Superb, sombre, tautly grooving sufferers, produced by George Woodhouse.
Same singer as Reward, on Channel One. Twin, dread killers.

From 1957… with Monk and Milt Jackson on the title-track; Rollins and Horace Silver on the rest.

‘A transcendental new music,’ wrote Lester Bangs, ‘which flushes categories away and, while using musical devices from all styles and cultures, is defined mainly by its deep emotion and unaffected originality.’

His neglected 1970 masterpiece.
The first side brings into focus the best things about Bitches Brew, with lethal menace; the second lays out a blueprint for Ambient and Fourth World.
Hotly recommended.

Brand new interpretations of their debut album, ten years on.
‘The Universe Smiles Upon You ii was recorded on January 4-6, 2025, in the same family barn of guitarist Mark Speer, across the same dates where TUSUY was first conceived ten years earlier. Though the conditions were the same — dirt floor, brutally cold, minimal sound isolation, all takes live — the songs aren’t. They’re re-approached, some changed more than others, harnessing the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of TUSUY while discovering what would be unique this time around, in this stage of the band’s life.
‘The result moves like ripples on the water across ten hypnotizing tracks, the barn creating a sense of spaciousness, serenity and creative freedom, nearby wildlife (listen out for the birds on August Twelve ii), rattles and creaks of the barn and all. It’s a tapestry of small movements in nuanced arrangements, slowly revealing the new life, stories and character of someone you’ve met again for the first time in ten years.’

Mono LP from Music On Vinyl.

Knockout.
The opener is gorgeous. Ron Carter locks down the groove; Joe Henderson takes flight. Right away you know it’s a classic in store.
JH’s second for Milestone, from 1967-68, with two different rhythm sections; Kenny Barron; plenty of Trane in the air.
Very warmly recommended.

‘One of the dozen albums that anyone interested in the outer limits should own, or be owned by. Because it cleaves closest of Miles’ masterworks to funk groove and rock impact (Davis was trying to reach out to a young black audience), it’s easy for the jazz novice to get into. But once you’re into it, it’ll take you as far out as anything Davis (or anybody else) ever recorded’ (Simon Reynolds).
‘The first hip-hop/house/drum’n'bass/breakbeat album I’d ever heard’ (Greg Tate).

Pulling together a couple of Prestige 10”. The twenty-eight-year-old with Horace, Lucky, JJ, and Dave Schildkraut. (You remember Dave.)

Fourth and last of the classic quintet albums with Shorter, Hancock, Carter and Williams. Mostly written by Herbie and Wayne Shorter — a valediction to hard bop, without the old-school machismo.
LP from Music On Vinyl.

‘Classic Vinyl series.’

LP from Music On Vinyl.