A standout set from keyboardist Neil Larsen – a record that crossed over big back in the 70s, and which still sounds pretty darn great in the 21st Century! Larsen's keys here are kind of a more mainstream take on territory Bob James was exploring a few years before – arguably hipper at this point that some of James' own recordings, and recorded in a relatively lean setting with guitar, bass, drums, and percussion – plus a bit of tenor or trumpet from time to time. The keyboards glide along gently on the spacey numbers, and get a bit more bite on some of the funkier ones – always with a good sense of space that means that Neil's never jamming too much, or getting in the way of his groove. Titles include the classic "Sudden Samba" – plus "Jungle Fever", "Red Desert", "Emerald City", "Last Tango In Paris", "Windsong", and "Promenade". LP, Vinyl record album

An album that's smoother than some of Ronnie's earlier work, and perhaps without the same dark edge – but still a nice batch of soulful fusion tunes, with production by Wayne Henderson, in his classic 70s At-Home Productions mode! By that, we mean that a number of the tracks have a good stepping feel that mixes standout jazz solos with smoother backings – in a way that still keeps a lot of soul, but which also takes on kind of an R&B finish. Titles include "Let's Keep it Together", "Captain Midnite", "Night Breeze", and "Stay Still". LP, Vinyl record album

Smooth and soulful guitar work from Cornell Dupree – a player who recorded on countless sessions as a studio sideman, but didn't break out as a leader until the late 70s! The set has a full sound that's in the mode of the larger Kudu/CTI productions of the time – an approach that takes larger orchestrations and uses them as the backdrop for Dupree's work on guitar, often with a fair bit of keyboard support on Rhodes, Korg and piano from Mario Sprouse, who arranged the set. The set's made up of pop tunes from the day, and will remind you of 70s am radio at some level, which for us isn't a terrible thing, though there is a commercial sheen to the whole affair that still has a touch of what we love about the funky dancefloor style of David Matthews during the same stretch – and the album features a total of 7 tracks that include "Stayin' Alive", "Slip, Slidin' Away", "How Deep Is Your Love", "Lovely Day", "Boogie Nights", "It's So Easy", and "Shake It Well". LP, Vinyl record album

A real 70s stormer from Frank Foster – recorded with the Loud Minority ensemble used for the Mainstream album of the same name, done in a style that's a bit more straight ahead, yet still plenty darn soulful! Frank's hanging here between the two sides of his career – working in a larger band mode at one level, yet also scoring some charts that are a lot hipper than anything the Basie generation might have imagined! The rhythm section on the set features Mickey Tucker on piano, Earl May on bass, and Charlie Persip on drums – augmented by a bit of extra percussion and guitar from time to time, in a way that really makes the tunes skip along nicely. Frank himself is on both soprano and tenor sax – sounding great on the album's title remake of his "Manhattan Fever" – and also stretching out on longer tunes that include Ronnie Matthews' great "Marie Jean", and Frank's originals "Thruway Traffic" and "Four Five Six". LP, Vinyl record album

A very different record than previous releases from Mansur Brown – as the musician really takes the "mixtape" in the title seriously, and blends plenty of beats and production touches with some jazz instrumentation at the core! That instrumentation is mostly in the background – so that the record is less of a jazz-solo-over-beats affair – and more in that post-jazz approach that so many of Mansur's London contemporaries have unlocked – pushed even father here in the mixtape approach, with a vibe that's hinted at by the hip hop styled image on the cover. Titles include "No Way", "My Luck", "Fever", "Rise", "Me & You", and "Mission". LP, Vinyl record album

A heady set from these two longtime funk legends – Eric Krasno on guitar and Stanton Moore on drums – working in a tight trio that also features Eric Finland on Hammond, Wurlitzer, and Mellotron – all in a sharply soulful groove that definitely lives up to the legacy of both players! Krasno has a nicely sharp edge at times, which really rings out wonderfully in the lean setting – and although the trio get a few guest visits from Cory Henry, Branford Marsalis, and Robert Randolph, we like them best on their own. Titles include "Stay High", "Lost Cause", "Fever", "Nobody's Baby", "Carried Away", "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free", and "A Natural Woman". (Deep Funk, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A really beautiful intersection of sounds – served up here by a really well-matched group led by Tomeka Reid on cello, with guitar from Mary Halverson, bass from Jason Roebke, and drums from Tomas Fujiwara! Reid has always been great, but in recent years she really seems to be knocking it out of the park, and giving us surprises we never would have expected years ago – something that's definitely the case with Halvorson, who's got a nicely different quality here than on her own albums – still all the great phrasing, but with a different focus – maybe in part because the rock-solid basswork of Roebke seems to hold the whole thing together so well. Titles include "Turning Inward/Sometimes You Just Have To Run With It", "Exploring Outward/Funambulist Fever", and "Sauntering With Mr Brown". LP, Vinyl record album

