Johnny Mbizo Dyani’s forgotten gem

 

I’m a collector and lover of South African jazz and I cherish some superb records on Ogun and Steeplechase labels where I learned to appreciate Johnny Dyani’s double-bass and high merits as a composer.

I wasn’t aware of this 1984 disc, recorded and pressed in Sweden, until today and - fortunately - I grabbed it, pronto as it was a new old stock copy sitting unmolested for the last 42 years on a shelf in a shop where nobody knew about the A M A Z I N G musical content!

The music, often dedicated to ZA hero Nelson Mandela, sounds so fresh and lifelike, so distant from the over-polished salon-jazz far too common these days.

The contagious joy pouring from this awesome disc is palpable… no selfish solists, here, but great musicians “born under the heat” swinging and having good time on November 18th, 1983 in the cold Stockholm.

I love South Africa and this music 🇿🇦 

The cycle is complete: Don Ewell Quartette

 

… yes, Quartette, not Quartet, as per the cover of my newly found - after a 40+ years search - original sought-after copy on Audiophile AP-66 label and extremely well-sounding mono red-vinyl: a record I heartfeltly love for it’s energetic sound and optimistic feeling.

A 1959 humble masterpiece, indeed.

I previously only owned, enjoyed and cherished the Analogue Production limited/numbered edition…

After finally grabbing the mono original wax, I must say: WOW! 

It’s simply one of my best sounding discs!

🍀

Spinning now: last Bill Frisell’s 💫

 

I’m enjoying the last double album by one of my heroes: Mr. Frisell.

The music, angular and fractal, cerebral and natural, easy flows from the four sides of the Blue Note’s discs.

The ensemble is highly embellished by the presence and sound of Eyvind Kang’s viola which acts like an human voice, so expressively.

Everything sounds almost telepathic among the musicians and the live recording on most of the tracks is even more impressive.

A nice one 

💫

John Mayall’s 61 years old debut 💫

 

A timeless masterpiece, a time-bending and a life-changing one: after this disc, nothing was the same.

💫

Spinning now… the “other” Tago Mago 💫

 

The elusive UK first pressing 🤟

Spinning now - Lord Krishna Von Goloka 💫💫💫

 

From Switzerland 🇨🇭, one of the most well kept secrets!

💫

The Fractal turntable from outer space 💫

 

The Absolute Nothing… no, I’m not disrespectfully offending this one of a kind turntable… it’s - apparently - its brand-name/model.💫

Amazing frames from a video showing this incredible turntable… must dig and know more…

Thanks, Maestro Towner 💫

 

Spinning now - CAN 💫

 

ReVox 🇨🇭

 

Vintage’60s 1:1 size foldable ReVox G36 brochure

ReVox G36 MkIII: red seal was for 2 tracks and green seal for 4 tracks machines 💫

Class isn’t water.

💫

Don Cherry previously unavailable recordings 💫

 

I loved Don Cherry most of my life… his records and disks occupy a considerable space in my discotheque, yet it’s a joy and a time-machine feeling finding new material from his Organic Music era in early ‘70s.

 Two double-CDs boxes worth the attention of every Don’s scholar and appreciator.

💫

Studer A-730 MkI

 

I’ve owned this CD player for 30+ years, it got two minor surgeries and always played like music.

Today, I gave it a spin and… I admit the TDA-1541-S2 “Double Crowns”  DAC is always surprisingly good and smooth and natural sounding.

Paul Bley’s humming and thundering piano are so lifelike on this recording.

After weeks spent listening to SACDs’ on more “modern” (for my standards, they are ☺️) disk-players, the full bodied, no frills sound of the venerable Studer is as good as the memory of a favorite dish cooked by your mom that you taste again as an adult, immediately returning to being a happy child, again.

💫

David Bowie sez…

 

… ssshhhhh…

I dedicate this picture to… everything Sanremo-related 

😵🥴😵

🫣

Tone Poets’ marvels

 

After a few months of disaffection with the purchase of new beloved vinyl records (probably due to the efforts of transporting and managing several thousand precious vinyl records caused by the closure and emptying of the old Studio and the subsequent move to the new place), I’ve been recently buying some really nice, impeccably manufactured reissues… 

Kevin Gray’s remastering is - as I already appreciated - a labor of love.

Here are two more I got and they’re awesome and worth the expense.

This masterpiece was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder in 1965 and it’s a truly killer sounding disc!

Flawlessly pressed at RTI on very silent (i.e. - compared to other modern pressings) premium vinyl.

💫

Aktuala - Tappeto Volante

 

💫

Happy birthday to David Sylvian

 

Born on February 23rd, 1958

💫💫💫

Mc Kay’s in Nashville 💫

 

I’ve been to countless record and book shops in my life across the planet, and thought I had seen it all. And then I arrived at Mckay's in Nashville today and my head exploded.

The scale of the two-level music, book, video game, and instrument store is unprecedented. It’s 35,000 square feet, or the size of 7-8 NBA basketball courts. Really. Seriously. You almost can’t get your head around it.

The selection of stuff is a real hodgepodge but there are major finds to be had and things are mostly very reasonably priced. I was particularly blown away by the music DVD/Blu-ray section which had many things I didn’t even know existed.

If you’re ever in Nashville, this is a serious destination physical media collectors need to make time for…

Thanks to Anil Prasad for sharing 🙏