Søren Skov Orbit's debut album, "Adrift," is at once subtle and profound. The saxophonist and his collaborators have created something quite special and consistently deep. This record may not easily be classifiable, but the most interesting music creeps between the lines.

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*Remastered from tape - includes booklet with detailed liner notes.**

Released in 1978- now re-issued for the first time, the 2nd album from South African jazz/fusion power house, Spirits Rejoice.

The 1970s is regarded as a period of experimentation, boundary-breaking and hybridization in modern music and this spirit certainly informed the mushrooming of ideas that occurred in South African jazz during this time. In the shadow of more commercial township jive and soul, South African jazz evolved on the fringe, nurtured by passionate and enterprising independent producers who courted the interest of the mainstream with enchanting concoctions of jazz with folk, rock, soul and funk.

With a line-up hailing from far flung regions of South Africa, the mercurial sound of Spirits Rejoice and its willingness to weave a patchwork of different influences into its recordings is not hard to account for. More difficult to reconcile is that the band didn’t manage to level up to the status enjoyed by its peers in larger music markets abroad. Nevertheless, Spirits Rejoice has maintained its revered status in the collective memory of South African jazz for over four decades and their recorded artifacts return in the 2020s with the group’s vitality and energy undiminished. More

Deep swedish modal jazz reissued ! - The first reissue of Bertil Strandberg Kvintett’s “Cirrus” album, following on earlier Scandinavian Jazz reissues by Christian Schwindt Quintet and Carsten Meinert Kvartet.

In 1973, a snowstorm almost prevented the band from making it to the studio to record this album. Cirrus, released in 1974 in tiny numbers, has since become a heralded object among jazz aficionados. Now 45 years later, Cirrus is finally available on vinyl again ! Comes with an insert with unpublished photos and liner notes by Mats Gustafsson

Cirrus is full of melancholy. Yet it is balanced with a curiosity and an awareness of the world. Named after a white, wispy cloudscape made up of ice crystals, one can almost picture the deep woods of Sweden as the backdrop to these six compositions.
The group, lead by trombonist Bertil Strandberg, recorded only this album. Bertil wrote the title track which gives you a hint at how he sees the world. Bertil’s brother, Göran Stranberg is on piano and wrote most of the songs on the album. American ex-pat Ed Epstein is on tenor. Ove Gustavsson and Bjarne Boman on bass and drums respectively

"Terrific reissue" - Gilles Peterson

There's a lot to love in this universe and beautiful free spirit jazz from
Sweden is but one of the great creative manifestations of LIFE and
Strandberg's CIRRUS LP is at the top of the list. A rare-as-hen's-teeth
masterpiece newly unwrapped for your sonic pleasure head!
- Thurston Moore

Cirrus represents stunning musicianship, strong personal
compositions and arrangements, highly individual improvisations
and is truly a collective jazz masterpiece. Every detail interacts
with the overall form in the most creative and beautiful way.
- Mats Gustafsson More

This sought-after rarity presents a blend of ambient, new-age, 60’s inspired folk music. The melancholic lyrics of singer-songwriter Suzanne Menzel are transformed by Danish New-Age pioneer, Klaus Schonning’s, futuristic soundscape.


Schonning, not only produced “Goodbyes and Beginnings,” Menzel also credits him as giving her the artistic courage to
self-release her first and only album. “Goodbye’s and Beginnings” sits at the cross-section of many genres.
Menzel’s voice is as timeless as her heartfelt, somber lyrics. While Schønning’s synthesizer, organ and rhythm computers offer a playful contrast. The beautiful tension between them creates a fresh, unique sound and makes “Goodbye’s and Beginnings” hard to categorize even today.

About Frederiksberg Records
Frederiksberg Records was founded in New York in 2013 by Danish video journalist and music lover Andreas Vingaard. The name, Frederiksberg, is the part of Copenhagen where Andreas grew up and first discovered his passion for music. As a collector of vinyl records, he’s travelled extensively to acquire fresh sounds - Sudan, Ethiopia, Togo, Benin, Trinidad among other places.

