Suche:rob fender

THEODOR is a psychedelic sweet soul band formed by members with diverse musical backgrounds.

Whilst on a road trip to Italy Rob and Lui were listening to tapes of contemporary soul music. The idea was born to record an album channeling a moody and relaxed soundscape. „Right after our trip we called up our good friends Max and Greg, who were immediately on board. We wrote and recorded deep in the pandemic. Those weekend sessions captured this peaceful solitude“ The outcome was their self-titled debut album which will be released in February 2023 on the french label Broc Recordz.

The rich sonic texture and unconventional arrangements of their very first single SHEPARD’S LULLABY gives a hint on what is to be expected on their forthcoming LP. THEODOR created a perfect soundtrack for a hot and humid summer day having a magic dash in your twelve o’clock tea. Playful melodic bass lines and the soulful acoustic drums build the playground for the warm and dreamy keys such as farfisa organs, fender rhodes and 80's synths. The lush instrumentals are spiced by the very different yet complementary voices of Max and Lui.

Das 4. Remaster der Serie um den australischen Singer-Songwriter Robert Forster.
Erstmals erscheint Beautiful Hearts“ hier mit Bonusmaterial auf Vinyl im Gatefold mit zusätzlicher 7".

LA-based composer/arranger E. Lundquist (aka Eric Borders) returns with ‘Art Between Minds’. Having cut his teeth in the LA hip-hop and beats scene and explored realms of cosmic-funk under previous monikers, E. Lundquist’s music displays a rich tapestry of influences including the cinematic & experimental jazz-infused library music that influenced his previous LP ‘Multiple Images’. Now he is back with another ample helping of his hallucinogenic sonics, utilizing a bevy of vintage gear to replicate that warm glow of ’70s jazz-funk. From the Fender Rhodes MKI to the ARP Odyssey, to the Mellotron, the keys and synths he employs on these tracks display a genuine appreciation for the groove-driven music of The ‘Me” Decade.

The album plays like the score to a cult classic B-movie. The sun-drenched haze of “Soliloquy” could easily be what you hear during the calm before the storm in a Blaxploitation flick and the laidback crawl of “Euphoria” seems ripped right out of a fuzzy ‘70s blue movie. But there is a certain sophistication here, like the way the horn section, slinky guitar, and trippy synths combine on “Escape” to sound like liquid one moment and like a summer breeze the next.

While E. Lundquist’s artistry will eventually take him to new plateaus of sound, where he is right now is undoubtedly a high watermark in his career. He has become a torchbearer for jazz-funk in a new jazz revolution, updating the sub-genre with his delicate balance of digital and analog elements that will easily appeal to fans of Kamaal Williams, Surprise Chef, BADBADNOTGOOD, Khurangbin, Robohands and similar.

Apocryphonis the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band The Sword and featuring The Veil of Isis, Cloak of Feathers, Arcane Montane and The Hidden Masters Recorded at Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore, Maryland with producerJ Robbins, it was released by New York label Razor & Tie in October 2012.Apocryphonis the band's first album without original member Trivett Wingo, and the first to feature his replacement Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III, who took over from interim touring drummer Kevin Fender in October 2011; it is also the first of the band's albums to be released by Razor & Tie, with whom the group signed in early 2012 after seven years with Kemado Records. Remastered and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Housed in a gatefold jacket featuring artwork by the award-winning comic book artist and penciller, J.H. Williams III. "Heavy metal distilled to its purest form." - Consequence

