Ready to head back to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? Hair, from composer Galt MacDermot and librettist-lyricists Gerome Ragni and James Rado, made quite a splash Off-Broadway in 1967, but when it moved uptown under the avant garde direction of Tom O’Horgan, it was an immediate, shocking sensation. The original Broadway production of “the American tribal love rock musical” would ultimately run for 1,750 performances and inspire three Broadway returns, but the reach of the pro-peace, anti-war Hair proved to be universal. The New York success quickly led to a…
A New Level: Jazz Dispensary and Vinyl Me, Please Team Up For “High Fidelity” Jazz-Funk Reissues
This fall, Vinyl Me Please is partnering with Craft Recordings’ Jazz Dispensary imprint to reissue some crate-diggers’ delights from David Axelrod, Jack DeJohnette, Bernard Purdie, Leon Spencer, and Idris Muhammad with full audiophile treatment. The music has been remastered in an all-analog chain from original tape sources by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. Each LP, meanwhile, is pressed on 180-gram color vinyl at RTI and features a heavyweight, tip-on sleeve bearing exact reproductions of the original art. But listeners will want to act fast to add these soulful jazz-funk gems to the…
RECORD STORE DAY PREVIEW! Jazz Dispensary Celebrates 420 on Friday, Releases “Soul Diesel 2” on Saturday
This Friday – April 20, or 4/20 – is a date that’s not going unnoticed by the folks at the Jazz Dispensary label. And the festivities are continuing right through Record Store Day. On Friday, Jazz Dispensary teams with SPARC’s four cannabis dispensaries for a new 7-inch vinyl single, which will be followed on Saturday’s Record Store Day by the release of the 12-inch LP Soul Diesel II. The annual cannabis celebration 420 falls this Friday, hence the release that day of Private Stock Series # 001 from Jazz Dispensary. This translucent…
Mister Magic: Cherry Red Collects Grover Washington Jr.’s “Definitive Collection”
In a career spanning three decades, Grammy-winning saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. recorded roughly 25 albums, earned a No. 2 Pop single with Bill Withers, supported countless other vocalists, and recorded music of genres from funk to opera. (Yes, opera!) Washington passed away in 1999 at the age of 56, but not before having made his mark on the worlds of jazz and pop alike. His legacy has recently been celebrated by Cherry Red’s Robinsongs label on the new 2-CD Definitive Collection. This 24-track set draws on his recordings for CTI/Kudu, Motown, Elektra,…
Power of Soul: Robinsongs Collects The Best of Jazz-Soul Drummer Idris Muhammad
Idris Muhammad’s 1974 album for Kudu Records was called Power of Soul – and it was a power that the drummer brought to all of his recordings over a three-decade period spanning 1970 through 1998. Cherry Red’s Robinsongs label has recently compiled a new anthology of the greatest works of Muhammad, who died on July 29, 2014 at the age of 74. The Very Best of Idris Muhammad: Boogie to the Top brings together 13 selections from his 1970s prime for producer Creed Taylor’s Kudu label. Born Leo Morris in New Orleans…
