Mofi Vinyl Abraxas

Miles Davis had a deep love and respect for boxing, seeing deep parallels between “the sweet science” and his own relationship with music. One of Miles’ favorites of his own recordings was the 1971 soundtrack to the Bill Cayton documentary about Jack Johnson, and he was inspired by the political and racial subtext of the legendary boxer’s saga. Culled from the celebrated expanded project The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions released in 2003, and name-checking a number of pugilistic legends (“Ali,” “Sugar Ray,” “Duran,” “Johnny Bratton”), these funk-infused recordings rock harder than anything else that Miles put to tape. Featuring a sterling line-up of musicians (Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham) and a legendary cover photo of Miles in the ring captured by Jim Marshall, the release finds this music issued on vinyl (in brilliant yellow), for general release, for the first time ever.

Cray found himself in some pretty intimidating company for this Grammy-winning blues guitar summit meeting, but he wasn't deterred, holding his own alongside his idol Albert Collins and Texas great Johnny Copeland. Cray's delivery of Muddy Waters' rhumba-rocking "She's into Something" was one of the set's many highlights.

The second album by Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow was a groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia, and it hit like a shot heard round the world; where the later efforts from bands like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and especially, the Charlatans, were initially not too much more than cult successes, Surrealistic Pillow rode the pop charts for most of 1967, soaring into that rarefied Top Five region occupied by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and so on, to which few American rock acts apart from the Byrds had been able to lay claim since 1964…