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Showing posts from January, 2009

ART FARMER - A SLEEPING BEE

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Art Farmer for Sonet from 1976. Art Farmer, trumpet, flugelhorn / Jan Schaffer, guitar / Gran Strandberg, piano /Red Mitchell, bass / Sabu Martinez, percussion / Tony Inzalaco, drums /Island Ostlund, drums The lyrical Art teams up with the mighty Sabu for this Swedish session featuring a cracker in "Green Witch" plus a reading of the Heath Bros "Smiling Billy" - nice! This Sonet LP finds Art Farmer with an atypical supporting group that includes fellow veteran Red Mitchell on bass, Latin percussionist Sabú Martínez, and several Europeans, among them guitarist Jan Schaffer and pianist Goran Strandberg. The opener, an easygoing take of "It Might As Well Be Spring," finds Farmer finally opening up in the closing chorus. Farmer's rich-toned flugelhorn interacts beautifully with Mitchell's imaginative bassline in the swinging take of "Come Rain or Come Shine," while the brisk bossa nova "Green Witch" is one of the more challenging ch

AIRTO - SAMBA DE FLORA

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Airto for Montuno from 1988. One for Greg and the Class A Crew. Flora Purim, Alphonso Johnson, Angel Maldonado, Bruce Bigenho, David Tolegian, Dom Camardella, Don Alias, Frank Colon, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jeff Eliot, Jill Avery, Joe Farell, Jorge Dalto, Kei Akagi, Keith Jones, Larry Nass, Laudir de Oliveira, Luiz Munoz, Michael Shapiro, Rafael Jose, Randy Tico, Raúl de Souza, Roland Bautista, Rolando Gingras, Tony Moreno Featuring the monster dancefloor destroyer "Samba de Flora" the quintessential Dingwalls tune for me.Sunday afternoon pissed as arseholes staggering round the floor like a tramp on a mission for special brew while shaking an inebriated leg-fucking priceless! "One of the most gorgeous records I've ever heard, mostly because it was one of pianist Jorge Dalto's final recording sessions. His playing here is compelling, spiritual and exhausting. Airto's surprising and beautiful baritone Spanish vocal on 'La Puerta,' with only piano accompanime

HUGO FATTORUSO - ORIENTAL

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Hugo Fattoruso for Som Gente Brazil from 1990. Hugo Fattoruso : Keyboards,Piano,Voice,Percussion,Acoustic Guitar/José San Martin : Drums/Mauro Senise : Flute,Saxphone Soprano/Zeca Assumpção : Cello/Sizão Machado : Electric Bass/Ulisses Rocha : Guitar,Tambores Candombe/Dário Bracco : Tambor Piano/Fernando Banega : Tambor Chico/Jorge Luiz Gomes : Tambor Repique/Juan Angel : Tambor Piano/Juan Silva : Tambor Chico/Lobo Nuñes : Tambor Piano/Manoel Silva : Tambor Chico/Ruben Rada : Voz, Tambor Piano/Washington Ciruja : TamborRepique/Wilson Martirena : Tambor Repique Tough latin fusion from Uruguay via Brazil.This one ranges from the candombe rhythms of "Lonjas Del Cuareim" to the samba fusion bangers "Estrela Distante","O Sambinha" & "La Papa" to a post prog rock work out on "Feria de Tristan Narvaja". Here's a potted bio of Fattoruso from bigworldmusic.com Hugo Fattoruso, born in Montevideo, Uruguay, began his musical career as a pro

SOLAR PLEXUS

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Solar Plexus for Inner City from 1979. Flute,Sax - Glenn Richardson / Keyboards - Denny Berthiaume/ Trumpet,Percussion - Randy Masters/ Vocals ,Percussion- Lin McPhillips /Bass- MickeyMcPhillips/Drums,Percussion-Russ Tincher/Kenneth Nash-Percussion The third lp from Randy Masters' Solar Plexus which continues to plough the latin jazz fusion furrow to great effect.Check out the long intro cuts on each side of the lp "Voa, Quetzali!" & "Xango-Bahiana" for the best moments and give a wide berth to "Stutz Bearcat" which is a real stinker. Here's the write up at Kosmigroove from Eric Golub who joined the band after this lp: Co-founded by trumpeter/composer Randy Masters and keyboardist/composer Denny Berthiaume. Featured rather complex arrangements, with Masters' compositions favoring Brazilian elements, and Berthiaume's wedding fusion

