Allen Eager and Phil Urso on tenor saxophone, Fats Ford and Howard McGhee on trumpet, Mundell Lowe on guitar, Harry Biss and Spaulding Givens on piano, Don Elliott on mellophone, Gene Ramey on bass, and Sid Bulkin and Walter Bolden on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Deeply soulful blowing from tenorist Frank Lowe – working here in a wonderfully hip group that includes Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Grachan Moncur III on trombone, Geri Allen on piano, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Charles Moffett on drums. The date really lives up to the promise you might expect from the players listed – and has a really classic, deep-rooted sound that makes the album feel like some lost avant set from a decade before – very well-crafted and thoughtful, with a great balance between focus and freedom. Lowe wrote most of the songs – and titles include "Decision In Paradise", "Cherryco", "I'll Whistle Your Name", "Lowe-ologie", "You Dig", and "Dues & Don'ts". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the strongest creative statement to date from tenorist James Brandon Lewis – an album of work inspired by the legacy of George Washington Carver – served up here with a sense of depth that's certain to open even more doors for Lewis in years to come! There's a majesty to the music that's apparent in the very first notes, and which keeps on coming as each song unfurls – that search for truth talked about in Carver's writings, quested here with a quintet that includes William Parker on bass, Chad Taylor on drums, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, and Chris Hoffman on cello! The energy of Parker and Taylor is sublime – and makes for a setting that's different than other recent records we've heard from Knuffke, who also seems to draw new currents of sonic inspiration from the gentle but powerful use of the cello. The tenor has a raw, sharp edge throughout – a personality that would be striking, even without the beautiful setting of Lewis' original material – and titles include "Lowlands Of Sorrow", "Jesup Wagon", "Experiment Station", "Fallen Flowers", "Seer", and "Arachis". LP, Vinyl record album

A great one from this lesser-known vocalist – with arrangements by David Terry! LP, Vinyl record album

A long-awaited full length set – one that finally brings together all of the amazing Tony Allen reworks done by the Honest Jon's label! These "chop up" tracks were originally issued over a range of limited 12" singles, and they're really amazing stuff – not just remixes of Tony Allen's work, but re-recordings and re-interpretations as well – a batch of music that stands amazingly well on its own, even if you're not a fan of Tony originally – and which takes his music into even more exotic territory than just Afro Funk! The choice of artists here is key to the set – as players from other Afro-influenced genres really take a new spin on Allen's music – and are allowed to strongly bring their own sounds to the set. Titles include "Ole (Cairo version)" by Salah Ragab, "Sankofa" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, "Kilode (rmx)" by Carl Craig, "Awa Na Re (rmx)" by Bonde De Role, "Mark's Disco Dub" by Mark Ernestus, "Reggae Land Dub" by Wareika Hill Sounds, "Samba" by Son Palenque De Colombia, "Kilode (rework)" by Wajeed, "Ole (rmx)" by Moritz Von Oswald, "Fuji Ouija" by Diplo, and "One Tree (TP's spirit of unity mix)" by Terrence Parker. LP, Vinyl record album

A high school record, but also one of the first hip hop singles to come out of Chicago! Given that in the early 80s, Chi-town was still focusing mostly on soul (and soon, house), the Windy City was way behind New York in terms of hip hop production – and most early rap efforts came out as novelty tunes by local personalities. But this little gem has a surprising level of quality – simple old school backings at best, copping a Sugarhill groove from the start – but some nicely scripted lyrics from a number of Carver High School seniors, presented in a way that's a bit more staid than the usual east coast single – but still quite nice! The flipside has a mellower cut – a cool "Senior Song" that's done like some laidback 80s R&B ballad, but with a more youthful vocal approach. 12-inch, Vinyl record

With selections by Ray Tellier's San Francisco Orchestra, Palais Royal Californians, Eric Pease & His Astoria Band, Jimmy Elkins & His Wintergarden Orchestra, Watson & His Green Mill Orchestra, Des Tooley, Cliff Clarke & His Kookaburras, Gil Deach, Maurice Gilman & His Orchestra, Frank Coughlans & His Trocadero Orchestra, Dudley Cantrell & The Grace Grenadiers, Seven Pearce Arrows, Jack Allen's Original Katzenjammers, and Les Welch & His Eight Beat Boys. LP, Vinyl record album

