Only the second date as a leader from Matt Haviland – a trombonist with years of recordings for others under his belt – and a set that really marks a great leap forward for his strengths at the head of a group! Haviland's got a strong tone, and beautifully well-shaped solos – and he works here with an all-star group that includes Vincent Herring on alto, David Kikoski on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass, and Johnathan Blake on drums – plus work from Mark Gross on tenor and Bill Mobley on trumpet, each of whom play on three tracks on the set! The set includes some well-penned -originals, all with room enough to really open up – "Graham Benjamin", "Fillet Of Soul", "Finding The Words", and "The Way It Is" – plus versions of "Arietis", "Inner Urge", and "Driftin". ~ Dusty Groove
Much deeper work than we're used to hearing from Kutiman – and a set that's really widened the global scope of their sounds and influences! At the start, these guys were a funk group with a mix of psychedelic and 70s Afro-oriented influences – but they've really expanded here, and bring in spiritual jazz elements and other more sophisticated modes – all handled with a richness that's very organic, and which has a very uplifting quality we really didn't expect! There's often use of vocals by a group of female singers, in ways that recall some of the more powerful South African vocal chorus passages of vintage recordings – mixed with acoustic percussion elements, and layers of keyboards, samples, and other sonic touches – on cuts that include "Awake In The Rain", "Firefly Before Tomorrow", "A Giant Snail", "Tanzania", "Maasai", "Lost In The Bush", and "Rainbow Kilimanjaro". ~ Dusty Groove
A gem of a package from one of our favorite film composers ever – a huge 10CD assortment of music from the earliest years of Michel Legrand – a set that shows just what an amazing career he was already having in Paris before his mid-60s rise on the international scene! The scope of work here is wonderful – and as you can guess from the title, the set includes only instrumental music from Legrand (although we will admit, there's a few vocals here and there) – which comprises not only early film scores and soundtrack contributions, but also some jazz projects and other instrumental recordings too – some more orchestral, others more in a groovy style that's like an instrumental take on early French pop! We're huge fans of Michel's music, and have lots of it in our collection already – but there's still a lot here that we'd not heard before – a whopping 234 tracks in all, with a completeness from these years that's echoed in the detailed notes, which are in both French and English. There's a huge amount of tracks we've never seen on CD, including lots of material from obscure French 7" EP releases – and the inside package offers the full details on the origin of all the many varied titles. ~ Dusty Groove.
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