Various - "Rhodes In Japan" - comp. 16

"White Fire" - Takao Uematsu - excerpt


"Satsuki" - Terumasa Hino - excerpt


"Cat" - Teruo Nakamura - excerpt


"Green Caterpillar" - Masaru Imada - excerpt

In 2000 I went to Tokyo for the first time, and immediately injured my knee. I hobbled around the city on crutches immersing myself in the amazing range of jazz, funk and soul. It wasn't just the hidden, special 2nd hand vinyl stores that blew me away - even Tower Records had the largest jazz collection I'd ever seen; with racks and racks of Japan-only CD releases of USA albums that could only be found on expensive, scratchy vinyl in their home country.

I'd finally found somewhere that had a large population of people who loved the same music as I do, and even today, my DJ partner and some of my closest music buddies at home are Japanese.

However, at the time I knew nothing of Japanese jazz - it's only in the decade since then that my blog brothers have introduced me to Japanese music of the 1970s, music that soaked up electric Miles and electric Herbie in the jazz diaspora, and that even today continues to develop its idiosyncratic permutations through people like DJ Mitsu, Gagle, Sleep Walker and others. There's far too much beautiful music to fit onto one compilation, so expect more.

This is dedicated to my blogger friends, past and present, who've introduced me to this music and taken me on the type of journey that I hope you experience as well.

Thanks to El Goog Ja, Reza, Greg, Bacoso, Ish, Katonah, Taro Nombei, Vesper, Hoochie, Wara Katsu and many more ..... 

More rhodes compilations here

LINK FOR THIS COMP. IN COMMENTS

Herbie Hancock Mwandishi live (1972)

Here are some fantastic videos of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band from 1972, performing "Water Torture", "Toys" and "Sleeping Giant".




French TV broadcast 1972

Herbie Hancock - Piano & Rhodes
Eddie Henderson - Trumpet
Julian Priester - Trombone
Bennie Maupin - Soprano Sax, Flute & Bass Clarinet
Buster Williams - Bass
Billy Hart - Drums

More Herbie-related things here

MIX : "Higher Soul"

Simon666 : "Higher Soul" - Warmup #5 Skid Row radio mix by Simon666

This is a mix I made for a friend's radio show a few weeks back - some new soul, some old funk and some 90s hip hop - plenty of rhodes, natch :) Hope you enjoy!

This has hit the download limit at Soundcloud, so grab it from here instead.

Various - "Library Rhodes 2" - comp. 15

"Grand Roque" - Maurice Vander - excerpt


"The Investigator" - Brian Bennett - excerpt


"Beverley Hills" - Steve Gray - excerpt


"Base Line" - Syd Dale - excerpt

Time for a post! This is a sequel to my 2010 "Library Rhodes" compilation which people seemed to enjoy. So once again, here's another electric piano journey through the library production music archives from the 1970s, drawing on labels like KPM, Bruton, Amphonic, Montparnasse, Bosworth, Impulse, Major, and Themes International.

Some copshow, some vibes, some jazz and some funk for the holidays ....

Link is in the comments, hope you enjoy this one.

Covers are higher quality in the download.

Here's a tracklist -

01 the fat man - syd dale

02 number one spy - syd dale

03 leisure - jeremy lubbock

04 beverley hills - steve gray

05 on the scent - james clarke

06 the investigator - brian bennett

07 night raider - vic flick

08 second cut - james clarke

09 papillion rouge - paolo zavallone

10 basse duettino - raymond Guilot

11 hocus pokus - walter murphy

12 don’t be cool jacky giordano

13 high checker - scope

14 stadio - the swingers

15 grand roque - maurice vander

16 e.s.b. - frank ricotti

17 fresh appeal - brian bennett

18 the open road - duncan lamont

19 exotica - ole jensen & his music

20 walkabout - david lindup

21 cross rolls - janko nilovic

22 award for achievement 3 - tony kinsey

23 drama montage - brian bennett

24 stop gap - dave gold

25 base line - syd dale

26 turbulence - wally asp

27 waiting game - james clarke

28 storytime - clive hicks

More rhodes compilations here.

Peace go with you Gil ....

I always wonder at public grief for the deaths of those we have never met, but some people work their way into our hearts, and so their deaths feel personal.

R.I.P. Gil. Thankyou for the wonderful, intimate show you performed in early 1999 at the Bottom Line in New York.

