Frank Foster - The Loud Minority LP
Wewantsounds present the first vinyl reissue of Frank Foster's The Loud Minority, originally released on Bob Shad's Mainstream Records in 1972. A landmark album and one of the key political works of the '70s. Featuring an all-star cast of superb musicians including Elvin Jones, Stanley Clarke, Airto, Cecil Bridgewater, and Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson, it is also Dee Dee Bridgewater's earliest full recordings. This special edition comes in a gatefold sleeve and includes a 20-page booklet featuring amazing unseen session photos recently unearthed, an introduction by Judd and Mia Apatow (Shad's grandchildren), an essay by British journalist Kevin Le Gendre and an exclusive interview of Cecil and Dee Dee Bridgewater by Paul Bowler. Includes original photos and the audio newly remastered from the original tapes. When he recorded The Loud Minority in 1972 for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records, Frank Foster had been a solid sax player for nearly twenty years, playing with the likes of Donald Byrd, Thelonious Monk and The Count Basie Orchestra. For this special session, he gathered a stellar line up of old fellow musicians like Elvin Jones and Harold Mabern and young turks including Stanley Clarke, 'Hannibal' Marvin Peterson, Cecil and Dee Dee Bridgewater. As usual for Mainstream sessions, the studio was booked for two days and the record was cut live, supervised by arranger Ernie Wilkins and engineer Carmine Rubino. What came out of these two days is now the stuff of legend, four long funky jams fueled by two distinct line ups playing simultaneously augmented with a powerful six-piece brass section led by Foster. The Loud Minority is a key militant jazz manifesto and one of the landmark jazz funk albums of the 20th century. The album was recorded in two days but its legacy lives on and still resonates loudly in the BLM days.