Roland Haynes 2nd Wave LP Orange w/ Black Swirls Vinyl Me Please Ltd Ed 377/500 Black Jazz 

Brand New Factory Sealed.    ( Some Stock Photos)

Edition limited to 500 hand-numbered copies.

Killer Fusion

Black Jazz Records was a jazz record company and label founded in Oakland, California by pianist Gene Russell (December 2, 1932 - May 3, 1981) and percussionist Dick Schory. The label was created to promote the talents of young African American jazz musicians and singers, and released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. The artists who recorded for Black Jazz Records included Cleveland Eaton, former bassist for Count Basie and Ramsey Lewis, and organist/pianist Doug Carn, whose four albums were the most successful of any Black Jazz artist. Carn's wife at the time, Jean Carn, sang on his albums; she changed her name to Jean Carne and had a successful solo career as an R & B singer.Singer Kellee Patterson gained notice as the first black Miss Indiana in 1971, before recording her debut album, Maiden Voyage, with Black Jazz Records in 1973.The label was distributed and financed by Ovation Records, a country and western label based in Chicago, which was also founded by Schory. Black Jazz Records was considered at the time to be the first jazz label started by an African American since brothers John and Reb Spikes started Sunshine Records in 1921.

This early effort by keyboardist Roland Haynes is an open and explorative soul-jazz session. Like John Patton's comparable 1969 date, Accent on the Blues, this set has its spacy moments, but, on the whole, isn't quite "out" enough to be considered avant-garde. A number of different moods and tempos are represented here. Some tunes, like the psychedelic opener, "Eglise," find the dual keyboard front line floating over slow, deep funk rhythms. Others employ modal jazz vamps and lightening-fast chops. "Descent" and "Second Wave," for example, are flat-out exhausting and find drummer Carl Burnette chopping and reconfiguring each beat at breakneck speeds. Burnette is perhaps best known for his work with Gene Harris in the early '70s and listeners appreciative of his beat-down funk style on Three Sounds jams like "Duck Soup" will equally dig the groovy numbers that bookend this set. Haynes is heard on one of two electric pianos in this session. The other, held down by Kirk Lightsey, was fed through a wah effect and at times sounds much more like a guitar. For the most part, though, every song here is a winner, among them the opener and the infectious "Funky Mama Moose."