Jazz

Yet another album of musical excellence compiled by If Music's Jean-Claude for the excellent and massively collectible 'You Need This' series.

One of THE great jazz quartets of all time: Coltrane (tenor & soprano), McCoy Tyner (piano), the earth-shaking Elvin Jones (drums) and Steve Davis (bass, though 'Trane's band would most often feature Jimmy Garrison and sometimes Reggie Workman), playing a blues-inspired program of originals.

In addition to being members of Miles Davis' band, John Coltrane, Red Garland and Paul Chambers recorded several projects together without the trumpeter, Soultranebeing one of them

On the album Africa from 1987 Sanders plays with an all-star line-up consisting of Idris Muhammad, John Hicks and Curtis Lundy.

Here's another classic from one of the greatest vibraphone players to ever grace the world of jazz.

This intimate center stage recording from Bubba's Jazz Restaurant in 1980 is a potent reminder of how good his live performances could be.

Star People is a 1983 album by the famous jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis.

The crown jewel of the epic Evans / Davis triptych that began with 'Miles Ahead' and 'Porgy and Bess', 'Sketches of Spain' is as emotionally compelling as any performance in the trumpeter's remarkable body of works.

'Sunlight' by Herbie Hancock is a 1978 jazz-funk, fusion album. It features Hancock's vocals through a vocoder as well as performances by drummer Tony Williams and bassist Jaco Pastorius.

Miles Davis Live From Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

First released in 1989, Amandla is the third collaboration between Miles Davis and producer/bassist Marcus Miller, after Tutu (1986) and Music from Siesta (1987), and their final album together. 

Skeewiff are masters of turning all-time classic into unique modern reworks.

Following Far Out's reissue of Agustin Pereyra Lucena Quartet's La Rana, the label continues its memorialisation of the late, great Argentinian guitarist's music, with the first ever direct from tape, audiophile reissue of Pereyra Lucena's self-titled debut album from 1970.

John Wright and his trio of Wendell Marshall and J.C. Heard embody the soulful Chicago sound of the early 1960s. 

This excellent 1965 album from the always versatile Yusef Lateef runs the gamut musically.

The genius that is Tony Allen departed this mortal world in April of 2020, but not without leaving an unmatched legacy that crossed oceans and borders, bridging cultures and forging a sound that changed music.

This 1967 set, recorded live at Boston’s Jazz Workshop, showcases virtuoso guitarist Szabó.

Miles Davis’ first truly influential project as a leader—which produced a series of recordings between 1949 and 1951 that helped shift the course of improvised music—was publicly underappreciated for almost ten years.

Under The Sun is the follow-up to the astonishing Roots and contains yet more absolutely essential Nucleus material. Originally released on Vertigo in 1974, Under The Sun was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Gregory Porter’s new release Still Rising, due out November 5, is an exquisite collection of musical delights. The first disc includes four brand-new tracks, two new arrangements, three new covers, and nine of Porter’s most loved Blue Note tracks. The second disc features notable duets including songs with Moby, Jamie Cullum, Jeff Goldblum, Renée Fleming, Dianne Reeves, Lalah Hathaway, Laura Mvula, Lizz Wright, and others. The new song and first single from the album “Dry Bones,” written and produced by Troy Miller (Diana Ross, Rag’n’Bone Man, Emeli Sandé), is available to stream or download today.

Porgy And Bess’, recorded in late 1957, was the third album by Ella and Louis to be produced by Norman Granz.

While the 1953 Bud Shank/Laurindo Almeida recordings were the precursors of the bossa nova-jazz fusion, the 1962 Stan Getz LP, Jazz Samba, would start the bossa nova craze.

Two months after recording his masterpiece Speak No Evil, saxophonist Wayne Shorter was back in the studio recording The Soothsayer featuring Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

This is Dorothy Ashby's debut album, originally released in 1957 by the Regent label.

another of the great (and unjustly overlooked compared to his impulse years) atlantic recordings from coltrane. a mixture of trane originals and standards, this is a real beauty. 

1960’s Look Out!—the debut album by Stanley Turrentine—announced the arrival of a deeply soulful saxophonist who imbued every note he played with feeling.