Neo Noir Swing! The modern Les Paul from the Dark Side! PO and his band catapult you right into a ball room filled with misfits and goons and smack you with 12 songs including the terrific cover version of Niagara's 80's disco hit L'amour a la plage Pierre Omer was born in London of an Indian father and a Swiss mother. He is a founder member of the legendary Swiss funeral Rock'n'Roll band The Dead Brothers (guitars and accordion). In 2009 he started several solo projects along with Robert Butler (the Shit, the Miracle Workers), Roland Bucher and Christian Aregger (Blind Butcher) in 2013 the Swing Revue was born, along with: Pierre Omer: vocals, guitar Julien Israelian: drums, Géraldine Schenkel: Fender Rhodes, Christoph Gantert: vocals, trumpet, and the one and only Lalla Morte: Sings Fakir and Dances. They played many shows and festivals such as: Binic Folk Blues Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Buskers Bern, Festival Les Athénéennes, Pod'Ring Biel, Vinelz, Le Cirque Electric Paris etc. This new album is recorded by the band itself in true DIY-style - Pierre already produced some Voodoo Rhythm Records (mama rosin) in the past - and was mixed in Berlin's Big Snuff Studio with Nene Baratto (movie star junkies, black lips, Heat, Jimi Tenor, King khan, Black Mass Rising. The whole album Stands out with Pierre's amazing song writing skills, the lazy laid back dark vocal and his irritating guitar playing, along with Christop Gantert's devil possessed trumpet playing. The Music of the swing era of the 30's and 40's, combined with a garage spirit and an eye for everything else make for a special album. Classic black vinyl with dlc and printed inlay, CD as gatefold wallet with 12page booklet.

Rainbow Generator are Australia’s first true experimental electronic music group. Consisting of David Labuschagne AKA Mojo, and Rob Greaves AKA Ras. Starting in the mid-70’s, the pair took it upon themselves to begin exploring the possibilities of the sonic dimension and with an ‘open mind’ began investigating the interface between psyche and sound.

In 1976 David established the ‘Lectric Loo’ studio in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Known to the ‘heads’ as simply the “Loo”, the 3-story building was owned by the Department of Main Roads, and slated for demolition. So, it was that the entire block became a haven for squatters, and while Mojo had the main 3-story building to himself, the rest of the buildings were taken by a hotch-potch of people that included Anarchists, a Clown School and a collection of other random squatters.

Recording in the ‘Lectric Loo’ provided them the ability to record freely. In 1975 they began to experiment, putting Mojo’s Fender Strat through effects pedals, playing with sounds while manipulating shortwave radio stations and also challenging convention by playing the insides of instruments. By 1976 they had built a kit synthesizer and shortly after purchased a full Roland 100 Synthesiser set-up and were on their way.

In 1978, with little resources, or any form of distribution they released their sole LP ‘Dance of the Spheres’. As Mojo puts it, “we were intent on making music with whatever we could beg, borrow, buy, and liberate. Albeit with scant regard for the rules or conventions or niceties of the game. Ultimately, it was all an act of love, of joy. Not just an adventure; it was a musical odyssey”.

This odyssey continued their exploration of the interface between psyche and sound.
Fusing genres and boundaries, Dance of the Spheres incorporates elements of 70’s psych and folk with spoken-word and of course the emerging sounds of the synthesizer and drum machines. Furthermore, the addition of traditional instruments such as the didgeridoo and the classical Indian instrumentation technique of a Raga add a timeless layer, all seamlessly complementing the other elements and launching the album to another dimension.

Repress!

‘Shapes,’ the third album from London-based multi-instrumentalist, Robohands, fuses elements of jazz, krautrock, hip hop and ambient music. For fans of Khruangbin, Yusef Dayes, CAN, Coltrane and 70s library music moods.

Shapes is the solo project of London based composer, instrumentalist and producer Andy Baxter. His debut LP Green was released on Village Live Records in 2018 and was received with much love and acclaim in the UK Jazz, hip hop and surrounding scenes.

His follow up full-length, 'Dusk’, dropped in 2019, combining soul, funk, Latin & experimental moods. It featured vocalists & musicians from around the world including legendary New York French horn player, John Clark, who has worked with Isaac Hayes, Gil Evans Orchestra, McCoy Tyner, Jaco Pastorius, Ornette Coleman and many more greats.

'Shapes' is inspired by 1970s library music and their legendary composers including Piero Umiliani, David Axelrod, Brian Bennett and co. The album builds on these influences and incorporates modern motifs, contemporary jazz/hip hop drumming styles with a nod to 1990s Mo Wax artists such as DJ Shadow. The theme for the record is future/nostalgia, mixing vintage & modern instruments and production techniques.

Much of ‘Shapes’ was recorded with JB Pilon at Buffalo Studios in Limehouse, London. Due to the COVID restrictions that changed everything in 2020, the remaining parts were recorded in Andy’s flat using a collection of old mixing desk preamps and instruments.

