The Dance - "The Dance" (1982)
The Dance was a vibrant presence in early-80s New York City, epitomizing the post-punk melting pot. They made "a cultural fusion of music styles, blending the urgency of punk with dance music, reggae, and a large dose of funk," culminating in group two full-lengths, and then a shelved full-length with Arthur Baker for Island Records. “Soul Force” captures the band at the peak of their powers, and is full of raw energy and catchy hooks.
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Thesda - "Spaced Out" (1979)
Thesda is a homegrown gem of late-70s funk. Musical ideas collided in a small studio, then were packaged in a record graced with generic cover art; The result, "Spaced Out," was pressed in minute numbers. The only distribution it got was as a Christmas present one year. So producer Eugene Hagburg was surprised when he realized that a small group of collectors not only found out about the album, but thought highly of it. In April 2007, a record collector in Washington, DC, found the album at a thrift store, and contacted Hagburg. After the word got out and a copy sold for top dollar on ebay, he quickly received calls from fans as far-flung as Italy and Vermont.
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Mark Harvey - "The Mark Harvey Group" (1972)
Mark Harvey’s “In Concert” album is a groundbreaking piece of free jazz, pressed in miniscule numbers and consequently nearly forgotten. The bristling energy on this album wouldn’t be out of place on the ESP label, and the long periods of silence broken by spontaneous improvisation foreshadow artists on other modern Beantown labels such as Intransitive.
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Elysian Spring - "Glass Flowers" (1969)
The original liner notes by Andy Haigh are striking in their honesty. Like good jazz, they ask more questions than they give solid answers. For the sound of Elysian Spring is in questioning, considering, and evaluating possibilities. This must be a meaningful album, because nearly 40 years later the music is still startlingly fresh.
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Arni Cheatham - "Thing" (1972)
The rare album released by Cheatham’s first group “Thing” consists of two sprawling songs of jazz tempered with bristly funk. Few points of comparison for the group exist in the Boston jazz world, then or now, but several influences predominate. The album certainly stands in the shadow of Miles; Vagn Leick’s dark chords especially are straight out of “Live Evil” or “Agharta,” The most aggressive moments on the album are on the last half of “Road Through the Wall,” where Leick’s keys and Saltman’s bass are overdriven through amplifiers, resulting in a glorious wall of noise. Kiah Nowlin keeps the beat more than steady, culminating in a drum break on “Road Through the Wall pt. 3” that has to be heard to be believed.
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