Comedy/Spoken -- Recently Added  

A great little live set from the one-and-only Pigmeat Markham -- doing his thing at Boston's Aquarius Theater joined by Baby Seals and others -- with routines that were never previously recorded, and only rarely available! Pigmeat & co. stroll through several bits, occasionally with funky ...

A classic live set from Bill Cosby -- recorded at Harrah's Hotel in Reno, Nevada -- back in 1973, when he was still pretty darn hip! As you'd guess from the title and cover, the emphasis here is on stories and bits involving Fat Albert -- the Cosby creation that was then playing big time in ...

Righteous poetry and jazz from Eugene Redmond -- aka Illu Gan Gan -- a very spiritual figure from the early 70s Bay Area scene! The album was recorded live in the studio, in a style that has Redmond introducing his work, then moving into dramatic recitations backed up by small combo jazz ...

Quite an unusual album from Moms Mabley -- one that actually has her singing, but also doing a fair bit of comedy as well! If anything, the tunes are almost parodies of famous versions -- sung by Mom with a great deal of charm, in her familiar raspy vocals -- and often filled with spoken ...

A key history lesson for those who thought that pot culture in music only started with Cypress Hill -- a weird sound play album originally issued by Elektra Records in the early 70s! The album's the brainchild of producer/director Ron Jacobs -- who put the whole thing together with a feel that's ...

Years before Redd Foxx broke onto the TV mainstream in the 70s, he was already drawing big crowds in Vegas -- thanks to wonderfully strong material like you'll hear on this CD! Foxx's presentation here is wonderful -- careful enough on topics to reach a crossover audience, but also down to earth ...

Redd's in his home turf here, recording at the Redd Foxx nightclub in LA -- and every bit as great as on some of his other 60s live dates from Vegas! The key to Redd's style here is timing -- a delivery that's a lot more subtle than you might expect from his famous TV work -- more based on word ...

Nothing psychedelic here, but in our book Redd Foxx is always a trip! The set's a classic batch of live material cut for the Loma label -- with Redd very much in his own element, performing before a very well-lubricated audience at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas! The album's a lot funnier than ...

A very cool record! Langston tells the story of jazz, using snippets of work from the Folkways catalog -- like tunes by Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodd, Ma Rainey, Leadbelly, and others -- all sewn together in a rich narrative on the history of the music, delivered with some surprising illumination by ...

Excellent stuff -- one of Redd's high-quality albums for the Loma label, arguably some of his finest ever -- because the recording quality is always high, and the material is pretty fresh throughout! If you only know Foxx from his work on TV, this album is a key example of the genius that got him ...

Both sides of Redd Foxx -- bawdy and classy! The album's one of Redd's great late 60s ones on Loma -- produced with a higher quality than some of the indie and knock-off sessions that were floating around at the time -- excellent sound that really highlights his sense of wordplay and timing, the ...

Very righteous work from this obscure 70s poet -- a contemporary to Nikki Giovanni, Camille Yarbrough, and others -- but not nearly as widely recorded! The album features no instrumentation, just Sonia reading her poems -- and the work itself is pretty progressive, very much in the spirit of other ...

This guy's neither the Sabu who played congas on Blue Note, nor the long-haired hard rocker from later years -- but Selar Shaik Sabu, an early Indian film star heard here on a dramatic recording from the 40s! The core part of the CD features a young Sabu reading selections from Rudyard Kipling's ...

Slappy runs through some comic routines at the Apollo, though this album's not nearly as blue as most of the party records you may find by black comics during this period. Includes "Story Tellin'", "Revival", "Drinking Man's Diet" and "The First Negro Vice ...

Funky comedy stuff from the "Super Soul Brother" and his alter ego "Clark Dark". The title cut's a funky song, and the most of the rest of this is straight comedy, with tracks like "The Ghetto", "Watergate", and "The College Students". ...

One of the rarer Malcolm X recordings -- at least in that it hasn't been copied again and again. The LP features a talk given by Malcolm to a group of teenagers who were brought up to New York from Mississippi by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for young people who had made an ...

Excellent work from Richard Pryor's early years -- a record done in the usual "party" style of the Laff label, but with a freewheeling and hip approach to the material that finds its humor in far more than just blue topics and sexual double-entendres! Pryor is frenetic and energetic ...

