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LP
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MJJ 363LP
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"Dharma Blues Band's sole album, 1967's Dharma Blues, is finally available again on vinyl after decades of being out of print. Formed by guitarist Dave Brock, pianist Mike King, and harmonica player Luke Francis in 1964, the British blues trio gigged heavily around London, eventually recording versions of Sonny Boy Williamson II's 'Dealing with the Devil' and Pete Johnson's 'Roll 'Em Pete' for a British blues compilation. The band also backed Memphis Slim on tour in the UK, but before the band could record a full-length LP, Luke Francis and Dave Brock quit the band, with the latter going on to form Hawkwind shortly thereafter. Mike King, however, decided to continue on his own, recruiting Gary Compton on harmonica, and John Hillary on guitar and vocals, to record this convincing British blues LP in 1967."
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LP
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MJJ 366LP
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Warehouse find, last copies. "An accomplished group in the world of chamber music, the Concord String Quartet, active from 1971-1987, gained almost immediate attention from the press as well as a dedicated following, after winning the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1972. Although the quartet was a classical string quartet, these rare 1973 recordings show the group's affinity for the 'New York School' of avant-garde composers, like Earle Brown, John Cage, and Morton Feldman. Side B is entirely comprised of John Cage's 1950 String Quartet in Four Parts, where each section of the piece corresponds to one of the four seasons as well as a particular force: spring/creation, summer/preservation, autumn/ destruction, and winter/quiescence." Featured works: Earle Brown, String Quartet 2; Morton Feldman, Structures for String Quartet; John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts.
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LP
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MJJ 361LP
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"Little-known and long out-of-print album by one of Australia's greatest singer-songwriters. Primarily known for his work in the UK with Fairport Convention and Fotheringay (with wife, Sandy Denny) in the early seventies, Trevor Lucas released this album of traditional Australian folk songs in 1966 on Reality Records. Intended to introduce British audiences to the Australian folk tradition, songs like 'The Overlander' and 'South Australia' make the uniquely rough life of the Australian outback come alive."
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2LP
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MJJ 356LP
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Limited restock. "Recorded live on 29 June 1973 at Lincoln Center in NYC, this 'summit meeting' of blues artists was actually part of the Newport Jazz Festival (which during this period had relocated to Manhattan). The event--featuring B.B. King as MC--brought together 'old and new, country and city' for an unforgettable night of top-notch blues. Besides B.B., the big names that night were Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton, who pleased the audience by playing sublime versions of some of their best loved numbers, but the concert that night is perhaps most memorable for performances of several lesser-known elder statesmen of the blues, including Delta blues singer and guitarist Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup (playing his 'That's Alright Now Mama', covered famously by Elvis on his 1954 debut single), and bandleader and pioneer of the 'West Coast Blues' style, Lloyd Glenn, who played some stellar blues/honky-tonk piano on his 'Honky Tonk Train'." Housed in a gatefold sleeve.
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LP
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MJJ 343LP
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"Led by Japanese guitar-hero Kazuo Takeda, Creation (initially called Blues Creation) was instrumental in opening up Japan to the new sounds pouring in from the West. After doing time (circa 1972) on the London music scene - where he befriended Mountain's Felix Pappalardi - Takeda returned home to work on his own music. Over the next few years Takeda's Creation became one of the hottest bands in Tokyo, releasing several successful LPs for EMI-Japan, including 1976's Creation with Felix Pappalardi recorded in the US, and this long out-of-print 'direct-to-disc' album, recorded in October 1978. Takeda apparently got the idea of recording directly to disc while hanging out in the US, the idea being that it would create a more intimate sound (by eliminating the loss of sound quality inherent in any transfer to magnetic tape). However, it also meant that there could be no overdubs or multi-tracking - essentially making This Is Creation (featuring Katsutoshi Morizono of Prism on rhythm guitar) a live album."
