Pals being Micah Blue Smaldone, Glenn Jones, Michael Gangloff and Nathan Bowles (both of the Black Twig Pickers), and Harmonica Dan. The great ‘Jack Rose’ was hitherto hard-to-get.
Lowdown lap steel and Telecaster collaborations with D. Charles Speer and The Helix, inspired by Link Wray,
Classic big-band Puente from 1962, including the indomitable scorcher Oye Como Va.
Thrilling, stylish Afro-Cuban jazz — heavy on horns and percussion — featuring interpretations of Lush Life, Take Five, and Lullaby of Birdland (with composer George Shearing sitting in).
Expertly natural recordings of an intimate concert in 1980.
Classic Latin soul, following up Watermelon Man, co-written by Pat Patrick from the Arkestra. (Subsequently a massive UK hit for Georgie Fame, using Jon Hendricks’ lyrics, arranged by Tubby Hayes.) Both sides, failsafe boogaloo destroyers.
Fine blend of dubstep, UK garage and vintage techno.
Cecil Taylor’s stalwart collaborator, in the best of his recordings as leader; recorded in 1978 and originally issued by Hat Hut as a 3-LP box set. ‘Five extended pieces, all by Lyons, with a working quintet: Lyons himself on alto, his wife Karen Borca on bassoon, Hayes Burnett on bass, Munner Bernard Fennell on cello, and Roger Blank on drums. Jolting, quicksilver free jazz with terse themes and brilliant interplay, the music is quintessential Lyons — searching, pliant and sincere. Remastered from the original tapes, this first reissue of Push Pull restores the original tracks — two of which were split into LP sides — to their true continuous length.’
Shepp’s Impulse! debut, co-produced by Coltrane and featuring four of his compositions, arranged for four horns, including Wayne Shorter’s brother Alan, John Tchicai, and the one and only Roswell Rudd.
1967 — Rudd and Moncur, Jimmy Garrison (an unmissable solo overture), and Beaver Harris, tearing like a tornado into three-quarters-of-an-hour of One For The Trane.