Dee Dee Bridgewater – Afro Blue

barabara sounds sez:
Dee Dee's first, she was just 23 and she sounds as beautiful as she looks. What a debut. And what a great band she had behind her too, led by the Bridgewater brothers and with Sir Roland too. But this show is all about Dee Dee, especially her take on the title track. Far too good to be OOP. Dusty doesn't disapprove...


dusty sez:
One of the greatest jazz vocal albums of all time – and one of the first true moments of genius from a young Dee Dee Bridgewater! The album's a Japanese only release (proof that they're always hipper to our jazz artists than we are!) – and it features Dee Dee singing material that's quite different than her later R&B-inflected sides from the late 70s – very soaring and spiritual work, delivered in a way that set a whole new standard for jazz at the time! Backing is by a small combo with brothers Ron and Cecil Bridgwater, plus Roland Hanna on acoustic and electric piano, George Mraz on bass, and Motohiko Hino on drums and percussion – but the star of the set is always Dee Dee, who sparkles beautifully on the album's classic versions of "Afro Blue" and "Little B's Poem" – both of which have been redone by many other singers over the years. Other great cuts include "People Make The World Go Round", "Love From The Sun", and "Love Vibrations".


stuff:
This album first came out on Trio, a brilliant Japanese label that delivered some great music, mostly jazz (Ornette, Mal, Gil Evans, Stanley Cowell and lots more) but also put out some unlikely stuff (T.Rex and the Dead Kennedys!). This rip is from the CD reissue on AMJ. The back cover posted below is from the album, from here.


For a great write-up giving some background to what Dee-Dee and Cecil and the crew recorded around the same time, check out Simon's post of the classic Strata-East joint, Billy Parker's Fourth World over at Never Enough Rhodes...

Nina Simone - Sings the Blues + ...

barabara sounds sez:  

Time for some Nina. I always have time for some Nina. Especially this one from 1967, her first on RCA and one of my all-time favorites (and I love that cover art). She sure does sing those blues: file this under 'R' for Real Real.

dusty groove sez:

Nina's not just singing the blues here – she's completely reinventing the sound of the format – by drawing on a long tradition of vocal expression, and infusing it with the hipper, more personally exploratory mode she forged in the 60s! The album's got a subtle brilliance that means it's sometimes overlooked next to her more forceful work of the time – but it's every bit essential Simone as some of her other key sides of the decade. The group is a small combo featuring Eric Gale, Bernard Purdie, Buddy Lucas, and Ernest Hayes... 

tracks:

Do I Move You?; Day and Night; In the Dark; Real Real; My Man's Gone Now; Backlash Blues; I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl; Buck; Since I Fell for You; The House of the Rising Sun; Blues for Mama.

personnel:

Nina Simone piano, vocals; Rudy Stevenson guitar; Eric Gale guitar; Bernard Purdie drums; Bob Bushnell bass; Ernest Hayes organ; Buddy Lucas harmonica, tenor sax.

Ah hell, let's make it a double: At Town Hall was the concert that put her on the map and made her a star. It was quite a performance. Here's a nifty review:

cokemanchineglow sez:

Despite being pound-for-pound the best straight-up jazz release in Simone’s catalogue, At Town Hall is strangely underrated. Lists of her signature tunes—“I Loves You Porgy,” “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” etc. — neglect the top flight fare here, like the hard swinging “Exactly Like You” or the deep, rumbling burn of “The Other Woman.” Simone even enters the old folk song “Black Is The Color of My True Loves Hair” — here given a vocal performance of impossibly subtlety — into the standard jazz repertoire without getting too much notice. Nevertheless, these tracks have the tight backing and titanic emotional force of the best Nina Simone, if not the best of her era.

