Craft Recordings continues to drop great late-year releases, and I have four more here you'll definitely want to check out! These albums criss-cross the genres of classic jazz, alternative pop, post-grunge hard rock, and jazz fusion, and feature reissues of rare, long out-of-print, and hard-to-find classic and noteworthy LPs. Including a new Miles Davis compilation that gathers all of his seminal 1954 recordings in a dedicated collection for the first time ever. Some of these albums are being released on LP and CD for the first time, and many of them are being made available as high resolution digital files for download or streaming on most major services. All LPs and CDs can be ordered from Craft's web store and many online providers, and they'll also be available at brick and mortar locations like your favorite independent record store.
Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked for the Holidays. 180 gram Raisin Records LP, $28
Canadian alternative pop stalwarts Barenaked Ladies first hit the scene in 1992, and captured the imagination of music lovers everywhere with a string of hits highlighted by their classic tunes "If I Had $1000000," "It's All Been Done," "Call and Answer," and their chart-topping "One Week." After a string of best-selling albums that saw the band moving more into the mainstream, they returned to their alt-rock/pop/folk roots with 2004's Barenaked for the Holidays, which was the initial release on their independently owned Desperation Records. Originally only released on CD, this new Raisin Records' LP celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the album, and represents the first worldwide release of the album on vinyl. Craft Recordings is offering a 180 gram black vinyl pressing, as well as a limited-edition Christmas Tree green swirl pressing, and both can be ordered from Craft's web store HERE. Barenaked for the Holidays is also being offered as a Candy Cane Split pressing exclusively available through the band's website HERE, and a translucent green pressing is available exclusively from Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered HERE.
Barenaked for the Holidays takes the band's often quirky and offbeat style and liberally applies it to Christmas and Hanukkah staples, including traditionals like "Jingle Bells," which opens in an unusually subdued manner, then kicks into hyper speed for a rollickingly spirited rendition of the holiday classic. Other traditional highlights include "I Saw Three Ships," "Oh Holy Night," "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Sleigh Ride," and "I Have a Little Dreidel." The band's often unconventional take on the classics also includes an upbeat and excellent duet with Sarah Mclachlan on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings," which is far and away one of the album's most enjoyable tracks. Band originals also abound, including a really great Ed Robertson-penned "Elf's Lament" in a duet with Michael Bublé, as well as other fun originals like "Snowman," "Green Christmas," and "Christmas Pics." Barenaked Ladies also offer their own unique approach to more modern classics like Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime," and the album wraps with an unusually poignant version of "Auld Lang Syne."
I didn't really know what to expect from Barenaked for the Holidays; as it turns out, the Sarah McLachlan duet was the only track I'd previously heard, but I really like the entire album a lot! I found the record to be an entertaining and engaging listen, and a truly enjoyable exploration of classic holiday fare and new originals—if from a totally different perspective. My 180-gram black vinyl review copy was perfection incarnate (and the peppermint label is nearly hypnotic to watch spinning on the table!), but I might still try and track down one of those cool color-vinyl variants—well, because they're so cool! Barenaked for the Holidays comes very highly recommended, and will be perfect for your holiday gatherings and celebrations!
OPA, Goldenwings. 180 gram Milestone Records LP, $30
The Fattoruso brothers, Hugo and Jorge, were enlisted at an early age by their father Antonio to back him up in a small band that played street festivals and carnivals in their hometown of Montevideo, Uruguay. Hugo played piano and keyboards and Jorge initially played drums, although they both eventually branched out in later bands by mastering a diverse range of instruments. In the early Seventies, they ventured beyond South America to New York City, where at the behest of nearly legendary Brazilian artists Hermeto Pascoal and Airto Moreira they formed a new trio, OPA. Pascoal was an influential composer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist; percussionist Moreira had played with Return to Forever, and was at the forefront of the jazz fusion scene. Airto had become enamored with the Fattoruso brothers musicianship, encouraging them to expand their musical horizons into a synthesis of psychedelic rock, latin rhythms, and jazz fusion. In OPA, Hugo Fattoruso played keyboards, synthesizers, and percussion, while Jorge Fattoruso played drums and percussion, and Ringo Thieleman was drafted as the trio's bassist; each member added occasional vocals to the tunes that were mostly composed by the Fattorusos. Their first album, Goldenwings, was recorded for Milestone Records at Fantasy's Berkeley, California studios, between February and April 1976, and was released later that year. Goldenwings has been out of print since its initial release 48 years ago, and has never been released on compact disc or digitally for streaming. You can order a copy of Goldenwings from Craft's web store HERE.
