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viewing 1 To 18 of 18 items
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12"
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OTR 020EP
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Enter your spaceship for a transatlantic meeting of minds as the legendary Kool Keith links up with We Are The Horsemen (Outernational Sounds head honcho Harvinder Singh Nagi and producer Sub One) and the great Kaidi Tatham for a future-jazz flavored trip through the great MC's London adventures. Kool Keith needs no introduction to hip-hop heads worldwide. As one of the greatest MCs ever to touch the mic, Keith has never stopped innovating and progressing. From his days in the seminal 1980s Bronx unit Ultramagnetic MCs, through his pioneering development of new conceptual characters and styles in the 1990s, to his continuous run of radically independent recordings in the 2000s and beyond, Kool Keith defines rap longevity and artistic originality. No one else in hip hop has a comparable record of continuous reinvention, conceptual boldness, and stylistic panache. And after four decades in rap, Keith is still one of the hardest working rappers in the game, perpetually seeking new sounds to spit on and new collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Fresh off the acclaim for his new Black Elvis 2 release, the protean MC has touched down on Outernational Sounds for a unique collab with We Are The Horsemen and Kaidi Tatham. London Is The Place finds Keith riding the Horsemen's atmospheric, break-toughened riddim and reaching back in time to drop kaleidoscopic, stream-of-consciousness impressions of the Ultramagnetic MCs infamous 1989 tour, before flashing forward to the present in order to namecheck Honest Jons Records, saxophone star Nubiya Garcia and master keyboardist and broken beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham, who contributes trademark jazz keys and bruk steez to the AA side remix. The 12" is closed out by a third version, the Horsemen's own "Kool Jazz Mix," bringing see-sawing organ stabs and a neck-snapping ultra-sampling hook. Kool Keith, Kaidi Tatham and We Are The Horsemen, taking it higher and overcoming the pressure with "music so progressive," to quote Keith himself.
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LP
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OTR 019LP
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Long sought-after by those in know, this essential Irish jazz album finally gets a vinyl reissue on Outernational Sounds. Fully licensed from producer John D'Ardis, remastered at Abbey Road from the original tapes, and with lacquers cut at Dubplates and Mastering, the Noel Kelehan Quintet's stunning 1979 Ozone is presented with unseen photographs of the band and commentary from original band members. Featuring moody, modal jazz of the first order, subtle and original composing and world-class playing, Ozone was the creation of Ireland's most respected jazz composer and musician, pianist Noel Kelehan (1935-2012). The only small-group album under his name, and arguably the first ever Irish jazz LP, Ozone was a landmark recording, but it was far from Kelehan's only achievement. Born in Dublin, Kelehan had studied music from an early age. From the mid-1950s he worked at state-broadcaster Radio Éireann, and from the early 1960s he fronted Dublin's first be-bop unit, the Jazz Heralds. A busy professional career saw him compose for numerous Irish pop stars, arrange and conduct many of Ireland's Eurovision entries, and even contribute string arrangements to U2's Unforgettable Fire LP. But jazz was Kelehan's first passion, and he never stopped playing in both small modernist units and composing for his own big band. The late 1970s saw him fronting the Noel Kelehan Quintet, alongside drummer John Wadham, saxophonist Keith Donald, bassist Frank Hess, and trumpeter Mick Nolan. Playing weekly in Dublin for several years, they opened for visiting stars including Dollar Brand and the Ronnie Scott Orchestra, and eventually played a two-week residency at Ronnie Scotts in London. Though Kelehan had recorded a big-band LP of traditional Irish songs arranged as easy jazz in 1970, Ozone was his first album of modern jazz. Released on John D'Ardis's independent Cargo imprint and press on blue vinyl, it featured original compositions such as the deep collectors cut "Spon Song," subtle Latin flavors on "Spacer's Delight" and a beautiful modal arrangement of the traditional Irish air "Castle of Dromore." A legendary recording in Ireland, Ozone reflected Kelehan's keen appreciation of classic quintet-era Miles, with touches of the cerebral fusion of Ian Carr and the arranging genius of Neil Ardley. Not just a landmark Irish jazz set, Ozone is a lost classic of European jazz more widely.
