The CD is from Fontana / Decca France; with a sixty-page booklet.

‘Classic Vinyl Edition.’

‘Classic Vinyl.’

A cor-blimey line-up, and a masterpiece, recorded on the first day of spring in 1964. Dorham, Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Richard Davis, Tony Williams.
‘Classic Vinyl Series.’ ‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

Superb organ jazz from 1965, with Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson and Otis Finch. Latona was the Jazz Dance weapon; One Step Ahead is knockout, too. A classic Blue Note.
‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the same Craft transfers and mastering.

The jazz organist’s masterpiece — with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones in 1965.
Young’s playing is steeped in the new thing — especially JC — but pulsating, intense, and sparking with a restless, propulsive creativity which would lead him to collaborations with Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Bitches-Brew Miles and co, in just a few years time.
Three brilliant compositions by Shaw — including The Moontrane, and an arrangement of Kodaly — a Joe Henderson, a Monk, and Hammerstein and Romberg’s Softly As A Morning Sunrise.
‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

Triumphant risk-taking from 1963 — in the same group of key, reaching Blue Notes as Unity and Dialogue — showcasing the great trombonist’s own tricky, moody, shape-shifting compositions, including a strongly evocative Monk tribute. It’s thrilling to hear Lee Morgan stretch out like this; Jackie Mac really goes for it, too. Not to mention Bobby Hutcherson, Bob Cranshaw and the dazzling drumming of Tony Williams, just seventeen.
‘Classic Vinyl Series.’ ‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

With Herbie Hancock, Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers in 1966. A rocking title track, a hard blues, some tasty bossa, and the first time out for Footprints. Unmissable.

‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

‘Ultimate HQ CD’ from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

Unmissable Jimmy Smith. With Stan The Man and Kenny Burrell, the perfect foils, in 1963.
The LP is in Blue Note Classic Vinyl series: ‘all-analogue’, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes. The ‘Ultimate HQ CD’ is from Japan, using the recent Craft transfers and mastering.

‘Classic Vinyl.’

‘Classic Vinyl.’

‘Classic Vinyl.’

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.

Available for the first time since its original release in 1980, this is compelling, funky, exploratory jazz from Melbourne, Australia.

The album opens with the floating Song For Bobby, a downtempo gem with the heartbeat aura of Herbie Hancock’s Butterfly; Orchestral Excerpts (From The Symphony Of Life), In The Basement and City Of Stone are high-grade fusion jams with one eye on Weather Report and Return to Forever, the other on the organic Australian sound of Alan Lee and John Sangster. The album closes out with the completely improvised Universal Suite, a 17-minute excursion which begins with a cinematic opening reminiscent of electric Miles at his most introspective before taking flight on passages of hard-driving Latin percussion, shimmering fusion and gritty funk. Slick, cultured and in close dialogue with the most advanced sounds of the era, Pyramid documents one of Australia’s great fusion bands at the height of their powers.

Ace, key DB. ‘The perfect bridge between his spacey late-60s attempts to mimic Miles, and his tighter early-70s jazz-funk with the Mizells.’ Trumpet-tenor-flute; Duke Pearson on electric piano.