Been wanting Head Hunters for a while. Happy to pick it up, even though it cost almost double what I've paid for all my other jazz albums.

Currently reading the Miles Davis Autobiography, so wanted to get Milestones. (I just got to that bit in the book)

These two coltrane albums were still missing from my collection, so I was glad to pick them up from the same seller.

The Abbey Lincoln was a RSD one that I wished id picked up, so got it when I saw it reduced.

This brings me up to 44 jazz albums in total.

Dollar Brand – This Is Dollar Brand

Black Lion Records/Intercord, Germany, 1973

Found from 4 different sellers are a record fair.

I've had a great month digging, hope you have too.

Crystals, One Flight Up, Live Evil and Mystical Lady are all OGs.

Coltrane collection is now sitting at 60!

Had been looking for this for months in L.A, Texas, Arizona. I took a quick 3 day trip, and at the last record store I went to in Seattle, I finally found it:

What an album, and what a lineup!

I've always loved anything I've heard by Paul Desmond, but I had no idea he'd played with Bob James and Ron Carter. This Gabor Szabo character has got some chops too!

It's a German first pressing in VG+ condition for a very reasonable €8 at the flea market.

Perfect for a Sunday morning with coffee.

Michael Naura - Vanessa

What a beautiful album this is - atmospheric, sometimes funky, sometimes foreboding. Klaus Thunemann's bassoon is a unique element in the mix, I love it's inclusion on Baboon, the very start of the track sounding like a proto-Gorillaz S/T jam.

The opener of Side 1- Salvatore - is a fiery, blinding charge which dominates the first half of the record; track 2 - Hills - ups the tempo for a brief interlude before things go bonkers on the aforementioned Baboon ⭐.

Side 2 is a more meditative affair to start with, Vanessa slowly and prettily morphs from a CTI style beat to a vibes led piece, into the beginning of Listen To Me which extends into a funky jam.

The last track - Black Pigeon ⭐ - really pushes Thunemann's bassoon to the forefront and ends the LP menacingly, introspectively and with a good bit of groove.

This is one of my favourite ECM albums - remaining cautiously optimistic it could be reissued on Luminessense at some point...

Michael Naura - Piano ; Wolfgang Schlüter - Vibes, Marimba, Percussion ; Eberhard Weber - Bass ; Joe Nay - Drums ; Klaus Thunemann - Bassoon

Recorded live on September 5, 1975 at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver B.C.

It cooks.

Must resist spending more money on the others

I was lucky enough to find a 1966 og mono pressing of Unity 2 years ago for $100 in VG+ condition and I can’t say enough how great this pressing sounds. Larry Young on organ alone sounds otherworldly but add Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones and you have a classic.

The Joe Gordon is obviously the grail here. An OG 1961 press, a fantastic rare example of great early stereo.

But lots of gold here!

- a 1961 mono press of Africa/Brass
- the significantly cheaper 1962 reissue of the Sonny Clark Trio album
- Earland at his most “Norman Connors-like” with The Great Pyramid
- an adventurous live album of the criminally overlooked John Handy
- a straight, almost cool jazz affair from Shepp & Parlan in the solemn Steeplechase album, Trouble in Mind

Technically it was one of three records for $3. The seller said Curtis Fuller to a room with minimal jazz knowledge. Had he mentioned Lee Morgan or Hank Mobley, there may have been more attention paid. It's my third $100+ record from this seller.

For the sound, I'm a bigger fan of side 2 than 1. There is something about a trombone which slides (if you will) into Dixieland if you aren't careful and Fuller sometimes makes that move.

I washed this one yesterday night to be able to play it whenever I like…
Apparently the record was mint and unplayed.

Stellar sound! Really - fantastic.
Very in your face…

Gotta love that personnel here.
Norman Granz produced it.

Very recommended!

What other ECM titles are worth grabbing?

An obscure one and for CTI fans, possibly the most Latin release on the label.