Tarika Blue - Self-Titled

In 1976 and 1977 Hank O’Neal produced two LPs by an exceptional young band called Tarika Blue. The leader was a fine pianist/keyboard artist named Phil Clendeninn. He not only led the band, wrote most of the songs, and played any instrument that had a keyboard (with the possible exception of an accordion), but Phil also learned to use every piece of recording equipment in the Downtown Sound control room, engineered a zillion sessions, and taught New School ... More...

Abdullah Ibrahim - The Journey

Abdullah Ibrahim's 1979 debut release on CHIAROSCURO, has been digitally remastered and is now available for the first time ever on CD. Within a year of this recording first being issued, the first incarnation of the label was out of business, a victim of the record industry's "formula pop" mentality, which is still pervasive in 2003. In 1988, when CHIAROSCURO was resurrected, and Hank O'Neal began producing new recordings once again, and reissuing the 19 ... More...

Antonio Hart - All We Need

It is interesting how the character and personality of a musician influences their approach to making music. Traits such as generosity or selfishness, gravity or a sense of humor, introversion or extroversion, will inevitably be expressed in their music and shape the way they interact with other musicians. In the years that I have known Antonio, both as a musician and as ,a friend, we have traveled many miles together and explored countless musical land ... More...

Roman Kunsman - Heavy Skies

By the 1960's, American jazzmen on the road in Eastern Europe were coming home with tales of surprise. A Bulgarian pianist, for instance, was said to sound like Thelonious Monk if Monk had been raised as a rhapsodic gypsy. And there were other such reports. But what would you think of a jazzman from Central Russia, reared near the Volga, who has also absorbed Bird, among other fundamental jazz sources, and is at authoritative ease in classical music as wel ... More...