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LP
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OTR 017LP
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One of the rarest and most sought after South African recordings of the early 1970s, available again for the first time since its original South African release -- the swinging township groove of The Jazz Clan's 1973 debut LP, Dedication. One of the dozens of South African groups who styled themselves as "jazz dignitaries" -- like the Jazz Giants, the Jazz Ambassadors, or the Jazz Ministers, for instance -- their two widely separated studio albums for Gallo (Dedication and Makwenkwe, released in 1973 and 1976 respectively) are extremely hard to find. They may have left a small recorded footprint, but it was an impressive one, epitomized by their hard-swinging 1973 debut, Dedication -- a tough, swinging soul-jazz set with distinct African touches which is counted by those in the know as among the best South African jazz recordings of the era. The players that comprised the Jazz Clan were veterans. And they thought big -- their first incarnation during the 1960s had been as a 16-piece, and they had held down a residency at one of Nelson Mandela's regular haunts, the Planet Hotel in Fordsburg. The original leader, drummer Gordon "Micky" Mfandu, had been a regular on the Johannesburg jazz scene since the early 1960s and had recorded with figures including Gideon Nxumalo, and the famous Blue Notes; along with bassist Mongezi Velelo, he had also been a member of the revered Soul Giants unit. Baritone player Cornelius Khumalo had also played with Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes in the pit band of the musical play Mr Paljas, and had also recorded with township legend Zakes Nkosi. Also in the line-up, and handling most writing duties here, was the great trumpeter Peter Segona -- a quicksilver hornsman, Segona later sought exile in Europe, where he played with musical luminaries across the continent including Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Cymande, and Manu Dibango. By the 1970s, Mfandu was dead, murdered in Soweto, and the group had consolidated as a septet -- the late drummer is memorialized here on closer "Micky". South African jazz was moving toward electrified funk and bump, and the new township style of Dollar Brand was just around the corner. But Dedication captures the acoustic jazz sound of the early 1970s in its pomp -- a handful of tightly wound songs jostling for space, blending up-tempo soul-jazz sensibilities with Latin influences and pronounced township jazz accents, the latter especially audible in Dimpie Tshabalala's piano vamps, Jeff Mpete's pattering hi-hat emphases, and the unmistakably South African swagger and dip of the horns on cuts like "Rabothata". Transferred from the master tapes by Gallo in South Africa; Mastered for release by Dubplates & Mastering; Pressed at Pallas; Fully licensed from Gallo South Africa.
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LP
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OTR 018LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1979. The great South African tenorist Mike Makhamalele was a graduate of the key early-seventies group The Drive (alongside Bheki Mseleku and Kaya Mahlangu); and a mainstay of the scene centered on the Pelican nightclub in Soweto. From 1975, he began to record under his own name, developing a sophisticated fusion sound in a musical lane which few of his contemporaries were travelling. Always attuned to other global fashions in Black dance and pop music, under numerous studio aliases he cut 45rpm covers of Fela's "Shakara" and the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight"; and in 1979 he entered the Gallo studios with producer Peter Ceronio to respond to the ascendant sound of disco. Named after a township dance craze, Kabuzela was the result: four extended tracks of bouncing, upful disco jazz. Perfectly calibrated for dancing, heavy on the bass and drums, the album is set off by a gleaming centerpiece, "Disco Freaks" -- a joyous paean to the weekend and true lost gem of global disco, perfect for the most discerning dancefloors. Ultra-rare South African disco-jazz classic. Fully licensed. 180 gram, vinyl-only reissue.
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LP
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OTR 015LP
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Never released outside South Africa, and out of print since 1974, Outernational Sounds presents two long-lost Johannesburg sessions from the Mallory-Hall Band -- an all-star review of West Coast jazz stars who toured apartheid South Africa in the mid-1970s. During a storied career stretching across six decades, Sanifu Al Hall, Jnr. has recorded with the greats of the music including Freddie Hubbard, Doug Carn, and Johnny Hammond, and leads his own Cosmos Dwellerz Arkestra. But until recent years, the only records on which he had appeared as leader were a brace of rich, funky LPs, Song Of Soweto and The Last Special, issued only in South Africa under the moniker of The Mallory-Hall Band (named for Hall and his co-leader, guitarist Charles Mallory).
