Brazilian grooves all over the place – and a wonderful assortment of tunes from the Warner, Atlantic, and Elektra vaults of the 60s and 70s! The set list goes way past the pop-bossa numbers that you might think from the cover, which is a cop from an old Atlantic compilation of the 60s – and includes some lesser-known tracks cooked up in Brazil during the 70s, as well as some of their American counterparts. Titles include "Celebration Suite" by Airto, "Jive Samba" by Jon Hendricks, "Eu Bebo Sim" by Osmar Milito, "Mr Funky Samba" by Banda Black Rio, "From The Lonely Afternoon" by Flora Purim, "Mas Que Nada" by Ella Fitzgerald, "Upa Neguinho (live)" by Elis Regina, "Tim Tim Por Tim Tim" by Joao Gilberto, "Crickets Sing For Anamaria (inst)" by Marcos Valle, "Manha De Carnival" by Louie Ramirez, "Barsanova Brown" by Eddie Cano, "Batuque" by Marcos Valle, and "Maria Fumaca" by Banda Black Rio. CD

Featuring artists Elmore Jones, Buddy Guy, T Bone Walker, Joe Turner, Tampa red and others. 25 tracks total! CD

Music from The Honeycombs, The Supremes, The Dixie Cups, Don Covay, The Murmaids, Roy Orbison, The Kingsmen, The Shangri-Las, The Impressions, Maxine Brown, The Beach Boys, The Searchers, The Reflections, and more - 22 tracks in all. CD

Music fromBarry McGuire, Fontella Bass, Len Barry, The Beach Boys, The Beau Brummels, The Miracles, The Kinks, Martha And The Vandellas, Roy Head, The Ad Libs, Otis Redding, The Byrds, and more - 22 songs in all. CD

An assortment of tracks recorded together under the Downbeat name, but which was really designed to showcase the budding jazz talents on late 50s Dot Records! The set kicks off with a big band, Basie-ish number – "Blues Over Easy", performed by Manny Alban and jazz greats that include Nick Travis, Gene Quill, and Jerome Richardson. Next up is the Tony Scott quintet with Jimmy Knepper – on a version of "Scrapple From The Apple" – followed by 2 tracks by Steve Allen – one trio, one with a quartet with Georgie Auld – "Rose Room" and "The Fast Thing In C". Paul Horn follows up with "Give Me The Simple Life" – and the set's completed by "Dougy's Buggy" performed by the Don Elliott Quintet, with Elliott on trumpet and vibes, plus bass clarinet by Hal McKusick. CD

Music from Miklos Rosza, Max Steiner, Adolph Deutsch, David Raksin, Roy Webb, George Bassman, Andre Previn, Paul Sawtell, Anthony Collins, and more – plus loads of great dialogue from the films! CD

One of John Barry's first true moments of genius – recorded back when he was the leader of a fab little instrumental combo called the John Barry 7, and was tagged to do some soundtrack work that would forever change the rest of his career! The album's got some incredible instrumental tunes that mix electric guitar and beatnik jazz in a mode that's keeping with the juvenile delinquent theme of the film – with some strings sneaking in to cheese things up a bit, but in a great way that only makes the tunes sound even better! Adam Faith sings vocals on "The Beat Girl Song", "Made You", and "I Did What You Told Me" – and other tunes include "Blues For Beatnicks", "Blondie's Strip", "Beat Girl", "Time Out", "The Sharks", and "The City 2000 AD". This El UK edition includes bonus tracks by Gillian Hills, The John Barry Sound and Adam Faith. CD

A completely righteous mix of jazz and African percussion – put together by drummer Art Blakey at a time when he was riding high with the Jazz Messengers, but also was willing to work on great experiments like this! The album's years ahead of its time – and arguably opens the door for countless spiritual jazz projects like this in the 70s, more proof that Blakey was a groundbreaking artist who was always opening doors for others! Blakey's own work on drums is joined by percussion from Montego Joe, Chief Bey, Garvin Masseux, James Ola, Folami, Robert Crowder, and Solomon Ilori – the last of whom would record his own record for Blue Note – and the rest of the group features Yusef Lateef on flute and tenor, Curtis Fuller on trombone, and the great Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass – a great choice for the record, given that he was mixing together similar modes on his own records of the time. Titles include "Tobi Ilu", "Love, The Mystery Of", and "Obirin African". CD

