A great little album from Georgie Fame – with a hard raw soul sound that shows what a big crossover potential he had with the UK soul market – so much so that this batch of material was issued in the US as well! The album's got some wonderful arrangements – quite raw, with some nice organ, and plenty of heavy vocals from Georgie in a strong blue eyed soul mode. Titles include "Sitting In The Park", "Get Away", "Sweet Thing", "Ride Your Pony", "The In Crowd", "Last Night", and "Music Talk". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant mix of jazz, soul, and R&B – all filtered through a mod sort of London freshness, as early proof that the city could always take some great things from our own musical roots, and feed it back to us with a whole new flavor! Georgie Fame's no copycat here, though – and the sound is instantly Fame-like – a style that's really not the sort that any Americans were doing at the time, and certainly never this well. Hard-burning Hammond colors most of the tunes here – played with a tightly vamping quality – but it's Georgie's charmingly crackling vocals that really win us over! Titles include "Gimme That Wine", "Pink Champagne", "Monkeying Around", "I Love The Life I Live", "Point Of No Return", "Preach & Teach", "Get On The Right Track Baby", and the hit "Yeh Yeh". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful mid 70s session from Blossom Dearie – a small combo outing, but one that's less in the straighter trio style of some of her other records on the Daffodil label! The keyboards here are mostly electric, and used in a way that provides warmly flowing lines alongside Blossom's sweet vocals – in a style that almost makes the record feel like a fuller studio effort, but which retains the close-up and personal sense that always makes a Dearie record sound best. Titles are nearly all original numbers penned with Blossom's great sense of humor – with numbers that include "Hey John", "Sweet Georgie Fame", "I'm Shadowing You", "Many's The Time", "Isn't That The Thing To Do", "How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehn", and "Saving My Feeling For You". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible lost slice of work from one of our favorite singers of all time – a set of different live performances recorded in the Netherlands, most of which have some larger arrangements that give the whole thing the same sort of vibe as Blossom Dearie's famous London recordings of the 60s! The material here spans a time that stretches from 1968 to the end of the 80s – and Blossom is on piano throughout, and works with large backings from the Metropole Orchestra on about half the tracks – with arrangements from Arthur Greenslade and Rob Pronk, who really get the groovy spirit of the music right! Other tracks feature smaller group recordings, but still with that special charm that Blossom has in the London years – on titles that include "Discover Who I Am", "The Music Played", "You Have Lived In Autumn", "Who Knows Why", "Both Sides Now", "Bring All Your Love Again", "Bye Bye Country Boy", "Sammy", "Winchester In Apple Blossom Time", "Sweet Georgie Fame", and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". LP, Vinyl record album

A mighty nice pairing of talents – the great Van Morrison, working here in a soul jazz setting with plenty of work on Hammond from the equally great Joey DeFrancesco! The album's a lot like the one that Van cut with Georgie Fame years back – and with all that organ, the sound is a bit like Fame's work of the 60s – much more in a soul jazz mode than any of Morrison's work from his early years, and a great setting for his mature vocals – which still have all the charm of before, but have maybe changed in a way that suits a jazz setting more than the albums of his early solo years. The group's also got some strong tenor from Troy Roberts, and Joey plays some trumpet too – on titles that include "Celtic Swing", "Sticks & Stones", "Close Enough For Jazz", "Goldfish Bowl", "Have I Told You Lately", "All Saint's Day", "Hold It Right There", "Miss Otis Regrets", and "Magic Time". (Rock, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

Early work from The Peddlers – the unique British trio who went onto cut some incredible break tracks in their day! This set's got the group more in the "beat" mode of things – still nicely syncopated, and working with the mix of guitar and organ that makes their tunes so nice – but with less of an emphasis on the downturning grooves that made some of their later work a bit more funky. Still quite nice, though, in the mode of early Georgie Fame – and with tracks that include "Gassin", "What'll I Do?", "Delicious Lady", "Adam's Apple", "True Girl", and "Anybody's Fool". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album