Brian Auger's first album away from singer Julie Driscoll – and a landmark batch of funky organ work that made big waves in both the rock and jazz worlds at the time! Auger's really stretching out here – getting past the simple R&B of his roots, and going into a bubbling funky style that's clearly touched by chromatic inspirations from Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith – both of whom are referenced by some of the song structures on the set. The album's filled with killer organ-based instrumentals – some lean and stripped down, others full and rich – and all of them coming across with a richly soulful sound that you'd hardly expect from a member of the British rock scene! Titles include "Day In The Life", "Red Beans", "Definitely What!", and his classic "Bumpin' On Sunset". (Jazz, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Out of the wreckage of Cream came some very hip grooves! Ginger Baker was the hippest of the group's 3 members – and although he's often credited by soul fans for his work with Fela, he should also get hats off for his work with the group Air Force. At its base, the group's in the jazz rock mode – with players that include Brit jazz luminaires Phil Seamen, Harold McNair, and Graham Bond, plus rockers like Baker, Steve Winwood, Denny Laine, and Rick Grech. The tracks are all long groovers in a post-beat group mode – and the best tracks have a jamming sound that's pretty over the top. Titles include "Da Da Man", "Aiko Biaye", "Do What You Like", "Doin It", and "Don't Care". (Rock, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic solo work from Ginger Baker – a musician who only seemed to get better and better the farther he moved away from Cream and Blind Faith! A set like this really gives Ginger a chance to open up and explore all the many musical currents that were grabbing his interests – served up here in a mix of jazz, funk, rock, and soul delivered by a lineup who are every bit as stunning as the music on the album! In addition to plenty of work from Baker on drums, the set features jazz contributions from the excellent Harold McNair and Chris Wood, who both play saxes and flute – plus drums from the legendary Phil Seamen – as well as a heck of a lot more sax and organ from Graham Bond, plus bass from Ric Grech, guitar and vocals from Denny Laine, organ and vocals from Steve Winwood, percussion from Neemoi Acquaye, and lots more contributions from a lineup that's almost too big to mention. The results are wonderful – and titles include "Toady", "Let Me Ride", "We Free Kings", "12 Gates Of The City", "Do U No Hu Yor Phrenz R", and "Sweet Wine". (Rock, Soul) CD

Amazing – simply amazing – and one of the best full albums of 60s soul you could ever hope to buy! Darrell Banks was one of the many lost talents laboring in Detroit during the 60s – and he was part of the city's hip underground soul scene that included monster talents like Steve Mancha and JJ Barnes, all of whom fall into the "should have been famous" category, but who have fortunately been honored for years by soul fans worldwide. This album's one of two that Banks ever issued under his own name – and it's a collection of singles that were put together by Revilot, but issued in full LP format by Atlantic. Banks mixes together raw deep soul vocals with some hipper uptown production – and the result is soul that's about as classic as "classic" could be! Every single cut's a winner, written by some of the finest talents in soul music at the time – and tracks include "Here Come The Tears", "Our Love (Is In The Pocket)", "I'm Gonna Hang My Head & Cry", "Baby What'cha Got For Me", and Banks' semi-hit, "Open The Door To Your Heart". CD

Blue Magic getting a bit bolder than before – adding in some heavier funk that takes them past the mellow moments of their earliest years – yet still serving up some great harmonies in the process! The change is a subtle one – heard on some of the album's more hard-grooving tracks, which also bring in some full arrangements that echo the trippy feel of the cover – yet which still always respect that slight heartbreaking undercurrent of the group's great vocals, thanks to arrangements from Bobby Eli! Just about every moment from Blue Magic is totally great, and this album is no exception – with titles that include "Freak N Stein", "Mother Funk", "To Get Love", "See The Bedroom", "Summer Snow", "Making Love To A Memory", and "Spark Of Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime work from Blue Magic – a record that still has them singing in the sweet harmony sound of earlier records, but which also picks up a fuller sound and a bit of a groove – thanks to stone Philly arrangements by Norman Harris and Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey! A number of tracks add in a bit of moog that sound surprisingly great next to the group's harmonies – electrifying them a bit without overwhelming them – and letting Blue Magic step way past their fragile harmony roots into the forefront of Philly group soul at the time! Tracks include the groovers "We're On The Right Track" and "Magic Of The Blue", the ballads "Chasing Rainbows" and "Loneliest House on the Block", plus "What's Come Over Me", which is a duet between the group and Margie Joseph. LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark set of grooves by this excellent Detroit group – a trio who recorded for the local indie Karen, but got a much bigger boost towards fame when their record was picked up by Atlantic! The set's one of the killer 60s Motor Town sets produced by Ollie McLaughlin – and like the rest, it's got a really special edge – music that goes way past any simple 60s soul cliches, and which will make the set one of the real standouts in your collection. Arrangements are by Dale Warren, Riley Hampton, and Mike Terry – and titles include The Capitols' big hit "Cool Jerk", and also includes loads of other great tracks written by Donald Storball of the group – like "Dog & Cat", "Zig Zaggin", "The Kick", and others – plus versions of "Hello Stranger", "Love Makes The World Go Round", and "Good Lovin". LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark set of grooves by this excellent Detroit group – a trio who recorded for the local indie Karen, but got a much bigger boost towards fame when their record was picked up by Atlantic! The set's one of the killer 60s Motor Town sets produced by Ollie McLaughlin – and like the rest, it's got a really special edge – music that goes way past any simple 60s soul cliches, and which will make the set one of the real standouts in your collection. Arrangements are by Dale Warren, Riley Hampton, and Mike Terry – and titles include The Capitols' big hit "Cool Jerk", and also includes loads of other great tracks written by Donald Storball of the group – like "Dog & Cat", "Zig Zaggin", "The Kick", and others – plus versions of "Hello Stranger", "Love Makes The World Go Round", and "Good Lovin". LP, Vinyl record album

