Cool 60s work from guitarist Snuff Garrett! Maria Elena takes a host of older Latin themes and tunes them towards a hip 60s style – using the overdubbed guitar approach of the 50 guitars group, and really stretching the sound out wide towards the farthest reaches of both speakers! Snuff Garrett's guitar is in the lead, but it's also cast here in a pretty full sound – one that makes for a spacious quality that still sounds pretty darn great all these many years later. Titles include "Jungle Drums", "Anna", "Without You", "The Breeze & I", "Brazil", and "Poinciana". LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime guitar from the great Jimmy Bryant – equally rocking and twanging, with cuts that include "Peach Grove Express", "Elena Goodbye", "Buggy Ride", "Lonesome", "Fender Bender", and "Model 400 Buckboard". LP, Vinyl record album

A collection of Schubert Lieder recordings through the ages – featuring 64 performers that include Edith Clegg, Marie Goetz, Edyth Walker, Lilli Lehmann, Harry Plunket-Greene, Leo Sibriakov, Elena Gerhardt, Sir George Herschel, Richard Tauber, Vanni Marcoux, Hans Duhan, Lotte Lehmann, Charles Panzera, Elisabeth Schumann, Karl Erb, Ria Ginster, Herbert Janssen, Susan Metcalf-Casals, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kirsten Flagstad, and many others. LP, Vinyl record album

A Brazilian singer with a hell of a voice – the lovely Helena De Lima, whose vocal range really fits the lush moods of the tunes on the set! Things are in a more melancholy look than you'd guess from Helena's look on the cover – a nice sort of blueness that's never too overdone, and which has a good balance between the lead vocals and the woodwinds and strings used in the backings. Arrangements are by Ruben Pocho Peren – an overlooked sophisticated talent – and titles include "So So So", "Fio De Cancao", "Flor Da Noite", "Cravo Vermelho", "Balada De Saudade", "Vai", "Pierrot", "Por Onde Eu Vou", and "Boa Noite Rio". LP, Vinyl record album

A live and lively little bossa vocal set – recorded at the Cangaceiro nightclub, with backing by a really great small combo! The style here is similar to other live bossa jazz sets from the time – such as Elis Regina's classic with the Zimbo Trio – and although Helena's vocal style is a bit full and sometimes emotive, the spontaneous nature of the performance really helps keep things lean and clean! The combo here is named after the club – and features Raul Mascarenhas on piano and supposedly Rildo Hora on a bit of harmonica – although he doesn't seem to appear on the record as much as the cover might indicate. Titles include "Oitavo Botequim", "Penumbra", "Ponto E Chuva", "Aconteceu", "Desilusao", "Verdade Da Vida", and 2 longer "Pot-Pourri" tracks. LP, Vinyl record album

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The title's a bit misleading – as Chico really wasn't much of a hitmaker, at least as far as the charts go – but the album is a wonderful collection of his groundbreaking work for Impulse, killer tracks that are head and shoulders above any of his earlier work! At the time, Hamilton was really going out from his more composed style of earlier years – exploring modal and eastern rhythms with the help of strong players like Gabor Szabo, Charlie Mariano, Charles Lloyd, Jerome Richardson, and Larry Coryell – setting up incredible off-beat grooves that proved to be a perfect foil for edgey reed solos, and tightly woven guitar work. The set's got a heck of a lot of great work from those years – and titles include "For Mods Only", "That Boy With The Long Hair", "Helena", "Baby You Should Know", "Manila", "Lonesome Child", "El Moors", "Transfusion", and "Man From Two Worlds". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing, simply amazing – and light years ahead of the staid sounds that Chico Hamilton was cutting in the 50s! Hamilton's one of those players who has an amazing range to his music – almost all of it really incredible, as Chico always shifts things up over time – continually trying new things, and new modes of expression – even though, given his popularity, he could have just kept recording the same things year after year. This album is true testament to that propensity for growth in Hamilton's music – a wonderfully unbridled set that's filled with unusual rhythms, odd instrumentation, and even some of the first touches of psychedelic jazz to appear in the 60s! Players include Sadao Watanabe on alto and flute, Gabor Szabo on guitar, Jimmy Cheatham on trombone, and Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja on percussion – all working together in a really wonderful range of modes from track to track – always groovy, but also pretty far-reaching and exploratory too! Titles include "El Moors", "Helena", "Strange", "Marcheta", "El Chico", and "Conquistadores". LP, Vinyl record album