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Genius from the mind of Kool Keith aka Big Willie Smith aka Poppa Large aka Dr. Octagon. Since his days with Ultramagnetics, no one has mastered the abstract lyrical style like Kool Keith, self-proclaimed inventor of all rhyme styles. 20 tracks, with dope atmospheric features by the Automator and scratches by the legendary Q-Bert, including "Earth People", "No Awareness", "Technical Difficulties", "Blue Flowers", "A Visit To The Gynecologist" and "Bear Witness".

Genius from the mind of Kool Keith aka Big Willie Smith aka Poppa Large aka Dr. Octagon. Since his days with Ultramagnetics, no one has mastered the abstract lyrical style like Kool Keith, self-proclaimed inventor of all rhyme styles. 20 tracks, with dope atmospheric features by the Automator and scratches by the legendary Q-Bert, including "Earth People", "No Awareness", "Technical Difficulties", "Blue Flowers", "A Visit To The Gynecologist" and "Bear Witness".

A blend of jazz funk and rawer informed grooves from Harold Alexander – and actually a step into more polished vibes thanks to some Arif Mardin arrangements and a new home at Atlantic Records! Although some of the earlier records cut by reed player Harold Alexander may have been more accurately described with the title Raw Root, this one stands up a lot better today than we remembered it! It has a pretty tight electric sound, and good Atlantic soul grooves running through it – with Alexander on flutes & saxes, Joe Boner in on keyboards, Ricard Davis on bass and Brian Beaks on drums on the bulk of it, with altered personnel on "De Black Musician" and "Lady Euphoria" (which also include vocals by Tequila). Soulful backing vocals credited to Something Different and some guitar by Junior Hanson and some spacey synth by Billy Allessi. Other tracks include "Country Soul", "Raw Root", "New York Sister", and "Street Life".

Beautiful – and some of the best soundtrack work ever recorded by this mad French genius! Francois De Roubaix is one of our favorite soundtrack composers ever – and if you've never heard his work, this is a great place to start. The 3 films included in the package all feature amazing music that's unlike anything else you might have heard before – a blend of funky rhythms, soaring strings, floating flute, and odd little instrumental touches that evoke a lot of weird moods and mystery moments. A few tracks feature vocals – either by Nicoletta, Los Incas, and Gilles Dreu – but the bulk of the package is instrumental, with 22 tracks that include "Jeanne & Marceau", "La Recherche", "Gregg", "Le Bosco", "Le Ritual", "Jerk Carceral", "Aspic", and "Un Aller Simple".

A magnificent decade of music from Duke Ellington – the bulk of his fifties recordings for Columbia Records – all albums that really show the Duke stretching forth and greatly developing his style! The scope of performances here is breathtaking – as Ellington works with key sidemen of the postwar years, and moves into much longer-form recordings that before – tracks that help him deeply express his new ideas, and also make way for a few guest performers too. Each album comes in a tiny LP-styled sleeve, replicating the original record – and the box features the albums Masterpieces By Ellington, Ellington Uptown, A Drum Is A Woman, Such Sweet Thunder, Ellington Indigos, The Cosmic Scene, and At The Bal Masque – plus the Black Brown & Beige suite with Mahalia Jackson, and the Blue Rose album with vocals by Rosemary Clooney!

A dramatic Italian soundtrack, with a few bonus tracks from another film – all wrapped up in this nice-looking package from the folks at Beat! The bulk of the set features music from the early 60s Italian blockbuster Sandokan – scored with a definite Eastern feel at many points, but with that same mix of drama and exotic touches that you'd hear in some of the blood and sandals soundtracks from the same stretch. Flute and other woodwinds are used in very nice ways, and at some points, there's these weird keyboards that are hard to figure out – either distorted piano, or maybe something electric, used in a really haunting way. CD features 16 tracks from Sandokan – all very vivid! The set also features two tracks from I Tre Sergenti Del Bengala – another period piece, but scored in ways that really match the other film – one track with lots of driving drums, the other with a slow snakey reed part!

