Into The Silent Land

This Concord release was tenor saxophonist Harold Land's first as a leader in a decade, although he had co-led many sessions in the interim with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Starting in 1975, Land and trumpeter Blue Mitchell worked regularly in a quintet up until Mitchell's death in 1979, but this album was just about their only joint recording. With keyboardist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Reggie Johnson, and drummer Al "Tootie" Heath offering solid support, the group performs four originals by Land (including the title cut and "Rapture"), two songs by Lightsey, and Mitchell's "Blue Silver." Fusion may have been the dominant force at the time, but despite Lightsey doubling on electric piano, this is an excellent example of 1977 hard bop.

The Waterboys, one of the most creative, loved and literate bands of the last four decades, return this summer with their 14th studio album Good Luck, Seeker. Comprising dramatic spoken-word over wild, relentless genre-busting music (is it psychedelic soul? Is it trance? punk?), My Wanderings In The Weary Land might just be the greatest rock’n’roll record ever made – and one that is darkly appropriate to our weird, wired times.

The Les Humphries Singers was a 1970s musical group formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969[1] by the English-born Les Humphries (born John Leslie Humphreys, 10 August 1940, in Croydon, Surrey, England - died 26 December 2007, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England)…