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viewing 1 To 3 of 3 items
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3LP
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ACTLP 9242LP
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$37.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/7/2023
"When Bernard Purdie is not helping some big star the likes of Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, Donny Hathaway and B.B. King to create a fantastic studio sound, the drummer pursues his own projects such as Soul to Jazz, two albums he recorded in 1996 and 1997. Released on CD back then (and now out of print), the two recordings have a cult factor today and sound as fresh as they did back then. Now both albums are released together for the first time as a 3LP set. These recordings are peppered with lots of prominent star guests from jazz and soul, from Eddie Harris, Michael Brecker and Nils Landgren to Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine and Cornell Dupree. Purdie's Soul to Jazz project takes two different approaches: The first part focuses on the renowned WDR Big Band led by Gil Goldstein. Soul classics such as Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition', 'When a Man Loves a Woman', Eddie Harris' 'Freedom Jazz Dance' and Lee Morgan's famous groove tune 'Sidewinder' are interpreted in large-scale sound. One discovery of these recordings amidst all the renowned guest soloists is the New York-born singer Martin Moss. The great success of this first album released under Soul to Jazz led to Soul to Jazz II, a more intimate record, but one that picks up where the first recording left off by exploring similar themes. Again, Purdie has called together a notable band of kindred spirits, including saxophonists Hank Crawford (B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner, Ray Charles), Stanley Turrentine (Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott) and Vincent Herring, as well as guitarist Cornell Dupree (King Curtis) to pianists Benny Green and Junior Mance. Bernard Purdie's Soul to Jazz is a timeless classic and a blueprint of the soul-jazz genre in all its facets. Above all, it is a portrait of one of the most influential and best drummers in the world, who made jazz groove with his inimitable funky soul beat."
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LP
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ACTLP 9664LP
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"100 Years of Ligeti: Improvisations inspired by György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes. French soprano saxophonist supreme, Emile Parisien and Italian pianist Roberto Negro -- widely considered to be one of the most exciting pianists in Europe, on account of his own projects and his collaboration with the Ceccaldi brothers -- now team up as a duo. Métanuits is a fascinating endeavour: a wonderful piece of craftsmanship in which everything seems to interlock. There is high-wire virtuosic playing, exploration of all the tonal possibilities of the instruments by both players. Tempi tend to be on the fast side: (with the indications on the sections 'allegro', 'presto' or 'prestissimo' setting the pace), but with a 'largo' to catch breath at the end. There is also a surprising lyrical warmth, as the pair follow each other through constantly changing re-framings of the the-me, which as is re-heard takes on an irresistible expressiveness." 'The overlaps between classical music and jazz are particularly close to my heart. The boundaries between these genres no longer have to exist' is Roberto Negro's view. And this is something he and Emile Parisien prove through the natural flow and the surprising approachability of Les Métanuits. In their homage to Ligeti, they don't even bother with the historicizing conventions and barriers of an old, abstract or arcane avant-garde. Instead, they let this beguilingly contemporary music resound -- and reveal its astonishing communicative strengths."
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CD
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ACT 9970CD
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"Catching Ghosts by revered, iconoclastic 81-year-old reedist Peter Brötzmann with Moroccan Gnaoua adept Majid Bekkas playing two-stringed, camelskin-backed guembre and Chicago-bred drummer Hamid Drake, proves that 'free' spontaneous interactions deriving power from age-old traditions can transcend cultural lines. Improvising on incantations from Gnaoua liturgy, Brötzmann's horn cries as summons and statement; Drake's drums awaken inner impulses; Bekkas' strings, plucked and strummed, tie it all together, and his voice brings the song home. But this is no lucky success: The music is vital due to its players' career-long practice, their knowledge of heritage, and belief the past must always be reinterpreted, renewed. American jazz giants have jammed with Gnaouans, but for Brötzmann, Europe's exemplar of unfettered blowing, to grapple with such material is to hear a new synthesis. 'My approach is get in and disturb these themes, so other things happen,' he explains. 'I'm not thinking about scales or harmonies. I follow Bekkas, and when he changes, I do something against it to make the music interesting to me. The dialectic is a good way to make something new, out of tension. I need that in any sort of playing.' Bekkas aligns himself with Brötzmann, championing the revival of Gnaouan culture, which originates in the uneasy history of freed Black slaves integrating with Moroccan Islamic society. The music relates to American blues, as Bekkas knows. Drake orchestrates the open format, making drama from grooves so each track of Catching Ghosts tells its own story, signifying meaning though it be pre-linguistic. That suits Brötzmann's adjustment of his signature style. 'I don't have to play all high energy anymore,' says the German who shook up the jazz world in 1968 with his album Machine Gun. 'Now I'm more interest in dynamics and sound.' Those tangible qualities universalize the challenge of Catching Ghosts."
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