Doing a 180: Have Yourself a Jazzy Friday

Rhino has made it a point to reissue classic albums on 180-gram vinyl on a regular basis. These are the latest to get that treatment. You're welcome.

Charlie Mingus, Blues & Roots (Mono) – You already know Mingus’s work as a jazz man, but you may not be as aware of his appreciation of the blues. Recorded at the behest of Atlantic legend Nesuhi Ertegün, who suggested the album because critics were complaining that Mingus supposedly “didn’t swing enough,” the end result may indeed swing, but it does a whole lot more than that.

Miles Davis, Amandla – This was the final collaboration between Davis and producer/bassist Marcus Miller, but it’s definitely a case of the twosome going out on a strong note, blending funk, jazz, go-go music, and African sounds to come up with a concoction that’s as smooth now as it was when it first emerged in 1989. It goes down as easy as a glass of Catémbe, and if don’t know what that is, then you should go Google it, after which you should make yourself one and sip it whilst listening to this album.

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington, Recording Together for the First Time /The Great Reunion – Has there ever been such a two-great-jazz-tastes-that-taste-great-together combination like this one? You can thank producer Bob Thiele for managing to get these two legends in the studio for the first time, and be sure to thank him repeatedly, because both of these albums are classics – the latter is a little more low-key than the former – and they both sound better than ever.