Freddie Hubbard - Sing Me a Song Of Songmy (1971) {Atlantic Masters 81227-3669-2 rel 2003}
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© 1971, 2003 Atlantic Masters / Warner | 81227-3669-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Electroacoustic Music / Trumpet

After having been out of print for nearly thirty years, this classic mindblower from 1971 has at last been reissued on CD. This is much more than a 'jazz' recording by Freddie Hubbard. Quoting the original album cover, what we have here is SING ME A SONG OF SONGMY, "A Fantasy for Electromagnetic Tape, featuring Freddie Hubbard and his Quintet, with Reciters, Chorus, String Orchestra, Hammond Organ, Synthesized & Processed Sounds,Composed & Realized by ILHAN MIMAROGLU on Poems by Fazil Husnu Daglarca & Other Texts". What the CD reissue liner notes fail to emphasize is that this is really an Ilhan Mimaroglu album. Not to devalue the first-rate performances by Hubbard & his group, but calling this a Freddie Hubbard album is somewhat misleading.

Hans Werner Henze - The Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings (2013) {Deutsche Grammophon 4791522}
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© 2013 Deutsche Grammophon | 4791522
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Modern Classical

The composers who made the most decisive contribution to the development of post-war music in Europe were all born in the 1920s: Stockhausen, Boulez, Nono, Berio and Ligeti, to name but five. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, at a time when half of Europe still lay in ruins, they began to look for the basis of a new kind of music freed from the fatal legacy of the past. But few of them reacted as directly or as sensitively to the catastrophe of the National Socialist period as did Hans Werner Henze. And this was true of him both as an artist and as a human being.

Cannonball Adderley - Love, Sex And The Zodiac (1974) {Fantasy–BGP Records CDBGPM235 rel 2011}
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© 1974, 2011 BGP Records | CDBGPM 235
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Hard Bop / Jazz Funk / Saxophone

Jazz saxophone great Cannonball Adderley is not usually thought of as a novelty artist, or even one who made embarrassing sellout moves to the pop market, regardless of his success with soul-jazz and his hit 1967 single "Mercy Mercy Mercy." This 1974 album, however, can scarcely be thought of as anything but an embarrassing novelty, and one that will have little appeal to fans of the records for which Adderley is most famous. The real artist on this album is not so much Adderley as Rick Holmes (jazz DJ on Los Angeles radio station KBCA), who wrote and narrated the voice-overs to which Adderley and other musicians supplied a musical backdrop.

John Cale - Artificial Intelligence (1985) {Beggars Banquet BBL 68CD}
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© 1985 Beggars Banquet | BBL 68CD
Rock / Art Rock / Experimental / Avant-Garde

Though this is still nowhere near prime John Cale, 1985's Artificial Intelligence is a big step up from its predecessor, 1984's weak and sloppy Caribbean Sunset. For the first time in his career, Cale works with a collaborator on each song: Rock journalist Larry Sloman (later to gain a certain measure of fame as the model for the pesky Ratso character in Kinky Friedman's comic mystery novels) wrote the lyrics for all nine songs, with guitarist and co-producer David Young chipping in on two of them.

Billy Taylor - Warming Up! (1961) {Milestone MCD 47103-2 rel 2004}
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© 1960-61, 2004 Milestone Records / Fantasy | MCD 47103-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano

Warming Up! collects two trio albums recorded by pianist Billy Taylor in 1960-1961, the first under the same title, the second Interlude. On the first 12 pieces he's joined by bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Ray Mosca, on the later 11, Doug Watkins takes Grimes' place. The similar setup and personnel mean that both albums flow together as a piece, though each carries a separate mood owing to the albums' different conceptions.

Gary Burton - Dreams So Real (1975) {ECM 1072}
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© 1975 ECM Records | ECM 1072 / 833 329-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Vibes

Performing the intricate music of Carla Bley is no mean feat, but if anyone is up for the challenge, it would be vibraphonist Gary Burton. Signifying a high watermark in his career in the mid-'70s, Dreams So Real teams Burton with his fellow professor at the Berklee College of Music Mick Goodrick, along with recently graduated student Pat Metheny. Add the peerless electric bass guitarist Steve Swallow and always proficient drummer Bob Moses, and you have the makings of a short-lived supergroup capable of playing Bley's memorable, melancholy music.

Brian Eno - More Music For Films (1976-83) {2009 Virgin DSD Remaster}
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© 1976-83, 2009 Virgin Records / Astralwerks | 509996845342
Ambient / Electronic / Avant-Garde / Experimental

A listener familiar with the pedigree of the albums of Brian Eno might assume that Virgin/Astralwerks' release More Music for Films is merely a re-packaging of Music for Films II, a bonus album included within the LP boxed set Working Backwards. Such an assumption would be incorrect, as More Music for Films represents a new spin on a variety of soundtrack material made by Eno in the years 1976-1983, including some tracks drawn from Music for Films II, others from Eno Box I: Instrumentals, and at least six selections never made public before. According to Virgin, these are taken from the limited-edition promo LP of Music for Films, a two album set pre-dating the familiar EG release by two years and only circulated to filmmakers and journalists.

Anthony Braxton - Quartet (Standards) 2020 (2021) {New Braxton House Records}
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© 2021 New Braxton House Records
Jazz / Experimental / Modern Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

On June 18, 2021, the Tri-Centric Foundation and New Braxton House Records will release Anthony Braxton's "Quartet (Standards) 2020", a 13-CD deluxe box set documenting Braxton’s European tour in January last year. Armed with a songbook of over one hundred tunes, Braxton crossed the Atlantic and assembled a stellar ensemble of British musicians – Alexander Hawkins on piano, Neil Charles on bass and Stephen Davis on drums. The box set comprises sixty-seven tracks culled from nine evenings of performances in London, Warsaw and Wels representing decades of American music, from the Great American songbook to Paul Simon via music by jazz luminaries including Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, and many more.

