Search:blue label

2024 Repress


Straight out of the depths of East London, Hoxton Square to be precise. A location before gentrification, the area around Old Street in 1995 was full of young artists, musicians and record labels. Law & Auder were one of those bands, with a studio in the next road to the legendary Blue Note club. This is where these two tracks were created, two cuts that encapsulate the raw sound of the London jungle scene at this time.

This particular 12” is a bit of a cult release, with prices on Discogs for an original copy at a VG+ rating going for a £150 a copy, that’s if you can ever find one.
This is the second release from the group that we have repressed ON Vinyl Fanatiks, with Martin from the group also being a part of Utomica, another group that we repressed a few years ago.

Straight from the East London vaults.

In 1971, Atlantic Records released a pair of Dusty Springfield singles produced by the legendary songwriter/producer Jeff Barry (one-time songwriting and romantic partner of Ellie Greenwich, and author of too many hits to name): “Haunted”/”Nothing Is Forever” and “I Believe In You”/”Someone Who Cares.” A restless Dusty, freshly relocating to America from her native England, then departed the label and left an additional 9 songs recorded with Barry in the can, where they stayed until Rhino issued one track, “Faithful” (in mono), as a bonus track on the 1990s CD release of Dusty’s 1970 Atlantic album A Brand New Me. The other tracks didn’t surface until a subsequent deluxe reissue of Dusty’s landmark 1969 album Dusty in Memphis included them as bonus cuts.

Then, reissue producer Jim Pierson—who tracked down the missing masters after being lost for over two decades —assembled Dusty’s Barry-produced masters and put them together in a single package for the first time to create the third Dusty Springfield Atlantic Records album as planned in 1971. Real Gone Music’s release of Faithful on LP presents these historic Barry-Springfield collaborations exactly as they were originally intended to be heard, with the 12 tracks meant for the album release out on vinyl over 50 years later. All tracks are in stereo, while the liner notes on the new gatefold spread, penned by The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese, feature a number of rarely-seen photos of the legendary singer. These stunning pop, soul and gospel flavored selections showcase the iconic singer at the height of her vocal magic. A missing/ jumbled part of Dusty’s august recorded legacy, finally set right and available in its intended format. Out on metallic gold and purple “royalty” vinyl as befitting The Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul…limited to 1500 copies!

Magic Combo is a vinyl-only label that specializes in limited edition edits of iconic original tracks, symbolizing the rich diversity of musical genres such as Afro, Funk, Jazz, Blues, R&B, and Classic House. This label is a melting pot of emotions, love, and musical improvisations, brought to you by a dynamic combination of emerging Italian and international musicians, DJs, and producers. Each release is a carefully curated selection that represents the soul of its genre, offering a unique listening experience that transcends the ordinary.

The Magic Combo label is not just about music; it’s about creating a connection between the listener and the sounds that have shaped generations. Our limited edition vinyl are a testament to the enduring power of music and the magic that happens when different cultures and sounds collide. It’s a celebration of the past, present, and future of music, encapsulating the essence of each genre while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Join us on a journey through sound with Magic Combo, where every record is a story, every beat a heartbeat, and every spin a new discovery. This is where the magic of vinyl comes alive, and where the love for music is immortalized in every groove.

True Acid Wizards of the 1980s/1990s Psychedelic Underground TreaTmenT performed at Stonehenge Free Festival and at squats and clubs all over London including the now legendary Alice In Wonderland, The Crypt and Club Dog where they assaulted the minds of those present with their unique and somewhat terrifying blend of '60s psychedelia and '70s space rock all liberally spiked with a questioning punk attitude. Performing with Dr & The Medics, Ozric Tentacles, The Magic Mushroom Band, Naz Nomad and The Nightmares and other luminaries of the neo-psychedelic space rock revival, TreaTmenT were an integral part of the scene and possibly the most psychedelic band of them all.

Hardcore to the max, the band insisted on performing in a psychedelicised state, looking like a cross between Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come and early Pink Floyd and often with a lightshow. Firmly fixated on taking their audience on the trip of a lifetime TreaTment consisted of Adam Blake (Jacket Xerxophon) on guitar and vocals, Gordon Leach (Gordon Zola) on further guitar and vocals, Clive Leach (Evil C. Live, Ron Number, Curtis Vile) on bass/trombone, Paul Ross (The Big Beat, Mr Raagh) on drums/percussion and Paul McWhinnie (Mutant) on keyboards, noises and vocals. They were without doubt a live phenomenon, and although they released a couple of singles, cassettes, a live album and a studio album - Cypher Caput - on the Delerium label (home to Porcupine Tree), they never really managed to commit their mind-blowing magic to vinyl. Now, nearly 20 years after it was recorded TreaTment are releasing a limited-edition double vinyl LP of their second studio album How Much is Enough? in memory of guitarist Gordon Leach who sadly passed away in 2021.

