New Grooves
A few new records arrived on my doorstep over the past two months. Here are a handful of them, all of them reissues that may fly under the radar.
Jean-Luc Ponty: The Atacama Experience (MPS Records, 2025)
Jean-Luc Ponty: No Absolute Time (MPS Records, 2025)
As of August 2024, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty has retired from touring, outside of an occasional performance within easy traveling distance. As part of his retirement announcement, Ponty announced that he is working on remastering and reissuing some of his older recordings. Last year, I bought a copy of Life Enigma (his 2001 release) on vinyl. Atacama was released this past May on vinyl and CD by MPS Records, the label reissuing his recordings.
The Atacama Experience is Jean-Luc Ponty’s most recent studio recording from 2007. (He has since recorded a few projects with others, like D-Stringz with Stanley Clarke and Bireli Lagrene (2015), and the live AndersonPonty Band album Better Late Than Never in 2015, featuring Jon Anderson of Yes.) This album is considered to be a return to the music he made in the mid 1970s, although it also demonstrates how he absorbed influences he picked up in the decades since. It’s modern, yet throws back to a simpler time with more of an acoustic focus, and fewer electronics and synthesizers. Allan Holdsworth and Philip Catherine both make guest appearances. Ponty utilized his band of that era which included William Lecomte (keyboards), Theirry Arpino (drums), Guy Nsangué Akwa (bass), and Taffa Cissé (percussion). Aside from a lone track composed by Lecomte, and a cover of Bud Powell’s “Parisian Thoroughfare,” the remaining tracks are all composed by Ponty. It’s an enjoyable album that may gain new fans as well as please multitudes of others who have followed him for decades.
No Absolute Time dates back to 1993. It was a return to Atlantic Records after having recorded a trio of albums for Columbia or Epic Records. This album continues some of the themes he explored on Tchokola, his African-influenced album, crossed with some of the synthesizer exercises from his prior Atlantic albums like Open Mind and Individual Choice. (Both of those albums have similarly been reissued on vinyl and CD by MPS.) Some of the songs (like “Savannah” and “Forever Together”) weave a similar hypnotic trance as do the songs on these earlier two albums.
The Mavericks: Mono (in Stereo) (Valory Music Company, 2015/2025)
The Mavericks released Mono in 2015, conceived and recorded as a monaural recording. It was released on vinyl as a Record Store Day title that year as well. For its 10th anniversary, the album was reissued in a stereo mix, and I have to say that it is much improved. The sound is less congested, and the many instruments in the band are no longer buried in a single point in the mix. This new version sounds much more alive to me. It is available on “megaphone red” vinyl (echoing the front cover art), as well as digitally. While I do appreciate some monaural recordings, this one always sounded awkward to me. Musically it was good, but it never really grew on me. That could also be due to the monaural sound.
Just a quick mention in the wake of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing this year. I am not a rabid (no pun intended) fan of Ozzy or Black Sabbath, but there are quite a few records that I like. No More Tears arguably can’t hold up to his first two solo albums (Blizzard of Ozz, and Diary of a Madman), yet for me it’s still a rocker and has a handful of my favorite Ozzy songs on it, like the title track, “Mama I’m Coming Home” (his highest-charting single), “I Don’t Wanna Change the World,” “Desire,” and “Hellraiser.” (Coincidentally, Lemmy Kilmister penned the lyrics for these songs.) The sound of this reissue perhaps could be slightly better, but it’s still a good-sounding set, and I’m not picking nits on this one. The album is now spread across two records, where the original vinyl from 1991 squeezed all the songs into one record. Copies of the original US pressing have sold for as high as $499 (per Discogs history), so I feel mine was a bargain at a fraction of the cost.
12-Inch Grooves
12-inch Royalty
One might make jokes about 12-inches being the height of his heels, but Prince was well known for his 12-inch singles early in his career. His 12-inchers had some meat on the bone, something other than lightly-reworked or extended versions that many other 12-inch singles offered us. However, the focal point of many of his 12-inchers was the B-side, which were notable non-album tracks, often better than some of the album tracks. My favorite radio station, in fact, made as big of a deal of the B-sides as they did the hits, which made them good sellers locally. I won’t list all of his 12-inch singles here, but will point out some that are notable or favorites of mine.
