Jimmy Forrest

When vocalist Tessa Souter mentioned to Tetsuo Hara, owner of Venus Records, that she dug Steve Kuhn's recording of Prelude in E Minor by Chopin, Hara had a suggestion: How about an album of classical melodies set to words? Read More

While he's remembered foremost as a key contributor to the bands of jazz titan Charles Mingus, tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin also recorded a slew of outstanding albums as a leader, none of them better than his 1963 outing The Freedom Book. If the accumulated weight of post-bop's golden era can sometimes feel like an unfathomable musical avalanche, this casually faultless quartet outing is unquestionably one for the hearing. Read More