RONALD SNIJDERS - BLACK STRAIGHT MUSIC

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Ronald Snijders for Black Straight Music from 1981. Moving over to Holland for private press business and a tough lp for the funky flute freaks! Check out "Latinetta","Wildgrass" and "Tori" for foot shufflin' action. Here's a bit more about Ronald from his website: Ronald Snijders is considered to be the most swinging flutist in the Netherlands (Jazz magazine Jazz nu), and the inventor of African Surinam kawinajazz. He was born in Paramaribo, Suriname in 1951 and started to play the flute at the age of seven, influenced by his professionally fluteplaying father. In his youth he also practised guitar, sax, some piano and percussion, playing popular music, classical music, Brazilian music plus jazz. In september of 1970 he settled in Delft, the Netherlands to study civil engineering, but about five years later he was a professional selftaught musician. Among his awards shines the Press prize at the prestigious NOS jazzconcours of 1973 in Laren, wo

MAX GREGER JR,MILAN PILAR & CHARLY ANTOLINI - CATCH UP VOL. 1

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Max Greger,Milan Pilar and Charly Antolini for Calig from 1975. Greger-Keyboards,Pilar-Bass,Antolini-Drums. Now oop -here's the dusty groove review: A classic bit of 70s funk from Germany .This rare 1975 set was the brainchild of 3 of Germany's funkiest jazz players -- drummer Charly Antolini, whose drums crackled on some of the best MPS recordings; keyboardist Max Greger Jr, who made some great straighter albums in the 60s; and bassist Milan Pilar, an electric player with a really warm and round tone. Together, the trio grooves through some excellent funky numbers really jamming with a soulful groove, as Greger switches effortlessly between piano, moog, Fender Rhodes, mellotron, and organ! Includes the funky break classic "Onkel Joe" plus gems like "Moonlight On a Bald Head", "Catch Up", "Blues For The Kaiser", "Lydia", and "Spinning Wheel". Their first album 'Catch Up' was recorded in 1975 in the legendary Mu

ROBIN JONES SEVEN - EL MAJA

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Robin Jones for Apollo Sound from 1972. Robin Jones-Drums,Percussion;Tony Uter:Congas;Simon Morton-Bongos;Olaf Vas-Sax,Flute;Roy Edwards-Trumpet;John Porter-Keyboards;Percy Borthwick-Bass. Another latin library banger from the wonderful Robin Jones. The big cuts spinnin' out the jazz dancers back in the day were "Atlas" and "El Maja" and you can hear that the Jones seven had assimilated much of the boogaloo and funk influences from Mighty Mongo's band of the time. As you can probably guess this one's yet another All Killer No Filler

LUIS GASCA - THE LITTLE GIANT

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Luis Gasca for Atlantic from 1969. Luis Gasca (Trumpet),Joe Henderson (Tenor),Herbie Hancock (Piano), Hubert Laws (Flute), Chuck Rainey (Bass), Marty Sheller (Cowbell), Steve Barrios (Timbales),Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (Drums), Mongo Santamaria (Conga). Luis Gasca's first solo outing featuring a burning version of "Motherless Child" and a super heavy "Afro Blue" - here's Dusty Groove on the case again: A rare album by the great west coast Latin trumpeter Luis Gasca, and argubly the best album he ever recorded! The set was recorded in New York during the late 60's, and features a great lineup of musicians that includes Paul Griffin on piano, Joe Henderson on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Mongo santamaria on conga, and Bernard Purdie on drums. The style's a mix of soul jazz, Latin, and bits of modal riffing and the record features some beautiful large arrangements by Gasca and Mark Levine, in a style that's a bit like some of Duke Pearso

