... LP, Vinyl record album

That's Andre Gibson sitting at an electric piano on the cover – an image that will give you very much an idea of the record – as the music here is more personal and intimate than previous recordings by the Universal Togetherness Band – and tracks that actually seem to show a lot more depth and soul overall! The mixture of Gibson's voice and Rhodes is like hearing some demo material from the Donny Hathaway side of the spectrum – definitely more 70s-styled than you'd guess from the date range in the title, but a bit more gritty overall – and mostly with electric piano and vocals, on all numbers, with occasional added instrumentation thrown in from time to time. Titles include "Bring Me Home", "Love Changes Life's Changes", "All My Pals", "Thankful For You", "Say I Will", "Stuck On A Thrill", "Don't It Feel Good", "I Wanna Take You Away", "Breakaway", and "I'm Falling". LP, Vinyl record album

The first breakaway effort from the trio of Ernie Isley, Chris Jasper, and Marvin Isley – a set that's got an even leaner groove than some of the Isley Brothers material from years before! The group really hit their stride right away – stepping out in a sweet array of funky rhythms that have some definite 80s touches on the beats, yet which still share all the best Isleys elements overall! Guitar parts are especially sharp – that carved in soul sound that showed up in most Isleys projects from the early 70s onwards – and the vocals have a great sense of warmth and soul, especially on the mellower tunes in the set, which turn down some of the more hook-heavy rhythms heard on other tracks. Titles include "Serve You Right", "Sex Drive", "Love Is Gonna Last Forever", "Kiss & Tell", "I Can't Get Over Losin You", "Look The Other Way", "Break This Chain", and "Broadway's Closer Than Sunset Blvd". LP, Vinyl record album

A great little session of chamber-type jazz – and the only record we've ever seen by drummer Freddy Merkle. The set is very much in the manner of some of the other tightly-arranged RCA sessions from the mid 50s – with a style that's kind of "New York modern", in a similar mode to the work of Hal McKusick. Pianist Bill Potts wrote and arranged the sessions, and most tracks are relatively short, but still have strong breakaway solos. Half the material's played by a 10-tet, and the rest are played by Merkle's core quintet, with Potts on piano and Earl Swope on trombone. Titles include "Proto Cool", "Shhhh!", "DC Current", "Lunch Box", "Pernod 806", and "Pottsville, USA". CD

The man with one of the most godlike voices in rock is back in action – heard here in a recent recording, one of the few post-70s sides that really does him justice! Colin's breathiness is a bit faded, but cast in professional arrangements that still have enough space to let him dominate the material – and the set's also got an interesting choice of songs that shows that Colin's not content to just rehash his older hits, as he did on a few other recent projects. Titles include "Levi Stubbs' Tears", "Tearing The Good Things Down", "The Radio Was Playing Johnny Come Lately", "What Is Love", "Oxygen", "If I Said", and "Breakaway". CD

Sure, you've heard it a million times – but it's still a fantastic soundtrack! Henry Mancini's whimsical scoring is a perfect touch for this classic Peter Sellers film – and it's made even better by the LA group of musicians who play the music – including Plas Johnson on tenor, Jack Sheldon on trumpet, Pete Jolly on piano, Shelly Manne on drums, and Larry Bunker on percussion – all very groovy players who really know how to make the whole thing sparkle with just the right touches of jazz! The classic "Pink Panther Theme" should be familiar enough to you, but there's loads of other nice numbers – like "Something For Sellers", "Piano & Strings", "The Village Inn", "The Tiber Tiwst", and "Cortina". Lots of jaunty jazz numbers – with clever breakaway solos in the Mancini mode! LP, Vinyl record album

A tremendous look at the early years of the legendary Joe McPhee – a set that's based around his classic Nation Time album, and which features other live material from the same time – including a Hat Hut album, and two CDs' worth of previously unissued work! The core album is legendary – a gritty set that features a mighty funky drummer, and some of the most soulful work that Joe ever recorded. Joe plays tenor and trumpet in sweet lineup that features bubbling organ, vamping rhythms, and some sweet modal elements mixed together in percussion, guitar, and Fender Rhodes. Titles include the hard wailing "Nation Time" – plus "Shakey Jake", an excellent 13 minute funk number – and the moodier "Scorpio's Dance". Next is the searing Black Magic Man album – an early release on the Hat Hut label, but recorded during the same December 1970 performance as Nation Time – almost showing the bolder, freer sound of the group – but still coming across with some surprising soulful elements too. The original album is expanded by the addition of the unreleased "Song For Lauren" alternate takes – and the core record includes "Black Magic Man", "Hymn Of The Dragon Kings", and "Song For Lauren". The next two CDs feature material recorded in 1969 and 1970 – at Vassar and in Poughkeepsie – with Joe and group working through some similar spiritual and soul jazz territory as on the Vassar CD issue from the same label. The music is heavy on elements you'd hear from the Nation Time album – Hammond, guitar, and even some electric bass and vibes – used in styles that run from soul jazz, to modal, to more experimental – all on very long tracks that have McPhee really stretching out on tenor and trumpet! Titles include "Cold Sweat", "Breakaway Theme", "Untitled", "Nation Time", "Sunshower", "Spring Street", and "Contemplation". All 4CDs come in very cool LP sleeves, in a slipcover box, a 60 page booklet of notes, photos, and information on the music! CD

