Jazz Recs

"butterfly searchin for a relax
pullin from the jazz stacks cause it’s sunday
on the air is incense
sounds to the ceiling
tryin to get this feelin since monday"
-Digable Planets, "Pacifics"

I'm going to start the new WWALT weekly feature "Pullin' From The Jazz Stacks Cause It's Sunday" record check.

For me, Sundays are all about the Jazz brunch. Good food, good jazz records. I, like most of you guys, have pretty eclectic and varied tastes in music, but Sunday morning I'm going for "Jazz", and not "Out Jazz" or "Funky Boogaloo Jazz", but jazz jazz.



First up is Duke Ellington's "The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse". You may know the tune off of this "Chinoiserie" which Medeski, Martin and Wood covered. Jazz with a groove throughout, with gongs and "Oriental" elements (his words, not mine) adding a twist. Really great LP. I think I digitized this bitch so maybe some of you have it.

Also, these dudes play on this album: Cootie Williams, Money Johnson, and Booty Wood. Ha ha ha, no joke. "Booty Wood" went on to be a porn star...



Another great jazz LP is Les McCann Ltd "Beaux J. Poo Boo". This is one of the first records I ever bought, actually. Great, just straight up piano jazz, but with a few funky joints like "Bat Man" and the funky pop jam with vocals, "Green Green Rocky Road".



Also for you design nerdus out there, this is beautiful matte gatefold cover with 3-D pop-up book inside with little booklet attached. These "Limelight" joints from the 60's are all really deluxe packaging.



Lastly, as the morning moves to afternoon I get into some funkier "jazz", and this "Hold On I'm Coming" live album by Herbie Mann fits the bill. It's easy to forget that Herbie had free jazz guitar legend Sonny Sharrock as his guitarist in the late 60's-early 70's. His playing is restrained within Herbie's funky flute jazz, but blasts of his signature style creep out, especially on a live date like this one from Montreaux '72. Great LP. Also on some next level design steez with this crazy, double opening, reverse side record slot, die cut cover shit:



There. I definitely feel "jazzy" now. I am officially on radio silence for a minute until some other dudes post. Stay cool.



D-Nice