Al Hall, Jnr. and Charles Mallory arrived in South Africa as part of the touring band for the singer Lovelace Watkins. Sometimes billed as "the Black Sinatra", the Detroit-born Watkins sang standards and ballroom classics on the Las Vegas circuit. In 1974, he hired a jazz big band to accompany him on a tour of South Africa -- Hall and Mallory were part of the line-up, alongside Mastersounds bassist Monk Montgomery, pianist Kirk Lightsey, tenorist Rudolph Johnson, drummer Billy Brooks, and Marshall Royal, musical director of the Count Basie band. During downtime from performing, members of the group managed to independently record no fewer than three albums. Lightsey and Johnson's stunning Habiba was the first (OTR 013LP), and it was followed by two crucial sessions led by Hall and Mallory -- Song Of Soweto and The Last Special, issued on the local IRC imprint. The albums were recorded by a twelve-piece band at Johannesburg's Video Sounds Studios in December 1974, and feature the legendary pianist Kirk Lightsey, Black Jazz recording artist Rudolph Johnson, and the rest of the touring band. Both records are superbly arranged slabs of peak 1970s funky big band soul jazz, with tasteful Latin inflections and more than a nod to South Africa's upful township jazz sound. They are the sonic traces left by a seasoned African American band who were touring South Africa in the depths of the apartheid era, and who immediately moved beyond the segregated hotels and ballrooms to build links with local South African players and audiences. Fully licensed from Gallo Records and pressed at Pallas in Germany from Gallo's original masters, they feature new sleeve notes from Francis Gooding (The Wire) based on interviews with Al Hall Jr. and a reminiscence from pianist Kirk Lightsey.
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LP
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OTR 016LP
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Never released outside South Africa, and out of print since 1974, Outernational Sounds presents two long-lost Johannesburg sessions from the Mallory-Hall Band -- an all-star review of West Coast jazz stars who toured apartheid South Africa in the mid-1970s. During a storied career stretching across six decades, Sanifu Al Hall, Jnr. has recorded with the greats of the music including Freddie Hubbard, Doug Carn, and Johnny Hammond, and leads his own Cosmos Dwellerz Arkestra. But until recent years, the only records on which he had appeared as leader were a brace of rich, funky LPs, Song Of Soweto and The Last Special, issued only in South Africa under the moniker of The Mallory-Hall Band (named for Hall and his co-leader, guitarist Charles Mallory).
Al Hall, Jnr. and Charles Mallory arrived in South Africa as part of the touring band for the singer Lovelace Watkins. Sometimes billed as "the Black Sinatra", the Detroit-born Watkins sang standards and ballroom classics on the Las Vegas circuit. In 1974, he hired a jazz big band to accompany him on a tour of South Africa -- Hall and Mallory were part of the line-up, alongside Mastersounds bassist Monk Montgomery, pianist Kirk Lightsey, tenorist Rudolph Johnson, drummer Billy Brooks, and Marshall Royal, musical director of the Count Basie band. During downtime from performing, members of the group managed to independently record no fewer than three albums. Lightsey and Johnson's stunning Habiba was the first (OTR 013LP), and it was followed by two crucial sessions led by Hall and Mallory -- Song Of Soweto and The Last Special, issued on the local IRC imprint. The albums were recorded by a twelve-piece band at Johannesburg's Video Sounds Studios in December 1974, and feature the legendary pianist Kirk Lightsey, Black Jazz recording artist Rudolph Johnson, and the rest of the touring band. Both records are superbly arranged slabs of peak 1970s funky big band soul jazz, with tasteful Latin inflections and more than a nod to South Africa's upful township jazz sound. They are the sonic traces left by a seasoned African American band who were touring South Africa in the depths of the apartheid era, and who immediately moved beyond the segregated hotels and ballrooms to build links with local South African players and audiences. Fully licensed from Gallo Records and pressed at Pallas in Germany from Gallo's original masters, they feature new sleeve notes from Francis Gooding (The Wire) based on interviews with Al Hall Jr. and a reminiscence from pianist Kirk Lightsey.