A cool little guide to all things club jazz – put together by Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, and featuring both record listings and writings! The record listing section is a fair bit smaller than other Japanese books like this that we stock – about 40 pages that show how you might build a club set from one key record, with suggested segues for the tunes before and after. The remaining 200 pages of the book is an extended essay, in Japanese, written by Okino – telling his thoughts and concepts of what Club Jazz should be. Given that he's been lecturing around Tokyo these days on the topic, you can bet that he's got plenty to say – but we warned, you must read Japanese to enjoy the bulk of this book!

Nude woman on the front, erotic song titles on the back, Swedish name of a composer in the credits – everything you need to make a nice sexy soundtrack! Unfortunately, the bulk of the album is largely orchestral – not bad, mind you, but just not with the kind of eye-popping porno sound that you might expect from the rest of the package. The soundtrack's actually a pretty decent one – with lots of sad strings, some electric bass, and a bit of percussion in the mix – and titles include "Petting Waltz", "Feelings In A Dive", "Strip-Tease Party", "Beguine Erotic", and "Sex Happening".

One of the most ambitious sets we've heard from Nicole Mitchell – a really unique mixing of modes that features a core Chicago group coming into play with the Arche New Music Ensemble! The initial group features Nicole on flute, vocals, and electronics – with Mwata Boden on baritone and bass clarinet, David Boykin on tenor, and Renee Baker on violin – all set against the larger backdrop of Arche – which features eleven musicians led by Rafal Zapala on electronics and percussion, on piano, trumpet, cello, viola, clarinet, trombone, oboe, and more! Mitchell's still at the heart of the performance – as the tracks are all her own compositions, and she conducts the proceedings as well – with this wonderful mode that's almost a blend of AACM energy with some of the more orchestrated improvisations of the European scene. The bulk of the record features the long "Arc Of O" piece – followed by a smoking rendition of Mitchell's great "Afrika Rising", a much more freewheeling and spiritual number!

Greg's definitely showing off all his chops on this one – working with help from a huuuge array of famous guest stars – including The Pointer Sisters, James Ingram, Howard Hewett, Jackie Jackson, Michael Jackson, Robbie Nevil, and others. And while the bulk of the record really shows the influence of these mainstream 80s soul artists – and not always in a good way – the record also sports a brilliant tune done with Donald Fagan of Steely Dan, the sweetly grooving "Lazy Nina", which sounds like the best work off Fagan's Nightfly, and has Greg and Don duetting on vocals! Titles include "Behind The Mask", "Signals", "Shake It", "Countdown To Love", "Come As You Are", and "Playin With Fire". CD features lots of bonus tracks – "Only You", "Behind The Mask (12" version)", "Playin With Fire (12" version)", "Behind The Mask (inst)", "Behind The Mask (single)", and "Playin With Fire (inst)".

The early 70s sweet soul masterpiece by The Presidents – a great album that kicks off with a title track of that was a huuuuuuuge hit back in the day, but the full length album by the group just about never shows up! It's just beautiful stuff, with lots of tasty harmony soul tracks with production by Van McCoy, who also wrote and arranged the bulk of the material. The vocals are great and the strings soar pretty grandly, without compromising the group soul backdrop. Includes the big title hit, of course, plus "Gotta Keep Movin", "For You", "Sweet Magic", "This Is My Dream World", and "How Can You Say You're Leavin". This Fuel CD is subtitled Their Greatest Hits – which it essentially is, but it's the complete original album, plus one more, "The Sweetest Thing This Side Of Heaven". We're just thrilled to see this worthy material finally get a real reissue!

An amazing funky record cut by the American tenor player Hal Singer while he was living in exile in Paris! Although the bulk of Singer's other work is more traditional R&B sax material, this LP has a very good raw funky feel, with some nice tight guitar and organ grooves that spur Singer on to new heights. Manu Dibango sits in on the session on organ and tenor, and the set includes a huge number of funky classics like "Saturday Night In Watts, Act One", "Paris Soul Food", "Malcolm X", and more!

