Afro Blue Persuasion - Live at Haight Levels, Vol. 1 (2019)

Last year, the dusty-fingered diggers behind TRAMP Records unearthed something rather special: an unreleased, full-length recording of a live performance by hitherto unheralded combo Afro Blue Persuasion, an Afro-Cuban Jazz band fronted by Bay Area stalwart Ulysses Crockett. The performance is so epic in fact, that TRAMP has decided to spread it across two separately released LPs (the second will appear in stores in March). This first edition is suitably impressive, with highlights coming thick and fast. We'd advise getting your ears around the collective's solo-laden interpretation of bossanova classic "Girl From Ipanema", the jaunty, vibraphone-powered cover of Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" and the breezy Afro-Cuban heaviness of opener "Philadelphia Mambo"