Essential funk in a single set – three killer albums from James Brown's legendary backing group! First up is Food For Thought – the classic first album by The JBs – James Brown's Fred Wesley-led backing band, and the force behind most of his greatest records of the early 70s! The band are incredible at this point – sharper, harder, and funkier than just about any other combo around – and that includes all the thousands of groups in the funky 45 underground who were always trying to copy their sound, but never got things this right! Not only are the rhythms the stuff of legend – but the use of the instruments is far far above the norm – as can be heard on the mindblowing "The Grunt", which was sampled heavily by Public Enemy to great fame – and which features a saxophone solo that sounds more like a whistling tea kettle! The set collects some of the group's best early singles, and includes all of the short little funky cuts that made them a legend right out of the box – "Pass the Peas", "The Grunt", "These Are The JBs", "Hot Pants Road", "Wine Spot", "To My Brother", "Blessed Blackness", "Theme From King Heroin", "Escapism (parts 1 & 2), and "Gimme Some More" – all together here in one tight little album of massive funky hard beats and breaks! Doing It To Death is an incredible album – a landmark piece of funk that nobody should be without, funk fan or not! The album is the second to feature James Brown's famous backing combo of the early 70s – and unlike their first one, which was really more of a collection of singles, this album has the group playing hard, long, and loud, in the free funk improvisational mode that was James' real contribution to the music at the time. The tracks are all incredibly long, with James at the forefront, egging the band on with shouts and comments – but also letting them open up large instrumentally, playing in a mode that's as much jazz as it is funky soul. The whole thing's peppered with some nice shorter segues between tracks – but the long cuts are the winners, and are some of the best funk ever recorded! Titles include "Mo Peas", "Doing It To Death", "La Di Da La Di Day", "You Can Have Watergate, Just Gimme Some Bucks & I'll Be Straight", and "Sucker". Last up is Damn Right I Am Somebody – quite possibly our favorite record by the JBs, ever! The set starts with a wonderful conversational bit – rapping and musing on the idea of "Damn Right, I Am Somebody" – showing the group in a political and righteous mode for the first time ever. The grooves then kick in – with the same heavy funk as on earlier records, but also a nice nod towards experimental production – from strange fade ups and fade downs, to stark time and rhythm changes, and even bits of electronics used to create some very cool moments in the grooves! The whole thing's as dead funky as can be, and is stuffed with insane classics like "Blow Your Head", "Same Beat", "Damn Right I am Somebody", "I'm Payin' Taxes, What am I Buyin'", and a great cover of Marvin Gaye's "You Sure Love to Ball"! CD

A killer 2CD set of funky grooves by one of the best backing bands ever! The JBs were James Brown's legendary combo during his monster funk years of the early 70s – and this well-selected compilation brings together 30 rare tracks from their best years! The set's got a great set of notes – and it stretches beyond work by the JBs alone to include cuts from other groupings of the band, like Maceo & The Macks, The Last Word, The First Family, and The New JBs. Titles include "Rockin Funky Watergate", "Keep On Bumpin Before You Give Out Of Gas", "Soul Power 74", "My Brother (parts 1 & 2)", "The Grunt (parts 1 & 2)", "Dirty Harri", "More Peas", "Watermelon Man", "Givin Up Food For Funk (parts 1 & 2)", "JB Shout", "Blessed Blackness", "Same Beat (parts 1, 2, & 3)", and "Gimme Some More (Very Live)". Nice nice nice – and with a fair number of non-LP tracks! CD

A fantastic slice of lost work from the legendary JBs – including the track that first got Bootsy Collins and company the job as James Brown's backing band! The set leads off with that gem of a groove – the fast funky "More Mess On My Thing" – a tune that's got the sort of impeccable sharpness the JBs would bring to the James Brown universe in the early 70s – complete with tight drums, effortless basslines, and horn lines so tight they could cut glass! "The Wedge" follows – a sweet organ-driven instrumental with a vibe that's a lot like "Brother Rapp" – but stretched out as a long instrumental jam! And that approach really takes off on the super-long "When You Can Feel It Grunt (If You Can)" – a tune that begins with the band doing their own version of "Let The Music Take Your Mind", before going off into all the these other directions on the first-ever issue of the complete take of the tune! CD

A stunner of a record – the first-ever album by The JBs, never issued back in the day – and lost for years until it recently resurfaced on a test pressing! The set features a leaner, more stripped-down version of the group – one that features Bootsy Collins on bass, and which doesn't rely as much on the horns as it does some very upfront playing by the rhythm section – who really set fire to the extended instrumental solos on the album's very long tracks! Group members include Robert McCullough on tenor, St Clair Pickney on flute and baritone, Bobby Byrd on piano, Catfish Collins on guitar, and James Brown himself on organ – and the mighty Clyde Stubblefield handles drums, as well as Frank Kash Waddy. All tracks are very long – quite different than the shorter single-type cuts on Pass The Peas – and the record features the first recording of "The Grunt", plus the long jams "I'll Ze", "These Are The JBs (parts 1 & 2)", and "When You Feel It Grunt If You Can". CD

An album recorded relatively early in the career of singer Nina Simone – but a set that already shows the very unique approach that would make her a legend by the time the 60s moved on! Even the very first tune is a stunner – a haunting reworking of the favorite "Just In Time", but with Nina grunting instead of singing at the start – as the bass comes across with more power than the drums or piano – really shaping the song in moody tones! That sort of inventiveness follows on every other tune – making the familiar numbers sound very unique, and the unusual ones even more striking – as the set list also features numbers by Oscar Brown Jr, Olatunji, and Simone herself. The recording quality is great – intimate, yet lively – and the set's filled with longish readings of some great tunes that include "Bye Bye Blackbird", "Brown Baby", "Zungo", "Children Go Where I Send You", and "He Was Too Good To Me". (Vocalists, Soul) CD

An album recorded relatively early in the career of singer Nina Simone – but a set that already shows the very unique approach that would make her a legend by the time the 60s moved on! Even the very first tune is a stunner – a haunting reworking of the favorite "Just In Time", but with Nina grunting instead of singing at the start – as the bass comes across with more power than the drums or piano – really shaping the song in moody tones! That sort of inventiveness follows on every other tune – making the familiar numbers sound very unique, and the unusual ones even more striking – as the set list also features numbers by Oscar Brown Jr, Olatunji, and Simone herself. The recording quality is great – intimate, yet lively – and the set's filled with longish readings of some great tunes that include "Bye Bye Blackbird", "Brown Baby", "Zungo", "Children Go Where I Send You", and "He Was Too Good To Me". (Vocalists, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

Stormin soul – and a killer set of upbeat 60s numbers! The package was put together for the UK mod scene, but it's a great batch of American tracks from the classic years of soul – not really Northern, not really southern – but kind of a hard-swinging approach to the music that makes for a really lively package overall! The set's got 20 tracks in all, all thumpin, bumpin, and gruntin-type numbers – with titles that include "Do The Whoo Pee" by Sugar Pie Desanto, "Lay This Burden Down" by Mary Love, "Make Me Yours" by Bettye Swann, "I Keep Forgetting" by Chuck Jackson, "I've Got Papers On You Baby" by BB King, "Hole in The Wall" by George Stone, "Have Love Will Travel" by Richard Berry & The Pharoahs, "Keep My Woman Home" by Danny White, "Mama Julie" by Terry & Jerry, and "I Got A Woman" by Billy Hawks. (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD