Miles Davis – The Last Word – The Warner Bros. Years (8CD Box Set)

 In 1985, Miles Davis shocked the music world by moving from Columbia to Warner Bros.. He immediately started working on an album called ‘Perfect Way’ after a tune by Scritti Politti, later renamed ‘Tutu’ by producer Tommy LiPuma. When ‘Tutu’ (a tribute to Desmond Tutu) was released in 1986, it re-ignited Miles Davis’ career, crossing […]

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MILES DAVIS: Chicago Jazz Festival 1990 (CD)

Miles Davis is backed by Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone and flute, Kei Agaki on synths, Richard Pattersonon bass, Ricky Wellman on drums, Erin Davis (Mile’s youngest son, incorrectly announced as John Bigham)on electronic percussion, and John “Foley” McCreary, Jr. on “lead bass” – a custom Blue Marble instrument tuned almost an octave higher than […]

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SOFT MACHINE: Burden Of Proof CD (FIRST 2000 as DIGIPAK)

Previously published here THE BRAND NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM SOFT MACHINE LEGACY FEATURING JOHN ETHERIDGE, JOHN MARSHALL, THEO TRAVIS & ROY BABBINGTON FEATURES IN “PROG” & “JAZZWISE” This wonderful new studio album was recorded in Italy in the closing months of 2012 and features JOHN ETHERIDGE (Electric Guitar), THEO TRAVIS (Tenor Sax, Flute, Fender Rhodes), ROY BABBINGTON (Bass Guitar) and […]

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ROY DuNANN: The Search

Thomas Conrad (Stereophile) writes ….. I don’t remember the year, but I remember the moment when I first became intensely curious about Roy DuNann. It must have been about 1975, right after I moved to Seattle. I bought a Sonny Rollins LP called Way Out West, took it home, cued it up on my Thorens […]

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HERBIE HANCOCK: (4CD Book Set)

A 4CD, 34-track career retrospective set that examines the totality of Hancock’s work on the Columbia label, presented in a hardback book format case. CD1 and CD2 draw on the late 70s/early 80s work done with V.S.O.P, CD3 focuses more heavily on Hancock’s electric work and the final disc is represents the music of Hancock […]

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Bob Stanley’s 10 best music histories

Bob Stanley writes: One of the reasons I wanted to write Yeah Yeah Yeah is because it didn’t already exist. There wasn’t a book that followed pop music’s development from the start of the 1950s, when the introduction of vinyl records, the “hit parade”, the weekly music press and the Dansette – the first portable […]

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Untold Tales Of The Holy Trinity 1968 (CD) by Brian Auger and the Trinity & Julie Driscoll

We are told: In May 1968, Brian Auger and the Trinity & Julie Driscoll were part of an international rock ‘n’ roll disaster. That fiasco created a stash of urgent, commanding recordings, capturing a golden moment that took half a century to reach the wider world. A year after Monterey Pop but a year before […]

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LEONARD BERNSTEIN / LOUIS ARMSTRONG: Music without boundaries

Gramophone magazine ….. Bernstein and Armstrong trampled over musical boundaries – and so should our orchestras and opera companies. ‘There is no “serious” music or “unserious” music, just good music and bad music’. I have heard those words, or at least the sentiment, attributed both to Leonard Bernstein and also to Louis Armstrong; and certainly […]

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Quill

PERCY HEATH: A rememberance

R. J Deluke writes ….. This article was originally published at All About Jazz in May 2005. Percy Heath could play the hell out of that big contrabass. Played it for more than half a century. With Bird and Miles and Diz and ‘Trane and Brownie and the venerable Modern Jazz Quartet and on and […]

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Quill

CHUCK ISRAELS: Tribute to Bill Evans

Robin Arens …. Isn’t it nice to meet someone who takes time for a good chat in these hectic times? Especially if this person has a lot to tell, carries the living memory of an important part of jazz history, and is called Chuck Israels? Bassist/arranger/composer Chuck Israels is in expansive form for this interview […]

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DJANGO REINHARDT: Essential Original Albums (3CD)

  Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt was not only the first truly influential European jazz player, he was also one of the best jazz guitarists of all time. • This release presents his last studio sessions, including the complete original LP The Immortal Guitar (Reprise Records R-6075), which consisted of recordings from a series of 1947 […]

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JOHN McLAUGHLIN: Where Fortune Smiles Re-mastered Edition (CD)

We are told: NEW REMASTERED EDITION OF THE CLASSIC 1970 ALBUM BY THE LEGENDARY JOHN McLAUGHLIN, JOHN SURMAN, KARL BERGER, STU MARTIN & DAVE HOLLAND REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL DAWN RECORDS MASTER TAPES FULLY RESTORED ARTWORK AND LINER NOTES BY SID SMITH REVIEWS IN “UNCUT”, “MOJO”, “RECORD COLLECTOR”, “CLASSIC ROCK” & “PROG” MAGAZINES Esoteric Recordings […]

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EARL HINES: Piano Genius at Work (7CD + DVD Box Set)

Earl Hines is often named the “Father of Modern Jazz Piano” and not without good reason. He was a Piano pioneer, not only in excelling and exercising his mastery of harmony and rhythm in solos, but in establishing the Piano as an important member of any jazz ensemble. The trumpet-style phrasing Hines formed a close creative unit with […]

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CHARLIE WATTS: News

Recorded live at the Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen in 2010. It is a little known fact that Charlie Watts lived for a few months in Denmark in the early 1960’s. This was in the early days of the Stones and at the time the band were not an established entity, so Charlie was still […]

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