One of the proudest moments of the New York Latin underground – a time when some of its best players wound up playing for Columbia, through a brief affiliation between Fania and the larger label! And although you might think that the album would totally sell out the group's best points, it's actually a great batch of cuts that mixes the All-Stars' strong salsa and jazz grooves with some nice club-oriented rhythms – a blend that was perfect to show the growing sophistication of the Nuyorican scene in the late 70s! All the right touches are still strongly in place – and the record features work from Pacheco, Roberto Roena, Mongo Santamaria, and Louie Ramirez, as well as guests Bob James and Eric Gale. Titles include "En Orbita", "Awake", "Juan Pachanga", "Steady", "Jubileo", and "Ella Fue". (Latin, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the last albums ever from the mighty Slim Harpo – but also one of the best, as the bluesman is giving plenty of nods to the funk and soul artists who were influenced by his music – and returning the favor with a wonderfully raw set of grooves! Slim's a master on all fronts – from funky guitar, to soulful vocals, to some sweet harmonica lines – and at some points, the rhythms seem strongly influenced by the best 60s elements in New Orleans soul – which creates lots of rolling bottom grooves that make the album come off great – not just for fans of blues, but for soul and funk fans as well. The whole thing's wonderful – and titles include "Te Ni Nee Ni Nu", "Mailbox Blues", "Hey Little Lee", "Tip On In", and "My Baby She's Got It". (Blues, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Niceness from Evelyn King to cap the end of the 70s! She's really in great form here – stepping out with some fully clubby backings, and working with the mighty T-Life, who's really got a great ear for her groove! The style's a bit less disco than previous albums – some simpler soul at points, mixed with other upbeat modes that hearken a bit more towards the sound of the dancefloor in the early 80s – almost a precursor to that decade's groove at points. Evelyn's vocals are proudly soaring throughout – never too over the top, and always right on the money – and tracks include "Music Box", "I Think My Heart Is Telling", "Out There", "It's OK", "No Time For Fooling Around", and "Make Up Your Mind". LP, Vinyl record album

Heady funk from the glory days of the Miami soul scene in the 70s – the second smoking album by the group named after the city! The sound here is a bit tighter than before, but in a good way – a style that has the group's core funk energy mixed with some added strings and horns from Mike Lewis – all served up by producer Willie Clarke in that hip, syncopated TK groove of the time! Robert Moore leads the group on percussion – and this time around, there's some really great electric elements to the sound – especially the guitar parts, which have a cool snakey feel at points. Titles include "I'll Hold The Groove", "Kill That Roach", "Hold On To What You Got", "Mr Notorious", "Come Dance With Me", and "Do It Together". LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet 70s Wayne Henderson-produced set – quite a different groove for Esther, thanks to Henderson's warm jazzy inflections! The record's got a bit of club in the mix, but also has a deeper feel, too – a vibe that references Esther's work in jazz, but points her voice in a whole new direction – balancing mellow cuts with some more uptempo material. Phillips is wonderful in the setting – really working with an artist who understands the growing sophistication of her sound – and titles include "The Man Ain't Ready", "Native New Yorker", "SOS", "Pie In The Sky", and the classic "If I Fall In Love By Morning". LP, Vinyl record album

A great little album from Jeannie Reynolds – and her lasting contribution to underground soul! Jeannie's vocals are nice and deep – with hints of southern diva phrasing, filtered through some of the tighter soul styles coming out of Chicago and other points north at the time! Detroit talents LJ Reynolds, Tony Hester, and Don Davis produce – save for one song by Michael Henderson – and the big highlight is the slow groover "The Fruit Song", a sly seductive stepper of a track, with rolling congas, sweeping strings, and a very catchy hook from Jeannie. That number runs for about 7 minutes long – and the album also includes a number of nice shorter cuts, like "I've Still Got My Pride", "The Feelin' Ain't There", and "You Want To Get Your Hands On A Woman" – all wonderful numbers that will have you loving Jeannie as one of your favorite new discoveries in 70s soul! LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – recorded with a super-heavy vibe that's very different than his sweeter 60s work! The record has an amazingly large conception of arrangements – mostly handled by Smokey, and done in a complicated baroque harmony style that points forward towards his later Quiet Storm sound – but which isn't as laidback and compressed. Most tracks are covers, but they're redone fantastically – with better vocals than you could imagine – and titles include "What Love Has Joined Together", "My Cherie Amour", "If This World Were Mine", "This Guy's In Love", and "And I Love Her". LP, Vinyl record album

