A masterpiece of messed-up LA funk – and one of the crowning moments in the career of Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band! Charles and crew do an excellent job with all the tracks – most of which are more open ended than some of their earlier ones, and run on for longer than usual with some good trippy instrumental moments that really stretch out the groove from their funky 45 days. The album includes the stoner funk classic "High As Apple Pie", done here in two "slices", plus the classic "Express Yourself", a monster number that still sounds great every time we hear it – even though it's been used on commercials and sampled plenty of times over the years! Other tracks include "I'm Aware", "Road Without An End", and "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do". CD features 10 bonus tracks too – including 2 radio spots, single versions of "Express Yourself" and "High As Apple Pie", an alternate version of "Road Without An End", unreleased tracks "Jam #4" and "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", and the cuts "Living On Borrowed Time" and "Solution For Pollution". CD

Although this 15 track compilation doesn't even begin to cover the full scope of this great messed-up funky group from LA, it's just about the only way you'll get their best stuff – because it's pretty darn hard to find in any format! The CD runs the gamut of the group's output – from tight choppy funky stuff like "Express Yourself" and "Spreadin' Honey", to later trippier soul stuff, like "90 Day Cycle People" and "Comment". Lots of other goodies, plus a good set of notes that tracks the roots of this enigmatic funk band from LA! CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Ron Geesin's a British arranger with a host of amazing talents – from early work in the exotica field, to a famous collaboration with Roger Waters – always handled with a mindblowing sense of sound and scope! Here, he delivers a superb score for the film Sunday Bloody Sunday – a dark-themed drama that's given backing by Geesin that's maybe even more illuminating than the images on the screen at times – as Ron captures a moody vibe in perfect ways, but also changes things up a fair bit instrumentally – which makes each new selection feel very different, even though they are unified in mood. Bridget St John sings on the track "Chemical Dreams", and plays guitar on "Motoring Sparkle" – and other titles include "Intriguing Cables", "Sky High Balloons", "Piccadilly Bustle", "Blitzful Memories", and "Affections For String Quartet". Plus, the LP also features great bonus tracks from other Geesin projects – four more tracks from a 1985 documentary on Viv Richards, and six more from a 1970 documentary on mental health, titled "Shapes In A Wilderness" – both a great match for the main score. LP, Vinyl record album

Features vocals from Endle St Cloud and DF Potter – and the other group members harmonize along too! Titles include "Sunshine On A Rainy Day", "Open Letter", "Pretty Flowers", "Mean Man", and "He's Gonna Clobber You". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary record from the late 60s scene in Peru – recorded by a group with the mod roots you might guess from their look on the cover, but who are definitely starting to let their hair down and get a bigger dose of the psychedelic generation in their mix! Instrumentation features all the fuzzy guitars and organ lines you might expect – delivered at that level that's made the group one of the key proponents of the legendary Peruvian scene at the time – one of the heights of South American rock experimentation. The group turn in unusual versions of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", "Strange Brew" and "Hey Joe" – and they serve up some wild originals too, including "Pepper's Boogaloo", "Answer", "Is My Guitar", "Raga Gag", "Words Of Pain", and the wild "Betty Boom Little Monster Doggie & Peggie At The Witches Castle". CD version has 3 bonus cuts – including a Spanish version of "Stormy", plus the instrumentals "Un Nuevo Verano" and "Outside Woman Blues". CD

A masterpiece of messed-up LA funk – and one of the crowning moments in the career of Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band! Charles and crew do an excellent job with all the tracks – most of which are more open ended than some of their earlier ones, and run on for longer than usual with some good trippy instrumental moments that really stretch out the groove from their funky 45 days. The album includes the stoner funk classic "High As Apple Pie", done here in two "slices", plus the classic "Express Yourself", a monster number that still sounds great every time we hear it – even though it's been used on commercials and sampled plenty of times over the years! Other tracks include "I'm Aware", "Love Land", and "I Got Love" LP, Vinyl record album

... 78 RPM, Vinyl record

... LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the albums (Billy's Best, Imagination, Basie & Eckstine Inc, No Cover, No Minium, Once More With Feeling, At Basin St East, and Sing The Best Of Irving Berlin. CD

