Yoshinori Sunahara - Take Off and Landing

barabara sounds sez:

I'm going to be traveling some more over the next couple of weeks. So before I clamber into my big old jet airliner, here's Yoshinori Sunahara with his retro-futuristic vision — space-flights out of Shinjuku Underground Airport, with Paris just 80 minutes away, Vancouver 90 minutes and less than 2 hours to reach Sydney.

Back in 1998, The Times gave it a very generous 9/10. Now, the concept and music definitely feel dated — but there are some fine moments. And the artwork is brilliant (scans included). So fasten your seat belt, sit back and let the plane take the strain…

The Times (RC) sed:

When a dance album features steel drums and the lyrics of Sammy Cahn, one can safely assume it's going to be an interesting 70 minutes. Take Off and Landing is an elegant and expansive affair based on the theme of a fictional Tokyo underground airport. A virtual reality album that relies on your imagination, not headsets.

On Life and Space, the disembodied voice of a BBC-style continuity announcer intones over a backing track reminiscent of Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain. There's a nod to the Art of Noise on No Sun, while a Minnie Ripperton [sic] melody line floats through Sony Romantic Electro Wave. On the concluding track, Welcome to Japan, Yoshinori appears to have time-stretched the opening bars of Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World into an infinite symphony. It is as beautiful as it sounds.

Snowboy presents... Essential Cuban, Brazilian Hard Bop + Fusion

barabarasounds sez:

Folks over in the UK will know a lot more than me about Snowboy and this album. What I do know is that when he came through Tokyo — it was around the time this album came out — he destroyed the dance floor. The title says it all: a seamless blend of classic and contemporary, jazz and cubano and latin jazz, the insistent rhythms of Rio and Bahia, and even some afrobeat. Needless to say, it's a banger from start to finish!

As a DJ and percussionist, Snowboy's jazz-dance nights in the nineties and noughties are now legendary — as documented in his 2009 book, "From Jazz Funk & Fusion To Acid Jazz: The History Of The UK Jazz Dance Scene" — available here...

an amazon reviewer sez:

I bought this album on a whim,within 20 minutes I was hooked.The brilliant Snowboy has compiled a real foot tapping,hip swinging,sounds of sunny days in Havana type piece. From the flute, bass and piano-driven "(Used to be a) Cha-Cha" to the big-band0era feel of "La Habana Sol"… superb jazz for the soul!!

discogs sez:

As DJ, producer, percussionist and band leader (The Latin Seeds), Snowboy has been spreading the word of Afro-Cuban Jazz for over three decades… He began as a DJ in the 1970's, also learning percussion… He also ran the Hi-Hat Jazz-Dance Club at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town, London, which has been a cornerstone of the jazz dance scene surviving all other club fads... Considered as one of the most knowledgeable jazz dance DJ's worldwide, he has even showcased UK jazz dance music and dancing, with a troupe of dancers, at Yale University in the USA in 2009.

NME sed (6/30/01):

"...This is mad, effervescent Latin jazz fusion to dance to... filling a tiny weird niche brilliantly…"

There's a good review of Snowboy's book here in Mondomix…

And plenty more on his own web site...

Malik Yaqub - Yaqub Speaks, Vol. 1

barabara sounds sez:

I've been away recently (and will be again shortly) — but I don't need to be posting much at the moment, there's so much other good stuff out there.

Currently I'm grooving on the most incredible track by Malik Yaqub, a clip posted by cinemafunk. If you read Spanish (I don't — but google translate will give you the gist) you can find all about Yaqub and his outside life around Europe. If you don't, then just scroll down to the two clips at the bottom. One is a live snippet from the 6th Jazz in Tangier Festival (2005), featuring the legendary Salah Ragab & his Cairo Jazz Band.

But it's the other clip that transports me. I'm not sure of the track name, but It seems to have a radio introduction, suggesting it was recorded off the air.

Wait, there's more — thanks to a couple of my favourite regular haunts in the blogosphere...

Get yourself over to the mighty El Reza and to Katonah's Private Press, and you'll find a couple more tracks from Yaqub's ultra-rare album...

Enjoy!

Franco Ambrosetti - Movies + Movies, Too

barabara sounds sez:

Another double header, this time on enja. Swiss trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti's two fine albums, featuring takes on a range of movie theme tunes (or just tunes featured in movies), aided and abetted by some top sidemen. Two separate sessions, from 1987 and 88 (though Ambrosetti's own site says a year earlier than that).

I was dubious at first (after all Yawno recommends them) but there is, as he says, some great jazz on these albums.

