Henry Franklin - The Skipper - Remastered - Blue with Black Swirl Vinyl - VINYL LP

THE World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid TO DIE are a collective of musicians and artists, who formed a band in Willimantic, Connecticut in 2009, led by founding members Josh Cyr (bass/Keys/ Vocal) and Tyler Bussey (Guitar/vocals). TWIAP are an incredibly receptive and thoughtful group that could expand to nearly a dozen performers, making flexible, vivid art out of their refusal to be any one form. The band's lineup is constantly expanding and contracting, and during recording and live performance lineups may vary. Always Foreign is the band's third full length and a follow up to 2015's Harmlessness, their first for Epitaph Records.

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!

Vinyl LP pressing. Though it's hard to pick a winner among the estimable Black Jazz catalog, this 1972 from bassist Henry 'The Skipper' 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 ('Little Miss Laurie') and funk-infused ('Plastic Creek Stomp') sides of jazz, but perhaps the best comparison is late-'60s Miles before he went electric. In any case, The Skipper is just a joy to listen to from start to finish, beautifully recorded by Black Jazz producer Gene Russell and blessed with some really fine writing, most of it by Franklin himself.