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LP
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OTR 012LP
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Available again for the first time since original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the deepest custom press jazz recordings of all: Jaman's spiritualized and funky Sweet Heritage. The history of jazz is often told as though it was principally a history of releases and recordings. On those terms, it's easy to mistake a small recorded footprint for obscurity or silence. The true history of the jazz is the story of the music as it was played night after night in the clubs, bars, concert halls, and backrooms of cities and towns across America and the world. Only a tiny fraction of this living tradition ever makes it onto a recording. And even though 1974's Sweet Heritage is James Edward Manuel's only release, the pianist and educator better known as Jaman has undoubtedly lived it. Brought up in Buffalo, New York, Jaman studied classical piano before beginning formal jazz studies under greats including Earl Bostic and Horace Parlan. Quickly becoming a respected regular on the club scene in Buffalo, Jaman held down innumerable residencies and worked with top local musicians -- one of his early trios included the renowned bassist John Heard and drummer Clarence Becton, both of whom were poached one night by a visiting Jon Hendricks; sometime Sun Ra Arkestra bassist, Juini Booth, and regular Ahmad Jamal sideman, Sabu Adeyola (also of Kamal & The Brothers), have graced his groups too. At famous night spots all over Buffalo's East Side and on excursions to Manhattan's storied jazz clubs, Jaman has shared the stage with some of the most illustrious names in jazz and blues: Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, Joe Henderson, Ruth Brown, Frank Morgan, Woody Shaw, Sonny Stitt, and many others. His eponymous group, Jaman, was formed in 1970; they toured the US and Canada steadily. He became one of Buffalo's true jazz stalwarts, and so he remains. But despite a life lived deep within the music, Jaman only recorded a single LP, 1974's Sweet Heritage. Pressed in tiny quantities by the Mark Records custom service, Sweet Heritage featured the regular Jaman group playing a mixture of covers and originals. The whole LP showcases an ensemble in complete control, and with the flying, spiritual sound of "Free Will" and the Latin-tinged "In The Fall of The Year" -- both Jaman originals -- the album has since become a legendary collector's classic. 180 gram vinyl.
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LP
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OTR 011LP
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2022 repress. Outernational Sounds present a reissue of Nate Morgan's Retribution, Reparation, originally released on Nimbus West Records in 1984. A core member of the circle around Horace Tapscott, pianist Nate Morgan was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra, known as The Ark. Here is the second of his two LPs for Nimbus West. His first, Journey Into Nigritia (OTR 008LP) had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, in 1984, with nods to Herbie Hancock ("One Finger Snap") and Ellington ("Come Sunday"), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist Black nationalism, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the sound world of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualized modal jazz. Danny Cortez on trumpet and Jesse Sharps on saxophones comprise an explosive frontline. Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan's forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos bind the music together. From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott's U.G.M.A.A. organization, through the propulsive militancy of the title track, "Retribution, Reparation" spreads the word: "Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!" Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
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LP
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OTR 008LP
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Outernational Sounds present the first legitimate vinyl reissue of Nate Morgan's Journey Into Nigritia, originally release in 1983. A major statement from a crucial figure on the Los Angeles jazz underground -- Journey Into Nigritia is pianist Nate Morgan's spiritualized deep jazz classic. How many 16-year-olds would have the confidence to walk up to a revered bandleader at a gig, and inform him that one day they'd be playing together? As improbable as it sounds, this is how pianist Nate Morgan introduced himself to the great Horace Tapscott, founder of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The teenage Morgan had heard Tapscott's Flying Dutchman LP The Giant Is Awakened (1969) being played by Greg Kufahamu on local Los Angeles radio station KUSC, and Arthur Blythe's wailing sax had gone straight to the heart. Morgan showed up to all the Arkestra shows he could find. He was already studying with Joe Sample and Hampton Hawes and playing in local bands, but the draw of the Tapscott's band was too much for the gifted young pianist: "I could only take about two or three more concerts before I had to run up on stage. When I first introduced myself to Horace, he tells everybody that I said, 'Yeah, I'm Nate Morgan. I'm going to play with you all.' Not that I want to, but that I'm going to." Over the next decade and beyond, Morgan would become a central figure in Tapscott's UGMAA (Union Of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension), bringing new figures into the fold (like Jesse Sharps), running jam sessions, and eventually being given the task of organizing the Arkestra songbook. During the early 1970s he also worked commercially, doing a stint with Rufus and Chaka Khan and appearing on Willie Hutch's Foxy Brown soundtrack (1974). Into the 1980s and 1990s he remained active, keeping the UGMAA flame alive and working tirelessly around LA, including collaborations with Bone Thugs N' Harmony; he was also part of the early 2000s LA jazz collective Build An Ark. A true musician's musician, Morgan died in 2013. Journey Into Nigritia, featuring fire-breathing reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, was the first of two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach's storied Nimbus West imprint. A committed, spiritualized work that showcases Morgan's heavy composing as well as his McCoy Tyner-influenced and technically flawless playing, Journey features dedications to Coltrane ("He Left Us A Song") and Cecil Taylor ("Study In C.T."). Surging, modal jazz from the LA underground, Journey Into Nigritia is a crucial recording by an unsung jazz legend. Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
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7"
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OTR 006EP
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Disco beat stepper from Sharon's super sexy disco mischief on a love-to-love summer beat, followed by Usha's 24-carat version excursion from way out East on a "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" back beat. Super disco, heavy duty. Individually hand-numbered 45. Floor fillers with an Outernational twist.