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LP
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MJJ 342LP
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"Recorded in 1976 at Bearsville Studio in NYC, this album was the result of a collaboration between Japanese guitar hero Kazuo Takeda of Creation and American bassist Felix Pappalardi of Mountain. Pappalardi and Takeda first began hanging out in London in the early seventies, a friendship which soon led to Mountain touring Japan alongside Creation in 1975. This in turn led to Creation being invited to the US by Pappalardi to record their next album, 1976's Creation with Felix Pappalardi. This album is a collection of tunes written by Pappalardi, Pappalardi's wife, Gail Collins, and Takeda, and finds Pappalardi playing bass, keyboards and vibraphone on the LP as well as handling production duties. The songs are a blend of melodic hard rock akin and would not seem out of place on a Mountain album."
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LP
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MJJ 340LP
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"Recorded in May and October 1972 for BBC Radio 1 by DJ Bob Harris, these sessions may be all that remain of this seminal acid folk band's elusive third album! Featuring songs not heard on either one of their LPs--1969's self-titled debut and 1970's Full Circle, both on Harvest--it is speculated that many of these songs would have appeared on their imminent third album had they not been suddenly dropped from their label (due to low sales and rapidly changing musical tastes). By 1972 Dez Allenby had left the band, leaving brothers Adrian & Martin Welham as the only remaining members, although Dave Panton (viola, sax) and Dave Stubbs (bass) were brought in for their live performances. By this time, particularly on tracks like 'Everyday Laugh', the Welham brothers were moving more into avant-rock territory and one can only speculate on where they could have gone from here. All songs by Welham & Welham except a version of Ray Charles' 1958 hit 'Leave My Woman Alone'."
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2LP
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MJJ 326LP
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Limited restock. "After spending the first half of the 1970s globetrotting with Asia's premiere avant-garde band--Takehisa Kosugi's Taj Mahal Travellers (where Seiji Nagai played trumpet and keyboards)--Nagai continued to study and play music, particularly Indian music (drones) and electronic/computer generated music. In 1999 he finally released Electronic Noise Improvisation, with the help of Koichi Watanabe, Koji Kawai and Minoru Yonemoto. Here, as in the days of TMT, Nagai concentrates on creating dense drones, but this time his instruments are computers and a host of electronic gadgets, as well as electronic mandolin and piano."
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LP
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MJJ 307LP
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"Classic Nigerian fuji music, originally released in 1982 on the Lagos-based Siky Oluyole label. Sikiru Ayinde, better known by his stage name 'Alhaji Chief Doctor Sikiru Ayinde Barrister,' born in Lagos in 1948, is one of the creators of fuji music, and still a leader in the field. The genre, named by Ayinde after Mt. Fuji in Japan (simply because he liked the sound of the word), was developed in the early seventies when Ayinde, who had sung traditional Muslim music since he was a boy, put together a 25-piece band called the Supreme Fuji Commanders. Fuji is a percussion-heavy dance music with the free vocals of Muslim ajisari music (sung during Ramadan) accompanied by Hawaiian guitar and the sakara (a tambourine drum), and often featuring upwards of 10 percussionists. It is a mixture of were, juju, apala, and traditional Yoruban praise poems. Ayinde is one of Nigeria's best known singer/songwriters and was one of the first to take the fuji genre outside of Africa, touring all over Europe, especially in the UK, long before any other fuji musician."
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LP
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MJJ 308LP
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"Originally released in 1970 on Montreal's Trans-World label, Strawberry Soul is a rare and amazing instrumental deep funk album released by African-American ex-pat trumpeter Billy Martin. Martin also released an album called I Turn You On on Onion Records where his hit 'Funky Feelin' also appeared. He was a local star on the Canadian R&B scene for a while, but disappeared without a trace after this amazing release."
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LP
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MJJ 304LP
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"A traditional form of Nigerian popular music, Juju spreads from the ancient Yoruba percussion style and its first recordings can be dated back to the 1920s. Taking its name from the shamanic rituals of the southwestern regions, Juju evolved into a very popular musical genre in the '60s and '70s when artists of the caliber of King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey (aka Chief Commander) took it to a new apex, blending traditional instruments -- like the talking drum with elements of western music, such as the guitar. Chief Brigadier Olu Oni adds to this extremely popular genre a hint of international elements, and this record has brought Juju beyond West Africa and into the rest of the world."
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