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Search Result for Label SNOW DOG RECORDS
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SDGBJ 1221CD
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Further distanced in time from John Coltrane's spiritual new-jazz and the influential second Miles Davis quintet, Doug Carn showed a close affinity with R&B when recording his fourth and final Black Jazz album Adam's Apple. Sharing his interest in R&B was a platoon of committed, resourceful jazz musicians including young star-in-the-making Ronnie Laws, who had worked with Earth, Wind & Fire before that band's big commercial breakthrough. Of the others, ace guitarists Nathan Page and Calvin Keys had acquired intimacy with the soulful properties of African-American music of the time, performing with the premier jazz organist Jimmy Smith. Musicians include: Gerals Brown (acoustic bass), Darrel Clayborn (Fender bass), Big Black (congas, percussion), Harold Mason (drums), Calvin Keys, Nathan Page (guitar), Doug Carn (keyboards, vocals), Dick Schory, Gene Russell (producer), Ronnie Laws (saxophone), Thurman Green (tambourine), John Conner, and Joyce Greene (vocals).
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SDGBJ 1216CD
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Doug Carn's third album for Black Jazz, Revelation (1973), is as compulsively listenable as his previous outings. The keyboardist-composer-arranger-bandleader is on top of his game -- Jean Carn returns to handle the vocal parts, the hired jazz players (including rising saxophonist René McLean and trumpeter Olu Dara) are more than capable, and Carn's songs convey altruistic messages that he deemed vital to the success of his distinctive brand of soul-jazz music. René McClean (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute), Walter Booker (bass), Buddy Williams (drums), Nathan Page (guitar), Olu Dara (alto horn, trumpet, vocals), Doug Carn (piano, vocals), Earl McIntyre (bass trumpet), and Jean Carn (vocals).
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SDGBJ 1218CD
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Whereas the earlier black jazz album Shawn-Neeq had its share of riff-based funk, Calvin Keys' second outing Proceed with Caution! (1974) sticks close to straight-ahead jazz verities with the 30-something guitarist in the studio with seven similarly young, on-the-rise musicians including Charles Owens (saxophones, flute), Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Al Hall Jr. (trombone), Kirk Lightsey (electric piano), Henry Franklin (bass), and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (drums). Keys can really play the guitar, easefully and intelligently with unfaked feeling. The man rivets our attention at all times. "Proceed with Caution," like the other tracks an original composition, is a veritable feast of organized craftmanship, with a dreamy, chord-based Wes Montgomery mode at the song's start and finish bracketing long passages of fast, driving licks originating in bebop. Rendering flute and electric piano solos almost superfluous, Keys conjures up musical drama that invites multiple listens. Next up, "Tradewinds" finds the Omaha native treasuring the piece's attractive melody before embarking on creative flights that herald his certainty of purpose. A similar assurance marks his urgent playing in aptly-titled "Effulgence," which also benefits from trombone, electric piano, and soprano saxophone solos. Startlingly, about a minute into this song, emanated revelations beginning channeling through his fast fingers on the strings; Something similar can be heard from transcendentalist Carlos Santana in parts of his Welcome and Love Devotion Surrender albums, both released around the same time as Proceed with Caution!.
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SDGBJ 1217CD
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Jazz-man Henry Franklin, widely respected for his service to the finest jazz players, brought that ineffable quality called soulfulness into play when he made his first record for producer George Porter at Black Jazz, The Skipper. Not unexpectedly, his follow-up affair titled The Skipper at Home teems with the same jaunty uplift. In sync with Franklin's musical spirit on the second recording are returnees Charles Owens on saxophone, Oscar Brashear on trumpet and Kenny Climax on guitar along with several new faces: trombonist Al Hall, Jr., soprano saxophonist Kemag Sunduza, drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancelor and keyboardists Kirk Lightsey (a Black Jazz regular) and David Durrah.
