Jazz Funk Delight

This one is for all the jazz funk lovers out there. For those of you who are mad for the frantic drum beats, funky bass, warm Fender Rhodes keys, flutes all over the place and sax and trumpets galore. This selection of rare tracks, known mostly to the record collecting community - stuff you'll probably never hear on the radio - is made up of the work of some of the most brilliant instrument players, composers and producers ever to grace the world with their music. A lot of these have been sampled by house and hip-hop producers, but deserve to be featured in you music library as stand alone tracks.

Many of these musicians are tied together in some way: Eddie Russ formed a band called Mixed Bag, with whom he recorded his first album "Fresh Out"; a jazz funk gem from 1974 which gave us the first track of this selection "The Lope Song". Larry Nozero, flutist and sax player was part of the Mixed Bag, and plays the flute on "The Lope Song". His following track "Tune for L.N." is a hypnotic trip, filled with wah guitar, mystical flute phrases and lifting choirs.

Then comes the wonderful "Windy C" by 100% Pure Poison, and its very distinctive drums/bass/guitar/rhodes intro, sampled by everyone, from Pete Rock to Saint Germain, to Nas... The whole song is an amazing pre-disco piece of soulful jazz from 1974, recorded for EMI in... Chicago? Detroit? No, in Germany by American servicemen on the leave.

Then come the Europeans: Vincent Gemignani and his sculptural jazz funk, from the utra rare album "Modern Pop Percussion" originally composed as a "pop" version of Shakespeare's Midsummer night dream, featuring the finest French session jazz players. Marc Moulin and his band Placebo come next with the track "Aria" from the 1971 album "Ball of Eyes". No need for any further introduction, it's at least the 4th time I put up a Placebo song on this blog.

"Party Time", from Roy Porter's album "Jessica" is another amazing jazz funk gig, and another song from this album already made it on this blog too :) Then Ray Bryant, and the banging piano and drums on "Up above the Rock" will have your heads nodding for more. More is coming of course, with 2 HUGE tracks: Frank Strazzerri "Cloudburst" and Kenny Barron "Spirits". Straight up Jazz Funk madness with all the Rhodes solos you can dream of.

One of my favorite pieces from one of my favorite producers David "the Axe" Axelrod follows: "Mucho Chupar", and Martial Solal "Un Drôle d'Escalier Roulant" (A Funny Elevator). Then some great tracks from Seatrain, Mixed Bag (again!), Jeremy Steig, a couple of tracks featured on the excellent "Dusty Fingers" series ("On the Hill" by Oliver Sain, and Sammy Nestico's "Shoreline Drive" - sampled by Krs1 on "Mc's Act Like You Know").

The last track is from one of my very favorite studio jazz producers: Janko Nilovic, which I've featured numerous times on this blog. "Xenos Cosmos" from the album "Rythmes Contemporains" is a baroque suite of jazz moves, with an amazing orchestration, mind-shifting choirs, and a cinematic dimension that will blow your mind away to finish off this musical voyage.

Track list is:
01. Eddie Russ - The Lope Song, 1974
02. Larry Nozero - Tune For L.N., 1974
03. 100% Pure Poison - Windy C, 1974
04. Vincent Gemignani - Insidieusement les Elfes, 1970
05. Placebo - Aria, 1971
06. Roy Porter - Party Time, 1974
07. Ray Bryant - Up Above the Rock, 1968
08. Kenny Barron - Spirits, 1975
09. Frank Strazzerri - Cloudburst, 1976
10. David Axelrod - Mucho Chupar, 1974
11. Martial Solal - Un Drôle d'Escalier Roulant, 1974
12. Seatrain - Flute Thing, 1973
13. Johnny Hawksworth - Jazz Rule, 1970's
14. The Mixed Bag - Shark, 1975
15. Jeremy Steig - Goose Bumps, 1975
16. Sammy Nestico - Shoreline Drive, 1982
17. Oliver Sain - On the Hill, 1972
18. Janko Nilovic - Xenos Cosmos, 1974

Get you groove on right here

Deep Jazz, hard and dark

Here it is, finally - my first attempt at compiling some of my favorite jazz pieces in a way that is both pleasant and coherent.

