The Miles Davis: The Electric Years box set collects seven albums from one of the most daring eras of Miles Davis’ career — In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On The Corner, Big Fun and Get Up With It.
Starting in 1969 and ending in 1974, this box tells the story of a fertile period in Miles’ career, the third or fourth time he basically blew up the rules of jazz and made it again in his own image. Endlessly influential, these albums impacted basically every genre of music to follow in their wake. The albums have all been mastered AAA from 1-to-1 tape transfers of the master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. With GRAMMY Award-winning Steve Berkowitz supervising and consulting, the 11 LPs featured in the box come on 180g black vinyl, pressed at GZ, and will be limited in the first edition to 2,000 units. You can learn the story of these albums via an extensive Listening Notes booklet written by jazz historian and critic Ben Ratliff.

In July of 1960, in protest against what they considered the failings of the jazz scene and the accelerating commercialization of the annual Newport Jazz Festival, Charles Mingus and Max Roach staged their own "rebel" festival at nearby Cliff Walk Manner, RI. The rebels set up their own tents for sleeping, built their own stage, handled advertising, promotion, ticket taking and MC duties. By all accounts the concert was wholly inspired and a peaceful affair. Meanwhile, what was supposed to be an alternative festival turned out to be the only one in town. Unable to disperse an intoxicated mob of young people seeking access to the sold-out show at Freebody Park, the actual Newport Jazz Festival ended abruptly in a full scale riot. Despite the fact that these sessions were held in the studio, the music reflects the high-spirited freedom of the best jazz played at the original setting with nearly all of it improvised during the recording. Of particular note is the Booker Little track "Cliff Walk," which features both Max Roach and Jo Jones, two of the greatest jazz drummers ever, trading off. 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. This recording is remastered by legendary mastering engineer, Bernie Grundman.

The theme for “Quiet as the Moon” was composed for a Peanuts television series, “This is America, Charlie Brown,” in which the Peanuts characters flew to the moon on a NASA space ship. Later, I set for chorus words by my wife, Iola, that describe the exquisite harmony of the universe, and acknowledges the interrelationships of mankind and the stars, earth, and moon. She based her lyrics on something Astronomer Don Brownlee wrote: “The atoms in our bodies have all resided inside stars. Most of these atoms were actually produced inside stars in the distant past. These atoms…four and a half billion years ago formed into our present solar system…. We are quite literally made from stardust.”

Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) is a set of never-before-released recordings of jazz piano icon Bill Evans, taped with excellent sound quality either live or in Danish TV and Radio studios in the mid-to-late 1960s. Treasures is truly a ’holy grail’ discovery culled from the private collection of Danish jazz musician Ole Matthiessen and being released for the very first time as a deluxe 2-CD set (a limited edition 180-gram 3-LP set)

Pharoah Sanders' third Impulse! album, 1969's Karma, is a milestone of the Spiritual Jazz movement and a natural progression in the sonic exploration that Sanders, along with John and Alice Coltrane, had spearheaded over the previous five years. "The Creator Has a Master Plan" is as close as Spiritual Jazz comes to having its own anthem. Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

The prodigious trumpeter Freddie Hubbard debuted on Blue Note in 1960 and produced an astounding run of recordings over the first half of the decade that culminated with Blue Spirits, which was the last of his 1960s studio albums for the label. This bluesy and spirited album presented five evocative Hubbard originals, each of which was given a richly textured arrangement for an ensemble that included a dynamic four-horn line-up. Drawn from two different sessions, the first date produced the gratifying opening track “Soul Surge” and the percolating “Cunga Black” with Hubbard joined by James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Kiane Zawadi on euphonium, Harold Mabern on piano, Larry Ridley on bass, Clifford Jarvis on drums, and Big Black on congas. A week later Hubbard returned to Van Gelder Studio with Spaulding, Zawadi, and a slightly different line-up including Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Pete LaRoca on drums. This 2nd session rounded out the album with hard-charging performances of “Outer Forces” and “Jodo,” as well as the mesmerizing title track.

Perhaps the perfect starting point for a reappraisal of Duke Pearson’s underrated career is his fantastic and aptly titled 1967 album The Right Touch. The album stands as perhaps the finest in Pearson’s discography and is a showcase of his sublime talents as a pianist, composer, and arranger. The Right Touch is comprised of six memorable Pearson compositions arranged for a dynamic 8-piece band featuring trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Garnett Brown, alto saxophonist James Spaulding, alto saxophonist/flutist Jerry Dodgion, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Grady Tate. Highlights of the set include the picante opener “Chili Peppers,” the lightly swinging “Make It Good” (a feature for Pearson’s elegant piano stylings), the exquisite bossa nova ballad “My Love Waits (O Meu Amor Espera)” on which Hubbard’s flugelhorn takes the lead, the down-home blues “Scrap Iron” which seems to have been custom made for Turrentine’s soulful tenor, and the whirling album closer “Rotary” which swings round and round as the soloists each make their emphatic closing statements.

Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series). Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!. 180-gram 45 RPM double LP. Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog tape. Mingus taps blues and roots sources for a joyous swinging outing!. Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings! Gatefold old-style "tip-on" jacket by Stoughton Printing.