One of the best albums that Lou Rawls cut with the team of HB Barnum and David Axelrod – that incredible duo who made some of his 60s Capitol albums so great! The style here is wonderful – upbeat grooves from Barnum – who brings more soul into Lou's music than before – recorded by Axelrod with the right sort of sharpness and punch – that special quality he brought to Cannonball Adderley's 60s soul classics too! Rawls is really at home in the setting – stepping out in some points with these hip monologue passages that are as great as his singing – maybe even better, too – as they show a whole new side of Lou's personality – that badass, totally hip quality that people might never have expected from the early days. One of the best of these is the excellent "Old Man's Memories", about a guy sitting on a bench in Washington Park on the south side of Chicago, which then rolls into an amazing version of "It Was A Very Good Year". Other tunes have a great mix of soul and jazz – and titles include "Love Is A Hurtin Thing", "A Whole Lotta Woman", "Don't Explain", "Old Folks", and "Breaking My Back (Instead Of Using My Mind)". (Soul, Vocalists) CD

Capitol greatness from Nancy Wilson – a pair of excellent albums locked together on one CD! This Mother's Daughter is one of Nancy Wilson's hippest albums from the 70s – a great record of smooth mellow tracks produced by Eugene McDaniels, handled with some nice jazzy flourishes, and a warm soulful sound that brings out the best in Nancy's vocals! If you've dug her vocals on the Life, Love, & Harmony album, you'll find that this one's pretty similar – with some great easily grooving tunes that well mark her move into modern soul – and a sophistication that goes way beyond her work of the 60s! Titles include "China", "I Don't Want A Sometimes Man", "From You To Me To You", "Stay Tuned", "When We Were One", and "Now". On I've Never Been To Me, Nancy Wilson hits hard on two different levels – some of the mellow, sophisticated numbers that made her mid 70s years so great – and a few more upbeat groovers that aim strongly for the clubs! The blend is carried off well here – thanks to production and arrangements from Gene Page and Garry Sherman – both of whom avoid any too-commercial modes and really help keep the album at a level that works perfect for Wilson's huge legacy in soul music! The sound often has that great Capitol Rare blend of class and soul – and titles include "Love Is Alive", "Flying High", "All By Myself", "Here It Comes", "Moments", "Changes", and "Nobody". CD

An amazing batch of sophisticated soul tracks – and a favorite with the righteous groove scene! On the surface, the record's a combination of jazz and soul tracks in the same mode that you'd find on some of Nancy Wilson's albums for Capitol during the same time – but digging deeper, you'll find an undercurrent of politics, feminism, and social commentary delivered with surprising intensity. Marlena Shaw's voice is generally sweet, but she's set up in some extremely powerful arrangements by Richard Evans and Charles Stepney that recast even the simplest phrase into a whole new setting of strength and pride – and Bobby Miller of Dells fame also helped make the record what it is, and helped write some of the best songs on the record. The set includes Marlena's classic original reading of "Woman Of The Ghetto", which has been sampled by just about everyone, plus "California Soul", which has a nice hard break, and the tunes "Liberation Conversation", "Where Can I Go?", and the original version of "Go Away Little Boy" – as sweet a statement of womanhood if there ever was one! (Soul, Vocalists) CD

Hip vocalist Bobby Troup pays tribute to another fairly hip LA songwriter – the great Johnny Mercer, the man who helped to build Capitol Records in the late 40s! Mercer's tunes really helped pave the way for some of Troup's own writing – and Bobby's cool, laidback style makes the numbers sparkle even more than in any of Johnny's originals – a bit less hoke, and a lot more jazz. Part of that aspect also comes from the presentation – which has Troup working with west coast players who include Howard Roberts on guitar and Bob Enevoldsen on trombone – a lineup that gives the album a warm jazzy swing throughout. The set includes a nice version of "I'm With You", which Troup wrote with Mercer – plus classics like "Midnight Sun", "Cuckoo In the Clock", "Skylark", and "One For My Baby". CD

Spanky Wilson really takes off here – hitting some of her boldest soul modes to date – and serving up a few funk-heavy classics in the process! Production and arrangements are by HB Barnum – who draws on his own rich legacy of soul projects for the set, and finds a way to let Spanky really knock things out of the park – while still also holding tight to a mighty sweet groove! The style's almost an indie soul take on the Capitol Records groove that Barnum forged with David Axelrod for other singers – with all the strong sense of space between the grooves that would imply. The set features Spanky doing nice hard grooving versions of tracks that you've heard before – like "Loveland", "Let It Be", "Gloomy Sunday", and "Perhaps" – but there's also some nice ones like "Foolish" or "Love or Let Me Be Lonely", that are less familiar, and mighty nice too! (Soul, Vocalists) CD

A great small club performance from Nat King Cole – of the sort he never really recorded for Capitol Records, even though this set is right in the middle of his glory days on the label! In some ways, the set hearkens back to Nat's roots – maybe no surprise, as he's back in Chicago – and the combo here features John Collins on guitar, Charlie Harris on bass, and Lee Young on drums – working with Cole to offer up some nicely lean versions of tunes you might know from his fuller, more polished studio versions. The set's a great reminder that at the core, even during the big years, Nat was still a jazzman at heart – as you'll hear on tunes that include "Funny", "Straighten Up & Fly Right", "Nature Boy", "Route 66", "This Can't Be Love", "Somewhere Along The Way", "Mona Lisa/Too Young", "Exactly Like You", "Sweet Lorraine", and "Calypso Blues". CD