londie had a lot to live up to after Parallel Lines, but they pulled it off here – Eat To The Beat is another classic! Downtown cool, a strong sense of pop history and tight production by Mike Chapman make for a really distinct sound on this one. Standouts include the excellent opener "Dreaming" (one of the finest Harry/Stein songs ever, if you ask us), the punky title track, "Union City Blue" and "Accidents Never Happen", and while Blondie albums are by nature hit-and-miss given the fearless mish-mash of styles they always brought in, the whole thing is pretty great! Other tracks include "Shayla", "Die Young Stay Pretty" and "Living In The Real World". CD

A classic set of sample-heavy wizardry from Edan – and a record that's every bit as psychedelic as you might expect from the cover! There's plenty of great psych flourishes in the samples, grounded in some heavy breakbeats that keep things on tracks – while the rhythms mix touches of madness and genius, with tongue twists that pay homage and blast forward simultaneously. Guests include Mr Lif, Insight, and Percee-P – and titles include "Funky Voltron", "I See Colours", "Torture Chamber", "Promised Land", "Time Outt", "Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme", "Making Planets", "Murder Mystery", "Rock & Roll", and "Smile". CD

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Masters At Work have always had a talent for making wonderful club numbers that maintain the flavor of the source, like this batucada derived groover, with some nice percolating MAW touches and a rich, bouncy vocal melody. The other 2 numbers, Otto's "Bob" and Tenoria Junior's "Nebulosa" provide a wonderful counterpoint to the heavier club groove with their breezy vibe. CD

A deep deep look at a side of the British 60s scene that didn't always make big waves here in the US – but one that had a huge influence on UK sounds for years to come! The mighty book-like package documents the rich stream of sounds that exploded during the beat group years – a moment that was partly graced by some of the names that we'd know here as the Brit Invasion, but which soon moved off into much more expansive sounds that include mod moments, freakbeat grooves, and a fair bit of tunes influenced by American jazz and soul! The 6CD set features a whopping 165 tracks in all, plus a huge booklet of notes – and a number of the tracks are pulled from the Pye Records catalog – one of the most important Brit labels of the period – but the set also includes lot of bits from elsewhere too. Includes work by The Rogers, Marmalade, The Baskervilles, The Web, The Mighty Atoms, Glenda Collins, The Mike Stuart Span, Bobbi Rio & The Revelles, Carl Wayne & The Vikings, The Mike Cotton Sound, Ray Singer, Marilyn Powell, Just Four Men, Twinkle, Tony Jackson, The Cops N Robbers, Major Rowley, Paddy Klaus & Gibson, David Bowie & The Lower Third, The Lancastrians, New Faces, The Limeys, Mick & Malcolm, Kind, Episode Six, and many others! CD

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A great Tony Bennett LP – very different than others from the time (or any time!) in that the format pairs the master vocalist with the "who's who" of drummers and percussionists of the late 50s – including Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Candido, and Sabu. The sound is as majestic and crashing as you'd imagine, and cuts include "Let's Begin", "Love For Sale", "Crazy Rhythm", and "Let's Face the Music and Dance". A great LP, and one of his best. If you've ever doubted Tony's committment to jazz, check this one out, and be pleasantly surprised! CD

8 records across 4 discs! Included in this collection: The Big Beat, The Witch Doctor, Meet You At The Jazz Corner Of The World Volumes 1&2, The Freedom Rider, Mosaic, 3 Blind Mice and The African Beat. CD

