A really wonderful album of Etta James material for Chess – 10 of her biggest tracks for the label, including some really hard-hitting R&B numbers, mixed with other tunes that represent the sadder, softer side of Etta's wonderful voice! Tracks include "Stop The Wedding", "Something's Got A Hold Of Me", "At Last", "Sunday Kind Of Love", "Fool That I Am", "Trust In Me", "Would It Make Any Difference To You", "My Dearest Darling", "All I Could Do Was Cry", "Trust In Me" and "Pushover". LP, Vinyl record album

Queen of Soul is right! Heck, on these early albums, Etta practically invented soul – or at least invented a deep soul style of singing that would be taken up by countless other female singers during the 60s, but rarely matched with this kind of brilliance. Straight up beautiful stuff! The arrangements are uncredited, but we think they're probably by Riley Hampton – who did so much of Etta's other wonderful work in the early 60s. The recordings for sure took place at points between '62 and '64, mostly in Chicago, with couple in New York and one in Nashville. One other thing that is crystal clear about the sessions is that she had access to the very best musicians and the best sound possible – all you need is a listen to know that! The album's an all-solid, all-soul record with loads of obscure tunes and not a bit of filler! Titles include "Flight 101", "Bobby Is His Name", "Breaking Point", "Mello Fellow", "Do Right", and "Somewhere Out There". This first ever proper CD release is loaded with excellent bonus material – recordings from the same early-to-mid 60s period – 13 of them "You Got Me Where You Want Me", "Only Time Will Tell", "Pushover". "You Can't Talk To A Fool", "Would It Make Any Difference To You", "Pay Back", "Tomorrow Night", "I Can't Hold It Any More" and more. 23 tracks in all! CD

An amazing step forward for the young Etta James – a singer who was delivering a raw, shouting form of R&B just a few years before – but who here ascends into soul music heaven with her famous work on the album! The title cut is the stuff of legend – played and played, again and again over the years – but the whole record's wonderful, and handled with this new level of soul sophistication by arranger Riley Hampton – the great Chicago talent who'd reach similar heights in his charts for singers that include Lorez Alexandria and Walter Jackson. Hampton's dark use of strings brings out a whole new side of James' brilliance – a quality that raised Etta James up out of the R&B ghetto, and forever put her into the legions of legendary 60s soul stars! Titles include the perennial classic "At Last", plus "All I Could Do Was Cry", "Tough Mary", "Sunday Kind Of Love", "Anything To Say You're Mine", and "Trust In Me". Includes 4 bonus tracks – "My Heart Cries", "Spoonful", "It's A Crying Shame", and "If I Can't Have You". LP, Vinyl record album

Searing stuff – easily one of Etta James' greatest albums! The set is a non-stop jam, recorded live at the New Era Club in Nashville before a small and screaming crowd – a perfect performance all the way through, one that showcases Etta as she rarely sounded on vinyl during the 1960s. The whole album runs away like a train on fire, and it's filled with incredibly lively readings of tracks like "Something's Got A Hold On Me", "Baby What You Want Me To Do", "Money", "Seven Day Fool", and "Woke Up This Morning" – all taken at versions longer than the usual under-3 minute single takes! LP, Vinyl record album

