December 2025
Riverside Records / Craft Recordings—CR00727
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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The great jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery enjoyed commercial success in the last few years of his life after he signed with Verve Records in 1964, and gained even more popularity when he moved to A&M Records in 1967, a year before he died. Creed Taylor was his producer in those years and often matched him with various orchestral ensembles, from big bands to strings.
November 2025
Savoy Records / Craft Recordings—CR00867
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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Overall Enjoyment
Saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded so extensively as a bandleader for Blue Note Records that it’s easy to think he defined the label, or that it defined him. Considering that he also appeared as a sideman on many other Blue Note recordings, those are fair assumptions. However, he did record for other labels, especially at the beginning of his career. Two albums appeared on Prestige Records in 1957, and two on Savoy Records: one in 1956, and one in 1957.
September 2025
Blue Note Records BST 84223, 602455845917
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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A remarkable number of titles in the catalog of Blue Note Records were released well after their recording dates. In some cases, the delay was only a few years, but in others, the tapes sat in the vault for much longer. Saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded Jacknife in September 1965, but the album first appeared on vinyl in 1975. That release included a second LP of tunes recorded at another previously unreleased session from April 1966.
August 2025
Jem Records—PSL-1044
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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Overall Enjoyment
I’ve reviewed a few Grip Weeds albums over the years, beginning with the 2007 release House of Vibes Revisited, a remixed and expanded version of the band’s 1994 debut album. It was the first time I’d heard them, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The Grip Weeds make melodic rock’n’roll in the tradition of the great bands of the 1960s, but they cast a wide net stylistically. They’re such strong songwriters and musicians that their albums carry on in the tradition of the bands that inspired them while standing firmly on their own.
June 2025
Columbia Records—19802876231
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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When Pink Floyd performed at the ancient amphitheater in Pompeii in October 1971, they were getting ready to release their sixth album, Meddle, which would appear in shops a month later. The performance took place in front of a film crew, with no one else in attendance. Filmmaker Adrian Maben had several ideas for a movie that would feature Pink Floyd’s music, but a visit to Pompeii gave him the idea of filming the band there.
April 2025
Milestone Records / Craft Recordings—CR00845
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson made his name with Blue Note Records, where he recorded five LPs as a leader between 1963 and 1966 and appeared as a sideman on many other sessions. He moved to Milestone Records in 1967 and in the ten years that followed recorded 12 albums for them. His Milestone years offered a mixed bag of approaches to jazz, and there were some gems among them. One was Power to the People (1969), which Craft Recordings reissued last year on vinyl and hi-rez digital as part of its Jazz Dispensary series.
May 2025
Wildchild Records—WCR002LP
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Three years ago, I reviewed The Occasion, the debut album by Canadian musician Harkness. He’s a bit of a renaissance man, and his interests include art and cooking—he even markets his own hot sauce. Harkness has created enough of a stir that the CBC recently released a documentary about him, but his trips to perform in the US and England haven’t yet generated much interest in his music outside of Canada.
April 2025
Weird Records—WEIRD166LP
Format: LP
Musical Performance
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Overall Enjoyment
A little more than two years ago, English songwriter Richard Dawson released The Ruby Cord, the final album in a trilogy that looked at English life in the Middle Ages (Peasant, 2017), the present (2020, 2019), and the distant future (The Ruby Cord, 2022). For the most part, Dawson writes for acoustic instruments, and his work embraces folk-music traditions while subverting and reimagining them.
March 2025
Atlantic Records / Acoustic Sounds SD 8239 /APA 070-45
Format: LP
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Boz Scaggs recorded his first solo album in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1965. Polydor Records released Boz in 1966, but it didn’t get wide distribution. On his return to the US, he joined up with Steve Miller in San Francisco. Scaggs had known Miller since high school, and they had played together in bands in high school and college.
January 2025
Craft Recordings / Milestone Records CR00767
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
I hadn’t heard of the Uruguayan jazz trio Opa until Craft Recordings reissued the group’s US debut, Goldenwings, in its Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series. The label’s audiophile series has returned a few lesser-known albums by well-regarded jazz musicians, such as Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, to vinyl. It has also brought back work by artists who deserve wider renown, including pianist Patrice Rushen.
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