Mps

Francy Boland & The Orchestra - Blue Flame, Red Hot, White Heat (1976) {2CD Set, MPS–Universal rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 712 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 264 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar | 192kHz/24bit remaster
© 1976, 2008 MPS / Universal | 06025 1764388
Jazz / Modern Big Band / Progressive Jazz / Piano

A trio of amazing records from the legendary Francy Boland – sessions done away from his big band work with Kenny Clarke, and in a groove that breaks nicely from that group's more famous style! The sessions here are still very much in Clarke/Boland Big Band territory – as Francy's working with a large group of familiar players, and is produced by CBBB impresario Gigi Campi – but the overall sound is quite different too, and features a range of sensitive and sophisticated tones and colors!

George Duke - My Soul: The Complete MPS Fusion Recordings, 1971-1976 (2008) {4CD BoxSet MPS Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.74 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 688 Mb
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© 1971-76, 2008 Universal / MPS | 06025 1751504 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Fusion / Piano

An amazing package of work from George Duke - 6 of his legendary fusion albums for MPS Records, including the never-reissued double-length set Solus / The Inner Source! That incredible album is worth the price of the package alone - as it begins with some sublime trio work from Duke, rooted in jazz but already stretching out in amazing ways - then moves into some even hipper Latin-styled grooves, with Jerome Richardson on reeds and Luis Gasca on a bit of trumpet! Other albums in the set are equally great - and trace Duke's evolution from straighter jazz into funky freer fusion and soul - an incredible musical shift that's presented on the albums Faces In Reflection, Feel, I Love The Blues She Heard My Cry, The Aura Will Prevail, and Liberated Fantasies - each of them classics in their own right, presented together wonderfully here in this complete MPS package! The set is amazing - with a whopping 64 titles in all, and complete notes on all the music - including some recollections from Duke himself.

Baden Powell - The Legendary MPS Albums (2008) {2CD Set MPS-Universal 06024 9824376 rec 1966-1971}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 804 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 365 Mb
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© 1966-71, 2008 MPS / Universal | 06024 9824376
Jazz / Brazilian Jazz / Bossa Nova / Brazilian Traditions / Samba / MPB / Guitar

Recorded between 1966 and 1971, these four LPs presented here on two CDs represent Baden Powell at his best. Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino was one of Brazil's greatest guitarists of the Bossa Nova Generation. On these recordings Powell plays some of his own best known compositions: Canto de Ossanha, Samba Triste, Samba em Preludio, E de Lei… He plays classics by other Brazilian writers: Manha de Carnival, Das Rosas, Dindi… He plays some jazz standards: Round Midnight, All the Things You are… He also shows the influence of classical music, Especially J S Bach - Invencao em 7 1/2 (double tracked with one part at double speed.) The performances display superb sense of timing and great improvisational skills. Mostly he is accompanied by a Brazilian rhythm section but on Poema he uses a jazz rhythm section. This is the essential Baden Powell.

Jazz and flamenco first crossed paths not in Spain, but in the USA when Miles Davis and arranger/composer Gil Evans recorded “Sketches of Spain” in November 1959 and March 1960. It became one of the most successful jazz albums of all time. And the jazz musicians in Spain? They attempted to emulate – as did their colleagues world-wide – the American model. Jazz stood for open-mindedness; national folklore was thought of as too parochial. Spanish saxophonist Pedro Iturralde was the only musician who, under the influence of “Sketches of Spain”, added a couple of flamenco melodies to his repertoire as he toured Europe accompanied by two Germans and a Swiss. That’s why Joachim-Ernst Berendt sought him out to play at the 1967 Berlin Jazz Festival. With the festival’s motto “Jazz Meets the World”, Berendt was looking for a jazz-flamenco combination to fit the bill.

Don Ellis - Haiku (1973) {2010 MPS Reissue 441132 CD}
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© 1973, 2010 MPS / Promising Music / Universal | 441132 CD
Jazz / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Trumpet

Don Ellis, the American composer and trumpeter, who died in his 40s in 1978, is mostly overlooked, though his great, fusion-anticipating 1967 Electric Bath album is still prized. This 1973 recording with a strings ensemble is very different from his adventurous work with mind-boggling time signatures in the 60s. But an Ellis venture is never without surprises. All the segments are inspired by haiku, and they reflect that form's brevity.

George Shearing, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Louis Stewart - The MPS Trio Sessions (2007) {4CD Set, Universal rec 1977-1979}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 992 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 517 Mb
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© 1977-79, 2007 MPS / Universal | 06025 1745068
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream / Piano

For those fortunate enough to hear and own the immaculately produced Germany/Black Forest based MPS recordings, distributed as imported pristine virgin vinyl LPs that were pressed in the '70s, you already know the quality of this four-CD set of George Shearing's trio. With the peerless Dane Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Ireland's genius guitarist Louis Stewart, they can hardly do anything wrong musically.

Albert Mangelsdorff - Albert Mangelsdorff And His Friends (2017) {MPS 0211961MSW rec 1967-69}
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© 1967-69, 2017 MPS Records / Edel | 0211961MSW
Jazz / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Trombone

This album of duos stands out as one of a kind; recorded during a phase in which he began to consistently incorporate a freer musical language into his playing, and set within a constellation of diverse duo formations, there emerges an exciting portrait of the central figure in German jazz: Albert Mangelsdorff. With tongue in cheek – or better said – in mouthpiece, Mangelsdorff accompanies Don Cherry on a journey that culminates in a zany duel staged almost without instruments. With his close friend Elvin Jones, Mangelsdorff unfurls so many melodic and metric parameters that one could believe they are listening to a full combo that dissolves conventional time patterns into kaleidoscopic polyrhythms, whereas the colorful tonal confrontation between Karl Berger’s agile, inspired vibes and the questioning, challenging trombone stands out as a lesson in Avant-garde brainstorming.