A massive assortment of tracks that go way past the familiar – not a collection of standard classics from Blue Note, Impulse, or Prestige – and instead a whole host of jazzy groovers that we'd never have discovered otherwise! This volume of the series does a great job mixing in contemporary cuts with rare nuggets from years past – in ways that never make you notice the passage of years, as almost all of this work is rooted in a solid blend of tight rhythms and inventive improvisation – heavy on acoustic instrumentation, but with occasional electric moments too! Imagine the kind of groove that Gilles Peterson used to turn us onto years back, when he was spinning rare jazz records, and you'll get the vibe here – served up on titles that include "Tape Your Beat" by Born 74 & Onj, "Still In Love" by GeeW, "46 To Somewhere" by The Sultan's Swing, "Unreachable Galaxy" by Stefano Di Santis, "Movin" by Charro Band De Emilio Guerro, "Caught In A Fever" by Moreen Meridian, "Mr Fool" by Alonson Gonzalez & Jazz Latino, and "Cla Samba" by Juju. (Funky Compilations, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A mighty great little record – a mixture of jazz and soul from the heavy talents of Hilton Felton – and a record that not only features some of his own great work on organ and keyboards, but some great contributions from other members of the DC scene of the 70s! In addition to help from The Blackbyrds in the core combo, and guest tenor from Andrew White, the set also features vocals from a young Angela Winbush on one track – singing backup on some others! But the core charm of the record comes from the grooves – the kind of upbeat, righteous sounds that we've always loved in Felton's keyboards – almost an extension of the Prestige Records jazz funk groove from the start of the 70s, with echoes of records by Funk Inc, Melvin Sparks, and Leon Spencer – but given a particularly hip east coast indie sort of spin! Titles include "Family & Friends", "Spreading Fever", "Never Can Say Goodbye", "Family Reunion", "Clay's Way", and "The Power Of Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic album from one of the coolest groups to emerge from the southern rock scene of the 70s – a combo who can be as tight and jazzy as The Crusaders one minute, then show off their down home roots the next! Sea Level have a sound that's impeccable throughout this self-titled set – almost a Macon, Georgia answer to the sound of Steely Dan in LA – and the set mixes instrumental tracks that have a jazzy fusion vibe with more straightforward tracks that hit the soul-inspired sound of southern rock in the years after the rise of Memphis and Muscle Shoals. The jazz cuts are the real charmers – tremendous stuff that we'd rank right up there with the best fusion of the period – and titles include "Rain In Spain", "Shake A Leg", "Grand Larceny", "Scarborough Fair", "Just A Good Feeling", "Tidal Wave", and "Nothing Matters But The Fever". (Rock, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

The Ebony Godfather is grooving here with a set of fuller backings – sweet clubby funk, arranged and conducted by Brad Baker (of B Baker Chocolate Company fame) – all as a showcase for Joe's sweet work on flute and tenor sax! There's a fair bit of keyboards on the tunes – played by Pat Rebillot and Barry Miles – and Steve Gadd's playing the drums on the date, which helps the rhythms keep a bit of an edge, even amidst the larger backing. Some cuts have backing chorus vocals, in a style used on other Thomas albums – and although definitely touched by a bit of disco fever, the album's still got a jazzy element too – like some of the crossover club sessions on the Kudu label from the 70s! Titles include "Funky Fever", "Feelins From Within", "Polarizer", "Coco", "Galaxy Dreamin", and "Venus". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal statement from drummer Jack DeJohnette – a musician who'd already made a pretty big impact in the years before this set – but who really seemed to take off with his New Directions group on ECM! Every player in the lineup is a key sonic pioneer on their instrument – John Abercrombie on guitar, with his great sense of color and tone – Eddie Gomez on bass, with that soundshaping ability he developed with Bill Evans – trumpeter Lester Bowie, really finding a voice here away from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – and drummer DeJohnette, beautifully set free in territory far beyond standard rhythm! The mix of all four musicians is wonderful – and still quite fresh after all these years, despite how many folks might have tried to copy the approach – on titles that include "Dream Stalker", "Where Or Wayne", "Silver Hollow", "One Handed Woman", and "Bayou Fever". LP, Vinyl record album

The Ramsey Lewis Trio gets some additional orchestral backings – and with great results! The set features Ramsey, Eldee Young, and Red Holt – all playing their usual pyrotechnic blend of soul jazz and swing – supported by larger arrangements handled by Riley Hampton, done in a style that never gets in the way – but which creates some really cook banks for Ramsey and crew to soar off of! Titles include "Spring Fever", "Sound Of Spring", "Truly Truly Spring", "Soft Winds", and "Blue Spring". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic collection from the early days of the Ubiquity/Luv & Haight label – the kind of groundbreaking funk collection that set the tone for so many others! This set's got some real killers – including Hilton Felton's "Spreadin' Fever", Don Cunningham's "Tabu","Fantasy" by PIR Square, "Hip City" by Roy Porter, and the Chili Peppers' "Chicken Scratch", a funky hard scratchy guitar track that makes the Meters look like a bunch of wimps! Worth it for this track alone! (Funky Compilations, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most expressive albums ever from German jazzmen Rolf and Joachim Kuhn – an obscure American date cut for Impulse Records in the late 60s! This session pairs the Kuhn brothers – on clarinet and piano, respectively – with John Coltrane's bassist Jimmy Garrison and Italian drummer Aldo Romano – a really global mix of musicians, with sounds that definitely show that reach of talents! Unlike some of their other recordings, which at their most out explored some of the further reaches of modal playing, this is quite free, with an unrelenting momentum that never seems to lose steam even in the contemplative moments, probably inspired by the fever pitch the "New Thing" was generating on the New York scene in the mid 60s. The improvisations don't ever trade their intuitive sense for outright noise – and the two side long parts of the New York suite are divided into sections: "Arrival", "The Saddest Day", "Reality", and "Predictions". LP, Vinyl record album