Not the folk festival you might expect – especially given that the blues here are electric – and a set that was recorded at a small Chicago club, not some stuffy outdoor concert on the east coast! The album's an early powerhouse meeting of the best Chess blues talents at the time – a date that features Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Willie Dixon in varying settings – mostly getting center spotlight as a solo act with the same backing combo, but also coming together as well at one point too. The whole thing's great – a gritty live record of electric Chicago blues in the 60s – with a strong sense of liveness that really recreates the small club feel! Titles include "Wee Wee Baby", "Sitting & Thinking", "Worried Blues", "Sugar Mama", "Bring It On Home", "Got My Mojo Working", "May I Have A Talk With You", and "19 Years Old". (Blues, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest records ever recorded by vocalist Lorez Alexandria – and a perfect summation of her rich talents as a singer! Backing is by a small Chicago trio that includes John Young on piano, Vernel Fournier on drums, and George Eskridge on bass – but the arrangements of the tracks, and Lorez's unique interpretations drive the tunes into territory that's surprisingly advanced for the 1962 date of the session. You'll recognize most of the tunes – but as the old adage goes, it's not the song, but the singer – and you'll hear Lorez crafting a rich tapestry of sound and emotion from titles like "No Moon At All", "I Was A Fool", "Detour Ahead", "Travlin Light", and "I Want To Talk About You". The album's a gem – right up there with her best work ever! (Vocalists, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing step forward for the young Etta James – a singer who was delivering a raw, shouting form of R&B just a few years before – but who here ascends into soul music heaven with her famous work on the album! The title cut is the stuff of legend – played and played, again and again over the years – but the whole record's wonderful, and handled with this new level of soul sophistication by arranger Riley Hampton – the great Chicago talent who'd reach similar heights in his charts for singers that include Lorez Alexandria and Walter Jackson. Hampton's dark use of strings brings out a whole new side of James' brilliance – a quality that raised Etta James up out of the R&B ghetto, and forever put her into the legions of legendary 60s soul stars! Titles include the perennial classic "At Last", plus "All I Could Do Was Cry", "Tough Mary", "Sunday Kind Of Love", "Anything To Say You're Mine", and "Trust In Me". Includes 4 bonus tracks – "My Heart Cries", "Spoonful", "It's A Crying Shame", and "If I Can't Have You". CD

Beautiful Etta James album with heartbreaking vocals over icy Riley Hampton arrangements, and a classic bit of early Chicago soul. Tracks include "Don't Cry Baby", "Fool That I Am", and "I'll Dry My Tears". Sweet and mellow, and proof for anyone that the move to Chess had some positive effects on Etta's singing. CD

Deep deep soul from Etta James – an album of ballads that burns as nicely as her "At Last" hit – thanks to arrangements from the great Riley Hampton! The set was a key move forward into more sophisticated territory from her early years – and titles include special Etta James takes on "Don't Take Your Love From Me", "Again", "I Want To Be Loved", "Prisoner of Love", "How Do You Speak To An Angel", "Don't Blame Me", "These Foolish Things", "Fools Rush In", and "Someone To Watch Over Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Searing stuff – easily one of Etta James' greatest albums! The set is a non-stop jam, recorded live at the New Era Club in Nashville before a small and screaming crowd – a perfect performance all the way through, one that showcases Etta as she rarely sounded on vinyl during the 1960s. The whole album runs away like a train on fire, and it's filled with incredibly lively readings of tracks like "Something's Got A Hold On Me", "Baby What You Want Me To Do", "Money", "Seven Day Fool", and "Woke Up This Morning" – all taken at versions longer than the usual under-3 minute single takes! Also includes 3 bonus tracks not on the original LP releases: "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby", "All I Could Do Is Cry" and "I Just Want To Make Love To You". LP, Vinyl record album

Queen of Soul is right! Heck, on these early albums, Etta practically invented soul – or at least invented a deep soul style of singing that would be taken up by countless other female singers during the 60s, but rarely matched with this kind of brilliance. Straight up beautiful stuff! The arrangements are uncredited, but we think they're probably by Riley Hampton – who did so much of Etta's other wonderful work in the early 60s. The recordings for sure took place at points between '62 and '64, mostly in Chicago, with couple in New York and one in Nashville. One other thing that is crystal clear about the sessions is that she had access to the very best musicians and the best sound possible – all you need is a listen to know that! The album's an all-solid, all-soul record with loads of obscure tunes and not a bit of filler! Titles include "Flight 101", "Bobby Is His Name", "Breaking Point", "Mello Fellow", "Do Right", and "Somewhere Out There". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the first great R&B artists on the New Orleans scene in the 50s – and one who never got the same sort of fame as some of his contemporaries! Yet that doesn't stop Paul Gayten from being one of the greats – as you'll hear on this excellent collection that brings together a range of rare material originally issued only as singles – for the Checker and Argo labels, and for the smaller Anna label as well. The groove is prime Crescent City at the time – with Gayten on piano and vocals, and work by players who include Alvin Red Tyler on baritone and Earl Palmer on drums. Some tunes are vocals, some instrumentals – and titles include "Windy", "Get It", "Tickle Toe", "For You My Love", "The Sweeper", "Nervous Boogie", "Hot Cross Buns", and "The Hunch". CD features three bonus tracks – "Driving Home Part 2", "Right To Love You", and "Flat Foot Sam". CD

