Jazz

Legendary Surf/Funk/Psych soundtrack! Created by an incredible aggregation of California Music royalty–Rick Henn, Dennis and Daryl Dragon, plus other friends - this ultra-scarce, in-demand soundtrack for Hal Jepsen’s 1972 film A Sea For Yourself features an astounding journey of styles from funky, freeform workouts to homegrown, backporch rock to breezy, bossa-tinged instrumentals. A fine blend of surfing and music, the film put together the world’s best surfers practicing their art in France,...

Legendary Surf/Funk/Psych soundtrack! Created by an incredible aggregation of California Music royalty–Rick Henn, Dennis and Daryl Dragon, plus other friends - this ultra-scarce, in-demand soundtrack for Hal Jepsen’s 1972 film A Sea For Yourself features an astounding journey of styles from funky, freeform workouts to homegrown, backporch rock to breezy, bossa-tinged instrumentals. A fine blend of surfing and music, the film put together the world’s best surfers practicing their art in France,...

Heralded hip hi-fi from '57! Chet's 1957 masterpiece! A stunning collection showing his virtuosity and diverse repertoire aimed to satisfy both his core country fans and a pop audience--including the rendition of "Walk, Don't Run" that inspired a Washington quartet's iconic hit cover. Hi-Fi in Focus, from the original masters, pressed on premium RTI vinyl! The distinctive cover of Hi-Fi in Focus set it apart from the usual Chet Atkins LP. The modern abstract photo, meant to depict high...

Chet at home - In Living Stereo! The best-selling album of Chet's lengthy career! Having set up a home studio in the '50s, he would lay down backing tracks at RCA with session musicians, then work at home on his own with unlimited freedom to refine the genesis of Chet Atkins' Workshop! Pressed on premium RTI vinyl, from the original masters!The album reflected the continued diversity of his repertoire and ongoing flair for experimentation. Jazz standards like George Shearing's "Lullabye of...

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...

Jazz guitar autodidact and 1956 Downbeat Critics Poll winner Dick Garcia struts his stuff while the likes of Bill Evans, Gene Quill, and John Drew try to keep up! The combination of Bird, Christian and his own personality meld here in Dick’s own swinging style, delivering repertoire so diverse it required three different backing bands! Message From Garcia presents Dick in various contexts so as to give the listener an idea of his scope - the material is diversified in order to give Garcia and...

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...

A 60’s advertising innovator behind blending music & strategically placed sound effects! Featuring 12 sexed-up double entendre laced gems from 1962’s La Dolce Henke and bonus romp “77 Sunset Strip-per!” From the original 1962 tapes to your space age bachelor pad! Mel Henke was a guerrilla in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Think Ward Cleaver meets Hugh Hefner: an upstanding, tax-paying, white collar, tie-and-sports coat-wearing middle class, middle aged guy with the heart and mind of a...

Beats of mammoth stature and unusual orchestration combine in a holy grail of library music! A paragon of crate digger gold for lovers of both library music, and thick grooves, Nick Ingman’s percussion- laden Big Beat stays true to its name, with beats of mammoth stature and unusual orchestration. A soundtrack in search of a film,the tracks herein add funky grooves to post-big band soundscapes, with the spotlight fixed on the big, bold drums throughout the album. Reissued for the first time,...

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...

More unearthed tape from a jazz icon! This second volume of Jazz Mill recordings shows Barney firmly at the top of his game. Once again, Kessel and the Jazz Millers (pianist Pete Jolly, drummer Art Kile, and bassist Gene Stoffell) interpret a variety of standards from The Great American Songbook and each arrangement serves to demonstrate the group’s superb chops and collective creativity. In “Mean to Me,” a vintage standard from 1929, a high velocity rendition of Harold Arlen’s “Let’s Fall in...

More unearthed tape from a jazz icon! This second volume of Jazz Mill recordings shows Barney firmly at the top of his game. Once again, Kessel and the Jazz Millers (pianist Pete Jolly, drummer Art Kile, and bassist Gene Stoffell) interpret a variety of standards from The Great American Songbook and each arrangement serves to demonstrate the group’s superb chops and collective creativity. In “Mean to Me,” a vintage standard from 1929, a high velocity rendition of Harold Arlen’s “Let’s Fall in...

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! 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!Case file: A big band vocalist, a...

