Double vinyl LP pressing. As if from the farthest reaches of space, a tremendous positive energy has come to us via Light on a Satellite: It is Sun Ra's music, played by his Arkestra, more than 30 years after the legendary band founder's earthly demise - or, in other words, after his reported ascent to Saturn. Under the direction of Marshall Allen, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) and multi-instrumentalist, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024, Sun Ra's big band has arrived safely in the 21st century, after traveling Sun Ra's space ways for almost 70 years. This album pays tribute to the lifetime achievement of Marshall Allen, who leads the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1993. Recorded in Studio A at New York's Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album celebrates the mastery of the exceptional musician Marshall Allen as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher, and guardian of Sun Ra's unique legacy. Perhaps this day will one day become part of the collective jazz memory, for what we are experiencing here is a simultaneity of the non-simultaneous, projected into the future, a time machine traveling through 100 years of jazz, out of the free approach of the Sun Ra Arkestra and in it's signature groove right into the heart of swing - with a century-old jazz master as captain. That in itself is a superlative. We are even more inspired by the power with which the virtuoso Marshall Allen continues his life's vocation. As a tribute to the life's work of Marshall Allen, Frank Kleinschmidt of IN+OUT Records invited the Sun Ra Arkestra into the studio with 24 musicians in the largest possible line-up, with the goal of documenting the music in it's polyphony and expansion in space and time in the best possible way. It is not only the variety of instruments used, but also the fact that musicians from four generations come together with a repertoire that spans 100 years of jazz history.
During the course of Sean Jones' burgeoning career beginning with his Mack Avenue Records debut in 2004, Eternal Journey, the trumpeter/bandleader has embarked on a series of quests, passionately plumbing the depths of different wellsprings of his life as a musician.
Vibes legend Terry Gibbs rings up a newly recorded and spirited tribute to the bebop era, complete with full strings and jazz musicians James Moody (sax) and Nicholas Payton (trumpet) at his side. Performing 12 quintessential songs of the era, Gibbs revisits a time when bebop reigned and Broadway and 52nd - the original site of Birdland and the epicenter of the bebop scene - was a Mecca to those seeking musical enlightenment.
Macroscope, the fifth album and Mack Avenue debut by his adventurous trio The Nels Cline Singers, provides a measure of the long-running group's staggering range. Captivating and continually surprising, the album finds the instrumental trio with the slyly deceptive name veering in one off-kilter direction only to suddenly be overwhelmed by another drastic stylistic shift, often within the space of a single tune. Serrated psychedelia becomes consumed by soulful Brasiliana, blissed-out electronica overwhelmed by garage-rock skronk. Then there's the wholly unexpected "Red Before Orange," where a howling Hendrix-inspired solo suddenly erupts in the middle of a slick lounge-jazz number, Cline unleashing the inner George Benson that few of us expected he even had.
For nearly two decades, the world at large knew precisely where to find the acclaimed guitarist Kevin Eubanks. For five nights a week, Eubanks was cranking up the band and issuing steamy solos as music director on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." In spring of 2010, after 18 years on the job, Eubanks decided to move on, although retirement was the last thing on his mind. That much is clearly stated in potent musical terms on Zen Food, his first recording for the Mack Avenue label.
The feel and sound of MONK’estra captures the spirit of Thelonious Monk’s singular style with its off-beat melodies, humor, strange beauty and unbounded swing in fresh arrangements flavored with hints of New Orleans, hip-hop, Afro-Cuban, contemporary and atmospheric rhythms and colors.
Once in a while, a new jazz artist arrives on the scene who reminds US of the power and glory of this music and shows how jazz can still stir our emotions and get our pulses racing in the present day. Cecile McLorin Salvant is that sort of artists. WOMANCHILD is her American debut release.
Room is an album by guitarists Nels Cline and Julian Lage which was originally released in November 2014. Writing for All About Jazz, Matt Marshall stated "the musicianship of the two guitarists allows them to take every tune to a number of unexpected and exciting places... Each track has it's own character, but the entire album is permeated by the two guitarists' inventiveness and sensitive accompanying ability".
