Gearbox Records Brings Jazz Classics by Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Abdullah Ibrahim & More to Reel-to-Reel Tape

For jazz enthusiasts and audio collectors, the experience of listening to music on reel-to-reel tape offers a special connection to the original recordings. Gearbox Records is bringing that experience to more listeners with a new series featuring music by legendary artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Binker & Moses. The releases will showcase the label’s commitment to analogue sound and preserving important moments in jazz history.

The first five releases to be announced (from Abdullah Ibrahim, Binker & Moses, Chihei Hatakeyama, Ella Fitzgerald, and Thelonious Monk) are available to pre-order, according to a press release from Gearbox Records.

At its core, Reel-To-Reel Tape Edition is a series of back-catalogue classics both old and new available on tape for the first time. Gearbox HQ houses seven reel-to reel tape machines, all in daily operation, from the ultra-rare Studer H37 of which only two (including theirs) are in use outside of the Studer museum, to the recently acquired and elegantly designed Lyric Frida – one of the last professional tape machines ever made. Tape is therefore crucial to achieving their renowned ‘Gearbox sound’.

Speaking on the new series, label founder and engineer Darrel Sheinman says “I have long been extolling the virtues of reel to reel to the industry as the best sonic playback mode known to man, which is why we use it in the background of nearly every release we have done to date, and even encourage our 3rd party mastering clients to use it. Now we are delighted to open up this professional master quality audio to our customers to enjoy too. “

Pre-order the first 5 releases

The late great Abdullah Ibrahim (who also recorded as Dollar Brand) is one of South Africa’s most famous musicians. Born under the apartheid regime, where jazz music was seen as an act of resistance, his music was often referred to as representing freedom. His major anti-apartheid anthem “Mannenberg” (released as “Capetown Fringe” in the US) has come to be regarded as an unofficial national anthem in South Africa, and he even performed at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, where Mandela referred to him as “our Mozart”. He played with everyone from Duke Ellington to Max Roach, John Coltrane to Ornette Coleman, and is the father of underground rapper Jean Grae.

Ibrahim’s 2019 album The Balance released when he was 84 years old, marked his first album in four years and his first for Gearbox. Featuring his band Ekaya, it was recorded over the course of a day in London at RAK Studios. Featuring a number of full band arrangements, Ibrahim also recorded several of solo, improvised piano pieces. Full of encompassing Township-Jazz, solo piano, highlife and plentiful modern jazz styles, the instrumentation is broad, and includes harmonica, cello, and piccolo. The album was released to widespread acclaim and charted in the Top 5 of the Official UK Charts jazz & blues album chart and the Billboard Jazz Album Chart.

Made up of saxophonist and jazz stalwart Binker Golding, and drummer / composer Moses Boyd, Binker & Moses were amongst the first trailblazers of a loose yet interconnected group of London-based jazz musicians that helped shape modern UK jazz by drawing on the music that surrounds them including hip-hop, electronic, Caribbean rhythms, free improvisation as well as, of course, the jazz tradition. What began as experimental jams during soundcheck as part of Zara McFarlane’s touring band evolved into 3 studio albums, 2 live albums, multiple awards, a performance on Later… with Jools Holland, critically acclaimed live shows, and an unquenched thirst to continue pushing musical boundaries to the limit.

Their second album, Journey to the Mountain of Forever (which will turn ten next year), was recorded in the summer of 2016 and included an expanded line-up of musicians; Yussef Dayes, Byron Wallen, Tori Handsley, Sarathy Korwar, and Evan Parker. Conceptually inspired by science fiction and fantastical prog/rock imagery with album artwork by Jim Burns (Blade Runner), the album was named MOJO’s No. 2 Jazz Album of the Year and cemented their status as the leaders of the London jazz renaissance.

Speaking on the new tape edition, GRAMMY Award-winning producer, mixer, and engineer, Ricky Damien, who was the mixer & engineer on the album, says: “Working with Gearbox, tape has always been at the heart of how the records are made, and you can hear it. Reel-to-reel is the closest you can get to sitting in the control room as the music was being recorded: the depth, the warmth, the way it breathes. Being able to bring that master quality straight to listeners is a real treat.”

One of Japan’s foremost modern experimental proponents, the boundless ambient musician Chihei Hatakeyama has had incredibly prolific career in the Japanese avant -garde scene. From his first full-length album ‘Minima Moralia’ (“Excellent” 8.1 Pitchfork) in 2006, through the subsequent 70+ albums that followed, Chihei Hatakeyama has created a mighty canon of critically acclaimed work. His extensive catalogue of ambient drone and experimental compositions is spread across several highly regarded labels, including Room40, Own Records, Under The Spire, hibernate, Home Normal, and his own White Paddy Mountain imprint.

Earlier this year, Gearbox unearthed yet another long-lost gem with the worldwide release of a rare, previously unreleased live recording of the legendary singer, songwriter, composer, and humanitarian, Ella Fitzgerald, titled Live at Falkoner Theatre Copenhagen 6th February 1966.

Ella Fitzgerald remains one of the most influential voices in music history, but her legacy isn’t stuck in the past—it’s alive and constantly rediscovered. Her effortless range, improvisation, and iconic scat style shaped generations of artists. From jazz purists to modern producers sampling her work, her sound continues to ripple through culture.

Recorded at Copenhagen’s Falkoner Theatre on 6^th February, the tape was a Danmarks Radio broadcast, mono, filed in a Danish producer’s private archive, where it languished for decades, earmarked for the bin before Gearbox rescued it. This rare archival release provides yet another opportunity for fans to explore and live in a candid moment in the 13-time/Lifetime Grammy Award-winning singer’s career. By early 1966 Ella Fitzgerald had redefined her standing as an interpreter of the American popular canon, her collaboration with Duke Ellington was well underway, and just the night after this performance she recorded The Stockholm Concert, 1966, the Pablo Records live album that is now considered among the essential documents of her late career. This album, however, captures more of a candid recording of the singer. Though the Duke himself isn’t on the album, his orchestra back Fitzgerald for the first seven tracks.

Another piece of long-lost jazz history saved from destruction, in 2018 Gearbox released a precious snapshot of prime-era of Thelonious Monk, featuring a previously unreleased recording of his most critically acclaimed Quartet (with whom he also recorded ‘Criss-Cross’ and ‘Monk’s Dream’) live at Old Fellow Palæet, Copenhagen in 1963.

With the original tapes recently saved from a skip, some 55 years later the recordings were faithfully restored, mastered and cut using Gearbox’s legendary all-analogue process (even using the exact same lathe as Blue Note did back in the day). The result reveals a window into a performance that shows Monk in his prime, just one year before he would go on to become one of only 4 jazz artists to ever appear on the front cover of TIME magazine.

The album, Mønk, sees the pianist make masterful use of space and melody. Charlie Rouse’s solo in “Nutty” is a clear demonstration as to why Monk is considered by many to be the best accompanist the jazz world has ever known. Whereas tracks such as ‘Monks Dream’ and ‘Bye Ya’ see the quartet displaying how tight their bond with one another really is, with Rouse altering dynamics and taking the lead, whilst Ore and Dunlop really dig in and seemingly foresee Monk’s unpredictable shifts and turns, intertwining with one another with effortless cool. There’s a reason that this is considered to be the definitive Monk quartet.

Lost recordings of this calibre aren’t common, especially when it comes to the major players like Monk, making this a rare treat for audiophiles, enthusiasts, historians and music lovers of all kinds. This is still one of Gearbox Record’s biggest releases, and one that sits close to their hearts. The album landed at No.10 in the Billboard Jazz Chart, the first time he’d been in the US charts since December 1963.