THE MUSIC CLASSIC INFO

This classic album of deep Jazz was originally released in 1976. Steve Reid is one of the featured artists on Soul Jazz Records "Universal Sounds of America" alongside The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders. This record has never been released in the UK and was limited to 1000 copies in the USA in 1976! Steve Reid has played with, amongst others, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Dionne Warwicke, Archie Shepp, Chief Bey, Olatunji, Arthur Blythe, Lester Bowie, Dextor Gordon, Gary Bartz, James Brown, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sam Rivers, Leon Thomas, Fela Kuti, Fats Domino, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Lonnie Smith, Horace Silver! He has played in the house band at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, accompanying James Brown, as well as playing in Sun Ra's Arkestra! Also, Steve Reid lived next to John Coltrane, worked in a department store with Ornette Coleman, has a son who is the drummer for NWA, spent two years in jail as a conscientious objector of Vietnam, played drums on Martha and The Vandellas "Heatwave" (aged 14), released records on his own Mustevic Sound label in the 1970s and is a very cool person.

Tracklisting

1. Nova
2. Lions Of Judah
3. Free Spirits-Unknown
4. Long Time Black
5. Sixth House

Definately one of my favorite albums. Enjoy. All credit is due to ORGYINRHYTHM for turning me on to this one, long, long ago...

"It’s been a long time coming. In fact, for the past 8 years and 37 issues, we’ve wanted to do a Curtis Mayfield cover. It finally worked out for our unofficial Film/Hustler Issue, in which we take a look at Mayfield’s epic soundtrack recording, Super Fly. New York writer Michael Gonzales pulls from his own 1996 Curtis Mayfield interview as well as tapping Curtis associates, guitarists Craig McMullen and Phil Upchurch and composer/arranger Johnny Pate, to tell the story of the finest blaxploitation score of the 1970s.

Once again, we’ve created a split cover–with Curtis on front both times and the back shared by two classic films: Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (Radio Raheem in full effect) and Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin (a Wax Poetics favorite). Besides speaking with both of these groundbreaking filmmakers, we also take a look at the new film Black Dynamite (an official Wax Poetics Records release), and music supervisor David Hollander reveals the fundamental facts of once-mysterious library music.

Last but not least, we finally unveil the Robert Beck aka Iceberg Slim story by longtime contributer Mark McCord (aka Mark Skillz). As the greatest hustler of all time, Beck finally gets his due.

Featured Articles:
Curtis Mayfield
“I don’t see why people are complaining about the subject of these films,” Curtis told Jet magazine in October 1972 in a statement that foreshadows the words of modern-day rappers. “The way you clean up the films is by cleaning up the streets. The music and movies of today are the conditions that exist.”

Spike Lee
What gets me mad about Bamboozled is that the New York Times refused to run the ad with Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover in blackface. The whole thing about the film was to show that there is a history behind this imagery.

Ralph Bakshi
When I was doing Mighty Mouse and The Mighty Heroes, I didn’t like what I was doing. That wasn’t the raw edge of life I grew up with. Bob Dylan was singing, the freedom marches were happening, Miles Davis was blowin’, and the stuff Coltrane was doing was brand new. So doing this stupid, old bullshit wasn’t good enough.

Also Includes:
Re:Discovery Melvin Van Peebles, Manfred Krug, Marvin Gaye, Judgment Night OST & John Carpenter; Roc Raida The Grand Master; Shadows and Phonographs: This sinister role of the turntable in Hollywood classics; Brotherman Blaxploitation soundtrack for a film that wasn't meant to be; Adrian Younge: Black Dynamite composer refuses to cut corners with his authentic old soul; Gangs On Film The South Bronx of 1979 documented in 80 Blocks from Tiffany's; Night Life Photographer Michael Abramson captured the magic of 1970s South Side Chicago; The Rhythm of Film DJ/producer David Holmes approaches soundtrack composition with a less-is-more philosophy; Mood Music European libraries created soulful instrumentals for '70s film and television; The Next Hustle Ex-pimp Robert Beck transformed into writer Iceberg Slim, introducing a new genre for literature, film and music; Comic Truth Animation and indie film pioneer Ralph Bakshi drew attention to race and culture;
Gangster Boogie Curtis Mayfield injected his own cultural commentary into the Super Fly legacy; The Provocateur Director Spike Lee continues to tell personal stories by any means necessary; Playing It Straight Black Dynamite director Scott Sanders crafts high-caliber blaxploitation homage; Analog Out Cybernetics, Louis and Bebe Barron, and the sonic life-forms of Forbidden Planet...

