It’s a new week at the record shop and we have jazz records in abundance.
We will start this new week with a titan amongst titans; Alice Coltrane’s debut LP, A Monastic Trio. It was recorded in 1968 and serves as a tribute to her late husband. It highlights both her supreme serenity and also the frenzied instrumentalism that would follow across her work. Alice Coltrane is supported in her first solo outing by Pharoah Sanders, Jimmy Garrison and Rashied Ali, all members of John Coltrane’s last quintet.
+ This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.
Inta Somethin’... A lineup so great they list it under the title, with Kenny Dorham leading the quintet; Jackie McLean, Walter Bishop Jr., Leroy Vinnegar and Art Taylor. Recorded live in 1961 at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, it skips and glides with a real lightness.
+ This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.
Also on Tone Poet and with another amazing lineup, Watkins At Large was the first album that bassist Doug Watkins made as a bandleader. Art Taylor again on the pigskins, with Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Kenny Burrell and Duke Jordan completing the quintet. A smoky room in 1956, really evocative stuff.
+ This mono Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket with an 8.5” x 5.5” booklet.
+ This new edition is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analogue mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket.
The Golden Number is a collection of four duets from double bass icon Charlie Haden, with Don Cherry on trumpet/flute), Archie Shepp on the tenor sax, Hampton Hawes on piano and Ornette Coleman making a rare trumpet appearance. Rich in late-seventies exploration.
+ This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.
We have a 10th anniversary edition of Picture You Staring from Montreal quartet TOPS. It’s been a lush one to revisit as it doesn't sound of this time particularly, or ten years ago either to be honest. Bubbling pop music with loads of charm and loads of ideas.
+ Pressed on Sky Blue colour vinyl with an oversized poster and a zine.
Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy presents the third instalment of her acclaimed Balearic Breakfast compilation series, another sunshine-soaked homage to that most amorphous of aural outposts – Balearic! Such a lush flow with some extended mixes and it all starts with Jonathan Wilson’s ”Desert Raven” which is a mood amongst moods.
Lastly this week, something really special on Numero with Words and Music, the complete recordings of Margo Guryan. Most widely known for her 1968 baroque pop masterpiece Take a Picture, the songs here have a sunny pop snap and her rich voice is really amazing, full of sunshine and jazz club smoulder. This new collection gathers the entirety of Guryan’s career, including 16 previously unreleased recordings and a 32-page booklet that tells the whole story.
Get ready to swoon!
+ Available in limited-edition 'Think of Rain' colour triple vinyl.