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7"
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OTR 003EP
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Sensational early-seventies funk bomb by Muhavishla Ravi Hatchud and The Indo Jazz Following. Super-rough organ funk, like a dream combination of Mingus, Jimmy Smith, and Zigaboo Modeliste from The Meters -- plus Ravi's ramped-up sitar, like a tripping, undercover Bo Diddley. The first in a new series of Outernational 45s. Limited edition, numbered.
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2LP
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OTR 010LP
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2022 restock. Outernational Sounds presents a cornerstone document from the Los Angeles jazz underground, Flight 17 -- the first appearance on record of the legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, led by their founder and mastermind, Horace Tapscott. Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years. The Arkestra would allow the creativity in the community to come together, would allow people to recognize each other as one people. Horace Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. If P.A.P.A. doesn't have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn't ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there's a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn't record doesn't count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn't record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern -- they weren't about that. First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project. From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But they never released a note of music. It was the intervention of fan Tom Albach that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. From the surging avant-gardism of Herbie Baker's title track to the laidback summertime groove of Kamonta Lawrence Polk's "Maui", or Roberto Miranda's up-tempo Latin jam "Horacio", Flight 17 showcased the radical voices of the Arkestra's members. Led out by Tapscott's hard-swinging piano, this is the first flight on wax of the West Coasts' foundational community big band -- energized, hip, and together. Contains two tracks previously only available on the 1997 CD edition: "Coltrane Medley" and "Village Dance", recorded live at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. 180 gram vinyl pressing by Pallas. Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
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2LP
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OTR 005LP
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Outernational Sounds presents a Nimbus West spirit jazz essential: the Creative Arts Ensemble's classic debut One Step Out. This release features all tracks at full length for the first time on wax. One of the most sought after and highly-regarded titles to have appeared on Tom Albach's celebrated Nimbus West imprint, One Step Out is a timeless work of spiritualized jazz. A true gem from the Los Angeles jazz underground, the album was pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali's first recording as leader of the Creative Arts Ensemble, the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott's legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra community jazz group. A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was introduced to the Tapscott circle in the late 1970s. His first experience of the Arkestra's ethos was through PAPA tenorist Michael Session, who took him to the famous "Great House" at 2412 South Western Ave., LA -- a large mansion house which members of the Arkestra had taken over as a space for communal living. Life in the Great House was a continuous stream of music, dance and community events. "When I walked in there," recalled Kaeef, "it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door -- It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with 'Flashback Of Time', and that was my first arrangement." Kaeef quickly became a significant contributor of compositions to the Arkestra's songbook -- his piece "New Horizon" would be recorded by Horace Tapscott for the latter's Tapscott Sessions series. But "Flashback Of Time" would eventually appear on One Step Out, played by the new group he had put together from stalwart Arkestra members. Inspired by both Tapscott's example and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef had wanted to follow their lead by assembling a larger unit. Featuring seasoned Arkestra regulars including reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, drummer Woody "Sonship" Theus and altoist Gary Bias, with veterans Henry "The Skipper" Franklin on bass and George Bohannon on trombone, One Step Out is a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground. Featuring the sanctified vocals of Kaeef's sister, B. J. Crowley, the album is a tour de force of spiritually energized independent jazz music. On vinyl for the first time since 1981. 180 gram vinyl, mastered at 45rpm for enhanced sound; Fully licensed from Tom Albach.
