Philip Catherine & Nicolas Fiszman Live At The Berlin Jazzbühne Festival 1982 – The Lost Recordings 180g Vinyl
Erroll Garner – The Unreleased Berlin Studio Recording 1967 – The Lost Recordings 45rpm 180g Vinyl
Erroll Garner – A heavenly sense of magic
Erroll Garner was revered by both his peers, who ranked him among the foremost of the purest, most spontaneous geniuses that jazz has ever given us, and the general public, who intuitively recognized him as one of the magicians of the golden age, along with Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, whose gifts could transform the suffering and humiliation of Afro-American life into the rhythm and outpouring of joy rather than anger and resentment. Forty-five years after his death, Garner, with his dazzling style that made such a radical break from existing trends, remains an enigma in the history of twentieth-century popular music. He is still unique and cannot be pinned down.
Rimsky Korsakov – Scheherazade – Chasing The Dragon Audiophile Vinyl
Duke Pearson – The Right Touch LP (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) – Blue Note Vinyl
Perhaps the perfect starting point for a reappraisal of Duke Pearson’s underrated career is his fantastic and aptly titled 1967 album The Right Touch. The album stands as perhaps the finest in Pearson’s discography and is a showcase of his sublime talents as a pianist, composer, and arranger. The Right Touch is comprised of six memorable Pearson compositions arranged for a dynamic 8-piece band featuring trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Garnett Brown, alto saxophonist James Spaulding, alto saxophonist/flutist Jerry Dodgion, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Grady Tate.
Lee Morgan – Infinity LP (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) – Blue Note Vinyl
Just two months after recording his exceptional sextet date Cornbread, the prolific trumpeter Lee Morgan was back in Van Gelder Studio in November 1965 with a slightly slimmed down—but no less robust—quintet line-up to record his next session Infinity, which wouldn’t be first released until 1981. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and drummer Billy Higgins—both of whom were featured on Cornbread—were at Morgan’s side once again along with pianist Larry Willisand bassist Reggie Workman for a five-song set that ventured to the far reaches of the hard bop tradition and beyond. Four compelling Morgan originals and McLean’s engaging ballad “Portrait of Doll” cover a wide expanse of musical terrain including the probing title track, the laid-back 6/8 groove of “Miss Nettie B,” the intricate interlaced lines of “Growing Pains,” and the hard-charging closer “Zip Code.”