Jazzis Web Shop News 10/2007

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Today’s addition is a new Israeli Jazz / Fusion / World album, which is a true marvel and something that makes me really proud to be an Israeli:

1^st album by Israeli ensemble Common Bond, founded and led by guitarist and composer Kobi Shefi. Although founded at the end of the 1990s, the nine-piece band took a long time to mature and develop. They recorded a demo album a few years back, but this is their formal debut release, and as it turns out it was worth waiting for. In many respects this is one of the finest albums ever recorded in this country and it encapsulates the capabilities of the phenomenal new generation of Israeli musicians. Kobi, who wrote most of the music and the spectacular arrangements on this album, is a seasoned player with solid Jazz background (he was a member of Harold Rubin’s group Parpar). All the other players are slightly younger (late 20s / early 30s) with extensive musical education and performing experience. The star of the album is the 19 years old vocalist Marina Maximilian Blumin, born in Ukraine and immigrated to Israel as a child. She is undoubtedly the most original and spectacular Israeli vocalist since Rimona Francis 40 years ago. Her extraordinary technique, range and self-confidence create an impression of a 40 years old veteran superstar. The band creates an incredible big sound, with intricate brass arrangements and jazzy solos, but the music combines (as the band’s name suggests) the best of Jazz, Fusion, Funk and World Music elements into an amalgam of rare beauty and spectacular effect. Think Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower Of Power and Santana with a dash of Middle Eastern melancholy, fronted by a diva. Absolutely stunning! Since the album was released, Common Bond performed extensively in many countries with enormous success and they are surely destined to go far. Unfortunately Marina left to follow her solo career (after capturing the entire Israeli public through her participation in a TV talent-discovery show), and was replaced by another very talented singer Anat Ben Hamo. If you wish to explore the wonderful world of new Israeli music – this is the album to start with. You are in for a treat of your (musical) life.

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Today’s addition is the next album by the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years War):

This album compiles previously unreleased material, mostly live recordings and some studio outtakes, by the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years War), spanning the entire first period of their activity from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. Some of the material was released on the first 5 albums the band recorded, but is presented here recorded live, which of course is quite different from the studio versions, revealing the improvisational abilities of the group’s members. Although some of these recordings are not perfect as far as the sound quality is concerned, the raw energy and the beauty of the music overwhelmingly puts the sound issues aside. This is a great document of the era, as well as one of the most important Scandinavian Prog bands and therefore essential to all the many fans of the band.

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Today’s addition is the sensational album by Trio Of Doom, which took 28 years to see the light of day, keeping us all in suspense:

A power Fusion trio consisting of musicians of such caliber as John McLaughlin (guitar), Jaco Pastorius (bass) and Tony Williams (drums) usually only happens in the wildest and wettest of dreams by serious Fusion-heads, but if fact this one did happen in reality and even recorded both live and in the studio. Trio Of Doom was a one-time collaboration assembled for the occasion of the historic Havana Jam Festival in Cuba, where for the first time US performers were allowed to play before the Cuban audience. The festival took place for 3 days in early March of 1979 and presented a wide variety of US artists (pop, rock & jazz) and was recorded by Columbia. Selections were later released on 2 albums, including 3 of the tracks on this album. Although McLaughlin never played before with Pastorius, both of them did play with Williams: McLaughlin as a member of his group Lifetime and Pastorius in Weather Report, when Williams played on “Mr. Gone”. The trio’s rehearsals were very successful, but the actual concert at Havana’s Carl Marx (what else?) hall turned out to be unsatisfactory due to a hectic and out-of-focus performance by Pastorius. The legend has it that Williams almost kicked the hell out of Pastorius after the gig (being a men of enormous physical strength this was no laughing matter), but seeing how spaced-out Pastorius was punched a hole in a wall instead. When Columbia informed McLaughlin that they want to use the Havana material for their albums, McLaughlin opposed and eventually a recording session was set up a week later to repeat the live performance in the studio. The resulting studio material was then used to overdub parts of the live recording, which appeared on the Havana Jam albums. This album brings us (28 years later) the entire live and studio material recorded by the Trio Of Doom in its original form, most of it previously unreleased in any form. The music is of course electrifying and almost super-human. All three musicians at the peek of their performing powers, with years of experience and enormous talents just can’t go wrong. Williams is in fact the moving power behind the trio, with his phenomenal technique and sublime interplay with his partners. This music kicks serous ass and whatever minor imperfections overshadowed the outcome at the time, those are long time gone and thankfully forgiven / forgotten. We can all enjoy this glorious Fusion gem, which is finally out of the vaults. Viva Fusion!

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Today’s addition is the next album by the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years War):

6^th album by the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years War) recorded after the band reunited in 2002 and decided to continue recording new albums, closing the 24 years long gap between the last album made by the “original” group. The reunion brings together all the original band members: Stefan Fredin (bass & vocals), Dag Lundquist (drums), Christer Åkerberg (guitars), Robert Zima (lead vocals) and Mats Lindberg (keyboards) as well as the lyricist Olle Thörnvall, which is truly remarkable considering how much time has passed since they all worked together. The material is mostly new, written especially for this album, but some “unfinished business” from the 1970s is taken care off, by finally being recorded and even one track originally recorded in 1977 is included. The central piece of the music is the lengthy suite in four parts, which gives the album its title. The music is absolutely stunning, bringing the best days of the group back to life and expanding and updating the sound, although the mellotron is used extensively to link to the 1970s sound. Although the musicians are obviously not young any more, the music is alive and contemporary, with a mighty kick, bringing them back again to the forefront of Scandinavian Prog with other groups like Anekdoten. Being more or less of the same age as the wonderful musicians involved in making this remarkable music, it makes me feel really proud that our generation can still contribute something to the process of creating great music. A must to all Scandinavian Prog fans.

