Man, I was Black Friday shopping at Walmart last night and they had these plastic half orbs filled with "surprise gifts" that you could by. They had the nerve to charge $30 USD for these things LOL.

What were the contents of the orbs? Just little knick-knacks?

You don't know, that the point. I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't filled with iPads LOL. My nephews like watching unboxing vidoes on YouTube where people buy mystery boxes off of the dark web. I saw one where some guy spent like 8 grand on one. It had iPads, tablets, cellphones, radio controlled drones, etc.

I'm fairly certain the merchandise is stolen and this is a way to convert that stolen merchandise into cash or cruptocurrency.

To tell you the truth, when I first saw this album cover, I thought I was having a stroke. I let out an audible groan when I laid my eyes on the South Park anime-parody looking avatars of what I presumed was the band in question. That combined with the stark "JAZZ KAMIKAZE" above their heads immediately made me fear the worst: some sort of horrific Western adaptation of the J-rock menace or something to that degree that was lost to the annals of time like the Ark of the Covenant. Would my face melt off upon opening this jewel case? It was all up in the air.

Turns out though these dudes are far more jazz than they are kamikaze. They aren't even American, either! Turns out Jazz Kamikaze (or I guess JazzKamikaze according to Wikipedia) are a contemporary jazz group starring a conglomerate of young Scandinavian musicians. They've been doing work in the Danish and Norweigan jazz circuits, playing at venues like Kongsberg Jazzfestival and Moldejazz and even internationally in places like Rochester, my home city! They've released four albums over a span of seven years, this one being their sophomore, and have remained active enough to have a snazzy lookin' website that advertises something that came soon (what I presume to be) a long time ago.

Unlike many of the records I've received in the mystery bags, these guys are actually pretty good. They're skilled musicians who have a great ear for vibrant jazz, and stylistically they're all over the place. Bebop, jazz-funk, jazz-rock, fusion, and even a smattering of hip-hop all permeate this record. It's fun as **** and at the same time doesn't take itself too seriously. The bag I got this one in is from awhile ago and I've had enough time to listen to the whole thing, and I've found myself coming back to the frantic fusion tune Speedball quite a few times. The smooth closing epic Until the Sun Comes is pretty good as well.

SALVAGEABILITY: There's not too much bad I can say about this record. It's fun, dynamic and well executed. If I had one gripe with it I suppose it would be that I noticed prolonged listening resulted in a bit of sensory overload, but even that's not that big of a deal. It's not like anyone's forcing me to listen to it in one sitting Clockwork Orange style. Oh yeah, and they need a new cover artist. This aesthetic ain't it, chief. SALVAGEABLE.

For some reason the first thing this review made me think of was a weird bit of cover artwork by another Scandinavian jazz group:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....VL._SY355_.jpg

Pretty weird but doesn't come close to the former's genuine level of awful. It looks more like a metal album than a jazz album, tbh.

Louisianian jazz vocalist Johnny Hartman found himself familiar with the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane during the former part of his career, ever since Coltrane found himself enamored with Hartman's 1950 performance at the Apollo Theater in Manhattan. Thirteen years later and per Coltrane's request the two joined forces for a collaborative album, titled simply John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, which was released in July 1963. The album, recorded solely on March 7, 1963 in almost all one take, was met with acclaim across the board. It was considered "essential" my most critics and audiences, and earned a Grammy HOF induction in 2013.

Coltrane unfortunately died only four years after the said album’s release, leaving Hartman and his’ collaboration to be a one-off evermore. Hartman’s career continued, during which he often paid tribute to his friend by covering his “favorite” tunes.

For Trane was a compilation released in 1995, which collected tracks from both 1973’s Hartman Sings Trane’s Favorites and also Hartman Meets Hino, a collaboration with fusion trumpeter Terumasa Hino, from the same year. It too followed Hartman’s death in ‘83, making it essentially a short corpus of musical letters from one dead man to another. Nah, just kidding. It’s more likely an unashamed Blue Note cash grab, but it’s nice to be optimistic once in awhile.

As for the CD’s actual quality, Hartman does a great job bringing an emotionally charged performance to the 11 standards at play here. Some are better than others, like the cover of Davis’ ‘On Green Street’ and Andy Razaf’s (originally recorded by Sinatra) ‘S’posin’’. Hartman shines on these energetic tracks quite well, but ultimately the man’s a crooner through-and-through. ‘Why Did I Choose You’, a cover of the Marvin Gaye tune, does particularly well in this regard. Hartman’s baritone rumble mixed with his Houma drawl makes for an excellent smoky duo, and when he croons, he soars. The best track overall, in my opinion, has to be his cover of the iconic Sound of Music number ‘My Favorite Things’.

SALVAGEABILITY: Coltrane liked Hartman for a reason, I suppose. SALVAGEABLE.