Trumpeter Sean Jones has won numerous awards including the Downbeat 2000 Jazz on Campus Award and Downbeat Noteable Performance Award 2001. Performing with Mulgrew Miller, Ralph Peterson, and Charles Fambrough on his debut "Eternal Journey", Jones embarks on a musical voyage demonstrating his virtuosity, robust tone, and soulful delivery on his debut, a collection of original works and standards. While paying his respects to the storied tradition of jazz, with influences including Clifford Brown, Willie Shaw, and Freddie Hubbard, he has performed with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Louis Armstrong Legacy Band, Harry Connick Jr., Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell, Jon Faddis, and Frank Foster.
Keeping in line with its namesake’s unpredictable nature, the MONK’estra veers off in new directions on its stunning third album, MONK’estra Plays John Beasley, due out August 21, 2020 via Mack Avenue Records. As the title implies, this time out the band shifts focus to its fearless leader’s own estimable compositions and piano playing, alongside a quartet of Monk classics and a tune apiece by Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. MONK’estra Plays John Beasley brings the keyboardist full circle in more ways than one. While the two preceding albums focused more on Beasley’s arranging talent, he’s featured playing the piano on every track. Additionally, besides casting the lens of his brilliant ensemble on his own music for the first time, the album also reunites Beasley with several now-formidable artists with whom he performed with in his formative years nearly three decades ago.
REVIEW:
It is within the compositions heard here, penned by John Beasley, that you hear just how much he is invested in the music of Thelonious Monk. Or perhaps just how much Monk has marinated Beasley's musical toolbox. They all sound as if they could have been written by Monk as his improvisational style and melodic turns are appropriately in place. k.
Long known in the industry as a premier arranger, Beasley is second to no one when it comes to writing charts. As mentioned earlier, Beasley album pushes the envelope further. That is accomplished in a big way with charts and arrangements that are brilliantly conceived and executed. A modern jazz feel encompasses what at its core is still very much Monk inspired music. If you perceive jazz in colors, then get set for a full kaleidoscope.
You are treated to fourteen songs on the album, all of which have a unique character and are performed with impeccable precision.
Beasley assembled a large group of top shelf musicians, and knew precisely what to do with them. His writing and arrangement skills are beyond reproach. All the pieces fit snugly inside his artistically creative musical puzzle. He pays homage to Monk in grand style. Despite several nominations over the past years, Beasley has not yet been awarded a Grammy. With this monumental effort, the time has come for the genre's preeminent chart master.
Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. Available once again on vinyl to coincide with the insightful Maxine Gordon-penned biography that shares it's title, Sophisticated Giant was recorded shortly after Gordon's return from a dozen years living abroad in Europe. Originally recorded in June of 1977, the album finds Gordon on both tenor and soprano saxophone joined by an all-star "Dextette," 10 crack players including trumpeters Woody Shaw and Benny Bailey, vibes master Bobby Hutcherson, trombonist Slide Hampton, Frank Wess on alto and flute and more. Includes the Gordon original "Fried Bananas," Shaw's "The Moontrane" plus standards such as "Laura" and "You're Blase" all arranged by Slide Hampton and produced by Michael Cuscuna.
Limited vinyl LP repressing of this classic 1958 album by the jazz icon. Lady in Satin is the penultimate album completed by the singer and last released in her lifetime. The original album was produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut. The song material for Lady in Satin derived from the usual sources for Holiday in her three decade career, that of the Great American Songbook of classic pop. Unlike the bulk of Holiday's recordings, rather than in the setting of a jazz combo Holiday returns to the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements as done during her Decca years, this time in the contemporary vein of Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald on her Songbooks series. The album consists of songs Holiday had never recorded before. The arrangements were by bandleader Ray Ellis, Holiday familiar with his Ellis in Wonderland album. Soloists on the album included Mel Davis, Urbie Green, and bebop trombone pioneer J.J. Johnson.
Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. Showcasing the musical chemistry shared by Miles and Trane and let's fans experience the magic of both artists at the peak of their collective powers. Miles and Trane each implemented their own jazz revolutions at the time of these concerts and the electrifying sonic frisson produced by the sometimes competing/sometimes intertwining music visions of these artists perplexed contemporary jazz fans. As quoted by music historian Ashley Kahn, "it's not that the band members were so much apart, but rather that each were more themselves within the same unit - that divergence could co-exist and make music together". Focuses on the final chapter in the landmark collaboration between Davis and Coltrane - their last live performances together.
