There was no "sophomore slump" for Bob Dylan. Quite the contrary. His first album brought promise, but it was an album of covers with but two originals and it hardly sold. Some at Columbia called signing Dylan "Hammond's Folly," and the lackluster sales for Dylan's debut seemed to back them up.
Dr. and Mrs' J.C. Willke's double LP set "How to Teach Children The Wonder of Sex" is taken from a videotape of a lecture given by the couple to the faculty and staff of the University of Kentucky Medical Center back in 1966.
Petra Haden, the very talented daughter of the late bassist Charlie Haden, and former member of That Dog released in 2005 an a cappella version of The Who Sells Out that is charming, entertaining, ingenious and loads of fun. It was CD only until now.
Novelist Douglas Kennedy described himself as a "jazz junkie" in a 2016 New York Times profile. After reading it, Newvelle Records co-founder Elan Mehler got in touch. Kennedy quickly responded.
Nick Drake was born June 19, 1948 in Rangoon, Burma. Such unusual beginnings for a shy singer-songwriter who would die of a drug overdose twenty-six years later might seem exotic to some. But the gentle music he created sounded quite ordinary to most, if they heard it at all.
Fats Waller had been gone twelve years when Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars recorded this tribute album in 1955. Sadly, the notorious overeater died at 39 of a heart attack.
Recorded late 1971 during a multi-night gig at New York City's Academy of Music and released the next summer, Rock of Ages was intended to be a celebratory send-off for one of the greatest bands of that era as it contemplated a long touring and recording break that went on for far longer than expected.
In March of 1957 during his first trip to the west coast, 26 year old Sonny Rollins, then a member of The Max Roach Quintet, booked a session at Lester Koenig’s Contemporary Studios. With Ray Brown also in Los Angeles starring in Oscar Peterson’s Trio, and Contemporary Records regular and Los Angeles based Shelly Manne also available, Rollins could fulfill a long running desire to record sans piano.
The late Carl E. Jefferson's Concord Records, (now owned by Concord Music Group, which owns Fantasy, Prestige, Riverside, Stax, Specialty, Telarc, Hear Music etc.), founded in 1972 at a time when the pioneering jazz "majors" Blue Note and the above mentioned Prestige, Riverside, etc. had been bought and turned into catalog to be "asset managed" with little or no forward direction, remains, like Norman Granz's Pablo Records, among the most underrated and undervalued on the used LP market.
Jerry Goldsmith's remarkable 84 minute, 54 second score for Star Trek The Motion Picture here in its entirety on vinyl for the first time is a musical and sonic spectacular that's far more exciting than was the movie itself. This is one film score you can definitely enjoy without having seen the movie.
Bassist Scott LaFaro's death in a Geneva, New York car accident ten days after the Sunday, June 25th, 1961 recording of this Village Vanguard set did more than add a tragic luster to the story. It upended what might have been a very different track order here and on Waltz For Debby, the second record sourced using tracks recorded that day by engineer David Jones on a modified Ampex 350 using Scotch 111 tape.
The last time we heard from the adventurous Jamie Saft, he'd released The New Standard an all-analog straight ahead jazz trio album engineered by the great Joe Ferla.
In 1972 and '73 you'd hear this classic album playing in every hippie crash pad and college dorm room in America. It was a "chick" album guys could dig. Her friend James Taylor had encouraged the veteran song writer to sing her own songs.
Analogue Productions has just released Tea For the Tillerman on a double 45rpm 200g, numbered, limited to 3500 copies edition, mastered by George Marino. What? Didn't he pass away a few years ago? Yes. The double 45s were cut when the tape was available "just in case". And it's "in case" time. Especially since AP's license on the title is about to expire, so it's also "get it while you can" time, "in case" you really like this record.
Poor misunderstood Steven Demetre Georgiou/Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam. Like Bob Marley or Barack Obama, he’s a “hybrid” and subject to misinterpretation and fear-mongering.