David Axelrod (1931-2017) was a producer, arranger and A&R at Capitol Records in Hollywood in the 1960s, working with artists Cannonball Adderley, Lou Rawls and David McCallum amongst others, alongside the infamous group of L.A. session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. In 1967, for Reprise Records, Axelrod composed and “ghost-produced” the psychedelic rock album Mass In F Minor under the guise of The Electric Prunes. This surprise hit earned Axelrod a new audience, and the opportunity to release a string of albums under his own name back at Capitol.
His debut, Song of Innocence, is an essential, ‘60s masterpiece. Celebrated as psychedelic, the birth of jazz-fusion and the harbinger of hip-hop, the album is a hybrid that no one, not even its creator, can easily describe.
Now-Again’s Egon worked with Axelrod’s long time friend and producing partner H.B. Barnum, his keyboardist and conductor Don Randi, his widow Terri Axelrod and hip hop producer T-Ray to oversee the lacquer transfer of Axelrod’s original master tapes at Capitol Studios. Bennett Piscitelli captured the moments in the short above.
Photo: David Axelrod, c. 1969, taken at Capitol Studios, Hollywood.
Legendary composer/Arranger/Producer David Axelrod’s essential trilogy on Capitol Records – Song of Innocence (1968), Songs of Experience (1969), and Earth Rot (1970) – will be officially reissued this year on Now-Again. “Song of Innocence” out now!
David Axelrod (1931-2017) was a producer, arranger and A&R at Capitol Records in Hollywood in the 1960s, working with artists Cannonball Adderley, Lou Rawls and David McCallum amongst others, alongside the infamous group of L.A. session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. In 1967, for Reprise Records, Axelrod composed and “ghost-produced” the psychedelic rock album Mass In F Minor under the guise of The Electric Prunes. This surprise hit earned Axelrod a new audience, and the opportunity to release a string of albums under his own name back at Capitol.
His debut, Song of Innocence, is an essential, ‘60s masterpiece. Celebrated as psychedelic, the birth of jazz-fusion and the harbinger of hip-hop, the album is a hybrid that no one, not even its creator, can easily describe.
Revolutionary, spiritual jazz from Houston, the definitive, expanded reissue with previously unreleased tracks – the third in a series of four reissues of drummer and bandleader Bubbha Thomas’s lauded catalog.
Extensive book by Lance Scott Walker detailing Bubbha and this album’s story. Gatefold double LP.
Drummer, bandleader and activist Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and social upheaval of the late 1960s led him to a path first charted by Coltrane. Fancy Pants is his second LP with his Lightmen band and, like the deep-set, maverick jazz issued by the likes of Tribe and Strata East, is amongst the best of the 1970s jazz underground, a collective voice of resistance to the musical and cultural status quo.
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Modal and Eastern Jazz by Spiritual Jazz maestro Lloyd Miller, originally issued in a run of 500 copies in 1967. This reissue was overseen by Miller and this release contains extensive booklet detailing Miller’s story by Francis Goding as well as video of late 60s performances.
Yes, that’s true – this release isn’t on Now-Again. But Egon, the creative director of the Estate of James “J.Dilla” Yancey – assembled this definitive reissue of Dilla’s Ruff Draft project with the same attention to detail afforded Now-Again’s resissues, and it’s coming out on Pay Jay, the label Dilla founded in the early 2000s and which Egon and Dilla’s Estate revived on behalf of his four heirs.
Originally released in small quantities on Mummy Records in 2003 as a vinyl-only EP and posthumously produced for reissued by Egon for Stones Throw in 2007 J. Dilla’s Ruff Draft was a bold declaration of independence from an artist 10 years into his career—an artist still cloaked in rookie hunger and ambition despite a operating at the peak of both his creative and technical talents. Though the EP would go on to attain legendary status following Dilla’s passing in 2006, the original edition of the album was marred by poor sound, resulting from lackluster vinyl mastering. The 2007 reissue was produced during a period when Dilla’s original mixes were thought to be lost, and the album was remixed by engineers Dave Cooley and Kelly Hibbert from the original multitracks. (more…)
