Mike Nock

Mike Nock is an icon of the Australian and international jazz scenes. In a career spanning more than 65 years, including 25 years in the US, he has worked with the world’s top jazz artists and garnered a swag of awards, including being inducted into the Australian Jazz Hall of Fame. His discography of more than 35 albums, recorded with his Trio, Quartet, Big Small Band and many other collaborators, includes ARIA, AIR and Jazz Bell awards, but this is his first solo album since the chart-topping ‘Touch’, released 30 years ago almost to the day, in 1993. Its 13 tracks reveal the many colours and moods that can be conjured from keys of a piano, and prove again Mike Nock’s incomparable genius as both composer and performer.

Mike Nock - Piano Solos (1978) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 146 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 90 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 242 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6415
Jazz / Post Bop / Neo Bop / Piano

Reissue with the latest remastering and the original cover artwork. Comes with a description written in Japanese. Beautiful solo work from pianist Mike Nock – a set that's got some of the dark edges and dynamic energy of Nock's previous 70s recordings – but an album that also shows some newly lyrical elements as well! Some passages have Mike hitting the keys with the sort of frenzied creation he reached on fusion recordings – but with wonderful results on the acoustic piano – and other moments have this enhanced sense of melody that makes for very beautiful, expressive passages – maybe a touch more sentiment than the younger Nock would have allowed himself, but never in a way that's soppy or overdone. The balance in these modes is great – and reminds us that Nock can be equally compelling a solo performer as he is in a group – on titles that include "Enchanted Garden", "Polyhedron", "Fallen Angel", "California Country Song", "Soliloquy", and "Jacanori".

At the time of this recording, New Zealand's Mike Nock was one of the great, unsung pianists in European stlyed jazz. His elegant phrasing and wildly inventive melodicism fly in the face of all notions that claim improvisation must be outside Western musical parameters and structures. On Ondas, Nock has assembled a rhythm section that, while never having played together before shared the ability to create the bedrock, however flexible, for the artist's crystalline compositions and solos. Eddie Gomez was a wise choice for this session because of his experience with Bill Evans, who is an obvious influence on Nock's own composing — as is Keith Jarrett. His pizzicato flourishes and shifting timbres on "Forgotten Love" and "Visionary," while retaining an elemental sense of meter, are remarkable.

Mike Nock - In Out And Around (1978) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6342}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 278 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 110 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 153 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6342
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Postbebop / Neo Bop / Piano Trio / Saxophone

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. Moody brilliance from pianist Mike Nock – a solid quartet date that features plenty of edgey tenor from Michael Brecker, who's in really great form throughout! The rhythm section has a nicely snakey vibe too – with George Mraz on bass and Al Foster on drums – and both players can come on strong when Mike needs them to, then lay back into some warmer, lyrical modes that really show Nock's melodic development at this point in his career. The highlight of this recording is Brecker's soulful tenor sax solos, some of his finest playing ever. The piano is acoustic throughout – and titles include "Break Time", "Dark Light", "Shadows Of Forgotten Love", "Hadrian's Wall", and "The Gift".