The album was intended to be released on Delerium in 2000 but never was and whilst one track 'Keep Ahead' appeared on the Cherry Red box set Last Daze of The Underground - Delerium Records Anthology in 2011 nothing else has seen the light of day until now. Fans of the band will note cornerstones of their live set such as the wondrously trippy 'What The Hell to do' the humorous swipe at the music press 'Hate The Band' the melodic keyboard swirling 'Restless', the frenetic guitar cross fire of 'No Understanding' and the nihilistic nightmare 'Blot Out'.

Housed in a gatefold sleeve packed with photos and memorabilia as well as for the first time the full history of the band and limited to only 300 on 180-gram vinyl How Much is Enough? will no doubt be seen in the future as one of the landmark releases of the '80s/90s Neo-Psychedelic revival.

LIMITED REPRINT .Introductions by David Fricke and Adrian Shaughnessy. 224 pages, comes in a tactile Geltex hardcover and is beautifully designed by Hiorthøy. Includes a 7" single with exclusive tracks from Fire! Orchestra, The Last Hurrah!! and Maja S. K. Ratkje. It´s no secret that Rune Grammofon founder Rune Kristoffersen is a big admirer of labels like Blue Note, Impulse, ECM, 4AD and Factory, to mention some labels with strong visual identities. But we can´t recall another label that has worked with one designer exclusively for 25 years and some 250 releases. A singular visual language that's as distinctive as Hipgnosis' 1970s surreal juxtapositions, or the brooding portraiture gracing ECM Records' output. Prog (UK) As well as being a piece of guaranteed coffee table eye-candy for music lovers, the book promises an insight into the fascinating process of bringing a record and its cover to life. Creative Review (UK) RG feels like a dream vision of a record label - fuelled by passion, irreverent in tone yet serious in execution, somehow miraculously buffered from corporate industry expectations. The sound and visuals here cover two decades of inspiration and unpredictability, but they also bristle with creative possibilities for a long time to come.Elephant (UK)

2024 Repress

Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt is the first solo record by John Frusciante. Between 1990 and 1992 the guitarist made a series of 4-track recordings, which at the time were not intended for commercial release. After leaving the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Frusciante was encouraged by friends to release the material that he wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions.

Originally released on Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1994, Niandra LaDes is a mystifying work of tortured beauty. Frusciante plays various acoustic and electric guitars, experimenting with layers of vocals, piano and reverse tape effects. Channeling the ghosts of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, his lyrics are at once utterly personal and willfully opaque.

Frusciante's rapidfire, angular playing shows how key he was in the Chili Peppers' evolution away from their funk-rock roots. His cover of "Big Takeover" perfectly deconstructs the Bad Brains original with laid-back tempo, twelve-string guitar and a fierce handle on melody.

The album's second part - thirteen untitled tracks that Frusciante defines as one complete piece, Usually Just A T-Shirt - contains several instrumentals featuring his signature guitar style. Sparse phrasing, delicate counterpoint and ethereal textures recall Neu/Harmonia's Michael Rother or The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly.

On the front cover, Frusciante appears in 1920s drag - a nod to Marcel Duchamp's alter-ego Rrose Sélavy - which comes from Toni Oswald's film Desert in the Shape.

This first-time vinyl release has been carefully remastered and approved by the artist. The double LP set is packaged with gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves.

"For A Fleeting Moment" is the result of the dialogue between the Swiss photographer Simone Kappeler and the Japanese musician Tomotsugu Nakamura initiated by IIKKI, between March 2023 and May 2024.

Tomotsugu Nakamura is a musician and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan. His primary artistic practice is to compose music with some fragments of minimal acoustic and electronic tones and some field recordings. In Concert, he he has played with various genre of musicians and his works have been released by Kaico, Audiobulb Records, and more recently by the French label LAAPS.