Sonny Stitt plus the early genius of Quincy Jones – a really great combination that makes for a standout session on Roost! As you might guess with Quincy handling the arrangements, the gorup here is bigger than usual for Stitt – especially given that the bulk of his Roost sessions were small group ones – but that aspect makes for a really strong record here, one that has Sonny's alto soaring out over the top of some hiply swinging Jones' charts, already infused with the kind of soul that would burst forth more famously in the 60s. Titles include a few nice originals, like "Quince" and "Sonny's Bunny", but even on the standards – like "Stardust", "Lover", and "Love Walked In" – Stitt's in top form, and solos with creativity and imagination that show him at the top of his talents!

Pete Terrace challenges Pete Rodriguez for the title of "King Of The Boogaloo" in this live set recorded at Chez Jose in New York! The album's got a few tracks that say boogaloo, but which aren't – but that's still ok with us, because the bulk of the set is a hard grooving batch of uptempo groovers that would make anyone proud – and the record's easily one of Pete's best from the 60s! Includes covers of "El Pito", "At The Party", and "Bang Bang" – plus Marty Sheller-penned originals like "Do The Boogaloo", "I'm Gonna Make It", "Here Comes Pete", and "No! No! No!". Pete's vibes sound mighty nice, and the pianist in the group is nice and firey!

Sounds sleepy – but it's totally groovy!! The mad talents of Italian soundtrack genius Piero Umiliani are turned towards his love of Duke Ellington – and the result is an incredibly groovy batch of tracks that mix up jazz, electronics, and plenty of great keyboards! The bulk of the material on the set was recorded in 1974 – and it features Umiliani playign moog and ARP, in a strange sort of "tribute" to Ellington that takes the usual Duke tunes, and turns them into hard grooving little numbers, with lots of bubbling electronic bits and weird sound effects. The first cut on the set is a mad mad version of "Caravan" which leaps and churns all over the place, sounding funkier than you could ever imagine! As the set progresses, some of the tracks are more traditionally jazz-based, but everything is played by a larger group, and the groove is still pretty darn excellent! Titles include "Ode To Duke Ellington", "Solitude", "Dreaming Of Duke", "Jeep's Blues", and "Never Together".

Way more than a set of cover versions – a well-chosen batch of 24 rare soul singles that embrace the sweet group soul style used by The Impressions! Some of the artists on the set share some alliance with The Impressions – either because they're from Chicago, or because they've got help from Chicago talents – but the bulk of the material is from non-midwestern sources, and shows the long reach of the sweet harmony style pushed by Curtis Mayfield, Fred Cash, and Sam Gooden on their legendary 60s sides for ABC. Titles include "In Love In Vain" by The Voice Masters, "Come Home Baby" by The Sonics, "I'm Gonna Tell The World" by The Dontells, "Especially For You Baby" by The Four Puzzles, "I've Been Taken For A Ride" by The Saints, "Out Of My Life" by The Expressions, "I Want My Baby" by The Presidents, "What You Gonna Do" by The Brilliants, "In The Sunshine" by The Marvellos, and "Bout My Baby" by The Enjoyables.

A triple-length set – one that brings together two classic Charly Records compilations! The bulk of the set is from the great 2LP collection Mr Joe's Jambalaya – an amazing collection of New Orleans soul from the legendary Minit and Instant labels – both imprints under the guidance of producer Joe Banashak – the "Mr Joe" in the title! The work here includes a good number of lesser-known gems from the Crescent City – mixed in with a few key classics that are really well-chosen numbers that illustrate the kind of important influence that New Orleans would have on soul music for generations to come! Grooves are mostly gritty, with more than a few hints of funk in the mix – and there's plenty of tracks that are filled with that tripling rhythmic mode that was quite specific to New Orleans at the time. Titles include "I Need Money" by Lee Dorsey, "The Sad One" by Eddie Lang, "The La La Man (part 1)" by Oliver Morgan, "Go Back Home" by Allen Toussaint & The Stokes, "Pass The Hatchet (part 1)" by Roger & The Gypsies, "It Will Stand" by The Showmen, "I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt On You" by Raymond Lewis, "In The Night" by Chucik Carbo, "Green Door" by Eskew Reeder, "Something You Got" by Barbara George, and "Beverly Baby" by Allen & Allen. The remaining third of the package is from the collection Loaded Down With The Blues – another compilation of Joe Banashak recordings, but one that focuses a bit more on gritty, bluesy material – mostly from the late 50s and early 60s. Titles include "Tight Like That" by Edgar Blancahrd, "Loaded Down" by Matthew Boogie Jake Jacobs, "Way In The Middle Of The Night" by Nolan Pitts, "Ain't Broke Ain't Hungry" by Polka Dot Slim, "Moanin & Screamin" by Diamond Joe, and "Nervous Condition" by The Pitter Pats. 2CDs, and 46 tracks in all!