And yes these are all my own rips and scans (from the JP remasters) thank you very much.

enja sez:

Born in 1941 in Lugano (Switzerland), Franco Ambrosetti started his recording career in 1964 as a sideman with his father Flavio, then a famous alto sax player. In years to follow he received several trumpet awards, was voted "Best European Jazz Musician" in Italy and was called "the most elegant hard bop trumpeter Europe has ever known." Dedicated to famous film melodies (by Gershwin, Lennon/McCartney, Hancock a.o.) and featuring American star players John Scofield and Geri Allen, "Movies" was Ambrosetti's most successful album in the eighties. Its re-definings of some well-known songs received top ratings, among them the prestigious German Critics Award. British Jazz Journal reads: "Comparisons could be drawn between Ambrosetti and Lester Bowie, in that both have blended gentle satire and serious blowing, but the Italo-Swiss has pulled off the idea with flair and taste."

amg (yanow) sez:

Movies: When one considers the repertoire — eight songs from movies. including the theme from The Magnificent Seven and the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" — this recording may not seem to have much potential. But actually, the set list includes four well-known standards (including "That Old Black Magic" and "Falling In Love Again"), and all of the music is transformed into creative and consistently exciting jazz. Trumpeter/flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti is the lead voice, but gives plenty of solo space to his illustrious sidemen... and the performances are generally quite memorable. Recommended.

Movies, Too: This second CD of movie themes once again finds flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti transforming some unpromising themes into jazz (including "Theme from Superman," "Theme from Peter Gunn" and "What's New, Pussycat"), in addition to better-known standards such as "My Man," "Angel Eyes" and "God Bless the Child"... Well worth checking out.

personnel:

Movies: Franco Ambrosetti trumpet, flugelhorn; John Scofield guitar; Geri Allen keyboards; Michael Foremanek bass; Daniel Humair drums; Jerry Gonzalez percussion

Movies, Too: Franco Ambrosetti trumpet, flugelhorn; John Scofield guitar; Greg Osby alto sax; Geri Allenkeyboards; Michael Foremanek bass; Daniel Humair drums

Arkadin posted a much earlier Ambrosetti album, A Jazz Portrait of... over at his place — here...

Kenny Drew Trio - If You Could See Me Now + Dark Beauty

barabara sounds sez:

As far as most of mainstream America was concerned, Kenny Drew ceased to exist the moment he left the country in 1961. Having played with Trane (Blue Train) and all the young lions of Bluenote (check out the fine fine Undercurrent, his first album as leader), it was as if he'd fallen off the map. That was America's loss — and Denmark's gain. He became one of the pillars of the Copenhagen jazz scene, and a mainstay of the SteepleChase label.

As a trio with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Albert Heath, Drew made these two 1974 albums which were issued separately but taken from the same two-day session. These limited edition JP remasters include extra outtakes, bringing together all the material from those sessions. Which is better? There's very little between them, but I do tend to listen to If You Could See Me Now, mainly for the first two cuts, the title track and the excellent In Your Own Sweet Way.

dusty sez:

nothing (the only mention is the above mentioned Undercurrent)

amazon (just one reviewer) sez:

This trio was the "house band" for the Montmartre Jazzhus in Copenhagen during the late 60's and early 70's. In that setting they accompanied and recorded with touring American expatriates like Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin. Here, the three of them get to stretch out in the studio, playing in a very melodic, flowing style. Drew has a light touch on piano, and Pedersen shines as both soloist and accompanist. A little like the Bill Evans trio with Scott LaFaro.

check out Undercurrent here at Sic Vos Non Vobis

Sarah Vaughan with Michel Legrand

from the liner notes:

'The first take,

as I recall, was "The Summer Knows". Sarah sang her heart out and I got swept up in the music too. We finished the song and I glanced around the studio and nearly all of the musicians had tears streaming down their faces, they were so moved. (Michel Legrand)

barabara sounds sez:

It sounds pretty damn fine now, too. On Vaughan's second album for Mainstream, Legrand's soaring

orchestrations elevate this set of ballads

by the Divine One to the stratosphere. A heavenly session indeed!

I know it's already out there in the blogosphere, but this is the JP CD reissue and includes a couple of fabulous bonus tracks — Jobim's Wave (which appeared on Vaughan's Send in the Clowns album); and Deep in the Night (originally on Feelin Good, her 3rd album for Mainstream) — thereby collecting everything the two did together.

dusty sez:

A beautiful collaboration between Sarah Vaughan and Michel Legrand -- and easily one of Sarah's greatest albums of the 70s! As he was doing with other singers at the time, Legrand helps Vaughan hit a new level of sophistication here — bringing in tunes that really get past simple pop and older standards, with adult themes supported by equally mature backings — filled with rich colors and complicated tones developed over Legrand's great work on film scores. Almost all tunes are originals by Michel — many pulled from his film work — and he also scored the arrangements here, working with the orchestra in a swirling blend of strings and jazz.

