Walt Dickerson ‎- 1962 - Relativity

I was never much into vibraphones (and xylophones!) when it comes to jazz. I have mixed feelings about the sound of the instrument. On some albums it gives a good mystical and avant vibe to it while on others it's just plain annoying and out of place. Because of that I know a very little amount of actual musicians that are all about this instrument. Aside from the big ones (Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton) I can't really name any others. I heard about Walt through his Sun Ra collaboration on Visions. I liked it so I decided to check out some of his solo albums. Relativity won't really blow your mind or anything but it will offer a very fine exercise in bebop and hard bop. With just a skeleton crew and vibes this album might sound a bit bare at times but I think it's good as it is. It emphasizes the instrument and creates this unique, distant and calm atmosphere.

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Bix Beiderbecke Anthology

I've talked about this musician before but let me reiterate. This dude was great, so great in fact that Louis Armstrong admired him during a time when everyone else admired Louis Armstrong. Today of course his talent and influence will fly over our head if we don't understand the context and chronology but his music without context still stands as some of the best dixie compositions made during its heyday. For those uninitiated: dixieland jazz was arguably the first fully fleshed out form of jazz. It essentially sounds like wild marching music coupled with short solos and instruments that were later on pretty much abandoned as jazz evolved further. It's fast, happy and unpredictable. No matter how much time passed this music will never feel outdated, to me at least. This anthology will provide you with his records that were made throughout his short career. Starting with the very raw and wild early recordings and slowly proceeding to his much smoother "swing"-like records made at the end of his career. Give it a honest try and you might just find a new genre to adore.

First CD+Covers

Second CD

Third CD

Tracklist and general info here.

Ralfi Pagan ‎- The Legend

I have a very soft spot in my heart for slow, smooth pop songs and Ralfi Pagan is pretty much just that. Cheesy love songs with a bit of a latin salsa thing was all this dude had in mind and they're fucking beautiful. His voice is light and heavenly so all songs have a very dreamy texture. He made a couple of albums in the 70s and that's it so this compilation offers a good introduction to his music. If you're in the mood for simple love songs this is a great choice.

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Try.

Billy Harper ‎- 1975 - Black Saint

I've shared Billy's music before but I haven't actually talked about him or his style. Capra Black, which was the album I shared before was a very operatic and grandiose album with ambitious compositions that were very impressive for a debut album especially by a not very well known musician at that. He did have a music degree before recording it so it's not all that surprising that he managed to pull it off. on Black Saint he takes things to smaller but more tighter scales. Starting off the album with a riff that sounds like the composition is about to evolve into an elaborate Colors cover it quickly dissolves into a very organized, traditional and relaxed modal jazz trip. After this relatively calm introduction we get two longer compositions with first being a bit of a mixed bag mainly because the fucking cowbell is damn too loud. Aside from the annoying cowbell everything else is more free and more loose musically which offers space for more improvisational and more intense solos (piano being the centerpiece here). Lastly the album drifts off with a whopping 21 minute spiritual which lets all the musicians play at their hearts content fully immersing the sound and feeling of later Coltrane sound. Although a bit self indulgent this lesser known album is still a good experience if you've exhausted all the well known players.

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Frankie Cosmos ‎- 2014 - Zentropy

Frankie Cosmos is a twee pop project of Greta Kline and she's slowly but surely climbing up the fame steps by recently releasing an album on the Sub Pop label and doing world wide tours. But before all this she made a slew of self-released mini albums from 2012 up til 2014. Zentropy is probably the best of the bunch offering short and diverse songs which are all distinct from one another. Throughout the varied songs a constant form of self-hating and not so serious lyrical themes lurks behind the mainly happy melodies. Overall it's a great little album worth your attention even though some songs feel unfinished but they're all cute. Great for short bus trips.

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