Check out some bootlegs on this blog.
Read Ish's tribute here

Nil's Jazz Ensemble (S/T) (1976)

"Reflexiones" excerpt


"Summer Love" excerpt


"Black Angel" excerpt

Fantastic latin-jazz-funk album recorded in Lima, Peru in 1976, starring leader/saxaphonist/flautist Nilo Espinosa, formerly of Bossa 70, and also featuring keyboardist Miguel "Chino" Figueroa, a member of renowned latin-funk band Black Sugar.

A killer set from start to finish, starting off with the classic jazz-funker 'Reflexiones', and featuring giant covers of "Black Angel" (a Freddie Hubbard tune penned by Kenny Barron); John Handy's funk tune "Hard Work", and the Blackbyrd's track "Summer Love" (written by Allan Barnes).

The vinyl of this goes for way-too-big bucks, and the CD reissue has been deleted, so I've put the album together by combining relevant parts of an Espinosa CD compilation with a tracked-down missing track "Siempre" - so you can all hear the whole wonderful thing in either WAV or 320 mp3 (apart from 'Siempre', which is at 212kbps) - so check the comments for links and say hi .

TRACKLIST

01. Reflexiones (Figueroa)
02. Looking for a Blues
03. Summer Love (Allan Curtis Barnes)
04. Black Angel (Kenny Barron)
05. Siempre
06. Somos Nada
07. Hard Work (John Handy)

MUSICIANS

Nilo Espinosa: Saxophone [Tenor, Alto, Soprano], Flute
Pancho Saenz: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Miguel "Chino" Figueroa: Electric piano, Clavinet, Mellotron
Richie Zellon: Electric Guitar
Oscar Stagnaro: Electric Bass
Ramon Stagnaro: Electric Guitar
Andres Silva: Drums
Jorge Montero: Guitar
Mauro Silva : Congas
Ary Quispe : trombone

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Recorded in Lima, Peru 1976.
MAG Records N. 2535

LINKS IN COMMENTS

"Sexual Healing" (Simon's Dark Keys mix)

"Sexual Healing" (Simon's Dark Keys Mix)

This is my own mix/mash of the vocal from Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" with "Dark Keys" by the Jazz Liberatorz, with some additional editing work. "Sexual Healing" was never one of my favourite Marvin songs due to the original 80s instrumentation - so I replaced it :)

Edit : Thanks to Gilles Peterson for spinning this on Worldwide, and to all the other DJs who've subsequently picked it up for their mixes.

Feel free to publish on your blogs, but a link back would be nice! Hope you enjoy it, WAV and MP3 versions available in the comments.

"The Hanged Man" OST - Alan Tew / Bullet (1975)

"Contract Man" (excerpt)


"Road Runner" aka "Money Runner" (excerpt)


"The Peterman" aka "The Fence" (excerpt)


"The Spic" (excerpt)

As a followup to the "Library Rhodes" compilation from the other day, here's Alan Tew's 1975 soundtrack to the Yorkshire TV series "The Hanged Man". This has been around the blogs in a lower bit rate, but here it is in glorious FLAC or 320-mp3, take your choice ...

Several (if not all?) of these tracks were Tew's former library tracks renamed for the series and album release, and four of them actually appeared on the above-mentioned rhodes comp under the original titles - but here's the whole thing.

"Bullet" were a studio band. No exact info is available, but I've read elsewhere that it was likely to have been library legends Alan Parker, Barry Morgan, Les Hurdle on bass, and possibly Alan Hawkshaw on keys.

My files come from a now-deleted CD re-release from 1998, but I've grabbed the images from the original vinyl version from Discogs, 'cos it's a nicer cover, love the star heads. Enjoy.

TRACKLIST

• 1. Contract Man
• 2. G.B.H.
• 3. Road Runner
• 4. The Heist
• 5. Duluth Blues
• 6. The Spic
• 7. Hanged Man
• 8. Blue Panther
• 9. Killer Hill
• 10. Smokey Joe The Dreamer
• 11. Gentle In The Night
• 12. The Peterman
• 13. Funky Bear
• 14. Hanged Man

LINKS IN COMMENTS

Various - "Library Rhodes" (compilation 14)

"The Apartment"


"20 Mile High Swinger" (excerpt)


"The Fence" (excerpt)


"Black Light" (excerpt)


"Sidewalk" (excerpt)


"Running Fast" (excerpt)

The electric piano frenzy continues with 78 minutes of library goodness brought to you today, so make sure you return those overdue books and settle back for some Sunday sunshine.