A foreshadowing of the area between rock and jazz that he would further explore with 1970's hypnotic Bitches Brew, this was Miles' first album to feature a full-blown electric approach. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form, both of the lengthy cuts featured here defy convention with 3 distinct "movements" in which harmony, rhythm and melody take a back seat to impressionistic texture. Listen closely, and you can hear the earliest inklings of modern-day fusion on Shhh/Peaceful and the equally spacey in a Silent Way/It's About That Time.
Three CD archive release containing two hours of previously unreleased studio recordings from 1966-1968. These tracks are newly mixed and remastered in high resolution audio. This set is released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Miles Smiles - one of the albums that came out of these recordings. Includes full session reels including all rehearsals, partial and alternate takes, studio conversation and more.
Birth of the Cool: Music from an Inspired Film by Stanley Nelson
SONY LEGACY
CD
$11.99Feb 21, 2020
2020 collection, the definitive audio companion to the critically-acclaimed new documentary directed and produced by Stanley Nelson. The soundtrack is an essential Miles Davis playlist for seasoned fans and new listeners alike, lovingly curated by the director and paired with short audio excerpts from the film for a unique listening experience. It brings together recordings and performances spanning labels and the artist's musical evolution-from "Donna Lee" to "Moon Dreams" from the groundbreaking 1949 Capitol sessions that were ultimately collected on the album Birth of the Cool, through the seminal 1950s pieces for Columbia that revolutionized the worlds of jazz and popular music. The album also highlights Miles's evolution in the 1960s with tracks from Sketches of Spain and Someday My Prince Will Come to his iconoclastic invention of electric jazz/fusion. Finally, it documents his triumphant mid 1980s comeback, while premiering a brand-new track, "Hail To The Real Chief." The new track features unreleased Miles Davis studio trumpet performances combined with music written by Lenny White, produced by White and Vince Wilburn, Jr and featuring an all-star collection of Miles band alumni and acolytes including White, Wilburn, Marcus Miller, Emilio Modeste, Jeremy Pelt, Antoine Roney, John Scofield, Bernard Wright, and Quinton Zoto.
Few recordings maintain their power to utterly intoxicate for decades as Kind of Blue does. This 1959 all-time classic is one of the monuments of jazz: So What; Freddie Freeloader; Blue in Green; All Blues , and Flamenco Sketches . This vinyl release is the way to experience one of the greatest albums ever made.
The Octave Reissue Series represents the heart of Erroll Garner's recorded catalog. Spanning 12 albums and last 18 years of Garner's career, this collection of music is among the most important in the history of jazz. It represents an artist in his prime, with full creative and commercial control of his output following his break with Columbia Records. Over 20 years ago these albums were bundled on to double albums and released by Telarc in a set. While this was appropriate for the era, this repackaging of Garner's discography caused some material to be cut for time. It is now time to untangle his discography and restore each of these 12 records to their original artistic statement. The series will include newly restored and mastered transfers of the original analog master tapes by our GRAMMY winning team of producers and Engineers, and the original artwork restored by our award winning design partners. In addition, EGJP will curate and include newly discovered bonus material from the Garner catalog in each release. This was Garner's first live concert album after his chart topping Concert By The Sea, recorded seven years earlier. A tour-de-force performance makes this a worthy successor, complete with his trademark improvisational fireworks. This new presentation includes extended introductions as well as an unreleased version of the Garner ballad "Other Voices," which has never been issued in a trio arrangement.
Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success and for the same reasons. Released just as the jazz-rock movement began to run out of steam, this landmark album proved that there was plenty of creative life left in the idiom. This powerhouse supergroup, comprised of Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Alex Acuna and Manolo Badrena, delivered their only certified-Platinum release with this killer cut. This vinyl release is 180 gram.
![Kind Of Blue [Vinyl]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1610585-3726220.jpg?v=1790581273&width=400)
![Kind Of Blue [Vinyl]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1610585-3726220.jpg?v=1790581273&width=800)