... 78 RPM, Vinyl record

... CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

A killer batch of modern spiritual soul jazz – with a classic sound that reminds us a lot of the 70s work on labels like Tribe or Strata East! The New Composers Ensemble is led by vibist Paris Smith, an underground Chicago jazz artist who cut a few very enigmatic albums on his own – and he's working here with a group that includes guitar, piano, percussion, and bass. All the tracks on the album are originals written by the players on the record – and most of them are strong modal grooves, with a spiraling, soaring sound that's filled with joy and life, but also a hint of darkness. The interplay of the instruments is unlike anything we've heard elsewhere, and it's the kind of underground treasure that you'd die to find on a rare 70s album – somehow even cooler that it's cut by an obscure group who are working in our generation! A few tracks have a vocalist that's a bit off-beat – and she also reminds us of some of the more spiritual contraltos that would show up on the Strata sets from the 70s – but her contribution to the record also kind of grows on you nicely after a while. Titles include "Tommy Tones", "Sonny's Song", "Lilith Came", "Introspection", "Psalm 37", and "53rd Street Ghost", dedicated to the street in Chicago where Dusty Groove was born! CD

... CD

A synthy soul funk project from the team of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo – a set that's just trippy enough – and it's possibly the best full length from either party, ever! You don't need us to tell you that DM has had a finger in a handful of the best fringe pop/leftfield hip hop projects of the mid 00s, and Cee-Lo has been threatening to deliver a strange soul classic for years – and he brings it with Gnarls Barkley. The sound runs from stuttering synth funk, to bubbling hip hop soul, to funky modern pop in a way that equals any other genre blending cats out there – and probably betters them! Tracks include "Go Go Gadget Gospel", "Crazy", "St. Elsewhere", "Gone Daddy Gone" (Yup, THAT "Gone Daddy Gone"), "Smiley Faces", "The Boogie Monster", "Feng Shui", "Just A Thought", "Transformer", "Who Cares?", "Online", "Necromancer", "Storm Coming" and "The Last Time". CD

A rare early chapter in the career of guitarist Grant Green – local material, cut in his hometown of St Louis – in the years before Lou Donaldson picked him up and delivered him to Blue Note Records! Amazingly, though, the Grant Green heard here is every bit as great as the guitarist who emerged strongly on his early Blue Note dates as a leader – a smoking soloist with a strong talent for single-line grooving – working here in a hip organ combo that features Sam Lazar on Hammond and Bob Graf on tenor sax! Lazar's got a mean bite to his organ, and pairs beautifully with Green – and together, the players hit a groove that's gritty, yet which has surprisingly strong fidelity – more than enough to make the record an essential piece of Grant's catalog. The CD's hardly a muddy live recording, and instead has surprisingly great fidelity – and lots of long tracks with open solos, on titles that include "Deep", "Blue Train", "Holy Barbarian Blues", "Caramu", "Grovvin High", and "Out Of Nowhere". CD

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

... 7-inch, Vinyl record

An amazing live performance from Sonny Rollins – one we'd rank right up there with his legendary Village Vanguard recordings on Blue Note – thanks to its stripped-down trio presentation, and its ability to let Rollins open up in some wonderfully modern tones! As with the Vanguard sides, these tracks feature a superb trio – Henry Grimes on bass and Pete LaRoca on drums – both wonderfully loose players, at the start of a budding legacy of creativity – and well-matched with Rollins, whose really changing his sound and style, and using the open space of the performance to move in directions that nobody would have expected at the start of the decade. Most tracks are standards, but really transformed – and titles include "Paul's Pal", "St Thomas", "There Will Never Be Another You", "Stay As Sweet As You Are", "How High The Moon", "Oleo", and "I've Told Every Little Star". LP, Vinyl record album

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Seminal work from Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers – recorded at a time when that group was really coming together! After a slightly wayward year of 1957, when the Messengers had a different lineup away from Blue Note, Art re-forged the group for the end of the 50s with a rock-solid array of players – including a young Lee Morgan on trumpet and Bobby Timmons on piano, plus Benny Golson on tenor, with a sense of arrangement that really helps give the group some focus – while still letting the solos open up in a live setting like this! All tracks are long, and played with lots of fire – and the kind of amazing open-ended solos that the group could cook up whenever they were working in a live environment. Titles on this second volume include "Moanin With Hazel", "Blues March For Europe #1", "Like Someone In Love", and "We Named It Justice". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... 78 RPM, Vinyl record

