Duke Ellington – Ellington Indigos – Impex Records 180g Stereo Vinyl
Winner of a Gruvy Award, chosen by AnalogPlanet’s editor, Michael Fremer, for vinyl records that are musically and sonically outstanding and are also well mastered and pressed.
An all-analog shot of pure Duke at his most soulfully nocturnal. From the cats who brought you Time Further Out and Friday and Saturday Nights At the Blackhawk. Impex Records is making your nights a little cooler.
Arnett Cobb – Ballads By Cobb – Analogue Productions 180g Stereo Vinyl
Originally released in November 1960, Ballads by Cobb, as its title suggests, is all slow ballads, putting the emphasis on the Texas tenor’s warm tone.
A Texas tenor player in the tradition of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb’s accessible playing was between swing and early rhythm & blues. His stomping, robust style earned him the title “Wild Man of the Tenor Sax.”
Sonny Rollins – Rollins Plays For Bird – Analogue Productions 180g (Mono) Vinyl
Eric Dolphy – Outward Bound (Stereo) – Analogue Productions 180g Vinyl
Eric Dolphy has sometimes been described as an iconoclast, but in Outward Bound, he was not overturning his idol, Charlie Parker; he was building on Bird’s legacy. So deep was Dolphy’s musicianship, so free his imagination, that he enchanted trailblazers like John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. Partnering in this collection with the brilliant trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and a stunning rhythm section, Dolphy is at a peak of energy and creativity on alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute. He and Hubbard work with empathy reminiscent of the young Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Pianist Jaki Byard, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Roy Haynes were ideal accompanists and co-conspirators in this widely influential work.