Donald Byrd was branded a traitor and sellout when he released “Black Byrd,” his complete dive into R&B which ended up erupting into a popular phenomenon. Leaving behind his hard bop sound, the album went on to become the biggest-selling album for the Blue Note record label. This was actually the moment when Byrd’s style of fusion stepped out from under the shadow of his chief influencer, Miles Davis, finding a distinctive voice all of his own. At this time no other jazz musician embraced the celebratory contemporary funky sound as fully as Byrd did on this top selling album. Byrd gave free rein to producer, arranger, and composer Larry Mizell, who crafted this series of melodic pieces… Continue Reading

On this rendition of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Tomita takes the Russian composer’s music into the galaxy of component Moog synths, a Roland space echo unit that will surely phase shift you across the universe, along with a guitar and other period electronic gear. As unique as Tomita's idiom has been, this transcription stays a little closer to our solar system with his trademark spacy and phasey treatments working best on the slower pieces. Now “Firebird” has been reissued as a quad and stereo SACD on the Vocalion label, who also recently brought us Tomita’s “Ravel” quad SACD which features one of the most famous classical pieces, “Bolero.” But, I digress, this new release of Firebird… Continue Reading

We sadly have come to the final two releases in the 40th Anniversary Series of King Crimson albums. This 1 CD + 1 DVD-A edition of their 2000 album ReconstruKction of Light is the fourteenth release to receive the deluxe edition with 5.1 surround sound mixes. However this version differs quite a bit from the previous ones, featuring a "re-imagined" edition of the album with all drums replaced by Pat Mastelotto followed by the entire album remixed by Don Gunn to integrate these changes, thus the updated name from its original “The ConstruKction of Light.” For high resolution and surround enthusiasts, the DVD-A features new mixes both in stereo audio and lossless 5.1 surround sound, the later… Continue Reading