Jazz Dispensary reissued Azar Lawrence’s Bridge Into The New Age and Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers’ Jungle Fire! on vinyl on November 3 as part of it Top Shelf Series. Lawrence’s long out of print spiritual jazz masterwork was originally released on Prestige in 1974. This will be the first-ever vinyl reissue of Lawrence’s material. Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers’ incendiary Latin-funk boogaloo get-down, also from the Prestige catalog, will be available for the first time in over 30 years.
In celebration of the reissue of Bridge Into the New Age, Lawrence will be playing the album in its entirety at Zebulon, Los Angeles, California, on November 12. He will be backed by an all-star band, featuring trombonist Steve Turre, pianist Benito Gonzalez, drummer Roy McCurdy, bassist Jeff Littleton, and special guests.
Jazz Dispensary launched its Top Shelf series on March 31. Al albums of the series have been remastered from the original analog tapes, pressed on 180-gram audiophile-quality vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QPR) and housed in faithfully reproduced old-school style replica jacket. Each LP has a limited-edition worldwide run of 1,000 copies, complete with a Jazz Dispensary “Authorized Dealer” window cling. The titles are also available at streaming outlets, mastered for iTunes, and in Hi-Red digital. Previous releases of the series have been Rusty Bryant’s Fire Eater, Charles Kynard’s Afro-Disiac, Joe Henderson & Alice Coltrane’s The Elements, Gary Bartz NTU Troop’s Harlem Bush Music – Uhuru, The 3 Pieces’ Vibes of Truth, and Funk Inc.’s self-titled album.
More albums will be reissued in 2018. For more information, go to https://www.jazzdispensary.com/