Issue available Friday November 13th

Another HUMUNGOUS drop by my man Ivan over @ HIPHOPISREAD. I had been personally bugging the shit outta him on TWITTER to drop this, and lucky for all of us out here in musicland, he did. Personally the sample track for "New-Wu" makes the comp well worth it... Coming in at a wopping 135MBs, you will definately not be disappointed with the amount of music which is contained here. Cheers HIPHOPISREAD... Here's a track listing:

Wax Poetics presents the Midnight Hour, with special guests the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra, playing a bonus track from the original score available only at WaxPoetics.com - brought to you by Anaconda Malt Liquor.

Coming in at just under 5 minutes in length, you'll gain some rare insight into exactly what it took to create one of the most original soundtrack scores of this decade, courtesy of Adrian Younge, WaxPoetics, and the makers of the film "Black Dynamite." Cheers!!

"This a ground-breaking blend of concentrated funk, electronica, soul, and futureheaded jazz rock. William S. Fischer, the musical director for the 1960's soul funk experiments of Eddie Harris, Eugene McDaniels and Les McCann, released this amazing debut solo album for the Embryo label in 1970. Some of these songs would later appear in the 1971 streets of New York drug movie "Born To Win" starring Robert De Niro & Karen Black. This album features both Ron Carter and Billy Cobham..." Courtesy of Amazon.com

"William S. Fischer worked mostly as a session arranger, but this schizophrenic outing (produced by Herbie Mann) found him tossing ideas in different directions to see which ones travelled furthest. Not always satisfying, with the good to great Moog explorations of "Electrix" and "Capsule" being offset by the uninspired soul of "Patience is Virtue" and "There's A Light That Shines", Circles represents more of a curiosity than a necessity..." Courtesy of The Kozmigroov Konnection



Track Listing:
1. Patience Is Virtue
2. Saigon
3. Electrix
4. Chains
5. There's A Light That Shines
6. Circle
7. Green Forever
8. Capsule

Thanks to My Jazz World for this. Peace!


Satanologysts, wizardologysts, specialists in various types of palingenesis, famed talmudists and other studious of witchery agree to the importance of music in the old akelarres. Having been burnt some of our witches by the roman Inquisition, the others seeked for shelter in their subterranean homes.

A fantastic world was formed then. Basque witches and sorcerers prosecuted by Pierre de Lancre, alied with an old jewish gnome -who claimed to be a cousin of Spinoza- did invoke the underground spirits of black fugitive slaves who escaped from the razzias that our European ancestors, in the name of civilization, took to Africa. (from Sorta's original liner notes)

Weird and obscure as they come... in 1972 arranger William S. Fischer lands in the basque country and produces some funky reinterprations of popular basque folklore songs and dances, all around the theme of witchery and covens (Akelarre). As crazy and weird as it may sound, this record is virtually unheard of in collector's circles.

How the musical director for Atlantic Records and arranger for Wilson Pickett, Roberta Flack, Eugene McDaniels, Les McCann , Herbie Mann and countless others got involved with this project is up to everyone's guess. However what he comes up with is really astounding, a funky as hell workout which will get you screaming for more. Killer go go psychedelic soul which defies categorisation: tight rhythm section, open drum breaks, funky as hell guitar leads, groovy flute, weird electronic sound effects and moog bits (most likely courtesy of Walter E. Sear, who gets a mention in the original liners) alternate with more stylish moments (think Terry Callier or blaxpotation soundtracks of the era like Marvin Gaye's Troubleman) and even some fusion styled groovers.

Enjoy this album, because this one is one of my all time favorites, and is always in steady rotation.

Track Listing:

A1. Bat Bi Hiru Lau
A2. Gurea Da
A3. Etatiro Etatiro
A4. Pello Joxepe
A5. Euskaldunak Gara
B1. Eguntto Batez
B2. Ruten Ari Nuzu
B3. Ene Izar Maitea
B4. Xarmangarria
B5. Txori Erresinula

Got turned on to this while searching the net for something rare, and out of the ordinary, and started to notice a lot of funk/soul/break sites talking about this VERY hard to find LP, and low & behold, our friends over at A Pyrex Scholar were nice enough to unearth this soul/funk/gospel for all of us. This post has gotten a shitload of views since it's debut back in January, so if you could please stop off and drop him a comment or two, and read his write-up concerning the record, it'd be much appreciated. Later.