A totally amazing treasure – a deep dig through the Sun Ra archives, featuring music from Ra, spoken bits, and more – all packaged with amazing presentation of the vinyl, and a huge booklet as well! The records feature way more than just the usual music on Ra projects like these – as they artistically mix together rehearsal moments with some spoken passages, and also some sound effects and other found bits too – almost an art collage in tribute to Sun Ra, but based around music by Ra himself! Highlights include some key rehearsal moments – including a John Gilmore solo, Ra on moog, and "The Second Stop Is Jupiter" performed with Art Jenkins and June Tyson. But the package also features Ra lecturing the Arkestra, talking on music – plus other spoken bits from Dick Gregory, Avery Young, and Krista Franklin. The vinyl is super-heavy, with different colors – and the jackets are heavy pressboard cardstock, hand-printed. The book is LP-sized, 32 pages, with interview materials, notes on the music, details on the project, and some images too. Tremendous stuff – and a must for any Sun Ra collector! (Special fan edition comes in a hand-printed portfolio, with a bonus DVD of Data! Numbered and limited to 40 copies!) ~ Dusty Groove
Some of the tightest tracks we've ever heard from Chico Mann – and some of his most soulful too – a great set of work that really has him stepping past some of the rougher structures of earlier years, and showing a new love of 80s keys and beats as well! The album's got a skittish funky quality that's mighty nice – still with the messed-up edges we've always loved in Mann's funk, but with some tight guitar riffs and bumping basslines that push things forward more strongly than ever before! There's lots of nice vocals, too – some from female singers (including Kendra Morris), some from Chico himself – on cuts that include "Edge Of It", "Long Time Gone", "Magic Touch", "Esta Bueno", "Comes & Goes", "One Day Late", "Vengo A Ti", and "Oye Mira". ~ Dusty Groove
One of Bobby Hutcherson's greatest records ever – and a session that never got released at the time! The album's an excellent quartet session, one that's very much in the best spirit of Bobby's great Happenings album on Blue Note – and it features a similar group that includes Hutcherson on vibes, Herbie Hancock on piano, Albert Stinson on bass, and Joe Chambers, one of Hutcherson's best accompanists from the 60s, on drums. The format's a bit more modal than Happenings – and the set features 6 wonderful little tracks that mix together the "new thing" sound of earlier Hutcherson Blue Notes, with some of the nascent soulfulness that started creeping into his work at the end of the 60s. The album was recorded in 1967, but only first issued in Japan in at the end of the 70s – and then later in the US, and even then only briefly – but we'd still rank the set as one of Bobby's best for Blue Note! Titles include "Til Then", "Mr Joy", "Subtle Neptune", and "Theme From Blow Up". ~ Dusty Groove
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