La Matriarca The Libertine (1968)

One of the hardest, heaviest albums that Ray Bryant ever cut - even on the ballads - a monster little record that grabs you from the very first note! Ray did the arrangements for this one himself - working with his core trio that featured Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on drums, and adding in a twin-trumpet frontline that cooks the groove over the top with a really righteous sound! The rhythms are complicated, yet really funky - and the album's almost worth it alone for the title track "Up Above The Rock", which will forever be remembered for its monster break. The whole thing's great, though - and Ray follows up the leadoff cooker with other great tunes.

Behind this superb Art Nouveau artwork sleeve is hiding one of the true, hidden and forgotten gems of Canada. To achieve this kind of perfection as a first try, back in the late 60's is simply astounding (the only had a few singles beforehand). Bill Henderson and Claire Lawrence (the main core of the group) make a fantastic songwriting partnership that will last a few albums. All this sounds very seventies-like, but the sound is clearly that from a sixties beat-band/psychedelic-band on fire. Perhaps a bit like the Beatles, some Doors. Recommended to every-one interested in psychedelic rock, early progressive rock and the development of the genre itself.

Lee Morgan was the leading trumpeter in hard bop during the 1960s and he recorded quite a few classic albums for Blue Note. This is one of them. The CD reissue (which adds an alternate take of the title cut to the original five-song program) features Morgan at his best, whether playing his memorable blues "Speed Ball," an explorative ballad version of "You Go to My Head," a lengthy "The Gigolo," or his other two originals ("Yes I Can, No You Can't" and "Trapped"). There are no weak selections on this set and the playing by the leader, Wayne Shorter on tenor, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins is beyond any serious criticism.

Lee Morgan was the leading trumpeter in hard bop during the 1960s and he recorded quite a few classic albums for Blue Note. This is one of them. The CD reissue (which adds an alternate take of the title cut to the original five-song program) features Morgan at his best, whether playing his memorable blues "Speed Ball," an explorative ballad version of "You Go to My Head," a lengthy "The Gigolo," or his other two originals ("Yes I Can, No You Can't" and "Trapped"). There are no weak selections on this set and the playing by the leader, Wayne Shorter on tenor, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins is beyond any serious criticism.

Some albums exist outside of time or place, gently floating on their own style and sensibility. Of those, the La’s lone album may be the most beguiling, a record that consciously calls upon the hooks and harmonies of 1964 without seeming fussily retro, a trick that anticipated the cheerful classicism of the Brit-pop ’90s. But where their sons Oasis and Blur were all too eager to carry the torch of the past, Lee Mavers and the La’s exist outside of time, suggesting the ’60s in their simple, tuneful, acoustic-driven arrangements but seeming modern in their open, spacy approach, sometimes as ethereal as anything coming out of the 4AD stable but brought down to earth by their lean, no-nonsense attack, almost as sinewy as any unaffected British Invasion band.