Hank Mobley, famously called the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", had a round sound and an incredible rhythmic lightness. This remarkable 1957 session features a stunning cast of bop giants, including Art Farmer, Pepper Adams, Sonny Clark and more. "East of Brooklyn", a highlight on the album, is a masterpiece of lyrical construction. Part of the Blue Note Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, this 180g vinyl features all-analog, remastered audio in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Besides being one of the best tenor saxophonists of his time, Henry (Hank) Mobley (1930-1986) is widely recognized as one of the great composers of the hard-bop era. Soul Station, which features him as the only horn in a quartet format with an all-star rhythm section consisting of Wynton Kelly at the piano, Paul Chambers at the bass, and Art Blakey at the drums.

Few recordings maintain their power to utterly intoxicate for decades as Kind of Blue does. This 1959 all-time classic is one of the monuments of jazz: So What; Freddie Freeloader; Blue in Green; All Blues , and Flamenco Sketches . This vinyl release is the way to experience one of the greatest albums ever made.

A Cornerstone of recoded music.  The Greatest Jazz album of all time now on 1 LP, 180g, individually #'d and in MONO.  Features the stellar lineup of John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers and Wynton Kelly.

This LP will be exclusive to indie stores through 1/6/14

Sun Ra, the extraordinary, outlandish, and sometimes controversial pianist, is often described as an "acquired taste", with a massive and diverse catalog. This release is a good place to start for uninitiated or dismissive listeners. The album showcases Ra's grounding in the jazz tradition, with unique takes on standards like "Time After Time," "Easy to Love," and "But Not for Me". Not unordinary for Sun Ra, the recording process was informal; "Can This Be Love?" was recorded in his Chicago apartment in 1955; he is accompanied only by the great Wilbur Ware on bass. The other five tracks, which feature, among others, Ra's longtime associate John Gilmore on tenor saxophone, were recorded at the Choreographer's Workshop rehearsal space in 1962 and 1963.

Janus is a compilation of rare material from Sun Ra and his Arkestra, drawing from tapes recorded between 1963 and 1970, taken from both live and studio performances. The space-age jazz shaman conjures up a variety of styles and moods along the way. The album has been remastered, and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas in Germany.

One of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time, not to mention bossa nova's finest moment, Getz/Gilberto trumped Jazz Samba by bringing two of bossa nova's greatest innovators - guitarist/singer João Gilberto and composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim - to New York to record with Stan Getz. The results were magic. On 180 gram vinyl.

On Halloween night, this pumpkin-shaped orange LP will rise from sincere vinyl collections the world over and bring audible presents to all the good girls and boys. Previously thought lost to time: this album contains the original analog session reels for It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This 33 1/3 rpm version of the soundtrack are the cues as recorded by Vince and crew before edited for the television special, as well as a selection of alternate takes. Includes new expanded liner notes.

180 gram. High Definition Premium Virgin Vinyl Pressing For Super Fidelity. Direct Metal Mastering. The transition from country to urban blues that began in the 1920s was driven by the successive waves of economic crisis and booms and the associated move of African Americans from rural to urban areas. This has come to be known as the Great Migration. In the aftermath of World War II, the long boom period induced the Second Migration, which marked a massive migration of the African American population. Many performers such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Reed, among many others, migrated to Chicago from the Mississippi region. This situation reinforced trends within urban blues music such as the progressive electrification of the instruments, their amplification and the generalization of the blues beat. Chicago became a center for electric blues from 1948 on, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success: "I Can't Be Satisfied." But Waters, born McKinley Morganfield (Issaquena County, Mississippi, April 4, 1913 - Westmon, Illinois, April 30, 1983), was more than a pioneer in the Chicago electric blues scene. He was a great singer of American vernacular music - a vocal artist of astonishing power, range, depth, and subtlety. His presence was that of a king, and his blues sounded simple, but it was so deeply rooted in the traditions of the Mississippi Delta that other singers and guitarists found it almost impossible to imitate it convincingly. "My blues looks so simple, so easy to do, but it's not. They say my blues is the hardest blues in the world to play, " stated Muddy Waters in a 1978 interview. Among musicians and singers, his remarkable sense of timing, his command of inflection and pitch shading, and his vocabulary of vocal sounds and effects, from the purest falsetto to grainy moaning rasps, were all frequent topics of conversation. He was also able to duplicate many of his singing techniques on electric guitar, using a metal slider to make the instrument "speak" in a quivering, voice-like manner.