For the heads – ‘Shapes’ features an array of vintage snares, including a 1960's Ludwig Pioneer and a mono, overhead ribbon mic on the drum kit provided extra old school points! The kick drum was re-amped through a huge vintage bass amplifier on a couple of tracks to give it some real character: “My favourite guitar sound achieved on this LP project is a Sontronics Sigma ribbon microphone in front of a WEM Dominator amp, which you can hear on the track 'Odysea'. The bass sound for all the tracks is a 1973 Fender Precision into an old Altec valve preamp, the one used on most Motown recordings."

Die neue Ausgabe der Bootleg Series von Bob Dylan, "Fragments - Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17" erscheint als 5 CDs umfassendes Deluxe Boxset sowie als Standard-Version auf 2 CDs oder 4 LPs. Sie enthält in der Standardversion das Album "Time Out Of Mind" in einem 2022er Remix sowie zwölf ausgewählten Outtakes und Alternativversionen. Volume 17 der gefeierten Dylan-Reihe wirft 25 Jahre nach seiner Erstveröffentlichung einen neuen Blick auf das Meisterwerk "Time Out Of Mind" und zeichnet dessen Entstehung nach. Angefangen bei den bislang unveröffentlichten Song-Fassungen aus den 1996er Teatro-Sessions mit Dylan (Gesang, Gitarre, Piano), Daniel Lanois (Gitarre, Orgel), Tony Garnier (Bass) und Tony Mangurian (Schlagzeug, Percussion) bis hin zu (ebenfalls unveröffentlichten) Live-Mitschnitten aus den Jahren 1998-2001. Anfang 1996 begann Dylan, der seit der 1990er LP Under The Red Sky kein Album mit Eigenkompositionen veröffentlicht hatte, mit der Arbeit an neuen Songs. Von August bis Oktober ging er mit Daniel Lanois, der sein 1989er Album Oh Mercyproduziert hatte, ins Teatro Studio in Oxnard/CA, um dort Demos für eine mögliche neue LP aufzunehmen. Als die Songs im Januar des Folgejahres Form angenommen hatten, zog man ins Criteria Studio in Miami/FL um. Die Studiobesetzung wurde aufgestockt, und so fand sich in Florida ein illustrer Mix aus Session-Musikern und Mitgliedern von Dylans Tourband ein: Bucky Baxter (Akustikgitarre, Pedal Steel), Duke Robillard (E-Gitarre/Gibson L-5), Robert Britt (Martin Akustikgitarre, Fender Stratocaster), Cindy Cashdollar (Slide Gitarre), Tony Garnier (Bass, Kontrabass), Augie Meyers (Vox Orgel, Hammond B3, Akkordeon), Jim Dickinson (Keyboards, Wurlitzer E-Piano, Pumporgel) sowie die Schlagzeuger Jim Keltner, Brian Blade und David Kemper. Das Album "Time Out Of Mind", der schließlich aus diesen Sessions entstand, avancierte zu einem Dylan-Klassiker. Songs wie "Love Sick", "Can't Wait" oder "Not Dark Yet" wurden zu Lieblingsstücken der Fans. Mit "Make You Feel My Love" gelang Dylan sogar das Kunststück, dem Great American Songbook einen neuen zeitgenössischen Standard hinzuzufügen. Zahllose Künstler, darunter Billy Joel, Neil Diamond oder Adele, haben diesen Song gecovert. Bei den Grammy Awards 1998 gewann "Time Out Of Mind" in den Kategorien 'Album of the Year' und 'Best Contemporary Folk Album'.