A killer batch of large ensemble numbers – very much in the mode of the Clarke-Boland Big Band, or some of the other groups on MPS at the time! The group's led by Jerry Van Rooyen, the Dutch jazzman and composer who did some excellent funky soundtrack work over the years – a fact that certainly shows up in the tracks on the set – which have a sweetly grooving feel mixed in with the large ensemble jazz – a great approach that would have been right at home in some hip Euro film score from the time! Van Rooyen gives the material a soulful feel that's a lot like some of Quincy Jones' best scoring from the 60s – blending together work on organ, Fender Rhodes, and piano (played by Frans Elsen, Rob Madna, and Rob Franken) – with breakaway horn solos by players like Benny Bailey on trumpet and Rolf Ericson on trumpets, Ake Persson and Jiggs Whigham on trombones, and Herb Geller, Ferdinand Povel, and Tony Coe on reeds – most of whom are players who've sparked great notes previously on sets with the Clarke-Boland Big Band, or other hip MPS ensemble projects. Titles include "Sonlite", "Because I Love You", "Some Blues", "For Nathalie", "The Runners", "JBW", "Green", and "Whirligig". LP, Vinyl record album

A sublime pop psych classic from Tommy James & The Shondells – a record that's quite different than some of the janglier work the group was issuing a few years before – and a perfect example of the way that just a few slight studio tricks can really transform a record! The tunes are all short and focused, but produced with lots of cool reverb, echo, and fuzzy touches on the sides – never overindulgent, and still plenty tuneful – but with so many weird little edges that they come through with a sound that's still pretty darn fresh after all these years – even if you think you know these guys from their hits. Titles include "Kathleen McArthur", "Do Something To Me", "I Am A Tangerine", "Smokey Roads", and "Breakaway" – plus the classic hits "Sugar On Sunday", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and "Crimson & Clover". LP, Vinyl record album

Killer Latin soul from one of the all-time greats – a collection of greatest hits from Mongo Santamaria, but a set that's every bit as essential as his full length albums for Columbia! Most of the cuts on the album were arranged by Mongo's key right-hand man – the great Marty Sheller, who was an excellent trumpeter, a great writer, and a skilled arranger who knew how to make Mongo's whole group swing with incredible tightness! The cuts are all instrumental, with hard conga-heavy grooves, and some wonderful jazzy breakaway solos, played by folks like Hubert Laws or Ronnie Cuber. Titles include "El Pussy Cat", "The Now Generation", "Cold Sweat", "Cloud Nine", "We Got Latin Soul", and "Fat Back". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the songs "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl", "Good Times Roll", "You're All I've Got Tonight", "Don't Cha Stop", "Moving In Stereo", "Take Me Now", "Cool Fool", "Let's Go", "Candy-O", "Dangerous Type", "Double Life", "Got A Lot On My Head", "It's All I Can Do", "Nightspots (Early Version)", "Slipaway", "That's It", "Panorama", "Gimme Some Slack", "Don't Go To Pieces", "Touch And Go", "Don't Tell Me No", "Shake It Up", "Since You're Gone", "I'm Not The One", "Cruiser", "The Little Black Egg", "Funtime", "You Might Think", "Drive", "Magic", "Hello Again", "Why Can't I Have You", "Breakaway", "Tonight She Comes", "You Are The Girl", "Strap Me In", "Door To Door", "Leave Or Stay (1977 Demo Version)", and "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo (1977 Demo Version)". CD

A great set from Maynard Ferguson's "Dream Band " – a small orchestra that featured Herb Geller, Richie Kamuca, Mel Lewis, Paul Moer, and Nino Tempo – and which was a perfect vehicle for Ferguson's hard-swinging approach to jazz. There's some slight Kenton touches here – in the shift between larger ensemble tones and breakaway solos – and given the strength of some of the horn players in the group, the latter part are especially nice! CD

