Tag: Reissue
Over the past twelve months, not only was there a tremendous amount of great new music put out into the world, but we also saw a high-level of incredible reissue releases, including many previously unreleased recordings that had been shelved for 30-40 years or more.
London-based Outernational Sounds has recently reissued, for the first time outside of South Africa, two superb 1974 Johannesburg sessions Song Of Soweto and The Last Special from an all-star U.S. touring band led by both guitarist Charles Mallory and trombonist Al Hall Jr., known simply as the The Mallory Hall Band.
As we enter the cooler Fall/Winter months, iconic DJ Paul Murphy and his Jazz Room Records label continue to bring the heat with a very welcomed reissue of Tata Vasquez’s extremely rare New York-style Latin jazz dance floor masterpiece, titled Ecstasy.
Originally released back in March of 2015 to help raise awareness and funds for the Steve Reid Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that aims to help people working in music who are in crisis, the highly collaborative album led by drummer and producer Emanative (aka Nick Woodmansey), titled The Light Years Of The Darkness, featuring new renditions of music by Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Sun Ra, Joe Henderson, Arthur Blythe, and Mary Parks is now being reissued with a secret bonus record.
The always-brilliant French label Favorite Recordings has recently reissued the incredible hard-to-find self-titled 1980 jazz-funk/fusion masterpiece from the Venezuelan ensemble Esperanto.
French label Ici Bientôt has unearthed and reissued an incredible 1985 spiritual and meditative album, titled Comme Au Moulin by a highly innovative five-piece Paris-based collective called Nyssa Musique, whom were born out ongoing rehearsals that took place in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the notable venue New Morning.
London’s Strut Records continues it’s superb series diving deep into the vaults of Jimmy Gray’s now considered legendary Richmond, Virginia based label Black Fire Records with another highly in-demand reissue of Southern Energy Ensemble’s 1977 masterpiece Southern Energy.
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.
As we move into the warmer months of summer, it’s great to see that many of the record shops that were either closed for over a year and/or only doing online sales are finally opening up again. In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than a Saturday trip (or any day really) to the local record shop(s). Somewhat similar to last year, this year’s typical annual Record Store Day has been broken up into not just one, but two Saturdays (or what is being referred to as “Drop 1” & “Drop 2”) on June 12th and July 17th.
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.