If none of us read anymore, then at least we can listen to the library. I wrote a few paragraphs somewhere in another post about why I think we listen to library music, and there's something of a history here, but no need to analyse this weekend as we flow with some classics and favourites :

From Duncan Lamont's chilled opener "The Apartment" (of 'Sweeney' fame) we move into some flute-laden jazz funk territory for a few tracks, then move into some brazil soundalike tracks beginning with Andre Ceccarelli.

Alan Tew's "The Fence" and Stefano Torossi's classic "Fighting For Life" lead us through some wah wah and blaxpo near-tension, before John Cameron's "Half Remembered Daydream" takes us into the centre vocal section of the compilation : for six tracks you can practise your "woo woos", "bu-bu-bu-bu-buhs" and "da da das" - yes folks, welcome to vocalese language school.

Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett pick up the pace as we head into an action section that never quite requires us to remove our seatbelts, before Stan Sulzmann and friends drop us down to some jazz, and then the final soft but still uneasy tones of our constant host Alan Tew.

TRACKLIST

• 01 the apartment - duncan lamont
• 02 money runner - alan tew
• 03 gang progress - andre ceccarelli
• 04 at risk - david lindup
• 05 afro metropolis - john cameron
• 06 undergroove - alan hawkshaw
• 07 black light - alan parker
• 08 bossa for my eet - andre ceccarelli
• 09 virgin land - tony kinsey
• 10 flute in five four - duncan lamont
• 11 the fence (version a) - alan tew
• 12 fighting for life - stefano torrosi
• 13 the rub - alan tew
• 14 half forgotten daydreams - john cameron
• 15 husky birdsong - keith mansfield
• 16 liquid sunshine- john cameron
• 17 high diver - alan hawkshaw
• 18 shout - daniel janin
• 19 ski bird - alan hawkshaw
• 20 mile high swinger - alan hawkshaw/brian bennett
• 21 the rally - dennis farnon
• 22 dindou no.1 - andre ceccarelli
• 23 running fast - stefano torrosi
• 24 theme hypnose - jannick top
• 25 sojan - stan sulzmann
• 26 sidewalk - frank ricotti/tony hymas/stan sulzmann
• 27 nightwatch - alan tew
• 28 the fence (version b) - alan tew
• 29 eyes - alan tew

Thanks to my fellow bloggers everywhere for everything. I tend to heavily cull all the library stuff I collect, so it's hard to trace these all back - but I know that thanks should go, as ever, to Quimsy, Bacoso, Reza and many other masters of the known universe ...so please visit these people, talk to them ...

LINK IN COMMENTS

that's the place you can leave comments too :)

Various - "Brazil Rhodes 3" (comp #13)

"Bem Vinda" (excerpt)


"Transamazonica" (excerpt)


"Brazilian Skies" (excerpt)


"Viramundo" (excerpt)


"A Chamada" (excerpt)


"Previsao do Tempo" (excerpt)

Commiserations to our brazilian friends for the football - some consolation here in the form of twenty-three storming rhodes tracks from, or inspired by their great land.

A brief intro from the master, Hermeto Pascoal, leads us into some jazz-fused bangers from Som Imaginario, Antonio Adolfo, Marcos Resende and others.

O Quarteto's clustered vocal tones take us through some live Sergio Mendes and Brasil '77 into the middle section, fusing pop, funk and soul with Marcos Valle, Hyldon, Banda Black Rio and more.

The fusions of Azymuth and Headhunter Bill Summers (check that keyboard solo) leads us back to the atmospherics of Robertinho Silva and the deeper jazz of an uncharacteristically instrumental Ed Motta, before we finish with the beautiful melancholy of instrumental Marcos Valle and the amazing voice of Alaide Costa accompanied by Oscar Castro-Neves.

Enjoy the comp, check the previews above - all tracks @ 320kbps bar one or two - and leave a comment so that I know you're with me on this blogging trip ...

Big everlasting thanks to many blogs and bloggers for feeding my love of various brazilian musics over the last few years - including Quimsy, Ish, Bacoso, Reza, BC, Porco Rosso, Flabbergast, J Thyme, Bruxa, all the Gears crew, and many more, sorry if I've forgotten you ....

LINK FOR "BRAZIL RHODES 3" IN COMMENTS

also available :

Brazil Rhodes 1

Brazil Rhodes 2

.... or check all 13 rhodes comps