Manikind Productions

'Blowin' the Blues Away' is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver, released on the Blue Note label in 1959 featuring performances by Silver with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Louis Hayes. The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 4½ stars and states "Blowin' the Blues Away is one of Horace Silver's all-time Blue Note classics… one of Silver's finest albums, and it's virtually impossible to dislike".

Head Hunters is the twelfth studio album by the American pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, released October 13, 1973, on Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during evening at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco, California. Head Hunters is a key release in Hancock's career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz. In 2003, the album was ranked number 498 in the book version of Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2007, the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. After the publication of her autobiography, Lady Sings The Blues, Billie Holiday was doing good business in clubs in what turned out to be a last burst of stardom. We cannot know why she stopped recording for Norman Granz after January 1957, but All or Nothing at All, is a magnificent culmination of her years with the producer. As this set demonstrates in the subtle blending and dissolving of moods within one number as well as in the emotional changes throughout the program as a whole, perhaps the primary reason Holiday was always able to reach so deeply into her listeners is that more than any other jazz singer, she could communicate the complexities of feeling in which we are all involved. This audiophile hybrid SACD remastering from Analogue Productions offers listeners the best possible sound quality.

One of the all-time great urban blues records and the best-seller in the famed Delmark catalog. Hoodoo Man Blues is so full of bravado and snap it'll make you feel tough just listening to it. Not all of the Delmark titles were recorded very well, but this one certainly was. Hoodoo Man Blues, which features Buddy Guy on guitar, is not only Junior Wells' first LP appearance, it's damn near the first LP by a Chicago blues band. Chess and a few other labels had reissued 45s by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, etc., but virtually no one had tried to capture the Chicago blues sound free of the limitations of juke box/airplay promotion. Hoodoo Man Blues went a long way in the popularization of real Chicago blues and of Junior Wells.

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. The very fact that America's biggest jazz label called one of their albums quite simply Ella and Louis indicates that we are talking about something very special here. And surely enough has been said - "Satchmo" and the grande dame of jazz certainly need no further introduction. In the '50s just the mere mention of their forenames was enough to light up the eyes of jazz fans. A glance at the track list reveals that tranquility rules the day: wild stomps and improvised scats will neither be sought nor missed. Of prime importance to the jazz ballad is a feeling of "letting oneself drift" in the inspiration which gushes forth from the minds of genial American songwriters. This is no contest - for the artists all pursue a common goal with extreme sensitiveness. The background combo, made up of first-class musicians and led by Oscar Peterson, performs with great concentration and almost obtrusive unobtrusiveness.

Otis Redding's third album presents his talent unfettered, his direction clear and his confidence emboldened, with fully half the songs representing a reach that extended his musical grasp. More than a quarter of this album is given over to Redding's version of songs by Sam Cooke, his idol, who had died the previous December. Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul is considered by many critics to be Redding's first great album. Recorded in April and July of 1965, it was released September 15th of that same year. The styles of Cooke and Redding couldn't have been more different; Cooke smooth and sure, Redding raw and pleading. But Redding's versions of "Shake" and "A Change Is Gonna Come" show how Cooke's sound and message helped shape Redding's Southern soul sound. Redding's singing reaches a new level of expressiveness with this as well as with covers of B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" and the Motown hit "My Girl." This great album receives the full Analogue Productions reissue treatment here, starting with Kevin Gray's remaster from the original analogue tapes.

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. It is undeniable that Billie Holiday's singing changed in her later years. Her voice darkened and shifted to a lower range. Her economy of means distilled her sound to its expressive essence - a kind of heightened speech. The classic LP Songs For Distingue Lovers has also deepened and become burnished with time. Maybe it's that still-arresting word, "distingue"; maybe it's that iconic, tinted image of Lady Day on the cover. But now that legendary LP, with the singer's best studio work of the Fifties, is available as a Hybrid SACD!

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. Small jazz groups brought out the best in Billie Holiday - especially groups as good as the one heard on this classic 1957 recording. Ben Webster, Harry "Sweets" Edison and the other members of this stellar ensemble were not just gifted soloists but sensitive accompanists as well. Lady Day was rarely more ably supported than she was on this program of sturdy standards, including three gems by the Gershwin brothers -and she rarely sounded more luminous. Originally released in 1957.

Hybrid Mono SACD for sale individually and as part of Analogue Productions’ Prestige Mono Series, Mini "old style" gatefold jacket packaging. There are a multitude of reasons why Bags' Groove remains a cornerstone of the post-bop genre. Of course there will always be the lure of the urban myth surrounding the Christmas Eve 1954 session – featuring Thelonious Monk – which is documented on the two takes of the title track. There are obviously more tangible elements, such as Davis' practically telepathic runs with Sonny Rollins (tenor sax). Or Horace Silver's (piano) uncanny ability to provide a stream of chord progressions that supply a second inconspicuous lead without ever overpowering. Indeed, Davis' choice of former Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and concurrent Modern Jazz Quartet members Milt Jackson (vibes), Kenny Clarke (drums), and Percy Heath (bass) is obviously well-informed.