{"title":"Mr Bongo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFounded in Brighton in 1989, Mr Bongo has spent over three decades making rare and essential music accessible through expertly curated reissues. Specialising in Brazilian, Latin and African recordings, the label has earned a reputation for quality pressings and impeccable curation, bringing legendary albums back into circulation at reasonable prices.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"mankunku-quartet-yakhal-inkomo-2021-mr-bongo-half-speed-master-lp-with-obi","title":"Mankunku Quartet - Yakhal' Inkomo (2021 Mr Bongo Half-Speed Master LP with Obi)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMankunku Quartet - \u003cem\u003eYakhal' Inkomo\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eVinyl LP - 2021 Mr Bongo Half-Speed Master Reissue with Tip-On Sleeve and Obi\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of South African jazz's most revered recordings, \u003cem\u003eYakhal' Inkomo\u003c\/em\u003e captures tenor saxophonist Winston \"Mankunku\" Ngozi leading a quartet through two originals and two covers that together represent South African hard bop and modal jazz at its finest. Recorded on 23 July 1968 at Manley van Niekerk Studios in Johannesburg during apartheid, the session's very existence was an act of resistance, featuring a mixed-race group (pianist Lionel Pillay was of Indian descent) in defiance of apartheid restrictions. The title track \"Yakhal' Inkomo\" (meaning \"the bellow of the bull\") served as coded protest that Black audiences understood while escaping government censors. This 22 October 2021 Mr Bongo reissue, licensed from Gallo Record Company and half-speed mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, presents this landmark album in premium audiophile format with tip-on sleeve and obi strip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMankunku's playing draws directly from John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter (explicitly acknowledged in \"Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)\"), yet the quartet creates a distinctively South African sound through their rhythmic approach and emotional directness. The 12-minute title track builds from meditative beginnings through increasingly intense collective improvisation, Mankunku's tenor crying out with both spiritual yearning and political anger. His original compositions not only hold their own alongside the Horace Silver (\"Doodlin'\") and John Coltrane (\"Bessie's Blues\") covers but arguably surpass them, testament to Mankunku's compositional gifts and the quartet's telepathic interaction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43151090417723,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/7119691281315.jpg?v=1768966754"},{"product_id":"don-glori-paper-cant-wrap-fire-2025-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Don Glori - Paper Can't Wrap Fire (2025 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon Glori - \u003cem\u003ePaper Can't Wrap Fire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eVinyl LP - 2025 Mr Bongo Records\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFresh contemporary Australian jazz voice\u003c\/strong\u003e - blending jazz-funk, soul-jazz, and neo soul\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e2025 Mr Bongo release\u003c\/strong\u003e - label known for championing essential contemporary jazz and funk\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eModern fusion of R\u0026amp;B and improvisation\u003c\/strong\u003e - bridging genres for today's jazz listeners\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMelbourne's Don Glori presents nine tracks on this third album, blending jazz-funk, soul-jazz, neo soul, contemporary R\u0026amp;B, and fusion into a cohesive statement that reflects contemporary jazz's increasing dialogue with R\u0026amp;B, hip-hop, and electronic music production. Released in 2025 by Mr Bongo Records, the album demonstrates how younger musicians are synthesising jazz tradition with contemporary urban music aesthetics, creating music that speaks to audiences raised on J Dilla, Robert Glasper, and Thundercat as much as Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. The album's production sensibility and sonic palette reflect post-2000s approaches to jazz recording while maintaining improvisational core and compositional sophistication.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nine compositions showcase Glori's approach to contemporary fusion, tracks like \"Disaster\", \"Power\", and \"Saturn's Return\" building grooves that could function in R\u0026amp;B or hip-hop contexts while incorporating jazz harmonic movement and improvisational exploration. The album's sound reflects contemporary production techniques—close-miked instruments, electronic textures, hip-hop influenced rhythmic feels—that distinguish it from acoustic jazz traditions while maintaining connection to jazz's improvisational essence. This approach positions the music within contemporary urban music landscapes rather than purely jazz contexts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43216844554299,"sku":null,"price":75.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a0655827298_10_88cde4dd-5373-4279-a60f-d11f58001d2f.jpg?v=1771110072"},{"product_id":"horace-tapscott-quintet-the-quintet-2022-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Horace Tapscott Quintet - The Quintet (2022 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHorace Tapscott Quintet - \u003cem\u003eThe Quintet\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2022 Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP256)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA previously unreleased 1969 session\u003c\/strong\u003e by one of Los Angeles' most important and unjustly overlooked jazz musicians, recovered from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives and released for the first time in 2022 by Mr Bongo\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe exact same quintet as \u003cem\u003eThe Giant Is Awakened\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e: Horace Tapscott on piano, Arthur Blythe on alto saxophone, Everett Brown Jr. on drums, and the unusual dual-bass configuration of David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProduced by Bob Thiele\u003c\/strong\u003e, who had just departed Impulse! Records to found Flying Dutchman in 1969 and brought the same conviction to these sessions that produced the best work of the Impulse! era\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHorace Tapscott spent most of the 1960s in South Central Los Angeles, leading the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and building the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA, later renamed the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension), a community organisation that functioned as rehearsal space, arts incubator and social anchor through the years surrounding the 1965 Watts uprising. The Arkestra performed on flatbed trucks through the neighbourhood as the fires burned. The musicians Tapscott nurtured in those years included Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Butch Morris and Stanley Crouch. He declined opportunities to tour nationally or relocate to New York, choosing instead to stay and build something in his own community, which meant that despite being regarded by his peers as one of the most significant pianists in the country, his recording career did not begin until 1969. That debut, \u003cem\u003eThe Giant Is Awakened\u003c\/em\u003e, was produced by Bob Thiele for his newly founded Flying Dutchman imprint, Thiele having just left Impulse! Records where he had produced the