Kenny Dorham - Afro-Cuban [SRX Vinyl Special Limited Edition] (1955/2019)

One of the truly great trumpeters, Kenny Dorham had his own sound, was a skilled songwriter, and was a first-rate talent scout who is credited with discovering Joe Henderson. One of the early beboppers, he perfectly led the way to hard bop in both his playing and his writing. Dorham recorded a series of exciting albums for Blue Note.

Afro-Cuban was the first and one of the most stirring. Dating from 1955, its mixture of Latin music and hard bop was ahead of its time. Using such notables as Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson and Art Blakey (whose drumming is dazzling throughout) plus percussionist Patato Valdes, Dorham contributes memorable originals, colorful arrangements that perfectly set up the solos, and his distinctive trumpet.

Kenny Dorham, who plays with passion and intensity throughout this set, leads the all-star group through such numbers as "K.D.'s Motion," "Minor's Holiday" and the mambo of "Basheer's Dream." Even the set's only ballad, "Lotus Flower," is just barely restrained enough to keep the ensemble from exploding. This album will raise the temperature in any room by at least five degrees.

This pressing is on SRX Vinyl. SRX stands for “Silent Running Xperience.” SRX is our own proprietary formula, conceived and developed by Rick Hashimoto of Record Technology and manufactured by TPC Plastics. Its noise floor is fathoms lower than any other vinyl we know of out there past or present. Records pressed with it look like normal black discs until you hold them up to the light and see that they are translucent and smoky, silvery gray in color. The near-perfect silence of SRX Vinyl virtually frees the music from groove noise and draws you further into the listening space, setting it in relief so distinct, full and spacious it’s nearly sculptural. You hear more of what’s on the original tapes, not only of the notes played on the instruments but the experience of the event itself. That's why we call it Silent Running Xperience.

Like all Music Matters Jazz releases, this is cut from the original analog tapes, mastered by Ron Rambach and Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, and pressed at Record Technologies Inc (RTI). The gorgeous gatefold jacket is from Stoughton Printing in City of Industry, California and includes exclusively licensed photos from the original session inside.