Sun Ra - The Singles (1996)

I was already a Sun Ra fan before I heard this compilation and that was why I was so surprised when I first heard it. In a nutshell, these discs span his career of released 45's on his Saturn label from the fifties through the late seventies but here's the catch, its mainly R&B! I use that label loosely. We kick off in the doo-wop world with songs about love, foggy london towns, and the Christmas holidays, then on to some pseudo Screamin' Jay Hawkins R&B numbers about somebodies' fetish for big, ugly women, some Phil Spector style girl group action, some raw roadhouse blues numbers and eventually land in solo synth pieces. All of this with sprinkles of Sun Ra's signature "Supersonic Jazz" compositions and vocal pieces about his adoration for the cosmos dispersed through out this collection. A must have for any Sun Ra head.

Unmask that Batman

Sun Ra & His Astro Infinity Arkestra - My Brother the Wind II (1971)

Only fools seek to harm the wind.

Miles Davis - Water Babies (1976)

Don't let the '76 fool ya. This is really a collection of unreleased material starting from the '67 "Nefertiti" sessions up to the "In a Silent Way" period, featuring the classic Miles Davis Quintet transitioning and cross pollenating with the eminent "Bitches Brew" crew. A great insight into a artist's process but then again Miles will always be Miles. 

Its rumored that bassist Ron Carter left the group because of the addition of the electric instruments, i.e. the Fender Rhodes. No?

GET you SOME

Mulatu Astatke - New York - Addis - London (The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975) 2009

Back in the late nineties I stumbled upon a CD entitled Ethiopiques. After listening to it I realized that I wasn't as funky as I, a young twenty-something chicano kid, thought I was. I knew James Brown. Who doesnt? I was just getting into Fela Kuti, who you should know. But, this was Eastern African. Arabian style modes and scales. Polyrhythms in 4 and 6 stacking on each other. Menacing riffs. Like The JB's armed with a bunch of those squiggly knives. At the heart of this new found world of Ethiopian music was my man, Mulatu Astatke. The father of "Ethio jazz". This guy is to popular Ethiopian music like what Duke Ellington is to jazz. There's just no way around him and America is finally catching on.

This compilation covers his early years when he studied in London and New York (he was also the first African to attend Harvard) and his triumphant return back to Ethiopia. All killer. No filler.


Enjoy!

Juan Pablo Torres - " Algo Nuevo: Con Todos Los Hierros/Super Son" (1977)

One of the premier Cuban trombonist, Juan Pablo Torres, combines his native latin music with funk, soul, jazz, and pure quirkiness. What stands out to me on this record is Torres employing Casio sounding keyboards. Imagine if the original Super Mario Bros. were Cuban instead of Italian. "Extracto de Son" reminds me of the underwater levels of the original Nintendo game. You'll understand it when you hear this. Also, the string arrangements are so dense and dramatic but rhythmic.

The bottom line: this is so funky its hard to recognize all these details in one listen.

I've also included 2 extra tracks from a compilation that wound up on my hard drive somehow.

Disfrutar!

Franco & Le TPOK Jazz ''Francophonic - A Retrospective, Vol.1 (1953-1980)''

Almost ten years ago I found some old tape from Africa at a garage sale. I went to my at-the-time place of employment as a cook and popped it in the cassette player. From the first notes of at least three playful echoed guitars, I fell in love. This was before I became a internet junkie so I really had no idea who this band was. I thought I stumbled upon something that only a few knew about but instead it turned out to be Franco. "The Sorcerer of the Guitar." The posthumous Commander of the Order of the Leopard of former Zaire. A national treasure of the Congo, releasing as many as 150 albums in four decades. He was more than just a great guitarist. In many ways, he embodied the revolutionary transitional age from which he emerged: the years when the Belgian Congo became Zaire; when the government's preferred language went from French to Lingala; when the eminent political leader Patrice Lumumba suffered a grisly assassination and Mobutu Sese Seko ascended to power, introducing pro-West policies, platitudes on African authenticity, and torture chambers reserved for political prisoners.


Apprecier!