The idea for the label emerged when Andreas befriended renowned Jazz saxophonist, Carsten Meinert. Committed to telling the story of Meinert’s music the right way, Andreas resolved to take full ownership of the To You re-release (2015).

The result has been a rollercoaster journey of running an independent record label. Frederiksberg Records, with roots in Scandinavian Jazz, will include a wide spectrum of genres - electronic, disco, ambient and more. More

Milt Ward & Virgo Spectrum - a selftitled album of spacey rare groove jazz - reissued !LP plus booklet, 500 copies, pressed at Pallas

It seemed trumpeter/composer Milton Ward had all he needed for a breakthrough in the world of contemporary jazz in the late 1970s. Blessed with a beautiful trumpet tone and an impressive work ethic, Ward found a home in Boston’s exploding soul and jazz scenes of the early 1970s. His star never joined the constellation of jazz luminaries, but Ward did leave one fantastic album of spiritual jazz that has become a collectors’ favorite: Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum.

Frederiksberg Records is proud to present the first and only authorized reissue of this funky jazz classic. The release includes remastered tracks from the original LP along with in-depth liner notes that provide a detailed account of Ward’s journey from his early years discovering music in the South to his toils finding a hold in the music business in Boston and New York City.

Born in Michigan but raised in New Orleans, Ward came up through the Crescent City’s legendary musical educaCon system. AWer a sCnt in the Air Force, Ward and his friend Stanton Davis (of Ghetto/Mysticism fame) looked to the Berklee College of Music in Boston for the next step in their development. Immediately, the two were immersed in Boston’s busy music scene, finding trumpet chairs in Herschel Dwellingham’s Orchestra at the Sugar Shack, where they backed up many of the day’s soul greats.

Ward worked with many up-and-coming musicians emerging from Berklee’s nurturing arms. He recruited many to his projects, including his Ultra Modern Quintet Plus Two, which played regularly around Boston in the early 1970s. It was in the mid-1970s that Ward took it upon himself and his entrepreneurial spirit to start his own record label, Twin Quest, and record his stand-alone release.

Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum brought together great young musicians who would quickly make names for themselves within the jazz world, including keyboard wizard Delmar Brown and future Jazz Messenger saxophonist Billy Pierce. Saxophonist/flutist Eddie Alex is a standout, as is baritone saxophonist Glenn Barbour, who soon would head to Atlanta to join The Whole Darn Family. Percussionist Ignacio Mena, bassist Cucho MarCnez, and drummer Hugh Petersen all hailed from farther south: Chile, Venezuela, and St. Croix, respectively. The recording also incorporated two bona fide New York jazz masters and veterans of the spiritual jazz movement, bassist Cecil McBee and saxophonist Carlos Ward.

The recording still stands as a hallmark to the creative music scene of Boston and New York City when soul and funk began to emmesh themselves in jazz. Milton Ward’s Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum remains a youthfully vibrant recording that is ripe for rediscovery by a new generation of explorative listeners.


About Frederiksberg Records

Frederiksberg Records was founded in New York in 2013 by Danish video journalist and music lover Andreas Vingaard. The name, Frederiksberg, is the part of Copenhagen where Andreas grew up and first discovered his passion for music.The idea for the label emerged when Andreas befriended renowned Jazz saxophonist, Carsten Meinert. Committed to telling the story of Meinert’s music the right way, Andreas resolved to take full ownership of the To You re-release (2015). The result has been a rollercoaster journey of running an independent record label. Frederiksberg Records, with roots in Scandinavian Jazz, includes a wide spectrum of genres -electronic, disco, ambient and more. More

Compilation of the best tracks of Mocko Jumbie's only two albums, infectious blend between funk/soul/soca, has a disco tinged feel on 'Children Children' and a electronic edge on 'We Can Live Together', flipside holds lovely soca tunes.

