Elektra Musician

Master of the Art is the studio companion to the album Night Music, also reissued on Wounded Bird records from the original Elektra Musician masters, with the same band as on the live date, but with completely different songs and a short interview from the trumpeter. At a time when Shaw was one of the most consistently brilliant trumpeter's of the modern era, this effort did nothing to hurt that estimable reputation. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and trombonist Steve Turre being on the front line made for an arresting sound, while the emerging pianist Mulgrew Miller was asserting himself as a major force, with drummer Stafford James and drummer Tony Reedus sounding like they had worked together for decades. The four tracks include here are quite lengthy, allowing for stretched melody lines and beefy solos, showing the inventiveness and stamina of this mighty sextet.

Recorded in 1982 by Jeffrey Weber and arranger Allyn Ferguson, this live to two-track digital set showcases Freddie Hubbard in the company of two large bands - one a brass group, the other a string orchestra - both of which feature the same rhythm section. Ferguson wrote three tunes for the session, including the funky "Hubbard's Cupboard" and "Two Moods for Freddie" (which shifts gears from elegant and nocturnal to finger-popping contemporary electric jazz in the course of a couple of minutes); this pair opens and closes the album. The cover of Joe Zawinul's "Birdland" is reverent but swinging, and Hubbard's lone composition here, "Bridgitte," is a beautiful ballad that showcases the strings and Dan Ferguson's sweetly singing electric guitar and opens up into a midtempo groover…

Bread was one of the most popular pop groups of the early 1970s, earning a string of well-crafted, melodic soft rock singles, all of which were written by keyboardist/vocalist David Gates. A session musician and producer, Gates met in 1968 guitarist/vocalist James Griffin, who had already released a solo album called Summer Holiday. Griffin hired Gates to produce a new album, and the pair soon became a group, adding guitarist/vocalist Robb Royer from the band Pleasure Fair, whom Gates had produced early in their career. The trio soon signed with Elektra Records, becoming one of the label's first pop bands. Naming themselves Bread, the group released their self-titled debut album in late 1968. Although it was filled with accessible, melodic soft rock that became the band's signature sound, the record had no hit singles.

After she mixed post-bop, soul-jazz, and jazz-funk with nimble ingenuity over three albums for the Prestige label, Patrice Rushen moved to Elektra, and with labelmates Donald Byrd, Lenny White, and Dee Dee Bridgewater extended the imprint's commercial reach while continuing to obscure the distinctions between jazz and R&B. Elektra VP Don Mizell promoted the term jazz fusion. Musician James Mtume referred to his similar approach as sophisti-funk. Whatever the category, Rushen was in the top tier. She continually moved forward as a keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and producer with the five LPs – Patrice and Pizzazz, which hit the Top Ten of the jazz chart, followed by Posh and the Top Ten R&B albums Straight from the Heart and Now – expanded and gathered for this boxed set.

Phil Ochs - There But For Fortune (1989) {Elektra 60832-2 rec 1964-1966}
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© 1964-66, 1989 Elektra / Asylum Records | 60832-2
Folk / Folk Rock / Political Folk / Singer-Songwriter

It's often difficult to create a compilation album that does a musician justice when they recorded for more than one label, and this is certainly the case with Phil Ochs. Ochs' first three albums for Elektra were the work of a gifted but earnest topical songwriter armed with an acoustic guitar, while the five albums that followed for A&M found Ochs exploring both personal as well as political issues, and broadening his musical approach. Unfortunately, outside of the three-disc box set Farewells & Fantasies and the out of print double-LP collection Chords of Fame, none of the many Ochs compilations that have emerged have featured material from both periods of his recording career, and There but for Fortune devotes itself strictly to Ochs' Elektra recordings, with a special emphasis on his best known political songs.

Desire is an album by jazz musician Tom Scott, recorded live to two tracks on June 30 and July 1, 1982 in Hollywood. Billboard magazine called it "predictably broad-based fusion, with nods to contemporary black, pop and rock instrumental styles.