Stanley Turrentine is the featured artist in this big band session with an all-star orchestra arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson. While Nelson’s charts are funky and easygoing (without providing any solo space for the likes of Phil Woods, Clark Terry, and Jay Jay Johnson), they serve the purpose to inspire the tenor saxophonist. Turrentine is quite soulful on Percy Mayfield’s “River’s Invitation,” and his huge tone carries the day in a waltzing chart of the 1960s hit “A Taste of Honey.” The artist also contributed some originals to the date, including the easygoing “Little Sheri,” which features the unison flutes of Danny Bank and Jerry Dodgion, and “Mattie T,” a gospel-like song that almost seems like a march. ~ Ken Dryden

Personnel: Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); Stanley Turrentine; Bob Cranshaw (upright bass); Kenny Burrell (guitar); Herbie Hancock (piano); Grady Tate (drums).

Tracklist

01. River’s Invitation
02. I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone
03. Little Sheri
04. Mattie T.
05. Bayou
06. A Tast Of Honey
07. Gravy Train
08. A Kettle Of Fish

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Soundtrack of “La Donna Invisibile” (The Invisible Woman) by the great Ennio Morricone, enjoy!

Tracklist

01. La Donna Invisibile
02. Ritratto D’Autore
03. Silenziosamente
04. Eros Profondo
05. In Un Sogno Il Sogno
06. Mille Ricordi
07. Alla Serenità
08. La Moda
09. Un Bacio
10. Incontro Trasversale
11. Ritrato D’Autore (Alternate Version)
12. Alla Serenità (Titoli – Movie Version)
13. La Moda (Alternate Version 1)
14. La Moda (Alternate Version 2)

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This set was one of trumpeter Lee Morgan’s lesser-known Blue Note recordings but it is quite rewarding. The notable sextet (which also includes altoist Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley on tenor, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Billy Higgins) performs originals by Morgan, Walton and Duke Pearson, including particularly catchy versions of the funky “Hey Chico” and Pearson’s memorable “Sweet Honey Bee” (which should have become a hit). The three horns, all of whom sound quite individual, each have their exciting moments, and the results are quintessential mid-’60s hard bop.

Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet); Jackie McLean (alto sax); Hank Mobley (tenor sax); Cedar Walton (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Billy Higgins (drums).

Tracklist

01. Hey Chico
02. Somethin’ Cute
03. Rainy Night
04. Sweet Honey Bee
05. The Murphy Man
06. The Double Up

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Gretchen Parlato’s voice is a thing of wonder. Striking the ideal balance between precision and flexibility, she is never predictable, blurring the lines between singer and instrumentalist as she takes a lyric–and at other times improvised flights of wordless fancy–to places it’s never before been. On In a Dream, her debut album for ObliqSound (released August 25, 2009), Parlato and her intuitive support team reinvent constantly, Parlato impeccably articulating in a voice so ethereal that the listener might very well feel that he or she is “in a dream.”

For more info and buy check: www.obliqsound.com

Tracklist

01. I Can’t Help it
02. Within Me
03. Butterlfy
04. In a Dream
05. Doralice
06. Turning Into Blue
07. E.S.P.
08. Azure
09. On The Other Side
10. Weak

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A seductive and once again completey excellent album from Meshell Ndegeocello – one of rare few great artists of our time to break out big early on and to go on to deeper, more alluring and creatively fruitful work later that’s beloved by a smaller, but much more appreciative flock! Weather, ironically, might be her most easily appealing and accessible album since her mainstream breakout – with a haunting, moody quality and deep sinking emotionalism. Producer Joe Henry is a good fit – the record has a quiet, kind of noirish quality that serves Meshell very well.

For more info and buy check: www.meshell.com

Tracklist

01. Weather
02. Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
03. Feeling For The Wall
04. Chance
05. Oysters
06. Rapid Fire
07. Chelsea Hotel
08. Dirty World
09. A Bitter Mule
10. Crazy and Wild
11. Petite Mort
12. Dead End
13. Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness

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Track from upcoming Eric Lau’s Mission EP, enojoy! For more info and buy check: www.kilawattmusic.com

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The live show recorded! props to Funk It!

