Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: The third and most especial edition in the latest selection of versions of the reissued LP by Alonso Toro, Paul Desenne, and Pedro Vasquez - Alzheimer. Coming hot on the heels of an original, as-it-was reissue as well as a gemmy Ricardo Villalobos rerub, this deluxe edition comes in a beautiful yellow and lilac LP box, and features the latter's two remixes as well as an exclusive Wetsuit Je Me Souviens version. A curio of the Venezuelan vanguard, the album was recorded between January 1997-99, and hears the fabled trio of musicians "forget everything" that came before, enlisting the recorded help of every member of the animal kingdom - from mammals to insects - and shooting squarely for a whole new sound-world-order in the process. Sonically flowing between heritage Latin music and minimal electronica, the purpose is to confuse and the effect is indeed confounding, though no less dazzling.

Review: This is a very special and exclusive new version of what is a sonnet cold classic album from the annals of jazz history. Few albums hold the prestige of Getz/Gilberto which was released in 1964 and is a special collaboration between saxophonist Stan Getz, guitarist Joao Gilberto, and composer Antonio Carlos Jobim which very much represents a pinnacle moment in the fusion of jazz and bossa nova. Across its ten tracks, the album weaves a mesmerisng tapestry of melody and rhythm, casting a spell that continues to captivate listeners over half a century later. At the heart lies the symbiotic relationship between two musical giants: Stan Getz, the virtuosic tenor saxophonist renowned for his velvety tone and lyrical phrasing and Joao Gilberto, the Brazilian guitarist and vocalist whose soft, intimate delivery epitomizes the essence of bossa nova.

Review: Knitting Factory and Partisan Records share the sixth instalment of the much-anticipated vinyl reissue box-sets from the Fela Kuti catalog. Box #6 is curated by actor, producer, DJ, rapper and singer, Idris Elba (aka. DJ Big Driis). Limited to an edition of 5,000 worldwide, this one includes a 24-page booklet with lyrics, commentaries by Afrobeat historian Chris May, together with some never-before-seen photos, not to mention a 16x24" poster designed by Lemi Ghariokwu, the creative force behind many of Fela's greatest album covers. Previous curators include Chris Martin, Erykah Badu, Ginger Baker, Brian Eno, and Questlove.

Notes: Cover art by Detroit-based graphic artist Lucy Cahill depicts Wanda Jackson as an alien because why not; with additional recent works by her inside the issue.

Glasgow's justly beloved Belle & Sebastian, hot on the heels of a US tour and their best record in ages, deliver unto us decades' worth of posters and ephemera, with an interview with Stuart Murdoch on the history of the group's aesthetics. Novelist and longtime friend David Gordon lets us run the full text of his archival talk with celebrated painter and author Duncan Hannah (RIP -- and yes he goes into detail about the Lou Reed incident described in Please Kill Me). Kevin Esquire spent hours with Motown's almost-star from the 1960s and '70s, Christina Carter, and we have unpublished archival images and many amazing anecdotes.

Speaking of Motown, did you know that the son of the great Marxist/Black liberation activist CLR James was in 'mixed race' band Odyssey, who had a record on Motown? We have a great feature on that. Fascinating discussion between guitarist-singer-songriter-innovators Chris Forsyth and Steve Wynn.

There is an amazing excerpt from Ben Berton's new book on Dan Treacy and the TV Personalities, detailing how the first 7" came together and John Peel inadvertently named the band. Nate Carlson goes deep on the Tony Iommi era of Black Sabbath. Why Buffy Saint-Marie matters, now more than ever, by writer and musician Emily Pothast. One of our favorite writers, Sara Jaffe, tells us how her own grandfather wrote the song 'I'm My Own Grandpa'! No, really! That alone is worth admission. Plus -- there's a terrific and long and excellently illustrated feature on the country and experimental steel guitarist Barry Walker Jr by Tom Humphrey.

Our SF Indie Scene Report: 2022 is so well done that it's going to knock your socks off. Plus, Lucy Sante and Mimi Lipson and the tape column and Katie Lass on her soon-to-be classic Hypnopomp LP and the great Jay Ruttenberg on Sessa, whew.

Plus, also of course beautiful images galore, and more besides.

Notes: The cover feature celebrates the enduring, luminous genius of Dolly Parton, with a revealing conversation between Caryn Rose and Lynn Melnick on how her music quite literally saved Melnick's life.

ALSO IN THE ISSUE: OCTAVIA BUTLER - The very full transcript of editor Mike McGonigal's lengthy, in-depth talk with the sci-fi feminist visionary, from 1997. The entire transcript has never appeared in print.

ROLIN-POWERS - The great Michelle Dove on what makes these avant-folk lovebirds tick, and why you should care.

THE CLEAN + HAMISH KILGOUR - An epic, archival interview with the band from 15 years ago, plus a fresh look thanks to Michael Galinsky at why Hamish meant so much to so many.

