Les McCann

Omnivore revisits a soul-jazz classic with this expanded reissue of pianist Les McCann's 1972 Atlantic album.  Invitation features one continuous 26-minute improvisation featuring Yusuf Lateef, Cornell Dupree, Bernard Purdie, and Alphonse Mouzon.  This reissue adds new liner notes by Peter Relic based on interviews with the album's key personnel including producer Joel Dorn before his death, and boasts one bonus track - a live version of McCann favorite "Compared to What?" with Buddy Guy on guitar, from Germany circa 1975.  This reissue coincides with Fantagraphics' new book (due on April 5) also titled Invitation to Openness, which brings together photographs taken by McCann between 1960 and 1980 of soul and jazz artists like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and many others.