Classic Pigmeat -- recorded live at the Apollo at the height of his career, running through longer routines with Baby Seals, Al Collier, and Elurllie Beam. The routines are all in the sneakin around for some sneaky nookie sort of mode -- and titles include "A Lesson In Love", "The ...

Early genius from Pigmeat Markham -- a classic performance at the Apollo Theater, recorded by Chess in a style that would set the tone for countless imitations to come! The cover has kind of a "sad clown" sort of look, but Pigmeat's in full force on a series of routines that include ...

A strong, if un-dated, speech by Dr King -- one that breaks down the history of integration and race relations in America -- offering extreme insights on all points, of the sort that really gets at the power of his word back in the 60s. ...

Pretty good speech from the early 60's, and a good example of how powerful Malcolm X could be in person. The recording quality's a little tinny, but the album's still a good document of his words and knowledge. ...

Adult comedy from Wild Man Steve. Like a lot of party albums issued at this time there's no titles for the skits or track listing, or really any indication as to what topics he gets into, but it's Wildman Steve, so like a Redd Foxx set or some of the Richard Pryor records or other blue comedy ...

Quite an unusual double-length set for the time -- and a great example of the way that records often filled in on the market in the days before you could make money selling videotapes and DVDs! The 2LP set features Alex Haley telling the story of the material that went into Roots -- his research ...

Billed as "The Last Message" from Malcolm, but not exactly credited to any specific date or location. Still, the set's a nice package, with a striking cover, and 2 LPs of heavy vinyl with relatively good recording quality. One of the best of the less-than-legitimate Malcolm X releases. ...

Pigmeat Markham's first album -- recorded live at the Regal in Chicago, and featuring his then-famous "trial" routine -- plus a number of other similar gigs that come off equally well. There's a very nice balance here between the live, "party" type style of comedy -- and some ...

Not music, but an LP of comedy from one of the funkiest TV stars of the seventies! Plenty of great stuff to sample here, including "The Black Prince Has Arrived" and "Show Biz", a good bit on blacksploitation films. ...

Pre Jo Jo Dancer, pre-sobriety Richard Pryor, delivering the goods with skits like "Rumplestiltskin", "Country & Western Show", "Japanese Movies", "Swagger Stick", "Worms", "Churches" and "Heart & Brain". ...

One of the earliest issues of the words of Malcolm X -- featuring speeches on the topics "The Ballot Or The Bullet", "Black Nationalism", "Birmingham Sunday School Bombing", "Human & Civil Rights", and "Violence & Non Violence". ...

We're sure we don't need to remind you that in his coke addled prime, Richard Pryor was one funny m*therf*cker. This album includes "Supern!gger", "Girls", "The Bully", "Fighting", "Churches", "God Was A Junkie", "Boxing", " ...

A classic speech by Jesse Jackson -- one that became quite a hit for Stax's Respect subsidiary, and which was one of the better selling albums of its type in the early 70s. The album was recorded back in the days before Jesse had become a bit of a cliché, when he appeared to be emerging as ...

Speech excerpts from the 1972 documentary film, these are all short sound bites, all under a minute: "By Any Means Necessary", "Who Taught You To Hate Yourself?", "Pickin Cotton" & "American Nightmare" and half a dozen more. ...

Raunchy party comedy, of the sort that was made famous by Rudy Ray Moore, Blowfly, and others. Steve raps his way through a live set, with backing by a nice little jazz combo, which vamps behind him during most of the monologue. ...

Pryor really busted into the mainstream with this one -- as the album secured him a grammy for best comedy LP in the year it was released. Recorded live in San Francisco, at Don Cornelius' Soul Train -- with tracks that include "Wino & Junkie", "Flying Saucers", "Black ...

It's 1978 so that means Richard's heavy into the basing backstage, right? We can't tell for sure, but he cuts loose with the reckless abandon that we love about his late 70s records. Loads of hilarious skits, including 'White & Black People", "Black Funerals", 'Discipline" ...

A very "current events" oriented set -- one that sums up a variety of bigger news stories of the time, spinning them all out with a hip, underground take on the events. Richard and Willie (mostly Willie) dominate, but Richard Pryor gets in a bit too -- and the language on the album is ...