Robert Groslot's Concerto for Bass Guitar and Orchestra represents the
next step in the evolution of the bass guitar
Groslot's composition pushes the instrument to its technical limits, while creating
a unique symbiosis between the soloist and the orchestra. Although he may not
be the first composer to write for the bass guitar in a symphonic setting, Groslot
brings a level of artistry and sophistication to the composition that will continue
and accelerate the legitimation of the bass guitar within contemporary classical
music. "The idea of a concerto for bass guitar is something that I have been
dreaming of for decades. Since its invention, the bass guitar has firmly
established itself as an essential and integral part of practically every genre of
music. The bass guitar, as we now know it, was invented and produced by Leo
Fender starting in 1951. The more portable bass guitar, in comparison to the large
and unwieldy double bass, was capable of playing at higher volumes via
amplification and satisfied the new sonic demands created by the widespread
use of electrification in popular music. By increasing the overall scale of the
electric guitar and only using the lowest four strings (E, A, D, G), Fender gave birth
to a new instrument. Traditional double bassists could quickly adapt, with the
added benefit of more accurate intonation due to the frets. Hence the original
name: The Precision Bass. At the same time, guitarists could also become bass
players when called upon. As a result, many of the early bass guitarists began
their musical life as guitar players, with the most well-known example being Paul
McCartney of The Beatles.
The fact that the bass guitar had no direct lineage like the evolution of the piano
or violin over time, led to a variety of disparate playing styles without any
fundamental methodology. Unlike the more traditional instruments, the bass
guitar does not sit upon a foundation of centuries of proven methods and
established schools of playing. The evolution of the bass guitar has been a
patchwork of trial and error by active musicians. This has led to a plethora of
personal approaches and hybrid-styles, effectively leading to the rapid evolution
of bass guitar technique. Given its relatively young history, it is remarkable how
the bass guitar has grown from being an instrument taken up out of necessity, or
as an afterthought, to being as respected and vital to modern music as any of the
older, more established instruments." - Thomas Fiorini

First time reissue from this essential latin jazz album from 1971 !

Often affectionately referred to as the "Godfather of British Latin music" Robin Jones was truly one of the great performers on the international Latin scene.

Denga, his first recording from 1971 is a scintillating fusion of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazillian rhythms laden with heavy Fender Rhodes sounds and no less than three Afro-Latin Percussionists. The hard-to-find album has now been reissued by legendary London jazz DJ Paul Murphy's Jazz Room Records imprint. It should be an essential purchase for anyone who loves Latin jazz.

Feature's Robin's personal favorites including "Goodbye Batucada" which rightfully lays claim to be the first Brazilian Jazz Samba tune recorded in the UK and the Worldwide Sound standard setters "Denga" and "Africa Revisited".

Few would dispute that the title of Trower's latest album – No More
Worlds To Conquer – is a fair summary of the thumbprint he has left on the musical universe


But as he reminds us, it should not be misinterpreted as his mission being accomplished. "I definitely feel like I'm still reaching," he considers, "with the guitar, and the songs, and everything else."
Turning once again to his trusty toolkit of Fender Stratocaster and Marshall amp, Trower's guitar work is ageless, whether that's the tough chop of Ball Of Fire, Losing You and Cloud Across The Sun, or the slower-burn wah squalls of the title track and Deadly Kiss.
On Waiting For The Rain To Fall, Trower's playing is crystalline as a dew drop, while the aching finale, I Will Always Be Your Shelter, offers a solo whose masterful touch is compelling as anything in his catalogue.

Robert Stillman's much-loved, homespun collection of Fender Rhodes improvisations receives the vinyl treatment from Kit Records.

Recorded to tape in the solitude of Robert's Kent studio, PORTALS is truly a candid window into the trance-like process of making: melodies, ideas and themes are added folded, concealed and revealed like layers of paper and paint, combining to form an intimately transportive sonic mural.

Most startling are the shifting voices of the Rhodes - from careening, glassy pads to strident basslines, curveball jazz breakdowns or kaleidoscopic marimba flutter. Keys players take note: PORTALS is a masterclass in restricted virtuosity. Quite how so many worlds are conjured from one instrument across the 35 minute duration of this record, we're not sure.

Recommended if you like Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Arthur Russell, Kali Malone. This vinyl edition of Portals features a previously unreleased track, 'PORTAL 8'.

Robert Stillman is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from the northeast United States. His music juxtaposes the archaic with the futuristic, incorporating influences of Jazz, Minimalism, American Folk music, and experimental electronic music to create a sound described by the Guardian as "lending an avant-garde shimmer to pre-modern American sounds."