definitive John Coltrane catalogue. The session that became \u003cem\u003eThe Giant Is Awakened\u003c\/em\u003e produced enough material for a second album, which Thiele also intended to release. It was not released. The master tapes sat in the Flying Dutchman archives for over fifty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat Mr Bongo have recovered and pressed here is three pieces from that same 1969 session, with the same quintet: Tapscott on piano, Arthur Blythe on alto saxophone, Everett Brown Jr. on drums, and the distinctive dual-bass configuration of David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. that gives the rhythm section its particular weight and density. The lineup contains no trumpet, no trombone and no second horn: just piano, alto saxophone and two basses over drums, a configuration that concentrates the harmonic and rhythmic conversation between Tapscott and his rhythm section in a way that the fuller ensemble of some contemporary free jazz recordings does not. The three tracks are titled \"World Peace\", \"Your Child\" and \"For Fats\", the last almost certainly an elegy for a significant jazz figure whose identity is worth confirming from your sleeve before discussing in any marketing context. Following the release of \u003cem\u003eThe Giant Is Awakened\u003c\/em\u003e, Tapscott did not record again as a leader until the late 1970s through the small Los Angeles labels Interplay and Nimbus. He died in February 1999 at the age of 64. The music on this record was made at his only commercially produced recording session and would not be heard by anyone outside the Flying Dutchman archives for five decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePressed at Optimal Media GmbH, licensed from Flying Dutchman, released 2 September 2022 on Mr Bongo (MRBLP256). Comes in an oversized jacket with plain black poly-lined inner sleeve and obi strip.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43258630438971,"sku":null,"price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a3247336009_10.jpg?v=1772766376"},{"product_id":"tenorio-jr-embalo-2017-mr-bongo-reissue-lp","title":"Tenório Jr. - Embalo (2017 Mr Bongo Reissue LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTenório Jr. - \u003cem\u003eEmbalo\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2017 Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP144 \/ RGE XRLP-5.234)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFrancisco Tenório Júnior's only album as a leader\u003c\/strong\u003e, originally released on RGE in 1964: eleven tracks of samba-jazz and bossa nova with a cast of eleven musicians including Paulo Moura on alto saxophone and Milton Banana on drums, recorded in Rio de Janeiro when Tenório Jr. was in his early twenties\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\"Nebulosa\" has circulated widely through DJ culture \u003c\/strong\u003eand compilation albums for decades; regularly played by Gilles Peterson and Floating Points, remixed by Nu:Tone, and listed as one of the standout tracks of early 1960s Brazilian jazz\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMastered from the original RGE tapes\u003c\/strong\u003e; replica original artwork; a proper reissue of a record that was genuinely hard to obtain before Mr Bongo brought it back in 2017\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrancisco Tenório Júnior was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up in the Laranjeiras neighbourhood, where he developed as a pianist while simultaneously studying medicine at the National School of Medicine. By the early 1960s he was a central figure in the bossa nova scene at Beco das Garrafas in Copacabana, the cramped alleyway of clubs where bossa nova crystallised as a genre, and was sought after as both a pianist and an arranger. \u003cem\u003eEmbalo\u003c\/em\u003e was recorded in 1964, when he was in his early twenties, and features eleven musicians alongside him: Paulo Moura on alto saxophone, J.T. Meirelles and Hector Costita on tenor saxophone, Pedro Paulo and Maurilio on trumpets, Edson Maciel and Raulzinho on trombones, Celso Brando and Neco on guitars, Rubens Bassini on atabaque, and the rhythm section of Sergio Barroso Netto and José Antonio Alves on bass with Milton Banana on drums. It was the first and only album he recorded as a leader.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn March 1976 Tenório Jr. was in Buenos Aires as part of a tour accompanying the poet and lyricist Vinicius de Moraes and guitarist Toquinho. One night he left his hotel and did not return. Argentina was in the first weeks of a military dictatorship that would last until 1983, during which an estimated 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. A decade after Tenório Jr. vanished, a former Argentine Navy corporal testified that he had been arrested, taken to the ESMA (Navy Mechanics School), a detention and torture centre implicated in thousands of killings, and executed nine days after his arrest, with Brazilian military agents present. CONADEP, Argentina's National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, confirmed his death in March 1976 in its 1984 report \u003cem\u003eNunca Más\u003c\/em\u003e. The Argentine state admitted responsibility in 1997. A Brazilian court ruled for compensation to his family in 2006. He left behind his wife Carmen, four children, and a fifth child born one month after he disappeared. Elis Regina dedicated her 1979 album \u003cem\u003eEssa Mulher\u003c\/em\u003e to his absence. The Brazilian filmmaker Rogerio Lima made a short film, \u003cem\u003eBalada para Tenório\u003c\/em\u003e, in the aftermath of his disappearance, with interviews from family and friends. \u003cem\u003eEmbalo\u003c\/em\u003e remains the only document of what he was as a bandleader, and it is a remarkable one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Mr Bongo reissue, pressed in the UK in 2017 with replica original artwork and mastered from the original RGE tapes, is the definitive way to own it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43263176966203,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a3412631022_10.jpg?v=1772863681"},{"product_id":"teaspoon-and-the-waves-teaspoon-and-the-waves-2021-mr-bongo-reissue-vinyl-lp","title":"Teaspoon and The Waves - Teaspoon and The Waves (2021 Mr Bongo Reissue Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTeaspoon and The Waves - \u003cem\u003eTeaspoon and The Waves\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2021 Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP225)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFive tracks of South African jazz-funk from 1977\u003c\/strong\u003e, produced by West Nkosi on Soul Jazz Pop (a Mavuthela Music Company \/ Gallo subsidiary); all compositions by saxophonist Teaspoon Ndelu, recorded in Johannesburg\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\"Oh Yeh Soweto\"\u003c\/strong\u003e adapts Lamont Dozier's \"Going Back to My Roots\" four years before the Odyssey version made the song internationally famous, and has become a staple of DJ sets from Gilles Peterson to Floating Points\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTeaspoon Ndelu went on to play saxophone on Paul Simon's \"Gumboots\"\u003c\/strong\u003e from \u003cem\u003eGraceland\u003c\/em\u003e (1986); he also collaborated with Stimela and Sipho Gumede and wrote for other South African artists throughout a long career\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOfficial replica reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e, licensed from Gallo, mastered at Finyl Tweek and pressed at Optimal Media GmbH; released by Mr Bongo on 26 February 2021\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTeaspoon