Celebrating MLK Day with saxophone great Nathan Davis

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today with three songs from the Nathan Davis tribute album from 1976.

Remembering saxophonist Nathan Davis on his birthday

Raising a glass to saxophonist and educator Nathan Davis on his birthday with a few stellar performances worth checking. 

Remembering trumpet titan Donald Byrd on his birthday

Here's a sampling of Donald Byrd's 1973 performance with Fonce Mizell at Montreux. So where's all of Blue Note's other footage?

Happy Birthday Booker Ervin!

Remembering Booker Ervin with a 1966 performance alongside Nathan Davis, Ted Curson, Pony Poindexter and Kenny Drew.

That time Nathan Davis sat in with Booker Ervin in Brussels

Here's some great footage of Booker Ervin with Pony Poindexter and Nathan Davis in action from May 1966. 

Set list

00:00 Milestones  

06:27 All Blues

13:40 The Leopard  

20:26 Straight No Chaser   

26:06 Margo  

31:10 French Market  

35:38 Yesterdays  

41:35 Walkin'  

Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone), Ted Curson (trumpet),  Pony Poindexter (alto saxophone),  Nathan Davis (flute), Kenny Drew (piano), Jimmy Woode (bass), Edgar Bateman (drums).

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Celebrating MLK Day with "Atlanta Walk" by Nathan Davis off his Suite For Martin Luther King Jr. album. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Jacques Thollot

Here's an excerpt from percussionist Jacques Thollot's Intra Musique followed by a sampling of his many collaborations. 

Resonance to issue Larry Young's "lost" Paris sessions for Record Store Day

Titled “Selections from Larry Young In Paris - The ORTF Recordings”,  the Resonance Records 10-inch album represents just a sampling of Larry Young's previously unissued live and studio recordings cut while the jazz pianist/keyboardist was living in Paris back in 1964-65.

The tapes were discovered by Resonance's executive vice president and general manager Zev Feldman back in 2012 while rooting around the archives of France's National Audiovisual Institute (INA) where they'd been collecting dust in the vault of the Office of Radio and Television (ORTF) for almost 50 years.

On the four tracks included on the Selections sampler, namely Beyond All Limits, Luny Tune, Frame of Thought and Larry’s Blues, Young is joined by a stellar group with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Billy Brooks on drums and the enormously underrated Nathan Davis on saxophone.

Resonance's release of the 140-gram Selections from Larry Young In Paris - The ORTF Recordings 10-inch (cut at 33 1/3 RPM by Erika Records) is limited to 1500 copies available on Record Store Day April 18 which will eventually be followed by an expanded 2 CD and 3 LP full-length edition at a later date.

What may be just as exciting to spiritual jazz fans around the globe is the news that Feldman's vault dig also turned up some Nathan Davis Quartet recordings from the same period. Hopefully they will be released in full by Resonance or another reissue operation like say Jazzman Records which appreciates their historical importance.

While were on the subject of archival jazz projects, Resonance is releasing a 26-track collection of rare early recordings (1948-53) by guitar great Wes Montgomery called In The Beginning as 2 CD or 3 LP package on May 12. Along with newly discovered 78 sides Montgomery cut as a sideman for Spire Records in 1949, the set will include Montgomery's complete 1955 session for Epic produced by Quincy Jones along with live recordings made at the Turf Club (1956), Missile Lounge (1958) in Indianapolis and C&C Music Lounge (1957) in Chicago.

Here's Feldman discussing Resonance's promising addition to Wes Montgomery's recorded legacy:

Madlib digs the Radio France archives

Our man considers running out the door with a rare Saba pressing of Happy Girl by Nathan Davis.