A solid overview of RCA material from Evelyn Champagne King – from the disco era hits, catchy club soul, and synth soaked 80s grooves! Evelyn's sound is usually upbeat and catchy, but she's does her thing and more measured and and smoothed out soul numbers, and bass & synth grooves in the early 80s. Very nice stuff all around! Titles include "Shame", "I Don't Know If It's Right", "Music Box", "I'm In Love", "Don't Hide Our Love", "Betcha She Don't Love You", "Action", "Get Loose", "Teenager", "High Horse", "Your Personal Touch" and more. 16 tracks in all. CD

Beautiful brown-eyed soul from the Ohio scene of the 70s – just the sort of record you might have expected to hear from East LA or Spanish Harlem back in the day – but even more amazing to come from Cleveland! The group are a Latin combo at the core, but they've soaked up plenty of soul influences from the late 60s and early 70s – bringing in bits of harmony soul, funk, and other hip touches to really expand their groove – in ways that are similar to the changes Joe Bataan and his contemporaries were going through at the time! There's a few funky instrumentals that get nicely tripped out, offset with some wonderful mellow soul numbers, and a few straighter Latin bits – all of which show a really amazing range for the group. As usual, Numero does a great job of bringing their whole story to light through the great notes – but even without them, we're plenty happy with the music on the set! Titles include "Loving You", "To Be Sure", "Here We Go Again", "Cold Wine", "Trivialities", "Just Call Me", and "Listen People". CD

One of the funkiest box sets we've ever seen – and amazingly issued by an American major label! The package is a treasure trove of funky work from a decade of Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records, and related labels – tunes pulled both from mainstream releases and much more obscure 45s! This one goes way past some of the silly "decade" sets from Rhino, and really displays a new level of cool and connoisseurship – one that finally appreciates the rich depths of funky work at their fingertips, most of which has not been properly reissued in the US! Tracks include "Gangster Of Love (part 1)/Gangster Of Love (part 2)" by "Get In The Groove/Somebody's In The World For You" by Mighty Hannibal, "Tampin/Oleancler" by Rhine Oaks, "It's Your Thing/Bring It Home To Me" by Cold Grits, "Stanga/Somebody's Watching You" by Little Sister, "Gossip/Tell Me What's On Your Mind" by Cyril Neville, "Engine #9/International Playboy" by Wilson Pickett, "Funky Nassau (part 1)/Funky Nassau (part 2)" by Beginning Of The End, "Mockingbird Sally/Nuki Suki" by Little Richard, "Funky To The Bone/I Want To Dance, Dance Dance" by Freddi Henchi & The Soul Setters", "California Dreamin' (vocal)/California Dreamin' (instrumental)" by Eddie Hazel and more! CD

A record with a really timeless feel – a jazz set from the early 80s scene in Oakland, and one that opens up in so many wonderful flavors! A few cuts have a soul style – with female vocals in the lead, amidst warmer, jazzier backings – and other tracks have an instrumental approach, but one that's a bit different than straight jazz – almost spiritual fusion, in a way that nicely echoes some of the lyrical passages. We'd almost place the set in the same company of the work of Norman Connors in the mid 70s – although the overall sound is somewhat different – the driving creative force here is Umlah Sadau-Holt, who plays Fender Rhodes, soprano sax, tenor, flute, and even percussion. Titles include "African Violet", "Premonition", "Outer Space Blues", "You Make The Sunshine", "Black Encounters", and "Children Of The Universe". (Jazz, Soul) CD