A heavy dose of funky jazz – and one that goes way past the obvious too – to include some real gems from the 70s that even we'd passed up! The package is filled with stellar jazz from the Fantasy Records family – Prestige, Pablo, Galaxy and Fantasy proper – choice numbers by The Blackbyrds, Stanley Cowell, Charles Earland, Patrice Rushen and others – funky jazz, soul, boogie and Brazil-flavored numbers from the top shelf of the diverse period! It's a tight, well chosen compilation with numbers you simply could not overlook in putting a set like this together – productions by the Mizells, Donald Byrd, Earland and others – but there's a few of leftfield choices, too. Simply a great little snapshot of the funky jazz and soul period and the family of labels that generated so much of the most creative music to come from it! 14 tracks and nearly 80 minutes of grooves: Includes "Happy Music" by Blackbyrds, "Close To You" by Marlon McClain, "Let Me Love You (Let Me Be Me)" by Stanley Cowell, "Taj Mahal" by Paulinho Da Costa, "Nov Ano" by Azar Lawrence, "Moon Dreams" by Flora Purim, "Montevideo" by Opa, "Glide" by Pleasure, "Shout It Out" by Patrice Rushen, "If Only I Could Prove To You" by The 3 Pieces and more. CD

John Sinclair's got his name on the cover, but the real genius on the record comes from the artists within – a mix of talents from the Detroit underground of the 60s and 70s, and some important visitors too – all stepping out here in a set of live recordings that are issued for the first time ever! The material is wonderful – some of it at the level of the Strata Records efforts of Detroit artists, others as a way of hearing some bigger names in a nicely personal, local setting – maybe a bit like the Left Bank recordings from the Baltimore scene in the late 60s. As usual, Strut have done a wonderful job with the whole package – and titles include "Blackjack" and "Cristo Redentor" by Donald Byrd, "Cheeba" and "Help Me Get Away" by Lyman Woodard, "Water Torture" by Bennie Maupin, "Three Flowers" by Charles Moore, "Bees" by Ron English with Lyman Woodard, "Passion Dance" by Teddy Harris, and "Effi" and "The Promise" by the Detroit Contemporary Four, a group that features a young Stanley Cowell on piano! CD

Spiritual jazz both old and new – a collection that really gets past the obvious sides of the genre, and brings together a range of unusual work from the 70s onward! The tracks here are a great antidote to the well-traveled territory of labels like Impulse or Strata East Records – and are mostly from lesser-known sources that include tiny indies from the 80s, and a few ground breaking imprints from recent years! There's definitely a vibe here that holds strongly in the spirit of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and other innovators from the end of the 60s – but the sound is especially fresh given the obscurity of the tunes. Titles include "For Our Souls" by Doug Hammond, "Amazona" by Francisco Mora Catlett, "The Mystery Of Man" by Sarah Vaughan, "Better Than That" by Nomo, "Gol E Gandom" by Lloyd Miller, "Motherless Child" by Brother Ah, "A Love Supreme" by Dwight Trible, "Why" by Woody Shaw with Carter Jefferson, "Rwanda" by Francis Bebey, "Come Sunday" by Stanley Cowell, and "En El Amanecer Del Tiempo". LP, Vinyl record album

Spiritual jazz both old and new – a collection that really gets past the obvious sides of the genre, and brings together a range of unusual work from the 70s onward! The tracks here are a great antidote to the well-traveled territory of labels like Impulse or Strata East Records – and are mostly from lesser-known sources that include tiny indies from the 80s, and a few ground breaking imprints from recent years! There's definitely a vibe here that holds strongly in the spirit of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and other innovators from the end of the 60s – but the sound is especially fresh given the obscurity of the tunes. Titles include "For Our Souls" by Doug Hammond, "Amazona" by Francisco Mora Catlett, "The Mystery Of Man" by Sarah Vaughan, "Better Than That" by Nomo, "Gol E Gandom" by Lloyd Miller, "Motherless Child" by Brother Ah, "A Love Supreme" by Dwight Trible, "Why" by Woody Shaw with Carter Jefferson, "Rwanda" by Francis Bebey, "Come Sunday" by Stanley Cowell, and "En El Amanecer Del Tiempo". CD

An amazing collection of 70s soul tracks – sweet, mellow, laidback, and including loads of numbers that have been buried for years! The focus here is not on obscure groups, but on lesser-known album tracks by bigger names – including many chillout numbers that have a sweet jazzy feel, and which might have gotten eclipsed by some of the artists' bigger hits. ?uestlove of the Roots put the set together, and the whole set's got the deep soulfulness of his own work with that group – track after track of mellow 70s soul, jazzy riffs, spacey instrumentation, and warm vocals effortlessly sliding together! Titles include "Star Of The Story" by Heatwave, "Be My Girl" by Michael Henderson, "Clover" by Earth Wind & Fire, "Before The Dawn" by Patrice Rushen, "Can We Pretend" by Bill Withers, "That's What Friends Are For" by Deniece Williams, "Next To Nature" by Jean Claude Toran, "Glowin" by The Rationals, "Magic In Your Eyes" by Rufus & Chaka Khan, "Sensuality (parts 1 & 2)" by The Isley Brothers, "Sienna" by Stanley Cowell, "Quiet Storm" by Smokey Robinson, "Wheels Of Life" by Gino Vannelli, and "Gotta Find A Lover" by Roy Ayers. CD

Kev Beadle dips into his private collection, and comes up with a stunning batch of jazzy tracks in the process! The grooves here aren't as locked up as the cover might imply – because some of these cuts are ones the global scene has dug for years – but they're definitely the kind of tracks that really need reviving, especially in a wonderful collection like this – where each new cut seems to bring out the best of the others! All tracks are nice and long, and most have some sort of vocals – blended with modal rhythms, Brazilian touches, and strong soulful solos throughout. 12 tracks on the CD version: "Song For Mozambique" by Archie Shepp, "I'mTrying To Find A Way" by Stanley Cowell, "Dreams Can Be" by Janet Lawson Quintet, "Wilpan's Walk" by Chico Freeman, "He Loves You" by Seawind, "Yours Is The Light" by Paz, "Carnaval" by Cortijo & His Time Machine, "=Autumn Song" by Appendix and more. CD

John Sinclair's got his name on the cover, but the real genius on the record comes from the artists within – a mix of talents from the Detroit underground of the 60s and 70s, and some important visitors too – all stepping out here in a set of live recordings that are issued for the first time ever! The material is wonderful – some of it at the level of the Strata Records efforts of Detroit artists, others as a way of hearing some bigger names in a nicely personal, local setting – maybe a bit like the Left Bank recordings from the Baltimore scene in the late 60s. As usual, Strut have done a wonderful job with the whole package – and titles include "Blackjack" and "Cristo Redentor" by Donald Byrd, "Cheeba" and "Help Me Get Away" by Lyman Woodard, "Water Torture" by Bennie Maupin, "Three Flowers" by Charles Moore, "Bees" by Ron English with Lyman Woodard, "Passion Dance" by Teddy Harris, and "Effi" and "The Promise" by the Detroit Contemporary Four, a group that features a young Stanley Cowell on piano! LP, Vinyl record album