A great debut from Tata Vega – her first album for Motown, and a sparkling soul effort – recorded after an early career stretch with some headier crossover groups! Vega's got a positive, upbeat feel on the record that's mighty nice – a sort of energy that really draws from her roots, but points things in a sparkling new direction – still mostly sticking in mature soul modes, and avoiding any of the easier disco pitfalls that might have been taken at the time! Al Johnson handles the arrangements – with the same sort of balance of smooth and mature styles he brought to his own great records – a balance that works perfectly for Tata, as it allows her to work the full, wide range of her vocals, yet without ever going too far to end up as a cliche. Titles include "Try Love From The Inside", "Full Speed Ahead", "Keep It Coming", "Just As Long As There Is You", "Just When Things Are Getting Good", and "Music In My Heart". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic bit of space age funk – and maybe one of the greatest moments ever from Philly Soul maestro Dexter Wansel! The album goes way beyond any of Wansel's other work – and blends his warm soulful styles with some of the more keyboard-oriented funk that was coming out of the Herbie Hancock camp during the mid 70s – a vibe that's every bit as electric and spacey as you'd guess from the cover! Some cuts have a bit more of a soul focus, but others have loads of jazzy keyboards from Dexter – driven on by some great drums at points too. Titles include Wansel's legendary version of "Theme From the Planets" with the much sampled breakbeat at the beginning – plus the funky "Life On Mars", and the tracks "One Million Miles From The Ground", "You Can Be What You Wanna Be", "Prophet Named KG", "Rings Of Saturn", and "Stargazer". (Jazz, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet symphony of groove – featuring one long track on each side of the record – both composed and produced by arranger Ray Martinez, and mixed to perfection by the mighty Jim Burgess! Side one features "If There's Love" – a swirling batch of strings that soar alongside fast-stepping piano lines that really give the song some warmth right at the start – a bouncing disco groove that's mostly got an instrumental propulsion, but which features chorus vocals from Richard Norega and Martha Roque. Side two features the even better "Hazy Shade Of Love" – which has lots of great electronics that give the tune a cool moogy feel at points – kind of a space between P&P and TK records, with maybe some Rinder & Lewis touches! LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime jazzy club from David Benoit – one of our favorite numbers on the AVI label at the time! The tune's just as Brazilian-flavored as you might expect from the title – a wonderful blend of romping rhythms, sweet scatting vocals, and some tinkling piano that's totally great – a real change from the usual, and with a sense of soul that almost reminds us of Rodney Franklin at points! The flipside's pretty great too – a bit more electric funk, but still with plenty of jazzy flourishes and some nice use of moog! 12-inch, Vinyl record

An incredible record from Bobby Blue Bland – and quite possibly the greatest one he ever made! The set's got an amazing something special that's unlike most other material of the time – a bit blues, but a lot of soul too – still with some echoes of R&B in the jazzier charts used for the backdrop, but presented with a rock-solid style that definitely points the way towards many sounds and styles to come in the 60s. And although Bland recorded many of these tracks as separate singles, there's a way they're put together here that makes the whole thing sound completely marvelous together – a really well-conceived track list that shows that Bobby's an even greater artist in the space of a full record. The arrangements are perfect, and Bobby's rough soulful voice is blended in this amazing way with killer horn arrangements that are far more sophisticated than most stuff that ever came after this, and which never get in the way, but only back up his deep emotion. The album's a motherlode of classics by the man, with gems that include "Two Steps From The Blues", "Cry Cry Cry", "I Don't Want No Woman", "I'm Not Ashamed", "Don't Cry No More", "Lead Me On", and "I Pity The Fool". And hell, even his version of "St James Infirmary" is pretty wonderful – something we never thought we'd say about that song. (Blues, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

A tremendous turning point in the career of James Brown – and an album that points the way strongly to the even deeper funk of the 70s! The album's a hard-wailing batch of instrumental tracks played by the legendary James Brown Band of the late 60s – the pre-JBs ensemble that's gone onto have possibly even more funky influence than the Godfather's combo in the 70s! James plays organ on the set – and supposedly a bit of guitar and drums (according to the notes) – but one of the main stars here is Pee Wee Ellis, whose alto lines really cook up some of the best tracks strongly. Yet possibly even more amazing is the overall rhythmic conception – tight, focused, and always on the money – snapping with a sharpness that's mindblowing even all these many years later – a whole new dimension in funky expression, hardly ever matched since! Titles include "Soul Pride (parts 1 & 2)", "The Chicken", "Sudsy", "The Popcorn", "In The Middle (parts 1 & 2)", "The Chase", and "A New Shift". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible record – and one of the real high points in the career of trumpeter Donald Byrd! The album's the third one he cut with producer/arranger Larry Mizell – and of all Byrd's work with Mizell, this one's the funkiest, the tightest, the most soulful, and the most perfectly realized vision of the soaring sound the duo were aiming for! Every track is a winner – and the album glides along with a slippery sinewy groove, never pausing for a weak moment or a misplaced note, shimmering with pride in its own genius. Byrd's trumpet soars over the top, banking gracefully over waves of funky drums, spacey keyboards, and extremely well-placed vocals – all brought together perfectly by Mizell, with a tightly fused style that few people have ever been able to match in the studio since! Tracks include "Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)", "Dominoes", "Wind Parade", "Places & Spaces", and "Night Whistler". (Jazz, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Tight, funky, and plenty darn groovy – a set that has Chocolate Milk sounding a lot smoother than at their start, but still pretty darn great overall! Allan Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn are still around to help the group on production, but the sound is more LA than New Orleans – a well-crafted set of grooves that almost seems to have the group's Crescent City roots shaking hands with the sunnier sound of California soul in the late 70s. That latter aspect adds in some nice jazzy touches – ala Fantasy Records – and almost gives the record a Wayne Henderson-styled groove at points, especially on some of the mellow steppers and midtempo numbers. Titles include "Milky Way", "You're The One", "Hurry Down Sunset", "Groove City", "Say Won'tcha", and "Paradise". LP, Vinyl record album

A great early album from Con Funk Shun – a mix of funkier tunes and some excellent smooth modern ones in step with the mellower work by Cameo or Maze – done with more soaringly emotional sounds that moves beyond their peers! A love for earlier 70s styles might be what pushes Secrets above and beyond – honest, intimate, and at times just more focused in the vocals department than both the funky soul groups of the time and the quiet storm singers of the approaching early 80s – and still doesn't spare the bass, horns and funky interplay! High points include the closing instrumental "Indian Summer Love" and funky centerpiece "Ffun" –plus "Doowhachawannadoo", "Who Has The Time", "Secrets", "Tear In My Eye" and "I'll Set You Out OK". LP, Vinyl record album