FRED TOMASELLI - Many pages of his delightful reworkings of New York Times front pages, plus an insightful interview with one of our finest contemporary artists.

CRAZY DOBERMAN - Erick's Bradshaw delivers an epic, well-illustrated tour diary of a brief jaunt with these noise greats.

Plus also

Composer TAYONDAI BRAXTON by Katy Henricksen! - a meaty, beautiful feature on DR. PETE LARSON by Fred Thomas, worlds collide!
An amazing LUCY SANTE column!
Cassette tapes! - Reissue of the issue is the 'Saturn 2' comp of obscure Midwestern '90s shoegaze!
The Bay Area's deliriously good new band GALORE by Jessica Beard!
A beloved celebrity writes in to Mimi Lipson's advice column!
A lengthy excerpt from a great unpublished novel by DAVID GORDON!
Editor Mike McGonigal's tribute to Tom Verlaine!

Notes: Maggot Brain Issue 14 is coming. The Fall 2023 issue is jam-packed!

Cover boy Harry Smith shines thanks to a cheeky, never-before published photo by Allen Ginsberg. We celebrate the life and work of the self-described "ethnopharmacologist" just in time for the release of John Szwed's illuminating biography and Smith's first one-person art exhibition, at the Whitney, with three killer, well-illustrated features (on his Anthology of American Folk Music, an interview by Marc Masters with Szwed, and a terrific dive into Smith's relationship with fellow visual artist and filmmaker Jordan Belson by Raymond Foye). Also in this issue: Andy Beta on the reissue of a forgotten Lou Reed record. Excerpts from two revelatory works- Andy Zax's Extinctophonics, and Christina Ward's Holy Food. Kathy Lindenmayer witnesses a show by Boygenius. An archival interview with fabric arts pioneer and Bauhaus OG, Anni Albers. An illustrated Advance Base tour diary by Owen Ashworth. Tamara Palmer considers the oddball career arc of Orbital. Andy Beta goes deep on Tetsu Inoue. Nate Lippens goes off on Rene Ricard and other obsessions. And Michelle Dove on Cat Power's sense of humour! Plus illustrations throughout by Marly Beyer; and columns by Lucy Sante, Mimi Lipson, Dwight Pavlovic, and editor Mike McGonigal; tributes to Sixto Rodriguez, Esp Summer, and Pee-Wee Herman; and the triumphant return of the Unstapled column, with reproductions of a contemporary basketball fanzine.

Notes: Maggot Brain Issue 16: Spring 2024

This is a really packed, special issue of Maggot Brain, with the feature cover story a comprehensive interview by celebrated writer Sasha Frere-Jones with essayist, Lucy Sante (who's written for every issue of MB since the start), on the occasion of her awesome memoir about transitioning, I Heard Her Call My Name.

Phill Niblock: A tribute to the genius musician, filmmaker, label head, and generous promoter of ecstatic sound, by Steve Silverstein.

Tresa Leigh: An in-depth feature on the star of Efficient Space's beloved Ghost Riders compilation! Really a beautiful, untold story.

Dredd Foole: As his legacy is revealed through Corbett vs Dempsey's archival series, Foole talks to Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny about the role of his band the Din in the Boston underground. Plus sidebars from Christina Carter, Kris Price, and Phil Milstein.

Loopsel: Mike McGonigal on some of the most elusive, beautiful contemporary music, straight out of Gothenburg.

Jeff Noon: An illuminating interview with the British speculative writer on his newest work as well as the 30th anniversary of the stunning Vurt.

Sleater-Kinney: 30 vital years of uncompromising music, by none other than Audrey Golden!

Hudson of Feature Inc.: A celebration of the most innovative gallerist of our lifetime on the occasion of the Soberscove Press book about his work and life.

Shabazz Palaces: The creator of vital, spiritual hip-hop beautifully interviewed by Detroit-based musician and writer Zachary Weedon.

Birtha: Nate Carson's in-depth feature on the pioneering, all-women boogie-choogle act.

Shonto Begay: One of Maggot Brai's favourite contemporary writers, JD O'Brien, in deep discussion with the great Native American painter-with particular emphasis on how his works engage with and are influenced by music. This piece alone is so well-written and illustrated it's worth buying the issue for.

Some columns: The debut of archivist Andy Zax's fabulous 'Extinctophonics' column! Cassette reviews, plus copious book and record reviews as well! Ana Gavrilovska on Detroit-based jazz duo Balance! Nate Carson on the Earth documentary, in the debut of the music documentary column! The latest Icons column finds Michelle Dove exploring the work of Chicago's beloved Douglas McCombs! 13 Questions for contemporary folk great Lael Neale by Mike McGonigal! And more Lucy Sante!

