A trio of new releases share some wonderful and often heartfelt aesthetics across a variety of genres, dance music-infused sounds, personal identity, and artistic freedom, and we’re covering all three of them today together under our Short Cuts album review banner. Read Mark Smotroff’s roundup review of three wonderful LPs from the always adventurous female singer Lady Blackbird, chart sensation and vocal marvel Chappell Roan, and a full live concert reissue from the vaults of the late, legendary dance music pioneer Sylvester. . .
Released in the 1970s and ’80s by legendary jazz producer/impresario Norman Granz, albums on the Pablo Records label were often lush-sounding affairs — and now, all these years later, Analogue Productions has seen fit to reissue and remaster many of the label’s key titles as 180g LPs, all cut at QRP. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review of a trio of Pablo titles — one each from Count Basie & His Orchestra, Count Basie Big Band, and Duke Ellington and Ray Brown — to see just how essential these three LPs are to have in your collection. . .
Part 2 of our RSD 2024 Short Cuts roundup focuses on a pair of Holy Grail releases for reviewer Mark Smotroff — Gandalf’s self-titled 1969 debut and Parliament’s own 1970 debut, Osmium, the latter of which is now expanded into a 2LP Deluxe Edition. Read on to see if either or both of these RSD offerings are worthwhile additions to your own collection. . .
We here at AP had pretty fruitful, respective Record Store Day 2024 ventures last Saturday, and we hope you did too! In Part 1 of his RSD 2024 review roundups, Mark Smotroff tackles a pair of excellent multidisc live LP releases from Talking Heads and Fleet Foxes, so read on to see if either/both belong in your own RSD-related collections. . .
It’s not often you get new titles from three legendary artists of yesteryear like gospel icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe, piano virtuoso Art Tatum, and soul-jazz organ pioneer Brother Jack McDuff all released on the same day. But this year, all three of them are being celebrated on Record Store Day 2024 — this year’s first installment of which happens to fall on this upcoming Saturday, April 20 — with newly unearthed, previously unreleased, multidisc live concert recordings on 180g black vinyl. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of all three of these releases to see which one, or ones, belong on your “must have” RSD 2024 shopping list. . .
Our first 2024 installment of Review Explosion Short Cuts includes a trio of fine new 1LP releases from the cool Radiohead side project knows as The Smile, the latest, hi-fi-sounding album from indie faves Guided By Voices, and the debut LP from East L.A. “souldies” pioneers Thee Sinseers. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo-platter review to see if any, or all three, of these new LPs belong in your collection. . .
Looks like another year has gone by with a seemingly endless release-cycle parade consisting of scores of brand-new LPs from both known artists and untested newcomers alike, along with a myriad of archival vinyl reissues and overstuffed box sets galore — a good number of them presented in the much-preferred AAA form to boot. With the calendar set to turn over to 2024 any day now, that means it’s high time to assess the best of what we’ve heard on wax during the past 12 months. Read on to see AP editor Mike Mettler and chief LP reviewer Mark Smotroff’s respective lists of the top archival and new LP releases of 2023. . .
Our latest Review Explosion Short Cuts serving tackles a trio of fine new LP sets thematically connected by a common love of British rock of the 1960s and ’70s. Included herein are an archival 2LP live set from The Flaming Lips circa 2003, a recent 1LP studio offering from the ever-prolific Guided By Voices, and the first official solo sojourn LP from acclaimed Irish singer/songwriter/producer Thomas Walsh. Read on to glean Mark Smotroff’s take on these wonderful LP sides that are collectively chock full of melody and imagination. . .
In retrospect, Tom Waits’ trajectory from singer/song writer to down-beaten jazz-fueled street person scowling at the piano in the 1970s made perfect sense. But when he came out of the gate in the early 1980s, his transformation was almost as dramatic as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust reinvention. Five new of-era 180g 1LP reissues from Island/UMe — namely, 1983’s Swordfishtrombones, 1985’s Rain Dogs, 1987’s Franks Wild Years, 1992’s Bone Machine, and 1993’s The Black Rider — all seek to remind us of just how fertile this period was in Waits’ overall canon. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review to see if any or all of these new wonderful Waits reissues belong in your collection. . .
ECM has just expanded their vinyl reissue campaign under the new Luminessence banner, a series that purports to have accessed analog masters for these new 180g 1LP editions. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review of four key Luminessence titles — from Naná Vasconcelos, Kenny Wheeler, Gary Burton, and Old and New Dreams — to see if any or all of them belong in your collection. . .
Created with direct input from label founder Marshall Chess, VMP’s The Story of Cadet Records almost entirely AAA 180g 8LP super deluxe box set is a welcome addition to the analog fold. The eight albums offered herein — including rare titles from the likes of Muddy Waters, Etta James, and Ramsey Lewis — are a healthy cross-section snapshot of the expansive sounds Cadet was pursuing as the mid-1960s exploded both socially and musically. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why The Story of Cadet Records is worth the investment. . .
Our seventh Short Cuts installment of Review Explosion is all about Pharoah Sanders — namely, the rare 1977 spiritual jazz album Pharoah that’s now a part of a new 2LP Luaka Bop box set that also includes a separate Harvest Time Live 1977 LP, plus a look at the fine 180g 1LP Third Man-Pressed Verve by Request reissue of 1972’s Black Unity. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s take on both of these quite worthwhile reissues. . .
With so many pressing plants being fairly maxed out these days in terms of their production capacity, it’s been nice to see how Detroit’s Third Man Pressing has stepped up to the plate to deliver respectable, audiophile-grade vinyl pressings at fairly reasonable SRPs. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo review of three new Verve by Request 180g 1LP reissues from jazz greats Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef, and The Ahmad Jamal Trio — all of which have been recently pressed at Third Man — to see if they make the grade. . .
We got that jazz-jones thing already going again, so we’re back with another jazz-centric triple-play review. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo take on a trio of jazz classics — both old and newly discovered alike — from Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd, Wynton Kelly Trio & Wes Montgomery, and Sun Ra. . .
Collecting original pressings of rare albums can be exciting, frustrating, and even debilitating at times. The good news is, there are a lot of really excellent reissues coming out these days that seem only to be getting better and better. Read Mark Smotroff’s triple Short Cuts review of new 180g 1LP reissues of classic titles from Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, and Gabor Szabo to see if any of them just might whet your eclectic jazz-listening whistle. . .