Pullin from the Stacks

Took a long breather over the month of November, back now with a stack of the new and old digs. RIP the great Jamil Al-Amin fka H. Rap Brown, immortalized on the Flying Dutchman release with Leon Thomas. It's December and things are getting cold in most parts of the country, for those with means please donate to your local shelters and places like Food Not Bombs, or to your favorite local organization fighting ICE, the cops and the state. Hope everyone is keeping your head up...

Been doing a fair amount of travel and digging the last couple months, making finds at antique shops as well as the floor-level bins at record stores. Taking chances on things when I can and selecting a few others from the wall if it's a fair price and I likely won't see it again...

Was recently in Chicago and had many record store adventures. One record that popped up in the cheap bins was something I'd been after, "Chicago Jazz Dance Revival at Gus Place" by the Johnny Frigo Quartet. Frigo and his various groups put out several records of "jazz dance music" for Gus Giordano in the late 60s and early 70s covering jazz, rock and funk tunes of the day...

Cannonball would have turned 97 this month were he still with us. His records were some of the first I collected - there are so many and so varied, his dedication to recording live sets for his albums and playing with countless amazing musicians, infusing politics into his music and his "raps" in-between songs, is all legendary. I had not realized until now that all of this was done in such a short amount of time - he passed away at the age of 46, one year younger than I am now...

The world is spinning and it's hard to keep up with everything right now! Been out digging though, shopping and selecting a nice stack of favorites and obscurities the past month. Hope everyone is holding tight and not giving up! There are still paths to victory, don't let the naysayers stop any of us. Tracklist: Spanky Wilson, Irma Thomas, Nucleus, Osmar Milito, Natural Four, Freidrich Gulda, Janne Schaffer, Andrei Nikolsky, Pete Seeger.

Short mix of some of my favorite G-funk instrumentals, with several from the originator himself, Warren G, as well as a couple other LA producers. Something for the late summer, windows down, city streets at twilight.

A brief tribute to the legend Eddie Palmieri, whose music and politics were inspiring and incredible, especially right now in this moment! Brilliant and beautiful music, these are just a few of my favorites from his records.

Recent jazz-related aquisitions from various digging adventures. Big shout to Paradise Trading Post in Lompoc - found an Ahmad Jamal album I'd never seen before! Dig in. Tracklist: Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Barron, John Wood, Horace Silver, Ted Vining Trio, Jack Walrath