Notes: Maggot Brain is a full-colour, quarterly magazine edited by noted Detroit scribe Mike McGonigal: 100+ pages packed with phenomenal content - art, music, literature, unpublished archival material, and more - with a simple promise to only exist on the printed page.

The cover feature is an epic, really long timeline of images and interview with the modern king of arts portrait photography, Michael Lavine.

Amazing archival images by Gail Butensky and reflections on Pavement + what we think is the band's first new interview in a decade in anticipation of their reusion shows and events later this year
Tom Scharpling talks about prog rock with Matt Berry
A lengthy interview with the SF-based dreamy pop band Cindy by editor Mike McGonigal
Reuben Radding's killer photos and review of a recent show in Brooklyn by Chicago's Irreversible Entanglements
Ana Gavrilovska on why sax player and drone composer Lea Bertucci matters
Sara Jaffe on how essayist Aisha Sabatini Sloan is a genius

Notes: Features: Jason Moran, Carlos Garnett, Oren Ambarchi, Darius Jones, Black Fire Records, Robyn Steward, columnist Mats Gustafsson, reviews & more.

128 pages
174 x 240 mm
140g Edixion paper
Laminated 300g Invercote covers

We Jazz Magazine

A quarterly music journal with passion & vision. Distributed worldwide, read by music fans, journalists, tastemakers...

"Brilliant new mag from the people at We Jazz. Top marks. Great contributors. Looking forward to your growth... Jazz needs this!"
Gilles Peterson

Notes: The sixth issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Revelation" for Black Jazz Records. 128 pages 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented IN ENGLISH. Stories include Black Jazz Records by Daniel Spicer, As-Shams by Andy Thomas, Nyege Nyege Festival by Markus Karlqvist, Alina Bzhezhinska by Tina Edwards, Carl Stone by Peter Margasak, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley by Rob Garratt, Travelogue by Kari Ikonen, Pharoah / Jazz Composers Orchestra by Seymour Wright, reviews, plus more.

Country of printing: Finland

Notes: The eighth issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Shadow Shapes" for Dorothy Ashby. 128 pages 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers.

All articles presented IN ENGLISH.

Dorothy Ashby by David Mittleman, Don Cherry by Magnus Nygren, Peter Evans by Andrey Henkin, The Return Of the Queer Jazz Scene by Tina Edwards, Jimetta Rose & the Voices Of Creation by Samuel Lamontage, Asher Gamedze by Teju Adeleye, Jazz Taphonomy by Seymour Wright, Discaholic column by Mats Gustafsson, Guy Stevens by Lander Lenaerts, reviews, plus more.

Country of printing: Finland

Notes: This is the third issue of the new We Jazz Magazine, 128 pages 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented IN ENGLISH. Stories include Joe Henderson by Daniel Spicer, International Anthem by Tina Edwards, Tokyo Jazz Joints by Philip Arneill, Ben Lamar Gay by Stewart Smith, Smooth Jazz by Francis Gooding, ESP-Disk by Matti Nives, Scottish Folk & Jazz by Gareth Allen, The Lisbon Scene by Rui Miguel Abreu, plus many more.

Notes: The seventh issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Universal Beings" for Makaya McCraven. 128 pages 174 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented IN ENGLISH.

Stories include Makaya McCraven by Ayana Contreras, Sonny Rollins by Ashley Kahn, Peter Evans by Andrey Henkin, Amina Claudine Myers by Seymour Wright, Adolphe Sax by Harry Eddy, Ronald Snijders by Mike Bindraban, introducing our new columnist Mats Gustafsson, Puristamo Helsinki pressing plant photo essay by Mathias Foster, reviews, plus more.

Country of printing: Finland

Notes: Corbett vs. Dempsey present Roscoe Mitchell, Keeper of the Code: Paintings 1963-2022. This is Mitchell's first exhibition with CvsD. Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940) has been a leading figure in the performing arts for over 50 years. Keeper of the Code is the first solo exhibition to spotlight his work in the visual arts. Born and raised in Chicago, Mitchell formed the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1966, featuring Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors.

Three years later, adding Joseph Jarman, upon their departure to Paris for a two-year sojourn the group transformed into the collective interdisciplinary troupe called the Art Ensemble of Chicago. By that time Mitchell had already recorded the first LP of music affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Sound (Delmark, 1966), and he had joined forces with St. Louis trumpeter Bowie for Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa, 1967).
Indeed, Mitchell had been painting since 1963, and he continued on and off into the heyday of the Art Ensemble and through a hyper-productive sequence of decades of solo music, improvised encounters, and music for Mitchell-led ensembles. The pandemic afforded Mitchell time off-road in which he began painting very avidly again.