Limited vinyl LP repressing of this classic 1958 album by the jazz icon. Lady in Satin is the penultimate album completed by the singer and last released in her lifetime. The original album was produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut. The song material for Lady in Satin derived from the usual sources for Holiday in her three decade career, that of the Great American Songbook of classic pop. Unlike the bulk of Holiday's recordings, rather than in the setting of a jazz combo Holiday returns to the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements as done during her Decca years, this time in the contemporary vein of Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald on her Songbooks series. The album consists of songs Holiday had never recorded before. The arrangements were by bandleader Ray Ellis, Holiday familiar with his Ellis in Wonderland album. Soloists on the album included Mel Davis, Urbie Green, and bebop trombone pioneer J.J. Johnson.

Limited direct metal mastered 180gm vinyl LP pressing of this album from the Blues great including four bonus tracks.. Wax Time.

180 Gram Vinyl Audiophile edition of a true classic in both soul and blues. Some of the best tunes ever written are featured on this 1967 release with Nina's soulful voice and piano, and an amazing backing band, taking you to the very essence of the blues.

Vinyl LP pressing. I Put a Spell on You is the 1965 album by Nina Simone, and features some of her best known songs. "I Put a Spell on You" is a song originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The original version gave the song an ironic theme, but Simone transformed it into a thrilling love song, complete with horns and strings. It had become one of her most well-known songs. Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist who worked in a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Simone's musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

Track Listing: Buddy Brown's BluesWine Drinkin' Spodee O DeeSail on Little Girl Sail onDC7Death BellsGoin' to Dallas to See My Pony RunJailhouse BluesBlues in the BottleBeans Beans BeansCatfish BluesMy Grandpa Is Old Too

That’s What Happened 1982-1985: Bootleg Volume 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. In the 1980s, popular music had moved to a smoother, electronic-based sound that traded the steam of previous years for subdued arrangements meant to elicit peace and deep reflection. Miles Davis embraced this era, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. This music on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 captures that exploration, and finds Miles beginning to re-emerge in a creative landscape far different than the one he left in 1975. He’s touched every inch of pop culture while keeping true to his iconoclastic vision of jazz as amorphous art that’s supposed to bend and flow and mutate to something else. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, we get to play in the rubble of what would become yet another period of unprecedented innovation. Beauty resides in evolution. This double LP collects highlights of Bootleg Volume 7 with over 80 minutes of unreleased studio material from 1982 to 1985 on white vinyl. Side men include a multi-generational who’s who of jazz talent from JJ Johnson, Al Foster and John Scofield to Mike Stern, Marcus Miller and Daryl Jones.

The long-awaited reissue of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz LP by the famous Hungarian guitarist, originally released in 1968. The first time, extended Edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio version of Fire Dance / Ferris Wheel from single 7" 1969.Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne.Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound.Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way to America, settling with his family in California.He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and "Gypsy Queen, " the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more commercially oriented forms of jazz.During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style. From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop, Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

Jalacy J. Hawkins, better known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins, was born on July 18, 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he played piano, boxed in local championships and learned opera at the Ohio Conservatory of Music. Although initially pursuing opera after returning from serving in World War II, Hawkins eventually sharpened his focus on the darker side of R&B and jazz, using macabre stage props, absolute wildman persona and expert voice imitating the blare and squeal of saxophones. His most notable chart-topper was the boozy, raucous 1956 hit 'I Put A Spell On You, ' which was banned by many radio stations for it's suggestive groans and grunts. All things considered, Screamin' Jay Hawkins is considered one of the earliest pioneers of what would become shock rock.Recorded in 1969, years following his big hits, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' third album What That Is! Showcases Hawkins in one of his most rowdy and compelling stages of his artistic career. With a killer backing band featuring the great Earl Palmer on drums for most of the cuts and Herb Ellis guesting on a few. We find Jay singing about life, love and loss as well as feasting Mau Maus and pain, REAL PAIN. From the album notes- 'Producer's Note: This album was recorded live at the Club Amigo in North Hollywood on June 23rd and 24th, Nineteen Hundred and Yesteryear, and is dedicated to President Nixon, whose efforts to recapture the era of the early 50's do not pass unnoticed.' We debated swapping out Presidents' names. Jay would have liked that.Packaging: Direct-to-board LP jacket, 180g vinyl

