Miles Davis
Miles Davis Live - What It Is (Montreal 7/7/83)

RESILIENT VESSELS LIVE AT THE CELL by James Brandon Lewis, Patrick Holmes, Ches Smith & Josh WernerNew York city based bassist and visual artist Josh Werner was awarded an artist in residence from The Cell Gallery located in New York NY. As a part of this residency which occurred in the month of July 2020, Josh presented various works in different mediums from visual art to music. In lue of the 2020 pandemic Josh was unable to present music to a live audience and instead offered a pre-recorded live performance to be aired at a later date. Werner was able to put together an ensemble of some of the leading improvisors on the New York City scene in that of James Brandon Lewis, Ches Smith and Patrick Holmes. One of the leading jazz pioneers Ornette Coleman once expressed himself by saying " you know more, but i feel more ". During these turbulent times this statement resonates with this ensemble; it's one that embodies the acknowledgement of feelings within your being to then pour into the music being presented. This ensemble draws from proceeding generations of musicians such as Don Cherry, Roy Ayers, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Tribe Called Quest and the energy of the downtown art rock movement.Personnel:JAMES BRANDON LEWIS saxophonePATRICK HOLMES clarinetCHES SMITH drumsJOSH WERNER bassProduced by Josh Werner and James Brandon LewisRecorded and engineered by Ricardo Romaneiro at The Cell TheaterMixed by Daniel Schlett at Strange WeatherMastered by Louis Henry Sarmiento II, Sonic Vista Studios, Ibiza, SpainLacquer Cut by Jukka Sarapää, Timmion CuttingDesign by Ilja TulitReleased and distributed by RR GEMS Records © 2021 RRGEMS10

Natural Law by mfp

After the recent reissue of their first eponymous album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents Vegas, the second LP from Venezuelan band Esperanto. Rare and sought-after for many collectors, it was recorded in between Las Vegas and Caracas and originally released in 1981. Following bandleader Jorge Aguilar in his musical trip to the infamous American city bathing into flashing lights and vivid colors, we're invited to an excursion in Disco, Boogie and Jazz-Funk territories. Finally reissued, fully remastered, Vegas will be available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP.

Obnoxius by José Mauro

Thirty years in the making, Kraig Kilby’s Satori is an exercise in perspective. The classically-trained trombonist and pianist put down his professional roots in the Soul, Jazz, and Funk scenes of 1970s California, contributing to records by Bennie Maupin and Dynasty as well as touring and recording consistently with The Whispers and Etta James. While off the road in the SF Bay Area, he found himself adjacent to some of the most forward-thinking and far-out Jazz musicians of the time. He asked two of them, bassist Paul Jackson and drummer Michael Clark, to help him realize a set of his own compositions. The duo, already legendary for their roles in Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters band, went into the studio with Kilby to record the foundational tracks in the spring of 1977. Throughout the next four years, he would return on his own to apply layer after layer of additional instrumentation, up to the absolute limits of what was possible with the available equipment. This exacting process gave the sessions an unusual and compelling signature that bears something in common with the contemporaneous work of the Mizell Brothers, Norman Connors’ Aquarian Dream, and Detroit’s Tribe Records, but with a depth and lyricism unique to Kilby’s sense of harmony that lies amorphously between the worlds of 70’s Jazz, Funk, and Experimental Rock. Kraig's busy touring schedule throughout the following decades would leave the album fermenting until 2007, when it was paired with two more recent improvisational recordings and self-released on CD.Satori's mercurial twists and turns lead us through a dense sequence of melodic and rhythmic figures as calculated as they are tripped, always at the edge but navigated with a precise sense of balance. Rife with hooks that will startle even the most seasoned breakbeat sleuth and sheets of emotive texture that sound right at home with today’s wave of Cosmic Jazz torchbearers, it spins like a collector's fever dream, surely one of the most prescient Jazz albums to have fallen through the cracks. Upstart Detroit label Just Us is pleased to offer this crucial missing link on vinyl for the first time.