A blaring batch of tracks played by an all-star all-sax group that includes Herb Geller, Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Seldon Powell, Hal McKusick, and Georgie Auld. Bob Prince arranged and conducted, and the approach is surprisingly modernist, with the saxes carrying the bulk of the rhythm and melody, as well as the solos. A surprisingly nice session for Warner from the time, and pretty tough to find. Titles include "Four Brothers" (of course!), "The Gypsy", "Night In Tunisia", "Jumpin With Symphony Sid", and "Axmobile".

The classic first LP by this stellar Chicago harmony group – and a monster! Heaven & Earth had a wonderful falsetto harmony sound that reminds us a lot of east coast winners like Blue Magic or The Stylistics – and like some of the best east coast groups, this group's vocals work equally well on slow ballads or faster uptempo numbers, both of which are handled extremely well on the record by producer Clarence Johnson. The bulk of the arrangements on the record were done by Tom Tom 84 – one of Chicago's true soul geniuses, and in perfect form on this record. The whole thing's amazingly well put together for an indie soul group album – and is a sure indication of the group's later fame on Mercury. Titles include "Nature's Miracle", "The Message", "I'll Always Love You", "Let Me Back In", and "I Can't Seem To Forget You". CD features the bonus track "Promises".

A late 60s soundtrack by Serge Gainsbourg – but a record that's easily as great as any of his studio albums from the same time! The bulk of the album has a spare, punctuated groove that's somewhat funky – quite a bit like Melody Nelson in its sense of space and timing – and its sex-heavy groove that bubbles up nicely from the bottom of bassy backings and mod orchestrations. Serge sings a bit – as does Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy, Gainsbourg's co-stars in the film – and the orchestrations on the record were handled by Michel Colombier, and easily rank as some of his greatest work ever! Titles include both vocal and instrumental versions of "Sous Le Soleil Exactement", "Pas Mal Pas Mal Du Tout", "Boomerang", "Un Jour Comme Un Autre", "Ne Dis Rien", "Roller Girl", "GI Jo", "Pistolet Jo", "Photographes Et Religieuses", "Rien Rien J'Disais Ca Comme Ca", and "Un Poison Violet C'Est CA L'Amour".

Great stuff, and one of the few albums that features pianist Harold Mabern getting down and dirty as a leader! This one's a quintet affair – with Leo Morris (Idris Muhammad) on drums, Virgil Jones on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor, and Buster Williams on bass. Mabern plays a bit of electric piano, but the bulk of the groove is in that hard Prestige soul jazz mode of the mid 60s – less funky than the early 70s years, but actually much higher on the jazz chops. Titles include "Strozier's Mode", "Waltzing Westward", "A Time For Love", and "Blues For Phineas".

Pivotal work from one of the first bluesmen to ever use "blind" in his name – sides recorded by the legendary Willie McTell when he was at the height of his powers! Most tracks here feature well-recorded vocals from Willie – especially for the time – a haunting accompaniment to his deft work on acoustic guitar, which makes up the bulk of the instrumentation for most of the tracks. Ruth Day joins Willie on a few numbers – and titles include "Razor Ball", "My Baby's Gone", "Atlanta Strut", "God Don't Like It", "Scary Day Blues", "Experience Blues", "Kind Mama", and "Cold Winter Day".

