Lem Wincheser

With its fifth album Imaginary Mountains, Paris’ Ghost Rhythms continues on its idiosyncratic path as one of the most unique and gifted instrumental bands in the world. Composed, as is most of their music, by keyboardist Camille Petit and drummer Xavier Gélard and recorded at home during France’s Covid-19 lockdown, Imaginary Mountains takes its title literally, providing themes for a variety of mountainous fantasies as found on old maps. As always, the band takes its cavalcade of influences – jazz, progressive rock, folk, classical music, chanson – and applies them to a cornucopia of melodies, moods and textures.

Vibraphonist Lem Winchester died on January 13, 1961, after an accident with a gun. Although he did not stick around long enough to carve out his own original voice (remaining influenced to a large degree by Milt Jackson), Winchester did record several worthy albums during his final couple of years. This set, which has been reissued on CD in the OJC series, was one of his last and best. Winchester - in a quintet with flutist Frank Wess, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Eddie Jones, and drummer Gus Johnson - is in swinging and creative form on three of his originals, Oliver Nelson's "The Meetin'," and the standard "Like Someone in Love." A bonus cut from October 14, 1960, finds Winchester playing "Lid Flippin'" with a quintet that features organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith. Overall this CD is one of Lem Winchester's definitive sets.

Lem Winchester & Benny Golson - Winchester Special (1959) {Prestige–NewJazz OJCCD-1719-2 rel 1991}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 264 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 95 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 20 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959, 1991 Prestige/NewJazz Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-1719-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Straight-ahead Jazz / Vibes / Saxophone

This excellent CD reissue features the ill-fated vibraphonist Lem Winchester teamed up with tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Art Taylor for three standards, an obscurity and two of the leader's originals. The music falls between bop and hard bop with consistently swinging solos that are generally fairly inventive. This was one of Winchester's three recordings for the New Jazz label; all are easily recommended to straightahead jazz fans.

Young French jazz-fusion ensemble Ghost Rhythms arrive at TPA Towers hitherto unknown to me with their third album, a two-hour long instrumental tribute to the movie Vertigo. Intrigued by the oft-quoted synchronicity between Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon and the movie The Wizard Oz, the band’s composers-in-residence Camille Petit and Xavier Gélard set out to make a synchronous alternate soundtrack to the legendary Hitchcock film. The results are as gloriously expansive and darkly cinematic as you would expect given the subject matter.