Category: DIGGIN’ IN
Mad About Records is back at it, in what has already been a very active year for the Portugal-based label, with a welcomed official reissue release of the extremely obscure 1981 jazz-funk album from a Connecticut-based quintet called Quintessence.
For the latest release on Paul Murphy’s Jazz Room Records, he revisits the obscure self-titled full-length debut from Danish jazz fusion group Ariel, which includes the massive jazz dance gem, “The Girl With Three Faces”.
Portugal’s Mad About Records, which has been releasing some of the rarest jazz, funk, Latin and Brazilian records over the last few years, has recently released a double-sided 7inch single featuring two massive dancefloor scorchers.
Paul Murphy’s Jazz Room Records has a slew of incredible releases on deck for this Spring, and one of the first of these records to come out is a limited-edition double-sided single 7inch, featuring two rare 1969 jazz dance heaters out of Japan.
After 13 years since its initial CD/Digital-only release in 2011, Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label is releasing for the first time on vinyl, the late great Austin Peralta’s cosmic jazz classic Endless Planets. This record was the label’s first dive into jazz, helping set the stage for artists like Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Kneedelus, and others.
The French label Transversales Disques continues its string of brilliant live ORTF recordings captured at Grand Auditorium’s Studio 104 in Paris’ Maison de la Radio (aka the headquarters of Radio France) with an early 70s session from legendary jazz multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk. This is the latest in a growing series that has included jazz greats Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, and Ahmad Jamal.
Under the guidance and direction from London-based DJ, radio broadcaster, and music producer Gilles Peterson, his reissue-focused label Arc Records has recently been diving deep into the Atlantic jazz archives, re-releasing mono versions of Max Roach’s 1968 of Members, Don’t Git Weary and Yusef Lateef’s 1969 Yusef Lateef’s Detroit Latitude 42° 30′ Longitude 83°. With the labels latest release of the series, they unearth a collection of tracks recorded by Roberta Flack in the sessions leading up to the recording of her seminal 1969 debut album First Take.
Before we look ahead to this year’s forthcoming releases, let’s take a look back at another superb reissue from this past Fall from the Italian-based label Eating Standing in vibraphonist Enzo Randisi’s 1979 highly obscured self-titled album.
As with new music releases, 2023 was an outstanding year for reissues and previously unreleased recordings. It feels like with every great new release or artists that breaks through on the scene, there are still so many records from the past to still discover and dive into as a listener. The quality of the actual reissue releases themselves also seems to improve in time. The care and work that goes into many of these releases is astonishing and handled like the artifacts that they truly are.
For over 30 years, Mr Bongo label and record shop has been at the forefront of some of the most notable Brazilian, African, hip-hop, and Latin reissue releases. The UK-based label and record shop continue their high quality output of rare material as they launch their new Cuban Classic Series, beginning with the hard-to-find reissue of Grupo Los Yoyi’s 1977 fusion gem.
