Julius Arthur Hemphill was a jazz composer and saxophone player. He performed mainly on alto saxophone, less often on soprano and tenor saxophones and flute.
Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.
Hathut Records is a Swiss record company and label founded by Werner Xavier Uehlinger in 1974 that specializes in jazz and classical music. The name of the label comes from the artwork of Klaus Baumgartner. Hathut encompasses the labels hat ART, hatOLOGY, and hat NOIR.
Dogon A.D. is an album by saxophonist Julius Hemphill. It was recorded in February 1972 in St. Louis, Missouri, and was initially released on LP in limited quantities later that year by Hemphill's own Mbari Records, a label he created for the express purpose of issuing his own music. The album was reissued on LP by the Freedom label in 1977, and was reissued on CD in 2011, with extra liner notes and reproductions of the artwork from both the Mbari and Freedom releases, by International Phonograph. A fourth track from the recording session, titled "Hard Blues," and featuring guest saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, was originally released on Hemphill's 1975 album Coon Bid'ness, and was included as a bonus track on the 2011 reissue of Dogon A.D., bringing together all the music from the session.
Baikida Carroll is an American jazz trumpeter.
Michael Gregory Jackson is an American guitarist and composer working in jazz, R&B, avant-garde, rock, blues, and free jazz. Early in his career, he used his given name, Michael Gregory Jackson. In 1983, when he signed with Island Records, Michael dropped Jackson and recorded under Michael Gregory to prevent mix-ups with the name of pop singer Michael Jackson. In 2013, he returned to using his full name Michael Gregory Jackson.
Coon Bid'ness is an album released by Julius Hemphill in 1975 on Arista featuring performances by Hemphill, Baikida Carroll, Abdul Wadud, Phillip Wilson, Arthur Blythe, Barry Altschul and Daniel Zebulon. The final track, "The Hard Blues," was recorded at the same recording session as Hemphill's debut album Dogon A.D.. After Hemphill's death in 1995, Freedom Records re-released the album as a CD under the name Reflections.
Lörrach / Paris 1966 is a live album by saxophonist and composer Albert Ayler, recorded in Europe in 1966 and first released on the Swiss hat MUSICS label in 1982. The album was remastered and rereleased on CD in 2002 with corrected track titles. The music was also reissued on a 2021 Hat Hut release titled Albert Ayler Quintet 1966: Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm. Revisited.
In Paris, Aries 1973 is a live album by the Black Artists Group, featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw. The album was recorded in 1973 in Paris, and was initially self-released in very limited quantities. It was reissued in 2011 in a limited edition of 500 LPs by Rank and File Records, and was remastered and reissued on LP by Aguirre Records in 2018, with extensive liner notes by Julian Cowley, again in a limited edition of 500 copies.
Live at Kassiopeia is a live album by saxophonist Julius Hemphill and bassist Peter Kowald. It was recorded in Wuppertal, Germany, on January 8, 1987, and was released by NoBusiness Records as a double album in both LP and CD format in 2011, 24 years later. Disc 1 features three Hemphill solos followed by a Kowald solo, while disc 2 contains three duos.
Ntu: Point from Which Creation Begins is an album by saxophonist Oliver Lake. It was recorded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1971, and was released on vinyl in 1976 by Arista's Freedom Records imprint. On the album, Lake is joined by fellow musicians associated with the Black Artists Group: trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, guitarist Richard Martin, pianists Clovis Bordeux and John Hicks, bassist Don Officer, drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw, and percussionist Don Moye.
Red, Black & Green is a live album by the Black Artists Group-affiliated band known as Solidarity Unit, Inc., led by drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw. The group's sole release, it was recorded on September 18, 1970, at the BAG Room in East St. Louis, Illinois, and was initially issued on LP by Shaw's Universal Justice Records in 1972 as part of the BAG Live Concert Series. On the album, Shaw is joined by saxophonist and flutist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Floyd LeFlore and Baikida Carroll, trombonist Joseph Bowie, guitarist Richard Martin, pianist Clovis Bordeaux, bassists Kada Kayan and Carl Richardson, and percussionist Danny Trice. In 2008, the album was reissued on LP in remastered form and in limited quantities by Eremite Records.
Blue Boyé is a solo album by Julius Hemphill. It was recorded at Mayhew Street Studios in Larchmont, New York, during January 1977, and was released on vinyl by Hemphill's own Mbari label later that year as a two-LP set. In 1998, it was reissued on CD by Tim Berne's Screwgun Records. On the album, which features eight original compositions, Hemphill performs all instrumental parts via overdubbing, and is heard on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, and percussion.
Roi Boyé & the Gotham Minstrels is a solo album by Julius Hemphill. Billed as an "audiodrama," it was recorded at Matthew Studios in Larchmont, New York, during November 1976, and at Thunder Sound in Toronto during March 1977, and was released on vinyl by Sackville Records in 1977 as a two-LP set. In 2001, it was reissued on CD in limited quantities as part of the Sackville Collection series. On the album, Hemphill performs all instrumental parts via overdubbing, and is heard on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and flute.
Shadows and Reflections is an album by trumpeter and composer Baikida Carroll. It was recorded on January 13 and 20, 1982, at Sound House Studio in Newburgh, New York, and was released on vinyl later that year by Soul Note. On the album, Carroll is joined by saxophonist Julius Hemphill, pianist Anthony Davis, double bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff.
Marionettes on a High Wire is an album by trumpeter and composer Baikida Carroll. It was recorded on September 14 and 15, 2000, at Systems 2 in Brooklyn, New York, and was released in 2001 by OmniTone, Inc. On the album, which features original compositions, some of which were drawn from theater works, Carroll is joined by saxophonist Erica Lindsay, pianist Adegoke Steve Colson, double bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff.
Whisper of Dharma is the debut album by the Human Arts Ensemble, a musical collective that was an offshoot of the St. Louis-based Black Artists Group. Consisting of two 22-minute pieces, it was recorded on October 6, 1972, in St. Louis, and was initially released later that year by the small Universal Justice label. In 1977, it was reissued by Arista/Freedom with different cover art. The album features drummer and group leader Charles "Bobo" Shaw, saxophonists Oliver Lake, J. D. Parran, and James Marshall, trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, multi-instrumentalist Baikida Carroll, and percussionist Gene Lake, who was six years old at the time of the recording session. On the recording, the musicians supplemented their primary instruments with miscellaneous "small instruments" plus a Tibetan trumpet introduced by Marshall, who had just returned from a trip through India and Nepal.
The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony is a seven-disc box set album of music by saxophonist and composer Julius Hemphill. Drawn from previously unissued recordings found in the Julius Hemphill Archive at the Fales Library of New York University, and compiled by Marty Ehrlich, the album presents Hemphill in a variety of mostly live solo and group contexts recorded over a period of thirty years, beginning in 1977, and also includes a disc on which he conducts his compositions. The album was released on CD by New World Records in 2021, and each of the discs is also available as a digital download.
News from the 70s is an album by Anthony Braxton that compiles previously unreleased live tracks recorded during 1971–1976.
Orange Fish Tears is the debut album by trumpeter and composer Baikida Carroll, on which he is joined by saxophonist Oliver Lake, pianist Manuel Villardel, and percussionist Naná Vasconcelos. It was recorded during June 3–5, 1974, at Studio Palm in Paris, during a visit to France by members of the Black Artists Group. The album was initially released on vinyl in 1974 by Palm Records, and was reissued in 2023 in remastered form on vinyl, CD, and as a digital download, by the French label SouffleContinu Records.
