We're All Together Again

Thirteen years into their tenure, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was still able to mine the creative vein for new means of expression. Despite the hits and popularity on college campuses, or perhaps because of it, Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello composed a restless band with a distinctive sound. These eight tracks, all based on a tour of Japan the year before, were, in a sense, Brubeck fulfilling a dictum from his teacher, the French composer Darius Milhaud, who exhorted him to "travel the world and keep your ears open." The sketches Brubeck and Desmond created all invoke the East, particularly the folk melodies of Japan directly, while still managing to use the Debussian impressionistic approach to jazz that kept them riding the charts and creating a body of music that, while playing into the exotica craze of the moment, was still jazz composed and played with integrity…

2-on-1 set that brings the albums All Over You and All Over You… Too together in one package.
All Over You (1996). Whenever "classic rock" bands choose to re-record new versions of their old hits, the results are infamously less than favorable. Indeed, Caravan purists and other such enthusiasts may find it necessary to re-evaluate All Over You - as well as its companion release All Over You…Too - within their own standards. This single disc features a few acoustic-based reworkings, as well as some otherwise overhauled renditions of some of Caravan's most enduring standards. The remastered version - issued in 2000 on the Castle label - also contains two additional recordings. The tracks on this release basically fall into two categories. The first consists of new performances featuring the original arrangements…

The 1989 album “Guasasa” is the last studio album for the Fania Six, the Fania All Stars offshoot created in 1976 by Columbia Records for marketing purposes. It features their rhythm section comprised of: Johnny Pacheco, Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentín, Roberto Roena, Nicky Marrero and virtuoso pianist Papo Lucca. Clearly intended as a Latin jazz set, this album actually bears a more dance-oriented style (as in instrumental salsa, so to speak) as opposed to this band’s earlier, bolder California Jam date. While the former date was actually a real jam session, here they work with formal charts, calculated solo spots and a less-relaxed ambience that actually belies the laid-back feel of the album.