This exhibition surveys his work from the most recent canvases -- including a series of compositionally complex four-by-four foot works -- all the way back to the beginning, when Mitchell was a promising young saxophonist and ambitious autodidact painter. A large selection of recent works, executed since 2018, includes the painting "The Code 3," its diamond-mosaic pattern surrounded by hip glyphic figures including the titular keeper. These delightfully playful, jubilantly colourful canvases sport various repeated motifs and themes -- custodians of codes and keys, time keepers and ticket takers, figures known as "floaters" and "wavers," and another persona called "the watcher." Alongside these imagistic works, interpenetrating them as well, are all sorts of approaches to abstraction, from organic masses of circles that might recall Aboriginal art and warped checkerboards to more rigidly structured geometry and colour sequences.

In the gallery's north space, CvsD has gathered Mitchell's historical works dating back to 1963, including the cover painting from Numbers 1 & 2, and the riveting piece that graced the Art Ensemble's 1985 LP The Third Decade. In addition to the paintings, Mitchell is installing a new incarnation of his legendary percussion set-up known as "The Cage," which directly bridges the musical and visual in his capacious artistic imagination.

140-page full-colour catalog reproducing over 100 of Mitchell's paintings, with an interview by John Corbett. First printing, edition of 1000; printed on 100# classic crest eggshell solar white and 70# starbright smooth white opaque text; 8.00x11.00x0.75 inches; 0.2 oz.

Notes: "It was Saturday night, the year was 1993, and I had recently moved to London to try to push my photography career along when I went down to the 100 club where they play rare American 60's and 70's soul music.

I had been on that scene up until a few years before and was curious to see where it had gone in the meantime, so I took my camera along with me. Going down those stairs into that dark basement, seeing those shadowy figures moving energetically in sync with each other made me hesitant.

The scene had gone further underground, the crowd older, little new blood, the records more obscure and the attitude on the dancefloor was as fierce as ever. Could I really take pictures in this place? As I suspected, the blast from my first flash altered the atmosphere. I braved it to shoot a few more from different angles but things felt worse with each blinding shot.

The relief I felt when I heard the familiar opening bars of 'This Won't Change' by Lester Tipton. A fast, raw, jerky, but tender sound. I pushed the camera bag under a chair and got lost in the shadows until morning.

I very soon became a regular again, travelling to different venues around the country but I'd often wait till morning when the lights came on before taking any pictures. Mostly though I went to dance and enjoy the music with friends, leaving my camera at home."

Elaine Constantine 2023

Pictures were taken in varied venues including the Manchester's Ritz, London's 100 club and in a lad called Steve's kitchen, plus other places too numerous to remember.

36 pages
Printed in England
Staple bound
14cm x 20cm

Notes: Drawn from private collections around the world, this is the first comprehensive collection of the Saturn label's printed record covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels decorated by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra.

Considered the foremost exponent of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra mastered a wide array of styles that spanned jazz, R&B, exotica, Afro-hybrids, electronic, big band, solo piano, orchestral, experimental, and chamber works. In his 45-year recording career, he issued an epic number of albums and he was one of the first Black musicians to own an independent label, which he named Saturn, after the planet on which he claimed to have been born. The covers of Saturn LPs, issued from 1957 to 1988, are iconic- some rolled off commercial printing presses but many were hand-crafted. These records were sold at concerts, club dates, and by mail order. As collectibles, original handmade Saturn covers sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. More than just packaging for a slab of vinyl, they are works of art in their own right.

Sun Ra: Art on Saturn is the first comprehensive collection of all Saturn printed covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels, decorated by Ra himself and members of his Arkestra. Essays by Sun Ra catalog preservationist Irwin Chusid, noted Ra scholar John Corbett, and Glenn Jones, who in the 1970s signed Ra to a distribution deal that put countless homemade covers into circulation, add unique insights into the interplanetary life and work of Sun Ra and his Saturn partner Alton Abraham.

Historians have written extensively about Sun Ra and his music. This book is a tribute to the covers and to the uncredited visual artists and their rich imaginations. From the simple to the baroque to the absurd, the covers that sheathed Ra's discs reflect the tenaciousness of a genius who refused to compromise or relinquish control of his destiny.

Pages: 240
Format: Hardback
Colour: Full-colour.
Dimensions: 11.75" × 11.75"

Notes: Following "Vintage Music T-shirt Scrap", The long-awaited third instalment of the scrap series is Jazz!

Focusing on jazz, focusing on original vintage posters, From flyers to booklets, calendars, and magazines of performances at the time!

There are many jazz record jacket books in the world, but this is the first poster book in the world.

Ide started by searching for materials for his autobiographical book "Rolling On The Road". Ninety percent of the items in the collection were collected intensively by Ide over a period of about a year and a half. "

Binding: 376 pages / A5 format

Notes: Pack of 50 x 10" record sleeves.

Notes: A pack of 50 brown paper inner sleeves fits directly over 12" record.