Includes 41 tracks on 2 CDs. CD

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2 jazzy gems from Michel Legrand – back to back on a single CD! Michel Legrand Big Band Plays Richard Rodgers is a pretty wonderful album by Legrand – way better than you'd guess from the title! Sure, the tunes are mostly numbers by Richard Rodgers, but Legrand handles them here with the best of his soundtrack skills – really opening them up with some amazingly deft arrangements, and working with a stellar set of American jazz players to give the tunes a sound that's as jazzy as possible – and swinging them with the inherent lyricism that always makes us love his music! Players are a great lineup – with Clark Terry and Ernie Royal on trumpets, Urbie Green and Bob Brookmeyer on trombones, Paul Gonsalves on tenor, Jerry Dodgion and Phil Woods on alto, Julious Watkins on French horn, Gary Burton on vibes, and Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones on piano. Titles include "This Can't Be Love", "Falling In Love With Love", "Bali Hai", "Have You Met Miss Jones", "There's A Small Hotel", and "The Lady Is A Tramp". On the second album, Broadway is the beat, but the sound has plenty of Parisian touches, too – thanks to arrangements from the mighty Michel Legrand! Legrand's in a mode here that's somewhere between his earliest soundtracks, and the European-themed records he cut for Columbia in the late 50s – styles that are a bit more warm and sentimental than in later years, with evocative elements designed to coax the Broadway-based listener out on a voyage across the Atlantic! Strings are relatively full, and sometimes used with great dynamic energy – and titles include "Bewitched", "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin Soon For New York", "Old Devil Moon", "With A Little Bit Of Luck", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", and "Yesterdays". CD

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A great colleciton – spoken word material, hip singers, and more – with tracks from Jack Kerouac, Lord Buckley, Babs Gonzalez, Carl Sandburg, Allen Ginsberg, Del Close, Dizzy Gillespie, William S Burroughs, King Pleasure, Ken Nordine, Langston Hughes, The Gordons, and many more! CD

Music from Shorty Ashford, Billy Nix, Bobby Sisco, Chuck Dallis, Harry Carter, Chuck Dallis, Ginnie Carter, Rem Wall, Lorenzo Smith, Mel Kimbrough, Bob Burton, and more. CD

Hard-swinging work from Jimmy Araki – working here in a slightly loose trio format that's really unique for the time! The record features Araki both on piano and alto sax – playing live with George Kawaguchi on drums and Mitsuru Ono on bass – a lineup that cooks with a tremendous amount of fury despite its small size, and which nicely shifts from piano-driven tunes to alto ones. We like the latter most of all – because hearing Araki without a piano is a bit like hearing some of Sonny Rollins' trio sides of the late 50s – and Jimmy's got a really nice edge in his tone that makes these numbers really stand out from the rest! Don't get us wrong, because his piano work is pretty great too – but the snakey saxophone numbers really make the album something special! Titles are all listed in Japanese, but the arrangements are all by Araki. CD

One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their early soulful powers here – working with Blakey and bassist Jymie Merritt in a set of tunes that are overflowing with expressive solos, unusual timings, and the Blakey genius for mixing bold statements with personally introspective moments. Nearly every track on the record's a classic – and titles include an early version of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere", plus Wayne Shorter's beautiful tunes "Lester Left Town", "Chess Players", and "Sakeena's Vision". CD

One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their early soulful powers here – working with Blakey and bassist Jymie Merritt in a set of tunes that are overflowing with expressive solos, unusual timings, and the Blakey genius for mixing bold statements with personally introspective moments. Nearly every track on the record's a classic – and titles include an early version of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere", plus Wayne Shorter's beautiful tunes "Lester Left Town", "Chess Players", and "Sakeena's Vision". CD

Solidly socking soul from Chicago – a great little set recorded with a really old school feel, but one that's also different than the usual deep funk record! The Uptown Sound have a vibe that's all their own – at one level, a quality that's steeped in classic soul – but at another, with a quality that's strangely offbeat too, almost with an undercurrent of darkness in some of the instrumentation that somehow mixes slight punkish roots into funk! Lead singer JC Brooks follows suit strongly – hitting topics that aren't your usual soul music standards, even though his vocals would be right at home with such fare – and instead, the album's got a range of themes that really keep an edge to the set, of the sort that's bound to find these guys a large audience way outside the usual deep funk underground. JC's a real superstar – even larger on stage, which is a recommendation to catch the group live! Titles include "Love One Another", "Hold You Back", "75 Years Of Art Sex", "How To Stop Loving Someone Who's Stopped Loving You", "He Does The Town", and "Berry Please". CD

A loving reissue that brings together two of the best June Christy albums on one CD! Both albums were cut a bit later than some of Christy's more famous work, and they represent the peak of her emotional maturity as a singer. The arrangements on both albums were done by Pete Rugolo, and he brought the same sort of eerie sound to the records that he did to Something Cool, his earlier classic with June. There's 20 cuts in all, and titles include "Off Beat", "The Bad & The Beautiful", "Saturday's Children", "Out Of This World", and "Nightime Was My Mother". Incredibly haunting work by one of our favorite all-time jazz vocalists! CD