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

... LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing live performance from Sonny Rollins – one we'd rank right up there with his legendary Village Vanguard recordings on Blue Note – thanks to its stripped-down trio presentation, and its ability to let Rollins open up in some wonderfully modern tones! As with the Vanguard sides, these tracks feature a superb trio – Henry Grimes on bass and Pete LaRoca on drums – both wonderfully loose players, at the start of a budding legacy of creativity – and well-matched with Rollins, whose really changing his sound and style, and using the open space of the performance to move in directions that nobody would have expected at the start of the decade. Most tracks are standards, but really transformed – and titles include "Paul's Pal", "St Thomas", "There Will Never Be Another You", "Stay As Sweet As You Are", "How High The Moon", "Oleo", and "I've Told Every Little Star". CD

An amazing live performance from Sonny Rollins – one we'd rank right up there with his legendary Village Vanguard recordings on Blue Note – thanks to its stripped-down trio presentation, and its ability to let Rollins open up in some wonderfully modern tones! As with the Vanguard sides, these tracks feature a superb trio – Henry Grimes on bass and Pete LaRoca on drums – both wonderfully loose players, at the start of a budding legacy of creativity – and well-matched with Rollins, whose really changing his sound and style, and using the open space of the performance to move in directions that nobody would have expected at the start of the decade. Most tracks are standards, but really transformed – and titles include "Paul's Pal", "St Thomas", "There Will Never Be Another You", "Stay As Sweet As You Are", "How High The Moon", "Oleo", and "I've Told Every Little Star". CD

... CD

Archie Shepp on tenor saxophone, Richard Davis on bass, and Sunny Murray on drums. CD

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One of the coolest modern soul albums of the late 00s – Solange's soulful and quite creative Sol-Angel & The Hadley St Dream LP – with classic 70s soul spirit inflected numbers that still feel very much of the present day – this is a record that really should have took off in a major way! Titles include "God Given Name", "TONY", "Dancing In The Dark", "Soundcastle Disco", "Ode To Marvin", "This Bird", "Valentine's Day" and more CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... CD

... CD

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Seminal work from Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers – recorded at a time when that group was really coming together! After a slightly wayward year of 1957, when the Messengers had a different lineup away from Blue Note, Art re-forged the group for the end of the 50s with a rock-solid array of players – including a young Lee Morgan on trumpet and Bobby Timmons on piano, plus Benny Golson on tenor, with a sense of arrangement that really helps give the group some focus – while still letting the solos open up in a live setting like this! All tracks are long, and played with lots of fire – and the kind of amazing open-ended solos that the group could cook up whenever they were working in a live environment. Titles on this first volume include "Politely", "Whisper Not", "Now's The Time", and "The First Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

Miles Davis on trumpet, Jimmy Forrest on tenor saxophone, Charles Fox on piano, Johnny Mixon on bass, and Oscar Oldham on drums. CD

Sublime spiritual jazz from the 70s scene in Detroit – and a record that really represents an evolution of the previous sounds that you might have heard on the Motorcity's Tribe Records! The sound here is straightforward and soulful – a bit of electricity at the bottom and some fluidly gliding horn work on the top – plus some key vocals from a group that includes Kim Weston in the lead, supported by other female singers – in a righteous mode that really makes the best tunes sparkle! Other players include Phil Ranelin on trombone, Nasi Hafiz on vibes, Miller Brisker on tenor and piano, and Sylvia Truner on harp – all working together in a largeish group with the best spiritual energy of groups on Strata East! The whole thing's great – a beautiful lost treasure, and the kind of record that's rarely carried off so perfectly – and titles include "Song For M", "A Little Love For You", "Mark I", "Ja-Mil", "Nobody Had To Tell Me", "Arjuna", and "Now You're Gone". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

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Two rare Charlie Parker albums in a single set! First up is Bird On 52nd Street – one of the more obscure Charlie Parker sessions of the 40s – at least in the original release! The material was recorded in 1948, on a home tape recorder, but not issued until after his death – part of a huge wave of Charlie Parker material that hit the market at the end of the 50s and start of the 60s! The sound here is quite raw – made even more so by the recording quality – but it also offers up a good illustration of the sheer power of Bird back in the day, the kind of bold, bracing energy that made even more than the regular jazz world sit up and take notice. The group's a quintet – with Miles Davis on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, and Max Roach on drums – and there's been a few tape tricks in the mastering, in order to come up with a better version of some of the recordings. Tracks are short – in true bebop format – and titles include "Night In Tunisia", "Dizzy Atmosphere", "Out Of Nowhere", "My Old Flame", "How High The Moon", "This Time The Dream's On Me", "Hot House", and "Chasin The Bird". Next is Bird At St Nicks – a posthumous issue of an early 50s live set by Charlier Parker – one of the many that were rushed to the public in the years after his early death. The set, like many of the other live ones from the time, isn't recorded that well – but the music is still pretty wonderful. There's a real focus on Bird in the way the microphone was set up – so although you hear the rest of the band comping in the background, the album almost works like a session of solo sax work by Parker – as his alto is right out front in the mix, playing with a faltering style at times – but in a way that only seems to deepen our vision of his genius. Players include Red Rodney on trumpet and Al Haig on piano – and titles include "Ornithology", "Star Eyes", "Visa", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "Confirmation". LP, Vinyl record album