Born in 1952 in Frauenfeld (Switzerland) where she lives and works, Simone Kappeler started taking pictures at the age of 11. After studying German literature and art history, she studied photography at the Zurich University of the Arts. During a three-month trip to the United States in 1981, she took her first pictures using cheap cameras, especially the Diana camera.
Hasselblad, Leica, Diana, Brownie, Polaroid, disposable camera, expired or infrared films, since 1970, Simone Kappeler has explored all types of photographic techniques. Her work, experimental and poetic, reveals to us the curiously foreign world that surrounds us.
Since 1982, ongoing projects in southern France and the Grisons.1982/83, studio in New York, conceptual photography and Super 8 films. 1983/84, theater photographer, Schauspielhaus Zürich. 2009, six-week photographic study of Japan, 2015 studio in New York. Her work was the subject of a first monograph: "Seile. Fluss. Nacht. Fotografien 1964–2011", edited by Hatje Cantz and is regularly exhibited in Galleries and Museum in Europe and United States.
For A Fleeting Moment is her first book gathered exclusively a part of her wide polaroid works from 2011 to 2023.

Fine Art Book, Ltd. to 700 copies:
Hardcover book printed on Glossy Modern Paper 170g/m2 // 104 pages, 19cm x 22.5cm, 66 photos // Front cover points and back cover logo embossed // Selective UV varnish // Hand-numbered.

Inspired by Muddy Waters and other blues greats, the South London blues-rock band Killing Floor was formed in 1968 with lead singer and harmonica player Bill Thorndycraft, guitarist Mike Clarke, bassist Stuart McDonald, pianist Lou Martin and percussionist Bas Smith. This self-titled debut set, issued by the independent Spark label (and licensed to Sire for US pressings), was produced with care by former DJ John Edward, based on Chicago blues material, as heard on the cover of Willie Dixon’s ‘You Need Love.’ This is the band at their rawest beginnings, a grittier traditional blues set that contrasts with later work for Larry Page.

Im Rahmen der BLUE NOTE CLASSIC VINYL EDITION erscheinen in der neuesten Staffel zwei moderne Klassiker. Beide Alben gab es bisher nicht auf Vinyl und diese Doppel-LPs enthalten nun auch die bislang nur in Japan veröffentlichen Bonustracks . Stereo, von Kevin Gray von den Original-Masterbändern gemastert, bei Optimal auf 180g-Vinyl gepresst, Gatefold-Sleeves. Nachdem er zuvor auf drei Blue-Note-Alben des Trompeters Terence Blanchard auf sich aufmerksam gemacht hatte, erhielt Pianist Aaron Parks 2008 die Chance, mit “Invisible Cinema” sein erstes eigenes Album für das Label einspielen. Zu hören ist er hier mit einem exzellenten Quartett und einem Programm von durchweg eigenen Kompositionen, die allerdings musikalische Einflüsse von Wayne Shorter bis Radiohead verraten. Jetzt erscheint “Invisible Cinema” zum ersten Mal als Doppelalbum auf Vinyl. Mit “Ten”, seinem achten Album für Blue Note, feierte der Pianist Jason Moran 2010 das zehnjährige Jubiläum seines Trios The Bandwagon. Das noch heute in unveränderter Besetzung spielende Trio hat - ähnlich wie z.B. The Bad Plus oder das Robert Glasper Trio - das Image des klassischen Piano-Trios radikal modernisiert. Auf “Ten”, das nun erstmals als Doppelalbum auf Vinyl veröffentlicht wird, bietet The Bandwagon neben Originalen von Moran auch einzigartige Interpretationen von Stücken aus der Feder von Thelonious Monk, Jaki Byard und Conlon Nancarrow.

Eight months after the release of Wake Of The Flood, the GRATEFUL DEAD followed up that masterpiece with the second album on their Grateful Dead Records label, From The Mars Hotel. To this day, most of the songs on From The Mars Hotel are played frequently by the band members as they continue to bring the music to the people, and during the GRATEFUL DEAD’S touring career, more than half of the songs were important parts of their live repertoire. “Scarlet Begonias,” “Ship Of Fools,” and “U.S Blues” arrived on the scene in 1974, with “China Doll” and “Loose Lucy” coming a year earlier, and they all quickly became staples of GRATEFUL DEAD live sets for decades, although “Loose Lucy” had a 15 year hiatus 1975-1989. Phil's two songs on the album are often played live these days when Phil performs with his rotating cast of Friends, and these songs, “Pride Of Cucamonga” and “Unbroken Chain” are elicit ecstatic responses. These would be the final two Phil-sung songs on a GRATEFUL DEAD studio album. Peaking at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 chart in 1974, the album's terrific batch of new songs and exceptional production had Dead Heads scooping up the album 50 years ago upon its release.