The second youngest of eight children, Hugo Leanzo Moolenaar was born on September 23rd, 1948, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. His mother was from Puerto Rico; his Dutch-German father worked as a contractor, but also played the guitar and had a 6-piece band that performed at house parties. The young Hugo was a born entertainer. Watching his elders, particularly an uncle who played the ukulele, he began to teach himself to play guitar, practicing on his own. Eventually he began to perform his own songs as he gradually gained confidence and ability.

As well as being a proficient musician, Hugo would also become a highly skilled Mocko Jumbie — a performer of the carnival stilt dancing tradition which has had a presence in the Virgin Islands for several hundred years, and which historians consider to have been brought to the Caribbean by enslaved West Africans.

Carnival in the Virgin Islands was revived in 1952, and from then on it became an annual event. The two most famous Mocko Jumbies at this time were John Magnus Farrell and William Richardson (to whom Hugo would dedicate his second album). The pair mentored a young talent named Alvin “Allie” Paul who later in turn would go on to teach many others. In 1964, at age 14, Paul entered the St. Thomas carnival as a stilt-dancer, and revolutionized the Mocko Jumbie style. While Farrell and Richardson would perform in a more European influenced outfit — usually a conical shaped hat, a female dress and a wire mask — Allie brought back some of the older African influence, wearing what some say is a Ghanaian-style hat and striped pants to cover the stilts.

Paul founded his own troupe in the late 1960s. He was the first to allow female students, starting by teaching family members and friends. One of his best students was Hugo Moolenaar, who quickly became known as one of the fastest dancers on the 6’ stilts, and was renowned for adding kung-fu-style moves to his performances.

In 1968, Hugo enlisted in the US army. He served in Vietnam, where he was severely injured. In 1970 he was honorably discharged and was awarded the prestigious Purple Heart for his service. Nevertheless, his injuries did not stop him from returning to Mocko Jumbie performance, and his reputation continued to grow. He also began to work for local government in St. Thomas. In the fall of 1982, Hugo was asked to become a resident performer at the Hotel Shibui in Contant Hill, St. Thomas after a convincing audition for the manager. Hugo brought in his girlfriend Juanita, a singer since high school, and a duo was born. Together, they performed Hugo’s compositions. Eventually, Juanita started to learn Mocko Jumbie as well. The couple, who were married in 1983, later founded a Mocko Jumbie school, that at its peak had 75 students.

The steady income from the hotel residency provided financial opportunity that the entrepreneurial Hugo seized. Travelling with their band to Puerto Rico, Hugo and Juanita hired a local horn section and created Hugo’s first album, entitled High, High, High, a reference to the Mocko Jumbie tradition. The cover depicts Hugo dressed in a golden outfit on stilts, on a palm beach, holding a guitar while Juanita looks on from the ground, holding their two children. Hugo’s second release, Mocko Jumbie Jamboree, came out not long after and also featured original compositions. It was recorded at the local Virgin Island studio Turtle Point. Both albums were self-distributed and feature a heady cocktail of island and popular sounds – from jump-up calypsos and kaisos to drummachine modern soul and upful disco.

During his career, Hugo performed the Mocko Jumbie on many neighboring Caribbean islands, as well as in the US, in New York, Portland, Oregon, and at the 1979 Super Bowl show in Miami, alongside the Grammacks band from Dominica. He also performed in Japan, as well as at the Festival de Música del Caribe in Cartagena, Columbia, where he appeared in a bullfighting arena with a group of the finest Mocko Jumbies and a local Virgin Islands band. But in 1989 a hurricane — ironically named Hugo —destroyed many of the Moolenaar’s belongings, including master tapes and photos, leaving them with very little to show for their long careers.

Hugo retired in 2008, after working 32 years for the local government. In 2009, the Virgin Islands Department of Tourism adapted a new logo, a Mocko Jumbie. I’d like to think Hugo Moolenaar was a part of the reason.

Hugo passed away on January 25th, 2012, from cancer. It is thought that the disease may have been a result of exposure to Agent Orange during his military service in Vietnam.

