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Not necessarily a record of interviews – as the title might make you think – but one of Bruce's best records for Fantasy! The album's got some very edgey bits that approximate his live material, and which take the best part of his cleaner act, and transfer them well to record. Titles include "Dijinni In The Candy Store", "Enchanting Transylvania", "Interview With Dr Sholem Stein", "The Interview", "All Broadway Musicals Sound The Same, Especially The Baritones", and "The March Of High Fidelity". LP, Vinyl record album

1960 nightclub recordings from Lenny Bruce – done at a time when he was really opening up stylistically, and taking on a host of themes that really tell a tale of the times! The work here is plenty edgey – lots of sharp turns, offbeat ideas, and that sharp wit that makes Bruce one of the greatest sets of eyes to view the 60s from the perspective of the 21st Century. Titles include "Don's Big Dago", "Marriage, Divorce, & Motels", "Father Flotsky's Triumph", "Lima Ohio", and "How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties". LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the greatest work you could ever find by Lenny Bruce! This set is a brilliant re-creation of a live show that Lenny cut at midnight at Carnegie Hall on February 4, 1961. Unlike some of his LPs from the time - which often featured a lot of set routines – this one just has Lenny improvising freely, telling jokes, doing schtick, and bad-rapping on a variety of topics from pills, to homosexuality, to airlines, to the KKK, to VD, to other contemporary comedians. The album's one of the few to really capture Bruce's brilliance as a performer and a thinker – and the spontaneity of the very long recording is astounding. LP, Vinyl record album

A repackaged version of the album To Is A Preposition, Come Is A Verb – a 70's issue of material that was too raunchy to be released in the 60's! This is Lenny Bruce at his finest, with some of the best little bits that made him famous (including many of the ones that were used in the movie Lenny.) The recordings are live, and capture Bruce with that spontaneous riffing mode that was the best side of his genius – doing routines that include "Dirty Toilet", "To Come", "Tits & Ass", and "I Just Do It And That's All". LP, Vinyl record album

Incudes "Hitler & MCA", "Djinni In The Bottle", "Lima Ohio", "The Phone Company", "Religions Inc", and "How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties". LP, Vinyl record album

The magnificent voice of Chris Connelly serves up a sublime tribute to the work of Nico – a set that's not a reworking of just her key classics, but which also includes a huge amount of original new songs by Chris as well! Connelly put together the double length set after being inspired by the book on Nico, You Are Beautiful & You Are Alone – and the spirit of that well-penned biography really moves throughout the tracks, as Chris balances his own originals with really different takes on the Nico tunes – all at a level that really comes across like some modern day masterpiece that feels like it was years in the making! If you've never heard Connelly sing, you'll be blown away – and the setting of the whole project really seems to have him at his best – in a selection of two dozen songs that include "Ripcord Ripcord", "The Last Mile", "Union Square West", "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce", "I Cannot Care For You", "The Falconer", "The Black Rooms Of Richeleiu", "Reims 12/74", "A Slow Jones In New York", "Running Pure", and "Andy Incidentally". CD

One of the greatest records of the 60s – and a sublime debut from Nico, sounding fresher and less dreary here than on many of her later sides – although still pretty chilling overall! The record features larger orchestral backings on most tracks – never too heavy, but with light strings that really help Nico depart from the sound of her work with The Velvet Underground. This style adds a new level of sophistication to her vocals, and really helps in her interpretation of the unusual material culled for the set – tunes that include a few key numbers by old partners in The Velvets, as well as some especially great tracks by a young Jackson Browne – a romantic interest of Nico at the time! The whole thing's incredible – on a par with the best from Scott Walker during the same stretch, although very different overall – and a key entry in the darker side of the non-hippie end of the 60s spectrum. Titles include "These Days", "It Was A Pleasure Then", "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce", and the incredible title cut, "Chelsea Girls". Fantastic! CD

Flip Wilson caught live at Mr Kelly's in Chicago – really grabbing the attention of the crowd with a range of routines – some straight jokes, mixed with some of the characters that would increasingly dominate Wilson's performance – all with the sort of crossover appeal that maybe makes his work an important precursor to the generation of Dave Chappelle! But there's also a hip-talking approach that links him back to the world of comics like Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl – that style from a time when comics were only for adult audiences – something that's referenced not just in the subject material (which is never too blue here, given the Atlantic Records performance), but also in the matter of fact style of speaking. Titles include "The Millionaire", "The Joey Bishop Show", "The Gardener", "Days Of The Knights", "Herman's Berry", and "Paid To Die". LP, Vinyl record album

A set that showcases a surprising contribution that Andy Warhol made to American music in the postwar years – graphic work done years before his time as a Pop Art icon, or his relationship with the Velvet Underground – from years when Warhol was a more conventional illustrator, and created images for a range of different record covers! Since the images here were more part of a gig, Andy didn't have creative input on the music – yet the covers were often used on the sorts of recordings that showcased important cultural streams of the 50s – on a series of records by Thelonious Monk, Moondog, JJ Johnson, Count Basie, Johnny Griffin, and Kenny Burrell – plus some modern classical recordings too! The set's got a full booklet of notes that illustrate Andy's New York connection to the growing world of the long playing record – with one CD of jazz, two CDs of classical-related material, and one more CD that portrays Andy's New York – with more material from Cecil Taylor, Lenny Bruce, Charles Mingus, Luciano Berio, John Cage, and others. CD

