In Gemini

It's a hard task for a band to stand out from the crowd, especially when the crowd it's attempting to distinguish itself from is a generally homogeneous musical mess of youth-sized T-shirts, strained vocal melodies, and driving chord progressions. But sometimes, for whatever reason, doing things not so differently than everyone else just works…

GEMINI marks Macklemore’s first solo project in 12 years, following two releases with producer Ryan Lewis including the multiple-GRAMMY award winning album The Heist and 2016 release This Unruly Mess I’ve Made (featuring Platinum-certified single "Downtown"). Collectively Macklemore’s music videos have been viewed over 2 billion times and he is one of only two rappers to have a Diamond-certified single. The viral video for current hit single “Glorious” feat. Skylar Grey starring Macklemore’s 100 year old grandmother garnered over 30 million views in less than a month, while the video for “Marmalade” feat. Lil Yachty starring a Mini Macklemore and a Lil Lil Yachty was viewed over 11 million times in less than a week. “Glorious” continues to climb the charts, Top 40 radio, Billboard’s Hot 100, Spotify’s Global Top 50, racking up 2 million streams a day. In the past year, the Seattle rapper released two solo songs “Wednesday Morning” and “Drug Dealer,” performed on Ellen and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, was featured in an MTV special with President Obama about the opioid epidemic in America and was the first US citizen ever to participate in the Presidential Weekly Address.

Archie Shepp - Gemini (2007) {2CD Set, Archie Ball ARCH0701}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 685 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 258 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 83 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2007 Archie Ball | ARCH0701
Jazz / Modern Creative / Jazzy Hip-Hop / Contemporary Jazz / Saxophone

Archie Shepp, another iconic figure of the early years of free-jazz, has established his identity in a more roundabout way than Ornette Coleman. For all his untutored wildness Coleman sounded eerily mature from the late 1950s on. Shepp seemed to make the gestures of musical freedom first, and found his real sound later. Nowadays he mixes a Coltranesque soulfulness and contemporary openness (rapper Chuck D is a guest on the first track, delivering a faintly indulgent Shepp potted history) with an unsteady but affecting romanticism and lurching swing that spans a lot of jazz history.

Les Spann was a perfect example of a jazz artist who had an impressive list of sideman credentials but never got very far as a leader. Although he played with heavyweights like Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, and Ben Webster, the guitarist/flutist didn't record on his own extensively - which is regrettable because Spann was an intriguing musician. How many guitarists are equally proficient when it comes to playing the flute? Spann's two instruments get equal time on Gemini, an excellent hard bop date that was produced by the ubiquitous Orrin Keepnews. This album, which Fantasy reissued on CD on its Original Jazz Classics imprint in 2001, was recorded at two different sessions in December 1960…