Jazz

A lifetime of lessons in six-string-guitar-swing!Jazz-meets-country in an impossibly hot session, ca. 1959! A platter of lightning-fast picking and impeccable taste from the legendary George Barnes! The description on the back of the original album reads: “A wonderful collection of Western favorites that everyone will love—and played in the traditional Western style.” The front cover features a more accurate explanation: “Great guitar solos in modern country jazz style”—as if “modern country...

Electrifying ultra-rare album by '60s fretboard genius!Fretboard fanatics...fret no more! Here at last is the album that christened Jimmy Bryant with the distinct moniker of "Fastest Guitar in the Country." After a run of success with steel guitarist Speedy West on Capitol Records, Jimmy Bryant signed a solo contract with Imperial Records in the mid '60s. While Bryant's recordings with West established him as a fretboard genius, it was the 1967 release of The Fastest Guitar in the Country that...

If you were going to envision the ultimate avant-garde meeting-of-the-minds jam session, who would you pick? Even the most hopeful fan of strange and innovative music couldn't have seen this one coming: on one afternoon in 1986, at Coney Island's dilapidated freak show, space-age avant-jazz genius Sun Ra met avant-garde "serious music" composer John Cage in an unforgettable performance. You couldn't imagine two figures more opposite. Cage was known for his unusual approach to composition,...

Double LP on clear vinyl!!If you were going to envision the ultimate avant-garde meeting-of-the-minds jam session, who would you pick? Even the most hopeful fan of strange and innovative music couldn't have seen this one coming: on one afternoon in 1986, at Coney Island's dilapidated freak show, space-age avant-jazz genius Sun Ra met avant-garde "serious music" composer John Cage in an unforgettable performance. You couldn't imagine two figures more opposite. Cage was known for his unusual...

Anything can happen and often does. This is John Cage. A seminal example of indeterminate music from an icon on experimental sounds. It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition "4'33,"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed in the 60s and 70s as a leading light in avant-garde music and as an...

A swingin' beat-gen jazz classic back in print! Sax-man Al Cohn, best known for his work with fellow Lester Young tenor-sax disciple Zoot Sims, has all the pots bubbling on this classic 1956 LP. Five stars in DownBeat? You bet!Al Cohn first sprung on the national scene as one of the saxophonists on the Woody Herman hit "Four Brothers," a crazy arrangement of "Jeepers Creepers" featuring each "brother" on a wild-and-crazy swingin' sax solo. Along with fellow "brother" Zoot Sims, Cohn became one...

From the Sundazed Vaults...back by popular demand!Growing up in Cowpens, SC, Hank Garland began playing guitar at age 6. Ten years later, this precocious talent led him to Nashville, where he quickly integrated himself into the city’s thriving live music and recording scene. Scoring a million-selling hit at age 19 with “Sugarfoot Rag,” Garland became a first-call Nashville session guitarist, recording with a “who’s who” of country stars and nascent rockers (including that Presley kid—it’s...

The first ever vinyl reissue of an extraordinarily-unique space-age educational LP. Includes the oft-covered “A Shooting Star Is Not A Star” and “Why Does The Sun Shine?” Featuring Leo Leonni cover art and taken from the original atomic-era 1959 master tapes. Written by Hy Zaret and sung by Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans. Zaret (co-author of “Unchained Melody”) turned his attention to educational children’s music in the late 1950s, collaborating with Lou Singer on a six-album series called “Ballads...

Unearthed tape from a jazz icon. Thanks to a 21-year-old with a tape machine, we can all experience the majesty of guitar legend Barney Kessel at his 1954 best!Even if you don't know Barney Kessel, you know Barney Kessel -- as a first-string member of the group of LA session musicians nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew," Kessel's guitar is heard on just about every LA-based hit you'd care to name from the 60s, including songs by the Monkees and The Beach Boys' legendary Smile LP. And that's Kessel's...

On translucent red vinyl!Unearthed tape from a jazz icon. Thanks to a 21-year-old with a tape machine, we can all experience the majesty of guitar legend Barney Kessel at his 1954 best! Even if you don't know Barney Kessel, you know Barney Kessel -- as a first-string member of the group of LA session musicians nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew," Kessel's guitar is heard on just about every LA-based hit you'd care to name from the 60s, including songs by the Monkees and The Beach Boys' legendary...

