Phil Roy

In February 2018, Roy Ayers performed four sold out shows in Los Angeles as part of the Jazz Is Dead Black History Month series. It wasn’t until 2020 that fans of Ayers discovered that in addition to those shows, the legendary vibraphone player had also recorded an entire album of new material with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Dan Morganstern makes an excellent point in his liner notes when he laments the tendency to refer to Roy Eldridge as a “link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie.” For one thing, Diz eschewed the kind of brilliant trumpet tone that characterized the work of Eldridge and Armstrong. Considered in this light, if one starts with Armstrong’s early achievements and then looks for anything like that kind of distilled joy in all the subsequent history of the music, one gets no further than the spectacular sides the man they called “Little Jazz” made for Columbia in January 1937. There’s just no one after that to “link” to, ever…

Phil Woods & Michel Legrand and Orchestra - Images (1975) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4280}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 251 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 302 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975, 2014 RCA / Sony Music Japan | SICP 4280
Jazz / Cool / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone / Modern Big Band

Reissue with the latest remastering. Comes with liner notes. A wonderful record – one in which Phil Woods blows alto solos over the arrangements of Michel Legrand – handled in the masterful style of Legrand's best jazzy soundtrack work, and in a way that lets Woods hit some of his best solos of the 70s! Legrand's always been great at this sort of album for any jazzman – and here, he unlocks a romantic tone in Woods' style that is a nice counterpart to some of the hippy-dippiness that he'd been showing in other sides from the 70s.

Roy Buchanan is the guitarist's guitar hero. Singularly uninterested in rock stardom and the trappings of fame that go with it, Buchanan never achieved the popularity of his six-string peers; yet his unfathomable technique and ferocious Telecaster tone put him near the top of any serious listing of the greatest guitarists of all time. Stories abound about the regard with which other musicians held Roy (and the indifference with which he greeted their esteem); for example, legend has it he turned down the Rolling Stones for the job Mick Taylor got, and blew off playing with John Lennon, while Jeff Beck dedicated "'Cause We've Ended as Lovers" from Blow by Blow to him. These days, his ability to create the sounds he did without the use of any effects, often from his patented "pinch harmonic" method of playing, continue to astound players both casual and professional. Buchanan recorded a number of commendable studio albums, but on stage was where the magic happened; that's why most listeners deem the 1974 Live Stock album to be his best.

Phil Woods And His European Rhythm Machine - Alive And Well In Paris (1968) {2010 Pathe Japan Jazz Masterpiece Best & More 999 Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 253 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24bit remaster
© 1968, 2010 Pathe / EMI Music Japan | TOCJ-50087 | Jazz Masterpiece Best & More 999 Series
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Saxophone

Phil Woods & His European Rhythm Machine was a brilliant though short-lived quartet that made a handful of albums between 1968 and 1973, though most of them are long out of print. Happily, this early studio effort, with pianist George Gruntz, bassist Henri Texier, and drummer Daniel Humair, has been reissued in Japan by Toshiba-EMI, all of whom provide first-rate rhythmic support and make the most of their solos. The leader's "And When We Are Young" was written in tribute to Senator Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down by a cowardly assassin in the spring of 1968 in the midst of Kennedy's celebration of his presidential primary victory in California. The piece begins with a mournful dirge before cutting loose with some wailing post-bop.

Phil Woods - Floresta Canto (1975) {2015 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICJ 95}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 339 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 109 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 249 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975, 2015 RCA / Sony Music Japan | SICJ 95
Jazz / Fusion / Hard Bop / Modern Big Band / Latin Jazz / Saxophone

Reissue with the latest remastering. Comes with liner notes. One of those great records from the 70s that makes you say "man, Phil Woods was hip!" The session was cut in London with an electrified big band led by Chris Gunning, and featuring keyboards by the groovy Gordon Beck – kind of a blend of strings, keys, and woodwinds – providing some lush backdrops that allow Phil to really open up on some great solos. The style is similar to Phil's album Images, done with Michel Legrand – but with some more electric touches – and like that album, it's got a wonderfully fluid, lyrical approach that's quite different from the harder-jamming fusion albums Woods cut in Europe. Titles include "Canto De Ossanha", "Sails", "Roses", "Without You", "Jesse", and "O Morro".