Jalacy J. Hawkins, better known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins, was born on July 18, 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he played piano, boxed in local championships and learned opera at the Ohio Conservatory of Music. Although initially pursuing opera after returning from serving in World War II, Hawkins eventually sharpened his focus on the darker side of R&B and jazz, using macabre stage props, absolute wildman persona and expert voice imitating the blare and squeal of saxophones. His most notable chart-topper was the boozy, raucous 1956 hit 'I Put A Spell On You, ' which was banned by many radio stations for it's suggestive groans and grunts. All things considered, Screamin' Jay Hawkins is considered one of the earliest pioneers of what would become shock rock. Recorded in 1970, Hawkins' fourth album finds the artist at a point of transition. Although Jay had found commercial success and his sales surpassed one million units, he had grown somewhat weary of his shock/voodoo/bogeyman persona and wanted to be taken more seriously as a singer. Luckily for us, Jay only tones down the yelling and the crooning and the grunting and the groaning marginally. The tracks here are every bit as wild as you would hope and a bit more mature (note: a very little bit). Because Is In Your Mind, also known as Armpitrubber, is packaged in a wonderfully psychedelic painting by Karl Wirsom of the hugely influential Chicago art collective The Hairy Who. Packaging: Direct-to-board LP jacket, 180g vinyl

Limited 180gm gold colored vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Includes insert. On Anutha Zone, Dr. John digs deep into a murky musical well once again, with stunning results. "John Gris," "Party Hellfire," and "Soulful Warrior" brilliantly fuse slow-burn grooves, sly musicianship, and Dr. John's elegantly gruff vocals, conjuring images of dark revelry down French Quarter back alleyways. This was the comeback of 1998, hands down.

Limited red and black colored vinyl LP. Includes printed inner sleeve with liner notes. Demon Records presents the first vinyl reissue of Dr. John's mid-'60s Crazy Cajun recordings. Dr. John - who, for over sixties years until his death at the age of 77 on June 6th, 2019 pursued a career in music that was, at it's core, all about bringing the music of New Orleans to the world at large. This collection (first released in 1977) brings together a number of recordings from the mid-'60s which find Dr. John honing the New Orleans style that he would perfect in the '70s on classics including 'Such A Night' and 'Right Place, Wrong Time'.

A lifelong fan of Doc Severinsen, trumpeter Steve Patrick steps into the spotlight, leading an all-star big band orchestra on such classics as "Stardust," "Stompin' at The Savoy," and "Unforgettable." A graduate of Indiana University's acclaimed jazz studies program, he has appeared on over 4,000 recordings including those of Carrie Underwood, Marc Broussard, Elton John, Norah Jones, and many more. His live performances include stints with Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Larry Carlton, and others.

For more than 6 decades, saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd has been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. At 84, he remains as prolific as ever. Early on, Lloyd saw how placing the improvised solo in interesting contexts could provoke greater freedom and creativity. That vision is evident on his Trio of Trios project, which encompasses 3 albums in different trio settings. The first, Trios: Chapel, features guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan.

On March 15, 2018, legendary saxophonist, composer and jazz mystic Charles Lloyd celebrated his 80th birthday at The Lobero - his hometown venue in Santa Barbara, CA. He was joined by an unprecedented group of musicians including guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland. 2 LP set with 28-page 12 x 12" book.

Ella Fitzgerald's "Songbook" records - with her peerless renditions of the best songs from iconic composers from Irving Berlin to Rogers & Hart to Cole Porter to George & Ira Gershwin - are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the standard for jazz vocal recordings. Ella never released a live version of these Songbooks. This record, discovered in the private collection of Norman Granz, will make the first time a live Songbook has been released from the First Lady of Song.

Even though Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins had both been well-known jazzmen since the early 1920s, it wasn't until 1962 - at least 20 years after Duke first suggested it - that these two recorded their only session together. High points include an exuberant "The Jeep Is Jumpin'," an interesting remake of "Mood Indigo," and a few new Ellington pieces. Verve Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered on 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Recorded in 1959 at the legendary Van Gelder Studios in Hackensack, New Jersey, this is considered one of Donald Byrd's finest LPs. Byrd had a fruitful run in the late '50s with the great baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams and here they are joined by tenor-man Charlie Rouse, and a great rhythm section like on "Devil Whip", an energetic tune with a nice call-andresponse theme between the horns and the rhythm section. Here Byrd impresses with a few incredibly long phrases in his solo, however he still manages to play with very clear and logical phrasing. Other highlights are Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft", the self-penned blues "Here I Am" and the Walter Davis written grooves "Bronze Dance" and "Clarion Calls".

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Over two days in August 1971, Donald Byrd brought a powerful band into A&M Studios in Los Angeles to record the jazz-funk exploration Ethiopian Knights, continuing his evolution from top-flight hard bop trumpeter to pioneer of R&B/funk fusion. Consisting of just three tracks-the extended funk workouts "The Emperor" and "The Little Rasti" with the cleanser "Jamie" in between-the album preceded his Mizell Bros produced fusion masterpiece Black Byrd, and featured stand-out contributions from tenor saxophonist Harold Land and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, along with keyboardists Joe Sample and Bill Henderson III, guitarists Don Peake, Greg Poree, and David T. Walker, bassist Wilton Felder, drummer Ed Greene, and percussionist Bobbye Porter Hall.

