An incredibly righteous record from the legendary Andy Bey – an artist who's risen back to fame in recent years as a relatively straight jazz singer – but who was in some very heady territory here in the early 70s! Bey first rose to fame as part of the vocal trio, Andy & The Bey Sisters – and while that group's 60s recordings were already wonderful, Andy soon stepping out into tremendous territory of his own – working with Max Roach, Horace Silver, and Gary Bartz – and adding some unique spiritual and socially conscious vocals to some of their best jazz records at the end of the 60s! This set's one of Andy's few solo moments from the time – and really follows up the groove strongly – with lots of help from the mighty William Fischer, who wrote some of the tracks, and plays keyboards – although Bey is clearly the main compositional force here. The album includes a remake of "Celestial Blues", which Bey recorded famously with Gary Bartz – and which is in a leaner, even funkier take here – and other titles include "Being Uptight", "Tune Up", "Hibiscus", "Experience", and "The Power Of My Mind". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the earliest records by the legendary Novi Singers – and a rare MPS set that exposed the group to a larger European audience! Novi hail from Poland, but have a name that's an condensation of the English phrase "new original vocal instruments" – a great summation of the way the quartet use their voices to recreate the feel of instruments in modern jazz – a mode first explored by the Lambert Hendricks & Ross group in the US, but taken to a much farther extreme on this set! The group are supported here by a border-crossing small combo of musicians that includes Zbigniew Namyslowski on alto sax, Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, Adam Makowicz on piano, and Billy Brooks on drums – and the sound is cool, laidback, and very groovy – extremely tight, almost even more so than some of the group's Polish albums! Titles include "The Second Side", "Secret Life", "Kulfon", and "Apartment Under The Roof". LP, Vinyl record album