Henry Franklin - The Skipper at Home - VINYL LP

John Ringhofer, the man behind Half-Handed Cloud, is as joyful and frugal as his music. An economical thinker, Ringhofer prefers the subway over a taxicab, is a recycler of plastic, a compulsive note-taker, and a habitual optimist. Half-Handed Cloud started as a home-recording project in Chattanooga, TN in 1999. Ringhofer was later based in the California Bay area for over a decade (where he worked as a part-time custodian) before moving with his young family to Helsinki, Finland in 2015 for his wife's linguistics research. Half-Handed Cloud is able to ensconce complicated theological concepts into catchy and sublime playground songs that refuse to condescend to it's subject or it's listener.

Bassist Henry Franklin's 1972 for Black Jazz, The Skipper, is one of the highlights in a tag catalog full of many, and his 1974 follow-up, The Skipper at Home (InchThe SkipperInch is Franklin's nickname), lives up to it's predecessor's high standard and might even surpass it. Which is no surprise given that a lot of the same players are on it, including trumpeter/flugelhornist Oscar Brashear, tenor/soprano saxophonist Charles Owens, and pianist Bill Henderson (here billed as Kemang Sunduza). But The Skipper at Home also boasts ace talents like keyboardist Kirk Lightsey (memorably featured on the Roland Haynes Black Jazz 2nd Wave), trombonist Al Hall, Jr. (who appeared on Black Jazz releases from Doug Carn, Chester Thompson, and Calvin Keys), and drummer Leon InchNduguInch Chancler, who's played with everyone from Miles Davis to Joe Henderson. The result is an album that, like The Skipper, is rooted in bop but one that nods to some of the currents that were swirling in jazz at the time; it's a little freer, a little more electric. And, as is true of just about every Black Jazz , the ensemble work is remarkably intuitive and swinging, driven by Franklin's melodic, inventive bass playing. This remastered and annotated package comes in a blue with black swirl pressing limited to just 500 copies!

Though it's hard to pick a winner among the estimable Black Jazz catalog, this 1972 from bassist Henry InchThe SkipperInch Franklin would have to be near the top of the list. Franklin got his start woodshedding with Latin maverick Willie Bobo in the mid-'60s and went on to play with The Three Sounds, but probably his most notable gig prior to this debut album was his stint in Hugh Masekela's band (that's Franklin playing bass with Masekela at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival). For The Skipper, Franklin assembled a crack outfit that included a horn section of trumpeter/flugelhornist Oscar Brashear (Bobby Hutcherson, Ry Cooder, Donny Hathaway) and tenor & soprano sax man Charles Owens (Buddy Rich, Horace Tapscott, John Mayall) along with a Masekela bandmate in electric pianist Bill Henderson and ace drummer Michael Carvin (Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, Freddie Hubbard). This is such a unique, organic recording that it's hard to make comparisons; definitely a little fusion, a little '60s Blue Note feel, and the usual Black Jazz journey to the more lyrical, pop-inspired (InchLittle Miss LaurieInch) and funk-infused (InchPlastic Creek StompInch) sides of jazz, but perhaps the best comparison is late-'60s Miles before he went electric. Remastered for vinyl and featuring liner notes, this Real Gone comes in a blue with black swirl pressing limited to just 500 copies!