Mad About Vinyl & CDs

Review: To many this is where Brazilian jazz truly began: 1966, the legendary saxophonist and composer Victor Assis Brasil laid down his debut album at just 21. Still as smoky and sentimental as it was 50 years ago (but sadder knowing his life was cut short by a rare disease just 15 years later), the playful sense of space, rhythm and technique displayed (and a slight freedom from the US and European sounds of the time due to him living in Brazil) are delivered with a rawness, clarity and sense of fun such as the R&B double bass backdrop of "Simplesmente" or the cat and mouse style counterplay between the horns on "Dueto". A touching and ultimately timeless piece of jazz history.

Review: Don Beto was born in Uruguay and became one of the most forerunners of Soul Music in Brazil in 1979, he recorded "Nossa Imaginacao" LP wich featured arrangements by the legendary producer Lincoln Olivetti, and where we can listen to classics such as "No quero Mais", "Tudo again" and "Renascendo em mim". This album was awarded the Golden Globe in 1979.
Don Betto's "Nossa Imaginacao" attracts not only Brazilian Music Fans but also Soul, AOR.

Review: This rarity gets a loving reissue via Mad About Records, zooming in the talents of a lesser-touted jazz virtuoso and former Sun Ra Arkestra member. Jothan Callins was a jazz bassist and trumpeter, who rose to prominence in the late 60s with the band Olatunji before joining the Arkestra. 'Winds Of Change' is his only LP, released in 1975. Across four long pieces that seamlessly blend, Callins brings a blissful, yet more energetic and classic jazz feel to his works, and is an example of the Strata East style, . Watch out for the 4-page booklet that comes with this reissue.

Review: James Gallardo & Sol released their collaborative debut album in 1975 in a burst of bright colour and next-level musicianship. There's a fiery, rockist spirit running through the over driven guitar cartwheeling through "Maranatha", but there's equal space for measured grooves and Gallardo's expressive horn playing. Mellower moments like "Patrice" let in a more soulful side of the project, while "El Que Se Fue" nods to the Latin roots of Sol. Expansive, bold and inventive, this is a treasure for jazz funk heads, marking the first official repress since the first copies slipped out many moons ago.

Review: Christian Gaubert's 'Last Exit' is a French soul masterpiece. It has been carefully remastered from the original tapes and reissued here so standout rare groove gems 'Sweet Maryline' and 'Sweet and Fool Like a Child' sound better than ever. It's an album that showcases the great skills of the prolific arranger and composer Gaubert alongside guest spots from some of the key contemporaries in the French jazz scene of the 70s. Boogie and funk help colour the grooves with the likes of 'Going Ups & Coming Downs' being deep down and delicious jams with killer baselines and lavish strings that cannot fail to light up your life and swell your heart.

Review: Since it was first released in the collective's native Brazil in 1978, the self-titled debut album from Guilherme Coutinho E O Groupo Stalo has become a sought-after item amongst collectors of Latin jazz. This reissue - the first of any kind - proves why. Offering a mixture of samba-soaked Latin jazz rhythms, sweet vocals, spacey analogue synthesizer sounds, Azymuth style electric piano motifs, MPB style songwriting and Brazilian jazz-funk stylistic tropes, it's a joyously sunny and quirkily off-kilter affair that impresses from start to finish. Production wise it's a little loose and fuzzy round the edges, but that only adds to the album's obvious allure. Recommended!

Review: 
If you're a lover of Brazilian psychedelic folk, you will already be well familiar with this utter masterpiece from Brazilian actor and musician Guilherme Lamounier. He recorded three such records in the 1970s, and this, the second of them, is widely regarded as the best. It has long been a real rarity and holy grail amongst diggers after being created with composer Tiberio Gaspar and recorded at Radio Gazeta Studios in Sao Paulo. Element sou US hippie culture as well as love song stylings, angular funk and piano ballads all feature with plenty of great musicianship and rousing lyrics. Truly escapist stuff.