Wonderful mellow work from Sam Cooke – and a set that's recorded with a sound that's very much in keeping with the "night beat" that you might expect from the title! In fact, there's not so much a "beat" as a simple easy groove – a gentle sort of "night" feeling, with some piano in the lead on many tracks, and backing by a larger group conducted by Rene Hall – a great setting that lets Cooke hit some of his most soulful moments on record from the time! The album includes many lesser-known Cooke performances – including "Trouble Blues", "You Gotta Move", "Fool's Paradise", "Lost & Lookin", and "Mean Old World". CD

Peven Everett's breakout track! Though this single is credited to and really by new school Chicago producer Roy Davis, Jr, it's most well known around these parts as the first record that Peven really got a chance to shine on, with his soulful vocals nicely adding icing to the sweet, soulful house tracks! CD

Shadow finally returns to release a record under his own name, and believe it or not, it's as much of a pop/rock record as the UNKLE LP was! We're not complaining though, because this one's got a great new wave twist to it, and on the third track of this single, Shadow's back in battle mode, with vocal cut-ups over a slower beat. CD

Slinky Hammond organ grooves and feverish boogaloo soul from Kansas City combo Chris Hazlelton's Boogaloo 7 – their first full length studio set after a series of great singles and live album – totally living up to our high expectations! Hazelton is on the Hammond at the center of the sound, giving it a classic jazz funk foundation – but he's a generous bandleader, giving the group plenty of space to shine – with Pat Conway on conga & percussion, Brett Jackson, Nick Rowland & Zak Pischonotte on saxes, Matt Hopper on guitar, Danny Rojas on drums and others. Titles include a nice take on Melvin Sparks's "Bambu", the Hazleton originals "Fryin' Pan", "Turnin' Up The Burner", "The Basement Beat", "Tru-Galu" plus killer cover of Sharon Jones & The Dap-King's modern classic "100 Days, 100 Nights". CD

A very nice small combo album from Peggy Lee – singing here with live backings by the George Shearing Quintet, in a style that's very different from a lot of her other work for Capitol! The set's got a slight Latin feel, thanks to George's mix of percussion, vibes, piano, and guitar – and Peggy's never sounded better, stepping out strongly on tunes that include "Do I Love You", "Get Out Of Town", "There'll Be Another Spring", and "Mambo In Miami". Features 2 bonus tracks. CD

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Ubiquity's first volume of tracks from some of best underground producers of the 90s – thirteen spooky turgid tracks from the likes of Q-Burns, DJ Wally & Swingsett, Molasses, Mumbles, The Sharpshooters, Bugs, and Cut Chemist. This stuff kicked a lot of these guys off, and it's still a good American counterpart to things like the Headz comp on MoWax. CD

A dream of a set from the folks at Numero Group – a special package that digs through all their many collections and archive projects, and comes up with some of the funkiest cuts in the bunch! Unlike some of their other compilations, this one focuses on the groove first – and the groove is nice and funky, hard and gritty, and feels like you're sitting next to the turntable, playing a stack of rare funk 45s, one after the other! Titles include "Function Underground" by We The People, "Jungle" by Young Senators, "Let Me Come Within" by Renaldo Domino, "Iron Leg" by Mickey & The Soul Generation, "Get It Right" by Soul President, "First Thing I Do In The Morning" by Joyce Williams, "Party Time" by Black Soul Express, "Money Won't Save You" by Boscoe, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" by Robert Moore, "You Made Me Suffer" by Andrew Brown, and "Watch The Dog That Bring The Bone" by Sandy Gaye. CD

