Limelight

Milt Jackson - Born Free (1966) {Limelight Japan 826 990-2 rel 1986}
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© 1966, 1986 Limelight Japan | 826 990-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Vibes

This obscure mid-'60s record by Milt Jackson has few surprises, though many jazz fans would be suspicious that the theme from the movie Born Free would turn into a viable jazz vehicle. Jackson's funky treatment of this normally laid-back piece works very well. Jimmy Heath, who plays great tenor sax on several tracks, contributed the funky original "Bring It Home (To Me)" as well as "A Time and a Place," which became one of his better-known compositions. Less successful is his chart of Jackson's somewhat monotonous "Whalepool." Pianist Cedar Walton, a favorite collaborator of the vibraphonist, is the centerpiece of their rendition of Miles Davis' landmark modal tune "So What." Long out of print, this Limelight LP has been reissued in Japan, but this recommended album will be expensive to acquire in either version

The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 typically picks up where its predecessor left off. With 11 tracks covering seven albums, including Gaudi, Stereotomy, and Vulture Culture, the songs here are a tad weaker than those on the first collection, since some of the albums that these songs originate from were not of this band's finest caliber. The highlights here include both "Prime Time" and "Don't Answer Me" from Ammonia Avenue, and the provocative instrumental "I Robot," the only non-vocal track on the album. All of the selections on this package convey their purpose much better within their former albums, since each song is a link in the album's conceptual chain.

The Alan Parsons Project were an English rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. They were accompanied by a varying number of session musicians and some relatively consistent band members such as guitarist Ian Bairnson, arranger Andrew Powell, bassist and vocalist David Paton, drummer Stuart Elliott, and vocalists Lenny Zakatek and Chris Rainbow. Parsons was an audio engineer and producer by profession, but also a musician and a composer. A songwriter by profession, Woolfson was also a composer, a pianist, and a singer. Almost all the songs on the Project's albums are credited to "Woolfson/Parsons". The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 is a 1987 greatest hits compilation by The Alan Parsons Project.

Kalita are honoured to release the first ever compilation focusing on the musical career of Julie Coker, the queen of Nigerian television. Here we collate seven of Julie’s most sought-after Afro disco and hauntingly-beautiful Itsekiri highlife recordings.

The music on this Onyx release wasn't conceived as a single presentation: the three works were recorded in Seattle, Detroit, and Monmouth (U.K.), over a period spanning almost a year and a half, and there are two violin concertos, performed respectively with the Seattle and Detroit Symphonies, and a programmatic violin-and-piano piece.