An obvious follow-up to their big hit "Cool Jerk", but a great album of raw soulful tracks that puts this Detroit group right up there with the best of the 60s up-tempo harmony groups! Apart from the nice original title cut, the record's also got a number of other great tracks like "It's Googaloo Time", "Tired Running From You", "I Got To Handle It", and "I Feel Alright". There's a few other Atlantic soul covers, but since the great Ollie McLaughlin produced the session in Detroit, the album's got a much more exciting feel than a lot of other Atlantic soul albums from the time! LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic soul from one of the most dynamic vocal groups ever – and a set of tunes that gets way past their obvious early hits! By this point in their career, The Coasters were beyond compare – a tightly-working vocal group pushed even farther through superb directly from the team of Lieber & Stoller – who also gave the group a brilliant set of tunes that further exploited their cartoony vocal power! There's a sense of humor here that's simply tremendous – one that has the musical tunes almost working like little audio cartoons that explode with the power of a classic short on Warner Brothers. Titles include "Girls Girls Girls", "Stewball", "The Snake & The Bookworm", "Little Egypt", "Keep A Rollin", "Just Like Me", "Run Red Run", and "What About Us". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic full length set from The Coasters – and as much of a full album that brings together their best for Atlantic, as it is a collection of earlier material from singles! There's a really unified approach here – thanks to the group's really dynamic, surprisingly soulful vocal interplay – and to the top-shelf production and presentation of the material throughout. And sure, they were hitmakers – but we love these guys, and find them to be one of the most radical vocal groups of all time! Under the impeccable guidance of Lieber & Stoller, the group recorded some of the fiercest vocal numbers of the 50s – mixing incredibly soulful vocals with an almost cartoonish ability to conjure up little pictures with words. A dozen great numbers in all – "Poison Ivy", "Along Came Jones", "Down In Mexico", "The Shadow Knows", "I'm A Hog For You", "Charlie Brown", "Yakety Yak", "Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart", "That Is Rock & Roll", "Young Blood", "Sweet Georgia Brown", and "Searchin'". LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal work from Dr John – one of his key late 60s albums that set the world on fire at the time – and which still stand as some of the doctor's greatest achievements! The approach here is a fantastic abstraction of older New Orleans roots – not nearly as rigid as in some of John's later music, and really used here just as a leaping-off point for these cool tripped-out explorations – often with a style that's got a very heady quality. The arrangements are wonderful – and bring in some off-kilter jazziness to inflect John's rootsy style with a sound that shows that he was opening his ears to all that was around him at the time – all the best elements he was picking up in Nola and Cali, fused into something really unique! Titles include "Black Widow Spider", "Barefoot Lady", "Twilight Zone', and "The Lonesome Guitar Strangler". LP, Vinyl record album

A rootsy classic from Dr John – an early 70s set in which he turns his talents to a bunch of older New Orleans soul and blues tracks, but serves them up in a style that still has plenty of his mystic gumbo in place! After the freer-wheeling longform sprawls of his more psychedelic albums, the doctor goes back to his Nola roots, and works with lots of great help here from Harold Battiste – who co-produced and did the arrangements – all in a style that's got a real 60s Crescent City vibe, even though the set was recorded in LA. Titles include versions of Sugarboy Crawford's "Iko Iko", Huey Smith's "Blow Wind Blow", and other classics like "Mess Around", "Let The Good Times Roll", "Junko Partner", "Tipitina", and "Stack A Lee". LP, Vinyl record album

