After an epic licensing odyssey that's taken us almost 20 years, we're finally able to announce the 5LP boxset release of the first ever official re-issue of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet.
The five albums; Shades Of Blues (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase III (1968), Change Is (1969) and Live (1969), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artefacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000.
Many have tried - and failed - to reissue these albums by legitimate means. However, two decades since our initial approach, Universal Music has gone to great lengths to research their vast archives, and we have finally managed to succeed.
The complete Don Rendell & Ian Carr Lansdowne recording sessions have now undergone a full and unprecedented boxset reissue. We located and acquired the original analogue master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180g pressings replete with replica artwork - shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labour of love to the highest possible standard! The enclosed booklet contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton.
The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest, and the quality of our box set pays testament to that.

TRACK LISTING

1 Blue Mosque
2 Latin Blue
3 Just Blue
4 Sailin'
5 Garrison '64
6 Blue Doom
7 Shades Of Blue
8 Big City Strut
9 Ruth
10 Tan Samfu
11 Jubal
12 Spooks
13 Prayer
14 Hot Rod
15 Dusk Fire
16 Crazy Jane
17 On! [clip]
18 Les Neiges D'Antan (Snows Of Yesteryear)
19 Bath Sheba
20 Black Marigolds
21 Elastic Dream
22 One Green Eye
23 Boy, Dog And Carrot
24 Cold Mountain
25 Black Hair
26 Mirage
27 On Track
28 Vignette
29 Pavanne
30 Nimjam
31 Voices
32 You've Said It 

Since 2008 our Spiritual Jazz series has presented unlimited horizons. Each album celebrates the rich tradition of African-American songs based on the belief in a higher force than oneself and has also focused on geographical areas, such as Europe or Japan, thus recognizing that these territories have immense cultural riches. Religions, like Islam, whose musical traditions have vivid Arabic and North African resonances, have also been highlighted. The stylistic range of all the above is wide.

Yet historic record labels, from Blue Note and Impulse! to Prestige and Steeplechase, have also featured because their catalogues are musical treasure troves that could not be more relevant to Spiritual Jazz, even though they issued vast amounts of music between the late '30s and present day, that have not been confined to any one school.

Spiritual Jazz 16 is a focus on Riverside and its associated sister labels. Riverside itself was founded in 1953 by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, and became an important purveyor in that decade and beyond of what would be marketed as of modern jazz. That coinage was itself an amorphous, umbrella term that essentially created a demarcation from the vocabulary of pre-war classic jazz and inter-war big band swing, thus recognizing that improvising artists were breaking new creative ground that would subsequently give rise to a flurry of sub-genres, for example bebop, hard bop, cool, modal and Latin jazz. And it's from this multiplicity of sub-genres that we choose the deepest, most vibrant selections that the vast, pan-generational catalogue of Keepnews & Grauer has to offer.

TRACK LISTING

1. James Clay - New Delhi
2. Werner-Rosengren Swedish Jazz Quartet - Bombastica
3. Sal Nistico Quintet - Ariscene
4. Frank Strozier - The Crystal Ball
5. Cannonball Adderley Sextet - Primitivo
6. Blue Mitchell - Turquoise
7. Sonny Red - The Mode
8. Clifford Jordan - Sunrise In Mexico
9. Lee Konitz Quintet - Thumb Under
10. McCoy Tyner - Valley Of Life
11. Joe Henderson - Earth (feat. Alice Coltrane)

Having plied his trade around the world for more than three decades, German guitarist, bandleader and musical explorer Jan Whitefield has always instilled in his craft a natural aesthetic of authenticity, a key component which has seen him amass a sizeable and varied catalogue of material which has remained timeless where some of his contemporaries have faded away.

In the early 90s, as various UK bands were signed up by sizeable labels and enjoyed even mainstream chart success in the Acid Jazz and rare groove boom, Jan and his brother Max formed the Poets Of Rhythm, self-releasing their own uncompromisingly hard-edged take on 70s street funk on the then completely unfashionable 7" single format, forerunning the Deep Funk scene by almost a decade. 30 years on, in spite of a legion of retro-focused bands having followed in their wake, few have yet to come close to matching the energy and spirit of those early Poets 45s.

Since then, Jan has applied himself to all manner of new incarnations and innovative side-projects, releasing further funk surveys as the Whitefield Brothers before leading his own band under the pseudonym Karl Hector, with releases on labels such as Stones Throw, Daptone, Ninja Tune, Mo'Wax, Strut and more. An avid music lover, explorer and record collector extraordinaire, Whitefield's music has effortlessly absorbed his expanding interests along the way, particularly drawing influence from Ethiopian Jazz and West African funk and highlife, as well as Kraut-rock and ambient via his Rodinia alter-ego.

