Incredible early work from Lorez Alexandria – the kind of albums that instantly set her apart from other singers of the 50s, reissued here properly for the first time in years! On This Is Lorez, the singer is working with sublime small combo backings from the group of pianist King Fleming – an unusual Chicago ensemble that includes Wilber Wynn on guitar, Ronald Wilson on flute and oboe, Vernel Fournier on drums, and Audrey Jones on bongos – a musical lineup that brings in a different sort of sophistication to the record, shading tunes with moody colors on flute and oboe that perfectly support Alexandria's soulful and sensitive interpretations of the tunes. The whole thing is pure genius, and a key look at the new levels of sophistication that were bubbling everywhere on the Chicago scene during the years of Jamal and Sun Ra. Lorez Sings Pres follows in a very similar mode – with backing by a Chicago group that again includes King Fleming piano, plus Charles Stepney on vibes, Paul Serrano on trumpet, and Vernel Fournier on drums – an extremely hip lineup that makes the record far more than just the Lester Young tribute promised in the title! But despite the instrumentalists, the real star on all sides is Alexandria – who sings with dark tones and deep colors that go far beyond conventional jazz vocals – all carried off with that slightly breathy mode that was one more unique aspect of her work! CD features all tracks from both albums – a total of 22 titles that include "Snowstorm", "I'm Glad There Is You", "The Sky Is Crying", "I'm Making Believe", "Necessity", "Penthouse Serenade", "DB Blues", "This Year's Kisses", "Easy Living", "No Eyes Blues", "Jumping With Symphony Sid", and a key early reading of "Baltimore Oriole". CD

Three full albums from this tremendous singer – all in a single set! Morning In Paris is very early work from South African singer Sathima Bea Benjamin – recorded in Paris in 1963, with backing by longtime partner Abdullah Ibrahim, plus additional piano and production by Duke Ellington! The album was cut around the same time as Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) did his famous Reprise album in Paris with Ellington – and it's got a similar mix of modern and moody styles – with Sathima singing in a mellower tone than we're used to from her later records, over extremely spare backing that often has the piano barely stepping in, and which also features some nice plucked violin work from Svend Asmussen – acting almost as the bass on a few tracks! Billy Strayhorn also sits in on this extremely unusual session – and titles include "The Man I Love", "Soon", "Lover Man", "I Should Care", "I Could Write A Book", and "Darn That Dream". Lovelight is always-great work from Sathima Bea Benjamin – one of the hippest jazz vocalists of the 80s, working here in a highly spiritual mode that sounds a lot more like records from many years past! There's a warmly gentle glow to the whole set – thanks to instrumentation from Larry Willis on piano, Buster Williams on bass, Billy Higgins on percussion, and Ricky Ford on tenor sax – all coming together in ways that are filled with unusual rhythms, odd turns of phrases, and just the right sort of unconventional accompaniment to fit the Africanist themes of Sathima's music at its best. A few numbers are more traditional, but even these have a nicely sensitive feel – and offer plenty of room for Willis to solo. Titles include "Winne Mandela Beloved Heroine", "African Songbird", "Gift Of Love – For Duke", "Music", and "You Are My Heart's Delight". Southern Touch is a set that's maybe a bit more of a straight jazz vocal record than some of Sathima Bea Benjamin's earlier material – but that might also be because the great Kenny Barron is part of the group on piano – supporting Sathima's great voice with the help of Buster Williams on bass and Billy Higgins on drums! Tunes are mostly standards, but it's great to hear them opened up with Benjamin's unique phrasing – that voice that was raised up on more righteous material in earlier years, and which still seems to bring some of that power to tunes that include "Street Of Dreams", "Lush Life", "One Alone", "I'm Glad There Is You", and "I've Heard That Song Before". 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

Completely evocative late life work from Chet Baker – one of the last albums he ever recorded, and a set that shows just how much Baker kept evolving in the later years of his career! Given some of the personal troubles that plagued Chet over the decades, there's sometimes a thought out there that he was a weaker version of himself at this time – but that's definitely not the case, as Baker really shifted his sound and style to accommodate some of his challenges, at a level that maybe made the music even more powerful than some of his music from years before! Some of the best moments here feature contributions from key musical partner of the 80s Nicola Stilo, who uses flute, guitar, and piano in these light ways while Chet's soloing with this strong, fluid vibe that's a real surprise – gentle, but extremely powerful. A few cuts bring in a bit of keyboards, and Chet sings a bit – but his best "singing" here is through his trumpet, which is still a hell of a voice in jazz. Titles include "Chet's Blues", "Waiting For Chet", "The Party Is Over", "With Sadness", "Deep Arabesques", and "Like The Precedent" – plus a lovely reading of the Elvis Costello tune "Almost Blue". (Jazz, Vocalists) CD

One of the only two vocal jazz albums that the Blue Note label recorded back in the day – and a haunting batch of tracks from a young Sheila Jordan! The style here is quite different than that of Jordan's later, more experimental records – and this early session shows her as an extremely talented young vocalist, with a unique approach that adds a sparkling modernist touch to familiar tunes – yet which still keeps things in a relatively more straightforward fashion. There's a great mixing of older and newer visions in the set – not just in Jordan's vocals, but also in the small combo backing by the trio of Barry Galbraith on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, and Denzil Best on drums. Titles include great versions of "Baltimore Oriole", "Dat Dere", and "Hum Drum Blues" – plus the tunes "I'm A Fool To Want You", "Am I Blue", "Laugh Clown Laugh", and "Who Can I Turn To?". CD

Great later work from Abbey Lincoln! The album Talking To The Sun is something of a comeback set for Abbey Lincoln – an extremely powerful set from the early 80s, and one that helped set the tone for some great albums to come! Abbey's working here in a bold style that includes a fair bit of original material – done in collaboration with alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, whose edgey tone really adds a lot to the record! There's a sense of voice here that takes us back to Abbey's bold experiments with Max Roach in the early 60s – a righteous tone that effortlessly mixes politics and art, yet which never forgets its key mission of music. The set includes original compositions "The River", "Talking To The Sun", "People On The Street", and "Prelude/A Wedding Song" – plus a nice take on the Mercer/Mancini number "Whistling Away The Dark". On the second two records, Abbey Lincoln takes on the legacy of Billie Holiday – in a strong live set recorded with a small group at the end of the 80s! The setting's a bit more relaxed here than on some of Abbey's other albums of the period – a bit looser and sometimes more languid, but only in the best sort of ways to get at the moodiness of Billie Holiday's approach to the tunes. A few numbers seem to bristle with a bit more of that Abbey Lincoln sense of pride – that righteous legacy that runs straight from Billie's classic "Strange Fruit" – but overall, the spirit of Holiday's more traditional approach definitely guides the performance. The group's a quartet – with Harold Vick on tenor – and titles include "For All We Know", "No More", "Gimme A Pigfoot", "God Bless The Child", "For Heaven's Sake", and "Don't Explain". CD

A landmark album from Nina Simone – a set that really pushes her far past just the standard realm of jazz vocals, and which also helped really establish her role as one of the most righteous singers of the 60s! The set's maybe extremely noteworthy for Nina's original tune "Four Women" – a righteous portrait of four different women and their struggles – unique for its time, and a key part of the early Women's Liberation movement! The rest of the album has a similar political undercurrent – sometimes subtle, but there nonetheless – as Nina works magic on tunes that include "Break Down & Let It All Out", "Either Way I Lose", "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair", and "That's All I Ask". CD