With Archie Legget on bass and Kieran O'Connor on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet trio work from Charlie Byrd – with Keter Betts on bass and Buddy Deppenschmidt on drums! Titles include "Speak Low", "Nuages", "Taboo", and "To Ginny". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful solo set from this amazing Japanese avant pianist – with the original "On The Road", plus offbeat takes on "Greensleeves", "Prelude To A Kiss", "Let's Cool One", and "Night In Tunisia". LP, Vinyl record album

A definite delight from Ronnie Foster – a post-Blue Note set that actually has the keyboardist sounding better than ever! Ronnie's always been one of those guys who seems to work best when moving against a bit of structure – and here, that force is provided by the excellent Jerry Peters – who's come up with some great soul backings that also have these nicely offbeat corners – more than enough to preserve some of the quirkiness of Foster's work from previous years – yet also giving him a bit more direction too! There's a bit of vocals on the set – mostly from Ronnie – with backing from Phyllis Hyman, Jim Gilstrap, and Peters himself. Titles include "Argentina", "We As Love", "Let Me In Your Life", "I've Got Your Love", and "When Will I Write You A Song?". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Billy's best, and it's got a pretty tight instrumental groove that's similar to some of Jimmy McGriff's work for the Sue and Veep labels. Billy's organ fronts some groovy and offbeat arrangements by Sly Stone – and although the set list includes a number of late 60s hits, the overall approach is pretty fresh. Titles include "Free Funk", "The Duck", "Hard Day's Night", "Uptight", "Ain't Got No Time To Play", and "It's Got To Happen". Also features one vocal cut – "Advice" – written with Sly. (Soul, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime modern jazz from Teddy – right up there with the best mid 50s work of other groundbreakers like Charles Mingus or George Russell, to whom Charles acknowledges more than a bit of inspiration! Charles plays vibes like no one else – especially at this point in his career, when he's moving into offbeat chromatic ranges that wouldn't be duplicated for another decade, in the work of players like Bobby Hutcherson or Gary Burton. His players on this set include Art Farmer, JR Monterose, Gigi Gryce, and Mal Waldron – and the album includes the original tracks "Green Blues", "The Emperor", and "Vibrations", plus a great version of "Nature Boy". LP, Vinyl record album

Killer stuff – and an amazing album that not only showcases the varitone sax talents of Eddie Harris, but also features some fantastic arrangements by Chicago soul genius Charles Stepney! Harris plugs in right from the start – blowing an electric sax that comes up with some groovy groovy sounds – perfect for Stepney to work with on the backdrops – mixing together funky orchestrations, off-kilter strings, and even some prepared piano, ala John Cage – similar to the mode he used with Ramsey Lewis at Cadet! Tunes are wonderful – offbeat, funky, and plenty darn soulful – and titles include "Live Right Now", "It's Crazy", "Winter Meeting", and "Theme In Search Of A TV Commercial". LP, Vinyl record album

Killer live work from this legendary German group – two side-long jams, with a good blend of guitar, bass, and drums with all sorts of offbeat percussion and effects! And heck, they even sneak in a bit of Pharoah Sanders on the long track "First Jam". (Rock, Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album

A tremendous recording from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – done during the same Paris stretch as their Great Black Music classics on the BYG/Actuel label – and a set that easily matches, if not tops, those classics! You can really hear the group finding their own space here – taking some of the free jazz explorations of the Chicago scene in the late 60s, and forging them with an even earthier use of both percussion, and the more offbeat sonic possibilities of their own instruments – often with a sense of surprise that you don't always get from some of their later albums. Titles include the side-long "The Spiritual" – plus "Toro", "Lori Song", and "That The Evening Sky Fell Through the Glass Wall and We Stood Alone Somewhere?" (And they wondered why they never got their songs on the radio!) LP, Vinyl record album

Like Dave Brubeck's legendary Time Out set? Try this one – a great record that takes off from the concept of the first, but which goes in some very fresh new directions – using the same great group with Paul Desmond on alto, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums! Dave's still working out some nutty time signatures here – but apart from the science, the thing that really makes the record cook is Desmond's alto – icy, edgey, floating, and always a treat – almost even more amazing in the space of some of these offbeat numbers. Titles include "Maori Blues", "Far More Drums", "Bluetee", "Far More Blue", and "It's A Raggy Waltz". LP, Vinyl record album