An excellent album by Isaac Redd Holt – one half of the incredible Young-Holt rhythm team, bursting out nicely here on his own! This is Redd's second album – first for Paula, as the other one was a jazz effort on Argo back in the 60s – and it's a wild blend of jazz, funk, and a lot of other weird sounds. The introduction's totally cool, and features Redd running through a list of hip little clubs in American cities, then the album launches into the great "Listen to the Drums", which has a tight pounding groove, and moves on to a whole bunch of other jazzy cuts like "Flo", "Slow Funk", and "Let the Spirit In". Redd sings a bit, which isn't too bad (mostly), but it's the grooves that will keep you coming back. Very much in the spirit of Roy Porter's legendary funk albums – but probably a bit tighter! CD

A really great look at some of the coolest material issued by Motown in the early days of the label – tracks from a brief foray into jazz, from a time when the company was testing the waters with some very hip material from the Detroit scene! The cuts here have a nice sort of grit – very much in the best soul jazz styles that bigger labels that Prestige or Argo/Chess were doing at the time – and the tracks also include some great work by artists caught in the very early days of their careers. Titles include "See You Later" and "I Did" by Johnny Griffith, "El Rig" and "Bobbie" by George Bohannon, "I Did" and "Falling In Love With Love" by Paula Greer, "Exodus" and "I Remember You" by Hank & Carol Diamond, "Opus No 3" and "March Lightly" by Earl Washington, and "Late Freight" and "Mellow In Cali" by Dave Hamilton. (Jazz, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent early work by Leon Haywood – recorded way back in the mid 60s, when he was knocking around the LA indie scene with a very soulful groove! Back in those years, Leon wasn't singing as much, just playing piano and organ in a mixture of soul and jazz instrumental modes – all hard-stepping with a very strong northern soul groove, and some of the heaviest production ever to come out of the west coast in the 60s! The whole album's a killer – extremely grooving, and with a blend of styles that keeps things fresh all the way through. Titles include "Ray's Theme", "Soul Cargo", "Fat Fish", "The Sidewinder", "Spice Of The Blues", "River's Invitation", and "The Preacher". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the songs "The Bo-Do Rock", "Honky Tonk, Pt.1", "Honky Tonk, Pt.2", "Rainbow Riots, Pts. 1-2", "Blue Largo", "Big Boy", "You Ain't No Good", "Big Dog", "Hippy Dippy", "Backwards", "Shindig", "After Hours", "Peacock Alley", "In The Wee Hours", "Leaps And Bounds, Pts. 1-2", "Your Kind Of Woman", "Yocky Dock, Pts.1-2", "Wild Oats", and "Honky Tonk, Pt.2". (Jazz, Soul) CD

A group so great and so groovy, they ended up having a huge influence on the early sound of hip hop – thanks to a wonderfully funky sound at the core of their progressive rock groove! Babe Ruth have this rhythmic impulse that's really amazing – a way of working bass, drums, and percussion together with qualities that go way past just prog rock noodling – and have this focus that really fits the lead vocals and guitar of Alan Shacklock, who also handled all the arrangements for this mighty debut too! Titles include their classic cut "The Mexican" – a famous sample cut from way back, with nice use of acoustic guitar and a Morricone riff too – plus versions of Zappa's "King Kong" and Jesse Winchester's "Black Dog" – and the originals "Wells Fargo", "The Runaways", and "Joker". (Rock, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