A once shocking 1962 LP of love songs… by men, for men. A long lost treasure featuring the cool & sophisticated vocals of Gene Howard and a cast of prime studio jazz musicians, performing a set of standards sung to a male suitor. Ahead of its time in every way. Reissued for the first time ever for Record Store Day’s Black Friday! Available on CD and pristine RTI pressed gold vinyl!A fantastic, once-shocking album finally sees reissue - and brings with it the answer to a half-century...

A once shocking 1962 LP of love songs… by men, for men. A long lost treasure featuring the cool & sophisticated vocals of Gene Howard and a cast of prime studio jazz musicians, performing a set of standards sung to a male suitor. Ahead of its time in every way. Reissued for the first time ever for Record Store Day’s Black Friday! Available on CD and pristine RTI pressed gold vinyl! A fantastic, once-shocking album finally sees reissue - and brings with it the answer to a half-century mystery!...

Taxi to tomorrow with this saucer of space-age sounds! Sound, sustain, and silence unite, polyrhythmic Hammond organs and xylophones round off a cosmic eruption! Created for the 1962 World’s Fair, this album bundles beautifully textured space sounds with period-perfect narration. Take the Gayway to a surplus of recognizable moments lifted for modern-day samples! Man In Space With Sounds is a commemorative album of 12 tracks dedicated to the Seattle World’s Fair. Envisioned and conducted by...

Taxi to tomorrow with this saucer of space-age sounds! Sound, sustain, and silence unite, polyrhythmic Hammond organs and xylophones round off a cosmic eruption! Created for the 1962 World’s Fair, this album bundles beautifully textured space sounds with period-perfect narration. Take the Gayway to a surplus of recognizable moments lifted for modern-day samples! Man In Space With Sounds is a commemorative album of 12 tracks dedicated to the Seattle World’s Fair. Envisioned and conducted by...

Career-spanning anthology by influential UK soul/funk/jazz visionaries! Over the past dozen-plus years, England's widely celebrated New Mastersounds have been at the forefront of an international musical revolution. Rising from the fertile club culture of their hometown of Leeds, the adventurous foursome--which now numbers guitarist/producer Eddie Roberts, bassist Pete Shand, drummer Simon Allen and Hammond organist Joe Tatton--has drawn upon a deep knowledge of old-school R&B, soul, funk and...

Career-spanning anthology by influential UK soul/funk/jazz visionaries!Over the past dozen-plus years, England's widely celebrated New Mastersounds have been at the forefront of an international musical revolution. Rising from the fertile club culture of their hometown of Leeds, the adventurous foursome--which now numbers guitarist/producer Eddie Roberts, bassist Pete Shand, drummer Simon Allen and Hammond organist Joe Tatton--has drawn upon a deep knowledge of old-school R&B, soul, funk and...

By the time Jimmy Raney recorded the ultra-cool Visits Paris, he was already at the peak of his career. Having started in 1944 with the Jerry Wald band, he'd pass through a passel of great jazz combos before ending up with Stan Getz in his classic quintet. There, the guitarist became world-renowned, and just weeks before cutting this album, in 1954, he was voted the number one guitarist in the world by French magazine Le Hot Jazz. The album finds Raney on a (very) brief break from touring...

Howard Roberts' swinging jazz guitar masterpiece from '63!In the pantheon of under-the-radar American guitar heroes, Howard Roberts looms large. A remarkably versatile musician who was one of Los Angeles' most in-demand session players from the early 1950s through the 1970s, Roberts' career encompassed an incredible array of studio assignments. He recorded with a dizzying assortment of acts, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, Dean Martin, Sonny and Cher, the...

On colored vinyl and compact disc!Afro-Asian Exotica! Jungle beats and lush rhythms from the famed film and television composer. An early stereo marvel from the original 1958 tapes! Takashi "Tak" Shindo was one of the most prominent purveyors of that gorgeous genre known as Exotica, a magnificent and surreal style of music which took the sounds of cultures at the time unknown or mysterious and blended it into a swingy, sexy stew. As a Japanese-American, Shindo brought a unique cultural...