Ndelu was a South African saxophonist and studio veteran who recorded under various configurations — Teaspoon and His 'T' Boys, Teaspoon and The Waves — and collaborated extensively with fellow saxophonist and producer West Nkosi, including on the \"Mabone\" singles of the early 1970s. This self-titled album was recorded in 1977 for Soul Jazz Pop, a subsidiary of Mavuthela Music Company under the Gallo umbrella, engineered by Nino Rivera and produced by West Nkosi. All five tracks are Ndelu originals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album is built around jazz-funk grooves with a palette that pulls in Afro-synths, reggae-inflected guitar and disco rhythm, all of it anchored by Ndelu's saxophone. \"Oh Yeh Soweto\" adapts the harmonic and melodic framework of Lamont Dozier's \"Going Back to My Roots\" — a song Dozier had recorded with Richie Havens in 1971 but which most listeners outside South Africa would not encounter until the Odyssey hit version of 1981. Ndelu got there first. The track circulated through DJ culture for years and is now a legitimate dancefloor classic. The remaining four tracks are not filler. \"Friday Night\" opens with a reggae-tinged tropical groove; \"Wind and Fire\" runs on spacey synths and loose, rhythmic guitar; \"Saturday Express\" is a straight-up disco stomper; \"Got Me Tight\" closes the record with a playful, funk-led workout. Ndelu later brought his saxophone to Paul Simon's \u003cem\u003eGraceland\u003c\/em\u003e sessions, appearing on \"Gumboots\" (1986). This Mr Bongo reissue, licensed from Gallo, is pressed at Optimal Media GmbH with replica original artwork.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43264072679483,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a1779475805_10.jpg?v=1772917594"},{"product_id":"asha-puthli-asha-puthli-2020-mr-bongo-rsd-blue-vinyl-reissue-vinyl-lp","title":"Asha Puthli - Asha Puthli (2020 Mr Bongo RSD Blue Vinyl Reissue Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAsha Puthli - \u003cem\u003eAsha Puthli\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2020 Mr Bongo RSD Reissue, Blue Vinyl (MRBLP221)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAsha Puthli's 1973 CBS debut\u003c\/strong\u003e, produced by Del Newman (Elton John collaborator), signed by John Hammond at Columbia after her vocal appearances on Ornette Coleman's \u003cem\u003eScience Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e (1972) won her the DownBeat Critics' Poll for Best Female Jazz Vocalist\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNine tracks crossing jazz, soul, funk and proto-disco\u003c\/strong\u003e, including cover versions of George Harrison's \"I Dig Love,\" Gladys Knight's \"Neither One Of Us,\" and Neil Sedaka's \"I Am A Song\"; cover shot by Mick Rock with makeup by Pierre LaRoche\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\"Let Me In Your Life\"\u003c\/strong\u003e was sampled by Action Bronson for \"Terry\" (2015) and by Chris Brown for \"Loyal\" (2014)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAsha Puthli was born in Bombay in 1945, trained in Indian classical music and opera, arrived in New York on a Martha Graham dance scholarship in 1969, and was signed to CBS Records by John Hammond — the Columbia A\u0026amp;R director who had discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen — after he read about her singing in Ved Mehta's \u003cem\u003ePortrait of India\u003c\/em\u003e. Hammond sent her to record with Ornette Coleman, and her performances on \u003cem\u003eScience Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e (1972) won her the DownBeat Critics' Poll award for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. When the commercial climate for avant-garde jazz contracted, she moved to London and recorded this debut with Del Newman, best known as Elton John's arranger and producer, for CBS in 1973.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album moves across jazz, soul, blues and early disco with a voice that is genuinely unusual: supple, improvisational, capable of intimacy and abandon in the same phrase. Del Newman's production sits it squarely in the early 1970s glam-funk world without losing Puthli's jazz instincts. The track selection ranges from originals to covers: George Harrison's \"I Dig Love\" — which Puthli has described as stripping the Beatles' spiritual reading and bringing out its sexuality — sits alongside Jim Weatherly's \"Neither One Of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)\" (the Gladys Knight and the Pips hit), Bill Withers and Isaac Hayes's \"Let Me In Your Life,\" and Neil Sedaka's \"I Am A Song.\" The cover was shot by Mick Rock with makeup by Pierre LaRoche, who also worked with Bowie and Mercury. This pressing is the Mr Bongo Record Store Day 2020 reissue on blue vinyl, licensed from Puthli directly.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43264097353787,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a1627263207_10.jpg?v=1772921710"},{"product_id":"ian-carr-belladonna-2021-mr-bongo-half-speed-master-reissue-lp-gatefold","title":"Ian Carr - Belladonna (2021 Mr Bongo Half-Speed Master Reissue LP, Gatefold)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIan Carr - \u003cem\u003eBelladonna\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2021 Mr Bongo Half-Speed Master Reissue (MRBLP229)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIan Carr's 1972 jazz-rock fusion landmark\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded in July 1972 at Phonogram Studios in West London with eight musicians from the core of the British jazz-rock scene including Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Gordon Beck on Hohner electric piano, Roy Babbington on bass and Brian Smith on reeds and flutes; produced by Jon Hiseman\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBelladonna\u003c\/em\u003e opens with a 13-minute title track\u003c\/strong\u003e and integrates jazz, rock and atmospheric electronics\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHalf-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios\u003c\/strong\u003e, pressed at Optimal Media GmbH; gatefold sleeve with replica Vertigo swirl label\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAmong the earliest recorded appearances of Allan Holdsworth\u003c\/strong\u003e; his solos on \"Remadione\" and the closing \"Hector's House\" mark this as a document of one of the most significant guitarists in the history of jazz-rock before he became widely known\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the time Ian Carr recorded \u003cem\u003eBelladonna\u003c\/em\u003e in July 1972, Nucleus as a working band had come apart. Founding members Karl Jenkins and drummer John Marshall had left for Soft Machine; bassist Jeff Clyne had moved to Isotope; guitarist Chris Spedding had gone into session work. Of the original lineup, only saxophonist and flautist Brian Smith remained. Carr assembled a new group of musicians from the British jazz-rock circuit — bassist Roy Babbington, drummer Clive Thacker, Fender Rhodes player Dave MacRae, and a young Bradford guitarist named Allan Holdsworth — and brought in Gordon Beck and Trevor Tomkins as guests. The sessions were produced by Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, engineered by Roger Wake at Phonogram Studios in West London, and mixed and mastered by Peter Gallen at Lansdowne.