A nice overview of Coleman Hawkins' career in a great 2LP set, containing material recorded between 1939 and 1947, and later work recorded in 1956. Most of the early work is in a wonderful small group format that lets Hawkins' tenor really come to the forefront. Other players on the sessions include Benny Carter, JC Higginbotham, Allen Eager, Peter Brown, and Budd Johnson – and titles include "Half Step Down Please", "Bouncing With Bean", "Meet Doctor Foo", "Spotlite", "Low Flame", and "Jumping For Jane". The later work features the orchestra of Billy Byers, including soloists Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Hank Jones. Coleman's the main blower, though – and the arrangements have a solid base that lets him open up in that exploratory tone he was crafting during the time. And although tracks are short, there's a heck of a lot of soul packed into them – recorded with impeccable quality, much more so than earlier sides. Titles include "I Never Knew", "Bean & The Boys", "The Essence of You", "Have You Met Miss Jones", "Dinner For One Please, James", and "I'm Shooting High". LP, Vinyl record album

Wicked funk from Chocolate Milk – and a set that perfectly combines their deep New Orleans roots with the tighter sound the Crescent City was brewing up in the mid 70s! The group work closely here with producer Allen Toussaint – and really show that stronger use of studio technology that Toussaint was perfecting at the time – a mode used famously in work for bigger artists, but which is totally perfect here to bring an even greater focus to the sound of the group! There's loads of sharp-stepping basslines and drums at the bottom, mixed with a cool compressed sound at the top – a way of being a bit smooth, yet still pretty darn funky all the way through. The mellower cuts are especially great – never sleepy, but slow grooving in a really badass way – and titles include "Comin", "Do Onto Others", "Starbright", "Feel the Need", and "Something New". LP, Vinyl record album

A chilling soundtrack for one of the last great Irwin Allen disaster films of the 70s – The Swarm, the story of a bunch of bees that go crazy! The score was penned by Jerry Goldsmith, whose talent for creating off-beat string passages makes for some great "bee-like" moments in this one – times when the strings really swarm around nicely, and convey the spooky feel of the film! Orchestrations are by Arthur Morton, and titles include "The Bees Arrive", "Gift Of Flowers", "The Bee's Picnic", "Tommy's Death", "Don't Take Him", and "Exact Instructions". LP, Vinyl record album

A historic meeting between pianist Art Tatum and tenor sax giant Ben Webster! At some level, it's clear that Tatum's the star of the sessions – as most tracks start out with that introspective and often complicated approach to the keys that marks his trio and solo work – but Webster always slides in just in time to keep the record from being a standard Tatum outing – blowing with a crisp tone that's beautifully recorded here, and hardly concerned at all with the presence of Red Callender on bass and Bill Douglass on drums – who are much lower in the mix. Titles include "Night & Day", "Where Or When", "My Ideal", "Gone With The Wind", and "All The Things You Are". LP, Vinyl record album

Earl McGrath looks pretty darn cool on the cover, and from all reports he was a pretty darn cool guy in the 70s too – head of Rolling Stones Records, and friend and confidant to some very hip folks in the music industry! After Earl passed, a closet full of unreleased tapes was discovered at his home – really wonderful material by artists big and small, brought together here in a treasure trove of tracks that give us a whole different look at the 70s! Given the obscurity, most titles are demo recordings with lean instrumentation – but that quality makes the work by big stars even more interesting, and really delivers the best work of the special singer/songwriters that McGrath would always champion. Titles include "Cocaine Cowboy" and "Gonna California" by Terry Allen, "California" by Mark Rodney, "Baby Come Closer" and "Dry In The Sun" by Hall & Oates, "Funky But Chic" by David Johansen, "Tension" by Jim Carroll, "Oh La La" by Shadow, "Christopher" by Michael McCarty, "Holy Commotion" by Paul Potash, "Sail Away" by Jabor, "Invisible Lady" by Johnny Angel, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" by Blood Brothers Six, and "Salt Showers" by Len & Betsy Green. LP, Vinyl record album

Featured soloists include Henry Red Allen on trumpet, Gene Mikell on saxophone, JC Higginbotham on trombone, Tab Smith on alto, and Joe Garland on tenor. LP, Vinyl record album

The album begins with the side-long "Kalakuta Show" – one of the most powerful tunes ever recorded by Fela Kuti, as it describes a police attack on his compound and all the violence that followed – but all while Tony Allen and Africa 70 serve up these amazing riffing grooves that are topped by Fela's work on tenor and vocals! The flipside is an equally powerful political message – the great "Don't Make Ganran Ganran", a commentary on wealth inequality in Nigeria – and a cut that's every bit as great a groover as the first! The back cover also includes "real picture of police raid on Kalakuta Republic Africa 70 House and Fela's wound after". LP, Vinyl record album

