Plunky and co for Strata East.

His first LP, recorded for Uno Melodic in 1981, produced by Roy Ayers.
En route the saxophonist had recorded with Mongo Santamaria, Jon Lucien and Dom Salvador. That’s him on James Mason’s Sweet Power Your Embrace; and he played on various Ayers LPs, including Vibrations and Lifeline.
Treasured for its gorgeous, mellow opener.

Enjoyably odd, wrong folk rock with baroque touches, from 1968. Jarrett plays everything — guitar, harmonica, soprano saxophone, recorder, piano, organ, electric bass, drums, tambourine and sistra — adding a string quartet here and there. He also sings, though it’s better when he doesn’t. Nearly all the tracks are two to three minutes.

Tangily raw and fresh piano-trio jazz from 1974.
The title track and Triangle are ace, funky jazz-dance. The Journey is gnarlier funk. Robyn’s Lullaby and Nothing New are hazier, evocative, impressionistic.
Tiny pressing.

The vibes maestro leading a sextet including Sunny Murray and Byard Lancaster.
The jazz-dancer The Known Unknown was the boom tune back in the day, but this is excellent throughout, as unjustly neglected as the SteepleChase albums which came next.

The house drummer of the Flamingo jazz club throughout the fifties, presenting a 1961 date featuring Tubbs and Jimmy Deuchar. Vibes-player Bill Le Sage leads the gorgeous ballad World Of Blue.

With Jaki Byard, Richard Williams, and Elvin Jones at Van Gelder’s in 1965 — a wildly brilliant mixture of homage and experimentation, New Orleans manzello, noise, Middle Eastern vibes, modal grooving… Unmissable.

Raw, blue, and sensational, with Kirk playing the tenor sax, manzello, and stritch simultaneously. Originally released by King in 1956, entitled Triple Threat.

From one of his most creative periods, leading the Vibration Society — Ron Burton, Dick Griffin, Jerome Cooper and co — through one-of-a-kind, freewheeling, radiant wonders like The Inflated Tear (about his going blind) and Volunteered Slavery. Stevie’s My Cherie Amour pops up, trailering next year’s Blacknuss LP.
Kirk called it all ‘black classical music’.

His only recording for Verve, from 1967. Check the lineup: Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Boykins, and Grady Tate. This is where Kirk starts to get his groove on. Next stop, Blacknuss. Terrific version of Alfie.

Originally released by Gallo in 1974, this is a raw, impassioned, stunning set led by bop pianist Kirk Lightsey (a regular sideman for Chet Baker) and saxophonist Rudolph Johnson (from Black Jazz), on a break from touring South Africa with Detroit crooner Lovelace Watkins.
A heavy-duty excursion into post-Coltrane spiritual modernism, ranging from the modal, cerebral intensity of the side-long title track Habiba, to the downhome breakbeat groove of There It Is, and the dark glitter of minor-key waltz Fresh Air. Long one of the most desired global jazz LPs, and never before available outside South Africa, Habiba is a forgotten masterpiece of its era.