Nimbus West US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Nimbus West Records is an independent US jazz record label, founded by Tom Albach in 1979. We have a repress of Horace Tapscott Sextet's one and only release from 1981 for the label: Dial B for Barbra. Comprised of Everett Brown Jr., Gary Bias, Reggie Bullen, Roberto Miranda, Sabir Mateen with Tapscott - who many probably know from his work as The Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - at the helm. This gem of the post bop/avant-garde jazz style fetches exorbitant prices on the secondhand market, so here's your chance to get your hands on a right classic.

Review: It would be fair to say that Dadisi Komolafe is not one of American jazz's better-known flautists, having appeared on just a handful of records in the early to mid 1980s. However, his sole album on Nimbus West Records, 1983's "Hassan's Walk", has long been a collector's item amongst serious jazz heads. Happily it has now been given the reissue treatment, with a re-mastering job that guarantees exquisite sound quality throughout. The album's standout moment is undoubtedly the 15-minute title track, where Komolafe's breezy, life-affirming and occasionally powerful flute solos rise above jaunty pianos, loose-limbed drums and memorable double bass. There's plenty to set the pulse racing elsewhere, though, with the vibraphone-sporting "Calvary" and Thelonious Monk cover "Round Midnight" standing out.