Category: DIGGIN’ IN
Just in time for the warmer summer months, New York-based Frederiksberg Records have recently released a fantastic retrospective EP celebrating the tropical sounds of legendary Caribbean Mocko Jumbie and musician Hugo Moolenaar.
Toronto based record label We Are Busy Bodies has recently reissued the rare 1980 recording by the collaborative supergroup ensemble Eboni Band, featuring musicians from Ivory Coast based Eboni Records and prime Motown session players, including funk legend and longtime JB’s bandleader Fred Wesley.
London’s Strut Records continues it’s brilliant series of releases exploring the vaults of Jimmy Gray’s now considered legendary Richmond, Virginia based label Black Fire Records with a highly in-demand reissue of Bow To The People by Dayton, Ohio theater collective Theatre West.
UK-based label WallenBink has launched a fantastic series called Black Forest 45, focusing on reissuing remastered essential 60s and 70s era jazz selections from the vaults of legendary German label SABA/MPS, in a new never-released-before 7inch format.
London’s Jazz Room Records, run by iconic London DJ Paul Murphy, continues it’s string of essential releases with a recent limited-edition reissue of Shamek Farrah And Folks‘ nearly impossible-to-find 1978 funky spiritual jazz album La Dee La La, featuring trumpet great Malachi Thompson of Chicago’s influential collective AACM.
Mexico City-based label Discodelic presents the first release of their exclusive three-part limited edition 7inch series highlighting rare Nicaraguan Afro-Latin music, with two funky 1975 gems from Managua group Poder Del Alma.
One can make the argument, that the term “Holy Grail” is sometimes used a bit too loosely, however that certainly isn’t the case when applied to Ron Everett’s 1977 obscure soul jazz masterpiece Glitter Of The City. Originally self-released in 1977 on a shoestring budget, UK’s Jazzman Records has recently reissued the essential recording as a part of it’s ongoing superb Jazzman Holy Grail series.
Following last year’s phenomenal compilation Soul Love Now and a number of revisited album releases from groundbreaking artists like Oneness Of Juju (aka Juju), Lon Moshe, and others, London’s Strut Records continues it’s ongoing spotlight on the now considered legendary Richmond, Virginia label Black Fire (run by Jimmy Gray) with a reissue of the late Philadelphia reedman Byard Lancaster’s 1992 soulful spiritual jazz recording My Pure Joy. Originally released on CD three years after it was recorded, due the label’s financial challenges, this marks the first time this album has ever been released on vinyl.
Fresh off of the reissue release of Khan Jamal’s 1984 spiritual jazz “holy grail” Infinity, Paul Murphy’s Jazz Room Records has just reissued the highly obscure 1964 cool jazz 7inch Le Monocle Rit Jaune by highly prolific French film composer Michel Magne.
The Paris-based label Hot Mule, which has produced some of the best reissues over the past few years, has just released an incredible retrospective celebrating the music of poet and activist José Carlos Schwarz and his superb group Le Cobiana Djazz, who were highly influential and outspoken in the fight for the West African county of Guinea-Bissau’s independence during the 70s.
Far Out Recordings reissues, for the first time ever on vinyl, two groundbreaking Latin jazz recordings, titled Mora! and Mora! II from Mexican-American percussionist and former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Francisco Mora Catlett.
Paul Murphy’s Jazz Room Records, who has been putting out a number of stellar releases over the past couple of years, has recently reissued vibraphonist Khan Jamal’s highly obscure 1984 spiritual soul jazz masterpiece Infinity.
Over the last several years, Nimbus West, who released some of the greatest recordings to come out of the spiritual Jazz scene in Los Angeles during the late 70s and early 80s has been diving deep back into it’s vaults and unearthing a number of incredible sessions. Most recently, they have issued saxophonist Billie Harris‘ masterful 1980 album I Want Some Water on vinyl for the first time.