If all airports sounded this great, we'd travel all the time! Copenhagen Airport is the 3rd in Rambling's exploration of the best grooves from the current Scandinavian scene – a host of tracks from Deeplay Records of the past few years, served up in a lively mix of soulful house and more abstract numbers! The grooves here are mostly upbeat, but have plenty of warm jazzy touches – that more organic approach to the groove that's made the Scandinavian scene one watch in recent years, and which often has some nice jazz-influenced moments. Titles include "All We Want" by Zion Lockwood, "Bossa Note (Jask's reprise)" by Dalminjo, "The Most Beautiful Boy In Brazil (Physics 2005 rework)" by Physics, "Let The Sun Shine" by John Dahlback, "Get Out Of That Beat (Rurals' midnight flower mix)" by Physics, "Despacito" by Dalminjo featuring Malena, "7AM Sessions (Thiasoul sunrise mix)" by Physics, and "I Am" by Jeff Bennett's Lounge Experience. CD

Includes music by Tracy Rogers, Bimbi Worrick, Claire Francis, Angela Deen, The Carolines, Lesley Dawson, Diane Lancaster, Kiki Dee, Lori Balmer, and others – 20 tracks total. CD

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One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their early soulful powers here – working with Blakey and bassist Jymie Merritt in a set of tunes that are overflowing with expressive solos, unusual timings, and the Blakey genius for mixing bold statements with personally introspective moments. Nearly every track on the record's a classic – and titles include an early version of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere", plus Wayne Shorter's beautiful tunes "Lester Left Town", "Chess Players", and "Sakeena's Vision". CD features a bonus take on "It's Only A Paper Moon". CD

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An excellent compilation of jazzy grooves from the great Ricky Tick label – featuring tracks from Five Corners Quintet, Timo Lassey, Jukka Eskola, Auteur Jazz, Stance Brothers, Povo and others –some of the best material from Ricky Tick albums to date, plus hard to find vinyl only releases and other hard-to-find bits! The set certainly glows with jazz heat, no one would argue to the contrary, from hard swinging classic sounds, to more Latin and bossa influenced numbers, and some more moody material, all down played with passion and produced with a lively immediacy. 13 tracks in all: "Early Move" by Timo Lassey, "Skinny Dipping" by Five Corners Quintet, "Serenata" by LTC, "Three Corners" (Nicola Conte's Sahib's Samba version) by Five Corners Quintet, "Athatoolagooloo" by Astro Can Caravan, "City Blues" by Povo, "Chip 'n' Charge" by Jukka Eskola, "Once Upon A Summertime" by Olli Ojajarvi Trio and more. CD

A soaring, joyous score from Francesco De Masi – not nearly as dark as some of the other spaghetti western soundtracks of the time – and filled with the sort of proud, bold sounds you might expect from a more mainstream American western! There's still plenty creative going on in the orchestrations, though – lots of cool woodwind and brass passages, layered with the strings to create rich textures in sound – and often holding back energy with this sort of inherent drama that really keeps things moving nicely. There's a bit of chorus vocals at points, from I Cantori Moderni – who sound more heavenly than usual – and titles include "Armonica Western", "Arkansas Commento No 1", "Arkansas Suspense", "Yucca Theme", and "Non Sparate Sul Cantate". CD

A really sweet soundtrack to an earlier Spaghetti Western flick – 1965's Una Barra Per Lo Sceriffo, composed by Francesco De Masi! As with most of these 60s western gems, this one opens with a very cool theme – "A Lone And Angry Man", sung in English and with kind of a fun, almost loungey charisma to the vocals, which is a nice balance to the galloping, wild west instrumentation! The tracks that follow range from sweeping string sections to spare acoustic guitars, often with clip-clopping percussion and horns on the grander numbers – that sublime spaghetti mode that was always very different than the drama of American westerns, and which makes a set like this so great. CD features 15 tracks in all – a few of which feature chorus vocals by I Cantori Modern. CD

Jazzy, scatting, and wonderful! Jazzinho firmly carry the torch of 70s Brazilian jazz – picking up the sound that the music had just as it started to spill into European and American scenes, with bossa nova at the core, but lots of nice electric touches on the top! The group features some wonderful female lead vocals – very breezy, with a warm and sunny finish that really gives the record a wonderful feel. Instrumentation is strongly jazzy – not just beats and tricks – and honestly, the album's got a really solid 70s feel that makes us love it to death! Titles include "Vertigo", "Velejou", "Astral", "Yambou", "Sim Ou Nao", "Camponesa", and "Constelacao". This edition of the CD features four bonus remixes – "Sim Ou Nao" by Sleepwalker, "Constelacao" by Quant, "Sim Ou Nao by Eddy & Dus and "Yambou" by Phil Asher! CD

