Sarah Vaughan's looking pretty groovy on the cover of this album, and she's sounding pretty groovy too – thanks to some sweet 70s backings from Ernie Wilkins! The style isn't exactly funky, but it's got some fully soulful sounds, and some great electric moments too – modes that almost feel more like some of the best Kudu Records vocal sets from the time, instead of the usual Mainstream Records groove. Sarah really fits well in this sort of setting – stretching out into groovier territory than before with the same sense of change that Ella Fitzgerald or Marlena Shaw were bringing to their music at the time. Players include Jerome Richardson on saxes, Buddy Childers on trumpet, Benny Powell on trombone, Jimmy Cobb on percussion, and Earl Palmer on drums – and titles include "Inner City Blues", "Magical Connection", "Universal Prisoner", "Tomorrow City", "That's The Way I've Always Heard It", "Imagine", "On Thinking It Over", and "If Not For You". LP, Vinyl record album

A great little follow-up to Katie Lee's indie hit of the late 50s, Songs Of Couch & Consultation – and like that set, a batch of playful little tunes with psychoanalytic themes at the core! The scoring here, by Ray Martin, is quite similar to some of the other RCA female vocal sides of the late 50s – not entirely jazz, and done with full orchestrations – yet never in a way that's ever too sentimental at all – and in fact, in Martin's hands, surprisingly playful at most points – almost as if Raymond Scott were scoring the tunes! Lee's charm really does a great job of bringing the inner psyche out – and titles include "The Insecure Tango", "Life Is Just A Bed Of Neuroses", "The Ballad Of Group Therapy", and "We Must Adjust". LP, Vinyl record album

A gem of a record from vocalist Urszula Dudziak – the closest she ever came to doing a "straight" set of vocals, but still one that lives up to her unique style! The album was produced by Michal Urbaniak with a sweet electric vibe – never too smooth or overproduced, but with just enough American jazz funk to set things right – and make for some wonderful instrumentation that helps Urszula breathe new life into some older tunes! A few tracks on here are originals – like "Midnight Rain", "People Say", and "Cuckoo's Nest" – and the rest are wonderfully reworked versions of older tracks like "Lover", "Night In Tunisia", and "Bluesette". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing stuff – a really incredible dip into the life, mind, and music of Billie Holiday – with some rare studio banter that's almost as compelling as her famous recordings for Verve! Amazing package, too – a real standard-setter for CDs when it came out! CD

Vocalist Fay Victor pens lyrics for a jazz composer we're not sure we've ever heard with words before – modern piano legend Herbie Nichols, a player whose songs are often as full of angles and sharp changes as Thelonious Monk! And as you might guess from a style like that, the music doesn't easily lend itself to vocalization – but when it does, the results are amazing – as Victor's not only penned some fantastic lyrics for these tunes, she also delivers one of her best performances on record to date! The sound is modern, but never too outside – maybe like Jon Hendricks taking on some of Monk's music, in the way that Fay always retains a sense of humanity – working here with piano from Anthony Coleman, alto and baritone from Michael Attias, bass from Ratzo Harris, and drums from Tom Raney. Titles include "Descent Into Madness", "Non Fraternization Clause", "The Culprit Is You", "Shuffle Montgomery", "Sinners All Of Us", and "Bright Butterfly". LP, Vinyl record album

Vocalist Fay Victor pens lyrics for a jazz composer we're not sure we've ever heard with words before – modern piano legend Herbie Nichols, a player whose songs are often as full of angles and sharp changes as Thelonious Monk! And as you might guess from a style like that, the music doesn't easily lend itself to vocalization – but when it does, the results are amazing – as Victor's not only penned some fantastic lyrics for these tunes, she also delivers one of her best performances on record to date! The sound is modern, but never too outside – maybe like Jon Hendricks taking on some of Monk's music, in the way that Fay always retains a sense of humanity – working here with piano from Anthony Coleman, alto and baritone from Michael Attias, bass from Ratzo Harris, and drums from Tom Raney. Titles include "Descent Into Madness", "Non Fraternization Clause", "The Culprit Is You", "Shuffle Montgomery", "Sinners All Of Us", and "Bright Butterfly". CD