The Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!: Live at "The Club" (1967/2012 reissue/FLAC)

 Cannonball Adderley's most popular album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy wasn't actually recorded "Live at 'The Club'," as its subtitle says. The hoax was meant to publicize a friend's nightclub venture in Chicago, but Adderley actually recorded the album in Los Angeles, where producer David Axelrod set up a club in the Capitol studios and furnished free drinks to an invitation-only audience. Naturally, the crowd is in an extremely good mood, and Adderley's quintet, feeding off the energy in the room, gives them something to shout about. By this point, Adderley had perfected a unique blend of earthy soul-jazz and modern, subtly advanced post-bop; very rarely did some of these harmonies and rhythms pop up in jazz so saturated with blues and gospel feeling. Those latter influences are the main inspiration for acoustic/electric pianist Joe Zawinul's legendary title cut, a genuine Top 40 pop hit that bears a passing resemblance to the Southern soul instrumentals of the mid-'60s, but works a looser, more laid-back groove (without much improvisation). The deep, moaning quality and spacy texture of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" stand in contrast to the remainder of the record, though; Nat Adderley contributes two upbeat and challenging originals in "Fun" and "Games," while Zawinul's second piece, "Hippodelphia," is on the same level of sophistication. The leader's two selections -- the gospel-inflected "Sticks" and the hard-swinging, bluesy bop of "Sack O' Woe" (the latter of which became a staple of his repertoire) -- are terrific as well, letting the group really dig into its roots. Adderley's irrepressible exuberance was a major part of his popularity, and no document captures that quality as well -- or with such tremendous musical rewards

- Cannonball Adderley - alto sax

- Nat Adderley - cornet

- Joe Zawinul - piano

- Victor Gaskin - bass

- Roy McCurdy - drums

Side One:

A1 Introduction (00:07)

A2 Fun (07:33)

A3 Games (08:03)

A4 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! (05:07)

Side Two:

B1 Sticks (03:53)

B2 Hippodelphia (05:43)

B3 Sack O' Woe (10:45)

Miles Davis - The Lost Concert (2021/FLAC)

 

The stunning double album ‘The Lost Concert’ from Miles Davis is released for the first time on 28 September 2021, the thirtieth anniversary of his death, on 2CD and digital through Sleepy Night Records. This completes the trilogy from company that brought you the Number One jazz album ‘The Lost Quintet’ followed by ‘The Lost Septet’. This stunning show was captured at La Grande Halle, La Villette, Paris, France on 10 July 1991.

Miles Davis was renowned for never revisiting the past, even though many fans, critics and concert promoters always hoped that he would. Then, in July 1991, Miles Davis did return to the past, not once, but twice. The first was two days earlier, when he had played the classic arrangements of Gil Evans from the 1950s and 1960 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Then, Miles arrived at Paris to play this special gig. It was simply advertised as “Miles and Friends” and neither the audience, nor Miles’ band, had any idea on what they were about to witness.

Playing with Miles was an amazing roll-call of past musical associates from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s: Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Al Foster, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Darryl Jones, John McLaughlin, Jackie McLean, John Scofield and Joe Zawinul. Miles’ band members were Kenny Garrett, Foley, Deron Johnson, Richard Patterson and Ricky Wellman.

Joe Zawinul discography [1959-2008]

 

Josef Erich Zawinul (July 7, 1932 – September 11, 2007) was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.

Weather Report - The Legendary Live Tapes 1978-1981 [4 CD, 2015/FLAC/@320]

 

Weather Report's The Legendary Live Tapes features four discs of sensational unreleased performances all "completely, totally, unapologetically and insanely live" recorded by the legendary jazz group from 1978 to 1981.

The Zawinul Syndicate - World Tour [2 CD, 1998/FLAC]

This live 2-CD set is the fruit of a 1997 Zawinul Syndicate world tour. Powered by Abidjanian drummer Paco Sery and either long-time Zawinul associate Victor Baily or Richard Bona on bass, the group attains critical mass from the start, cooling down only when a change of pace is warranted.

Weather Report - The Columbia Albums 1971-1975 (7 CD, 2012) [FLAC]

 For many, the story of Weather Report begins with the late 1970s albums that featured the addition of electric bassist Jaco Pastorius (as documented on 2011's box set, Weather Report: The Columbia Albums 1976-1982, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the band's formation). Yet what the six albums that make up this comprehensive collection prove beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the early to mid 1970s saw some of the most adventurous and satisfying work of Weather Report's entire lifespan. In fact, it's these recordings Weather Report, I Sing the Body Electric, Live In Tokyo, Sweetnighter, Mysterious Traveller and Tale Spinnin' that established Weather Report as one of the seminal fusion ensembles of the era, alongside such brethren bands as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Headhunters, and Return To Forever. With remastered sound and authoritative liner notes by Bill Milkowski, Weather Report: The Columbia Albums 1971-1975, is also noteworthy for the inclusion of the complete Live In Tokyo, (a handful of whose tracks had appeared on I Sing the Body Electric) which captures the band at a peak performance in 1972.

CD1 - Weather Report (1971) (00:45:01)

CD2 - I Sing the Body Electric (00:52:51)

CD3 - Live in Tokyo (1) (00:45:33)

CD4 - Live in Tokyo (2) 00:42:56)

CD5 - Sweetnighter (00:49:43)

CD6 - Mysterious Traveller (01:13:03)

CD7 - Tale Spinnin' (01:02:24)

Trilok Gurtu - Twenty Years Of Talking Tabla [2 CD, 2007] [FLAC]

 

The 20 years referred to in the title of this 2CD collection is only the length of the Bombay-born percussionist's solo career. Gurtu was already beginning to play Indian classical tabla at the age of six, eventually opening his jazz-fusion phase by gigging with Oregon and Don Cherry. This set's subtitle blurb reads 'the serial collaborator in full flight with...', then proceeds to list a highly impressive gathering of guest artists, hailing from both jazz and global music zones.

There's always the danger, particularly with drumming leaders, to be subsumed and sidelined by your singers, guitarists and horn players, but Trilok always invites his collaborators into his own universe, retaining a strong sense of Indian classical tradition. Often this will be pleasingly filtered via a fusion with jazz, funk, soul, hip hop, African, Latin, Far Eastern or Western classical musics, but Gurtu usually tends to emerge unscathed and undiluted.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition [3 CD, 2010]

The 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking fusion album Bitches Brew offers an opportunity to expand upon the context of its original unveiling. The impact of this recognition can't even be mitigated by a collision of commerce and creativity that echoes some of the furor over the original 1970 release. The unreleased studio recordings (not included on the previously issued Complete Bitches Brew from 1998) are alternates take, one of which ("John McLaughlin") isn't appreciably different from the official take, while the other ("Spanish Key") moves a little too fast for its own good. Similarly, the two stereo and two mono 45 single edits, for all their brevity, do manage to capture as much of the album's haunting atmosphere as their truncated likes can hold. The August 1970 concert live recording of Davis and his band at Tanglewood, in Lenox, Massachussetts, displays the bravado the trumpeter would always bring to his rock star co-billings, on this date, Santana at the height of the original lineup's powers.