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe six tracks run from the 13-minute title piece, which opens on atonal improvisation before settling into a long, locked-in funk-jazz groove and closes on solo trumpet, through to \"Hector's House\" where Holdsworth cuts loose over a snapping bass line in a solo that established him as a player to watch. His tone and legato phrasing were still forming in 1972 but the approach was already entirely his own. Beck and MacRae playing Hohner and Fender Rhodes simultaneously creates the layered keyboard texture that defines much of the record's atmosphere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Mr Bongo reissue is half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, gatefold, with the replica Vertigo swirl label, licensed from Universal Music Operations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43264102858811,"sku":null,"price":55.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a0297944318_10.jpg?v=1772923631"},{"product_id":"lonnie-smith-afro-desia-2024-mr-bongo-groove-merchant-reissue-lp-gatefold","title":"Lonnie Smith - Afro-Desia (2024 Mr Bongo Groove Merchant Reissue LP Gatefold)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonnie Smith - \u003cem\u003eAfro-Desia\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2024 Mr Bongo Gatefold Reissue (MRBLP297)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLonnie Smith's 1975 Hammond B3 jazz-funk landmark\u003c\/strong\u003e for Groove Merchant, produced by label owner Sonny Lester, with an uncredited George Benson on guitar, Joe Lovano on saxophone and Ron Carter on bass\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFive tracks\u003c\/strong\u003e ranging from the 15-minute free-wheeling \"Spirits Free\" to the Latin-inflected \"Straight to the Point,\" covering Smith's full range from cosmic organ exploration to locked-in soul-jazz groove\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAmong the earliest recordings of Joe Lovano\u003c\/strong\u003e, who went on to become one of the most important tenor saxophonists of the following four decades\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGatefold reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e pressed at Optimal Media GmbH; the second release in Mr Bongo's Groove Merchant catalogue series\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLonnie Smith had been a central figure in soul-jazz and hard bop since the late 1960s, recording for Blue Note alongside Lee Morgan, George Benson and others, and building a reputation as one of the most inventive Hammond B3 players in jazz. By 1975, recording for Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant label, he assembled a lineup of Ron Carter on bass, Ben Riley on drums, a young Joe Lovano on tenor and soprano saxophone, and a mysterious guitarist who does not appear on the sleeve under his own name. \"Compliments of a Friend\" is widely understood to be George Benson, who had worked closely with Smith in the 1960s and could not be credited for contractual reasons. His guitar is present on the title track, \"Favors\" and \"The Awakening.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe five tracks span the full range of Smith's idiom. \"Afrodesia\" opens the record with a nine-minute piece that moves from electric funk to open improvisation, Hopkins and Lovano trading on trumpet and saxophone over Armstrong's bass and a layered rhythm section. \"Spirits Free\" runs to fifteen minutes, rising and falling across free sections, spacey organ passages and funky grooves. Side B brings a sharper, more direct feel: \"Straight to the Point\" kicks off with a carnival pulse, and \"Favors\" — a reworking of Coltrane's \"Impressions,\" though uncredited on the original sleeve — extends into a ten-minute trio improvisation with Benson and Lovano. \"The Awakening\" closes the record in the same territory. Smith had not yet adopted the \"Dr.\" prefix in 1975; that came later in his career. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43264173408315,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a0099247125_10.jpg?v=1772928691"},{"product_id":"arthur-verocai-arthur-verocai-2024-mr-bongo-reissue-vinyl-lp-gatefold","title":"Arthur Verocai - Arthur Verocai (2024 Mr Bongo Reissue Vinyl LP Gatefold)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArthur Verocai - \u003cem\u003eArthur Verocai\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2024 Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP133PN)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eArthur Verocai's 1972 debut on Continental Records\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded at Studio Somil in Rio de Janeiro, produced and arranged entirely by Verocai himself; a 29-minute orchestral fusion of samba, bossa nova, jazz, soul and funk that sold almost nothing on release and now commands around $2,000 for an original copy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSampled by MF Doom, Ludacris, Action Bronson, Little Brother and others\u003c\/strong\u003e; 9th Wonder's production for Ludacris drew from \"Na Boca Do Sol\" — one of several tracks that seeded the album's rediscovery through hip-hop in the early 2000s\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReissued from the original Continental master tapes\u003c\/strong\u003e, transferred under Arthur Verocai's supervision; replica gatefold artwork\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Arthur Verocai released his debut album on Continental Records in 1972, it sold almost nothing. The label withdrew it quickly, and Verocai spent the following decades arranging jingles and writing for television rather than recording as a leader. By the time the album was rediscovered — first through hip-hop producers in the early 2000s and then through a CD reissue on Luv N' Haight in 2003 — the original vinyl had become one of the most sought-after Brazilian records of the era. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eMadlib is quoted as saying: \"I could listen to the album everyday for the rest of my life.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVerocai had arranged for Jorge Ben, Gal Costa, Ivan Lins, Elis Regina and others before making this album; the self-titled record is where that accumulated skill turned entirely inward. He produced, arranged, conducted and played guitar across all ten tracks, drawing on a large cast of Rio session musicians including Oberdan Magalhães on saxophone and flute, Paulo Moura on soprano saxophone, Pedro dos Santos on percussion, and a string and brass section that gives the record much of its orchestral weight. Vocalists include Célia on \"Seriado\" and a young Toninho Horta, then early in a career that would make him one of Brazil's most important guitarist-composers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Caboclo\" opens with a breakbeat groove and strings simultaneously; \"Pelas Sombras\" is denser and more cinematic, with Oberdan's flute over a deep low end; \"Seriado\" and \"Na Boca Do Sol\" carry the rhythm-section weight that made the record a target for sample-based producers. \"Dedicada A Ela\" (A5) is the sole track with an external lyric credit, written by Paulinho Tapajós.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 2024 pressing (MRBLP133PN) is taken from the original Continental master tapes, transferred under Verocai's supervision, in a replica gatefold sleeve.