Eric Dolphy - The Complete Uppsala Concert (1961) {2CD Set, Jazz Door ‎JD 1253/54 rel 1993}
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© 1961, 1993 Jazz Door ‎| JD 1253/54
Jazz / Post-Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

One of my pet theories is that one of the kickstarts for creative indigenous jazz in Europe was the tours undertaken there by Eric Dolphy as a leader (late summer 1961, summer 1964) and with John Coltrane (winter 1961) and Charles Mingus (summer 1964). The passage through the region of such an iconoclastic figure as Dolphy, particularly at these two hypercreative moments for him, must have had some effect on the local musicians who heard or, in some cases, played with him. Those tours were documented and are back in the forefront with a two-disc reissue of a Swedish concert from September 1961.

Dexter Gordon - Revelation (1974) {SteepleChase ‎SCCD 31373 rel 1995}
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© 1974, 1995 SteepleChase ‎| SCCD 31373
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone

Virtually all of tenor-saxophonist Dexter Gordon's SteepleChase recordings find him in prime form. This music, released for the first time in 1995, is a bit unusual in that Gordon (who usually played in a quartet) is joined by the fiery trumpeter Benny Bailey who has a particularly exciting solo on "At Ronnie 's." The obscure European rhythm section is fine in support of the two lead voices who, in addition to "At Ronnie's," perform Bill Barron's "Revelation," a couple of standards and a two-song ballad medley. Worth picking up.

Lalo Schifrin - Piano Espanol (1958) {Tico–Universal 176 160 397-2 rel 2006}
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© 1958, 2006 Tico / Protel / Universal | 176 160 397-2
Jazz / Bop / Latin Jazz / Bossa Nova / Piano

A very unusual early chapter in the career of Lalo Schifrin – and a record that's a fair bit different than most of his famous bossa, jazz, and soundtrack work! The sound here is much more New York Latin than the Brazilian modes that show up in other Schifrin work – with orchestrations that nicely set the scene for bolder piano lines on the keys – often in a style that's a bit more dramatic than you'd expect from Lalo, and underscored by some great hard percussion at the bottom! Most tunes are quite lively, with a really crackling Latin groove – and titles include "Jungle Fantasy", "Hulablues", "Caravan", "Capricho Espanol", and "El Cumbanchero".

The Claudia Quintet - Semi-Formal (2005) {Cuneiform Records Rune 217}
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© 2005 Cuneiform Records ‎| Rune 217
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / New Chamber Music / Modern Creative

Painter Georges Seurat, the inventor of pointillism, believed that small, discrete units of color could be effectively juxtaposed to interact in complex yet clarifying ways. John Hollenbeck, drummer and maestromind behind the Claudia Quintet's third release, Semi-Formal, seems to employ a similar modus operandi in his innovative compositional techniques. Writing for a quintet of sonically similar instruments, Hollenbeck exploits their individuality by leaving room on his canvas for each voice to sound alone, even as they are effectively conjoined in a constantly changing aural mosaic that, for all its discrete tessellation, remains of a piece.

Art Farmer Quartet - Interaction (1963) {2013 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series WPCR-27009}
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© 1963, 2013 Atlantic / Rhino / Warner Japan | WPCR-27009 / 8122-79694-7
Jazz / Cool / Hard Bop / Flugelhorn

An excellent session. Nothing unfamiliar or far out, but just great, straight-ahead playing from some of the most lyrical and thoughtful players in jazz. Anyone who appreciates Farmer and/or Hall should have this. The rhythm section of Steve Swallow and Walter Perkins couldn't be more attuned to the 2 leaders, and they really make the whole date cohesive; the title "Interaction" couldn't be more appropriate. Sound of this edition - the 24 bit Japanese edition - is fine - but not necessarily an improvement over earlier issues.

Gilberto Gil - São João em Araras - ao Vivo (2021) {Gege Produções Artisticas}
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© 2021 Gege Produções Artisticas
Jazz / Brazilian Jazz / MPB / Brazilian Traditions / Brazilian Pop

Singer and composer Gilberto Gil made available on all digital platforms this Friday (28) the album “São João em Araras – ao Vivo”, a virtual show held in 2020 as a form of homemade celebration of Festa Junina. The presentation has 18 songs in total, where the artist performed with the support of his band. In the track “Eu Só Quero um Xodó”, Gil had the special participation of the singer Preta Gil, one of his daughters.

Big John Greer - I'm The Fat Man (2007) {Rev-Ola Bandstand CR BAND 17 rec 1949-1955}
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© 1949-55, 2007 Rev-Ola Bandstand / Cherry Red Records | CR BAND 17
Rock 'n' Roll / Jump Blues / Rhythm & Blues / Vocal / Saxophone

Another great collection of jump blues and R&B from Rev-Ola, this time featuring heavyweight singer and sax player Big John Greer recorded between 1949 and 1955. His earlier sides follows the pattern of the blues shouters like Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris. Over several 1949/50 sessions Greer belts out some great rockin' songs like his hot cover of Stick McGhee's Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee plus Long Tall Gal/ I'm The Fat Man and others along with some storming instrumentals like Rockin' With Big John and Big John's A Blowin'. The later sessions find Big John mostly just exercising his mighty lungs with the sax chores handed over to the awesome Sam "The Man" Taylor.