I've been playing since I was 11 years old," says Charlie Gabriel, the most senior member of the legendary Preservation Hall Band, "I never did anything in my life but play music. I've been blessed with that gift that God gave me, and I've tried to nurse it the best way I knew how." While he's faced plenty of challenges nursing that gift for more than 78 years, none likely rank with last winter's passing of his brother and last living sibling, Leonard, lost to COVID-19. For the first time ever, Gabriel put down his horn, filling his days and weeks instead with dark reflection, a stubborn despondency broken now and then by regular chess matches in the studio kitchen of Hall leader Ben Jaffe, working overtime to bring his friend some light. One such afternoon also included Joshua Starkman, sitting off in a corner playing his guitar and half-watching the chess from a distance. When Charlie returned the next day, he brought his saxophone. "I was just inspired to try it, to play again. It had been a long time, and a guitar makes me feel free. I do love the sound of a piano, but it takes up a lot of a space, keeps me kind of boxed in." That day was to be the first session for Eighty Nine, almost entirely the work of Gabriel, Jaffe and Starkman, recorded mostly right there, in the kitchen, by Matt Aguiluz. Charlie Gabriel's first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in New Orleans' Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played with Lionel Hampton, whose band then included a young Charles Mingus, later spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer J.C. Heard. While he's also fronted a bebop quintet, played and/or toured with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader. Since 2006, Gabriel has been a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, featuring prominently on That's It, So It Is, and Tuba to Cuba. Eighty Nine was different, and not simply due to a smaller ensemble. "We had no particular plan, or any particular insight on what we were gonna do. But we were enjoying what we were doing, jamming, having a musical conversation," Charlie says, further musing, "Musical conversations cancel out complications." Eighty Nine includes six standards and three newer pieces on which Gabriel is a writer: "Yellow Moon," "The Darker It Gets" and "I Get Jealous." The record also marks Charlie's return to his first instrument, clarinet, on many of the tracks. "The clarinet is the mother of the saxophone," he says. "I started playing clarinet early in life, and this [taught me] the saxophone." Finally, Eighty Nine includes three tracks of Charlie singing. "I always sung, but it wasn't my forte to become a singer," he says. "The truth is, people often develop a real relationship with a song once they hear the words. Sometimes I enjoy singing them.

For decades, the voice of Jean Carne has been a crucial part of the American musical landscape, tying together generations of Jazz, Gospel, and R&B artists. As a solo artist, backing vocalist, and vocal coach, she has contributed to and collaborated with the likes of Norman Connors, Doug Carn, Dexter Wansel, Phyllis Hyman, Lonnie Liston Smith, Michael Jackson, and many more. At 74, she shows no signs of slowing down. Many will recognize Carne from her output in the early 1970s, alongside her then-husband Doug Carn, for the lauded Black Jazz label. During this era of afrocentric creativity, the duo's output found themselves at the nexus of jazz's tectonic past decade and the fertile ground ahead. Without the constraints of genre or structure, artists such as Carne, on her Black Jazz output as well as on the saxophonist Azar Lawrence's 'Bridge Into The New Age' and percussionist Mtume's 'Rebirth Cycle', began to explore and re-interpolate, continuing the tradition of jazz music as a mode of reinvention, repurposing, and reimagining.

Head Hunters was a pivotal point in Herbie Hancock's career, bringing him into the vanguard of jazz fusion. Hancock had pushed avant-garde boundaries on his own albums and with Miles Davis, but he had never devoted himself to the groove as he did on Head Hunters. Drawing heavily from Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and James Brown, Hancock developed deeply funky, even gritty, rhythms over which he soloed on electric synthesizers, bringing the instrument to the forefront in jazz. It had all of the sensibilities of jazz, particularly in the way it wound off into long improvisations, but it's rhythms were firmly planted in funk, soul, and R&B, giving it a mass appeal that made it the biggest-selling jazz album of all time (a record which was later broken). Jazz purists, of course, decried the experiments at the time, but Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital decades after it's initial release, and it's genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop. Track listing: Chameleon, Watermelon Man, Sly, Vein Melter.

Reissued on 180 gram Vinyl, this classic jazz album is finally available on LP for the first time in over 30 years.

Norah Jones’ seminal debut album, Come Away With Me, became a global phenomenon reaching #1 in 20 countries, selling nearly 30 million copies, and sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards with 8 wins including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. The remastered 20th Anniversary Edition captures the emergence of a singular talent on this now-classic album.

High-definition premium 180gm vinyl pressing of this classic Jazz album. Wax Time Records. 2010.