Ralph J Gleason might just be one of the coolest cats to ever write about music – a key part of the San Francisco scene during the postwar years – where his talents helped illuminate both the worlds of art and music during the beat generation – then really helped shine a spotlight on all the cultural changes in the city during the 60s – which even led to Gleason's role in the founding of Rolling Stone magazine! Gleason always had a great eye (and ear) for things that were new and special, but never in a way that was slavish to the moment – or to its creator – and the book features an initial section on his writings on jazz and blues – with essays on John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Carmen McRae, BB King, John Handy, Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete, Cal Tjader, Ben Webster, the San Francisco Jazz scene, and other diverse topics. The second section features Gleason on folk and rock – with bits on Jefferson Airplane, Hank Williams, Lenny Bruce, Odetta, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and others – and the final section features articles on politics and culture – covering topics that include Richard Nixon, radio payola, Law & Order, flower children, and other slices of society, seen from the Gleason viewpoint. Book is hardcover, and 309 pages. Book

A compelling exploration into the use of the music of Miles Davis in film – one that begins with a famous French soundtrack from the new wave generation, then moves onto vintage Miles tunes that were used in other movies over the years! The core of the record features Davis' score to the 1957 film Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud – one of our favorite-ever Miles Davis albums – and a stunning soundtrack that began a rich legacy of jazz scores in France! Miles recorded this material during late-night post-gig sessions with a great group that includes French players Barney Wilen, Rene Urtreger, and Pierre Michelot, plus American ex-patriot Kenny Clarke. Wilen's playing is fantastic, and it's great to hear him and Miles together on the score's spooky meandering passages. Alongside that body of work, the CD also features Davis songs that were used in a variety of films from the 70s onward – tracks that weren't written for the films, but which had strong use in movies that include Lenny, Kerouac, Tacones Lejanos, Ginger & Rosa, Talented Mr Ripley, and La Flor De Mi Secreto. These titles include "Saeta", "Blue Haze", "Tempus Fugit", "Well You Needn't", "It Never Entered My Mind", "Nature Boy", "Solea", and "Blue In Green". Also features a selection each by Lenny Bruce and Jack Kerouac! CD

One of the greatest records of the 60s – and a sublime debut from Nico, sounding fresher and less dreary here than on many of her later sides – although still pretty chilling overall! The record features larger orchestral backings on most tracks – never too heavy, but with light strings that really help Nico depart from the sound of her work with The Velvet Underground. This style adds a new level of sophistication to her vocals, and really helps in her interpretation of the unusual material culled for the set – tunes that include a few key numbers by old partners in The Velvets, as well as some especially great tracks by a young Jackson Browne – a romantic interest of Nico at the time! The whole thing's incredible – on a par with the best from Scott Walker during the same stretch, although very different overall – and a key entry in the darker side of the non-hippie end of the 60s spectrum. Titles include "These Days", "It Was A Pleasure Then", "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce", and the incredible title cut, "Chelsea Girls". Fantastic! LP, Vinyl record album

With John Clark on French horn, John Patitucci on bass, Lenny White on drums, Don Alias on percussion, and guest percussion from Bruce Martin. CD

Sharp-edged wit from a young Dick Gregory – and the kind of record that easily set the standard for countless comics to come! The tracks here are mostly free-form – still structured into a few routines, but also pretty easygoing and open – with more of the openly rapping sort of approach also used by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl at the time. Gregory's certainly got all the politics of the latter, focused into his own unique perspective – one that was a key force of change in the Civil Rights era. Titles include "The Congo Daily Tribune", "Comedians Of The 60s", "Thoughts On Outer Space", and "Not Poor Just Busted". LP, Vinyl record album

Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and flugelhorn, Steve Wilson on alto and soprano saxophones, George Garzone on tenor saxophone, Bruce Barth on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Lenny White on drums. CD

A great issue with Roctober's double-flip format – one side printed right side up for the music content, the other upside-down for the comics! The double-cover issue has features on PJ Proby, ONO, Skafish, Klaus Nomi, Lenny Bruce, The Mummies, Sly Stone, Sun Records saxophonist Martin Willis, and Pedro Funkadelic Bell – plus Heavy Metal cartoonist Serge Clerc, and comix by Plastic Crimewave, Archer Prewitt, Matt Madden, King Merinuk, Rob Syers and MORE! Magazine

Over the course of his many years in music, bassist Buster Williams has only cut a relatively small amount of records as a leader – yet that fact definitely seems to make each one a real delight! That's certainly the case here – as Williams works with a very cool group who really open up in ways that echo the subtle spiritual legacy of the leader – a core combo that features superb work on vibes from Stefon Harris, tenor and flute from Bruce Williams, piano from George Colligan, and drums from Lenny White – all stretching out on long tracks that include some great originals by the leader. Jean Baylor joins the group on vocals on some numbers – giving the whole thing that extra-hip vibe that reminds us of a time when players of Williams generation would make records that followed their own muse, not the market place or the demands of a label – a bit like some of our favorite loosely-structured sessions from years back on Muse. Titles include "The Wisdom Of Silence", "Stairways", "Here's To Life", "Tayamisha", "In The Middle Of A Rainbow", and a great take on "Estate". CD

An all-star tribute to the great Curtis Mayfield – served up by a generation of artists who were influenced by his classic work! The set mixes soul singers and pop stars – in a really surprising lineup of tracks that includes "The Makings Of You" by Aretha Franklin, "Choice Of Colors" by Gladys Knight, "Gypsy Woman" by Bruce Springsteen, "I'm The One Who Loves You" by Stevie Wonder, "Woman's Got Soul" by BB King, "Keep On Pushin" by Tevin Campbell, "Fool For You" by The Impressions & Bradford Marsalis, "I'm So Proud" by The Isley Brothers, "Look Into Your Heart" by Whitney Houston, "Billy Jack" by Lenny Kravitz, "Amen" by Elton John & The Sounds Of Blackness, "If There's A Hell Below" by Narada Michael Walden, and "Let's Do It Again" by The Repercussions and Curtis Mayfield himself! Cassette