Review: Renata Lu is a bit of an enigma. She made a couple of much loved albums in the 1970s and did some backing vocal work on cult records by stars such as Tim Maia and Nonato Buzar. Despite this, she never became a standalone star in the world of MPB and so remains a little known figure. Her self titled 1971 debut album on Copacabana Records was a heavyweight mix US soul and funk with spicy Latin percussion, all dropped over samba and boogaloo beats. It is high energy, with lots of big horns, electric piano riffs and angular bass as well as some swooning strings. This deluxe edition marks a real landmark in the world of funk carioca.

Review: The New Jazz Orchestra was a British jazz big band that first formed in 1963. The band featured Clive Burrows and was directed form 1964 to 1968 by Neil Ardley. Decca has already reissued their superb debut album Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe recently to great acclaim. Now comes this second reissue of their Western Reunion London 1965 album on nice heavy wax. It features them covering classic like Miles Davis's 'Shades of Blue' in sympathetic fashion while there are also more introspective pieces like 'If You Could See Me Now' and high energy big band jazz swing bangs like 'Tiny's Blue.'

Review: Singer, pianist and composer Leila Pinheiro was one of the most eminent fixtures of the Brazilian MPB movement, and this reissue of her self-titled debut album from 1983 cements that legacy. Just 23 years old at the time of its release, Pinheiro's springboard to fame comes an expansive array of idyllic compositions, just as idyllic as the muted woodland hippie scene portrayed on its front cover. Soaring flute accompaniments and cinematic progressions push the album far beyond the usual gamut for MPB, and it's all brought together by Pinheiro's voice, which is as lackadaisical as it is wide-sounding; it veritably drips with emotion. The rarity of the original pressing might go some way prove its popular inclusion in lists of the most important albums in the genre, but we hope this Mad About reissue eschews that explanation for its blissful sound alone.

Review: Calvin "Popcorn" Ward is one of those legendary musical figures form time gone by. He put out just one album and a couple of Eps, but they were good enough to secure him an enduring elegy with funk and soul fans. His Prime Choice album came on Shanell in 1983 and the one copy currently for sale on second-hand sites is over 630 quid. Thankfully Mad About has assembled this heavyweight reissue. Sentimental soul, analogue disco and lo-fi funk all characterise each tune, as does Calvin's own vocals which range from upbeat and positive to heartbroken and raw. A real gem.

Review: Mad About Records officially reissues super rare private press Quintessence's 1981 LP. Surprisingly for the level of talent and production / recording wit that it flaunts, Quintessence was one of many original jazz LPs to remain in private circulation and thus completely wanting of the public ear. Led by Ron Ancrum, with George Sovak, David Gaedeke, Winston Johnson and Steve Muse, the band nonetheless recorded an exceptional slice of artistic pie here, bringing Rhodesy, tritoning sundowners to the then already well-fleshed milieu of 80s jazz, an unmistakably bulbous and gaudy sound to which Quintessence do much justice; our favourite here by far is 'In My Apartment', a tssking blue-jazz suite for boughed double bass and noir piano.

Review: A key accelerant in the early 70s MPB melting pot; decorated sessionist, composer and band leader Salvador's 1971-released album is a fizzing brew of bossa, samba, funk, carioca brought together with energy and a fused rawness that has led to OG copies regularly going for around 200. The range is everything in this fourth album; from the sudden floor filling party flourish of the opener "Uma Vida" to the Beatles-like narrative oddity "O Rio" to the orchestral boogaloo of "Number One", this is Salvador at the peak of his fusionista powers.

Review: Chicagoan trumpeter and flugel hornist Malachi Thompson made some fine records during his lifetime, though none are better than his 1980 solo debut The Seventh Son. It's been an in-demand item amongst jazz collectors for some time, making this belated vinyl reissue a welcome development. The set is spiritual in tone, but musically draws just as much from soul-jazz and fusion as it does the more freewheeling end of spiritual jazz. As a result, the tracks are largely warming, melodious and alluring, with Thompson's dexterous and imaginative playing leaving a lasting impression. Our highlights include 'Street Dance' and the epic 'Denise', but to be honest the whole set is essential listening.