The three members of OPA were accompanied on Goldenwings by Hermeto Pascoal on flutes and percussion, Airto Moreira on congas and percussion, and David Amaro on guitars. The album was also produced by Moreira, and despite Goldenwings gaining a well-deserved reputation as a groundbreaking example of latin jazz fusion, the LP was surprisingly never repressed. In the decades afterward, the nearly impossible-to-find LP has become the object of crate-diggers' obsession worldwide. Only ten original LPs are currently available on Discogs, with minty copies going for upwards of $250, making this new Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf LP reissue highly desirable to fans and collectors alike, especially at its $30 MSRP. The new reissue was remastered with lacquers cut from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and was pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. The LP reissue arrived in a beautiful, heavy tip-on jacket, with the LP inserted into an RTI-branded rice-paper inner sleeve (I love that more pressing plants are adopting this perfectionist approach). The LP was perfectly flat and supremely silent, and played across my all-analog system with power and authority.
Goldenwings is an album that despite my never having heard this band or any of its music, was instantly familiar to me by the conclusion of the opening track, "Golden Wings." Where Hugo Fattoruso leads an all-out jam on Moog, ARP, and Oberheim synths: the track is a triumph of jazz fusion. Goldenwings' Latin-inspired elements help separate it from just about anything else in the jazz fusion canon—I honestly can't believe this record has never been repressed until now, and has never been available digitally or on compact disc. With this Jazz Dispensary LP release, Goldenwings is now being made available for download in CD-quality resolution from the Bandcamp website, HERE. I can't recommend this LP highly enough; I'm constantly astonished by how everything that comes my way from Jazz Dispensary is so enjoyable and essential—OPA's Goldenwings is an absolute must hear for any fan of Seventies jazz fusion! Very highly recommended—Goldenwings has been in constant rotation here since its arrival.
Bush, Sixteen Stone: 30th Anniversary Edition. (2) 140 gram Opaque Red Zuma Rock Records LPs, $35
When English post-grunge band Bush crashed the American airwaves with 1994's Sixteen Stone, I was working at a local Atlanta record store chain, and thought we'd reached a new paradigm in alternative rock music. Every song on the Trauma/Interscope Records release moved me in a way nothing else had in years, with songs like "Everything Zen," "Little Things," "Comedown," "Glycerine," and "Machinehead" in constant rotation on local rock stations. Coming in the aftermath of Curt Cobain's suicide and the huge void left by Nirvana's disbanding, I was convinced that Bush—and especially frontman Gavin Rossdale—were the next big thing, and so did just about everyone else who heard the record. Sixteen Stone debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 album charts, maintaining a presence there for a remarkable 70 weeks, while going six-times platinum in the process. Much of the album's success was driven by the singles "Comedown" and "Glycerine," both of which reached number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. Sixteen Stone has gone on to become regarded as one of the cornerstones of post-grunge rock in the Nineties.
Craft's new LP reissue marks the first wide domestic release of the album on LP since 1996; at the point of the album's 1994 debut, it was only available on compact discs. Only a handful of original 1996 LPs are available on Discogs, and they start at close to $300, so the $35 price for Craft's reissue will be welcome news to fans and collectors alike. The two-LP set accommodates the full tracklist of the original CD-only release, and Craft is offering opaque red 140 gram pressings of Sixteen Stone: 30th Anniversary Edition at their web store HERE. You can get also get a signed red vinyl copy at the band's website HERE, and other color variants are available from Barnes & Noble (sepia vinyl), Best Buy (translucent lemonade vinyl), Revolver (highlighter smoke vinyl), and Spotify Fans First (fog vinyl). A silver vinyl LP set will be widely available at your local independent record store. My red vinyl LP set was pressed at Memphis Record Pressing; the LPs were gorgeous to look at, but more importantly were perfectly flat, with no groove noise during playback.
I have to admit, hearing this album again for probably the first time in twenty-plus years was a shock to the system, and I'm astonished by how well these tracks have held up over the thirty years since their original release! Sixteen Stone is a damn great album, and Craft's new reissue has been rocking the analog room for the couple of weeks since it's been here—hearing this album is like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in decades! I followed the band for a while, and felt that their follow-up, 1996's Razorblade Suitcase, was also an exceptionally good album. After that, well, maybe not so much; I kind of got the impression that the level of domestic bliss Gavin Rossdale was experiencing with new wife Gwen Stefani got in the way of the music, and I fell off the Bush bandwagon. Hearing Sixteen Stone: 30th Anniversary Edition reminds me of how very essential this band was at the time, and for a small window in time, will always remain. Very highly recommended!