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SDGBJ 1220CD
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Cleveland "Cleve" Eaton is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, right there with Nat Cole, Wilson Pickett, Martha Reeves, Jerry Wexler, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, and a few dozen other notables. "I don't play like nobody else," he told The Birmingham News when inducted in 2008. "I do my own thing. It's absolutely Alabama." Eaton's Plenty Good Eaton, recorded in Curtis Mayfield's soul Chicago at Chess Recording Studio with local hired-guns and first out in 1975, belongs to the R&B genre, even though there are side paths into soul-jazz. The lushly arranged "Chi-Town" proceeds from a cloned "Shaft" introduction into a lushly-produced funk romp with Eaton's upright bass guiding a chicken-scratch funk guitar, electronic keyboards, strings, horns, and a female singer or two. With Eaton's acoustic bass typically prominent in the mix, and with Ed Green's violin steering its melodic course, "Keena" exists as a happy union of R&B and disco. In spite of lame repetitive chants of its title, "Moe, Let's Have A Party" makes the right dancefloor moves with a funk groove that popular bands like Rufus and the Ohio Players wouldn't mind claiming as their own. Cleveland Eaton (bass), Kenneth Prince (electric piano), Ernest Johnson (guitar), Odel I Brown (organ, electric piano), Morris Jennings (percussion), Derf Raheen (percussion, flute), Arie Brown (tenor saxophone), Artee "Duke" Payne, Edwin Daughtry (tenor saxophone, flute), John Watson (trombone), Steve Galloway (bass trombone), and Bobby Christian (vibraphone).
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SDGBJ 1219CD
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In a fair and reasonable world, Roland Haynes would have compelled more attention than he did when his jazz-funk record 2nd Wave appeared on Black Jazz in the mid-1970s. Not to say the keyboardist was totally neglected back then, but he and other plugged-in pianists of his stylistic inclination (such as label-mate Doug Carn, Hampton Hawes, Don Grolnick, Larry Willis, and Gordon Beck) existed in the deep shadow cast by jazzman-turned-jazz-funk powerhouse Herbie Hancock, whose records with the Head Hunters lit up the R&B and pop charts. Also eclipsing Haynes were other widely-known wizards of the electronic keyboards: Chick Corea (Return to Forever), Joe Zawinul (Weather Report), Bob James, and Ramsey Lewis, all sponsored by major record companies. Musicians include: Henry Franklin (bass), Carl Burnett, Kirk Lightsey and Roland Haynes (keyboard).
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SDGBJ 1304CD
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One of Japan's greatest DJ/producer/ record diggers is featured compiling, editing, and mixing tracks from the Black Jazz Record label. Known for his hip-hop aesthetic and exhaustive knowledge of more obscure genres (samba funk, Hawaiian breaks, Japanese gangster films), Muro's selection lends an alternative perspective to the label, veering significantly from the path that his predecessors in this series (Gilles Peterson and DJ Mitsu) laid down. It's been awhile since Muro's last commercial (officially-licensed) release available outside Japan, the Kings of Diggin' (2006) split with Kon & Amir on BBE. Since his days as a member of DJ Krush's crew in the early 1990's, Muro has become a celebrity in Japan, complimenting his DJ fame with an internationally successful clothing line (KING, INC.) and a lifestyle shop in Tokyo (Savage!). He has also released a steady stream of promotional "mixtapes" that showcase his wide-ranging DJ skills and musical knowledge, with separate volumes dedicated to funk, samba, disco, Michael Jackson, Roy Ayers, Hawaiian breaks, Japanese breaks, synth, boogie, dub, and more.