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

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The DVD features a live recording from Vicar St. in Dublin, Ireland. CD

... CD

Includes selections by John Parr, Billy Squier, Elefante, Jon Anderson, Fee Waybill, David Foster, Vikki Moss, and Airplay. LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful little compilation – one of those gems that comes along, and really reminds us that there's a real art to putting some tracks together! In a package that's kind of a follow-up to their excellent Songs For Mario's Cafe, St Etienne pay tribute to the sound of Soho pubs in years past – blending together obscure mod grooves, soul tunes, and unusual British bits – a good deal of which we've never heard before, but which all seem to make some sort of wonderful sense in the company of each other! Think of this one as the experience you might have on a rainy night in London – taking shelter in the warmth of some back alley bar in the west end, then staying way past lockup because the music the jukebox has been surprisingly great – the kind of tunes you've never really heard before, especially in this sort of combination – always a surprise as each new number comes into play. Genius, pure genius – with 25 cuts that include "Lay This Burden Down" by Mary Love, "I Can't Get Through" by Bill Oddie, "Rock N Bones" by Elroy Dietzel & The Rhythm Bandits, "Walkin Through A Cemetery" by Claudine Clark, "Hi Flutin Boogie" by John Scott, "Davy O'Brien" by Duffy Power, "Flight 2" by Angelo & Eighteen, "Good Time Coming" by Mustard, "Varee Is Love" by The Ohio Players, "Driver's Seat" by Sniff N The Tears, "Hand Clapping Time" by Gino with Johnny Greek, "Pinball" by Brian Protheroe, "Smoke Rings" by Les Paul & Mary Fod, "Lost" by The Darlettes, "I Was Born To Love You" by Herbert Hunter, "The EMI Song" by Alex Chilton, and "Sweep It Out In The Shed" by Little Ann. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A short book on a short-lived but important comic book publisher of the postwar years – the great St John imprint, which was home to some of the more mature material of the time! The company is known both for its groundbreaking work in the romance comics field, and for its stunning artists – who include the legendary Matt Baker – and the author serves up the book in a series of interviews with creative talents – illuminating their own contributions, and providing especially great details of those who passed all too soon – including Baker and publisher Archer St John. The book has images from comics all the way through, all in black and white – and the whole thing's a great read if you love the behind the scenes stories of comic creation as much as we do. Softcover, 112 pages, with black and white images throughout. Book

Recorded live at Jazz Villa in St Louis, MO on May 29, 1963 with the classic line up of Ron Carter on bass, Anthony Wiliams on drums, Herbie Hancock on piano, and George Coleman on tenor. LP, Vinyl record album

A sublime live set from British trumpeter Matthew Halsall – a set that maybe sounds even more organic and spiritual than some of his already-amazing work in the studio! There's a great sense of majesty here – as Halsall leads a wonderfully cohesive lineup that stretches out on long tracks that seem to get even more out of the space of the concert venue than they might in a smaller recording room. The group features Matt Cliffe on tenor and flute, Liviu Gheorghe on piano, Gavin Barras on bass, Alan Taylor on drums, Jack McCarthy on percussion, and Maddie Herbert on some especially nice use of harp – understated, and never dominating the music, but a really crucial part of the album's sound! Titles include "Canopy & Stars", "Mindfulness Meditations", "Joyful Spirits Of The Universe", "Harmony With Nature", "Tropical Landscapes", and "Salute To The Sun". LP, Vinyl record album

Features Nicholas Payton on trumpet. Tracks include "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo", "Shaw Nuff", "Whirlwind Soldier", "Milton On Ebony" and "Bernie's Tune". CD