Resonance Records’ deluxe reissue of The Charlie Rouse Band’s Brazilian jazz classic Cinnamon Flower is out Friday, September 19, 2025 as a limited-edition 2-LP set, CD and digital download.
The vibrant 1977 album featuring Rouse’s 11-piece star-studded group – with Claudio Roditi, Dom Salvador, Ron Carter, and Portinho, among others – is released in its originally released version and in its never-before-heard original form, without overdubbing, as it was engineered by Resonance founder and co-president George Klabin. The album also includes an unreleased bonus track “Meeting House.”
Brazilian jazz fans will receive a special treat when Resonance Records, the genre’s leader in archival releases, will issue the Charlie Rouse Band’s Brazilian jazz classic Cinnamon Flower as an expanded two-LP set, single-CD and digital download on September 19, 2025.
The LP package will be issued in a limited edition of 1,000 copies pressed on 180-gram vinyl; the set has been transferred from the original tape reels and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. The first disc reprises the tenor saxophonist’s album as it was released in 1977 by Douglas Records, the Casablanca-distributed imprint of producer Alan Douglas; the second LP presents the record for the first time in its original form, without Douglas’ overdubbing, as it was engineered by Resonance founder and co-president George Klabin, and includes an unreleased bonus track. The CD edition will also include both versions of the record and the extra track.
The ’77 recording date featured Rouse, who had served as the tenor player in Thelonious Monk’s combo for 11 years, playing potent Brazil-inflected music with elegance and soul. He had previously explored the Latin American country’s sound on his 1962 Blue Note album Bossa Nova Bacchanal.
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Rouse’s 11-piece Cinnamon Flower band included such notables as trumpeter Claudio Roditi, pianist Dom Salvador, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Portinho. Before the album was released, producer Douglas — known for adding instrumentation on posthumously released material by guitarist Jimi Hendrix — sweetened it with such additional players as soul drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, keyboardist Roger Powell of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, and trombonist Clifford Adams of funk group Kool & the Gang.
Both packages include detailed liner notes by James Gavin, the author of widely praised biographies of Chet Baker, Peggy Lee, and Lena Horne, and an affecting remembrance of Rouse by his son, musician and educator Charlie “Chico” Rouse, Jr., who oversees the Rouse Estate. It reunites Resonance with Douglas’ daughters Solo Douglas and Kirby Veevers, who worked with the label on its 2019 Eric Dolphy release Musical Prophet, which comprised Douglas’ 1963 dates with the multi-instrumentalist.
Resonance co-president Zev Feldman says, “Many jazz enthusiasts know Charlie Rouse from the years he spent with Thelonious Monk, but he was much more than simply Monk’s saxophonist. He had his own voice and his own style. He had an abiding interest in many musical genres and, as you can hear in this album, a particular affinity for Brazilian music.”
The new edition is especially gratifying for Klabin, who racked up a long list of engineering and production credits before founding Resonance in 2008: This music was originally recorded and engineered by yours truly at my Sound Ideas Studios in New York in the mid-70’s. It remains one of my favourites because it combined great Brazilian music with great modern jazz and utilised only the very best players.
“We are pleased to release this memorable recording in two versions: the original and as modified by Alan Douglas on his label. It is also a pleasure to present for the first time the track ‘Meeting House,’ written and performed by pianist Dom Salvador, which was not released on the Alan Douglas version.”
Music historian Gavin notes, “Fortunately, Cinnamon Flower’s original engineer, George Klabin, kept the unaltered tapes. Now, on his acclaimed jazz label Resonance Records, he is releasing the original unadulterated Cinnamon Flower for the first time. The Douglas issue is here too, allowing listeners to judge the difference for themselves. The heart of both versions is Charlie Rouse, a saxophonist whose uniqueness deserves reexamination“.
This Resonance release offers a fresh chance to revisit a musician who, almost from the start, was deemed ‘underrated.’ It’s not too late for the prediction made in 1988 by Clifford Jordan, Rouse’s tenor-playing peer, to come true: ‘When someone dies, people stop and listen and realise that maybe he was a bit bigger than they thought. Now, people will start listening to Charlie Rouse.’”
Chico Rouse says, “I think now the album is going to be more appreciated than when it first came out because of the development and the exposure of Brazilian music here in this culture. I think that this record was a little ahead of its time….I hope that it shows a little bit about what my father was about in terms of being a soloist and having his own individuality, but being aware enough and strong enough to be able to incorporate that into an ensemble to make the whole thing one whole.”