Stargazing from the sands of the Niterói beach, Tempos Futuros is low-end-led Brazilian futurism from one of Brazil’s most prolific and influential bassmen. As one third of legendary trio Azymuth, Alex Malheiros has pioneered a unique fusion of space-funk, samba and jazz since the early seventies. His playing can be heard on the records of Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento, Roberto Carlos, Marcos Valle, and Mark Murphy (to name a few), and he’s performed and toured with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Chick Corea.

Written and recorded in Niterói, Brazil, overlooking Guanabara and the beaches, mountains and forests of Rio de Janeiro, Tempos Futuros has deep roots in Brazilian soil. The rhythms of Malheiros’ homeland have always permeated his music. But just like the Oscar Niemeyer designed Niterói Contemporary Art Museum which stands spaceship-like over the water, Tempos Futuros - while inspired by terrestrial forms, reaches out, deep into the great unknown.

Produced by acclaimed London-based producer Daniel Maunick, who has worked with Marcos Valle, Azymuth, Terry Callier, and Ivan Conti, the funk comes full circle. Daniel’s father Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick and Alex Malheiros shared a reciprocal stream of influence throughout the 80s, between London and Rio; Azymuth and Incognito; brit-funk and samba-funk. But just as with Azymuth’s music, you can also hear the influence of stateside jazz-funk masters like Roy Ayers, Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith, Mtume and Pleasure.

Tempos Futuros features Alex’s daughter, a Brazilian star in her own right, vocalist Sabrina Malheiros, Brazilian percussion master Sidinho Moreira, London based saxophonist Sean Khan, Marcos Valle’s go-to drummer Massa, and Brazilian keyboard player Dudu Viana. Featuring the late Azymuth keyboard maestro Jose Roberto Bertami on Fender Rhodes, the title track “Tempos Futuros” was originally recorded as a demo in 1995. On this finished version, Alex Malheiros used Bertami’s original keyboard take, explaining the posthumous release.

Legally blind from birth, Brazilian keyboard player, composer and bandleader Manfredo Fest learnt to read music in braille and began studying classical music at a young age. By 17 he had fallen in love with jazz (particularly the music of fellow blind pianist George Shearing) before becoming swept up in Rio's emergent bossa nova movement in the sixties. Moving to the States in 1967 where he would go on to work with fellow countryman Sergio Mendes, Fest recorded and self-released Brazilian Dorian Dream in 1976, enlisting Thomas Kini (bass), Alejo Poveda (drums, percussion) and Roberta Davis (vocals).

Like a turbo-powered, intergalactic elevator ride, Brazilian Dorian Dream builds on the principle of the modal diatonic scales of the Dorian mode, with influences of Brazilian rhythms, North American jazz and funk, and music of the European baroque and romantic era. The coming together of these intergenerational and intercontinental styles coupled with Fest's visionary use of the Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Arp and Moog synthesizers (plus a whole load of effects units), makes for an album light years ahead of its time.

The miraculous wordless vocals of American jazz singer Roberta Davis are nailed so tightly alongside Manfredo's keys and mind-bending synths that it sounds almost alien. On the album's liner notes, Fest preaches Davis' ability highlighting how hard it is to sing such precise intervals so accurately. One of the tracks on which the vocals shine brightest is space funk stepper "Jungle Cat", which features hard funky drums, freaky synth lines and expert Rhodes comping. The track builds up and up before releasing into the unmistakable scat melody in the chorus.

A few years after releasing Brazilian Dorian Dream, Fest recorded and released his Manifestations album in 1979, featuring 'Jungle Kitten'': a new dancefloor focused variation on "Jungle Cat". At around 140 BPM 'Jungle Kitten' was possibly deemed too fast for statside dance floors, which explains why it never got a US 12" release. But the track became something of an underground hit at jazz dance clubs and all-dayers across the UK in the 80s and as a result it has probably become Fest's most well known track since.