SHIRLEY SCOTT - LATIN SHADOWS

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Shirley Scott for Impulse from 1965. Reposted from OIR August 2006. A lovely piece of organ led loungecore jazz arranged and conducted by Gary McFarland with Bob Thiele on prodction duties from 1965 on Impulse.Our girl Shirl (she was married to Stanley Turrentine from 61-71)is on B3 supported by McFarland,Bob Cranshaw,Willie Rodrigues,Mel Lewis and Jim Raney who are also joined by a string section on some cuts.This album features the insanely catchy "Hanky Panky"and a great version of "Soul Sauce". This is what dusty groove had to say about it: A great album from Shirley Scott - with some excellent arrangements by Gary McFarland! We've always felt that Shirley plays best when she's not leading the group -- when someone else is handling the arrangements, so that she can groove mightily on her own -- and this album is a perfect illustration of that fact! The album has a sparkling bossa and 60s groove finish -- similar to McFarland's albums for Verve at the

ROBIN JONES - DENGA

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Robin Jones for Apollo Sound from 1971. A swift OIR repost from 2 1/2 years ago for the cheeky south london bastard! Old school latin jazz from Robin Jones-this lp was dug up from obscurity by Paul Murphy in the early 80s and hammered at the Electric Ballroom, The Wag and Jazzrooms around the country.He picked up a supply of copies and sold them from his shop in Soho which is where I got mine. Essentially a library lp this was released by Apollo Sound and recorded straight to two track with no overdubbing at CTS Studios in London.The quintet was made up of Robin Jones-Drums and Percussion;Tony Uter-Congas;Simon Morton-Bongos;Percy Borthwick-Bass;Olaf Vas-Bass;Ian Henry-Piano.The music falls in to two broad rhythmic genres-Afro-Cuban and Brazilian and was an attempt to capture the more "tipico" feel of latin music.Jones had played bongos for Edmundo Ross in the 60s and Borthwick had been a session musician working with Chocolate Armenteros andCharlie Palmieri.Heres a bit more

JOHNNY WALKER - ADVENT

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Johnny Walker for Walk-On from 1982. Johnny Walker-Trumpet;Kim Davis-Bass;Larry Aberman-Drums Percussion;Charles Stephens-Trombone;Tom Chapin-Alto;Sam Turner-Percussion;Martin Aubert-Guitar;Robert Damper-Keyboards;Rick Kriska-Flute;Al Givens-Sax. Produced,Arranged and Composed by Johnny Walker for Walk On Enterprises. Private pressing business with a session spanning hard bop to funk for Johnny Walker who was hot to trot straight out of Lionel Hampton's big band. "Arrival" and "Dipping" were the tunes bangin' out the jazz rooms at the time. Here's what Lionel had to say about his young protege: "Johnny Walker -Trumpeter,Flugelhornist,Composer,Arranger and Band Leader is destined to become one of the major voices of the 80s.When Johnny came to my band in 1980 he brought with him a a positive professional attitude and an eagerness to learn and develop musically.His trumpet playing showed maturity and strength whether out front soloing or as part of th

FREDDIE HUBBARD INTERVIEWED BY BEN SIDRAN

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Peskypesky has been good enough to drop a link in the comments for an excellent interview with Freddie Hubbard by Ben Sidran.Take the time to have a listen-it's extremely interesting stuff. Thanks very much to Peskypesky for the drop. Here's the link: benandfreddie

FREDDIE HUBBARD - SUPER BLUE

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Freddie Hubbard for Columbia from 1978. Joe Henderson (tenor), Hubert Laws (flute), Ron Carter (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums) George Benson (guitar) Kenny Barron (acoustic and electric keyboards). This session proves that commercial accessibility can coexist with high artistic standards. In lesser hands, much of this material would sound like smooth jazz; here the interpretations are deep and wide, rewarding repeated listenings. The rhythm section, for example: Carter's acoustic bass is propulsive without edginess, layered with subtle timbres, while DeJohnette plays with a part-swing, part-funk feel that can only be described as Jack Swing. Barron's keyboard is fluid and flexible, his acoustic solo on Theme for Kareem an expose of rolling accents and morphing melody bytes; Laws is technically brilliant, executing difficult lines with unforced grace; Henderson plays with scruffy precision, weaving in and out of the changes, rounding corners, sliding without skidding out of con