Loads of great guitar in this classic 60s western – sometimes twangy, sometimes driving, and sometimes mixed nicely with trumpet – all for a sound that really makes the score one of the best from the spaghetti western generation! There's a bold, fresh approach to the whole thing – a style that's really confident in its execution, and which really makes you feel like the film's striking out to some great new territory. We're honestly not that familiar with other work by Michele Lacerenza, but this one's a gem – and also features some chorus vocals from I Cantori Moderni, harmonica from Franco De Gemini, and trumpet from Michele himself! CD features a total of 24 tracks – including "Al Tramonto", "Caccia", "Inseguimento", "Leggende Del West", "Contro I Nemici", "Spiando Il Nemico", and "In Chiesa". CD

A haunting little western score from Bruno Nicolai – one with some great sensitive moments that really deepen the sound! There's a few driving numbers that are more of what you'd expect from a western at the time – but much of the score features these slow moving, sad-tinged instrumentals that are really beautiful – unfolding gently, often with a light guitar line, a bit of keyboards, and especially some flute (or is it recorder?) – moving moodily forward in a really nice way. Tension builds a bit as the set moves on, but never overwhelms – and the CD features 21 tracks in all, with great remastering! CD

One of the greatest Italian crime soundtracks of all time – a totally groovy little record that's done in a style that's quite different than American crime scores of the time, but still completely wonderful! Most of the instrumentation here is relatively spare – almost a small combo funk approach to scoring for a cop film, but done with the penchant for isolated focus on a key instrument that makes Italian soundtracks so great. There's no full horns nor funky orchestrations – and in their place are stepping bass bits, lightly dancing keyboards, and plenty of guitar parts – some jamming, some nicely spacey with a really eerie feel! The sound is great – never as cheesy as other Italian work from the mid to late 70s – and there's a grittier feel here than you'd expect, one that really keeps things interesting. CD features note in English and Italian, and a total of 23 tracks that include "The Reason Of A Just War", "The Punitive Justice", "The Other Face", "Undercover Investigation", "Gangster Story", "Casa Di Muda", and "Chicca". CD

Freewheeling grooves from the great Franco De Gemini – a swinging score that nicely hangs onto some of the best 60s styles of the mod years, of the sort you might hear from Piero Piccioni or Armando Trovajoli! Some cuts have vocals – sung by the lovely Melody – and others have romping rhythms with either organ, or what seems to be amplified harmonica by De Gemini – a perfect fit for the playfully swinging sounds of the tunes! Titles include the sublime scatting "Cheops & Nefertiti", plus "Omar Khayyam", "What Is This Love", "Cairo Night", "Sphinx Show", and "Cos E L'Amore". CD

A very cool sci fi soundtrack from Marcello Giombini – as sexy as the image on the cover might imply, but also pretty darn electric and spacey as well! The album echoes some of Giombini's earlier electronic sound library material – and is often spare, with heavy use of keyboards – in ways that are more like late 60s sci fi scoring than some of the more disco keyboards you'd hear in other space soundtracks from the time! The spareness really works well, and creates an evocative mood on both the mellower tracks and some of the more action-oriented ones – which even get slightly funky at points. CD features 16 tracks from the film – all of them pretty great! CD

