The album opens with Charles Mingus sputtering a percussive motif with one hand while the other riffs out an arabesque fantasia. There’s a duality present here, a tension of opposites. […]
Category: Jazz
Miles Davis w/ John Coltrane: “Walkin'” / Cafe Bohemia, 1958
Gems From The Jazz Vault :: Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery & Duke Ellington
Some recent, recommended archival releases of (mostly) unreleased material from some jazz giants. It’d take a whole lot more than four discs to sum up what Miles Davis was up […]
The Gospel According To Nina Simone
She begins in mid-flow. Sitting down at the piano, effectively taking the reins from her band, the first thing she says into the microphone is ‘So…‘ One simple word, an […]
Sun Ra :: Space Is The Place (40th Year Anniversary Edition)
Happy birthday, Sun Ra . Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, the avant-jazz pioneer would be 101 years old today. Keeping with the cosmic, Harte Recordings has released a commemorative 40th Year […]
The Cosmically Spiritual Gospel of Shirley Ann Lee And Alice Coltrane
For those who followed Numero Group’s 2009 compilation Local Customs: Downriver Revival , it should come as no surprise that the reissue label’s 2012 Shirley Ann Lee release is brilliant, breathtaking and essential listening. […]
Sevens: Alice Coltrane – Transfiguration (Live, 1976)
( Sevens , a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, pays tribute to the art of the individual song.) It’s been noted that 1976’s “Transfiguration” is a culmination, and a sort of […]
Jeremy Taylor :: A Reggae Interpretation Of Kind Of Blue
In 2009 Secret Stash Records dusted off this collection via a vinyl-only release. From the label: “In the spring of 1981 a group of reggae studio musicians from Jamaica gathered in New York […]