To his very last day, Hugo lived by his motto: “Peace, Love and Happiness Always”. More

Tramp Records is extremely proud to collaborate with a true German jazz legend. FRÉDÉRIC RABOLD will celebrate his 80th birthday this year. To honor his musical legacy we will release a double-gatefold LP with compositions by him spanning more than 40 years. Additionally a 7" single will be released with a bonus track ("Red Point") which is available on vinyl for the first time. "Spring Feelings" is taken from the album "FREDERIC RABOLD - TIME MACHINE" (TRLP-9123). More

Maestro Argentinian producer Kevin Fingier returns with a brand new 45 on his Fingier Records imprint. This time, he presents Santa Fiebre – a red-hot Buenos Aires Rhythm and Soul outfit. It’s the perfect combination, with Kevin’s slick production meeting the band’s sound, rooted in a pulsating beat, pumping horns, crisp guitar and a driving refrain.

Over the last few years, Fingier Records has released a string of highly acclaimed and collectable 7” singles, followed by a compilation LP and a full-length album from the Kevin Fingier Collective. This record is true to form – latin dynamite from the man that knows. More

Søren Skov Orbit's debut album, "Adrift," is at once subtle and profound. The saxophonist and his collaborators have created something quite special and consistently deep. This record may not easily be classifiable, but the most interesting music creeps between the lines.

More

A rare German disco experiment from 1982 by Herbert Hildebrandt-Winhauer of Rattles fame and Peter Hesslein, delivering a sleazy electro-boogie groove with funky vocal layers on the A-side and a cosmic disco instrumental with thick drums and synth magic on the flip side. Originally released as a 7-inch, this remastered 12-inch edition includes Trent’s DJ-friendly extended edit of Erotica and a high-energy reimagining of Rado-Keno. More

"This landmark compilation continues the unfoldment of diabolically obscure yet culturally and artistically essential recordings that have been hidden and precariously balanced on the precipice of obsolescence."

For German musicians the mid-70s to mid-80s were an extremely fertile and fruitful time. Though The Peace Chant series is focused mainly on amateur bands, private pressings, and long lost acetates, many of the artists included here nevertheless made their mark upon the German and world music scene and even played with many of the giants of the movement.

As the 60s were coming to a close, many German musicians began experimenting with fusing jazz, rock, pop, electronic, and world music with a harder, more aggressive sound. The resulting movement, originally called "kosmische music" or "cosmic music" would give way to the kaleidoscope of sounds now known as Krautrock.

Many labels and compilations, not to mention reissues have been focused on this moment and in many ways, today, there could be said to be a global revival in the art form by younger, modern bands. But this is where Tramp Records, always peeking behind the curtain, has decided to take "the road less traveled" as we trust them to do. This edition of the Peace Chant series explores the artists that, instead of going full steam ahead in the rock and world music direction, decided to play the role of 'spiritual advisor' to the movement and continue building a legacy of jazz and pop infusions to their more rock-oriented counterparts. Of course, there may not have been much commercial appeal of these recordings and many of them fell into obscurity. But it is thanks to the tireless efforts of Tramp Records that we are able to catch a glimpse of what undoubtedly the Giants of the genre at the time were already well aware of and likely being influenced by. As you will see, many of the artists in this compilation went on to become music teachers and mentors in their own right and surely influenced the course of music history in Germany. Now their stories are finally being told. And though the music is amazing on its own, it is truly astounding when cast in its historical context. This landmark compilation continues the unfoldment of diabolically obscure yet culturally and artistically essential recordings that have been hidden and precariously balanced on the precipice of obsolescence.

For the first time ever, Tramp Records is proud to present an "all German" artists version of the Peace Chant series, including liner notes printed in German exclusively with an English translation downloadable.

~Joel Ricci (August 2024)

Key selling points:
- deluxe double-gatefold LP containing detailed liner notes & unpublished photographs
- incl. full album download code
- ALL songs appear on LP for the very first-time More