Mindblowing work by The Impressions – a double-length set that's totally great! First up is the soundtrack for the Fred Williamson/Jim Brown/Jim Kelly action flick Three The Hard Way – not only a great soundtrack, but one of the best 70s albums by The Impressions! The set was written, arranged, and produced by the Curtom super-team of Rich Tufo and Lowrell Simon – and it's got a super-dope feel that reminds us of the work by Natural Four from the same time, with sweet harmonies over funky backings, in a hip 70s groove that's totally great! All cuts are vocal, but they have plenty of funky moments – and in a way, the whole album's as great as the lead track, which is normally the best one in a blacksploitation soundtrack like this. In other words, if you dig hit soundtrack theme songs like "Across 110th Street" or "Theme from Cleopatra Jones", you'll dig this entire album! Tracks include the great "Having A Ball", plus "Make A Resolution", "Something's Mighty Mighty Wrong", and "Three The Hard Way (Chase & Theme)". First Impressions is hardly the first album by The Impressions, despite the title – but a wonderful batch of modern soul tunes that proves that the group could groove long after Curtis Mayfield was gone! As with other Curtom gems from the 70s, the album has the group working with some really top-shelf help in the studio – production from Ed Townsend, who does a really great job of making the harmonies sparkle with a rich quality that really stands out – a mode that returns the group to the mellow brilliance of their 60s recordings, but still keeps some of the maturity they picked up along the way. Townsend also wrote most of the tracks on the set, with a confident male soul style that's not unlike the best love-heavy territory that Marvin Gaye was exploring at the time – a perfect fit for the newly-refined vocals of the mid 70s quartet lineup that included original members Sam Gooden and Fred Cash, plus Ralph Johnson and Reggie Toran. Titles include the sublime "Groove", which has a nice two-step feel, and "Sooner Or Later", which is a nice mellow cut with an undercurrent of funk – and other tracks include "Old Before My Time", "Same Thing It Took", "I'm So Glad", and "How High Is High". CD

2 Argo Records gems from Ahmad Jamal – back to back on a single CD! Happy Moods is a sprightly set from the Ahmad Jamal Trio – but also a record that's not as brightly colored as you might guess from the title, thanks to a nice undercurrent of darkness in the mix! Jamal's piano work is often nicely punctuated – perhaps living up to the "happy moods" promised on the cover – but the bass work of Israel Crosby and drums by Vernell Fournier are a lot more subtle – magical element that really makes the record sparkle with that unique Jamal-like approach to rhythm. Titles include "For All We Know", "Excerpt From The Blues", "Little Old Lady", "Pavanne", "Time On My Hands", "Raincheck", and "Rhumba No 2". Listen To The Ahmad Jamal Quintet is a nicely expanded take on the Ahmad Jamal sound of the early 60s – one that adds in guitar from Ray Crawford and violin from Joe Kennedy to Jamal's usual trio grooving! The main focus here is often still on the core group – which features Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums – but the added elements are used sparely to bring in new colors to the tunes, with Kennedy bowing violin lines on most of side one, and Crawford hitting some of his great single-note lines on most of side two. Titles include "Ahmad's Waltz", "Valentina", "Tempo For Two", "Yesterdays", and "Baia". CD

Great work from some of George Jones' most heartfelt years! CD

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A killer Morricone soundtrack from the late 60s – filled with sweet tunes and moodier numbers – all served up with cool orchestrations, and some sweet work on electric harpsichord too! The score's lesser-known than some of the maestro's best from the time – but is equally great, and one we're very happy to discover – caught at a mode that still has Morricone using some of his best mod elements from the 60s, yet also beginning to explore the darker sounds that would unfurl even more strongly in the 70s! Bruno Nicolai conducts the group, and the set features a few great vocal moments from I Cantori Moderni – on titles that include "Scherzo Da Guerra", "Scherzo Da Baffone", "Filastrocca Per Cretini", and "Lo Sai Che Cosa Facevano Le Donne A Stalin". CD

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A brilliantly overstuffed package of work from Italian composer Riz Ortolani! Una Sull'Atra is groovy little gem from Riz Ortolani! The soundtrack's got an excellent late 60s feel – with tracks that mix electric bass with sitar, flute, organ, and some fuller jazzy arrangements. There's a strong jazz component running through the mix – taking the score past some of the easier campier moments, and giving it a solid overall sound that will keep you coming back to it again and again. Titles include "Sitar In Blues", "Lombard Street", "St Francisco Railways", "St Quentin", "Un Sull Altra", and "Susan & Jane". Teresa La Ladra is an unusual Monica Vitti vehicle – and Ortolani's score features the funky theme "Teresa L'Illusa", alongside some mellower numbers that include "Teresa For Sax", "Teresa", and "Teresa & Blues". The best of the bunch, though, are the CD's 8 tracks from the Tiffany Memorandum – a groovy action score that's as wonderful as the name might imply! The work has a mod, swinging feel that's really nice – one that mixes together Italian "shake" modes of the 60s with some jazzier American touches on the best cuts. Titles include "Beat Fuga Shake", "Tiffany Sequence M8", "Tiffany Sequence M22", "Tiffany 23", and "Notte Al Grand Hotel". CD

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