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A wonderful departure for Kevin Ayers – an album that's a lot lighter and more whimsical than his original fame with Soft Machine! The tunes are extremely playful, and often quite catchy – almost a Donovan-esque blend of folksy roots and jazz inflections – but tuned a bit more towards trippier ends, thanks to instrumentation that includes celeste, electronics, flute, oboe, kazoo, cello, organ, and a wide range of different guitars! David Bedford handled arrangements, and other players on the session include some ex-Soft Machine comrades – like Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt! Ayers' vocals are produced with a nicely compressed quality that squeezes them in alongside the instrumentation – and titles include "Joy Of A Toy Continued", "The Lady Rachel", "All This Crazy Gift Of Time", "Eleanor's Cake", and "Girl On A Swing".

An amazing step sideways for London's Zoot Money – a move from mod to psych, with a trippy quality that's quite different from his jazzy sound a few years before! The group's got legendary fame – not just for the shift in styles by Zoot, but also for the fact that it features key work from a young Andy Summers – later of The Police – who works here with some great tones on guitar, and plenty of fresh ideas in all the songs he penned on the record! Money's vocals are wonderful – almost as if Georgie Fame were singing on a psych album – which is as unusual and compelling as you might think. These sessions were recorded in the late 60s, but mostly unissued at the time – but really rank with the best of the early Syd Barrett or Kevin Ayers generation – with titles that include "Coffee Song", "Madman Running Through The Fields", "This Island", "High Flying Bird", "Four Firemen", "Soma (parts 1 & 2)".

The amazing debut of Soft Machine! It's hard to find a more seminal moment of jazz rock from the British scene – and there's certainly few albums from its generation that stand up as well over the years as this one! The trio of Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and Michael Ratledge carve out the future of progressive playing on this excellent set of shorter tunes that still offer up all the hard jamming of later years. Beat group morphs into prog jazz before your very eyes – on tracks like "Hope For Happiness", "Why Am I So Short", "Save Yourself", "Priscilla", "So Boot If At All", "A Certain Kind", "Lullabye Letter", and "Why Are We Sleeping?".

Prog takes a deep look at the long history Rush – featuring new interviews with Geddy, Alex and Neal! Prog the magazine always takes a pretty liberal, and non-elitist approach to what they classify as progressive rock – and we dig that! This issue covers Spock's Beard, The Flaming Lips, Kevin Ayers, The Magic Band, Family, Cosmograf, Roger Hodgson, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and more. The free CD is titled The Spirit Of Radial – with tracks by Spock's Beard, Motorpsycho, Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Nine Stones Close, Blue Cartoon, Vienna Circle, Grand General and many more.

The excellent annual roundup of out-of-print issues of Shindig – plus a pair of previously unpublished articles from the groovy magazine for psyche, garage, prog, powerpop, soul, folk and more! Annual Number Three comes hardbound with cool, foil on black cover art – and items on Pretty Things, Flamin' Groovies, Kevin Ayers, The Scaffold, The Strawbs, Procession, Fire, Alice Cooper, The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, Procession, Green Beat, David Daltrey and more!

The amazing debut of Soft Machine! It's hard to find a more seminal moment of jazz rock from the British scene – and there's certainly few albums from its generation that stand up as well over the years as this one! The trio of Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and Michael Ratledge carve out the future of progressive playing on this excellent set of shorter tunes that still offer up all the hard jamming of later years. Beat group morphs into prog jazz before your very eyes – on tracks like "Hope For Happiness", "Why Am I So Short", "Save Yourself", "Priscilla", "So Boot If At All", "A Certain Kind", "Lullabye Letter", and "Why Are We Sleeping?".

Proof that this Smalls Live series really brings out the best in most players – as pianist Kevin Hays grabs our ears here more than ever! The set's got an open, spontaneous energy – lots of really long tracks from Hays and his trio of Doug Weiss on bass and Bill Stewart on drums. Yet there's also a great focus, too – and you can almost hear Hays mapping out his rich territory long in advance – moving across the keys of the piano with some warm, soulful undercurrents – and some surprisingly gutbuckety points mixed in with his more lyrical elements, too – showing there's always room for plenty of twists and turns in a setting like this. Tracks include "The Anniversary Waltz", "Loving You", "Sco More Blues", "Ludus Tonalis", "The Dreamer", and "Cheryl".

An amazing album – and a really unique slice of the underground of jazz in the 60s! The session was put together in 1963 by Walt Dickerson, and was conceived as an attempt to draw attention to the incredible amount of great jazz players who were then currently serving time in prison for trumped-up drug charges. The players were culled from New York's Riker's Island, and the mix is a strange and wonderfully surprising blend of musicians that includes Hope, John Gilmore, Ronnie Boykins, Philly Joe Jones, and Earl Coleman. The quality of the work and writing is superb, and not only is the record a high point in Hope's all-too-short career, but it also features some excellent non-Sun Ra work by Gilmore! Titles include "One For Joe", "Three Silver Quarters", "Kevin", "Trippin", and "It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream".

The complete early 70s sessions of Hotlegs – the group that hit the charts for brief moment thanks to the unforgettable, sparely drum-heavy, kinda Kinks-ian "Neanderthal Man" single – and later went on to shuffle the line-up a bit and reintroduce themselves as 10CC! We've heard and loved "Neanderthal Man", but it's with thanks to this stellar compilation that we're being hipped to the hook-laden, pop rock excellence their other '70-'71 recordings! Hotlegs is at its core the trio of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – all soon-to-be 10CC (Graham Gouldman actually plays bass on one song, too) – and the eclectic soft rock genius of that group is indeed on display here, albeit at a formative level! Witty and catchy, yet restlessly creative songs from players who were really just getting started! Titles include "Neanderthal Man", "How Many Times", "Desperate Dan", "Um Wah, Um Woh", "Fly Way", "Run Baby Run", "The Loser", "Today", "Lady Sadie", "YOu Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It", "Neanderthal Man (Alternative US Mix)" and more.

