Features music by Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo, The Coasters, Marvin Gaye, Gene Allison, Rufus Thomas, Muddy Waters, Irma Thomas, Don Covay, Howlin Wolf, Alvin Robinson, Dale, Eric Donaldson, and the Temptations. CD

Revolutionary jazz from the era of the Civil Rights Movement and beyond – soulful and spiritual jazz as important as any of the era – an impeccably well chosen compilation of Freedom, Rhythm & Sound from Soul Jazz Records! The set is a tie-in with Soul Jazz's essential Freedom, Rhythm & Sound book – documenting the sounds and providing an aural portrait of a fertile creative period in African American music and cultural history – when the societal struggles were a counterpart to the heretofore unseen depth of creativity and empowerment in jazz music. Includes a nice booklet of notes, and songs from both the independent underground, and some that made it onto established labels like Verve and others, and material by Joe Henderson, Archie Shepp, Errol Parker, Mary Lou Williams, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Horace Tapscott, Sun Ra and many more. 23 pivotal tracks on 2CDs, many running on the longer side, for a straight up incredible set of spiritual soul jazz: includes "Africa" by Oliver Lake/NTU, "Space A Nova" by Stanton Davis' Ghetto/Mysticism, "Miss DD" by Mary Lou Williams, "Old Time Religion" by Art Ensemble Of Chicago, "Drinking Song" by Gary Bartz NTU Troop, "Attica Blues" by Archie Shepp, "Peyote Song No III" by Horace Tapscott & Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, "Freedom Time" by Pharoahs, "Black Survival" by Roy Brooks & Artistic Truth and more. CD

A killer! Take the funky genius of Kenny Dope and Keb Darge, set them loose on a pile of rare funky 45s, and you've got one of the best sets of music we've ever carried! Both guys really know their stuff – and they've done an excellent job with this set, which is easily as great as any of the Keb Darge ones, if not better! Hard drums, rumbling bass, blaring horns, choppy guitars, and screaming vocals abound – and the set's a great blend of instrumental and vocal funk, all with that deep deep deep sound that never gets old! Titles include "Get It Off The Ground" by Joe Coleman, "I Got Some" by Billy Gardner, "UFO" by Micky & Them, "Contradiction" by Total Experience, "Soul Food" by Frankie Seay & The Soul Riders, "I Turn You On" by Latin Breed, "Don't Push Your Luck" by The Peacemakers, "Grandma's Funky Popcorn" by The Soul Generals, "Ghost A Go Go" by Richard Rome, and "Cissy Strut N American Woman" by The Willard Posey Reunion. Great stuff – and 20 cuts in all! CD

A fantastic package that explores the full range of genius on the legendary avant label BYG/Actuel – one of the most important European imprints at the end of the 60s! Actuel was home to some of the best avant garde jazz coming out of Paris in the late 60s and early 70s – an especially important document of the post-68 revolution in European music – at a time when so many American players where showing up in France, and finding great opportunities in the new freedoms of the scene! The package features seminal sides from US avant musicians – like Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Clifford Thornton, Don Cherry, Jimmy Lyons, Archie Shepp, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Grachan Moncur III, and The Art Ensemble Of Chicago – and it also features work by European musicians like Claude Delcloo and Jacques Coursil, plus genre-busting work by MEV and Gong as well. The 3CD box features a 48 page book – with lots of great illustrations, and notes from Thurston Moore and Byron Coley – and the set features 26 long tracks in all! (Jazz, Funky Compilations) CD

Not just jazz travels, but Brazilian, funk, and soul as well – all pulled together by Oli Stewart (Casbah 73) into one of the hippest compilations we've heard in years! Before making his own music, Oli spent more than a decade travelling the globe on record-buying trips – not just the US, but Brazil, Brussels, and many points global – all in search of an unheard snippet of funky soul or jazzy groove! This incredible little set brings together a dozen nuggets from those key crate-digging years – a good deal of which have never been reissued before, and especially not in such fantastic company. The overall vibe is warm, jazz-influenced, and filled with great keyboards, vocals, and rhythms that run from bossa-influenced to European modal, with plenty of American touches in between! Titles include "Silly Savage" by Adam Ross Reeds, "Don't Kill Your Fantasy" by Chinchilla, "Enfa" by Gerardo Batiz, "David" by Celia, "Cross Country" by Archie Whitewater, "Right Now" by Salena Jones, "Consolacao" by Luiz Eca, "Tornei A Caminhar" by Sebastiao Tabajos & Pedro Dos Santos, "Snowflake" by Ronnie April's Positive Energy, "Tocata" by Fernando Tordo, "Just Say Goodbye" by Esther Phillips, and "Negro En Sol Menor" by Daniel Lencina & Candombes De Van Guardia. CD

An amazing compilation – a decade in the making, and filled with wonderful grooves – most of which have never appeared on CD or LP reissues! And while the music itself is already wonderful, the package also includes an amazing 80 page book, too – a rich research project that digs deep into the American underground of the 70s – and features a wealth of photos, images, and historical details on music that never got it's due back in the day! The set's based around the groundbreaking series of Soul Cal 12" reissues put together by Stones Throw about a decade ago – wonderful records that unearthed rare grooves that fall beautifully in a space between funk and club – almost all originally issued on tiny little labels from all over the US, but working together to create a rich vibe in the set. Given the book, there's a Numero-like heft to the whole thing – although the range of grooves is even greater than one of their collections – and titles include "Ecology" by Anubis, "You Can Be A Star" by Luther Davis, "Don't Get Discouraged" by UPC All Stars, "Things Cannot Stop Forever" by Stanton Davis, "Free Your Mind" by Record Player, "Get Down" by Freedom Express, "Keep Running Away" by Clifford Nyren, "Love Is" by Leon Mitchison & The Eastex Freeway Band, "What It Takes To Live" by Key & Cleary, "I'm Gonna Miss You Girl" by Ellis & Cephas, "It's A Bad Feeling" by Mixed Sugar, and "Put A Smile On Time" by Rhythm Machine. CD

