Early in his career, Donald Byrd spent some time in Paris – where he not only got a chance to work in a whole new setting with some really great players, but he also got to record some fantastic sides that still stand as some of his best hardbop work! This rare album was originally issued on the French Brunswick label – and it features a quintet that includes Bobby Jaspar on tenor, Walter Davis Jr on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. The set was recorded live – and the tracks are all quite long – really giving the group ample room to stretch out on hard-blowing solos with a lot of soul. Titles include "Ray's Idea", "Flute Blues", "Paul's Pal", "Dear Old Stockholm", and "The Blues Walk". LP, Vinyl record album

The second volume of work that Donald Byrd recorded live at the Olympia in Paris in 1958 – even harder-hitting in tone than the first! The set features Byrd playing some tight hardbop lines – working in a cool group that also features Bobby Jaspar on tenor, Walter Davis Jr on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Art Taylor on drums – all players who come together with the sound and style of some of those great late 50s Prestige blowing sessions! The difference, though, is that Byrd is the clear leader here – working his trumpet solos with techniques that really show him growing as an artist on this Paris trip – forging a tight vision into the music that makes it way more than just a loose bop exercise on stage. You'll hear that especially on "52nd Street Theme", but the whole set's pretty darn great – and tracks include "At This Time", "Formidable", "Two Bass Hit", "Parisian Thoroughfare", and "Stardust". LP, Vinyl record album

A 70s indie club classic – and the only album we've ever seen from Maryann Farra & Satin Soul! The group have a sound that's equal parts Brunswick Chicago soul and New York early disco groove – a combination that's brought out even more by the production talents of disco maestro Tony Valor and Chi-soul genius Eugene Record! The tunes groove along in a really rich style of arrangement – often using sweeping strings over tighter rhythms – sometimes hitting the loping midtempo groove you'd expect from Brunswick records at the time, yet also going for some of the faster, freer rhythms that were cropping up on the east coast indies of the time. Some tracks have a tight dancefloor feel – like "Never Gonna Leave You", "Do Those Little Things", and "Just A Little Timing" – while others have a beautiful soul groove – like "You Got To Be The One" and "Living In The Footsteps of Another Girl" – which both have a sound that feels like it was lifted from a lost Barbara Acklin or Chi-Lites album! The set also includes a female soul remake of "Stoned Out Of My Mind" that's almost worth the price of the record alone! LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the earliest work we've ever heard from German tenorist Joki Freund – a player who'd trip out a bit more in later years, but who blows here with a sound that's sharp, modern, and very swinging throughout! The group features trombone from Albert Mangelsdorff, who's also on the straighter side of the spectrum here – plus alto from Emil Mangelsdorff, sounding a lot more modern than on other recordings – really matching the energy of both hornmen, as they all step out in a piano-less group that only features the bass of Harry Schell and drums of Rudi Sehring on rhythm! The music has echoes of better-known 50s modernists – like Lee Konitz or Jimmy Giuffre on our side of the Atlantic, or Hans Koller in Freund's German scene – and the package features live material from a 1957 album, plus additional studio tracks from the rare Joki's Sparkle EP. Titles include "Nico", "Freund Point", "Vie La France", "Swinging Pigeons", "Domicile", "Rudy's Theme", and "From Lighthouse To Frankfurt". LP, Vinyl record album

Killer work from one of the funkiest leaders on the Chicago scene – the mighty mighty Willie Henderson, force behind some of the city's greatest soul tracks and funky 45s! This album's like a stack of lost funky nuggets laid back to back – with lots and lots of bass-heavy grooving from the band, and plenty of instrumental riffing on guitar and horns! Most tracks are instrumental, but often feature some nice shouted or spoken bits – and the whole thing's stuffed to the rafters with great breaks, beats, and grooves! Titles include "Funky Chicken (parts 1 & 2)", "Off Into A Black Thing", "Soulful Football", "Sugar Sugar", "Can I Change My Mind", and "Is It Something You Got". Also includes two very funky bonus tracks – "Loose Booty" and "Break Your Back". LP, Vinyl record album