Heavenly Recordings announce the debut solo album from
acclaimed Bay Area multi-instrumentalist, producer and
composer Dougie Stu.
Dougie grew up outside of Chicago and his early education
began in jazz clubs and festivals as a teenager - frequenting
sessions with Jeff Parker, Fred Anderson, Nicole Mitchell and
other members of the AACM. Left exceedingly inspired, he
continued on to the University of Michigan, studying bass
under Detroit jazz royalty Robert Hurst and Geri Allen, where
he deepened his practice in Jazz and Contemplative
Studies.
Now, based out of Oakland and Los Angeles, Stuart
collaborates within many Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Experimental
music scenes. His works include compositions for the NPR
podcast Snap Judgement, along with co-writes and
production with various groups including: Brijean, Bells Atlas,
Meernaa, Luke Temple and Jay Stone.
Dougie Stu’s ‘Familiar Future’ is a uniquely jazz-attuned
album that is soulful and ethereal. It draws inspiration from
artists and producers like Lonnie Liston Smith, Charles
Stepney, David Axelrod and Alice Coltrane. Stuart has
arrived at a sound that harkens back to the golden era of
soul jazz and R&B, while still sounding contemporary.
The band feature the immediately recognizable guitar
stylings of Jeff Parker (Tortoise), who was one of Stuart’s
biggest influences growing up in Chicago, Maya Kronfeld
(Georgia Anne Muldrow, NYEUSI) on Fender Rhodes, Steve
Blum (Bells Atlas) on synthesizer, percussionists Brijean
Murphy (Toro Y Moi, Poolside), John Santos (Tito Puente,
Dizzy Gillespie) and drummer Hamir Atwal (tune-yards).
Special guests include Marcus Stephans on flute, Shaina
Evoniuk on violin and Crystal Pascucci on cello. The album
was engineered and mixed by Rob Shelton at Tiny
Telephone and he also appears on synthesizer on one song.

Silent Room, the duo formed by Enzo Carniel and Filippo Vignato is a conversation.
Between the piano of the first and the trombone of the second, two living forces of the
European jazz scene; between France and Italy; between acoustics and electronics. A
patient dialogue initiated on the benches of the conservatory in Paris, which was nourished
by the music of German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff (to whom the duo paid homage for a
concert at the Cité des Arts in 2014), musical moments shared as a group (Enzo Carniel's
sextet at the Jazz à la Villette festival in particular) and in pairs - for numerous concerts
given on both sides of the Alps - before perfecting their common grammar, giving birth to
their own repertoire, creating their own space.

This first album, Aria, released on the Franco-Japanese label MENACE, was recorded in the
setting of the Villa Cicaletto in Tuscany, whose Silent Room the duo made their own in
September 2019. Carniel had just released Wallsdown, the third elegiac disc of his House of
Echo project (Jazz & People, 2020) and Vignato of an intense live duo recorded with
American cellist Hank Roberts (Ghost Dance, on CamJazz in 2019).

The album is carried by simple melodies, tenuous threads on which the two improvisers who
have slowly got to know each other crisscross and let their voices express themselves. Aria
can refer to the opening of Bach's Goldberg variations, to sung opera arias, but above all to
any expressive melody that develops the imagination. Aria is also the air in Italian: the air
that comes from the breath, the air that fills the room, the air that vibrates and is transformed
into sound. The repertoire is therefore this collection of Arias composed by Enzo Carniel and
Filippo Vignato.

If the duo advocates with this album its jazz heritage - that of improvisation and
conversation, of freedom and virtuosity - and claims to be Carla and Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett,
Gary Valente, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ornette Coleman or John Surman; it also explores the
contemporary colors of electronic music, ambient and Japanese minimalism. The use of the
prepared piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesizers colors the sound space of the acoustic
piano and trombone. The eponymous composition that opens the album in acoustic, closes
it in an electronic version, illuminating the path of the duo between the two universes.

In the almost plant-like composition "In All Nilautpaula", Enzo Carniel evokes the water lily
(in Sanskrit) coming to purify the water around him. On "Babele", Filippo Vignato invokes the
great question of language: thanks to Arias, and therefore melodies, language becomes
universal through music, and only the sensory experience counts.

Born from Carniel and Vignato's desire to create a sound space that would be filled with as
many melodies as silence, a place for listening, dialogue and meditation, Aria is one of those
rare records that contain entire worlds.

