A great little album from Georgie Fame – with a hard raw soul sound that shows what a big crossover potential he had with the UK soul market – so much so that this batch of material was issued in the US as well! The album's got some wonderful arrangements – quite raw, with some nice organ, and plenty of heavy vocals from Georgie in a strong blue eyed soul mode. Titles include "Sitting In The Park", "Get Away", "Sweet Thing", "Ride Your Pony", "The In Crowd", "Last Night", and "Music Talk". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant mix of jazz, soul, and R&B – all filtered through a mod sort of London freshness, as early proof that the city could always take some great things from our own musical roots, and feed it back to us with a whole new flavor! Georgie Fame's no copycat here, though – and the sound is instantly Fame-like – a style that's really not the sort that any Americans were doing at the time, and certainly never this well. Hard-burning Hammond colors most of the tunes here – played with a tightly vamping quality – but it's Georgie's charmingly crackling vocals that really win us over! Titles include "Gimme That Wine", "Pink Champagne", "Monkeying Around", "I Love The Life I Live", "Point Of No Return", "Preach & Teach", "Get On The Right Track Baby", and the hit "Yeh Yeh". LP, Vinyl record album

Early work from The Peddlers – the unique British trio who went onto cut some incredible break tracks in their day! This set's got the group more in the "beat" mode of things – still nicely syncopated, and working with the mix of guitar and organ that makes their tunes so nice – but with less of an emphasis on the downturning grooves that made some of their later work a bit more funky. Still quite nice, though, in the mode of early Georgie Fame – and with tracks that include "Gassin", "What'll I Do?", "Delicious Lady", "Adam's Apple", "True Girl", and "Anybody's Fool". LP, Vinyl record album

Leon Russell at the height of his powers – really firmly on his own in the lead, after so many years in the background – and working with a confidence that makes the whole thing completely charming right from the get-go! Like a rare few – a short list that might include Mose Allison, Dr John, or Georgie Fame – Russell is able to reference roots without any sort of hoke, and easily make them into a sound and style that's all his own – in this case with some mod touches of the jazz promised in the title, but also touches of Texas, New Orleans, and maybe a bit of his Tusla home turf too. Titles include versions of "If I Were A Carpenter", "Smashed", "Wild Horses", and "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown" – plus the originals "Stop All That Jazz", "Mona Lisa Please", "Working Girl", and "Time For Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A massive Fender Rhodes set from early 70s Belgium – the kind of set that never shows up on this side of the Atlantic, and which is pretty darn rare in its home territory too! Keyboardist Jack Van Poll has a wonderful sense of space on this set – a way of letting the tunes build simply and gracefully – often with a slow-growing groove that lets the Rhodes roll along wonderfully – never too slow, though, and always with a sweet funky undercurrent! And while we'd never heard of Jack before this set, he's got a great sense of style and imagination on his solos – very open, but always with a soulful undercurrent. The rest of the trio includes Mary Hehuat on Fender bass and Ruud Pronk on drums – and titles include "Marriedyet", "Blue Tait", "A Box For Leslie", "Sweet Georgie Fame", "Passage To Pferov", and "Objizdka". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful mid 70s session from Blossom Dearie – a small combo outing, but one that's less in the straighter trio style of some of her other records on the Daffodil label! The keyboards here are mostly electric, and used in a way that provides warmly flowing lines alongside Blossom's sweet vocals – in a style that almost makes the record feel like a fuller studio effort, but which retains the close-up and personal sense that always makes a Dearie record sound best. Titles are nearly all original numbers penned with Blossom's great sense of humor – with numbers that include "Hey John", "Sweet Georgie Fame", "I'm Shadowing You", "Many's The Time", "Isn't That The Thing To Do", "How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehn", and "Saving My Feeling For You". LP, Vinyl record album

A mighty nice pairing of talents – the great Van Morrison, working here in a soul jazz setting with plenty of work on Hammond from the equally great Joey DeFrancesco! The album's a lot like the one that Van cut with Georgie Fame years back – and with all that organ, the sound is a bit like Fame's work of the 60s – much more in a soul jazz mode than any of Morrison's work from his early years, and a great setting for his mature vocals – which still have all the charm of before, but have maybe changed in a way that suits a jazz setting more than the albums of his early solo years. The group's also got some strong tenor from Troy Roberts, and Joey plays some trumpet too – on titles that include "Celtic Swing", "Sticks & Stones", "Close Enough For Jazz", "Goldfish Bowl", "Have I Told You Lately", "All Saint's Day", "Hold It Right There", "Miss Otis Regrets", and "Magic Time". LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent album of party grooves from The Hombres – a bit sunshine pop, a bit folk rock, but with some nice earthy touches that almost bring in a bit of a beat group feel to the set! The group's got a nice Hammond organ undercurrent – spinning out in the style that you'd hear underneath work by Zoot Money or Georgie Fame from the time – although The Hombres' vocal approach is often a bit sweeter at times, with a really nice jingle-jangle feel! The album's worth it alone for the stellar title cut "Let It Out", which is a fantastic bit of blue-eyed funk that never gets old – but the whole thing's pretty great, and other tracks include "Am I High", "So Sad", "Little 2 + 2", "It's A Gas",a nd "Hey Little Girl". LP, Vinyl record album

With selections by White Lightnin', Blackfoot, Fairport Convention, John Cale, Georgie Fame, and Paul Kossoff. LP, Vinyl record album