Eight months after the release of Wake Of The Flood, the GRATEFUL DEAD followed up that masterpiece with the second album on their Grateful Dead Records label, From The Mars Hotel. To this day, most of the songs on From The Mars Hotel are played frequently by the band members as they continue to bring the music to the people, and during the GRATEFUL DEAD’S touring career, more than half of the songs were important parts of their live repertoire. “Scarlet Begonias,” “Ship Of Fools,” and “U.S Blues” arrived on the scene in 1974, with “China Doll” and “Loose Lucy” coming a year earlier, and they all quickly became staples of GRATEFUL DEAD live sets for decades, although “Loose Lucy” had a 15 year hiatus 1975-1989. Phil's two songs on the album are often played live these days when Phil performs with his rotating cast of Friends, and these songs, “Pride Of Cucamonga” and “Unbroken Chain” are elicit ecstatic responses. These would be the final two Phil-sung songs on a GRATEFUL DEAD studio album. Peaking at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 chart in 1974, the album's terrific batch of new songs and exceptional production had Dead Heads scooping up the album 50 years ago upon its release.

“Gun The Man Down ” by Dice The boss aka Pama Dice was first released in 1969 on the Trojan sublabel Joe with the track “Thief” by Joe Mansano on the B side. “Thief” is also reissued by us on a separate single dedicated to Joe Mansano.

“Your Boss DJ” was also released in 1969 on the Joe Label with the track “Read The News” by Joe All Stars on the flip.

Both titles are skinhead reggae classics that have never been reissued until now.

About Joe Mansano:

“Gun The Man Down ” and "Your Boss DJ" were both credited to Joe Mansano, real name Joel Mansano, who also produced the songs. Joel was a Trinidadian who moved to London in 1963. He was a record shop seller, song writer and producer and became heavily involved in the early reggae era producing and writing tracks for several Jamaican artists, enough for Trojan to dedicate a label to him: the “Joe” label aimed at the emerging Skinheads market. He also owned a shop the Joe's Record Centre in Brixton and recorded two handfuls of singles under the name Joe The boss…

About Dice The Boss/ Pama Dice:

Not much is known about Dice The Boss. His real name was Hopeton Reid and he was alternatively known as “Pama Dice”. But we know more about Pama Dice thanks to Gaz Mayall!

"Pama Dice was one of Prince Busters ‘no-shoes’ ‘Sunday school gang in west Kingston Jamaica. According to the Prince there wasn’t a car that Pama couldn’t nick. He used to nick the cars uptown with no shoes on & take them to the ghetto to teach the youth to drive. They were called the Sunday school or no-shoes gang as they were so poor that they only had one pair of shoes each & only wore them to church on Sundays. Pama Dice rose in the ranks to become one of Prince Busters main sound system DJs before emigrating to London in the late sixties where he MC’d for Duke Vin & recorded many great records for the UK/Jamaican booming new Reggae market in its infancy on the shoulders of the Bluebeat & Ska & Rock Steady music scene."

Source Gaz Mayall 27/2/2021

Following his tenure fronting British psychedelic rock act The Web, who cut a couple of likeable albums featuring his bluesy, soulful lead, US-born vocalist Mississippi John L. Watson went solo, working with Pete Wingfield on his 1970 debut, White Hot Blue Black. Superior sophomore set Let’s Straighten It Out was released on Bob Kingston’s Spark label in 1975 and credited to John L. Watson and White Mouse, with Watson headed in a funk direction; along with the potent title track, there’s a fine cut of Gwen McCrae’s ‘Rockin’ Chair,’ making the set a sure-fire winner for Watson fans and lovers of British funk and soul.

Burning Hell was recorded in 1959 in Detroit, MI, but wasn't released until 1964. Even then, it was only available in the U.K.. This 180-gram vinyl pressing marks the first official single LP worldwide release the album has seen. Pressed at QRP as part of the Bluesville Records / Acoustic Sounds series, the album features Hooker solo as he plays originals and classics. AllMusic states that, on this album, "Hooker shows himself to be an excellent interpreter who could have held his own with Delta bluesmen of any era."

Craft Recordings, in partnership with Acoustic Sounds, is releasing Burning Hell as part of the Bluesville Series. Bluesville is a brand-new hub for all things blues, including vinyl reissues, curated playlists, and more! Inspired by the original label imprint established under Prestige Records in 1959, the Bluesville Series will highlight the many trailblazing musicians who contributed to the rich tradition of the blues, including titles from legendary artists on labels such as Vee-Jay, Riverside, Vanguard, Stax, and Rounder Records.

