Jazz

In 2021, Eddie Chacon and John Carroll Kirby decamped to Ibiza for two weeks. There, they rented the island’s only Fender Rhodes from one of the local rave crews. John posted it against the plaster walls and concrete floors of their temporary home, which was set into a green hillside overlooking a beach called Siesta. As they worked on Sundown, Pharoah Sanders’s “Greeting to Saud” was a daily listen. Instead of emulating its sound, Eddie absorbed its deeper lesson – that simplicity wins out over virtuosity every time.They wrote the first half of Sundown during that Ibiza stay and finished it at 64 Sound Studios in Los Angeles, where they both live. Joining Eddie on vocals and John on production and keys were Logan Hone (flutes and saxophones) Elizabeth Lea (trombone), Will Logan (drums) and David Leach (percussion). “It feels like we’re building our dream house,” says Eddie. “With Pleasure, Joy, and Happiness, we poured the foundation and now we’re expanding into new rooms.”The two artists have worked together before, on Eddie Chacon’s 2020 album, Pleasure, Joy and Happiness. It was in 2019, when he met John Carroll Kirby – a prolific artist in his own right who’s collaborated with Steve Lacy, Frank Ocean, Solange, and many more – that Chacon considered a return to releasing music. Pleasure, Joy and Happiness was meant to bring closure to a music career that began when Eddie was a teenager playing in Bay Area garage bands, and peaked in the 1990s when, as one half of the duo Charles & Eddie, he topped charts internationally with “Would I Lie To You”, before deserting the business. Eddie didn’t expect much from Pleasure’s release, and was amazed to find it resonated widely, gaining him a whole new fanbase and reinvigorating his career.

Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation.Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behe- moths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation.Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums – the first time that his music has been presented in this form.These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes.Wegene gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases. Contains an oversized 11” x 11” 16 page book that tells the story of modern Ethiopian music and Mesfin’s role within it.

The Real ShooBeeDoo (AKA Reggie Fields) has always been a consistent name on the Detroit jazz scene … Fields who played with Pharoah Sanders while he was living in Motor City, worked with Sun Ra in the late 1970s and early 80s and who was also a close associate of the Afro-centric TRIBE label and artist collective, leaving his marks on a few essential TRIBE sessions such as Phil Ranelin’s “The Time Is Now!” as well as Ranelin & Wendell Harrison’s masterpiece “A Message From The Tribe”. It was Wendell Harrison who gave Fields the chance to record a solo album as a leader on his own WENHA imprint where “Reminiscing” found release in 1981. Reggie chose to record under his moniker “The Real ShooBeeDoo” because he built a rock-solid reputation as an internationally acclaimed performer under that name. This can later be heard on his fantastic ‘‘Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, 1982” album. “Reminiscing” is a deep and rewarding spiritual jazz album with bass lines that can blow through walls as if they were made from paper. Foot stomping rhythmic beats and lyrics that are pure poetry, far-out (and less obvious) vocal duties … this all takes the avant-garde approach featured here on his album to new ‘cosmic’ heights. ‘Originality’, ‘unique’ and ‘standing out’ are the main key-words here. Also…a quick closer look at the cast of players is most likely to be enough to get an impression that this is a special record. The album features an all-star line-up that includes Billy McCoy (Pharoah Sanders) on piano, Tani Tabbal (Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra) on percussion, Allan Barnes (Nina Simone, Bootsy Collins, Gill Scott-Heron) on saxophone, and Wendell Harrison (Tribe) himself on tenor saxophone/vocals.

"Mastered by Tohru Kotetsu and pressed at RTI, this 45rpm LP will live up to and surpass your most demanding judgments. Midnight Sugar is one of the most sough-after titles from the acclaimed Three Blind Mice catalog. On “Midnight Sugar” the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio plays two of Tsuyoshi’s own blues improvisations followed by jazz ballads that became standards for the Trio. The combination of these titles is nothing but exceptional. The Yamamoto Trio’s Midnight Sugar was recorded March 1, 1974 at Aoi Studio, Tokyo. It earned the Best Engineering Award and Jazz Disc Award of Swing Journal in 1974. It is Yamamoto’s unmistakable skill and his jazz feeling which adds that certain touch of liveliness and spontaneity and makes Midnight Sugar a unique experience. This Piano Trio will mesmerize you with this great collection of standards, superb musicianship and awesome sonics. You are sure to listen to this one over and over."

By 1998, interest in Takeshi "Tee" Fujii's phenomenal success with his Three Blind Mice jazz label led him to make a compilation of his favorite tracks. He chose across a wide swath of recordings between 1973 and 1978 for the resulting album, which he titled The Famous Sound of Three Blind Mice, Vol. 1. The most popular tunes ("Blow Up", "Misty", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Scandinavian Suite", and "Midnight Sunrise") were all included.Japanese, German and American CDs provided fans around the world access to Tee's singular vision and taste. It's only now, for the first time ever, a 180-gram LP has captured the excitement and sonic detail of these seminal tracks. Impex's deluxe set includes 10 tracks, mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and spread across four heavy-vinyl sides that let the music "breathe" like never before.This gatefold jacket features new art recreating the feel and style of TBM's designer Ben Nishizawa. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to own Fujii-san's favorite tunes in this deluxe, reference-quality package!