More recently, Whitefield has begun to venture into the astral planes of what's now commonly referred to as 'spiritual jazz', and this is very much where we find him manifesting on 'The Infinity Of Nothingness'. A set of mature, delicate and meditative orchestrations, like much of Whitefield's best work the album is studiously true to its key influences - and in this instance the twin figureheads of Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders are particularly preeminent - but also completely avoids falling into a trap of mere tribute or facsimile. With subtle yet diverse accents of Hip Hop, Library and the Avant Garde appearing wholly unobtrusively, the album is unified by a marked trance-like feel, beginning with the sparse, processional opener 'Nothingness' through to the 3 part 'Infinity Suite' of 'Time', 'Space' and 'Energy'.

As he did as a schoolboy with the Poets of Rhythm, with 'The Infinity Of Nothingness' Whitefield achieves that exceptionally rare feat of creating music that is not only worthy of sitting alongside that of his overarching influences, but will also stand up with it against the tests of time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nothingness
2. Solar Breeze From The East
3. Spectral Realms
4. Infinity Suite, Pt. 1: Time
5. Infinity Suite, Pt. 2: Space
6. Infinity Suite, Pt. 3: Energy

Many artists achieve greatness but very few produce work that is so moving it's considered sacred. Whether you choose to call them hymns, psalms or spirituals, their songs are a healing force for troubled times. We feel close to these prophets, in recognition of their uncommon labours. It is as if they have given all of themselves, body and soul, through music.

We can safely say that our Spiritual Jazz series would not exist without the inspiration and leadership of the spiritual messiah that is John Coltrane. It can only be right and proper that we dedicate a whole album to his legacy and lasting influence. Spiritual Jazz 15 – A Tribute to 'Trane shines a spotlight on the reverence in which the saxophonist is held in so many ways.

On one hand our selection displays cover versions of his songs performed by the musicians he inspired; disciples to Coltrane the messiah, who chose to give praise to the one who laid a foundation for them. The listener will also encounter original music written in honour of Coltrane that underlines the endless presence he has had among artists from different backgrounds and eras.

The preacher may have ascended to a higher plane, but his congregation is still right down here on the ground. Ten songs to lift the spirits of everyone, everywhere.

TRACK LISTING

1. Norman Connors - Welcome
2. Clifford Jordon - John Coltrane
3. Sonny Fortune - Ole
4. The Darwin Strickland Trio - Niami
5. Gilles Torrent Jazztet - Terre Engloutie
6. Carsten Meinert - To Trane
7. Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass - Transition
8. Hampton Hawes Trio - Evening Trane
9. Carmelo Garcia - Trane
10. Brother Jack McDuff - Naima

Following my recent phone call with Prof. Benson, I left him to continue his 92nd birthday celebrations with his family. We'd talked about his life, his music, his achievements. Throughout our conversation it struck me what a kind, humble and pleasant man he was. I felt that I was in the presence of greatness – not the egotistical greatness that emanates so often from high achievers, but that of someone who had simply won at life.

"I was a music teacher. I wasn't trying to make a record to compete, I was trying to make a record so the students would have something to remember the experience that we had... I was doing it for the kids."

It was 1973 that Prof. James Benson had self-funded his private press LP for the benefit of the teenage musicians he tutored at Cal Poly, California. The album was a momentous achievement for him and his young protegees, something they were all proud of, and rightly so. Taking inspiration from their recent trip to Africa and blended with the radical jazz associated with the young minds of early '70s black America, the Gow-Dow Experience is a unique foray into the enthusiastic mindset of up-and-coming jazz musicians, as encouraged by their mentor Prof. Benson.

We present the album as it was released in 1973 with a heavyweight tip-on jacket and 180g vinyl or on CD. We also include an insert with liner notes and photos provided courtesy of Prof Benson. The LP and CD come with 4 additional tracks taken from the recording session. Until now these tracks have never been heard since the day they were recorded - believe me, they're worth the wait!

Made with love from Jazzman - because we love to dig deeper!

TRACK LISTING

1. Nigeria, West Africa
2. Song For My Black Mother
3. Barry Rae
4. Compared To What
5. Malcolm IX
6. Spring 2000
7. Brother Don
8. Psychedelic Sally
9. Compared To What (Alternate Take)
10. You Are Arrogant
11. Brother Don (Alternate Mix)