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2LP
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OTR 004LP
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Issued on vinyl for the first time, Outernational Sounds presents a monumental spirit music document from the Los Angeles underground -- Jesse Sharp's slept-on deep jazz classic Sharps And Flats. "He became the Ark leader -- he was hardcore. They'd all be quiet and listen to him when he talked" --Horace Tapscott, on Jesse Sharps. You could be forgiven for not knowing how important saxophonist, bandleader, and composer Jesse Sharps is. After all, the only album to come out under his name, Sharps And Flats, was recorded in 1985, and wasn't issued on CD until 2004. But despite this seemingly small recorded footprint, Jesse Sharps is a major figure in the history of jazz music in Los Angeles. As the bandleader for Horace Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) -- the Marshall Allen to Tapscott's Sun Ra -- he led Tapscott's seminal music community through its most cohesive phase. And, after a hiatus living in Europe, his return to Los Angeles in the 2000s saw him build a new group, The Gathering, which linked original heads including acclaimed singer Dwight Trible and legendary trombonist Phil Ranelin with a new generation of LA jazz voices, including none other than Kamasi Washington. Sharps has been around, and he's made an indelible mark. At college, Sharps studied under Cecil Taylor. When he came back to LA he rejoined the Arkestra on flute and reeds, and eventually took over band-leading duties from the great altoist Arthur Blythe. Trusted completely by Tapscott, as bandleader Sharps turned the Arkestra into a well-drilled unit. This was the time of the classic P.A.P.A. recordings, 1978's Flight 17 (OTR 010LP), Live at I.U.C.C. (1979), and The Call (1978), and Sharps also wrote for the band. The funky, deep spirituality of compositions like "Desert Fairy Princess", "Macramé", and "Peyote Song III" has made his tunes among most celebrated in the whole P.A.P.A. catalog. Sharps And Flats was recorded in 1985 for Tom Albach's legendary Nimbus West imprint, a label Albach had founded specifically to document the work of Horace Tapscott and his circle. Featuring a quintet of P.A.P.A. regulars at the height of their game, Sharps And Flats is one of the great lost Nimbus sessions -- it lay unissued until 2004, and never saw a vinyl press. A lost classic of the LA underground, on wax at last!
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LP
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OTR 009LP
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2022 restock. Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds presents Horace Tapscott's burning, spiritualized 1978 set, The Call. One of the unsung giants of jazz music, the composer, bandleader, arranger, pianist and community activist Tapscott was the undisputed keystone of the grassroots Los Angeles jazz scene. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his radical community arts and music formations the UGMA (Underground Musicians Association) and his protean big band, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, were at the epicenter of music, culture, and politics in the Los Angeles area. Hundreds of musicians passed through these groups and played their part. Major figures such as Arthur Blythe, Azar Lawrence, Jimmy Woods, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Sonny Criss, Ndugu Chancler, and dozens of others all paid dues or just got down with Tapscott, not to mention the core Arkestra regulars who have since become celebrated names; Nate Morgan, Jesse Sharps, Adele Sebastian, Dadisi Komolafe, and Gary Bias, to mention only a few. Tapscott and the Arkestra were down on the ground -- playing fundraisers in parks and streets, organizing teach-ins and workshops for young and old, mixing it with radical theater groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups, and churches. As a result of this grassroots community focus and Tapscott's antipathy to the music industry, the Arkestra didn't record for nearly two decades. That only changed when long-time jazz fan Tom Albach started Nimbus Records. The label was initiated specifically in order to document Tapscott and his circle, and the first three records showcased Horace and the Arkestra. The Call was put together from two studio sessions in April 1978, one at Hollywood Sage and Sound, and one at United Western -- the latter session had the addition of a string section, who can be heard on the moody Cal Massey composition "Nakatini Suite" and Jesse Sharp's swinging modal trip, "Peyote Song No. III," with its swirling soprano solo. In keeping with the communal nature of the Arkestra, the other two compositions, "The Call" and "Quagmire Manor at Five A.M." are also by Arkestra members. But at the center of the music is the builder of the Ark, the visionary whose original call to action started a movement whose legacy continues to this day -- Horace Tapscott. Vinyl-only release, 180 gram pressing by Pallas, fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
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3LP
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OTR 007LP