The albums in the Bluesville Series are pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings and feature all-analog (AAA) mastering by Grammy-nominated engineer Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab at Blue Heaven Studios, plus a tip-on jacket and obi strip with notes written by Grammy-winning producer, writer and musician Scott Billington.

For the fourth time now Jaqee introduces herself to the World with her impressive voice and her unique attitude. Born in Kampala, the Capital of Uganda, she began her vagabond like life the moment she was born. During her childhood, she travelled the rural areas of her home country with her parents. This is where she collected her first impressions of the life as a nomad. From birth on, wandering the earth became a part of her destiny. In the early nineties she undertook a huge step and immigrated to Sweden. The City of Gothenburg would become her adopted home from where she was able to access all the different destinies and directions, which were on offer to her. Through all the borders Jaqee crossed, music has always been her steady companion whereas it never was a stereotype thing that let her get down with any special genre, than more like a special feeling. “To do what I want in a particular moment is my motivation. I like to express myself in all kind of sounds.” So above all, she became a true nomad in the world of music. After several successful co-operations with numerous artists, in 2005 Jaqee made an impact with her debut album “Blaqalixious”, which was mainly a Soul and R&B album. “That was my direct contact to the music that a rural community in the Diaspora plays” she explains. But it did not end up there because a nomad like Jaqee does not settle anywhere. After further creative and fruitful collaborations, Jaqee released her second long player “Nouvelle d´ amour” in 2007. This time, the sound was more of a rocking, bluesy vibe. It seemed to be the total opposite to her debut album but for Jaqee it was only the next step on her path in the circle of life. “Everything is possible as long as it is real. I never wonder about things like genre as long as the vibe fits.” One step further on, she encountered the songs of Billie Holiday, which lead to the album “A letter to Billie” recorded together with Bohuslänbigband, a lovely homage to the great American Jazz Singer. Both of her first two albums each received a Swedish Grammy nomination and several appearances in the Swedish national television increased her standing as a passionate and soulful Singer. So Teka, producer and creator of many successful riddims for his co-found German label, Rootdown Records considered her to be part of his new project “Koala Desperados“, which link Caribbean vibes like Cumbia to Reggae, and while working on it a totally new idea was born. Jaqee and Teka decided to combine both their talents into one album. The results of which you can now hear on “Kokoo Girl” a refreshing mix of Old School Reggae sounds from the seventies combined with up-to-date Beats, electronic twists and turns and of course the amazing voice of Jaqee. For her, this means that she has achieved some of her ambitions. “I grew up with African Gospel, in sad and turbulent environment, so for me, this means I grasp and totally understand the reggae and its non ending struggle for the common man.” No sooner said than done and “Kokoo Girl” will become Jaqee’s fourth and newest release. All the paths she followed, countries she crossed and influences she absorbed are a part of this album. She sings with the freedom of spirit of the travelling people. The word “Kokoo” is the only memory that remains everlasting. It is just a word but its impact is so huge that Jaqee does not really like to explain it. “It implies irony and seriousness as well as sarcasm and fun.” It is more than a gimmick. “Kokoo” is a very special feeling and a clear view of the world from an artist who has seen more of it than all the people that have settled down.

Old Saw, the enigmatic New England collective led by Henry Birdsey (Tongue Depressor), return with their third long-playing record, Dissection Maps. It is not enough to trace the fields. The choreo-cartographic demands the casting of stone, a grassfire, a carnival; something with which to rupture the horizontality of existence and imagine the vertical. Earth is the eighth morning, folded against the week's work. The field is a line drawing of oblivion. The house is a forest in the shape of a womb. America is a quarry in the image of god. (Aidan Patrick Welby – 2024) “The band captures the American stretch, the spaces in-between and the hollowness that haunts us along those routes…fades the radio to static to let the nothingness linger among the soul.” (Raven Sings the Blues) “evokes an ambience of prayer-like solemnity that celebrates something decidedly terrestrial, what the label describes as “a rusted and granular shadow world where the dive bar meets the divine.” It recalls one of those junkyard shrines built by some sincere eccentric, improbably wonderful forms of weathered stone and scrap metal standing like totems to an unrecognised religion rooted in the earth around us.” (Various Small Flames)