A full package of work from the mighty Bill Holman – 2CDs worth of music – including three full albums plus bonus tracks! First up is material from the 1957 Coral album The Fabulous Bill Holman – a record that's got a maturity of expression that pushes Holman way past his Kenton years! The tracks are all larger ensemble ones, arranged and partially written by Bill, and played by the group in a broad chromatic style that's very nice – certainly Kenton-esque, but with a style that's somehow a bit more personal. Players include Charlie Mariano, Herb Geller, Richie Kamuca, Conte Cantoli, Stu Williamson, and Holman himself – and titles include "Evil Eyes", "You & I", "Bright Eyes", and the extended "The Big Street" – a great 17 minute tune! Next Is In A Jazz Orbit – a set that has Holman in a great mode that bridges the large group styles of the swing years and the changes in big band sounds that would take place in the 60s – and he's almost prefacing the style of the Clarke Boland Big Band by writing charts here that pack a real punch on the ensemble passages, yet which also rely very strongly on breakaway horn solos to tear up the tunes! The strength of the players is a key factor in the success of the album – as soloists include Frank Rosolino, Jack Sheldon, Herb Geller, Richie Kamuca, and Holman himself – on titles that include "Kissin Bug", "You Go To My Head", "Far Down Below", "Aura", "Theme & Variation #2", and "No Heat". Bill Holman's Great Big Band is a session from 1960 that has Bill Holman still sitting nicely at the top of the west coast large group format from the 50s! As with previous dates of this nature, Holman's got a way around the charts that few can match – a way of swinging the whole ensemble strongly, yet never in ways that are cloying, commercial, or cliched. All the right players find a space for expression – and the lineup includes Richie Kamuca and Bill Perkins on tenor sax, Frank Rosolino on trombone, and Conte Candoli on trumpet – all players who really sparkle nicely when they step out from the larger group. Titles include "Stereoso", "Shadrack", "Quickstep", "Aura", "The Moon Is Blue", "June Is Busting Out All Over", and "Spinuet". CD features 10 more bonus tracks – tunes from Holman's Kenton Presents sessions for Capitol in 1954 – octet material done with Don Fagerquist, Bob Eneveldsen, and Stu Williamson providing full brass support on trumpet and trombones – while Holman, Herb Geller, and Bob Gordon cut some broader lines themselves on saxes. Tunes are all great originals by Holman – extremely inventive in both melody and structure – with titles that include "Sparkle", "Tanglefoot", "Song Without Words", "Cousin Jack", "Back To Minors", and "Jughaid". CD

A wonderful showcase for the arranging talents of Bill Holman – one that steps off with a more straightforward and swinging style than some of his work of the time for the Stan Kenton group! Holman here is in a great mode that bridges the large group styles of the swing years and the changes in big band sounds that would take place in the 60s – and he's almost prefacing the style of the Clarke Boland Big Band by writing charts here that pack a real punch on the ensemble passages, yet which also rely very strongly on breakaway horn solos to tear up the tunes! The strength of the players is a key factor in the success of the album – as soloists include Frank Rosolino, Jack Sheldon, Herb Geller, Richie Kamuca, and Holman himself – on titles that include "Kissin Bug", "You Go To My Head", "Far Down Below", "Aura", "Theme & Variation #2", and "No Heat". CD

An excellent early album from Millie Jackson – recorded in a southern soul style in New York and Muscle Shoals, but a lot hipper than most of the rest of the female soul that was coming out of the south at the time! Millie was a bit different than the rest – as although she's got a tear running down her cheek on the cover, she can also be a real badass when she wants too – rapping hard and frankly about the ups and downs of love and live – often sticking to harder material, except for a few tear jerking ballads, and adds in a lot of humor and touches of the fierce sarcasm that would soon become her calling card in the soul business. Key producer Brad Shapiro is working with Millie here – Gary Byrd penned the leadoff cut "I Cry", and the other tracks include "Two Faced World", "Hypocrisy", "Good To The Very Last Drop", "Help Yourself", and "Now That You Got It". CD features a whopping amount of bonus tracks too – previously unissued versions of "It Hurts So Good", "Help Yourself", "Here Comes Love", "That's My Style", "Hypocrisy", and "Breakaway" – all sounding much more different than the master takes! CD

Tasty funky jazz – with kind of a groovy 60s edge! The band's a lot more jazz than rock, but that element is taken care of nicely with some fuzzy electric guitars and heavy work on the bass. Most of the tracks are covers of 60s pop tunes, and they're given some hip arrangements by Joe Renzetti that are kind of in an underground New York easy kind of mode. The record's got great versions of heavy rock classics like "Sunshine Superman", "Touch Me", "Sunshine Of Your Love", and "Hello, I Love You" – all of which retain the fuzziness of the originals, yet have some breakaway jazz solos amidst the larger band arrangements. LP, Vinyl record album