The great Dr John at his freaky deaky best – working here in a mindblowing mix of New Orleans roots and late 60s psych – all served up in some heady studio space and instrumental touches! The sound's unlike anything that ever went before – and is way better here than on some of John's later, straighter material – clearly the work of years of creative genius, as the Doctor, Mac Rebennack, draws on both his heritage from the Crescent City, and his years of work in the underground rock scene in LA! Harold Batiste handled the arrangements – and the record really paves the way for so many famous LA/New Orleans albums to come in the 70s – but never with results this mindblowingly trippy. The tracks are wild, funky, and messed-up New Orleans R&B filtered through a heavy dose of psychedelics – and titles include "Mama Roux", "Croker Courtbullion", "Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya", and the original version of "I Walk On Guilded Splinters". CD

The great Dr John at his freaky deaky best – working here in a mindblowing mix of New Orleans roots and late 60s psych – all served up in some heady studio space and instrumental touches! The sound's unlike anything that ever went before – and is way better here than on some of John's later, straighter material – clearly the work of years of creative genius, as the Doctor, Mac Rebennack, draws on both his heritage from the Crescent City, and his years of work in the underground rock scene in LA! Harold Batiste handled the arrangements – and the record really paves the way for so many famous LA/New Orleans albums to come in the 70s – but never with results this mindblowingly trippy. The tracks are wild, funky, and messed-up New Orleans R&B filtered through a heavy dose of psychedelics – and titles include "Mama Roux", "Croker Courtbullion", "Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya", and the original version of "I Walk On Guilded Splinters". LP, Vinyl record album

The great Dr John at his freaky deaky best – working here in a mindblowing mix of New Orleans roots and late 60s psych – all served up in some heady studio space and instrumental touches! The sound's unlike anything that ever went before – and is way better here than on some of John's later, straighter material – clearly the work of years of creative genius, as the Doctor, Mac Rebennack, draws on both his heritage from the Crescent City, and his years of work in the underground rock scene in LA! Harold Batiste handled the arrangements – and the record really paves the way for so many famous LA/New Orleans albums to come in the 70s – but never with results this mindblowingly trippy. The tracks are wild, funky, and messed-up New Orleans R&B filtered through a heavy dose of psychedelics – and titles include "Mama Roux", "Croker Courtbullion", "Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya", and the original version of "I Walk On Guilded Splinters". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest, funkiest records we've ever heard from Dr John – thanks to lots of guest help from The Meters! The vibe here is a bit tighter than some of Mac's previous records – not as trippy as his first few for Atco – but the sound is still nice and sharp, and Allen Toussaint provides production and arrangements with a style that would be right at home on some of his work for the indie Sansu label. The title cut – "Right Place Wrong Time" – was a huge hit, but has a great funky break – and the album also features loads of other nice numbers too – including "Life", "Traveling Mood", "Same Old Same Old", "Just The Same", and "Shoo Fly Marches On". LP, Vinyl record album

The late 60s comeback album for the Fireballs and vocalist Jimmy Gilmer – a record that found the driving early rock rhythms fitting in very well with the light sunshine and psychedelic pop of the late 60s! The sound on this record has little in common with the early rock instrumentals that the Fireballs made their name burning through. This set is more of a catchy jangly sunshine rock record, with the tight Fireball rhythm section, plus some Stax-influenced horns, easy garage organ and keys, and groovy vocals by Gilmer. Tracks include "3 Minutes' Time", "Ain't That Rain", "Where Can We Be Found?", "Bottle Of Wine", "Mason Street", "Groovy Motions", "Goin' Away", "Barbara White", "A Girl As Perfect As You" and more. (Rock, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

The late 60s comeback album for the Fireballs and vocalist Jimmy Gilmer – a record that found the driving early rock rhythms fitting in very well with the light sunshine and psychedelic pop of the late 60s! The sound on this record has little in common with the early rock instrumentals that the Fireballs made their name burning through. This set is more of a catchy jangly sunshine rock record, with the tight Fireball rhythm section, plus some Stax-influenced horns, easy garage organ and keys, and groovy vocals by Gilmer. Tracks include "3 Minutes' Time", "Ain't That Rain", "Where Can We Be Found?", "Bottle Of Wine", "Mason Street", "Groovy Motions", "Goin' Away", "Barbara White", "A Girl As Perfect As You" and more. (Rock, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