A unique little album from Thelonious Monk – an early 60s live date that features a really cooking big band, plus some solo and quartet tracks as well! The bulk of the album's played by the big band – an unusual mix of players that includes Phil Woods on alto, Steve Lacy on soprano sax, Charlie Rouse on tenor, Thad Jones on cornet, Eddie Bert on trombone, and Nick Travis on trumpet – all cutting nicely angular lines under the direction of Monk's piano. The quartet material strips things down to a group with Rouse on tenor, Butch Warren on bass, and Frank Dunlop on drums – and one selection features Monk on solo piano. Titles include "I Mean You", "Oska T", "Four In One", "Darkness On The Delta", "Evidence", and "Played Twice". 2CD set features bonus tracks too – including "Bye Ya", "Misterioso", "Epistrophy", and "Light Blue" – 2 of which are additional quartet numbers.

The funky sitar of Ananada Shankar – recorded in the 80s, but with all the brilliance of his 70s work! Like his other great albums, the production's a mix of soundtrack and funky instrumental styles with more traditional Indian ones – and the bulk of the set comes off sounding like some lost Bollywood score from the 70s – funky and spacey at the bottom, without as much of the clunky styles that you might expect from the cheesy 80s image on the cover. The set includes the long mellow tune "2001", plus shorter groovier numbers that include "Planet X", "Flights Of Fantasy", "Universal Magic", "The Voyager", "Vibrations", and "Explorations".

Killer work from the last years of Stanley Turrentine on Blue Note – tracks that appeared here for the first time ever, as a long-overdue LP release at the end of the 70s! The bulk of the set features some compelling quartet work – with Stan's tenor in the company of McCoy Tyner on piano, Gene Taylor on bass, and Billy Cobham on drums – almost in Easy Walker sort of territory, with a great stepping soulful groove – but a bit more fluid, given the Tyner touch! That quartet plays "Stan's Shuffle", "Watch What Happens", "Intermission Walk", and "Wave". The set ends with the killer title track "Ain't No Way" – a tenor/Hammond cooker based on the Carolyn Franklin soul tune – really given a workout by Stan and a group that features Shirley Scott on organ and Jimmy Ponder on guitar!

A stunner of a joint effort from Ethio jazz funk visionary Mulatu Astatke and psych funk genre-busting combo the Heliocentrics – a record we had the highest hopes for and still find wildly above and beyond our loftiest expectations! The collective touch on some classic Mulatu compositions, but the bulk of the material here is brand new, and purely collaborative – if you know the Helioecentrics or you know Mulatu, you can clearly hear what each bring to the table – and it works together brilliantly! There's often a gritty funk bottom end, the best drums and percussion, fat electric bass lines underneath Ethio jazz inspired sax, trumpet, trombone and flute – swirling psychedelic flourishes with theremin and other effects that never take away from the groove. Mulatu's on vibes, percussion, Wurlitzer, drums and keyboards – and his compositions and the Helios trade back and forth throughout the set. There's some additional Ethiopian instrumentation and atmospheric vocals in the mix on some tunes, and more of an astral, avant funk vibe on others, but there's always a brilliant confluence of styles. Bottom line, the album is everything we wanted it to be and more – this will undoubtedly be favorite for years to come! Titles include "Masenqo", "Cha Cha", "Addis Black Widow", "Mulatu", "Blue Nile", "Esketa Dance", "Chik Chikka", "Live From Tiger Lounge", "Chinese New Year", "Phantom Of The Panther", "Dewel"., "Fire In The Zoo", "An Epic Story" and "Anglo Ethio Suite".

An incredible album – and a landmark session that showed that the bossa nova was still alive and well in the 1970s! The album pairs the breathy jazz vocals of Elis Regina with the booze-soaked warmth of Antonio Carlos Jobim – in a set of spare arrangements that feature a lot of touches from Cesar Carmargo Mariano, whose work on Elis Regina's 70s sessions is still the stuff of legend! Elis' vocals dominate, but when Tom comes in, the result is even more spectacular – especially given the generally light instrumentation used on most tracks – which means that the vocals carry the bulk of the sound on the set! Includes the pair's sublime duet on "Aguas de Marco", plus the tracks "Fotografia", "Brigas, Nunca Mais", "Retrato Em Branco E Preto", "Chovendo No Roseira", "Modinha", and "Triste".