D’Angelo – Vocals, Guitar, Yamaha CP70 electric piano
The Testimony: Isaiah Sharkey (guitar); Jef Lee Johnson (guitar); Ray Angry (Keys); Pino Palladino (Bass); Chris Dave (Drums); Robert Lumzy (Drums); Kendra Foster (Vocals); Jermaine Holmes (Vocals); Charles “Red” Middleton (Vocals).

internal mics > Olympus LS10
Recorded by nicnouille

Tracklist

01. Playa Playa
02. Feel Like Makin’ Love [Roberta Flack cover]
03. Ain’t That Easy [new song]
04. Devil’s Pie
05. Chicken Grease
06. The Line (intro) > The Root
07. The Charade [new song]
08. I’ve Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) [Parliament cover]
09. Shit, Damn, Motherfucker (inc. bass & drum solo)
10. Solo medley: Brown Sugar (tease) > Jonz In My Bonz > Spanish Joint > Me and Those Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine > Cruisin’ > Higher > One Mo’Gin > Untitled (How Does It Feel)
11. Another Life [new song]
12. Sugah Daddy [new song]
13. Space Oddity [David Bowie cover]
14. Brown Sugar

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Zach Saginaw consistently grounds his music in a deeply personal, familial context; his grandmother inspired two releases, his producer aliases, Shigeto and Frank Omura, both reference family names and it’s not for nothing that his latest release as Shigeto is titled Lineage.

While only Saginaw could speak to the ancestral motivation being referenced on the eight instrumental songs that comprise the mini-LP, Lineage, it’s easy to see it as an acknowledgement of debt to musical forebears, reverent respect due to the jazz, hip-hop, funk and folk that animates these eight songs. And while these elements aren’t new to Saginaw’s work, never has he demonstrated such complete command of his material. Each song is a complex constellation of sounds and ideas, but his compositional focus and restraint grounds songs that are otherwise cosmically inclined.

For more info and buy check: www.ghostly.com

Tracklist

01. Lineage (Prologue)
02. Lineage
03. Ann Arbord Part 3 & 4
04. Soaring
05. A Child’s Mind
06. Huron River Drive
07. Field Trip
08. Please Stay

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New stuff from Knxwledge, enjoy! For more info and buy check: gloof.bandcamp.com

Tracklist

01. Hayrow.
02. Learn
03. TheWay.
04. Dwninside
05. LetMeHaveUrHeart
06. Bye
07. BuildMyWrld[ArowndJew]
08. Keepin[Sunliteintro]
09. Akuvue
10. RathrBe.
11. Salloshun[turntmeowt]
12. OnliYewtho[MndZootRmx]

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You may have noticed me using the header Mixtape Mondays on a few posts recently–something we intend to  make a semi-regular feature here at Okayplayer. We figured we would kick it off properly with an actual OKP mixtape; something official, something original, something exclusive. Something worthy to place alongside DJ Soul‘s incredible Best of Common and Dilla mixtapes. And then we was like, Hmm what’s happening the last monday in January that we could use as a theme? Superbowl? Newt Gingrich? Or MAYBE the phoenix-like reemergence of our beloved D’Angelo, who is currently spreading his fiery musical wings across the waters in Europe.

Accordingly, we asked super-thorough DJ/producer and Soulquarian obsessive Sam Champ (you may remember the tough remix of “Left & Right” from his remix LP) to cut together this official OKP D’Angelo Live mix for us. Most of these amazing live renditions of classic D’Angelo material have surfaced online in one form or the other before but Sam Champ has skillfully compiled them into one seamless blend to create the ultimate OKP fantasy concert for those of us not blessed enough to have been born Scandinavian. So without further ado, please find below one hour and twelve minutes (and some seconds) of streamable D’Angelo, recorded live on various stages across the world (and with a young Anthony Hamilton clearly audible on background vox in quite a few)–enough to keep all fly girls’ nipples and toes tingly with excitement until the arrival of a PURPORTED NEW D’ANGELO ALBUM SOMETIME LATER THIS YEAR. D’Angelo is back, baby. Mixtape Mondays is here. Get happy.

Tracklist

01. Fantastic Intro
02. Brown Sugar
03. Devil’s Pie
04. Crisco
05. Left & Right
06. Chicken Grease
07. Lady
08. Left & Right (Reprise)
09. Feel Like Making Love
10. Can’t Hide Love
11. Things You Do (Fall in Love)
12. One Mo’ Gin
13. Me and Those Dreaming Eyes of Mine
14. S.D.M.
15. Untitled (How Does It Feel)

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