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43264217645115,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2363968462_10.jpg?v=1772930813"},{"product_id":"surprise-chef-daylight-savings-2020-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Surprise Chef - Daylight Savings (2020 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSurprise Chef - \u003cem\u003eDaylight Savings\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2020 Mr Bongo (MRBLP208, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSurprise Chef's second album\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded over a spring weekend in 2019\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTen original compositions written collectively by the whole band\u003c\/strong\u003e, drawing on 1970s cinematic soul and jazz-funk production in the tradition of David Axelrod, Alain Goraguer and Melbourne contemporaries Karate Boogaloo and The Putbacks\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAn Australian band on an international label \u003c\/strong\u003e— one of the few Melbourne jazz-funk groups to have broken through to a significant international audience, with this album appearing on numerous year-end lists for 2020\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSurprise Chef are a Melbourne band operating from their own studio in Coburg's inner north, which they call the College of Knowledge. Their debut \u003cem\u003eAll News Is Good News\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) was originally released on their own College of Knowledge Records before Mr Bongo picked it up for international distribution. \u003cem\u003eDaylight Savings\u003c\/em\u003e followed in October 2020, also on Mr Bongo. The record was made over a single spring weekend in 2019, the same weekend Victoria's daylight saving period began. Henry Jenkins engineered using analogue recording techniques in the band's own space, then mixed at Plug Seven Studios in Collingwood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe influences they name are specific: David Axelrod's orchestral soul productions, the French cinematic composer Alain Goraguer, El Michels Affair's approach to vintage funk reconstruction, and the Melbourne bands Karate Boogaloo and The Putbacks. What the record sounds like in practice is instrumental jazz-funk with a strong emphasis on rhythm section interplay — Jethro Curtin on keyboards and vibraphone, Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and a three-person percussion section in Hudson Whitlock, Lucky Pereira and Joe Orton, who also plays slide guitar. The ten tracks move between groove-focused pieces and more melodically developed cues, with the vibraphone giving several tracks a particularly warm, vintage quality. This is a Melbourne band building an international reputation from a DIY setup in a house in Coburg — and the record sounds considerably larger than that suggests.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43293757112379,"sku":null,"price":55.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2315860153_10.jpg?v=1774010610"},{"product_id":"союз-soyuz-krok-2025-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) - Krok (2025 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eСОЮЗ (SOYUZ) - \u003cem\u003eKrok\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2025 Mr Bongo (MRBLP318, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eСОЮЗ (SOYUZ) formed in Minsk, Belarus, drawn to the sound of 1970s Música Popular Brasileira and the jazz-pop tradition of non-English-speaking pop music. In early 2022, composer, arranger and vocalist Alex Chumak and original members Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai joined tens of thousands of Belarusians leaving the country following political repression. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released \u003cem\u003eForce of the Wind\u003c\/em\u003e (2022) on Mr Bongo to considerable international attention. By the time they began work on \u003cem\u003eKrok\u003c\/em\u003e, Chumak had relocated further, to São Paulo. The core sessions were recorded there direct to tape by Sessa and Biel Basile at Estúdio Cosmo, with Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile and Marcelo Cabral. Chumak then added Rhodes parts at Sven Wunder's studio in Stockholm, and string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Polish musician Albert Karch were recorded at Polish Radio Studio S4 in Warsaw. Tim Bernardes, the Brazilian singer-songwriter, co-wrote and sings on \"Lingua Do Mundo\" (A2). Manami Kakudo guests on the closing \"Смак жыцця\" (B4).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Krok\" means \"step\" in Belarusian — and the title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, choosing to move away from Russian, which functions as a lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries. The nine pieces move between folk balladry, jazz-driven pop, cinematic library music and soft-focus AOR without ever settling into any single frame. \"Cichi Karahod\" opens with acoustic guitar and bass in a near-Pat Metheny register before transitioning into jazz-folk territory. \"Voo Livre\" references Alessandro Alessandroni in its choir and woodwind writing. The album is thematically unified by its title: every track is in some sense about the act of taking a step forward in conditions of uncertainty. Mr Bongo MRBLP318, pressed at Optimal Media GmbH, tip-on sleeve with printed inner.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43294882660411,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2393948265_10.jpg?v=1774042241"},{"product_id":"союз-soyuz-force-of-the-wind-2022-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) - Force of the Wind (2022 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eСОЮЗ (SOYUZ) - \u003cem\u003eForce of the Wind\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2022 Mr Bongo (MRBLP262, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eСОЮЗ (SOYUZ) — composer and vocalist Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist Mikita Arlou and drummer Anton Nemahai — had spent their first two albums working through the possibilities of jazz-oriented pop music. For their third record, the focus sharpened. \u003cem\u003eForce of the Wind\u003c\/em\u003e is the sound of a Belarusian trio absorbed in 1970s MPB — the Clube da Esquina circle, the orchestral productions of Arthur Verocai, the particular quality of Brazilian vocal harmony — and attempting to build something from that tradition rather than simply reproduce it. The songs are in Russian and Portuguese and were recorded at Studio 42 in Minsk between March and November 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album's wider reach required collaborators. Kate NV, the Russian avant-pop musician and producer, sings on \"I Knew It\" (A3). Sessa, the São Paulo-based singer-songwriter, co-wrote and sings on \"How Are You\" (A5), his vocals recorded separately in Brazil. Flute across several tracks is by Gabriel Milliet, a Netherlands-based Brazilian multi-instrumentalist. String arrangements were written by Chumak and classically trained composer Simon Hanes, who also conducted the string players — Kate Goddard and Ruby Wang on violins, Hannah Selin on viola, Ansel Cohen on cello — with those sessions captured at Gary's Electric Studio in Brooklyn in August 2021. Chumak handled the final mix. The album is dedicated to Valentin Chumak, his father, who died during the making of it. SOYUZ left Belarus in early 2022, weeks before the album's October release, as the political situation made their return impossible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43294885543995,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a4129130141_10.jpg?v=1774044087"},{"product_id":"ryo-kawasaki-juice-2022-mr-bongo-first-european-reissue-lp-mrblp252-replica-obi","title":"Ryo Kawasaki - Juice (2022 Mr Bongo First European Reissue LP, MRBLP252, Replica Obi)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRyo Kawasaki - \u003cem\u003eJuice\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2022 Mr Bongo First European Reissue (MRBLP252, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRyo Kawasaki's 1976 jazz-funk fusion debut for RCA\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded at RCA Studios in New York on 5–7 May 1976; Kawasaki's first album on an American