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Remixes and rare tracks from the mighty Gerardo Frisina – easily our second favorite Italian groover next to the mighty Nicola Conte! The set's a great counterpart to some of Frisina's other full albums on Schema – because it not only presents a few previously unreleased tracks, it also offers up some of Gerardo's great remix work for other artists in recent years! Frisina's got a great way of imbuing a current track with a classic Latin vibe – mixing acoustic percussion, driving rhythms, and jazz-based instrumentation together with incredible sharpness and energy – a no-nonsense approach to a groove that shows that's almost a distillation of the best older elements. This approach is heard wonderfully on Gerardo's own tracks "Tokyo's Dream (07 version)", "Alborado", "Es Diferente", "Calle De Candela (vibes version)", and "Zanja" – but it also comes through on remix tracks that include "Swing Low Sweet Cadillac (G Call remix)" by Dizzy Gillespie, "Dis-ka-ndombe" by Jorge Graf, "Black Forrest Stomp" by Hipnosis, "Windly Coast" by Idea 6, "Guarapiranga" by Toco, "Stardust From Tomorrow (dissociated mood version)" by Sun Ra, and "Ghetto Stomp" by Combo Moderna.

A wicked dip into Colombian music – focused around the work of two true giants of the scene! CD1 features 21 massive tracks from Fruko – one of the hardest-hitting artists working in Colombia in the 70s – often in a sound that starts out in New York salsa, but takes all these weird little twists and turns as it adapts to the local rhythms! Joe Arroyo's tracks start where Fruko's leave off – pushing the groove even more with a bolder, more confident Colombian style – still filled with some great jazzy riffs that you'd hear in salsa, but moving into some especially nice tropical touches too! The production on the material for both artists is great – often filled with some sweet studio tricks – and the booklet features notes on the artists, plus images of lots of vintage album covers too. 38 tracks in all – with tracks billed to each artist separately, or The Latin Brothers, La Verdad, or Afrosound – on titles that include "El Preso", "El Violento", "Tu Sufriras", "La Pintosa", "Ocho Dias", "El Esclavo, "Tifit Hayed", "San Juan De Puerto Rico", "Palenque", Pobre Naci, "El Son Del Caballo", "Baila Simon, "Musa Original", "Matigua", "Vuelve", "Son Apretao", and "En Barranquilla Me Quedo.

The legendary album from Mayo Thompson – pared down with more of an outsider folk rock vibe after the freaky psych of the first couple Red Krayola – and ultimately just as trailblazing! Mayo's voice and skewed songcraft are front and center, though there's piano, organ, fiddle, slide guitar, bass and drums coming in and out, too, but whether or not it was forthright goal, Mayo's weird lyricism is the star of the show, and you can hear the influence this record had on myriad underground rock figures in the decades that followed! Includes "The Lesson", "Oyster Thin", "Horses", "Dear Betty Baby", "Venus In The Morning", "To Black Legs", "Good Brisk Blues", "Around The Home" and "Worried Woman".

Jazz funk genius from Freddie Hubbard in the mid 70s! Gleam was a Japanese-only double album from the jazz giant in its original release – mighty funky at times, too – right up there with some of the best Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock Japanese sets from the 70s! It's a live set captured in March of '75 at Tokyo's Yubin Chokin Hall – long numbers played by a group that includes Freddie on trumpet, Carl Randall on tenor and flute, George Cables on electric piano, Henry Franklin on bass, Carl Burnett on drums, and Buck Clark on percussion! Each player has plenty of space to groove, and it's very well captured – you can hear the most expressive solos and the most subtle nuances. Some great solos by Freddie and the rest of the players – breathless tenor & flute by Randall, keys by Cables that are jazz funk perfection and interplay between Burnett's drums and Clark's congas & percussion that's somehow tense and comfortable at the same time. The shortest number in the set runs more than the 7 minutes and the longest is more than 20 minutes – and none is one second shorter than necessary, actually leaving us pining for more – making it all the more vital in the double album format. Released on 2CDs for the first time ever here! How this great album has been so hard to find over the years is a mystery. Titles include "Kuntu", "Spirits Of Trane", an amazing cover of Stevie Wonder's "Too High", "Midnight At The Oasis", "Ebony Moonbeams", and "Put It In The Pocket".