All That Jazz ...

[himadri]

Couldnt help but post this . This is from when only a few of us were there 1975. RIPJeff.

 

[coaltrain]

Glorious jazz funk from the guy who named himself after his instrument!
Breakout is the better album, with a sublime version of Carole King’s It’s Too Late. Grover Washington, Billy Cobham and Eric Gale are also in top form.
The Mizell brothers exert a strong influence on Gears. However, the extra tracks elevate the original album to the next level. And Los Conquistadores Chocolates is, hands down, the funkiest thing Hammond ever did.

 

[acemachine26]

Huge shoutout to @sameer kumar for recommending this.
I’ve tried getting into the music of Sun Ra in the past, without much success. Celebrated albums like Space is the Place were a bit too over the top for my taste. However, this one is brilliant!
The extra album and tracks complement the original really well. Now I’m hoping to find more from this artiste in the same vein.

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Lanquidity (1978) and Sleeping Beauty (1979) are also very accessible records in the Sun Ra discography that I highly recommend. Strut Records have put out solid reissues for both of those.

 

[coaltrain]

A reviewer on Discogs describes this album better than I could:

“On the one hand, this is a pretty straightforward session of cover tunes and some originals by one of the most prolific Japanese jazz groups of the 1960s. On the other hand, it is a session of such exquisite craftsmanship and such impeccable playing that it’s a paradigm of the “straighforward session” that some Japanese musicians like Sawada were able to accomplish several times a year. Their covers of “Footprints” and “Chief Crazy Horse” by Wayne Shorter are positively sublime.”