Recorded partially live and partially in the studio, At Town Hall does suffer from a bit of the patchiness of Simone’s early albums. It’s strange that both an instrumental and vocal version of “Summertime” are included (or, depending on how you look at it, that Simone’s take has an intro longer than the song itself), and “Return Home” is an unfocused Afro-Cuban interlude. Yet even amongst these distractions, “Wild is the Wind” and Billie Holiday’s “Fine and Mellow” serve up Simone’s soulful jazz with formidable gusto. Her piano is expansive and thrilling without being overwrought, and the rhythm section is pitch perfect throughout. On balance, At Town Hall is an album of underrated classics, filled with stunning performances and one of the finest voices in the history of jazz. It’s all heartbreak gorgeously rendered, and while the few upbeat moments offer some reprieve, Simone’s staggering ballads sing the glory of love imperfect and love lost. 

tracks:

Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair; Exactly Like You; The Other Woman; Under the Lowest; You Can have Him; Summertime (instrumental); Summertime (vocal); Cotton-eyed Joe; Return Home; Wild is the WInd; Fine and Mellow.

Charlie Mariano - Reflections

barabara sounds sez:

Charlie Mariano laying down some very righteous lines in modal mode with his Finnish cohorts. This has to be one of my favorites from his later albums. It kicks in right from the start of Glenford Crescent and doesn't let go. Bonus points because it features the great Sabu (well, on 5 of the tracks anyway). Dusty rates it plenty too...

dusty groove sez:

A great set of fusion tunes – recorded by American Charlie Mariano, in the company of a very hip Finnish ensemble! This 1973 gem features some of Charlie's best work of the decade – freewheeling but never too out and with none of the rock flourishes that sometimes mar his other work at the time. The group is all-great too – with… Sabu Martinez on congas and percussion! Tracks have a tight jazzy bounce – with some choppy funky moments, and other nice modal grooving ones – and titles include "Spanish Dance No 2", Brother Muthalah", "Blue in Green" and "Rambling".

personnel:

Charlie Mariano - alto & soprano sax, nagaswaram; Eero Koivistonen - tenor & soprano sax; Jukka Tolonen - electric guitar; Olli Ahvenlahti - piano, electric piano; Esko Linnavalli - piano; Pentti Hietanen - piano; Pekka Sarmanto - acoustic bass; Heikki Virtanen - electric bass; Esko Rossnell - drums; Reino Laine - drums; Sabu Martinez - congas, percussion

tracks: 

Glenford Crescent; Naima; Brother Muthaiah; Spanish Dance No. 2; Blue In Green; Thiruvarankulam; Chile; Rambling.  

trivia:

Recorded in Helsinki, March 1974.

Ever wondered what a nagaswaram is and what it looks like? Check this out here...

And if you've ever wondered what they listen to all the way up there in the far north of Europe... head on over to Hoochiecoochieman's blog and check out some of his amazing mixes. Lots of great j-jazz there too!

Yosuke Yamashita Trio - Sakura

barabara sounds sez:

The sakura has been and gone in Tokyo for this year. But the blossom is only just starting to illuminate the areas further north. There are many reasons for people in those areas to party and celebrate the return of another spring. But it will be many years, decades for sure and maybe more, before anyone has hanami parties under these trees inside the nuclear no-go zone. And a long long wait until any of us can really breathe easy.

Meanwhile, here's Yosuke Yamashita and his trio from 1990 with the funkiest version you're likely to hear of that hoary old traditional Japanese ditty. The other tracks are equally fine, with Yamashita in much more lyrical mode than he was earlier in his career. He really has a great understanding with his two longtime sidemen.

personnel:

Yosuke Yamashita piano; Cecil McBee acoustic bass; Pheeroan akLaff drums.

tracks:

Sakura; Yurikago; Haiku; Amefuri; Ano Machi; Dobarada; Tanabata; Sunayama; Tsuki No Sabuku; Usagi No Dance; Nenkorori

Maulawi

dusted mag sez:

…an absolute original that flies in the same circles as some of the greatest jazz and soul records of the early '70s. Maulawi Nururdin's Maulawi covers a staggering landscape, and does a virtual Sherman's March across the territories of funk, blues, post-Palladium latin jazz, samba, and his own unique take on the outtasphere; burning it all down with punishing resolve, and reviving it all in his own image. Maulawi, Nururdin's solo album that died a commercial death shortly after its 1974 release, reveals a palette of compositional depth and sonic intelligence that Nururdin would have had a tough time topping had he recorded again. The product of an era rife with social and political tension, this work highlights a street-hot assembly of musicians as they document their composer/bandleader's detailed, colloquial vision.

