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One of the late 50s Jazz Archive LPs on Riverside – in which they dig through older sides, and issue the material in LP format with nice notes. Most of the material here is from the pivotal late 20s years, milestones in the formation of the American female blues singer! Also features work by Sara Martin, Trixie Smith, Mary Johnson, and Hociel Thomas.

We give up! Just when we thought the gravy train had stopped running, the last train to skaville pulls into the station with 16 jaunty numbers fusing ska and rocksteady with a healthy dose of Jamaican soul at the hands of Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Brothers under the guidance of Coxsone Dodd! After the Skatalites busted up in the mid 60s, Dodd set about assembling a new house band, bringing Mittoo and a number of the original members of the Skatalites, including Lloyd Brevett and Roland Alphonso, together with some of the new, younger talent, and the fine folks at Soul Jazz have assembled a mighty, mighty set of their finest moments. But as Coxsone says in the liner notes, let's "Cut the chatter and spin the platter"! Includes "James Bond", "Voodoo Moon", "Chicken & Booze", "Hpney Pot", "Mr Flint", "Dr Ring Ding", "Got My Boogaloo", "Home Made", "Sufferer's Choice" and "Hot & Cold".

They're not lying about the "impossibly rare" part of the title here – because most of the work on this set is previously unreleased – funky Bay Area gems recorded in the late 60s and early 70s, finally seeing the light of day on this collection! The music represents a much deeper current of soul than you might know from Sly & The Family Stone or some of the bigger bay area groups of the period – a really righteous batch of tracks that freak out nicely with a heady, jamming groove – one that's often heavy on the basslines and drums, but which also has a celebratory, party-hearty quality in the vocals and other instrumentation. A few artists here are familiar, but most are relatively obscure – and the biggest portion of this music has languished for years in the vaults of the Golden State Recorders studios of producer Leo Kulka. CD features 20 tracks in all – including "Super Chicken" by Ramona King, "Rock Steady" by Ruby Delicious, "Devil's Got Your Mind" by San Francisco TKOs, "Hearing Things" by Snooky & The Cosmic Flowers, "I've Gotta Groove" by Julio Zavalla, "Love Machine" by Alonzo Smith, "Poor Sad Child (parts 1 & 2)" by The Windjammers, "Are You Together For The New Day" by The Love Experience, "Can't Get Enough" by 87th Off Broadway, "House Party" by Wally Cox & The Natives, "I'm Glad I Got Over You" by Jeanette Jones, "Sweet Talk" by Marvin Holmes & The Uptights, and "Vida Blue (part 1)" by Jimmy Bee.