On colored vinyl and compact disc! Afro-Asian Exotica! Jungle beats and lush rhythms from the famed film and television composer. An early stereo marvel from the original 1958 tapes! Takashi "Tak" Shindo was one of the most prominent purveyors of that gorgeous genre known as Exotica, a magnificent and surreal style of music which took the sounds of cultures at the time unknown or mysterious and blended it into a swingy, sexy stew. As a Japanese-American, Shindo brought a unique cultural...

Shining sounds from the dawn of the Sun Ra Arkestra. "El is A Sound of Joy" was recorded in 1956 and appeared the following year on the very first Saturn LP, Super-Sonic Jazz. Incredible is the fact that saxophonist Charles Davis, here providing the soulful baritone anchor line (counterpoint to Ra's formidable left hand), remains in the front-line of today's Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen. Shuffle swing breakdown jets leisurely, casually, masterfully, painting lush, post-modern...

"The Lady With The Golden Stockings" is a propulsive, forthright groove – a decisive, deep-space, pre-dawn party jam, emitting golden sparks from the black hole center which begat "Africa" and "Watusa." Quantum-elasticity of temporal equations, bubbling bass, trumpet dancing on light waves, tenor sax serenade across the galaxy, signaling yonder... vessels... beings... femaliens... Pure poetry in sublime, delicate, rhythmelodic motion becomes "Spontaneous Simplicity.” A centerpiece among the...

2016 Black Friday Exclusive! Available at Midnight on November 25th! Limited Quantities!A TRIPLE LP AND DOUBLE CD OF INTERPLANETARY PERFECTION!A stunning live Sun Ra event, recorded at the Inter-Media Arts Center in New York, April 20, 1991! Modern Harmonic proudly presents this very special Sun Ra recording, issued here for the first time ever! This concert was just two years before Ra’s “earthly departure” – and his keyboard work was amazingly strident and vibrant here. The Arkestra was in...

A TRIPLE LP AND DOUBLE CD OF INTERPLANETARY PERFECTION! A stunning live Sun Ra event, recorded at the Inter-Media Arts Center in New York, April 20, 1991! Modern Harmonic proudly presents this very special Sun Ra recording, issued here for the first time ever! This concert was just two years before Ra’s “earthly departure” – and his keyboard work was amazingly strident and vibrant here. The Arkestra was in perfect form as well; this special night also showcased the Arkestra’s vocal...

**PARENTAL ADVISORY -- EXPLICIT LYRICS**"Nuclear War," Sun Ra's groove-infested x-rated warning, was an early 80s underground hit when it appeared on a 12-inch (plus the Saturn album A Fireside Chat With Lucifer). Ra and crew expose the deathly horror with deadly serious call-and-response, leavened with funk and a pinch of humor for better digestion, eyes gleaming in a laid-back, lilting, cosmo-gangster-lean. "Outer Reach Intense Energy" and "Twilight" are originally unreleased works,...

"Plutonian Nights," the opening jam from the 1959 Afrofuturist classic album Nubians of Plutonia, is Sun Ra's quintessential, astro-majestic party joint. Among the top grooves in his immense catalog, Ra reveals his love for R&B is inseparable from his embrace of Jazz. (He once told bassist Richard Evans, "We don't play Jazz, we play Dazz.") Pat Patrick's bari sax morphs into a Fender bass, while the swinging flow of John Gilmore & Co. gives new meaning to the notion of 'Blowing' (Out From...

Among Sun Ra's most famous and jet-propelled anthems, "Rocket Number Nine" is heard here in one of the earliest renditions from a marathon June 1960 session, with a staggering, swaggering, hip-bop beat. Ignition. Liftoff. "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus, Zoom Zoom! Up in the air! Zoom! Up!" Paired with originally unknown recordings, including the driving, bossa nova-infused "Ankhnation" from 1959 and "Project Black Mass" from 1962. More energized and driving in contrast with...