Hank Mobley was inspired by Birth of the Cool on his 1966 album A Slice of the Top featuring Duke Pearson’s arrangements for an octet that added euphonium and tuba to a group with James Spaulding on alto sax, Lee Morgan on trumpet, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on ...

London-based keyboardist and composer Greg Foat is back with his new album, 'The Rituals of Infinity'. Greg's first memory with the piano goes all the way back to his Aunt's house at aged 3 - where he fell off the piano stool.

The prolific Greg Foat returns with a new synthesiser soundscape double album.

Now, nearly 50 years later, that recording of the great trumpeter’s dynamic set will be officially released for the first time ever on what would have been Byrd’s 90th birthday: December 9, 2022.

Highlights from the new expanded edition of the Vince Guaraldi Trio's Jazz Impressions Of A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Joining pianist John Cameron in the "good and the great of British Jazz" line-up is bass player Danny Thompson, percussionist Tony Carr, and flute and saxophone player Harold McNair.

Two years after the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s ground- and time-signature breaking Time Out (1959), this classic quartet (Brubeck, piano, Paul Desmond, alto sax, Eugene Wright, bass, and Joe Morello, drums) would continue its jazz experiments in a series that was often inspired by abstract paintings. Time Further Out: Miró Reflections was the group’s attempt at a “jazz interpretation” of Miró’s 1925, a visually kinetic work featuring a prominent string of numerals descending from the upper edge of the canvas.

Ayer’s 1968 Masterwork Issued On Splatter Coloured Vinyl Exclusively For RSD 2023

Jack Wilkins‘ highly sought-after Mainstream Records album Windows finally gets reissued on vinyl on Wewantsounds forty five years after its inital release.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Charlie Byrd is perhaps best known for his pivotal role in popularizing Brazilian bossa nova in the United States. A jazz guitarist, Byrd was notably impressive and most comfortable using his C.F. Martin classical guitar in the jazz idiom, with a finger technique he learned from Spanish classical master-mentor Andrés Segovia. He was raised in a jazz family and was heavily influenced by legends like Django Reinhardt. Fame really took off for Byrd following his 1962 collaboration with Stan Getz. This exciting collection of “Jazz ‘n’ Samba” was recorded back in 1965, with Byrd very much in his musical prime. The Hindsight label is the first to have access to these original and rare master tapes. Commemorating the 60th anniversary of these special recordings, Hindsight’s Jazz Rewind label issues them for their first ever vinyl pressing, pressed on heavyweight color LP. Enjoy latin rhythms and beautiful guitar moments, with a guest appearance from Herb Ellis.

Saxophonist Joe Henderson expanded his palette on his vigorous 1966 album Mode for Joe with a dynamic septet.

These are some of the heaviest, and headiest, tracks Davis ever cut, and his band is in top form. Absolutely classic and essential electric jazz fusion from the dude that invented the genre.

Lonnie Liston Smith was one of the most important musicians to emerge in jazz in the 1970s. His 1975 album ‘Expansions’ is one of the foundation stones of modern dance music and his recordings have been sampled by many of the biggest artists in the world.

One of the stellar recordings of the jazz-rock fusion era. 

Craft Recordings and Jazz Dispensary kick off the new year in style with a heady cult favorite from Joe Henderson, 1973’s Multiple. Returning to vinyl after more than 50 years, the albumfeatures a world-class ensemble of musicians—including Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Larry Willis, and James “Blood” Ulmer—while it finds the influential saxophonist at the apex of his fusion period.

Two days after his 100th birthday, Marshall Allen started recording New Dawn, his debut solo album.

Lush Life (1958) is among John Coltrane’s best endeavours on the Prestige (and Music) label.

Florida-born saxophonist, composer, poet, actor and playwright Archie Shepp was one of the most articulate exponents of politicized black culture in the late 60s, a time of enormous upheaval and radical thought.

Far East Suite is a 1967 concept album by American jazz musi- cian Duke Ellington, inspired by his group’s tour through Asia. Ellington and longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn wrote the compositions. Strayhorn died in May 1967, making Far East Suite one of the last albums recorded during his life to feature his compositions.

Lonnie Smith’s 1970 album Drives was a showcase of the organist’s sense of adventure and indomitable groove.

In August of 1961, the John Coltrane Quintet played an engagement at the legendary Village Gate in Greenwich Village, New York. Coltrane’s Classic Quartet was not as fully established as it would soon become and there was a meteoric fifth member of Coltrane’s group those nights - visionary multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy.

