Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
The Big Beat

Privately pressed in San Francisco on the Trilyte label in 1969, Ndikho Xaba and the Natives has joined the pantheon of holy grails for Spiritual Jazz collectors. now repressed on the excellent Matsuli Music imprint! Comes on 180 gramms vinyl - presented with a four page insert containing unseen photographs and concert bills from Ndikho Xaba’s personal archive, together with a personal recollection from Plunky Branch and extensive sleeve notes by Francis Gooding"Matsuli Music presents soul, spirituality and avant-garde jazz from South African political exile Ndikho Xaba. Its rarity has until now served to obscure both its beauty and its historical significance. Making profound links between the struggle against apartheid and the Black Power movement in the USA, Ndikho Xaba and the Natives is arguably the most complete and complex South African jazz LP recorded in the USA. It stands out as a critical document in the history of transatlantic black solidarity and in the jazz culture of South African exiles.Ndikho Xaba and the Natives opens a fluid channel of sonic energy that courses between two liberation struggles and two jazz traditions, making them one. It is a critical statement in the history of transatlantic black solidarity, unifying voices stretching from San Francisco to Johannesburg. There is no other recording or group in which the new jazz spirituality of the late 1960s is so fully blended with an African jazz tradition."

LP plus booklet, 500 copies, pressed at PallasWhen arists self-releases their own recordings, they do so in the hopes that a hit might develop,or even better, a sphere of influence might form. In a lot of cases these records provide a stamp ofexistence and intent – a sonic business card showing what musicians were made of. Compass Rises(1973), the privately pressed sole LP by Oneonta, New York’s Compass, is both a sampling ofversatility and a declaration of straight-ahead purpose.Regularly active in upstate New York between 1969 and 1974, Compass was an acoustic-electricquartet that played original music and modern jazz standards. The group consisted of saxophonistand bass clarinetist Rick Lawn, keyboardist Joel Chase, bassist Tom Ives (doubling on flugelhorn),and drummer Al Colone. On the LP, percussion duties were shared across the band as well as anconguero, Ken Parmele.Every song on Compass Rises, with the exception of the opener, is wrien and arranged by Lawn.The album is a nod to the post-Coltrane lineage of 1970’s jazz – even at its most spry there’s anundertow of workmanlike toughness, perhaps a reflection of the industrial-collegiate hybrid townsin New York where Compass plied their trade.Ives’ “Cleanin’ Up” starts the proceedings, a modal groover that would not have sounded out ofplace on a Joe Henderson Milestone LP, coupled with a neat, funky turnaround in the head.“Sunflower” has a slight Latin flavor and while it’s not exactly Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower,”it does have a lilt that’s both sinewy and breezy, with Lawn’s huskily burnished tenor shimmyingatop. Following the ballad “Waltz for Barbara,” a front line expanded with Ives’ flugelhorn opensup on the driving “Blues for Vito,” dry and cracking rhythm supporting a tough, metallic dance.Side two begins with “Schizoid,” the nasally incision of Lawn’s soprano saxophone in spiraling turnsagainst pummeling toms and Chase’s fuzzed-out intervallic sprawl. “Sour Cream” is a choppy bit ofsoul jazz, while the closing “Pharoah’s Thing” starts off on an elegiac plateau before unfurling witha piquant, minor-key bounce.With its stark, somewhat gothic cover art and toothy, inspired playing and composing, CompassRises deserves the critical examination that it likely didn’t have upon release.About Frederiksberg RecordsFrederiksberg Records was founded in New York in 2013 by Danish video journalist and music loverAndreas Vingaard. The name, Frederiksberg, is the part of Copenhagen where Andreas grew upand first discovered his passion for music.The idea for the label emerged when Andreas befriended renowned Jazz saxophonist, CarstenMeinert. Committed to telling the story of Meinert’s music the right way, Andreas resolved to takefull ownership of the To You re-release (2015). The result has been a rollercoaster journey ofrunning an independent record label.Frederiksberg Records, with roots in Scandinavian Jazz, includes a wide spectrum of genres -electronic, disco, ambient and more [info sheet from distr.]