The self-titled debut of Mostly Other People Do The Killing – an exciting NYC quartet that manages to both celebrate and skewer jazz traditions, blending the past with modern experimentalism – and also making simply exciting records that are a joyful blast! These guys have chops, dexterity and smarts – but they somehow strip all pretenses down to the bone and make viscerally enjoyable compositions. Players include bassist Moppa Elliot, trumpet from Peter Evans, Jon Irabagon on sax, and drums by Kevin Shea. Titles include "Elliot Mills", "Between Panic And Desire", "Good Intent", "Moanin", the 13+ minute "Aspers" and more.

Free and soulful work from saxophonist Andrew White – working here in a live setting with help from Blackbyrds members Kevin Toney on piano and Keith Kilgo on drums! The rhythm players are excellent – especially since they get help from the mighty Steve Novosel on bass – but the real start of the set, always, is White – whose tones are mindblowing – far past what most other American players could ever hit at the time – in tone, timing, and overall execution. He's working here with a well-stated love of Coltrane and Wayne Shorter – but also brings in his own sense of spiritual energy that's really incredible – tied to rich jazz traditions, and deeply expressive throughout. This volume features long tracks "Andy's Alto Sax", "Sacred Blues", "Sydney", and "Kevin Keith & Steve".

An amazing album – and a really unique slice of the underground of jazz in the 60s! The session was put together in 1963 by Walt Dickerson, and was conceived as an attempt to draw attention to the incredible amount of great jazz players who were then currently serving time in prison for trumped-up drug charges. The players were culled from New York's Riker's Island, and the mix is a strange and wonderfully surprising blend of musicians that includes Hope, John Gilmore, Ronnie Boykins, Philly Joe Jones, and Earl Coleman. The quality of the work and writing is superb, and not only is the record a high point in Hope's all-too-short career, but it also features some excellent non-Sun Ra work by Gilmore! Titles include "One For Joe", "Three Silver Quarters", "Kevin", "Trippin", and "It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream".

'A much hipper record than you'd guess from its cheesy early 90s cover – an image that's almost a relic of the unfortunate time when jazz was trying to take on hip hop album art! Fortunately, Philip Harper's got a lot more depth than his photo – a rich quality that sparkles with the best indie soul jazz touches of the time – a solid grounding that allows all players plenty of room for expression, in ways that are a nice extension of modes from a decade or two before! Harper plays both trumpet and flugelhorn, and works with a strong lineup that features Javon Jackson on tenor, Jamal Haynes on trombone, Kevin Hays on piano, Duane Berno on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums – and possibly most surprising, Terry Harper sings vocals on two tracks – providing a slightly gentle respite from the well-blown energy of the horns in the frontline. Titles include "Weaver Of Dreams", "Soulful Sin", "The Old Country", "Survival", "Mellow Afternoon", and "Songbird".

Mindblowing music from Bobbi Humprhey – a set cut during her legendary early 70s run for Blue Note – but a live session with a very different vibe than her studio work! The tracks are all long and very spontaneous – not nearly as tied to larger arrangements as some of Bobbi's other work – and a great demonstration that, when really let loose, Humphrey could be one hell of a spiritual jazz player! The group is nice and tight – a righteous batch of players who really help realize Bobbi's vision for the record – with Kevin Toney on Fender Rhodes, Henry Franklin on bass, Barney Perry on guitar, and Keith Kilgo on drums – players who hit a groove that's tight, but really leave lots of room for long solos – almost making the record feel like an outing for the Black Jazz or Strata East labels! Titles include a version of Alphonse Mouzon's "Virtue", plus "Sad Bag", "Sugar", and "Ain't No Sunshine".

A really exciting avant jazz set from Mostly Other People Do The Killing – a killer quartet who manage to roll through a wide variety of styles that show a true depth of understanding of some of the greatest jazz of the past half century – and have a heck of great time playing it! Ostensibly a tribute to Ornette Coleman, MOPDTK do a lot more than pay homage to a master on this album. They manage to roll in and out of elements of hard and post bop, nod reverently to the international 60s avant garde scenes, and so much more – all with infectious enthusiasm. It would be mess in lesser hands, but these guys pull it off! Players include Peter Evans on trumpet, Kevin Shea on drums, Jon Irabagon on sax and Moppa Elliot on double bass. Titles include "Drainlick", "Two Boot Jacks", "Fagundus", "The Bats In Belfry", "East Orwell", "My Delightful Muse", "Allentown" and more.

A mix of the two different groups used by Andrew White on these Foolery sessions – the first with help from Blackbyrds members Kevin Toney on piano and Keith Kilgo on drums, and the mighty Steve Novosel on bass – the second with Novosel on bass, Donald Waters on piano, and Bernard Sweetney on drums! The real start of the set, always, is White – whose tones are mindblowing – far past what most other American players could ever hit at the time – in tone, timing, and overall execution. He's working here with a well-stated love of Coltrane and Wayne Shorter – but also brings in his own sense of spiritual energy that's really incredible – tied to rich jazz traditions, and deeply expressive throughout. Titles include "Wabash", "Red Cross", "B Flat Rhythm", and "Theme Grand".