Toshiko Akiyoshi / LewTabackin Big Band - Salted Gingko Nuts

barabara sounds sez:  

Autumn's here: time for one of my favorite seasonal snacks. Great with beer, even better with sake, and perfect too with Toshiko's peerless big band music. This one (on Baystate from 1978) is particularly nutritious. It's a 16-piece aggregation, but they played together so much over the course of that decade that they sound like one seamless unit. There are also some great solos from Bobby Shew on trumpet and Gary Foster (alto). Tasty... 

Yawno sez: 

The Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Orchestra's first few recordings were made for RCA (usually released first in Japan and then later in the U.S.) but, after that association ended in 1978, most of the big band's recordings ended up being released by their own private Ascent label. The orchestra (based in Los Angeles) was one of the finest big bands of the era, as can be heard on this superior outing with Akiyoshi on piano, Tabackin displaying very different styles on tenor and flute, altoists Gary Foster and Dick Spencer, and trumpeter Bobby Shew. The leader's arrangements reflect both her roots in swinging bop and her Asian heritage. Highlights of the excellent set are "Chasing After Love" (based on "Lover"), the lyrical "Elusive Dream," and "Son of Road Time."

There's lots more about Toshiko over here on Susan Fleet's web site.

And All About Jazz has some nice interviews, including this one here...

Kampai!

Kalaparusha - Kwanza

barabara sounds sez:

The one and only Kalaparusha, free and fiery, on Baystate from '77 (to be precise, recorded in NYC in M

ay 9, 1977)

. This little number goes for substantial bucks for the original album, and even the reissue — which this is ripped from — is hard to get hold of now. W

hich is why the scans, including the art above, still have the obi and shrink wrap on.

what my original post said:

I had this post all ready to go up for a couple of weeks. But while I dallied (out of town actually), it has now been posted over at the excellent Inconstant Sol, so I didn't bother. Instead, head over there to pick it up — and check out the comments, including a link to a film about where Kalaparushi Maurice McIntyre is at right now (and it ain't a good place).

But enough time has elapsed, so this has been reinstated as a full-fledged barabara sounds post. Too good not to share :-)

tracks:

Kwanza; Leo; Buumba; Around We Go

personnel:

Kalaparusha: tenor sax & clarinet

Malachi Thompson: trumpet

Hakim Jami: bass

John Betsch: drums

Juma Sultan: congas & percussions

sunny murray's untouchable factor - "apple cores"

barabara sounds sez:

Spiritual, righteous, rare. What more can you say about this album? Just look at all the people involved... This is ripped from the CD reissue of the Baystate album (though the cover art was lifted from the philly jazz imprint which I found here on Discogs). Enjoy... I think you will!

If this is your bag, then go check out Charred Earth, which Sunny Murray recorded with a very different, smaller version of the 'untouchable factor' aggregation, also for Baystate. It's available over here...

dusty sez:

One of the hippest, tightest sessions ever recorded by drummer Sunny Murray -- a large group set recorded with his Untouchable Factor group -- a great ensemble that includes Frank Foster on soprano sax, Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe on alto saxes, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone, Don Pullen on piano, and Cecil McBee and Fred Hopkins on bass! The sound is somewhat straighter than Murray's free jazz of a few years before -- almost in the mode that Foster was exploring with some of his large ensembles of the 70s -- a platform for righteous jazz expression, but in a way that's still tied together strongly with a sense of rhythm. Other players on the group include the enigmatic Youseff Yancy on a host of instruments, including theremin -- plus the under-recorded Monette Sudler on guitar. Some tracks are a bit more outside than others -- and titles include "Past Perfect Tense", "One Down & One Up", "Applebluff", "Apple Cores", and "New York Maze".

Sunny Murray: drums; Frank Foster: soprano sax (1, 2, 3); Oliver Lake: alto sax (2); Jimmy Vass: alto sax (1, 3); Don Pullen: piano (1, 2, 3); Monnette Sudler: guitar (1, 2, 3, 4); Cecil McBee: bass (1, 2, 3); Fred Hopkins: bass (4); Hamiet Bluiett: baritone sax (4); Arthur Blythe: alto sax (4); Abdul Zahir Batin: flute, whistles, percussion (5); Youseff Yancy: trumpet, flugelhorn, theremin, various electro-acoustical sound manipulating devices (1, 3, 4, 5); Sonny Brown: drums (5)