John Alex Mason Jook Joint Thunderclap

Q's Jook Joint is an album by Quincy Jones, released on November 7, 1995 through Qwest Records. This was Jones' first studio album in six years, preceded by Back on the Block in 1989 and followed by From Q With Love in 1999. Q's Jook Joint won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 1997.

It's not the first time guitarist Alex Machacek has composed around drum improvisation—he did that with three tracks on [sic], his 2006 breakout record and first for Abstract Logix—but he's taken the concept even farther on 24 Tales. It's also not the only release to use, as its basis, a 51-minute drum improvisation by Marco Minneman—Machacek's band mate in keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson's Ukz, which debuted in 2009 with the Radiation (Globe Music) EP. Guitarist Mike Keneally, touch guitarist Trey Gunn, and Mars Hollow bassist/guitarist Kerry Chicoine were all given Minneman's metrically and polyrhythmically challenging solo as part of the drummer's Normalizer 2 project as well, but 24 Tales sets the bar incredibly high for everyone else; a true fusion masterpiece that actually surpasses [sic]'s remarkably deep composition and stunning performance.

Jeff St John, stalwart of the Australian '70s psych scene, lent his name to two previous bands (Jeff St John and Id and Jeff St John and Yama) before releasing Joint Effort as Jeff St John and Copperwine. Joint Effort, originally released on the Australian Spin label, and probably the pinnacle of St John's recording career, is very much a psych prog crossover album, although some soul influences do crop up, particularly on the surging organ-based cover of The Temptations' 'Cloud Nine' as well as highly competent covers of Sly Stone's 'Sing A Simple Song' and Blind Faith's 'Can't Find My Way Home'. The rest of the album is made up of some excellent self-penned material, the outstanding tracks being the long instrumental, 'Any Orange Night' and the psych-tinged 'Fanciful Nights Of Mind'.

For the 200th anniversary of Clara Schumann’s birth, Isata Kanneh-Mason takes us on a journey through the composer’s extraordinary life with her stunning debut album on Decca Classics. Isata will be joining forces with an all-female line-up to champion the significance of women musicians throughout the years, and their influence on the classical musical canon. The recording features Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, written at the age of fourteen, performed by the composer at Leipzig Gewandhaus two years later under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn.

In the 1970s, Harvey Mason was one of those busy L.A.-based sessions players who had one foot in jazz and the other in R&B. The drummer backed his share of soul heavyweights (including Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and the Brothers Johnson), but he never lost his jazz chops. Recorded in 1976, Earthmover is among the mostly instrumental albums that Mason provided during his stay at Arista. This self-produced LP, which finds him trying to balance commercial and creative considerations, is a mixed bag. Some of the material is strong, especially the cerebral fusion item "No Lands Man" (which boasts Jan Hammer on keyboards) and the funky "Bertha Baptist." And the contemplative "First Summer" is an enjoyable track that reminds the listener of the underrated Hawaiian funk/fusion outfit Seawind, which isn't surprising because it was co-written and arranged by Seawind's Bob Wilson.