Thaione's eighth album – and he's sharp as ever here – with solid beats, atmospheric production touches and tough, honest and personal rhymes. Thaione handles the bulk of the production, but Seventeen includes trio of tracks produced by GEAUX. Includes "Push", "Stolen Moments", "The Listen", "From Where The Devil Smiles", "Enhancements", "Falling Down", "Posterboise", "Magnetic", "Top Shottas", "Bridges Of Yesterday" and more.

A landmark early moment from Doris Troy – a set that has her shining not just as a key 60s soul singer for Atlantic Records – but also as a heck of a great songwriter too! She's got a really fresh approach here – one that's right up front for the time – with a mix of raw vocals and classy production, in a style that's partly New York uptown – but which also has the kind of strongly individual vibe you'd get from singers like Maxine Brown or Barbara Lewis too! Arrangements on the record are by Gregory Carroll, who also wrote the bulk of the material with Doris – including tracks like "Lazy Days", "Bossa Nova Blues", "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", "Time", and "Just One Look". Other tracks include "Stormy Weather", "School For Fools", and "Somewhere Along The Way".

A beautiful illustration of the deep talents of Anthony Ortega – a player who still sounds as creative and inventive this late in his career as he did way back in the 50s and 60s! The bulk of the CD features Ortega in two settings – one, a batch of studio duets with bassist Kash Killion; the other a series of live solo performances, recorded in Paris by a video camera! The Killion duets have a wonderfully warm, round sound – acoustic bass set up next to Ortega's alto and flute, with a carefully structured approach that's extremely thoughtful, and almost poetic. The live solos have a much rougher sound – partly from the starkness of the video recording, but also because they represent Oretga taking it much more off the cuff – just spinning things out on alto sax with a sound that's a fair bit like the old days. And to cap things off – speaking of the old days – the CD closes with one more duet from the 60s – a track that has Ortega and bassist Chuck Domanico playing together from an older Revelation session, appearing here for the first time ever! That track is a long version of "Ornithology", and other titles include "Ask Me Now", "Jupiter", "Blue Monk", "I'll Remember April", "Now's The Time", and "Open Spaces".

A 70s classic from the team of Skillet & Leroy – bold, bawdy, and riotous party work right from the start! Some of the numbers are kind of an update of the older "open the door Richard" mode – with the pair trading roles over skits in different settings – but the bulk features wonderful wordplay that rivals some of the Redd Foxx material of the 60s – occasionally set to funky grooves, to help with a bit of segue! Routines include "The Pregnant Queer", "Big Dead Dick", "The Midget Woman", "Four Balls", and "The Crabs". CD also seems to feature bonus material – with tracks by Lawanda Page!

Some of the funkiest tracks on the mighty Luv N Haight and Ubiquity labels – no surprise, given that all of them have been sampled over the years! The bulk of the work here is 70s funk – of the gritty, obscure sort that Luv N Haight first started digging 20 years ago, and has continued to reissue at a rock-solid level – overlooked gems from the American underground, brought back to life not just through key hip hop samples, but also from the label's own series of excellent compilations and reissues! The package includes a number of out of print tracks – and titles include "Searching For Soul (part 1)" by Jack Wade & The Soul Searchers, "Spread The News" by Perfect Circle, "Boys With Toys" by Gap Mangione, "Sweetest Thing In The World" by Turner Brothers, "Africana" and "Do Whatever Turns You On (part 2)" by The Propositions, "Hang On In There" by Mike James Kirkland, "Getting Down" and "We Know We Have To Live Together" by Eugene Blacknell, and "Plenty Action" by Soft Touch.

A great little soundtrack – even if it looks a bit snoozy from the outside! Don Costa's usually not our favorite arranger, but he does a great job with this one – laying out some hard blacksploitation grooves that have funky keyboards, sweet sitar, and lots of nice cop show grooves to them. The bulk of the record is instrumental – with some great funky cuts like "Main Title – Charley", "Main Theme to Water Tower", "Can You Dig It?", and "Train's Comin" – plus a few more "with chorus" tracks that are a bit more mellow. Lou Rawls sings on two cuts – the groovy "Sometime Day", which has a very strong "soundtrack theme" feel, and the mellower "Morning Comes Around", which ends the record with a nice soulful tone.