Northern Soul's Modern Monsters

Christmas came early in 1971; in May, Atlantic released Plastic Dreams, the penultimate studio album from the Modern Jazz Quartet during their main, 22-year run as an ensemble. Of the MJQ's albums, Plastic Dreams has never been a critic's favorite, and was an album that mystified many of the group's longtime followers. First was the gatefold front cover, which featured a "plastic" image of a nude woman that was really pushing the envelope by 1971 standards; it was almost "indecent." Second, the liner notes by arch-New York jazz critic Martin Williams, while appreciative, really made you wonder if Williams was listening to the same album you were…

This is an MJQ album that, for most fans, is somewhat off the beaten path. At a time when they had left Apple Records to return to Atlantic, and when fusion was just getting started, the group incorporate more Brazilian music in the mix, and John Lewis plays Fender Rhodes electric piano on two tracks. While their laid-back, mellow, chamber-like sound is very much intact, the rules of sonic preparation had changed, and the band followed in kind. Drummer Connie Kay even adds a bit of R&B funk to the proceedings, as on the chunky opener and title track, which is very atypical for the group. One of two Lewis originals, "Valeria" is a light bossa nova, energized as it goes along, while the absolute beauty of "Romance" is marinated in waltz pace with accenting cymbal zings - the perfect candlelight-and-wine dinner music…

A House of Call is a cycle of invocations, prayers, poems and songs for large orchestra. It incorporates recordings of sounds and voices from all over the world collected by Heiner Goebbels during his travels, research, and chance encounters. The cycle is a response to the history of these recordings and to their complexity, rawness and radiance. In this secular “responsorium”, the orchestra accompanies and supports the voices, answers and challenges them.

Minas Borboudakis has explored much mythology, philosophy, technology and the natural sciences, and the compositions in this collection reflect this. The CD includes the percussion concerto Archégonon: written for Peter Sadlo, it is a work dealing with “very beginnings”. Also included are two works written for the ensemble spectral: Tetraktys (a string quartet on the number 4) and Krámata (a sextet on alloys).

Minas Borboudakis has explored much mythology, philosophy, technology and the natural sciences, and the compositions in this collection reflect this. The CD includes the percussion concerto Archégonon: written for Peter Sadlo, it is a work dealing with “very beginnings”. Also included are two works written for the ensemble spectral: Tetraktys (a string quartet on the number 4) and Krámata (a sextet on alloys).

I have a collection of 135 titles (142 CDs) issued by Goldmine/Soul Supply record company. This is not a box set but rather it is a collection of albums that are similar in that they all are rare soul compilations by the same company. There are some tracks that are on more than one album but considering the scope and magnitude of this collection, the number of duplicated tracks is small. Some CDs have good artwork, some have none, most have some artwork of varying quality. All are 320 CBR MP3 and are fully tagged. Original post now has added CDs.