barabara sounds sez:

Spiritual but gritty, hip, compelling and percussive, Maulawi is (as Dusted points out) something like a cross between Miles (Evil Live era) and Curtis at his Chi-town funkiest. Intrigued? You should be. If you've never heard this lost-classic one-of-a-grooving-kind album — originally on the Strata label but reissued on Universal Sound — then you're in for a major treat. Enjoy it while you can. 

tracks:

Street rap; Root In 7/4 plus; Eltition; Naima; Sphynx rabbit.

Oliver Nelson - Stolen Moments

barabara sounds sez:

Such a great composition deserves a whole album named after it. Maybe this version isn't quite up there with the all-time classic track on the much better known Blues and... album, but it's still one of the great tracks. The rest of the album is none too shabby either. No matter how it's spelled, Yeanin' [sic] is great — and the cut-down speeded-up Straight No Chaser is just brilliant. With nine in the aggregation it feels like a stripped-down big-band, but at the same time it's anchored squarely in contemporary mode by the electric rhythm section.

dusty sez:

One of the last sessions Oliver Nelson cut, recorded in the mid 70s for the Japanese East Wind label, and one of our favorites, a nice soul jazz sleeper. The band includes Bobby Bryant, Jerome Richardson, Mike Wofford, and Shelly Manne, with a nice 6 piece front line, so the horn parts sound nice & full. The rhythm section features electric piano and bass, so the sound is a bit more modern, but we love the readings they do of classics like Nelson's "Stolen Moments" and there's a great groover kicking off the second side, "Mission Accomplished".

personnel:

Oliver Nelson alto sax; Jack Nimitz baritone sax; Jerome Richardson soprano sax, flute; Buddy Collette, Bobby Bryant Jr. tenor sax, flute; Bobby Bryant trumpet, flugelhorn; Mike Wofford piano; Chuck Domanico bass; Shelly Manne drums

tracks:

Stolen Moments; St. Thomas; Three Seconds; Mission Accomplished; Midnight Blue;  Yeanin' [yes it's misspelt]; Straight No Chaser.

blurb:

While it was also issued on the Inner City label in the US, this is from the East Wind imprint . Whichever way, even the CD still appears to be OOP. Ish posted a rip several years back on the one and only (and now both late and lamented) Ile Oxumare. Just in case anyone overlooked it there...

Archie Shepp - Yasmina, a black woman

barabara sounds sez:

It doesn't get much better than this all-time classic: Archie Shepp and his band invoking the spirits of Africa and the avant guard, a massive collaboration with the key members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Brilliant stuff and, needless to say, a barabara classic.

dusty groove sez:

Archie Shepp at his spiritual best – recording in Paris in 1969, and absorbing a heck of a lot of pan-African influences! The centerpiece of the album is the amazing "Yasmina" – a long track that builds with passion and fire, pulsing with an intensity that you'd expect more from Pharoah Sanders than Shepp himself. Next up is "Sonny's Back", a wonderful straight jazz groover with Archie and Hank Mobley on twin tenors upfront – making a rare and memorable recorded appearance together! The set's capped off by a mellow version of "Body & Soul", one that points towards the more soulful side of Shepp's work in the 70s.

personnel:

Archie Shepp vocals, soprano & tenor sax, piano; Roscoe Mitchell bass sax; Grachan Moncur III trombone; Dave Burrell piano; Burton Greene piano; Laurence Devereaux balafon; Sunny Murray drums, percussion; Claude Delcloo drums; Hank Mobley vocals tenor sax; Lester Bowie trumpet; Clifford Thornton cornet; Philly Joe Jones drums.

tracks:

A1 Yasmina; B1 Sonny's Back; B2 Body & Soul