Following 2019’s release of Azymuth’s Demos (1973-75), two more home-recorded demo tracks by the Brazilian psychedelic jazz-funk masters have surfaced from a tape in drummer Ivan Conti’s private archive. These five-decade old recordings by the young band show the maturity, musicianship and distinctive style that saw Azymuth become one of the most important groups in Brazilian history.

Featuring an instrumental take on Roberto and Erasmo Carlos’ 1969 Jovem Guarda hit “As Curvas da Estrada de Santos”, and spacey psych-folk oddity “Zé e Paraná”, the new 7” release via Far Out Recordings shines yet more light on this critical period for Azymuth.

As is the case with many of Brazil’s pop icons, Roberto and Erasmo Carlos had been backed by Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti either on stage, in the studio, or with compositions (in Bertami’s case) since the late sixties. Conti notes that “As Curvas da Estrada de Santos” was a big hit in Brazil when it came out in ‘69 and had already been covered by Elis Regina a year later.

But where both Elis’ version and the original were grand pop-rock ballads, Azymuth’s take is a moody, melodic jazz excursion, featuring Bertami’s incredible Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes and grand piano juggling, Ivan Mamao Conti’s distinctively tough drums, and unusually, Alex Malheiros plays a double bass instead of an electric one.

As the title suggests, “Zé e Paraná” is guitarist João Américo (Paraná) playing alongside Bertami’s Rhodes comping, synth embellishments and dreamy wordless vocals. While credited as the composer and guitarist on “Linha do Horizonte” a track from Azymuth’s debut album which would become the theme tune for a famous novella, Paraná has to this day, remained relatively unknown.

Both tracks were recorded in Jose Roberto Bertrami’s house in Rio de Janiero at some point between 1973-75. These tracks were not recorded in a professional studio, meaning the sound quality differs from other Azymuth releases. At Far Out we take great pride and extreme care in ensuring our releases and reissues are produced to the best possible sound quality. In this case the original source material had not aged well and was considerably damaged. The sound has been restored to the best possible condition but there is still some noticeable tape hiss and slight distortion on ‘Zé e Paraná’. For this reason, we strongly advise listening to preview clips before buying this release.

Keyboards: José Roberto Bertrami

Guitar: João Américo ‘Paraná’

Produced by Azymuth and José Roberto Bertrami

Recorded at José Roberto Bertrami’s home studio in

Laranjeiras, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 1973

Issue and project co-ordinator: Joe Davis

Additional tape restoration by Daniel Maunick at the Sugar Shack

Mastered by Frank at Carvery Cuts

Recumbent Speech, Ezra Feinberg’s second album, opens with a lament. Named for the Robert Frost poem, “Acquainted with the Night” was written during one of the many devastating spectacles of injustice under our current regime. Repeating flutes and synths beam out of a low-end darkness, reflecting a collective sense of loss and alienation. Rising slowly, thickening with guitars and strings, “Acquainted with the Night” lifts off, and so too does the album from there. The second track, “Letter to my Mind,'' features the dynamic interplay of Feinberg's guitar with the loose and playful drumming of Tortoise's John McEntire, both pushing and pulling atop a looping bass figure. "Palms Up" begins with a lockstep pulse recalling early Terry Riley before jumping into an Ashra-like jam with Afrobeat accents. Side B opens with "Ovation," a tryptic with McEntire on drums which sets a wide lens onto a sweeping landscape, with soaring flutes, wordless vocals, and a hypnotic bassline played on a humming fretless that recalls classic ECM jazz-fusion. The piece plunges into an ambient, interior space before reemerging with a guitar solo fried through an old Space Echo effects processor, conjuring lidded Pompeii-era Pink Floyd. The album's title-track finale, "Recumbent Speech," features the magical pedal steel of Chuck Johnson. Unwinding atop a Balearic analog synth pattern, Feinberg stretches textures of Fender Rhodes and acoustic guitar around Johnson’s lyrical steel, with nods to Japanese ambient legend Hiroshi Yoshimura, as well as Cluster & Eno. Recumbent Speech refers to the possibilities, pleasures, fears, and fantasies that occur the moment the noise dies down, when we are recumbent, in repose but still awake, still speaking, and still aware of ourselves as part of the maddening world. Ezra Feinberg is a guitarist, composer, and psychoanalyst living in Jackson Heights, NY. Feinberg was the founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic rock collective Citay, releasing albums on Important Records and Dead Oceans throughout the 2000s. After relocating to NYC, he issued his first solo record, Pentimento and Others, on his imprint Related States and on cassette on Stimulus Progression in 2018. The release, his first since Citay folded in 2012, earned praise from numerous music outlets including Paste Magazine, The Wire, Stereogum, Vice, and Aquarium Drunkard. In recent years, Feinberg has performed and toured near and far with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Steve Gunn, Alexander Turnquist, Cruel Diagonals, Daniel Carter, Jonas Reinhardt, Christopher Tignor, Kath Bloom, Robbie Lee, High Aura’d, Glasser, Ava Mendoza, Buck Curran, Real Estate, and many others, and has ongoing studio collaborations with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Arp, contributing both guitar and songwriting to the last Arp album Zebra.