Miles Davis, Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings, (4) 180 gram Prestige Records LPs, $125
Prestige Records was notorious for constantly recycling the music of many of the artists they recorded, and Miles Davis' output with the label was no stranger to that practice. Even after Miles had fulfilled his contractual obligation to Prestige and had signed with Columbia Records, Prestige still released a nearly non-stop stream of his recordings from their vaults. Which at the time of their eventual release, barely bore any resemblance to the groundbreaking music Miles was recording for Columbia with his new sextet and later quintets. Regardless, the music on the Prestige sides was still absolutely essential Miles Davis, and definitely warranted issuing to the legion of fans who probably barely perceived how very far Miles had come from his days at Prestige by the time his Columbia albums started dropping. As far as his fans were concerned, every Miles Davis album was classic, and time has definitely proven the soundness of their logic.
Craft Recordings has released a new box set, Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings, which compiles all the 1954 recordings he made for the label in a single dedicated set, for the very first time. Those sessions found Miles in the company of some of the giants of hard bop music, including Art Blakey and Kenny Clarke on drums, Percy Heath on bass, Milt Jackson on vibraphone, J.J. Johnson on trombone, Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver on piano, Dave Schildkraut on alto sax, and Sonny Rollins and Lucky Thompson on tenor saxes. That's an impressive roster of jazz talent! As with all things Prestige Records, the sessions were recorded by the venerable Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. The 1954 sessions initially resulted in the Prestige 10-inch LPs Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis All Star Sextet, and Miles Davis Quartet, but in typical Prestige fashion, they all eventually got recycled into 12-inch LPs as well. The two LPs I happened to have in my collection that evolved from these sessions were OJC reissues of 1957's Walkin' (which compiled the tracks from both 10-inch LPs Miles Davis All Star Sextet and Miles Davis Quartet) and the same year's release of Bag's Groove, which also culled tracks from the 1954 sessions. While my original OJC LPs are great, they don't hold a candle to what I'm hearing from Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings, which betters the sound quality of the OJCs in every conceivable way!
Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings is being made available in multiple formats, including the 180-gram, 4-LP box set I received for review, a two-compact disc set, and as 24-bit/192 kHz high-resolution digital files (which I also received for review). All audio formats were remastered by Paul Blakemore for reissue, with lacquers for the LPs cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. The LP set is marked "Manufactured in Germany," so I'm not certain where the LPs were pressed, but they were perfectly flat and presented no surface or groove noise whatsoever. The LPs come housed in a beautiful, die-cut outer slipcase that's a wonder of graphic design; the case top pops off to reveal the four individual albums, which present the individual tracks in the chronological order in which they were recorded. There's also an additional, thin pocket towards the front of the slipcase that has the included booklet inserted; the stylish booklet peeks through the die cut, and features cool session photos, as well as an essay from journalist Ashley Kahn. The booklet also includes Dan Morgenstern's session notes from the only other collection that features all of these recordings, 1988's Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951-1956. Each of the individual LPs is encased in a color-coordinated single sleeve LP jacket, and each LP is inserted into a rice-paper lined paper inner sleeve. It's as beautiful an LP reissue package as I've ever seen, bar none! You can order LPs and CDs for Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings from Craft's web store HERE.
The sound quality of the LPs easily bested the original OJCs I had on hand for Walkin' and Bag's Groove, and the high resolution digital files gave the new LPs a definite run for their money! Of course, they're all presented in the classic, 1950's Van Gelder wide mono that offers the kind of realism that gives vintage analog sets like this their reputation for superb sound. This is a great set in terms of presentation as well as sound, and should be welcomed by jazz fans and collectors alike. Very highly recommended!
Craft continues to bring it with eclectic New Release offerings!
There's something for everyone with this latest batch of releases from Craft Recordings, including offbeat and cool music to light up your holiday celebrations from Barenaked Ladies, exceptionally rare Latinesque jazz fusion from OPA that rings with astonishing familiarity, and pounding 90's post-grunge from Bush that will bring a smile to any rocker's face. And the coup de grace—a super-deluxe Miles Davis boxed LP set that presents some of his essential early Prestige recordings in perhaps their best form ever! And most everything here is being offered in both analog and digital formats, which will also tick everyone's boxes. Thanks again to Jacob Mask at Craft Recordings for his consideration and assistance—all these albums come very highly recommended!
Craft Recordings
All images courtesy of Craft Recordings.