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SDGBJ 1203CD
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"Doug Carn created a personalized strain of jazz music that expressed a loving hopefulness. He found a home at the Black Jazz label, where African-Americans called the shots and, of course, racial tension was nonexistent. Who was this 22-year-old whose first album, Infant Eyes, sold very well away from the machinations of the music industry? Once a child prodigy on piano and alto saxophone, Carn had attended Jacksonville University on a full music scholarship and afterwards performed on the Florida-Georgia roadhouse circuit with a band that mixed jazz, rock and R&B. Following his muse to Los Angeles, he worked in an organ trio and studied with organ and piano player Larry Young, who had co-founded the seminal jazz-rock band Tony Williams' Lifetime and recorded an excellent mid-1960s hard-bop record titled Unity, among other things. A devout Muslim, Young (Khalid Yasin) surely deepened Carn's appreciation of John Coltrane's 1964 album, A Love Supreme, that stunning merger of musicality and spirituality. Carn assumes several roles well: organ and piano player, arranger and lyricist. His wife at the time, Jean, is just as impressive singing. First track 'Welcome' -- a Coltrane piece found on the early 1960s collection The Gentle Sound of John Coltrane -- has Jean's operatic voice and a swirl of instruments conjuring a state of awe in just over a minute. Next, Jean displays a world of conviction singing the joyous lyrics about a newborn that Doug penned for vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson's 'Little B's Poem' (originally an instrumental on Hutcherson's Components album). Jean opens still another vista of wonder singing the new lyrics of the melodic Wayne Shorter ballad 'Infant Eyes.' Jean also contributes glowingly to the take-no-prisoners 'Acknowledgement,' a near-total immersion in 'A Love Supreme.' This Coltrane homage has a round-robin of good, probing solos by George Harper on tenor, Bob Frazier on trumpet and Al Hall, Jr. on trombone." --Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat; Personnel: Doug Carn (piano electric piano, organ), Jean Carn (vocals), George Harper (tenor sax, flute), Bob Frazier (trumpet, flugelhorn), Henry Franklin (bass), Al Hall, Jr. (trombone), Michael Carvin (drums).
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SDGBJ 1205CD
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"Calvin Keys is a world-class jazz guitarist -- and more. The 70-year-old Bay Area resident has worked extensively with Ahmad Jamal, spent a couple of years in the employ of Ray Charles, and held his own in the fast company of Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Stitt, Red Holloway, and many others. Pat Metheny saluted him with an original composition called 'Calvin's Keys,' found on his album Day Trip. For decades, Keys has evidenced considerable facility and conviction as a blues player, too. Back in the soul jazz 1960s, he was in organ trios led by such blues-savvy notables as Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, and Brother Jack McDuff. Always open-minded, the native Nebraskan has even worked with Luther Vandross and MC Hammer. To date, Keys has made 11 albums under his own name. One of the most radiant is his debut, Shawn-Neeq, originally issued in 1973. The album came in the wake of the soul jazz era when Miles Davis' startling shift into a Sly Stone-informed electric-jazz swept over musicians and hip listeners like a tsunami. Thanks to the Black Jazz label, Keys did his part in delivering good Miles-influenced jazz-funk to record buyers, music that has aged surprisingly well. Throughout Shawn-Neeq, Keys' guitar shows him to be a close stylistic ally of two guitarists with a similar soul jazz pedigree: Grant Green and George Benson. His pentatonic, bluesy riffs and occasional 'outside' sounds grace songs based on riffs or chords. The man plays with control and confidence." --Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat; Personnel: Calvin Keys (guitar), Bob Braye (drums), Lawrence Evans (bass), Larry Nash (electric piano), Owen Marshall (flute, hose-a-phone, misc.)
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SDGBJ 1301CD
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In conjunction with Snow Dog Projects and Black Jazz Records, Jazzy Sport crew member DJ Mitsu The Beats has composed a seamless mix of tracks selected from the Black Jazz catalog. Well-known for his hip-hop mixes, Mitsu takes a 20+ year veteran DJ's perspective here, more often than not segueing complete tracks, as opposed to doubling and cutting breaks, for a 70+ minute trip through vintage 1970s spiritual jazz that a listener can lose themselves in. Of course, beats and breaks and funk abound here, but the emphasis of this mix lands on the original label's (Black Jazz) overall vibe, while highlighting the funkier edge to the catalog, one that has collectors chasing original vinyl copies to this day. This is part one of a three-disc mix series, coordinated with remastered reissues of the original albums on CD, featuring newly-discovered photographs and artwork. Features artists such as Doug Carn, Henry Franklin, Rudolph Johnson, The Awakening, Walter Bishop Jr., Chester Thompson, Gene Russell, Roland Haynes, Kellee Patterson and Calvin Keys.
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viewing 1 To 10 of 23 items
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