We're always big fans of Bev Kelly's work, but this album is way hipper than the usual vocal album of its type from the time – thanks to a sweet little lineup that features Pony Poindexter on alto sax and Flip Nunez on piano! The presence of Poindexter's horn is always a treat, on the handful of smaller group sides he cut from this time – and Nunez's piano lines have an inherently rhythmic groove that comes out even on the mellower numbers – which often are somewhat spacious, but stepping along with a gentle groove underneath Kelly's fantastic vocals. Part of the credit for this groove goes to Johnny Allen, whose work on bass is great – and the group's completed by the drums of Tony Johnson, who's a bit more down in the mix. Titles include "Long Ago & Far Away", "My Foolish Heart", "Night & Day", "Just Friends", "Love Letters", "This Is Always", and "My Funny Valentine". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best early albums by vocalist Mark Murphy – cut to arrangements by Bill Holman on side one, a set of big band numbers, and to smaller piano trio backing on side two, which features mellower stuff. Murphy's really developing his voice at this point, and is starting to get some of the character and freedom that made his 60s and 70s work so wonderful. Some of the material's a bit hokey, but as usual, Murphy turns things around nicely, and makes the best of what he has at hand. Titles include "Put The Blame On Mame", "Isn't It About Time", "Wishing", "As Long As I Live", "I Didn't Know About You", and "Playing The Field", a groovy uptempo song by Steve Allen. Great cover, too – with Murphy "playing the field" amidst a bunch of different ladies! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Sun Ra records from the early 80s – and a set that's every bit as striking as its sinister title! The album was recorded in 1982 – in marathon New York sessions that yielded more than one album's worth of material – but of all of them, this is probably the best, and the one with some of the strongest playing – a really unified album that should have gotten a lot more circulation at the time, instead of a mostly underground release on Saturn Records. The set kicks off with the fantastic "Nuclear War", a wonderful little groover – and a track that's probably as strong a number in the Arkestra's book as "Space Is The Place" – but with a shift in righteous message from the 70s to the 80s. The album then shifts into 2 mellower numbers with weird spacey overtones – "Retrospect" and "Makeup" – before moving into side two, and the drawn-out edgey "Fireside Chat With Lucifer". Players include Ra on piano, electronics, and organ – plus John Gilmore on tenor, Danny Ray Thompson on baritone, Marshall Allen on flute and alto, and Atakatune on percussion – plus vocals from June Tyson and Tyrone Hill on "Nuclear War". LP, Vinyl record album

A second set of material issued in celebration of the legendary Wattstax concert by Stax Records in LA in 1972 – and a set that mostly features material from the famous show at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but also includes some sly studio material that was pumped up with applause to fit nicely into the mix! Richard Pryor acts as the MC – although his tracks weren't recorded at the actual concert – and as with the original album, there's a mixture of some self-contained "show" passages here, plus individual songs by other artists too! David Porter delivers a mighty batch of tracks that include "Reach Out & Touch", "Ain't That Loving You", and "Can't See You When I Want To" – followed by a Johnnie Taylor show that includes "Steal Away", "Stop Doggin Me", and "Jody's Got Your Girl & Gone". Other live material includes work by Rance Allen Group, Kim Weston, Jimmy Jones, and The Golden 13 – augmented by additional cuts from The Emotions, Mel & Tim, and Little Milton too! LP, Vinyl record album

Howard Hewett's got a smooth look on the cover, but the album's got a nice degree of crackle all the way through – that snappy, soulful style that Hewett did so well back in the day – working here as almost a one-man powerhouse on production and arrangements too! The tunes are catchy, but never too crossover – and Hewett has this way of bringing in a subtle drama on the upbeat tracks, while avoiding some of the cliches of his contemporaries – then sliding into some mellower moments that really hold the album together strongly. Production is definitely in a late 80s R&B mode, but with a style that really sets it apart – and titles include "Strange Relationship", "This Time", "Good Bye Good Friend", "Challenge", "Natural Love", "Once Twice Three Times", "Shakin My Emotion", and "Share A Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A second set of material issued in celebration of the legendary Wattstax concert by Stax Records in LA in 1972 – and a set that mostly features material from the famous show at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but also includes some sly studio material that was pumped up with applause to fit nicely into the mix! Richard Pryor acts as the MC – although his tracks weren't recorded at the actual concert – and as with the original album, there's a mixture of some self-contained "show" passages here, plus individual songs by other artists too! David Porter delivers a mighty batch of tracks that include "Reach Out & Touch", "Ain't That Loving You", and "Can't See You When I Want To" – followed by a Johnnie Taylor show that includes "Steal Away", "Stop Doggin Me", and "Jody's Got Your Girl & Gone". Other live material includes work by Rance Allen Group, Kim Weston, Jimmy Jones, and The Golden 13 – augmented by additional cuts from The Emotions, Mel & Tim, and Little Milton too! LP, Vinyl record album