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! 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! Case file: A big band vocalist, a...

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...

AVANT JAZZ FROM MARSHALL ALLEN, FRED FRITH, TERRY RILEY & SCHOOLKIDS! The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra presents the odyssey of 4th, 5th & 6th grade students from novice musicians into an avant garde ensemble. An ensemble that engenders an array of sonic textures which never remain static or stagnant, but flow in a way that it's always surprising, often startling and astonishing. These schoolkids have traveled the spaceways of Modernism, Minimalism, Impressionism, Exotica, film...

AVANT JAZZ FROM MARSHALL ALLEN, FRED FRITH, TERRY RILEY & SCHOOLKIDS! The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra presents the odyssey of 4th, 5th & 6th grade students from novice musicians into an avant garde ensemble. An ensemble that engenders an array of sonic textures which never remain static or stagnant, but flow in a way that it's always surprising, often startling and astonishing. These schoolkids have traveled the spaceways of Modernism, Minimalism, Impressionism, Exotica, film...

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...

Soaked with the vibe and essence of New York City in the 1960s and seasoned with a rich variety of styles from breathy, beatnik pop to moody & magnificent jazz, folk and soul, the singles issued by Ranny Sinclair are uniformly brilliant, soft, sexy soundscapes--uncollected on a single album until now!Sinclair attended Juilliard as a dance major, but ultimately landed a singing contract with Columbia Records. Her issued discography features several tracks that were turntable hits of the era or...

Astro-Black mythology, astro-timeless immortality!Astro Black has long been known as a cornerstone of the Ra catalog. It is well recorded, features a superb Arkestral lineup, and successfully combines several of the styles in which Sun Ra orbited, from Saturnic jazz to astro-funk. And now it’s in the earthly bins on CD for the first time, with new cover art, and liner notes by Robert Campbell (author of The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra)!Although Astro Black was obviously professionally...

Astro-Black mythology, astro-timeless immortality! Astro Black has long been known as a cornerstone of the Ra catalog. It is well recorded, features a superb Arkestral lineup, and successfully combines several of the styles in which Sun Ra orbited, from Saturnic jazz to astro-funk. And now it’s finally back in the earthly bins! Pressed on colored vinyl, and packaged with new cover art, with liner notes by Robert Campbell (author of The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra), and includes a poster...

Available 11/23 exclusively through independent record storesSOLAR GUIDED IMPROVISATIONS OF UNBRIDLED CACOPHONY!Recorded in ’73 and rejected by tin-eared major label execs in ’75, Crystal Spears (or “Crystal Clear” as it appears on the tape box) subsumes a cathartic brawl between Minimoog and Yamaha combo organ, with percussionists providing tonal textures, and plaintive oboe colliding with roaring electronic keyboards over waves of rollicking marimba, devilishly chattering below the fray....

Available 11/23 exclusively through independent record storesSOLAR GUIDED IMPROVISATIONS OF UNBRIDLED CACOPHONY!Recorded in ’73 and rejected by tin-eared major label execs in ’75, Crystal Spears (or “Crystal Clear” as it appears on the tape box) subsumes a cathartic brawl between Minimoog and Yamaha combo organ, with percussionists providing tonal textures, and plaintive oboe colliding with roaring electronic keyboards over waves of rollicking marimba, devilishly chattering below the fray....

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...

Cymbals has finally landed… and brought a 2nd saucer with it!Originally recorded for the Impulse! jazz label in ’73, Cymbals is paired with a 2nd disc of unheard material from the same sessions. Hear Ra’s Baroque soundscapes, electrolytic clusters and dithering Moogs catalyze images of monoliths, space stations, computers malfunctioning and galaxies imploding on two compact saucers, with liner notes by known Ra-fficianado Brother Cleve!Making its debut here, the 2nd disc is culled from a...

Cymbals has finally landed… and brought a 2nd saucer with it!Originally recorded for the Impulse! jazz label in ’73, Cymbals makes its first legitimate release on vinyl, paired with a second LP of unheard material from the same sessions. Hear Ra’s Baroque soundscapes, electrolytic clusters and dithering Moogs catalyze images of monoliths, space stations, computers malfunctioning and galaxies imploding on pristine red and green vinyl with liner notes by known Ra-fficianado Brother Cleve! Making...

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...