major label, featuring Tom Coster (Santana) on keyboards, Sam Morrison (Miles Davis) on tenor saxophone and flute, Hugh McCracken on rhythm guitar, Stu Woods on bass and Jimmie Young on drums\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\"Bamboo Child\"\u003c\/strong\u003e (B3) has been sampled by Diamond D, Puff Daddy and Kool G Rap; the album has become a sought-after crate-digging record in the jazz-funk and hip-hop communities on both sides of the Atlantic\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e2022 Mr Bongo reissue \u003c\/strong\u003eis the first European pressing of the album, previously available only as a Japanese RCA original and through import copies. Replica sleeve, obi and labels\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRyo Kawasaki moved from Tokyo to New York in 1973 and spent the next few years working with Gil Evans, Elvin Jones and Chico Hamilton before signing to RCA — one of the first Japanese artists to sign with an American major, following Sadao Watanabe and Terumasa Hino. \u003cem\u003eJuice\u003c\/em\u003e was recorded at RCA Studios over three days in May 1976, produced by Mike Lipskin and engineered by Bob Simpson. Kawasaki wrote six of the seven tracks; the one exception is \"The Breeze and I\" (A3), the Ernesto Lecuona standard best known from his suite \"Andalucía,\" given an English lyric by Al Stillman and here performed as an instrumental. For the session, Kawasaki recruited Tom Coster from Santana on keyboards, Sam Morrison from the Miles Davis band on tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and alto flute, Hugh McCracken — a ubiquitous session guitarist of the period — on rhythm guitar, and Stu Woods and Jimmie Young as the rhythm section.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe record moves between jazz-funk grooves, fusion shred and the emerging electric jazz of the mid-1970s New York studio scene. \"Bamboo Child\" (B3), a slower spiritual funk piece built on a deep repeating groove, became the album's most lasting track in the crate-digging and hip-hop communities — sampled by Diamond D, Puff Daddy and Kool G Rap. The Bandcamp Daily placed \"El Toro\" in the tradition of the Loft party circuit and described it as the kind of track that would have cleared the floor at David Mancuso's New York Loft. Original copies of the RCA Japan pressing have remained difficult and expensive to find outside Japan. This 2022 Mr Bongo reissue is the first European pressing, with replica sleeve, obi and labels, pressed at Optimal Media GmbH and licensed from Sony Music Entertainment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43296185548859,"sku":null,"price":70.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2631642814_10.jpg?v=1774135223"},{"product_id":"ze-ibarra-afim-2025-mr-bongo-limited-edition-transparent-vinyl-lp","title":"Zé Ibarra - AFIM (2025 Mr Bongo Limited Edition Transparent Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eZé Ibarra - \u003cem\u003eAFIM\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2025 Mr Bongo Limited Edition Transparent (MRBLP234, Coala Records)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZé Ibarra is best known outside Brazil as a member of Bala Desejo, the Latin Grammy Award-winning four-piece that sits at the centre of contemporary Brazilian popular music. He also plays in Dônica, has toured with Milton Nascimento as guitarist and vocalist, and has performed solo shows in Japan, Portugal and the US. \u003cem\u003eAFIM\u003c\/em\u003e is his second solo album, co-produced with Lucas Nunes — fellow Bala Desejo and Dônica member — and co-released internationally on Mr Bongo and in Brazil on Coala Records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe core band across the eight tracks consists of Lucas Nunes on organs, Alberto Continentino on bass, Daniel Conceição and Thomas Harres on drums and percussion, Rodrigo Pacato on additional percussion, Chico Lira on Fender Rhodes and Guilherme Lírio on guitar. Guest contributors include Jonas Sá on keyboards and synthesisers, Frederico Heliodoro on guitar and bass across several tracks, and Lucas Demoro on piano, guitar and synthesiser. The Copacabana Horns — Diogo Gomes on trumpet, Marlon Sette on trombone, Jorge Continentino on saxophone and flute — appear on the opening track \"Infinito em nós.\" String arrangements on \"Essa Confusão\" are by Jaques Morelenbaum, the renowned Brazilian cellist and arranger who has worked with Caetano Veloso and Ryuichi Sakamoto, among many others. \"Segredo\" is a composition by Sophia Chablau; \"Essa Confusão\" is co-written by Dora Morelenbaum; the album also includes a cover of a Tom Veloso composition. The 2-page booklet includes full lyrics and credits. This is a limited edition transparent vinyl pressing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43328015171643,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a1939148540_10.jpg?v=1774667753"},{"product_id":"azymuth-aguia-nao-come-mosca-2019-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Azymuth - Águia Não Come Mosca (2019 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAzymuth - \u003cem\u003eÁguia Não Come Mosca\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP209, replica Atlantic sleeve)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe three of them had been working Rio studios together since the late 1960s, playing sessions for Elis Regina, Tim Maia, Clara Nunes and others, before Marcos Valle brought them in to record a soundtrack tribute to Emerson Fittipaldi in 1973. They stayed together afterwards. Bertrami was classically trained and had come up on Bill Evans and Luíz Eça of Tamba 4, and he had worked with Flora Purim before any of this started. Malheiros played bass with a melodic sense that made him a lead voice as often as a support one. Conti built his style out of Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Wilson das Neves, and what came out was a way of playing samba rhythms on a drum kit that nobody had quite arrived at before. They called the result samba doido, crazy samba, and by 1977 they had it working exactly as they wanted. This album is where the sound arrives fully formed, and it is also the record that fixed the spelling: everything before it appeared as Azimüth or Conjunto Azimuth, and everything after it as Azymuth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe titles tell you there is a concept running underneath. The eagle of the album title does not eat flies, and across the two sides there is flight over the horizon, prey, a hunt, a falcon's love call and a closing confrontation between a black eagle and a black dragon. Musically it moves in stages. \"Vôo Sobre O Horizonte\" opens with vocals and a light, floating groove. The title track brings in Paulo Moura, one of the most respected reed players in Brazilian music, for the album's only guest solo. Side A works through mellower material before \"Circo Marimbondo\" pushes into harder fusion territory. Side B opens with a straight percussion feature, \"Tamborim, Cuíca, Ganzá, Berimbau,\" which does what its title says and hands the record over to Ariovaldo, Neném, Jorginho and Doutor. \"A Presa\" and \"A Caça\" follow as a pair, and \"Falcon Love Call (Armazém No. 2)\" is the closest thing here to a floor track. \"Águia Negra X Dragão Negro,\" Conti's own composition, closes the album in under two and a half minutes of fast batucada. Guti Carvalho produced at Estúdio Level, with Andy P. Mills recording and Humberto Gatica engineering. The same year, Azymuth became the first Brazilian group to play the Montreux Jazz Festival.