SABÏRE has now returned in 2024 with a 15 track epic, self-styled "half-concept" album, "Jätt", 5 years in the making. SABÏRE began at the tail end of 2010 as an idea to have a band that played simply what came naturally on guitar to Scarlett Monastyrski with no set genre or category. Simply the natural music. Shortly thereafter, the concept grew to accompany that sound with a big show and distinctive stylisation. The biting and sharp sound production, along with their personal lyrics, birthed for them a label for their music: ACID METAL. Not to be confused with the mind altering substance, Acid Metal took its name from the concentrated corrosive fluid not unlike the blood of the Xenomorph in the Alien films. The instruments are awash with acidic modulation, "like a drop of acid in the dark." The lyrics all hold a tinge of biting realism that once realised by the listener, stings them like a droplet of acid resting upon their skin. To take their metaphor further, their distinctive production style let's stand apart from the rest of the "modern" sound that degrades the potentcy of many new bands. They call it "brick culture," because it all sounds the same. Concentrated acid burns all the way through anything solid leaving a hot trail behind it, like the band continues to do so with garnering the attention of the world of heavy music. Band leader Scarlett Monastyrski comments : " 'Jätt' is meant to be THE sound of SABÏRE. A monolith to what we stand for artistically. We wanted this album to be its own art piece rather than simply a collection of arbitrary songs, a really 'blue' coloured sound. The physical copies hold beautifully styled texts detailing the concept for those chosen songs, as well as small epistles to accompany each track," says . “ 'Jätt' is a “blue” sounding album; the colour. You may understand that more when listening to the album yourself. The cover of 'Jätt', “Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell” - Gustav Doré, 1861, could be seen through a symbolic lense in which the listener is symbolised as Dante, the artist as Virgil, and the bodies locked within the ice of frozen lake as the music surrounding them; we as the artist are shepherding the listener through the mire. This could be perceived like this, or you may just see it as an attractive album cover. “ "We put our heart and soul into this one and can't wait to give our Wild Ones and Acid Fiends what they've been so patiently waiting for

2LP - schwarzes, schweres Standard-Doppelvinyl; enthält einen exklusiven Hidden Track, bei dem der handgeschriebene Liedtext auf der D-Seite eingraviert ist.

Otherness" ist das zweite Studioalbum von Ferris & Sylvester. Die Musik erstreckt sich über ein Spektrum von psychedelischem Folk, Blues, Rock und Soul - und doch sind die Songs durch das starke und lebendige Storytelling des Duos verbunden. Anklänge an Alabama Shakes, Madison Cunningham und die Teskey Brothers schwingen mit. Aufgenommen im Studio der beiden auf einer Bandmaschine aus den 1960er Jahren und veröffentlicht über ihr Label Archtop Records, widmet das Ehepaar das Album "jedem, der sich als Außenseiter fühlt".

“There are lots of outstanding Joe McPhee LPs. Nation Time being chief among them, but there’s also Pieces Of Light, Oleo and Topology. The Poughkeepsie, New York-based multi-instrumentalist, by now an international star of free music, has amassed a daunting discography, no doubt. If you want to peer deeply into the soul of Joe McPhee, however, there’s no way around it, you need to spend some quality time with Tenor. “Tenor is McPhee’s first solo record. He did not set out to make it. It was an afterthought, quite literally, born of a gathering of friends at the Swiss farmhouse of cellist Michael Overhage. A beautiful meal, some drinks, warm conversation, and ... why not, an impromptu recital. Hat Hut producer Werner X. Uehlinger was there and a year later issued it as McPhee’s third LP for the label (Hat Hut C in their famed letter series). “The existential blues ‘Knox’ sets the stage, indicating that this will not just be a toss-off postprandial singalong. ‘Good-Bye Tom B.’ carries on with aching melancholy, through burred notes and hushed harmonics. The relatively jaunty ‘Sweet Dragon’ is also emotionally loaded with Ayler-esque vibrato, slurs, wipes, and blasts of tone. The side-long title track comes without a theme, as a kind of pure investigation of the horn, its potential, its limits, its expressive capacity. There have been few solo sessions as comprehensive and devastating as this spontaneous after-dinner diversion in rural Switzerland in 1976. We’re very lucky someone pressed record.” —John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

The Orquesta Broadway played a significant role in the evolution of Cuban music, and the album New York City Salsa’ stands as a testament to its creativity and lasting impact on the music scene. Released in 1978 on the Coco Records label, the album is often praised for its influence in merging different musical styles, including salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz. It features dynamic compositions and sophisticated arrangements that further solidified Orquesta Broadway’s reputation in the world of Latin music. Unavailable for many years, it is now released in a limited edition on TRANSPARENT DARK BLUE vinyl.