Mad messed-up funk from the cool Bay Area scene of the early 70s – a set that features all these great offbeat arrangements from Clifford Coulter, who plays piano, guitars, melodica, and even Varitone guitar – and also sings a bit – in a hip lineup that features more guitar from Mel Brown, trumpet from Harry Edison and John TUrk, tenor from Plas Johnson and Bill Perkins, and drums and conga from Ron Beck – all in a style that's very different than more mainstream work on Impulse Records, and different than its spiritual modes too! "VJC", plus "Do It Now", "Yodelin' In The Whatchamaname Thang", "Ridin On Empty", and "Worry About It Later". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest gifts of the Soul Note label was the way that it could take sessions with avant-oriented players, and make them turn out straighter jazz material – but with a really nice edge! This session's a perfect example of that legacy – as it features David Murray at the head of a great group that includes Butch Morris on cornet, Bobby Bradford on trumpet, Henry Threadgill on alto and flute, Craig Harris on trombone, Curtis Clark on piano, Wilber Morris on bass, and Steve McCall on drums – all players who can usually improvise pretty freely, but who here work in a straighter, swinging mode that's totally great! There's still plenty of sharp edges in the record – odd twists and turns that really keep things offbeat, even though straight – and titles are extended Murray compositions that include "Sing Song", "Flowers For Albert", and "Murray's Steps". LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure set from Max Roach – but right up there with his best work of the late 50s on Mercury and other labels! The album features the drummer in a quintet with Booker Little on trumpet, Ray Draper on tuba, George Coleman on tenor, and Art Davis on bass – a cool piano-less group that hits some really unusual notes! Draper's horn provides a deep bottom to the record, mixing with Davis' exotic tones nicely – and the album represents Roach's increasing penchant for experimentation in the post Clifford Brown years – tunes with an offbeat edge that's really great. Titles include "Pies Of Quincy", "Tuba De Nod", "Milano", and "Sadiga". LP, Vinyl record album

A very different album from Archie Shepp – and an introspective record that shows a whole new side of his talents! For the session, Shepp plays piano, not tenor – an instrument he handles with an angular, modern tone – one that seems to echo bits of Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk, but with a wider range of sounds too – and a definite sense of spirit that shows Archie's larger growth as a musician in the 70s. The tunes are often familiar numbers, but they're recast in weird ways here – odd phrasing on piano, offbeat rhythms, and some hip backing from Bob Reid on bass and Muhammad Ali on drums. The great Alan Shorter joins the group on flugelhorn for a few numbers – bringing in a freer Paris jazz feel – and titles include "Doodlin", "Invitation", "Coral Rock", "More Than You Know", and Shepp's own "Worried About You". LP, Vinyl record album

An insanely fantastic lost chapter in the career of pianist Denny Zeitlin – a never-issued session of electric keyboards and vocals – put together with his famous trio of the 60s, but lost to the world for many decades! Zeitlin was a hell of a pianist right from the start, and he also had a great ear for electric experiments at points in his career – which here has him working on a Clavinet, Farfisa organ, and other instruments – as well as using his own effects to offset the sound of his own instrumentation, as well as the bass and drums! But maybe most interesting are the vocals created for the set – jazzy but offbeat lyrics that pop in and out of the tunes in this very cool way – used in the way that Steve Kuhn was experimenting with voice at the start of the 70s, but with a vibe that's maybe closer to the legendary sound of The Stark Reality! The album's definitely one that we'd put right up there with the best of those two famous references – and resonates too with work from David Axelrod, and some of the wilder Gary McFarland projects too – on titles that include "Gonna Take You Away", "2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back", "Free Piece", "The Wizard", and "The Name Of This Terrain". LP, Vinyl record album

A collection of early bop singles cut for Capitol – one that includes some excellent rare material, including fantastic early work by Babs Gonzales, and some of Sonny Rollins' first work on record! Babs clocks in with some great little vocal numbers that include – "Real Crazy", "Prelude To A Nightmare", "Professor Bop", and "Capitolizing" – all gems that rank with his best offbeat vocal tunes of later years. Dizzy's in a similar format on some of his tunes – titles that include "Coast To Coast", "You Stole My Wife You Horsethief", "Say When", and "Oo La La" – and Tadd Dameron finishes up the album with some great tracks that include "Sid's Delight", "Casbah", "John's Delight", and "Heaven's Doors Are Open Wide". LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure west coast set – featuring some very hard-driving big band arrangements, short but with breakout solos that really keep things moving along at a good pace. Murphy wrote and arranged most of the material – cool little offbeat tunes, many with a space theme to match the cover of the album. Players include Frank Morgan, Milt Bernhart, Chico Hamilton, Buddy Colette, and Bob Gordon – and titles include "Lost In A Fugue", "Frantastic", "Frankly Speaking", "Tone Poem", and "Orbit". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most righteous Horace Silver albums for Blue Note – and a far-reaching, politically-bent batch of tracks that feature vocals by Andy Bey, in a similar style to the work he did on the Gary Bartz records from the time – very hip, and quite different than other jazz vocal work from other singers! Silver plays electric piano on most of the record – and other musicians include Houston Person on tenor and Idris Muhammad on drums – both of whom figure on cuts that feature singer Jackie Verdell replacing Andy Bey. The groove is pretty great throughout – lots of those offbeat lines that you might hear on other Bey albums, warmed up with some of Silver's more familiar soul jazz – and the album is volume 1 (or "Phase 1") of Horace's trippy United States Of Mind series, a series of records on the state of the then-trashed union (proving once again that what goes around, comes around!) Tracks include "The Happy Medium", "Permit Me To Introduce Myself", "Wipe Away the Evil", and "Love Vibrations". LP, Vinyl record album