Massive! This is probably the best-ever album of rollerskating grooves – and is the most famous entry into a short-lived funk genre that sprung up around the rollerskating craze of the late 70s and early 80s. The rollerskate sound took a tight stepping funk groove from earlier years, and mixed it with the extended instrumental style of club music – creating a sound that was a mix of funk and disco that worked perfectly for skating around a track, and which had a huge influence on the beat of early hip hop. The centerpiece of the album's the massive sample track "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" – an instantly recognizable number that features tight vamping guitar and good choppy rhythms. The cut's offered up here in 2 parts – and the rest of the record's just as great, with titles that include "Roller Skate", "We're Gonna Funk You Up", and "Thinking About You Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from R&B legend Percy Mayfield – one of the singer's most obscure sessions, and really more of a soul record overall! The album was done for Brunswick at the end of the 60s – and has lots of work from Chicago soul arrangers like Johnny Cameron and Willie Henderson – both of whom give the set a nice sort of west side kick, with a groove that's somewhere in between Syl Johnson and Tyrone Davis! Mayfield's vocals definitely still hang onto an older school of singing – but the arrangements can't help but update his groove – and a number of the tracks have this great funky crackle at the bottom that's a mighty nice surprise. Titles include "I Made It Just The Same", "Alma Lee", "My Baby's Gone", "To Me Your Name Is Love", "PM Blues", and "Danger Zone". LP, Vinyl record album

Quite possibly the greatest soul band ever to come out of Milwaukee – and a tight little ensemble who've got a really great sound! The overall feel of their work is a bit hard to peg – as the group are equally great at mellow midtempo group numbers as they are at tighter, clubbier tunes that snap with a bit more of a horn-heavy sound – and throughout the record there's a really playful feel that shows that whatever the sound, whatever the setting, these guys just had a heck of a great time working with each other! That quality can be heard especially well on the title track "I Always Wanted To Be In The Band" – a great little number that's almost an updating of the TSU Tornadoes sound for the 70s – but the whole set's great, and other tracks move into some great super-dope production that we really love! Titles include "I Am A Lonely Man", "People", "Cool Days Are Out Of Style", "I Ain't Never Gonna Let You Go", and "Cash Money". LP, Vinyl record album

A mindblowing album of electric piano tracks! Don Walker was a funky pianist from Chicago who worked briefly with the Young-Holt Unlimited group – and who cut a rare few albums of his own for the Brunswick label. This second solo album features some excellent Fender Rhodes work by Don – set to a very mellow set of grooves with conga, electric bass, and percussion in the rhythm group. In a way, the record feels similar to the work of the Cabildos group in Italy – but with less of the band's heavy funk moments. Titles include "Sun Ray", "DM", "Inner Face Rebirth", "Black Marble", and a nice mellow version of "Children Of The Night". Great all the way through – and a real treasure if you dig mellow electric grooves! LP, Vinyl record album

An early Christmas gem from Jackie Wilson – a record that really shows his versatility as a singer, as he takes on a number of different Holiday tunes in a variety of moods! Jackie's a soul singer first and foremost, but he can also sparkle with jazzier and more traditional material – which he touches on here in the company of arrangers Nat Tarnopol, Dick Jacobs, and Alan Lorber. The sound is socking soul on the best numbers – but also gets ambitious and somber on some of the others – making for a nice well-rounded Holiday set, on titles that include "Joy To The World", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", "Silent Night", "White Christmas", "The First Noel", and "Silver Bells". LP, Vinyl record album

A great combination of funk and soul – upbeat and mellow on the same album, served up by this rare indie combo from the 70s! The album's one of the few to appear on the elite BRC imprint of Brunswick Records – home to some incredible work over just a very short stretch, including this near-perfect set of sounds from Total Eclipse! The record begins with a few mellow numbers that would be right at home in the New Jersey soul scene of the early 70s – then rolls into some upbeat funk tracks that aren't disco at all, but show that quicker variant of funk that came to the forefront back when the clubs still had a nice sort of edge. Instrumentation includes lots of offbeat touches on the rhythms – and some cool moog on one track – and lead singer Bernard Fowler has this great quality that's heartbreaking when it wants to be, and positive at other moments. Titles include "St Albans Strut", "Midtown", "A Great Combination", "Loneliness", "Space Boogie", and "Plain Insane". LP, Vinyl record album