The Yard Bird

Apostolic was many things: a label, a collective, a state of mind even. But before all of that, it was a recording studio set up by New Yorker John Townley. As a member of the Magicians, (you recognize that name from the Nuggets albums), Townley worked in some of the finest studios in the USA, but he felt he was on a conveyor belt. “You had to do the creation ahead of time, which is not my idea of a good time,” he says now. "You had all this stuff to play with, and you weren’t allowed to play with it.” When Townley came into an $85,000 inheritance he immediately invested in a loft building on 10th Street, New York, against the advice of, well, “everybody”. But there were fellow believers. Friends Matt Hoffman and Michael and Danny Weiss, heirs to the Weiss jewelry fortune, helped assemble the studio, which was built to bleeding-edge specifications and even had a 12-track recorder.

12 tracks new to CD. Joe Gibbs’ entire dub album output from the 1970s. Includes some of the most acclaimed dub albums of all time.

Johnny Griffin was born in Chicago April 24, 1928. He played clarinet and alto saxophone but changed to tenor when he got his first professional job with Lionel Hampton when he was 17 years old. He later played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and replaced John Coltrane in 1958 in Thelonious Monk's Quartet. From 1960 - 1962 he co-lead the famous and much recorded "Tough Tenors" quintet with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. In 1963 he moved to Europe where he has been living ever since. He is now living in France - south of Paris.

George Russell - The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint and Soul Note (2010) {9CD CAM Jazz BXS 1005}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.75 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.04 Gb
Full Artwork @ 400 dpi (png) -> 207 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 CAM Jazz / Black Saint / Soul Note | BXS 1005
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental / Piano

THE COMPLETE REMASTERED RECORDINGS ON BLACK SAINT & SOUL NOTE is a monographic box-set collection aimed at recounting the most beautiful chapters that revolutionised the history of jazz. This new series was launched in March 2010 with the simultaneous release of four box-sets, including albums by some of the artists who participated in the success of the outstanding labels. A philological work, beginning with the original recordings on multi-track master tapes, patiently integrally remastered paying strict attention to the sound quality.

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music that is influenced by the music of Appalachia. Bluegrass has mixed roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music, and was also later influenced by the music of African-Americans through incorporation of jazz elements.

This wonderful set includes four discs, 100 tracks in all, of vintage blues 78s released between 1924 and 1942 compiled by collector and archivist Neil Slaven. Each of the four discs has a theme, with the first disc presenting songs about gambling (including Peg Leg Howell's harrowing and kinetic "Skin Game Blues"), the second covering alcohol and drugs (including Tommy Johnson's immortal "Canned Heat Blues"), the third playlisting songs about jail and prison (including Bukka White's powerful "Parchman Farm Blues"), and the fourth winds things up with songs about death (including Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"). Several of the sides here will be familiar to serious fans of prewar country blues, but there are enough rare sides here, too, to make this set an archival treasure, and the themed discs help sketch out the imagined (and sometimes very real) arc of many of these players' lives and times.

Lucky Thompson - Complete Parisian Small Group Sessions 1956-1959 (2017) {4CD Set Fresh Sound FSR-CD933}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.71 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 720 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 996 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1956-59, 2017 Fresh Sound Records | FSR-CD 933 | Mono | 24-Bit Digitally Remastered
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Saxophone

4 CD Box Set including a 36-page booklet with comprehensive essay by Jordi Pujol, complete sessionography, extensive recording details, rare photos and original art covers. Lucky Thompson (1924-2005) had never been accorded the praise he deserved in the United States, despite the fact that in the 40s many prominent critics and musicians considered him the finest tenor-saxophone player to appear in jazz since the emergence of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young.

Arguably the greatest Jamaican vocal group to emerge on the reggae scene during the latter half of the Seventies, the Joseph Hill-led trio Culture wrote and performed some of the finest roots music of the era, initially making their mark with producer Joe Gibbs before joining the revered roster of Sonia Pottinger’s High Note Records.