2007 import release, a unique music and dialogue sound collage of Swinging London in 1968; a time of exciting developments in all the artistic fields and a time when England set cultural standards that the world is still trying to emulate. Protagonists central to the scene are included here: Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones discussing revolution; his manager Andrew Loog Oldham explaining business philosophy; the young Michael Caine debating morals in the context of the permissive society; Julie Christie on fame and Lee Marvin on Mini cars and mini skirts! The dialogue is edited against brilliant historic London Pop of the period: big hits such as the Small Face's 'Itchychoo Park' and 'Here Come the Nice', Chris Farlowe's memorable number one 'Out of Time', 'If Paradise is Half as Nice' by the Amen Corner and mercurial Psychedelia; the Marquis of Kensington, Fleur de Lys, Duncan Browne, Billy Nicholls and the first line up of Humble Pie featuring Steve Marriott and "the Face of 1968" - Peter Frampton. Special mention too for an early song from Vashti. El.

"Pulse" (1984) is an album by Ronald Shannon Jackson, an innovative drummer and bandleader who was a key figure in the avant-garde jazz and free jazz scenes. Known for his intense rhythms and adventurous musical approach, Jackson was heavily influenced by his work with other jazz greats, including Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, and had a significant impact on the evolution of jazz drumming, especially in the realm of post-bop and free jazz.

In early 1961, a 19 year old Bob Dylan, having dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year, travelled to New York City, ostensibly to visit his idol Woody Guthrie, hospitalised with Huntingdon's Disease. He headed straight for Greenwich Village, by then the epicentre of the folk music revival that Dylan was hoping to become a part of. In his recent autobiography Chronicles he writes; 'Greenwich was full of full of folk clubs and bars and those of us who played them all played the old timey folk songs, rural blues and dance tunes'.

A wonderful view of what is "American" in contemporary American music from an Italian producer's perspective, with a nice cover photo of Joey's Navajo Cafe and Dining Room framed by several pickup trucks parked outside. Including rhythmic-based music and sound-text rhythms from ordinary speech (Allen Ginsberg's works), some dreamy electronic music by Pauline Oliveros, and solo jazz by Steve Lacy, this is an interesting collection of new recordings and reissues of tracks from out of print or hard to get vinyl releases. The recording contains Allen Ginsberg's "Hum Bomb" (1992), Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" (live, 1976), Michael Galasso's "Baroque" (live, 1992), Ben Neill's "Bal," John Cage's "Third Construction" (from a 1983 Italian studio recording), David Behrman's "A Traveller's Dream Journal (EWR-LAX)" (1992), Pauline Oliveros' "A Woman Sees How the World Goes With No Eyes" (from the Lovely Music release Crone Music), Steve Lacy performing Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica," John Zorn and Andrea Centazzo's "First Environment for Sextet" (recorded in New York on WKCR radio in 1978 and appearing on Environment for Sextet released by Ictus Records), and Allen Ginsberg's "Father Death Blues."

To mark the tenth anniversary of the release of I’m New Here , the thirteenth - and last - studio album from the legendary US musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron, XL Recordings will release a unique reinterpretation of the album by acclaimed US jazz musician Makaya McCraven. The Chicago drummer and producer transforms Gil-Scott Heron's final album into a masterpiece of dirty blues, spiritual jazz, and deep yearning. (Pitchfork)

Dikt (2005) is a collaboration between Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem and renowned playwright Jon Fosse. The album features a blend of Seglem’s evocative saxophone and soundscapes paired with Fosse's spoken word poetry. The music, which intertwines jazz, electronic elements, and improvisation, complements the minimalist, meditative nature of Fosse’s writing. This project is a poetic exploration of themes such as silence, nature, and existential reflection.

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues." His music, most notably on Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul.

August's 2022 COVERMOUNT CD is Break It Up! 14 exciting tracks from our cover star’s New York art rock milieu. Patti Smith, Moondog, Richard Hell, Jon Spencer, Sonic Youth and more!

There is something inherently objectionable when a billionaire acquires an artistic masterpiece by say, Leonardo DaVinci or Claude Monet, only to sequester it from public view. You might feel the same about Julius Hemphill‘s recordings Dogon A.D. (1972) and ‘Coon Bid’ness (1975). Both five star recordings, now out of print, cost a small fortune to acquire. Years ago saxophonist Tim Berne, a disciple of Hemphill, endeavored to rescue the saxophonist’s Blue Boyé (1977) by rereleasing it in 1999 on Screwgun records. In that same spirit, this seven-CD boxset delivers seven-and-a-half hours of Hemphill’s music. The kicker is that it is all previously unheard and unreleased until now. The boxset is a labor of love from another Hemphill disciple and former band mate…

Cereal Music is William Parker’s first spoken word album – poetry and observations from a profound life devoted to the path of finding truth in beauty and speaking truth to power. Parker’s words are further illuminated by deeply sensitive sound design created by an equally long-time compatriot on the same path, producer and singer Ellen Christi.

William Walton first foundsuccess in the early 1920s, when he set to music a cycle of abstract poems by Edith Sitwell, whom he was the protégé in his early career. A very inventive score, quite modernist, written for wind sextet, percussion and cello, in which the poems are recited and not sung. Though the suites are popular and often recorded, the original version is quite rare! Featuring as narrators, two great figures of British acting: Fenella Fielding (known for her distinctive voice and numerous recordings of audio books) and Michael Flanders.

This literary movement built itself around underground jazz culture, which expressed liberation of body and soul. Inspired by jazzmen and hep cats, the Beat Generation hipsters rejected traditional values, embraced African-American musics, travelling, drugs, a free sex lifestyle as well as spirituality. Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and On the Road author Jack Kerouac launched the radical American counterculture that thrived in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving a tremendous mark on lifestyles, and on the world of arts and opinions — hippies and punks alike. In partnership with the Centre Pompidou on the occasion of the “Beat Generation” exhibition in Paris, the story of the Beat Generation is told by Bruno Blum in a 32-page booklet. PATRICK FRÉMEAUX

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) is considered a literary iconoclast and a pioneer of the Beat Generation (along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg) who is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement.

British-Trinidadian poet/musician/author Anthony Joseph’s latest album contains multitudes. Operating as a dedication to poetic ancestors and a coming together of musical generations, The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for their Lives is also an almighty jam. Recorded live last August, it shows off the prowess of a team of master musicians (Shabaka Hutchings among others) from Paris and London. Jason Yarde, who also produced Joseph’s 2018 album is credited as producer/composer/arranger – to startling, albeit intimate, effect.

Maybe John Cooper Clarke's brief window of fame passed with the demise of punk. But his poems are every bit as arch and funny now as they were in the '70s. There are sly wordplay, groaning puns, and also plenty of strong social observation. He essentially took the ethos of the Liverpool poets of the '60s, using common language and bringing in lots of humor, but made his mark through speech, not print. This collection, cherry-picked from his major-label work, is an absolute joy. Backed by the relatively all-star Invisible Girls (which included Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks), the Bard of Salford deadpans his way through the epic "Psycle Sluts (Parts 1 & 2)," "The Day My Pad Went Mad," and the piece that really gave him his first big exposure, "I Married a Monster From Outer Space." But in "Beasley Street" and "Postwar Glamour Girls" there's a more serious undercurrent happening, while "Kung Fu International," for all its lightheartedness, shows that little has changed in English street violence, and "Twat" remains as deliberately outrageous and hilarious as it was on its initial release. Culled from the four albums Cooper Clarke did for Epic, it shows that what was good then is still good. The world needs a Cooper Clarke for the new millennium.