Johnny Winter – Johnny Winter – 180G Speakers Corner Vinyl
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
McCoy Tyner – Time For Tyner Lp (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) – Blue Note Vinyl
The great pianist McCoy Tyner made his Blue Note debut with The Real McCoy in 1967 soon after departing John Coltrane’s quartet and returned to the studio months after Coltrane’s death to record Tender Moments with an expanded ensemble featuring a 6-piece horn section. For his 3rd Blue Note date Time For Tyner, recorded in 1968, the pianist went a different direction by assembling a hornless quartet with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Freddie Waits. Tyner and Hutcherson’s first recorded encounter came on the vibraphonist’s 1966 Blue Note album Stick-Up, and here their musical comradery deepened even further.
Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder (Blue Note Classic Series) – Blue Note Vinyl
Lee Morgan’s magnum opus The Sidewinder—recorded in 1963 and release in 1964—was both a comeback and a coronation. The prodigious trumpeter had debuted on Blue Note in 1956 at the age of 18, but personal problems in the early-60s forced him off the scene temporarily. His rebound recording turned out to be The Sidewinder, an assured and energetic set of 5 indelible Morgan originals featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins. The album became his biggest commercial success fueled by the irrepressible title track.