Jazz from the heart of the cold war – not actually recorded in Moscow, but featuring a bunch of hip players on their return from a tour of the Soviet Union – a historic moment in which west met east, with some groovy jazz in the offing! Apart from the tenor of Zoot Sims and alto of Phil Woods, the record also features flute and alto from Jerry Dodgion, trombone from Willie Dennis, trumpets from Markie Markowitz and Jimmy Maxwell, and piano from Eddie Costa – and the set features arrangements from Al Cohn on tracks that hit the 5 minute range – tight at the top, with breakaway solos, as you might hear during some of the Cohn/Sims sides for RCA during the 50s! Titles include "Let's Dance", "Mission To Moscow", "The Sochi Boatman", and the obligatory "Russian Lullaby". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic set from Stanley "Sugar Man" Turrentine – a nickname the reedman had at the time, given the success of his famous CTI Records version of "Sugar"! This set follows in that same great mode – jazzy, but a bit funky too – although couched with this gentle sense of soul that's perfect for that spacious style of soloing that Turrentine perfected over the years – a way of blowing openly, and without too much fuss – but managing to hit all the right notes along the way! There's a great glow to the whole record – an excellent easygoing sense of soul – and titles include an incredible reading of "Vera Cruz", done with Deodato on piano, and at a breakaway speed that's just great, and worth the price of the record alone! Other tracks feature piano by Harold Mabern or organ by Butch Cornell – and titles include "The Stretch", "Just As I Am", and "Pieces Of Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

Lots of beats and breaks – and the groove is a lot less mellow than you'd guess from the title! Tracks are pulled from some of the coolest indie labels of the 70s – Brunswick, HDH, and Salsoul – and the focus is on tracks that have lots of heavy drums and sharp changes – of the sort that were sampled heavily back in the day, but which also make for a nice batch of upbeat soul numbers too! Yet the collection is way more than just a sample-based collection of soul – as most of these numbers are pretty unusual, and not the kind of soul tracks that show up often on other compilations – and they link together surprisingly well, given the different sources from Chicago, Detroit, and New York. Titles include "Girl I Need You" by The Artistics, "I'm Bugging Your Phone" by The Smith Connection, "Seeing You Through The Eyes Of A Blindman" by Satisfaction Unlimited, "Lovin You Is Killin Me" by Moment Of Truth, "Where Will It End (Walter Gibbons mix)" by Love Committee, "I Got It" by New York Port Authority, "Love Factory" by Eloise Laws, "Breakaway" by First Choice, "Taster Of The Honey" by The Jones Girls, and "You Don't Have To Go (edit)" by The Chi-Lites. CD

Great work from a time when Little Milton was really reviving his sound – at times almost going back to the mix of soul and blues in his roots, but in a different style than at Chess – thanks to the production style of Malaco Records! The label's warm southern glow is just right for the maturing Milton – who's equally great here on the ballads and slow steppers as he is the more blues-based material – on tracks that include include "I'm At The End Of My Rainbow", "Real Good Woman", "Breakaway Clean", "Copyright On Your Love", and "This Must Be The Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

A great second volume of pivotal episodes of The Johnny Otis Show from Ace Records and a compilation that represents two eras of Johnny Otis! On With The Show starts out by continuing the story of his late 50s and early 60s R&B years – then segues hard into his grittier funk-honed style of the late 60s and early 70s. The first half starts out right where Vol 1 left off – tracing his good-natured, rollicking R&B. Fittingly, this half of the set effectively ends with '61's "Hand Jive One More Time" and the next track, '67's "Keep The Faith", shows a remarkable transition in style to groove heavy soul and funk. It's all great – be it his charismatic riffs on the Bo Diddley beat that so characterized the "Hand Jive" era, to the ribald funk of "Signifying Monkey" and beyond. 24 tracks in all and featuring a great set of notes. Titles include "Good Golly", "The Jelly Roll", "The New Bo Diddley", "Let's Love It Up", "Banana Peels", "The Watts Breakaway", "Cold Shot", "Country Girl", "I Got The Walkin' Blues", "Cuttin' Up", "Jaws", "Bye Bye Baby (Until We Meet Again)" and more. CD

A great mix of jangle pop and female vocal numbers from 60s England – the 4th in RPM's great series of Dream Babes, and one of the best yet! The groove here runs along the lines of work by some of the more famous British singers of the era – Petula Clark, Shirley Bassey, Sandi Shaw, and others – but often has some nice left-field touches that make the tunes a bit more exciting and less familiar, thanks to some especially great production. Titles include "Gonna Give Him Some Love" and "I Want That Boy" by The Chantelles, "Gonna Make Him Mine" and "Love Hit Me" by The Orchids, "Love Is Wonderful" by Paula Parfitt, "Here I Am" by Linda Thorson, "When I Think Of You" by Twiggy, "That Lonely Feeling" by The McKinleys, "Reviewing The Situation" by Jacki Bond, and "I Can Hear Music" by The Breakaways. 22 tracks – and great notes! CD