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2022 restock. Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds presents a crucial document from the Los Angeles jazz underground. Live At I.U.C.C. sees the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra at their most together, stretching out on home turf in 1979, with the legendary Horace Tapscott at the helm. Tapscott is one of the unsung giants of jazz; a gifted composer and arranger, a boldly original pianist, and above all a visionary bandleader, Tapscott's recorded footprint is small, but his legacy continues to vibrate through the Los Angeles music underground. From Freestyle Fellowship to Build An Ark, Kamasi Washington, and Dwight Trible, it all traces back to Tapscott. The pianist was an organizer, and instead of chasing a successful recording career, he wanted to build a community band that would act as 'a cultural safe house for the music.' 'I wanted to say, "This is your music. This is black music, and I want to present a panorama of the whole thing right here"' said Tapscott in the late 1990s. As a culturally radical, communal big band with a visionary approach to American Black music, Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is second only to the other famous Arkestra, that of Sun Ra. Tapscott founded the group in 1961 as the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA). It changed its name to the Pan African Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and through the seventies the players lived, played, and worked together. Community work and political consciousness were at the heart of the project; for two decades they played in streets, parks, and coffee houses. From 1973 to 1981 their main rehearsal and concert space was the Immanuel United Church of Christ (I.U.C.C.); the Arkestra played every second Sunday, developing their sound and hipping new audiences to their vision. Live At I.U.C.C., recorded in early 1979, was the only live recording the band released. In full flow, and at the height of their powers, the group features original UGMA members Linda Hill, David Bryant, and Alan Hines, alongside a new generation including Jesse Sharps, Sabir Mateen, and Adele Sebastian. Showcasing spiritualized classics from the Arkestra's songbook, including the heavy modal groovers "Desert Fairy Princess" and "Macrame." Live At I.U.C.C. is a rare chance to hear one of the most important, foundational bands in the music. With Tapscott at the piano, this is the rarely-captured sound of the mothership in full flight! Limited, vinyl-only triple LP, 180g pressing by Pallas. Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
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OTR 002LP
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Outernational Sounds present a reissue of Jeff Resnick's SAC ("School Of American Craftsman"), originally released in 1978. Organically funky, laced with avant-garde synth textures, and studded with breakbeats, the second release on Outernational Sounds is Jeff Resnick's unique, ultra-rare, 1978 promotional recording for the School for American Craftsmen, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Five tracks of soul jazz and modal fusion -- re-modeling Trane, and opening with a variation of "Norwegian Wood" -- by a local group including trumpeter Jeff Tyzik and pianist Sonny Kompanek; then Resnick mostly solo for the second side, when the money ran out, multi-tracking synthesizers on his home set-up, in an engrossing blend of reflective abstraction, grooving electro and spiritualized fourth-world tropicalism.
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OTR 001LP
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2022 repress. Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity; a collectors' holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent. Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D'Silva, John Mayer, and Joe Harriott, Raga Jazz Style takes the melodic, scale-based raga system of Indian classical music and marries it with a swinging jazz rhythm section assembled by Bollywood's most highly acclaimed musical directors, the soundtrack composing duo Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal. Singh and Panchal were a dominant force in Hindi film music from the late 1940s onwards. Shankar had been trained in classical tabla, while Jaikishan was an expert harmonium player. They worked together on well over a hundred films, and their innovative compositions and orchestral scoring revolutionized the music of the nascent Bollywood industry. Central to their sound was regular collaborator Sebastian D'Souza. Originally from Goa, D'Souza had cut his teeth in the dance-band era, arranging and playing with his uncle's jazz bands in Lahore and Quetta. After Partition, he had moved to Bombay to follow the reliable work provided by the film industry, where Goan musicians had become the mainstay of Bollywood's film studio orchestras. Goans were also the core of Bombay's thriving dance-hall and hotel-based jazz scene, with artists including saxophonist Braz Gonsalves, guitarist Amancio D'Silva and trumpeter Chic Chocolate all working in the city during the post-war years. The team assembled for Raga Jazz Style were drawn from this inventive and forward-thinking milieu. Pianist Lucilla Pacheco, saxophonist Manohari Singh, and guitarist Anibal Castro were all fixtures on the Bombay jazz circuit, while drummer Leslie Godinho is reputed to have taught Joe Morello the 5/4 "Take Five" beat when they jammed together during Dave Brubeck's State Department tour of India. To this jazz backbone was added the sitar of Ustad Rais Khan, scion of long line of classical instrumentalists, and nephew of the renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan. Bombay's jazz modernists had been experimenting with the fusion of ragas and jazz since the 1950s, long before American or British jazz musicians had tuned in to Indian classical music. But very little of this exciting scene was ever captured on record. Reissued using the original masters. Facsimile artwork; 180 gram vinyl pressed at Pallas, in Germany.
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