Sunday, December 14, 2008

Vinyl of the Day - "J&K: Stonebone"

Vinyl of the Day
J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding: "Stonebone" (A&M/CTI) 1970

One of the rarest albums in the CTI history. The last LP of Creed Taylor's association with the A&M label. Never released outside Japan. Never reissued on CD not even in Asia.
Also the last collaboration between the genius Pete Turner (my favorite photographer in the world) and Sam Antupit (the album designer during the A&M/CTI era).
Excellent liner notes by the master Ira Gitler, the top jazz historian along with the late Leonard Feather.
Two intriguing J.J.Johnson's tunes - "Musing" and "Mojo" - plus an extended funky version of Rudy Stevenson's "Dontcha Hear Me Callin' To Ya?" and a typical Joe Zawinul fusion theme, "Recollections" (Kai Winding quotes the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" during his inspired solo). Bob James, who plays celeste on the track, arranged "Recollections"; all others were scored by J.J. Johnson.
Featuring: George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Ron Carter, Grady Tate and Ross Tompkins. Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. 5 stars.
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6 comments:

  1. Joep EikenboomMay 25, 2009 at 10:40 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Alain ManuelJuly 5, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    Génial!!! je connaissais pas ce disque.
    Votre article sur Stone Flower (Doug Payne) est passionant aussi.
    Regardez sur mon Blog(look my blog)la pochette(cover)allemande de Stone Flower déssiné par Heinz Dofflein.

    http://alain70.unblog.fr/

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  3. Simon666July 18, 2009 at 6:32 AM

    Do you have this Arnaldo ? I so much want to hear it :)

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  4. Arnaldo DeSouteiroJuly 20, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    Hi Simon,
    Yes, I was lucky to get a pristine vinyl copy last year, after more than three decades looking for it.
    Like my friend (and idol) Doug Payne says, it's "the holy grail of CTI albums!"
    Sorry for the delay in replying, but I was in Switzerland for the Montreux Jazz Festival and only today returned to Los Angeles.
    Best,
    Arnaldo

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  5. richycooolApril 7, 2010 at 8:47 AM

    Waow !! unbelievable !! i'm looking for this LP since more than 20 years !! i'm very best friend of George Benson, and i have the most complete discography of him in the world.If somebody have it, i'm interested to buy it. Anyway thanks for the picture of the cover,i tought it was a ghost. Richy

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  6. Arnaldo DeSouteiroApril 7, 2010 at 10:24 AM

    I've just added images of the liner cover and the Japanese insert. Enjoy!
    ps: I'm doing my best to convince Universal-Japan to reissue "Stonebone" on CD. The sessions yielded many more tracks, which remain unreleased.

    ReplyDelete