The humidity continues to linger, so we’re choosing to sweat it out with this fierce slice of late night free jazz. “Jaya Jaya Rama,” the closing number to Alice Coltrane’s 1969 lp, Huntington Ashram Monastery , is pure, […]
Category: Jazz
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium – Volume Six
Volume Six of Abstract Truths, An Evolving Jazz Compendium . If unfamiliar with the series, please first read here per its genesis and intention. We return with Los Angeles selector Phil Cho, who can most readily be found in the real world playing around the […]
The Aquarium Drunkard Guide To ECM Records
Founded by Manfred Eicher in Germany in 1969, ECM Records (Editions of Contemporary Music) has spent nearly 50 years assembling one of the strongest catalogs in musical history. Marked by an attention to sonic space […]
Mattson 2 Play ‘A Love Supreme’ :: The AD Interview
John Coltrane’s vaunted A Love Supreme is a record with baggage. And while almost none of it is negative, the price of absolute reverence can be untouchability, or worse, mass appeal. And while the record may be Starter […]
Charles Mingus :: Live at Montreux, 1975
These days, when Charles Mingus is remembered, it’s primarily for records like Mingus Ah Um, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. All great records, but Mingus kept recording and […]
David Darling :: Cycles
Last year witnessed the opening of the hallowed digital vaults of the ECM label. Long a holdout from digital platforms, the Berlin based ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) was founded in 1969 by Manfred Eicher in […]
Sun Ra :: Springtime Again
The spring equinox is upon us – track one to the stratosphere in a silent way. Via Sleeping Beauty , 1979. Sun Ra :: Springtime Again
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium — Volume Five
Volume five of Abstract Truths . If unfamiliar with the series, please first read here about the its genesis and intention. Bringing us this look at the contemporary Chicago jazz scene is Scottie McNiece, head of the essential International Anthem Recording Co. “For over 100 […]
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium — Volume Four
Volume four of Abstract Truths . If unfamiliar with the series, please first read here about the its genesis and intention. For this installment we tapped bay area record collector/muso David Katznelson. Katznelson likens the genre to a “wild animal…a cuddle […]
Joe Henderson & Alice Coltrane :: The Elements / World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda
The new reissue label Jazz Dispensary did us all a favor this year by bringing, The Elements , Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane’s lone collaboration, back to the marketplace, rescuing it from wild Discogs prices (even […]
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium — Volume Three
Volume three of Abstract Truths . If unfamiliar with the series, please first read here about the its genesis and intention. For this installment our friend, record collector and audio archeologist Eothen Alapatt, of Now Again Records , is behind the boards. Below, Alapatt […]
Ryo Fukui :: A Letter From Slowboat
Everyone loves a good origin story. No matter the creative discipline such tales make even the most potent work seem more revelatory. Enter the late Japanese jazz pianist Ryo Fukui . An autodidact, Fukui taught himself piano […]
Sleepwalker :: The Voyage (featuring Pharoah Sanders)
Visiting Tokyo in 2003, Pharoah Sanders sat in with local spiritual jazzists Sleepwalker at a club gig laying down what would become “The Voyage”. Released the following year as a Japanese-only import single, the track later […]
Nina Simone :: A Very Rare Evening
Nina Simone would have been 84 this week — as such, fans the world over have been celebrating the iconoclast’s deep and dynamic catalog. Incredibly, a new highlight of Simone’s career surfaced late last year via the […]
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium — Volume Two
Volume two of Abstract Truths, An Evolving Jazz Compendium . If unfamiliar with the series, please first read here about the its genesis and intention. As promised, this installment is courtesy of dj/record collector Carlos Nino . Per his selections, Niî±o notes “I was thinking about Bobby […]