Wewantsounds continues its collaboration with Bob Shad's grandchildren, Mia and Judd Apatow, to present a 2LP selection of 13 turntable-friendly Mainstream Records tracks recorded between 1970 and 1973 and showcasing the label's superb blend of Funk, Soul and Jazz. All tracks remastered from the original tapes, most of them released for the first time since their original release with a few highly sought-after ones. Liner notes by UK journalist Paul Bowler. The Mainstream sound is unmistakable: earthy, rich and funky, it's the signature sound of producer Bob Shad. After working with such geniuses as Charlie Parker, The Platters, Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin over three decades, Shad decided to go back to producing Great Black Music in the early 70s through his label Mainstream Records and started releasing a formidable series of jazz albums known as the 300 series. Released between 1971 and 1974, these albums are the main source of this set. Coincidentally, it opens with one of the two tracks on the tracklist not produced by Shad himself. Saundra Phillips' "Miss Fatback" is nonetheless fascinating as it's one of cult disco producer Greg Carmichael's earliest productions from 1975 (before he went on to produce Inner Life, Bumblebee Unlimited, Universal Robot Band with fellow producer Patrick Adams). The other track not issued by the Shad sound factory is Almeta Lattimore's 7" single "These Memories," a truly great soulful track from 1975 and now a sought-after classic on the international Soul scene. Shad's forte was Jazz, and the sessions usually used the best musicians you could think of, including Bernard Purdie, Billy Hart, Stanley Clarke, Dom Um Romao, Joe Sample, Freddie Robinson, Gordon Edwards, Larry Willis, Wilbur Bascomb to name just a few. Filled with gorgeous Fender Rhodes chords and heavy basslines, they define the unmistakable Mainstream sound which had one foot in the great jazz and bop tradition and the other in the sonic jazz explorations of the early 70s. Oscillating between jazzed-up covers of soul hits like Jay Berliner’s "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" or Afrique’s "Kissing My Love" and more introspective originals such as Hal Galper's "This Moment" or Dave Hubbard's "T.B.'s Delight", They all have this perfect balance between groove and depth. One perfect example is Pete Yellin's "Bird and The Ouija Board," a superb 12 min opus starting off with a deep abstract improvisation before switching to an up-tempo funk beat fueled by drummer Billy Hart and bass player Stanley Clarke.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.

Before they became Azymuth, José Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward. Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.

When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).
Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Credits:

Keyboards: José Roberto Bertrami (Mini Moog Series One, Arp Omni, Arp 2600, Arp Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes 88, Hammond B3 with box speaker, Clavinet with Wah Wah)
Drums: Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti
Bass: Alex Malheiros
Percussion: Ariovaldo Contesini
Produced by Azymuth and Jose Roberto Bertrami
Recorded at José Roberto Bertrami’s home studio in Laranjeiras, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil between 1973–1975.
Issue and project co-ordinator: Joe Davis
Tape transfers by Roc Hunter (thanks to Simon Hitner)
Mastered by Daniel Maunick at the Sugar Shack, Lanark, Scotland
Mastered by Frank at Carvery Cuts
All tracks published by Far Out Music Publishing/Westbury Music LTD