Vinyl - Live at Sweetwater

Vinyl - Live at Sweetwater is a superb album! Sometimes a live album can be a little rough around the edges but not this one! I have seen Vinyl play live twice and not only to the put on one hell of a show but this record really captures the essence of their performance. Vinyl is a instrumental band that reps the Bay Area. The band consists of a drummer, guitarist, bass, saxophone, trumpet, and keyboard. They for the most part keep it in the funk genre but have some real nice jazz, hip hop, latin, and reggae influences woven into their grooves. This particular album has some real nice gems on it! "Night Ride," the second track on side A, has a awesome melody at the beginning that you could hear sampled in a killer hip hop song and then drops straight into a skanky reggae groove. Another track is the first song on side 2, "Last Camel to Vegas," that is so nice it brings a smile to your face. I highly suggest the LP Vinyl - Live at Sweetwater, it is an amazing album start to finish!

Pharoah Sanders - Karma

If EPIC song intros are your thing that this album has something for you. Karma features 19 minute jazz songs with 2 minute intros. Pharoah Sanders and his Tenor Sax leads this 8-10 piece jazz band. The first track "The Creator and His Master Plan"starts with an EPIC intro (surprise) and then drops into a nice little break, that would make a nice hip-hop song. The song then kind of builds into a jazzy song that you might hear on the soundtrack to Hair the Musical. Enter side B. The first song and most of side B is what sounds to be the end of the first track on side A. It fades in, EPIC intro, and then takes it to a place that you wouldn't expect. The song shifts into the bastard son of John Coltrane's "Sun Ship." To me it sounded like someone being slowly murdered in the forest by an axe and the screams of the victim being played by Sanders Tenor Sax. All in all the album, Pharoah Sanders - Karma, was a fair listen and if anything the break on the first song makes it worth it.