We're not normally ones to rave about electric blues albums, but this one's a lot nicer than you might think – recorded with plenty of deep soul touches, and even a dose of funk in the right places! We hate to admit it, but a big part of the credit here goes to Eric Clapton – who produced most of the record and gives Buddy and Junior a tightness that's missing from some of their other records of the time. There's almost a post-Cream sort of groove to the record – that "hipper than rock" sensibility that colored many of Clapton's old group members' projects for Atlantic in the years after Cream disbanded. But of course, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells are the real stars of the set – and the record's good enough to make even jaded Chicago residents like us appreciate their talents here! Titles include "A Poor Man's Plea", "My Baby She Left Me", "A Man Of Many Words", "I Don't Know", and "This Old Fool". (Blues, Soul) CD

A bit of a change for Dr John, but a nice one too – a set that's somewhat more mature than some of his Atco albums, but in a really nice way! The album features fuller backings from Claus Ogerman, but a core groove that's still nice and soulful – jazzy leanings from a combo that includes Dr John and Richard Tee on keyboards, John Tropea on guitar, Will Lee on bass, and Steve Gadd on drums – the latter of whom kicks in a nice groove at the bottom of most numbers, making a subtle undercurrent of older funk amidst the smoothness. Ogerman's backdrops are never too excessive, and help the Dr break out of some of his older modes in a good way – not rehashing the same New Orleans ideas, but taking them instead to cooler California territory – a bit in the way that Allen Toussaint was doing on his best mainstream work of the 70s. Titles include "Dance The Night Away With You", "Rain", "Wild Honey", "Street Side", "Snake Eyes", "Fire Of Love", and "City Lights". LP, Vinyl record album

Massively beautiful work from the great Donny Hathaway! After two studio albums that had firmly put him on the map as one of the 70s best soul talents, Atco had the genius to have Donny record this live album before very enthusiastic crowds in Hollywood and New York. The result is one of the best soul albums ever – one that shows a totally different side of Donny, and which has him jamming with a smaller, hipper, jazz-oriented group in long versions of some of his best tracks. Features a massive 12 minute version of "The Ghetto", which has loads of excellent instrumental breakdowns, a 13 minute version of "Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)", a superior version of the track "Little Ghetto Boy", which was only ever on a soundtrack, and covers of "What's Going On" and "Jealous Guy" that really transform them from the original versions. Very similar to the classic Curtis Mayfield 2LP live set on Curtom – and with a similar "Chicago studio soulster goes jazzy and intimate" feel. CD

The best-ever collection we've ever seen to focus on the work of Linda Jones – one of our favorite female soul singers of the late 60s, but an artist who never fully hit the fame she deserved! Linda's got a hell of a voice – a sense of positive power that really stands out, right from the start – and even on the earliest material here, she's singing in a deep soul style that's stronger than most of her contemporaries – a mode that she'd only inflect with more emotion and sophistication as the 70s approached – where she cut some stunning sides for the Turbo/All-Platinum label! Those great cuts are here, alongside other gems from the Neptune, Cub, Blue Cat, Atco, and Loma labels – in a set that blows away some of the shoddier, cheaper collections of Jones material – especially the early 70s tracks. There's lots of material on here that wasn't on the Atco/Loma collection by Real Gone – only 7 of these 24 tracks are from that time – and titles include "That's When I'll Stop Loving You", "Stay With Me Forever", "Behold", "If Only We Had Met Sooner", "I Do", "Lonely Teardrops", "Your Precious Love", "Not On The Outside", "I Can't Make It Alone", "Can You Blame Me", "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow", "Ooh Baby You Move Me", and "I'm So Glad I Found You" – which is a duet with The Whatnauts! CD

A great little live set – recorded overseas, but with a really classic 60s southern soul sound overall! Stax always did a pretty good job of shopping its big artists overseas – where they met with extremely enthusiastic response, as you'll hear in this classic live album recorded by Otis Redding! The basic structure of the songs is very similar in time and presentation to the studio versions – but the band is very lively, many numbers are taken at faster tempos, and Otis is working himself to death to please the screaming crowd. Titles include "Day Tripper", "Try A Little Tenderness", "Respect", "Can't Turn You Loose", "My Girl", and "Shake". LP, Vinyl record album

Johnnie Taylor's first album for Stax – and a tremendous little set that easily stands as one of his greatest records ever! Sure, we love Johnnie in all his incarnations – but there's a special sort of something here – a rawness and earnestness – that makes the whole thing shine right from the start – a crispy sort of Memphis vibe that has the Stax Records team really hitting their stride. The set's filled with great tunes from the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter – including "I Got To Love Somebody's Baby", "Toe Hold", "Outside Love", "Little Bluebird", and "I Had A Dream" – and also features great versions of "Watermelon Man", "Ain't That Loving You", and "Where Can A Man Go From Here". CD