Max Roach - Percussion Bitter Sweet (Verve Vault Series) - VINYL LP

An avant-garde masterpiece, a vocal-instrumental suite, a work of collective improvisation, directly addressing the racial and political issues of it's day, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite is one of the most important artistic statements of Civil Rights Movement and one of the most groundbreaking jazz albums of all time. Max Roach was already almost a decade into his career as one of the most influential jazz drummers and composers when he teamed up with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. To collaborate on a piece they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. Recorded just months after the February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, the album stands as an early musical testament to the burgeoning rage, anger and passion that would take the Civil Rights Movement from it's early victory in Montgomery in 1955 into a future that would dramatically alter race relations in the United States. The second from the newly launched New York City based jazz tag Candid Records, and produced by tag co-founder, famed music critic and social activist, Nat Hentoff, the album is a bold statement, focused on civil injustices in black history ranging from slavery to contemporary racial prejudices, and featuring some of the finest jazz musicians ever, including Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, and Michael Babatunde Olatunji. The five movements of the work are organized as a historical progression through African-American history, a shape similar to the one in Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige. The Freedom Now Suite moves from slavery to Emancipation Day to the contemporary civil-rights struggle and African independence. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances. 1. Driva' Man 5 14 2. Freedom Day 6 05 3.

Vinyl LP pressing. Roach's solid group featuring Ray Bryant, Julian Priester, and Stanley and Tommy Turrentine are joined by the great Abbey Lincoln on vocals for two tracks, InchNever Leave MeInch and Cole Porter's InchI Concentrate On You.Inch A fantastic and often overlooked album, this is the first US reissue since the album's in 1960. The Verve By Request Series features 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in Detroit. Album Tracks 1. You're Mine, You 2. Come Rain or Come Shine 3. Wild Is the Wind 4. Speak Low 5. I Concentrate on You 6. Moon Faced, Starry Eyed 1. Never Let Me Go 2. Namely You 3. Never Leave Me

French producer and live performer Terence Fixmer continues to evolve as an artist while maintaining his influential stance in international techno culture. Following his 2010 album Comedy of Menace (EDLX 010 CD), his continuous evolution has led him to produce his most introspective album yet. With this ten-piece composition, Fixmer is able to tell a story from start to finish, with powerful, deep, dark, pulsating tones that are essential to his musical approach. Depth Charged is a complete concept, as Fixmer's track arrangement takes the audience through various emotions illustrating how there is more to darkness than the dancefloor. Beginning with a slow but heavy bassline, Ellipse acts as a perfect introduction, setting the attitude for the album. Fleeting Beauty brings US fluttering chords amidst a serpentine drone, while the rolling bass of Unforeseen sends the listener into a trancelike state. Purity distracts the listener with it's raw analog warmth filled with extraterrestrial energy. Inside of Me, selected by Marcel Dettmann for his 2014 Fabric 77 mix (FABRIC 153 CD), and Outside of Me are both very dark tracks, filled with atmospheric suspense and quaking rhythms. Beyond is a pure exemplar of Fixmer's signature style with an infectious progression sending anyone to the dancefloor as Pallid Light follows it's footsteps filling a bit more radiance into a modern techno sound. Thoughts shows another emotion of the album with deeper, dub-like sonorities leading to the final track. Concluding the odyssey is Elevation, the most melodic track on the album. Beautifully deep, undulating, and atmospheric, it is a breath of fresh air that brings the listener back to reality. Raf Simons chose this track to accompany the showcase of his works for Dior at the 2014 CFDA Awards. With it's profound, mystifying tones that rise and fall, Depth Charged is the epitome of Fixmer'