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Today’s addition is another superb box set by one of the greatest and most revered jazz artists – Charles Mingus:

This superb box set includes the music Charles Mingus, one of the most charismatic and outspoken jazz musicians, recorded between January 1956 and November 1961 – almost a six years span. It includes the 6 albums released by Atlantic (“Pithecanthropus Erectus”, “The Clown”, “Blues & Roots”, “Oh Yeah”, “Tonight At Noon” and the double live album “Mingus At Antibes”) as well as the Teddy Charles album “Word From Bird” on which Mingus plays bass. Some previously unreleased alternate takes are also included, as well as a long (over 70 minutes) interview with Mingus by Nesuhi Ertegun, the producer of all these sessions. This period is considered his most productive and stable and the bulk of his best compositions are included here. He plays bass and piano and the list of names of the musicians playing with him here sounds like a “who’s who” of modern jazz, including Jackie McLean (alto sax), Mal Waldron (piano), Dannie Richmond (drums), Booker Ervin (tenor Sax), Eric Dolphy (alto sax and bass clarinet), Ted Curson (trumpet), Bud Powell (piano) and many others. This is magnificent music in every respect – Mingus at his peak as composer and bandleader, surrounded by musicians of the highest class creates beautiful collages linking blues, bebop and the emerging free form jazz. I highly recommend to read Mingus’ autobiography “Beneath The Underdog” (one of the most original and striking jazz books ever written) as a companion to this music. Absolutely essential!

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Today’s addition is an album by Joe Zawinul, which compiles two of his early pre-Weather Report solo albums. Joe’s recent death was such a great loss to the jazz community and I’m happy to do anything I can to keep the memory of his great music alive:

Joe Zawinul arrived in the US in 1958, after being one of the first European musicians to win a scholarship to Berklee, but he left the school almost immediately and became active on the US jazz scene as pianist, arranger and composer. He played with Maynard Ferguson, Slide Hampton and Dinah Washington before landing on the piano chair with Julian Cannonball Adderley’s quintet, where he stayed for 9 years (1961-1969). Towards the end of his Adderley days Zawinul played for almost 2 years (1969-1970) with Miles Davis, participating in the seminal recordings Miles made at that period. In 1970 Zawinul formed the legendary Weather Report, which would revolutionize the jazz and fusion genres and continue (in a slightly different direction) the pioneering breakthroughs made by Davis. Over the years Zawinul recorded only three albums as a leader (on Atlantic and Vortex), two of which are included here (The eponymous album from 1969 was really the starting point for Weather Report). “Money In The Pocket”, recorded in 1965, finds him in a setting similar to his Adderley’s quintet gig both musically and personally. He uses the quintet’s bass player (Sam Jones) and drummer (Louis Hayes) and adds three excellent horn players: Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Joe Henderson (tenor sax) and Pepper Adams (baritone sax). The sextet plays a great set of bebop material, including mostly original material by Zawinul, Jones and Henderson and two standards. Zawinul’s elegant and soulful piano playing sets a firm basis for the music’s graceful flow. “The Rise & Fall Of The Third Stream”, recorded in 1967, is a completely different album and a most ambitious and pioneering jazz venture for the time. It involves a meeting between the American jazz tradition and the European classical tradition, but as the title suggests it was meant to be a new kind of synthesis to the one attempted earlier in the US by Gunther Schuller and named “The Third Stream”, which seemed to be forced and artificial rather than natural. A meeting between Zawinul and American classical composer William Fisher led to the two of them working together in an attempt to create a natural synthesis of the two musical worlds. The project involved a jazz ensemble and a string quartet, playing music composed and arranged by Fisher. The jazz ensemble includes Zawinul on acoustic and electric piano, Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, Roy McCurdy and Freddie Waits on drums, Warren Smith on percussion and Fisher on tenor sax. The result is a stunning piece of music, a completely new and previously attempted kind of musical vista. In retrospect one can of course hear the seeds of what Zawinul will be doing just a couple of years later with Davis and then Weather Report. Although sadly overlooked and rarely mentioned, this is a seminal album in every respect and surely ahead of its time in every respect. For the intelligent jazz lover, interested in the forces that forged the jazz revolution of the late 1960s this is an absolute must!

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I’m really happy to announce that I managed to contact the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years War) and from now on all their fantastic albums are available on my site. Today’s addition is the 1^st of those:

1^st album by the legendary Swedish Prog band Trettioåriga Kriget, formed in 1970 by core members Stefan Fredin (bass) and Dag Lundquist (drums). After recording a demo album in the winter of 1970-71 (released only 34 years later as “Glorious War”), the band went through some personnel changes and by the time this eponymous album was recorded the “classic” lineup of the group was formed with Christer Åkerberg on lead guitar and Austrian born Robert Zima on lead vocals and guitar. Fredin was the main composer in the group, which played a unique blend of dark, hard-edged Prog, with great melodies and complex rhythm changes. The guitar work of Åkerberg is truly amazing and his great feel for blues, jazz and rock and his improvisational abilities are outstanding. The album is one of the formative Scandinavian Prog releases and a classic of the genre. It lost nothing of its power and originality over the years and is wholeheartedly recommended to all Prog fans, especially to those who adore the Swedish school to be later developed by groups like Anglagard, Anekdoten and Isildurs Bane.

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I moved a few new items to the Sale section. They are all of print so this is the last opportunity to get – now at a reduced price.

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