The Jazzman label hits a whole new level of brilliance – as they turn their funk-trained crate digging skills to the world of spiritual jazz! The collection's an amazing batch of ultra-rare tunes – tracks that take inspiration from the John Coltrane/Archie Shepp work on Impulse Records in the 60s, then run with those roots in bold new directions – soaring, spiritual aims in jazz that reach for new freedoms, but never lapse into the totally-outside modes of free jazz! Instead, there's a really great balance here between structure and struggle – as many tunes often have a good rhythmic pulse, usually modal and soulful, then let the horn solos stretch out more in their own sounds and directions. The mix is amazing, as is the selection of tunes – rare numbers pulled mostly from American independent jazz releases of the 60s and 70s – most of which are as obscure as the funky 45s we normally get from Jazzman. As with the label's US funk compilations, there's full notes on all the music – a heck of a lot of detail on these artists – and tracks on the set include "Paul's Ark" by Morris Wilson Beau Bailey Quintet, "Ayo Ayo Nene" by Mor Thiam, "Nomusa" by Ndikho Xaba & The Natives, "The Afrikan In Winter" by The Positive Force, "Neveen" by Salah Ragab, "Ja Mil" by Hastings Street Jazz Experience, "Be There" by Leon Gardner, "Psych City" by Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble, "Introduction" by James Tatum Trio Plus, and "No Jive" by Frank Derrick Total Experience. US pressing has 2 bonus tracks – "All Prasies To Allah (parts 1 & 2 edit)" by Lightmen Plus One, and "Bada Que Bash" by PE Hewitt Jazz Ensemble. CD

The very first album from Coxone Dodd – the start of a huge legacy that ran into classic Studio One Records productions of the 60s and 70s, and which started with this initial album of early Jamaican grooves! There's plenty of jazz in the mix here – freer-flowing solos than you'd hear in Jamaican music a few years later – especially on the saxophone lines, which seem to get strong solo space in both the vocal and instrumental cuts! The music has some strong currents of American R&B at points, particularly the jazzier west coast variety – but the rhythms are already clearly the sound of Kingston, and really give the music a unique appeal. Titles include "Campus Hop" by Dennis Sindrey & Rico, "Beeston Street Riff" by Clue J & His Blues Blasters, "I Done You Wrong" by Simms & Robinson, "Freedom" by Clancey Eccles, "Donna" by Blues Busters, "I Was Wrong" by Winston Samuel, "Rub Up" by Dennis Sindrey & City Clickers, and "Little Willie" by Aubrey Adams & Blues Blasters. (Reggae, Funky Compilations) CD

An incredible addition to the rich legacy of Stax Records – a massive collection of 146 tracks, almost all of which appear here for the first time ever – a set that represents recordings done by all the great songwriters who were working for Stax at the time, most of whom were also recording artists on the label! Given that fact, these aren't scratchy recordings performed by hacks who can't sing – as almost all the material features the sort of top-shelf vocalists who made Stax such a deep soul powerhouse in the 60s and 70s – represented here in a style that shows just how much freedom of creative expression the label allowed its best – very different than the way some of the bigger companies would just cram a song down a quickly-booked session in the studio! Plus, these demo tracks are done in a variety of modes – some with very stripped-down instrumentation, some with fuller groups – and together, they offer a key look at the creative process at Stax – one that's very different than the iconic sound of productions in their Memphis studio, and which really shows an even deeper range of expression through the variety of approaches. The 7CD set has a really cool approach – CDs 1, 2, and 3 feature demos by Stax artists singing their own material; CD4 features Stax singer/songwriters working on non-Stax material; and CDs 5, 6, and 7 feature songs by these artists that were never issued at the time! The set includes work by The Staple Singers, William Bell, Carla Thomas, Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks, Eddie Floyd, Veda Brown, Frederick Knight, Mack Rice, Delaney Bramlett, Jimmy Hughes, and many others – and the package features 146 tracks in all, with copious notes on the material! (Soul, Funky Compilations) CD

An incredible addition to the rich legacy of Stax Records – a massive collection of 146 tracks, almost all of which appear here for the first time ever – a set that represents recordings done by all the great songwriters who were working for Stax at the time, most of whom were also recording artists on the label! Given that fact, these aren't scratchy recordings performed by hacks who can't sing – as almost all the material features the sort of top-shelf vocalists who made Stax such a deep soul powerhouse in the 60s and 70s – represented here in a style that shows just how much freedom of creative expression the label allowed its best – very different than the way some of the bigger companies would just cram a song down a quickly-booked session in the studio! Plus, these demo tracks are done in a variety of modes – some with very stripped-down instrumentation, some with fuller groups – and together, they offer a key look at the creative process at Stax – one that's very different than the iconic sound of productions in their Memphis studio, and which really shows an even deeper range of expression through the variety of approaches. The 7CD set has a really cool approach – CDs 1, 2, and 3 feature demos by Stax artists singing their own material; CD4 features Stax singer/songwriters working on non-Stax material; and CDs 5, 6, and 7 feature songs by these artists that were never issued at the time! The set includes work by The Staple Singers, William Bell, Carla Thomas, Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks, Eddie Floyd, Veda Brown, Frederick Knight, Mack Rice, Delaney Bramlett, Jimmy Hughes, and many others – and the package features 146 tracks in all, with copious notes on the material! (Soul, Funky Compilations) CD