C. S. Vass

Charles Earland - In Concert: At The Montreux Jazz Festival and The Lighthouse (1972-1974) {Pestige PRCD-24267-2 rel 2002}
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© 1972-74, 2002 Prestige / Fantasy | PRCD-24267-2
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Organ Hammond B-3

This two-fer CD pairs 1972's Live at the Lighthouse with the less impressive, though still worthy, 1974 album Kharma, which was recorded at that year's Montreux Jazz Festival. As the head of a sextet on Live at the Lighthouse, Earland spearheaded some first-class soul-jazz, which integrated some funk and rock of the early '70s without sounding like a watered-down cocktail of all those styles (as many other soul-jazz-pop albums of the time did). The horn section of James Vass on sax and Elmer Coles on trumpet leaned more toward soul than jazz, as heard on the opening instrumental cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Smilin'." The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" wasn't the greatest tune to attempt, though Earland gamely put it into a boppish swing arrangement.

Woody Shaw - The Complete CBS Studio Recordings of Woody Shaw (1992) {3CD Set Mosaic MD3-142 rec 1977-1981}
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© 1977-81, 1992 Mosaic Records / CBS / Columbia | MD3-142
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Trumpet

The bulk of Shaw's great sessions were recorded for independent labels (Muse & Contemporary,) ensuring them widespread critical evaluation but little audience except with the hardcore faithful. Things seemed about to change in the late '70s when Miles Davis suggested to Columbia that they record Shaw's group. They actually took his suggestion and signed Shaw. He issued a string of remarkable but low-selling records, and Columbia cut him loose after four years and four albums. They compounded the crime by deleting the records shortly after Shaw departed. Mosaic has corrected that slight with another of their marvelously produced and comprehensively notated and packaged box sets. This three-disc collection covers Shaw's Columbia sessions. While it is sad that Shaw's stay at Columbia was not more personally beneficial, it was quite musically productive.

Rashied Ali - New York Ain't So Bad: Ali Plays the Blues (1975) {Knit Classics KCR-3025 rel 1999}
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© 1975, 1999 Knit Classics / Survival Records | KCR-3025
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Drums

From the first in a series of obscure reissues by the Knitting Factory label, this Rashied Ali-led session from 1975 is exactly what it says it is, a blues date featuring the unusual, deep soul vocals of Royal Blue, who comes off styling his blues from the T-Bone Walker school of Texas blues crossed with the voiced passion of a Big Joe Turner and the clarity of speech that comes from Joe Williams with Count Basie. The Rashied Ali Quintet is the backing band, which featured Charles Eubanks on piano (and he is a truly amazing blues pianist), James Vass on alto sax and flute, Benny Wilson on bass, Marvin Blackman on tenor and flute, and, of course, Ali on drums.

Bass, the final frontier. Anyone who has taken a moment to study the low frequencies cannot help but notice a philosophical bent that many of its finest exponents take on. Cats like Victor Wooten, Kai Eckhardt, and Jonas Hellborg are just a few of the players at the vanguard of music introspection—low plains drifters, if you will. With the release of his third album Unknown Angels, Tony Grey continues his foray into the company. Known for his gorgeous tones and textures (not to mention his chops galore backing up the blazing Hiromi Uehara), on Unknown Angels Grey offers up a series of meditative and introspective compositions featuring Indian maestros U.Srinivas and Selvaganesh.

Andrew Hill - Blue Black (1975) {2015 DSD Japan East Wind Masters Collection 1000 UCCJ-9159}
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© 1975, 2015 East Wind Music / Universal Japan | UCCJ-9159
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

Reissue with the latest DSD remastering. A really great session from pianist Andrew Hill – and one of his few post-Blue Note sessions to feature a horn player! The style of the set draws from a few strands of Hill's career – in that Hill is playing in some freely exploratory piano modes, yet also manages to swing soulfully with the rest of the group, especially sax player Jimmy Vass – who makes a rare appearance here on soprano, alto, and flute. In a way, the album probably most closely resembles the Andrew LP on Blue Note – which is great by us, as it's one of his best sets! Titles include "One For", "Remnants", "Blue Black", and "Golden Spook".

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written literary text in Middle Eastern/Western cultural history, predates the Hebrew Bible. The epic relates the story of King Gilgamesh, partly divine, partly human, who may have existed historically circa 2800 BC. From immature youth and a belief in his immortality, he eventually comes to accept the power and reality of Death. The Resurrection of the Soldiers for string orchestra was commissioned by George Vass, to whom it is dedicated, and the English Symphony Orchestra.

The two albums by Pythagoras sound totally different and a bit simple but very tasteful: the first is cosmic oriented synthesizer music and their second is a wonderful blend of some spacey synthesizer - and classical music with bombastic symphonic rock featuring Arjen Lucassen (who later got fame with his Ayreon project) delivering a Gilmourian guitar solo and Michel Van Wassem (who recently plays in the new Plackband line-up) with some majestic Mellotron eruptions.

10 CD box set, a massive volume of Rockabilly, Country and Hillbilly classics and rarities. Most of the songs never made it to the charts, yet the music contained herein is sensational - 200 tracks!