Sun Ra's angular yet strident and soulful "Saturn,” recorded in 1958, displays bluesy cubist bop in perfect alter-dimensional extension of Fletcher Henderson. It's also a showcase for John Gilmore's sax acrobatics and supersonic swing. Gilmore dove deep into the Ra Omniverse; "got the concept" - as Coltrane described the tenor giant - hooked by this composition, and never left. Dual baritones of Pat Patrick and Charles Davis (who continues in the front line of the living, glowing Arkestra of...

The first-ever collection of Arkestra vocal tracks! Over 75 minutes of vocal performances - audible perfection! Featuring album art interpreted from the work of "the father of modern space art," Chesley Bonestell, plus extensive liner notes. Across the history of jazz, there is no wilder, more future-forward composer and performer than Herman Poole Blount, aka Sun Ra. Known as much for his wild on-stage persona as his innovative compositions, Sun Ra was the avant-garde bleeding edge of the...

A new Sun Ra album touches ground in the earthly bins, 50 years after its creation!Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity’s path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole “LeSony’r Ra” Blount “left the planet” he’s still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny.Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren’t a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography...

A new Sun Ra LP touches ground in the earthly bins, 50 years after its creation! Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity’s path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole “LeSony’r Ra” Blount “left the planet” he’s still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny. Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren’t a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography reflects...

**PARENTAL ADVISORY -- EXPLICIT LYRICS**Get all three Sun Ra 10" EPs for a special price!Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine:Among Sun Ra's most famous and jet-propelled anthems, "Rocket Number Nine" is heard here in one of the earliest renditions from a marathon June 1960 session, with a staggering, swaggering, hip-bop beat. Ignition. Paired with originally unknown recordings, including the driving, bossa nova-infused "Ankhnation" from 1959 and "Project Black Mass" from 1962. Romping, rumbling low...

**PARENTAL ADVISORY -- EXPLICIT LYRICS**Get all three Sun Ra 10" EPs plus NRBQ's Interstellar 10" for a special price! Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine:Among Sun Ra's most famous and jet-propelled anthems, "Rocket Number Nine" is heard here in one of the earliest renditions from a marathon June 1960 session, with a staggering, swaggering, hip-bop beat. Ignition. Paired with originally unknown recordings, including the driving, bossa nova-infused "Ankhnation" from 1959 and "Project Black Mass" from...

Get all three Sun Ra 7" singles together! MH-101 - Saturn / Mystery Mr. Ra: Sun Ra's angular yet strident and soulful "Saturn,” recorded in 1958, displays bluesy cubist bop in perfect alter-dimensional extension of Fletcher Henderson. It's also a showcase for John Gilmore's sax acrobatics and supersonic swing. "Mystery, Mr. Ra," recorded live in 1984 and originally unissued, is just on the friendly side of ominous. Its deep funk, delivered by James Jacson on the Ancient Egyptian Astro Infinity...

STELLAR GOOD VIBRATIONS FROM THE INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRO-THEREMIN! Light years ahead of its time, the eerie sound, colorful orchestral blending, and haunting melodies of Music For Heavenly Bodies has become a crate digging classic. America’s fascination with space and its mysteries was at a peak during the 1950s, and this astral awareness got the attention of professional musician, Paul Tanner. Tanner, a trombonist, got his start in the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. The theremin first...

THE SOUND OF SPEED by BOB THOMPSON Bob Thompson's landmark orchestral tribute to wheels, wings, and whirly birdsby Irwin Chusid In the late 1950s, when Mexican-born Space Age Pop avatar Esquivel was in his prime, orchestra leader/composer/arranger Bob Thompson was his American stylistic counterpart. They recorded for the same label (RCA Victor), employed many of the same musicians and vocalists, and experimented with sound in the same Los Angeles studios. His RCA albums, Mmm, Nice!, Just for...

A sultry and sophisticated songbird. The ultra-rare debut and sole output of a wondrous and mysterious vocalist, perfectly accompanied by guitar icon Barney Kessel. An Early Stereo marvel from the original 1959 tapes! Kessel was a jazz pioneer -- as one of the leading lights of the hard-bop movement, his jazz guitar was legendary, and he was ranked the No. 1 guitarist in Down Beat and Playboy for numerous years. He played with Sonny Rollins and Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald as well as...