A really early experiment in mixing South African styles with jazz – a set that's maybe more strongly on some of Township modes of the years before than a few of the other key modern projects of the time! Instrumentation often has pennywhistle in the lead on solos, used in a way a funky flute might on an American jazz set – and the rhythms often have raw hand percussion, mixed with warmer riffing currents on electric guitar – creating this sense of balance that gives the whole record a hell of a lot of charm! The sound is nice and lean, in a really great way – and titles include "Abbey's Mood", "Lousy Fever", "A Tribute To Birds", "Blues After Lunch", "Grab This For Me", "Root Of Africa", "Vuma Mbari", and "Jikeleza". (Global Grooves, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal album from the Three Sounds – one that has the group moving past the straighter trio format of their initial Blue Note sides, really hinting at the funkier sounds to come on their classic albums of the late 60s! Gene Harris is definitely taking a page from the Ramsey Lewis bag at times – playing the piano with a wonderfully heavy left hand, which makes for a killer groove, and a feel that's a lot more soul jazz than usual. Plus, a few tracks also feature Harris working on organ – which really changes up the sound nicely too, and almost puts the album somewhere in the territory that Cadet and Prestige Records were hitting at the time! Titles include "Fever", "Pavane", "Charade", "Let's Go Get Stoned", and "Something You Got", plus a nice original called "The Frown". LP, Vinyl record album

Donald Byrd in a sweet electric mode – as you'd guess from the title! The set was recorded right before Byrd's legendary run with Larry Mizell in the early 70s – and the electric approach is a bit different here – a style that blends Byrd's wonderful trumpet lines with the larger ensemble mode Blue Note sometimes used in the late 60s, but with a spacey, stretched-out feel that's mighty nice! The album's somewhat similar to Byrd's Kofi set – but possibly a bit more open overall – and players here include Duke Pearson on electric piano, Jerry Dodgion on alto and sopranos ax, Frank Foster on tenor, Pepper Adams on baritone, Hermeto Pascoal on flute, Wally Richardson on guitar, Ron Carter on bass, Mickey Roker on drums, and Airto on percussion. Pearson produced, and probably arranged too – given a slight Brazilian undercurrent to the grooves – and titles include "Estavanico", "Essence", "The Dude", and "Xibaba". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare funky treasure – lost live material from Grant Green's hippest years at Blue Note – recorded in the early 70s funky years, but unissued for decades! The set's an incredibly smoking one – with loads of long tracks that really stretch out in a hard-hitting, bottom-heavy funky mode – no surprise, considering that Idris Muhammad's on drums, as part of a lineup that also includes Ronnie Foster on organ, Houston Person on tenor, and the more obscure Clarence Thomas on soprano sax and tenor! The groove here is a bit more Prestige jazz funk than Blue Note – the kind of rough-edged and spontaneous vibe that Rusty Bryant, Leon Spencer, and others cooked up during the early 70s on some of their best classics for that label – but Green's a perfect person to catch the spirit of that wildfire, and jams long and nicely here on 8 tracks that include "Farid", "Jan Jan", "One More Chance", "Patches", "I Am Somebody", "More Today Than Yesterday", "Bottom Of The Barrel", and "Walk On By". LP, Vinyl record album

Genius early work from the legendary Thad Jones – one of his greatest albums ever, and a sublime tribute to his talents on the trumpet! Jones has a groove here that definitely fits in nicely with the title – some of the more contemplative, expressive modes of his native Detroit scene – honed with a bit more of the sharpness that New York players were bringing to hardbop at the time! Jones' trumpet is warmly lyrical, but never in a sleepy, or too-easy sort of way – and the group here has plenty of nice edges, thanks to killer tenor sax from the under-rated Billy Mitchell, guitar from Kenny Burrell, piano from Tommy Flanagan, bass from Oscar Pettiford, and drums from Shadow Wilson. There's a tremendous balance between gentleness and depth going on here – and the album has an unbounded sense of creativity that easily makes it one of the most sparkling Blue Note sides from the time! Titles include "Little Girl Blue", "Blue Room", "Tar Riff", "Zec", and "Scratch". LP, Vinyl record album