Grachan Moncur III - New Africa

A record with a very free-jazz-oriented lineup playing less skronky and more hard-bop. most of this sounds closer to early-60s Blue note than a lot of the madness that was coming out on BYG/Actuel at the end of the decade. In fact, Moncur lead two sessions for Blue Note in '63 and '64 and they're both well worth tracking down, especially Evolution. But back to the record at hand; The bigger chunk of the record finds the band in a fairly laid-back mode. I really like Dave Burrell's piano on this record, he keeps it simple nearly to the point of being ambient at times. "Space Spy" finds the other players weaving in and out of an endlessly repeating motif from Burrell. "Exploration", as the title hints at, is a little more out there. I couldn't find eny evidence of this existing on CD, but this rip is clean as can be.
Lineup:
Grachan Moncur III - trombone
Roscoe Mitchell - alto sax, piccolo
Dave Burrell - piano
Alan Silva - bass
Andrew Cyrille - drums
Archie Shepp - tenor sax on the last track

http://www.mediafire.com/?huqu8f8bhs7twgd

Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Discovery: Live at Montreux

Unless you sit around listening to shitty street punk all day, you've probably heard a lot of very talented musicians. But how often do you hear a real virtuoso? Not just some guy who shreds on a guitar real good, but somebody that defies you to believe that they're even playing what they're playing? Gonzalo Rubalcaba is that dude. This is the then-27-year-old pianist's second public appearance in North America after being isolated in his native Cuba previously. This captures him playing in a trio with the ubiquitous Charlie Haden on bass and Paul Motian on drums, but the focus is on Rubalcaba all the way. By the time he finishes the first cut - Monk's "Well You Needn't" - you're left gasping for breath and grasping for adjectives at the sheer force of it all. He come out on FIRE, launching run after run with astonishing clarity and creativity, breaking out some Cuban rhythm and displaying classical delicacy where required. Unbelievable.
http://www.mediafire.com/?k7fr84w2jwow53x

Albert Ayler - The Hilversum Session

I spent a lot of time not getting Ayler, but I'm starting to come around. I encountered a lot of the later material first but I'm realizing that the early stuff smokes. This is one such example. A live Dutch radio set from 1964 with a lot of immensely powerful and aggressive playing, but which remains extremely expressive. Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on bass and the great Sunny Murray destroying the drums.
http://www.mediafire.com/?znzmnzymoew

Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages

Man, I feel grossly inadequate trying to write about jazz. Here's the deal: Sonny Sharrock was a jazz guitarist who ran in some pretty heavy Free Jazz circles in the late '60's and early '70s. He retired from music for 12 years before being coaxed back by Bill Laswell. I don't know a great deal about his later body of work, but I do know this: Ask the Ages, his final studio album, is a masterpiece, period. Featuring Pharaoh Sanders on sax and Elvin Jones on drums, it screams, burns an smolders in every conceivable way. Do NOT let the "Free Jazz" moniker scare you off on this either; while elements of it are certainly present, I feel like the songs on here are really accessible to the adventurous modern music listener regardless of their familiarity with jazz. Or, as some random critic put it, "Hands down, Sharrock's finest hour, and the ideal album to play for those who claim to hate jazz guitar." At the very least check out "Many Mansions" and let your mind be destroyed.
Absolutely Essential.