Rediscovered Recordings Resound In 2021

A diverse range of wonderful rediscovered recordings are highlighted this week...

Collectors will want to pick up the deluxe edition box set of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's 'Way Down In The Rust Bucket,' which chronicles a legendary 1990 concert event. It retails for $99.98 on the New Young Archives website.

Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Title: Way Down In The Rust Bucket (Reprise)

You might like if you enjoy: Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Tell me more: Clocking in at three hours or so, Neil Young & Crazy Horse's marathon performance across Way Down In The Rust Bucket is truly a stunning showcase for the quartet's power in the service of Young's stellar songcraft. The legendary performance at a small club (The Catalyst) in Santa Cruz, CA on Nov. 13, 1990 celebrated the release of the outstanding Ragged Glory album issued two months before; the entire event was filmed and recorded by Shakey Picture’s LA Johnson. Performing three sets, Young and company unleashed the first-time ever live versions of a slew of Ragged Glory cuts along with an evocative "Danger Bird," the latter a favorite off the 1970 album Zuma. The countrified rocker "Country Home," moody 14-minute "Love to Burn," soaring "Cinnamon Girl" and otherworldly "Over and Over Again" are early standouts. Late concert highlights include the harmonies-adorned "Don't Cry No Tears," fiery "Sedan Delivery," genuinely explosive "Like a Hurricane" and stirring concert-ending "Cortez the Killer." Way Down In The Rust Bucket was released on February 26, 2021 as a 4 LP vinyl box set, a 2 CD set and a deluxe edition box set containing a DVD of the concert, plus 4 vinyl LPs and 2 CDs. At a later date a stand-alone DVD will also be released at NYA — Young’s Archive website. Information: neilyoungarchives.com.

Artist: Todd Rundgren

Titles: A Wizard, A True Star...Live! (Cleopatra Records)

You might like if you enjoy: Todd Rundgren, The Who, Emitt Rhodes, Paul Stanley's Soul Station

Tell me more: Released on colorful rainbow swirl vinyl on March 5, Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star...Live! is a 2009 concert recording revisiting the artist's groundbreaking genre-bashing 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star! in its entirety. A Wizard, A True Star...Live! was issued on crystal clear DVD and audio CD last year, but the 2LP vinyl release is sure to please fans of the famed musician/producer/singer-songwriter who enjoy collectible vinyl titles. The 2LPs come packaged in a beautiful gatefold jacket featuring images from Rundgren's multi-media concert event captured in Akron, Ohio. The inspired recording shines throughout; the psychedelic-tinged opener "International Feel," wistful "Never Never Land," melodic "You Don't Have To Camp Around," neo-classical "Flamingo," ambitious "Zen Archer" and soulful "Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel" are surefire standouts on the first LP. The second LP continues the parade of great offerings courtesy of a stellar soul medley, the melancholic trip "I Don't Want To Tie You Down," intoxicating rocker "Is It My Name?" and enthralling closer "Just One Victory." Rundgren's fourth studio album A Wizard, A True Star! mostly ignored the commercial-aimed songwriting found on his previous 1971 effort Something/Anything? and instead frequently focused on heavy experimentation. The results on the original studio set, as well as this terrific live version of the classic are glorious. Information: CleopatraRecords.com.

Artist: Hasaan Ibn Ali

Title: Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album (Omnivore Recordings)

You might like if you enjoy: John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Elmo Hope

Tell me more: Los Angeles-based Omnivore Recordings continues to champion rare and rediscovered recordings. Look (and listen!) no further than Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album, a never-before-issued 1965 recording featuring jazz pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali. The story of the recording is almost as amazing as the dazzling jazzscape that plays out via the talents of virtuoso keyboardist Ali, tenor saxophonist Odean Pope, bassist Art Davis and drummer Kalil Madi. Prior to the release of Metaphysics on March 5, Ali was seemingly destined to be known only for The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan, a 1964 recording that lifted the Philadelphia-based Ali out of obscurity.  Indeed, when Atlantic invited Ali to record again in August and September of 1965, the subsequent step in mixing the sessions was halted because of a narcotics possession that resulted in Ali's incarceration. Thirteen years later, the master tape was destroyed in an Atlantic Records warehouse in Long Branch, N.J. Fast forward to 2018 and the discovery of a tape copy of the long-lost reference acetates of the 1965 sessions; listening to the work of Grammy Award-winning engineer Michael Graves on the restored Metaphysics is to be immersed in the astonishing playing of Ali (who sadly died in 1981). Ali's original compositions are beautiful even while challenging the listener at every turn. Detailed liner notes shed additional light on Ali as well as the other musicians who accompany him on this magical rediscovery. Information: OmnivoreRecordings.com.

Artist: Richard Pryor

Titles: Richard Pryor; 'Craps' (After Hours) (Omnivore Recordings)

You might like if you enjoy: Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy

Tell me more: The widely-acknowledged #1 stand-up comic of all time, Richard Pryor kept audiences laughing on stage and screen in a career spanning from the early '60s to his death at the age of 65 in late 2005. Now Omnivore Recordings has released restored and expanded editions of the late artist's first two albums. Richard Pryor (originally released in 1968) and 'Craps' (After Hours) (first issued in 1971) showcase the Peoria, Illinois native early in his career and reveal how brilliant his style remains more than 50 years later. His style of comedy is halarious and decidedly edgy whether eliciting laughing attacks from club goers with tales of black superheroes, impressing girls, life in prison, religion and race or sex, drug use and a comedic take on all things in life with his ability to play multiple characters — all delivered with rapid-fire improvisational precision. Richard Pryor was recorded live at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, with a second disc featuring 21 tracks recorded at several different comedy clubs that were included in the out-of-print Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974). 

The second Pryor release, 'Craps' (After Hours)' shows a slightly more polished Pryor, his comedy as keyed up as ever. The detailed liner notes on this collection are particularly helpful in understanding how Pryor "evolved from 19670s nighlub comedian to being the voice of his generation." Larry Karaszewski continues: "The performances capture the moment where Richard Pryor stopped being polite. Where he took off his suit and tie and gloves. Where Pryor began to reflect what was happening in the streets and in the counterculture." Information: OmnivoreRecordings.com.

Robert Kinsler