“Let’s Work” b/w “Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)”
This was the first 12-inch single for Prince, and locally the B-side “Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)” was played more on the radio than the A-side. I’d gotten into Prince around the time of the Controversy album, yet it took me purchasing his earlier records before I realized this song was not among them. I eventually found it was on a 12-inch single, and bought it on the spot; I’ve never seen it since (except listed on Discogs, of course). “Let’s Work” is extended, continuing beyond the ending of the album version with a “Work it!” section and some instrumental bits.
“Let’s Go Crazy” b/w “Erotic City”
“Let’s Go Crazy” deserved to be the length it appears on the 12-inch single. If I’m not mistaken, this full-length version was the one used as the musical bed for the first part of the film Purple Rain. It adds a midsection with some jamming. But the flip side…we’ll just leave it at the point of there being some rather unprintable, unsafe for work lyrics (partially sung by Sheila E.), as one might expect with Prince. Despite that, it’s irresistible, especially the groove. This one needed heavy radio editing, as you could imagine.
“America b/w Girl"
With the Around the World in a Day album, I became less enamored with his music and found that the B-sides were nowhere near as good as what had preceded this era. In fact, I couldn’t even tell you what “Girl” sounds like, as I did not like it enough to give it more than a few plays. It is, however, a longer version than the 45 RPM B-side. But the A-side of this 12-incher is a favorite of mine. This is an extended version of the album version…very extended. As in, the album version ends after 3:40, and this one clocks in at just over 18 minutes longer at 21:46! Is it all that revelatory, or some long-lost treasure? Nope. It does kind of meander. But I like it because it offers a glimpse into what happened in the studio – a lengthy funk jam once the main body of the song has finished. (There are few, if any lyrics, in the extension.) If only the rest of the album had been this funky, I might have liked it.
“Little Red Corvette (Dance Mix)” b/w “Lady Cab Driver” (Import)
Prince’s hits were usually offered as extended versions over the album releases, but very rarely as remixes. “Little Red Corvette” got one of the rare remixes by way of a German imported 12-inch 45-RPM single. I call this a “double-beats” version, as the bass drum is doubled in most parts of the song. Hard to describe until you’ve compared the two. I lucked out and stumbled across this version at a favorite local store, back when the song was a hit. The B-side is the album version of “Lady Cab Driver” as it appears on the 1999 album.
“Let’s Pretend We’re Married” b/w “Irresistible Bitch”
This was purely a B-side purchase for me. Like other B-sides, our local station played a self-edited version of this one heavily when it came out. I think it’s catchier than the A-side, which was one of the few tracks on 1999 I didn’t play that often. (And I played that album hundreds of times, back in the day!) The A-side is the album version.
“I Would Die 4 U (Extended Version)” b/w “Another Lonely Christmas”
The B-side is the only Christmas-themed song I’ve ever seen released by Prince. While that alone is notable, two other facts about this single make it noteworthy. “I Would Die 4 U” of course appeared in the film and on the album Purple Rain, but this is not an extended version – it is a completely different recording, at a slightly faster tempo, sounding like it was recorded live in a studio or on a soundstage. (Just speculating – perhaps it could have been a rehearsal version recorded on a soundstage, or recorded at the First Avenue and 7th Street Entry club in Minneapolis, which was heavily featured in the film.) The other unusual part of this single is that the label area is larger than normal.
“Purple Rain” b/w “God”
As usual, the B-side was the highlight of this 12-inch single. It puts lyrics to one of the instrumental themes in the film. The A-side is the album version of “Purple Rain.” Musically the B-side is not all that noteworthy (other than being an extended version of the 7-inch single), but the draw here is that the single was pressed on purple vinyl.
That’s all for October! I’ll be uncovering a few more nuggets next month.
Header image courtesy of Pixabay.com/blitzmaerker.