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43828976386107,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a1527819829_10_2322f643-19f7-4423-a103-a753cd598a59.jpg?v=1784727301"},{"product_id":"hozan-yamamoto-yu-imai-akuma-ga-kitarite-fue-wo-fuku-2021-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Hozan Yamamoto \u0026 Yu Imai - Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku (2021 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHozan Yamamoto \u0026amp; Yu Imai - \u003cem\u003eAkuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP234)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe soundtrack to Kōsei Saitō's \u003cem\u003eDevil's Flute\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, a Kindaichi Kōsuke mystery adapted from Seishi Yokomizo, composed by shakuhachi master Hozan Yamamoto at the personal invitation of producer Haruki Kadokawa, with Sadistic Mika Band keyboardist Yu Imai brought in as assistant producer and arranger.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShakuhachi and Western flute set against disco strings, funk breaks, synthesiser and dissonant orchestral atmospheres\u003c\/strong\u003e, eleven cues that swing between straight dancefloor material and genuinely unsettling scoring, which is what a murder mystery asks for.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOfficial Mr Bongo reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e of an album that has never been easy to find in its original Nippon Columbia pressing, praised by buyers for the quality of the pressing itself.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYamamoto is the reason to pick this up. He started on shakuhachi at nine, taught first by his father and then by Chōzan Nakanishi, and by the 1960s he was the player doing most to drag a Zen Buddhist instrument with five finger holes into contexts nobody had imagined for it. He recorded \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Bamboo-Flute\u003c\/em\u003e with Nobuo Hara's Sharps \u0026amp; Flats big band in 1971. He took a trio to the Donaueschingen new music festival. He worked with Gil Evans. In 2002 the Japanese government designated him a Living National Treasure, and when he died in a Tokyo hospital in February 2014 he was the most decorated shakuhachi player alive. What he does on this record is stranger than any of that suggests, because the brief was not a concert album. Haruki Kadokawa, the producer behind the run of Kindaichi Kōsuke film adaptations that dominated Japanese cinema in the late 1970s, asked Yamamoto to score a murder mystery, then paired him with Yu Imai, who had come up through the Sadistic Mika Band and the Sadistics and knew exactly how to build a groove out of a Rhodes and a rhythm section.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe split between them is visible in the credits. Yamamoto wrote the pieces carrying the film's themes and Imai arranged them, while Imai wrote most of the rest outright. \"Fue Narinu\" opens the album with Taiichi Uemura on Western flute alongside the shakuhachi, and the same pairing returns on \"Tengindō Jiken\" and the short closing cue. \"Kaen Daiko\" is the longest thing here at six and a half minutes and is where the funk arrangement takes over completely. \"Tengindō Jiken\" is the track that has circulated most widely among diggers, a fast, tense, breaks-driven piece named for a plot element in Yokomizo's novel. \"Kindaichi Kōsuke Nishi E Iku\" scores the detective's journey. Side B moves through \"Yubi,\" a piece built on Yamamoto and Imai together under the algebraic title \"a=X, b=X, ∴ a=b,\" and \"Chi To Suna,\" the one track Yamamoto both wrote and arranged himself. \"Tabi Yuku Mono Yo\" is the vocal, sung by Rumi Enomoto to a lyric by Michio Yamagami, and then the devil finishes playing and the record stops after 107 seconds. Mr Bongo reissued this album in September 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43839552847931,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a3309593818_10.jpg?v=1784775073"},{"product_id":"tadao-sawai-kazue-sawai-takeshi-inomata-norio-maeda-hozan-yamamoto-jazz-rock-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp-gatefold","title":"Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai, Takeshi Inomata, Norio Maeda \u0026 Hozan Yamamoto - Jazz Rock (Mr Bongo Vinyl LP Gatefold)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai, Takeshi Inomata, Norio Maeda \u0026amp; Hozan Yamamoto - \u003cem\u003eJazz Rock 琴 \/ 日本の民謡\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP Gatefold - Mr Bongo Limited Edition Reissue (MRBLP-204)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTwelve Japanese min'yō folk songs arranged for koto, shakuhachi and a jazz rhythm section\u003c\/strong\u003e, with Tadao and Kazue Sawai on koto, Hozan Yamamoto on shakuhachi, Takeshi Inomata on drums and Norio Maeda writing the charts, originally issued on RCA Japan in 1973.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe drumming is why this record travelled.\u003c\/strong\u003e Inomata plays heavy, funk-derived breaks underneath melodies that are centuries old, and the collision has made the album a target for beat diggers as much as for anyone interested in Japanese traditional music.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFirst European reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e, licensed from Sony and pressed at Optimal, in a replica gatefold sleeve with replica obi and labels.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title has misled people for fifty years. There is electric guitar on this record and there is distortion, but nothing here sounds like Anglo-American jazz rock. What it is instead is a set of min'yō, the regional folk songs that form Japan's equivalent of a traditional song repertoire, arranged by Norio Maeda for an ensemble that puts two koto and a shakuhachi at the front and a jazz rhythm section behind them. Sadanori Nakamure plays guitar, Tatsuro Takimoto plays bass, Jake H. Concepcion is on alto, and there are trumpets and trombone in the arrangements. Takeshi Inomata, one of the most important drummers in post-war Japanese jazz, plays the whole thing with a weight and a snap that has nothing to do with folk accompaniment. That is the tension the album runs on, and it is why the record has been picked up by people who came looking for breaks rather than for koto music. Mr Bongo's own description compares it to something Madlib might have dreamed up while lost in Japan, which is glib but not wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Sawais are the reason this is more than a novelty. Tadao Sawai, born in Aichi in 1938 and a graduate of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, was one of the most significant koto composers of the twentieth century and invented a modified instrument of his own design. Kazue Sawai, his wife, spent a career pulling the koto into contemporary composition, working with John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Sofia Gubaidulina, David Behrman, Carl Stone and John Zorn, and teaching a generation of players including Michiyo Yagi. Hozan Yamamoto was recognised as a Living National Treasure in 2002. These were not session players slumming it on a crossover record. The same core group, plus Nakamure, Takimoto and Inomata, had already made an album of Bach played on koto for RCA Red Seal in 1971, so the idea of running traditional Japanese instruments through unfamiliar repertoire was something they had been working at for years by the time they turned it on their own folk tradition. Five of the songs here also appear on Yamamoto's \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Bamboo-Flute\u003c\/em\u003e with Sharps \u0026amp; Flats from two years earlier, which gives a sense of how central this repertoire was to what he was doing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43839916900411,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a0165943960_10.jpg?v=1784776516"},{"product_id":"hozan-yamamoto-with-sharps-flats-beautiful-bamboo-flute-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp-gatefold","title":"Hozan Yamamoto With Sharps \u0026 Flats - Beautiful Bamboo-Flute (Mr Bongo Vinyl LP Gatefold)","description":"\u003cp\u003eHozan Yamamoto With Sharps \u0026amp; Flats - \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Bamboo-Flute\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP Gatefold - Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP214)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShakuhachi over a full jazz big band\u003c\/strong\u003e, with Hozan Yamamoto out front and Nobuo Hara conducting his Sharps \u0026amp; Flats orchestra, recorded across two days at Victor Studio in Tokyo in January 1971 and originally issued on Philips.