STOP, LOOK, LISTEN

TRACKLISTING


A1. Raphaël - Archangelo
A2. Raphaël - Hommage A Kabylie
B1. Raphaël - Dead Sea Scrolls
B2. Raphaël - Night Craw ler





INFO


Sdban Records is delighted to announce the reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on lib rary label Selection Records in 1972.

Delving into the story of the A merican pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. H e was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howa rd McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the sing le remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstanc es in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festiva l, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not li mit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the sp ectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol's Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week.

His album 'S top, Look, Listen', which was recorded with the rhythm section of Babs Robert's group, consists of four long genre-defying tracks colored by the dreamlike vocal s of opera singer Rose Thompson. A surreal blend of genres, hard to pin down. It 's highly imaginative jazz, that much is sure. Raphaël shifts from serene late n ight piano jazz to more free or even spiritual passages, magnificently paired wi th the otherworldly vocals of Rose Thompson. The LP was put out by Selection Rec ords, a label that primarily issued library music at the time, and thus went lar gely unnoticed upon release. The recording makes clear that Phil Raphaël was a h ighly gifted artist whose talent will forever remain undervalued, since it was h is only effort as a leader. Raphaël's passage through the Belgian nightlife was just as mysterious as his music, and few people seem to remember him. Drummer Br uno Castellucci describes him as remarkable, both as a musician and as a person: "He was a hippie before there were hippies. He wasn't part of the system but he had a system of his own."