Ebalunga!!! is back with a new long-awaited reissue of LP by the famous Hungarian guitarist, originally released in 1969.

In addition to boasting one of Reid Miles’ greatest album cover designs, Hank Mobley’s 1963 album No Room for Squares is a marvel for the music alone.

This is tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley’s first release on the Prestige label, after one previous Blue Note release. 

Recorded live in Newport in 1958 by a sextet led by Miles Davis.

The fiery five-piece band that toured Europe in late 1969 unaccountably never made a studio LP, so high quality live recordings such as this are to be treasured.

It's safe to say that starting a jazz album with a version of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" was quite a daring deed, to say the least. In Argentina — back in 1977.

A few years after recording Straight, No Chaser, Thelonious Monk disappeared from the public eye. But as the years passed, more people became aware of the seminal role he played in the development in jazz as both pianist and composer, creating a standard of excellence that many musicians after him aspire to.

It's Monk's Time is probably the most appropriate title for a Thelonious Monk album.

Bill Laurance releases a new album Bloom via Act Music label and this time around, Bill is supported by The Untold Orchestra, an 18-piece string ensemble from Manchester.

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Fumio Itabashi's highly sought-after album "Watarase" hailed as one of the great Japanese jazz albums and featuring Itabashi on solo piano playing an inspired mix of standards and originals.

Music that can at times be melancholic or enchantingly beautiful, and which is full of twists and turns.

After a first EP released in 2019 with Mother Tongue label, a single on Jazz à Vienne & Heavenly Sweetness's various " Past & Future", as well as numerous concerts in Europe, the French band never stopped reinventing itself. 

To this day, jazz pianists are influenced by Bill Evans by his use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and his trademark rhythmically independent, “singing” melodic lines.

The still hugely influential John Coltrane is as iconic as jazz saxophonists get and during the late 1950s he was explorer ever wider new musical realms.

All of You is a live album by American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal featuring performances recorded at Jamal's own club in Chicago in 1961 and released originally on the Argo label.

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Billy Brooks' much sought-after album "Windows Of The Mind," released in 1974 on Ray Charles' Crossover Records.

The first ever issue of this Spiritual Jazz album.

At the age of just twenty-one, Emma Rawicz has already sown many of the important seeds for a major career. She clearly can be considered a part of the wave of Young British Jazz that has been making its mark worldwide.

These 1969 recordings (released 5 years later) combine Shepp’s free jazz bonafides and a blend of blues and funk through an African lens, all in a big band setting.

Miles Davis is regarded to be one of the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

Gilles Peterson has been given the keys to Warner’s impressive Jazz back-catalogue and hand-selected Yusef Lateef’s legendary Detroit Latitude 42° 30' Longitude 83° for Arc Records next release.

This album was a key factor in raising Davis’ status to an international superstar.

Recording of Giant Steps commenced in early May of 1959 with a pair of sessions that featured Tommy Flanagan on piano and Art Taylor on drums, plus Paul Chambers, who was the only musician other than Coltrane to have performed on every date. 

The collaboration between BBE Music and If Music continues with another excellent compilation in the ongoing If Music Presents series with this 2nd volume in the World Jazz Grooves chapter.

Recorded in Madrid in July 2017, Shamal Wind combines Chip Wickham's globetrotting, spiritual jazz expeditions with hard-won schoolings in the funk.

This album by Ahmad Jamal, a legendary pianist if ever there was one, is perhaps his greatest record of the decade.

Jazz dance album from from this great jazz organist.

Wild Boy … is a reissue of the well-known 2016 release curated by Brian Chidester, renowned researcher and biographer of Eden ahbez.

The Tokyo Blues is an album that reflects Horace Silver's deep musicality, cultural curiosity, and love for the blues.

Weather Report was one of the most influential jazz-fusion groups of their era, and outlasted many of its contemporaries such as Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Produced by the late Bob Thiele -- an eclectic heavyweight who worked with everyone from Coltrane, Ayler, and Charles Mingus to Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong -- Astral Traveling is among Smith's most essential and rewarding albums.

The long-awaited reissue of this rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz LP by the famous Hungarian guitarist, originally released in 1968.