It starts with rather darker compositions, heavy on the baritone sax and low chords with some fine work from Charlie Mingus, Sahib Shihab, Roy Porter and Yusef Lateef, then lightens up a bit to some classic themes all executed in alternate versions, the moods speeds up a little bit with some great Bebop and finishes with some more soulful, mellow jazz.

The opening track is from the soundtrack of "A bout de Souffle" (Breathless), from French-Algerian pianist Martial Solal. Not only is Godard's movie one of my all time favorite, the score written for it fits the film so well, it almost tells the story...

Then the song "Moanin'", a frenzied tune by Charles Mingus and his big band, dark as the night and curiously so uplifting... It's followed by two Sahib Shihab tracks from the album Companionship. Shihab was an American saxophonist (baritone, alto and soprano) and flautist, who converted to Islam and then moved to Europe in the late 50s, tired with the racial tensions in the US. He lived in Danemark and recorded some of the best European modal jazz albums ever released. On these two dark, frantic and percussive tracks, he teams up with Francy Boland, Kenny Clarke, Jimmy Woode just to name a few... A desert Island record for any serious jazz lover.

Steve Reid comes next, with "Free Spirits" from his 1976 album Nova. This is spiritual jazz, much less conventional in form and structure, and it can take a few listens to fully appreciate. His music is dark and introvert, and the man has an atypical and fascinating story: He played in Sun Ra’s Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer and backed James Brown at the Apollo! He was imprisoned during the Vietnam war as a conscientious objector and lived in Africa in the early 1970s.

Roy Porter's "Jessica" is a great instrumental theme by this talented L.A. drummer, still very dark, but funky and mellow at the same time. Incredibly rare recording from 1984, and worth every penny of it if you manage to find a copy.

Then comes a mix of more standard jazz pieces, such as Charlie Parker's rendition of "A night in Tunisia", written by Dizzie Gillespie (with Miles Davis on trumpet and Roy Porter on Drums). This one piece is considered by many a defining moment in Jazz, and a turning point leading to the Bebop revolution...

It is followed by some more Big-Band work by Clarke & Boland (Speedy Reeds), the beautiful "Snafu" from Yusef Lateef's masterpiece album "Eastern Sounds", and an amazing rendition of Duke Ellington's standard "Caravan" by Thelonious Monk.

More Classic themes follow, "Poiniciana" by Ahmad Jamal, "Nica's Dream" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (including pianist Horace Silver, who composed this gem), and "Giant Steps" by Coltrane. "Nica's Dream" is one of many Jazz standards dedicated to the baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, who was a great jazz enthusiast and member of the prominent Rothschild family. Nica was a friend and patron of many of Jazz's greatest... Charlie Parker lived and died in her New York City Suite, and Thelonious Monk in her house in New Jersey.

Hank Mobley, Cannonball Adderley and Ramsey Lewis follow, and the list ends with two beautiful, soulful tracks: the short but mystic "Django" by Cal Tjader, and the melancholic "Life has it Trials", by harpist Dorothy Ashby, unfortunately the only woman to be featured in this selection.

Tracklist is:

01. Martial Solal - Duo (A Bout De Souffle), 1960
02. Charles Mingus - Moanin', 1959
03. Sahib Shihab - Om Mani Padme Um, 1960's
04. Sahib Shihab - Bohemia After Dark, 1960's
05. Steve Reid - Free Spirits, 1976
06. Roy Porter - Jessica (Instrumental), 1984
07. Charlie Parker - A night in Tunisia, 1946
08. Clarke-Boland Big Band - Speedy Reeds, 1963
09. Yusef Lateef - Snafu, 1961
10. Thelonious Monk - Caravan, 1955
11. Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana, 1958
12. Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Nica's Dream, 1956
13. John Coltrane - Giant Steps, 1959
14. Hank Mobley - Gayle's Groove, 1970
15. Cannonball Adderley - Hippodelphia, 1966
16. Ramsey Lewis Trio - Look-a-here, 1963
17. Cal Tjader - Django, 1967
18. Dorothy Ashby - Life has its trials, 1968

Download here and enjoy :)