One Step Out, played by the new group he had put together from stalwart Arkestra members. Inspired by both Tapscott's example and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef had wanted to follow their lead by assembling a larger unit. Featuring seasoned Arkestra regulars including reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, drummer Woody "Sonship" Theus and altoist Gary Bias, with veterans Henry "The Skipper" Franklin on bass and George Bohannon on trombone, One Step Out is a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground. Featuring the sanctified vocals of Kaeef's sister, B. J. Crowley, the album is a tour de force of spiritually energized independent jazz music.

Strut presents one of the most in-demand and significant albums from the archives of Jimmy Gray's Black Fire Records, 'Bow To The People' (1976 )by theatre collective Theatre West, based out of Dayton, Ohio. Recorded at Arrest studios in Washington in '76, 'Bow To The People' brought together songs from several of Theatre West's best known plays including Bow To The People, The System and Black Love and unflinchingly explored serious issues around drug addiction, mental health and cultural awareness. "The whole idea of Bow To The People was to honour our black forefathers," explains Dillard. "It was important to do that for the kids that didn't know." Shelved following the original recording, the Bow To The People album eventually surfaced on a limited CD on Black Fire in 1993. Now receivingits first full international release, the album features the previously unreleased tracks 'Man Of Many Means' and 'I Don't Know Much About Love'

Re-mastering by: Kevin Gray



The best of pianist Horace Tapscott's recordings for the tiny Nimbus label is this 1981 LP which features him in a sextet with trumpeter Reggie Bullen, altoist Gary Bias, tenor saxophonist Sabir Matteen, bassist Roberto Miranda and drummer Everett Brown, Jr. The group stretches out on a couple of Tapscott's originals plus a 19½-minute version of Linda Hill's "Dem Folks." Although the music could be called avant-garde, its use of rhythms and repetition keep the results from being forbidding and the performances have a momentum of their own.

Scott Yanow/AMG

A great group recording from pianist Horace Tapscott – recorded in LA in the early 80s, but done with all the righteousness and spirituality of his earlier albums! Tracks are long and exploratory, but also relatively lyrical too – stretching out with a style that's never too "outside", and which has Horace and the group really soaring to the heavens on the best moments! The group here is a sextet – with the great Gary Bias on alto and soprano saxophone, plus Sabir Matteen on tenor, Reggie Bullen on trumpet, Roberto Miguel Miranda on bass, and Everett Brown on drums and percussion – all working with a cohesiveness that reminds us of some of Tapscott's larger group recordings, but with a cleaner, leaner kind of feel. Titles include "Lately's Solo", "Dial B For Barbara", and "Dem Folks".

Repress

Powerful electro tunes on this new The Exaltics / Paris the Black Fu collaboration on the Clone West Coast Series. The 'Dis turb ance int he Tim eline' is a post apocalyptic electronic soundtrack for a world where nuclear mist, cyberatt acks and disinformation camp aigns hav e tran sform edso ciet y. W eex ist , re s istt he th rea t! !!

Born in San Francisco, Rickey Kelly moved to Los Angeles in 1982.

I first heard Rickey on the local Jazz station and that haunting sound on vibes was just too much to resist. He was working at Hughes Aircraft and didn't have time for gigging in the evening. He had to take care of his family which numbered about six children. I began booking his band soon after meeting him. An artist this blessed should not be working a day job I thought. Rickey soon quit his job at Hughes aircraft and began performing full time. Rickey stayed in his apartment for long periods of time just practising. He often mentioned to me that he needed to stay in isolation to keep his music pure. During Rickey's stay in L.A. he had worked with all the great jazz and R @ B bands. Musicians like altoist Bobby Watson, the legendary drummer Billy Higgins, The Jazz Crusaders, pianist Ahmad Jamal, and one of the most popular artists of his generation Marvin Gaye, often called on Rickey to perform with their bands. As great as these artists were, the addition of Rickey Kelly on vibes seemed to make their music better.Because of his isolation Rickey's music has developed a uniqueness and purity of sound that transcends styles. One reviewer described it as a "childlike quality, a profound innocence”. Relax and listen closely. This is music with a purpose