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eArranged by Masahiko Satoh\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the most adventurous pianists and composers in Japanese jazz, whose charts push eleven traditional min'yō folk songs into heavy brass, electric bass and funk-derived grooves without flattening the melodies.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOfficial Mr Bongo reissue in gatefold sleeve\u003c\/strong\u003e, licensed from Universal and pressed at Optimal. The original Philips pressing is close to unobtainable.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe arranger is the credit that explains this record, and almost nobody mentions him. Masahiko Satoh was in his late twenties when he wrote these charts, already one of the most restless figures in Japanese jazz, a musician who would spend the following decades moving between free improvisation, electronics and large-ensemble composition. What he does here is take eleven min'yō, the regional folk songs that make up Japan's traditional repertoire, and set them for a big band that had been playing American jazz in Japan since the early 1950s. Nobuo Hara had formed the Sharps \u0026amp; Flats in 1951 and the orchestra had spent twenty years becoming the most accomplished big band in the country. Satoh writes for them the way an American arranger of the same period might have written for Basie or Thad Jones, then puts a bamboo flute on top of it. The result should be an awkward compromise and it is not. Yamamoto's shakuhachi has enough tonal weight and enough breath in it to sit over a horn section without being buried, and the melodies were built for a solo wind instrument in the first place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYamamoto was 33 and roughly a decade into the career that would end with him designated a Living National Treasure in 2002. He had been playing the instrument since he was nine, first taught by his father, and he spent the 1960s and 1970s doing more than anyone to find contexts for it outside its Zen Buddhist origins. This is the most immediately enjoyable of those experiments and the one that has travelled furthest, largely because the grooves underneath are heavy enough to interest people who could not name a single min'yō. Mr Bongo's own comparison is to Dorothy Ashby's Cadet albums with the harp swapped for a flute, which gets at the appeal accurately enough. Five of these songs, Kuroda-Bushi, Hietsuki-Bushi, Sado Okesa, Itsuki No Komori-Uta and Nanbu Ushioi-Uta, turn up again two years later on \u003cem\u003eJazz Rock\u003c\/em\u003e, where Yamamoto plays them alongside Tadao and Kazue Sawai's koto with Norio Maeda arranging. The two records make a pair, and hearing the same tunes handled by two different arrangers is the clearest way into what both albums are actually doing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43840119242811,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a1864549288_10.jpg?v=1784777553"},{"product_id":"dee-dee-bridgewater-afro-blue-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Dee Dee Bridgewater - Afro Blue (Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003eDee Dee Bridgewater - \u003cem\u003eAfro Blue\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - Mr Bongo Reissue (MRBLP216, replica Trio Records sleeve)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDee Dee Bridgewater's debut, made in Tokyo at 23 and released only in Japan\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded across four days at AOI Studios in March 1974 for Trio Records, with her husband Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet, his brother Ron on tenor, Roland Hanna on piano, George Mraz on bass and Motohiko Hino on drums.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSeven readings that run from Mongo Santamaría and Bobby Hutcherson to Bacharach and the Stylistics\u003c\/strong\u003e, opening with an eight-minute \"Afro Blue\" that begins in percussion and wordless vocal before the band arrives, and closing with \"People Make The World Go Round.\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOfficial Mr Bongo reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e licensed through Ultra-Vybe, presented in a replica of the original 1974 Trio sleeve and labels with a reproduction of the Japanese insert, which carries liner notes on one side and English lyrics on the other.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBridgewater was already the lead vocalist in the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra when Trio brought her to Tokyo. She had joined that band in 1971, when she was 21, and had spent the following years working alongside Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Nobody in America had given her a solo record. A Japanese label did, and the result went unreleased outside Japan for four and a half decades. The band she took into AOI Studios was mostly family. Cecil Bridgewater, her husband, played trumpet and kalimba and wrote five of the seven arrangements. His brother Ron played tenor and handled most of the percussion colour, the cowbell and African castanets and vibraslap that give the title track its opening. Roland Hanna and George Mraz filled the piano and bass chairs, and Motohiko Hino, one of the finest drummers in Japanese jazz, completed the group. The credits list the Bridgewater Jazz Family as supervisors, which tells you something about how the sessions were run.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe material is where the album's reputation comes from. \"Afro Blue\" takes eight minutes and does not hurry, Bridgewater using her voice as an instrument through the long opening before the tune proper arrives. \"Love Vibrations\" is a Horace Silver composition, arranged by Silver himself, and Cecil Bridgewater had played in Silver's band, which explains how it got here. The blues medley on side A stretches past eight minutes. Side B opens with \"Little B's Poem,\" Bobby Hutcherson's ballad, taken at just over three minutes and stripped to almost nothing. Then Bacharach and David's \"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head,\" which should not work in this company and does, followed by \"Love From The Sun\" and Thom Bell and Linda Creed's \"People Make The World Go Round,\" the Stylistics song that has become a standard for jazz singers. Bridgewater won a Tony the following year for \u003cem\u003eThe Wiz\u003c\/em\u003e and spent the late 1970s making soul and disco records, which is why this album sat outside her story for so long.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43840955056187,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2340181462_10.jpg?v=1784781195"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/mr-bongo.oembed?page=2","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}