A sweetly soulful set from the Aloha soul scene of the late 70s – a record that features plenty of warm trombone work from Ira Nepus, mixed with some R&B-styled backings – all at a level that's a fair bit like the best US work of Raul DeSouza at the time! The blend of jazz and soul is great – almost in Wayne Henderson territory – and the cuts have vocals, but always still save plenty of room for great solos from Nepus – a player we don't know much at all, but who really captures the best sort of jazzy soul vibe that Fantasy records was putting out at the time! And speaking vibes, Rich Margolis delivers some great work on that instrument too – on titles that include "Trickey Mickey", "Trombone Feeling", "Flamenco Jazz", "Slide Vibin", "Limbo Jazz", and "Journey To Paricutin". (Jazz, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic tribute to the legendary Disco Spectrum series of compilations – a run of records that first burst forth at the end of the 90s, and showed the world that there was a huge amount of underground music to discover from the mainstream disco years! Disco Spectrum cuts aren't the ones you'll know from Saturday Night Fever – or from K-Tel compilations of the time – and instead, they represent the much deeper current of groove that was still burning bright away from the limelight, even while the more commercial disco crumbled into dust – music that was sometimes cut by artists who disappeared quickly, sometimes by older masters, and sometimes by talents who never fully got the respect they deserved. Both Joey Negro and Sean P have given us some great sets before, but this one is right at the top of their talents – filled with gems that include "Let Me Down Easy" by Rare Pleasure, "Spread Love" by Al Hudson & The Soul Partners, "Can't Shake Your Love (Larry Levan 12" mix)" by Syreeta, "Trinidad (special disco mix)" by John Gibbs & US Steel Orchestra, "Isabelle & The Rain" by Jo Boyer, "Don't Let My Rainbow Pass Me By (club 12" mix)" by Cloud One with Margo Williams, "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" by Idris Muhammad, "I Don't Want You Back" by Ramona Brooks, "Hot To Trot" by Alfredo De La Fe, "Out Of My Hands" by Omni, "Under The Skin" by The Brothers, "Let Me Love You" by Bunny Mack, "Can You Get Down" by Universe City, and "I Want You For Myself" by George Duke with Lynn Davis. (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD

There have been lots of Lowrider soul compilations on the market over the years – documenting the great of of mellow cuts on the LA scene of the 60s – particularly the kind that could move slow, but with a heavy groove at the bottom – perfect for chilling out in the back of a car on an endless summer night! Yet few have ever done the job as well as this collection – because in the hands of Ace/Kent Records, the music finally gets proper historical context – moved past the jargon of the East LA in crowd, and presented with great sound, and the kind of detailed notes that really get at the special qualities that made the west coast soul scene so different than the east in the 60s! The set list is superb – fantastic mellow soul tracks that are perfect, even if you don't care about this history – and the set features 14 titles that include "Someone" by The Lovers, "Here It Comes" by The Persians, "That's The Way Our Love Is" by The Radiations, "It's Not That Easy" by Reuben Bell & The Casanovas, "No Doubt About It" by The Esquires, "What Am I Going To Do" by the Houston Outlaws, "So Much In Love" by The Exceptions, "Please Say It Isn't So" by Lee Williams & The Cymbals, "Somebody Please" by The Vanguards, "Someone" by The Lovers, "Follow Your Heart" by The Manhattans, and "Settle Down" by Little Ben & The Cheers. LP, Vinyl record album

There have been lots of Lowrider soul compilations on the market over the years – documenting the great of of mellow cuts on the LA scene of the 60s – particularly the kind that could move slow, but with a heavy groove at the bottom – perfect for chilling out in the back of a car on an endless summer night! Yet few have ever done the job as well as this collection – because in the hands of Ace/Kent Records, the music finally gets proper historical context – moved past the jargon of the East LA in crowd, and presented with great sound, and the kind of detailed notes that really get at the special qualities that made the west coast soul scene so different than the east in the 60s! The set list is superb – fantastic mellow soul tracks that are perfect, even if you don't care about this history – and titles include "It's Not That Easy" by Reuben Bell with The Casanovas, "I Really Love You" by The Ambassadors, "As I Sit Here" by The Whispers, "One More Chance" by The Four Tees, "Take A Step" by Aesop's Fables, "Why'd You Put Me On" by Bobbi Row & The Englishmen, "I Wanna Chance" by The Vows, "Second Hand Happiness" by Jimmy Conwell, "Be Kind To Love" by The Interpreters, "As Long As I've Got You" by The Charmels, "Don't Forget About Me Baby" by Jeff Dale, "I'm A Lonely Man" by Bobby Burn, "Crying All By Myself" by William Bell, "I'm Just Passing Time" by Melvin Hicks & The Versatiles, "When You're Poor" by The Lovers, "It's So Hard To Break A Habit" by The Webs, "Find Me" by The Attractions, "Never Gonna Let Him Know" by Debbie Taylor, and "Pretending Dear" by The Lovelles. CD