A genre-spanning new heritage label, Archives of America is built on the appeal of impeccably crafted LPs, ones where the scope and pace give the tracks room to speak to each other—and to you—to create a new experience. Archives of America cherry-picks deep cuts from great vintage catalogs and arranges them to resonate around a single mood through every element, from the first glimpse of the cover to the last note. Every shade of blue is reflected in this retrospective of classic tracks from...

A genre-spanning new heritage label, Archives of America is built on the appeal of impeccably crafted LPs, ones where the scope and pace give the tracks room to speak to each other—and to you—to create a new experience. Archives of America cherry-picks deep cuts from great vintage catalogs and arranges them to resonate around a single mood through every element, from the first glimpse of the cover to the last note. Eight late-night torch songs beautifully lamenting lost love from the matchless...

A genre-spanning new heritage label, Archives of America is built on the appeal of impeccably crafted LPs, ones where the scope and pace give the tracks room to speak to each other—and to you—to create a new experience. Archives of America cherry-picks deep cuts from great vintage catalogs and arranges them to resonate around a single mood through every element, from the first glimpse of the cover to the last note. A must-have collection of the most soulful tracks from the Challenge label, all...

Drillin’ & Drivin’ Rig Ringers! Country singer and disc jockey Slim Willet’s ode to tool-pushin’! Texas Oil Patch Songs was issued in 1959 by the artist on his own Winston label, and now is an impossibly-rare LP to dig up—and this Modern Harmonic edition is faithful to the original, including all twelve tracks, liner notes, and restored artwork! And on petro-blue vinyl! "Ahh… the “Concept Album”…Critics write of Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours…or of groundbreaking 60’s rock opera opuses…but...

Exotica, Bongos, & Jungle Beats! A 1957 lounge classic from “Mr. Bongos!” These often-sampled, vibrant-yet-chill sounds bring you big jungle drums, bongos, congas, flutes, strange animal noises, and more! Accomplished bongo player Jack Burger wasn’t known as “Mr. Bongo” without reason. Before the Beatnik generation picked up on the bongos as their super-swank instrument of choice, Jack Burger was already slinging his smooth bongo skills all over the West Coast, from Gene Autry’s radio show to...

A 1965 journey into found sound; this is John Cage. Another seminal volume of indeterminate music, from an icon of experimental sounds. Reissued for the first time and thematically on gorgeous clear vinyl! It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition “4'33,"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed in...

Beyond hip! From cool jazz to hard bop.This extraordinary soundtrack, featuring many of the finest jazz musicians this side of anywhere, is a collection of small ensemble and large band arrangements so perfectly indicative of its era. It’s beyond hip and runs the gamut from cool jazz to hard bop. Moreover, it authorized the virtuosic freedom of the best of New York’s jazz community.The swingingly cinematic score was commissioned for a Sexploitation classic entitled Satan in High Heels, the...

Beyond hip! From cool jazz to hard bop. This extraordinary soundtrack, featuring many of the finest jazz musicians this side of anywhere, is a collection of small ensemble and large band arrangements so perfectly indicative of its era. It’s beyond hip and runs the gamut from cool jazz to hard bop. Moreover, it authorized the virtuosic freedom of the best of New York’s jazz community. The swingingly cinematic score was commissioned for a Sexploitation classic entitled Satan in High Heels, the...

Across the history of jazz, there is no wilder, more future-forward composer and performer than Herman Poole Blount, aka Sun Ra. Known as much for his wild on-stage persona as his innovative compositions, Sun Ra was the avant-garde bleeding edge of the jazz genre, introducing modal composition and electronic instrumentation before almost anyone else -- not to mention bringing the space age to life with his obsession with all things extraterrestrial. Across more than 100 LPs released in his...

STELLAR GOOD VIBRATIONS FROM THE INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRO-THEREMIN! Light years ahead of its time, the eerie sound, colorful orchestral blending, and haunting melodies of Music For Heavenly Bodies has become a crate digging classic. America’s fascination with space and its mysteries was at a peak during the 1950s, and this astral awareness got the attention of professional musician, Paul Tanner. Tanner, a trombonist, got his start in the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. The theremin first...