And one last thing... big up to Cheeba and the excellent Shad Shack site...

If you haven't checked it out yet, it's over here!

Don Cherry - Hear & Now

barabara sounds sez:

Wow, did/does this album ever polarize the self-styled critics...

Dusty terms it important and righteous; Julian Cope is conflicted; CD Universe says it's average, respectable and inoffensive; and AMG hyperventilates, damning it as bombastic cock-rock, lumbering, leaden, warbling, a truly gross example of shtick, a faddish veneer of exotic mysticism — and then compares it to Spinal Tap for good measure! (I've posted the best bits below for a laugh)

As for me... I like it. Clearly it's no classic; and definitely it's dated. But it's worth a few spins for sure. Let me know what you make of it...

dusty sez:

Important 70s work from Don Cherry – one of the first albums to bring his overseas experiments to a larger US audience! The set builds nicely off of styles that Don forged earlier in France and Scandinavia – a freer style of music than his work with Ornette Coleman, and a richly organic groove that builds up strongly from the bottom, often with elements of world music settled in alongside the jazz – but there's also some funkier moments here too, a bit like the Brown Rice album, but looser overall!

The groups on most numbers are relatively large and spiritual – almost like Alice Coltrane at times, but a bit more electric and funky at others… Narada Michael Walden produced, and the whole set's got a very righteous feel...

julian cope's head heritage (aether) sez:

The indecision and lack of confidence affecting Cherry at the time is totally understandable; unfortunately, it also permeates most of this LP - his one real stab at major label acceptance.

That said, a Don Cherry LP bowing to commercial acceptability is a damn sight better than many other artists of the time reaching for similar acceptance, and there are moments of high-brilliance amongst the clotted, over-sentimentalized, clinical pap.

cduniverse sez:

Hear and Now's cover depicts a smiling Cherry posing like Buddha, and holding a trumpet with a bent mouthpiece — an indication of some meditative sounds, but it's really a mishmash of styles with a leaning toward African rhythms... An average collection from Cherry, respectable and inoffensive.

AMG (Chris May) sez:

That multi-instrumentalist and world jazz pioneer Don Cherry was able to adopt such a beatific countenance for the cover shot of Hear And Now says much for the power of yoga, given the horrors that follow. The disc has now been reissued as part of Warner Jazz's Atlantic Masters series. But non-yogis should heed this warning: if you only acquire one Don Cherry album in your life, don't acquire this one.

Recorded in December 1976, Hear And Now was produced by drummer/keyboardist Narada Michael Walden, whose crimes against music—particularly at the height of the 1970s fusion era—are of a scale similar to those of pianist Bob James. The album is a truly gross example of Walden's schtick: bombastic cock-rock lead guitars, lumbering bass ostinatos, leaden drums, warbling background vocals, a faddish veneer of exotic mysticism and a sub-Wagnerian taste for dramatic shifts in dynamics. Walden himself is only heard on two tracks, but unfortunately one of them, the opening "Mahakali," features him on tympani.

If Spinal Tap had been a jazz-funk band, and if it had recorded the jazz odyssey talked about in the movie, this is what it would have sounded like.

[and so it goes on...]

Track listing

Mahakali; Universal Mother; Karmapa Chenno; California; Buddha's Blues; Eagle Eye; Surrender Rose; Journey Of Milarepa / Shanti / The Ending Movement--Liberation.

Personnel

Don Cherry: trumpet, flute, vocal; Michael Brecker: tenor saxophone (1); Stan Samole: guitar (1-5, 7, 8); Ronald Dean Miller: guitar (1, 3); Cliff Carter: keyboards (1-5, 7, 8); Narada Michael Walden: keyboards (7), tympani (1); Colin Walcott: sitar (1); Lois Colin: harp (2, 7); Moki: tamboura (1); Marcus Miller: bass (1, 3); Neil Jason: bass (2, 4, 5, 7, 8); Lenny White: drums (1, 3); Tony Williams: drums (4, 5); Steve Jordan: drums (7, 8); Raphael Cruz: percussion; Sammy Figuero: congas (2-6, 8); Cheryl Alexander: vocals (2); Phoenix Volaitis: vocals (7); Patty Scialfa: vocals (7).

Update (Jan.'11)

Another of Cherry's very best albums, Sangam, is now up at Jazz Archives. Highly recommended.