Features Phill Woods on alto sax, Bill Goodwin on drums, Steve Gilmore on bass, and Hal Galper on piano. Titles include "Star Eyes", "Goodbye Mr Evans", "Petite Chanson", "Summer Night", "My Old Flame", and "Nica's Dream". LP, Vinyl record album

No crawl space here – as the sound is wide open, and surprisingly funky – a set that stands as one of Art Farmer's few great 70s outings for the CTI label! The album's got Art blowing with all the cool, compressed sound that he'd bring to a straighter album – but on longer tracks, with that open, flowing vibe you might hear on some of Freddie Hubbard's efforts for the label with less bite, and more flow overall! The set includes great work on flute from Jeremy Steig – plus guitar from Eric Gale, keyboards from Dave Grusin, and drums from Steve Gadd – and although the date of this one is late, the sound is in that prime 1972/1973 CTI mode! The album features four long tracks – and titles include "Crawl Space", "Siddhartha", "Petite Belle", and "Chanson". LP, Vinyl record album

The rarest of all Charles Kynard albums – and a real standout groover from the classic funk days of Prestige! The album's a really creative outing – with arrangements by Richard Fritz that take the usual small combo Prestige sound to new heights – twisting and turning the rhythms past the usual heavy foot on the bass motif! Fritz wrote the bulk of the tracks, and they've got a modal grooving mode – with a mixture of hard rhythms and dancing organ, guitar, and tenor from Houston Person that's almost in a Funk Inc mode – with lots of sharp changes. The rest of the group is great – Bernard Purdie's on drums, Jimmy Lewis plays Fender bass, and Grant Green is on guitar – on titles that nclude "Sweetheart", "Odds On", "Afro-Disiac", "Trippin", and "Chanson Du Nuit". LP, Vinyl record album

Brel at his best – delivered with the biting tone that made Brel one of the most brilliant social commentators of the 20th Century, yet with a warmth that offset his critical vision with a real love of life! Arrangements and orchestrations are by the mighty Francois Rauber – a bit fuller and richer than on other Brel albums – in a manner that seeks to deepen the feeling of the tunes without overwhelming them in emotion. Beautiful work throughout – and with titles that include "Madeline", "La Statue", "Les Paumes Du Petit Matin", "Bruxelles", "Les Bourgeois", "Les Biches", and "Chanson Sans Paroles". Beautiful! LP, Vinyl record album

This is sort of a compilation that features Michel Legrand's great scores for the films Thomas Crown Affair, Young Girls of Rochefort, La Piscine, and Play Dirty. We think that most of the stuff has been re-recorded for this album, but we're not sure. Whatever the case, this is a stellar album of beautiful Frenchy soundtrack stuff, and it's all tight instrumental Now Sound nuttiness. Titles include "His Eyes, Her Eyes", "Souvenirs", "Chanson D'Un Jour D'Ete", "A Man's Castle", "Jazz Theme From Play Dirty", and "Chanson De Maxence". LP, Vinyl record album

Great stuff! This is the "alternate" version of Michel Legrand's great score to Les Demoiselles De Rochefort – and it's totally great all the way through! The whole thing's nice and jazzy, totally swinging, and has a groove that you don't get in some of Legrand's other work. We've been listening to this for years, and it's never dulled on us. Very groovy, very Frenchy, and very tough to find. Titles include "Chanson De Simon", "Les Rencontres", "Toujours Jamais", "De Dephine A Lancien", "Nous Voyageons De Ville en Ville", and "Marins, Amis, Amants, Ou Maris". LP, Vinyl record album

A Canadian prog masterpiece from this key 70s group – and a record that's got some nicely understated elements that almost feel a bit more like some of the best European electric jazz acts of the time! There's definitely vocals on the record – sung by Pierre Flynn – but his use of piano and keyboards is even more striking, often with a spaciousness that brings a slight current of funk to the record at times, especially when he serves up Fender Rhodes passages that have that chunky quality we love from this period of the work of Marc Moulin. The group work with an added vocal group at points, to increase the majesty of the music – and titles include "Generation", "Voyage En Mer", "Violence", "Ma Chanson", "Les Nouvelles Terres", and "La Passe Du Grand Flambeau". LP, Vinyl record album

Sweetly soulful work from trumpeter Louis Smith – and one of his wonderful comeback sets for the Steeplechase label! Smith was first known for his two excellent Blue Note sides of the late 50s – but then disappeared for years as a leader on the recording scene. Here, he's working with a quintet of old masters that include Junior Cook on tenor, Roland Hanna on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Billy Hart on drums – all crafting a sound that's almost a 70s take on the Blue Note spirit of older years. Smith contributed a number of original tunes to the set – most of the titles, in fact – and tracks include "Rhyan's Groove", "Prancin", "Chanson De Louise", "One For Nils", and "Fats". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice one, and a strange batch of instrumental grooves played by what is billed as an early version of War – with Lonnie Jordan on piano and organ, Harold Brown on drums, Magnificent Montague on congas, and Bobby Womack on guitar! The liner notes lists the group as being made up of members of The Packers, The Romeos, and The Soul Runners – and if you know those groups from their funky 45's, then you'll get a feeling of the funky instrumental sound of this album. It's not really like War at all, but it's a great batch of lost funky tracks from the LA scene, with titles like "On Fire", "La Chanson", "Blusing Tears", "Moving Along", "Cup Of Soul", "Time Is Tight", and "The Bamboche". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes selections from Musique, Stone City Band, Saturday Night Band, T-Connection, Foxy, Chanson, Peter Brown, Michel Zager, USA European Connection, John Davis & The Monster Orchestra, Dan Hartman, and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A totally fresh take on French sounds of the late 60s – served up here with a sound that's as revolutionary as the image on the cover! This isn't the dreamy strings of familiar Paris in the Spring – but instead, the sound of change that happened in and around 1968 – as a whole new generation of younger French musicians, singers, artists, and intellectuals were really making themselves known in bold new ways! You'll recognize a few names here – like Serge Gainsbourg or Brigitte Fontaine – but the collection goes way beyond those bigger names, and features loads of obscure artists from the scene that will be a real revelation. The collection was done by the same Saint Etienne team that gave us the excellent English Weather and Songs For The Carnegie Deli compilations on Ace – and titles include "L'Elu" by Ilous & Decuyper, "La Metaphore" by Jacques Dutronc, "Looking For You" by Nin Ferrer, "Chanson D'Un Jour D'Hiver" by Cortex, "Couleurs" by Leonie, "Leslie Simone" by William Sheller, "Litanies" by Triangle, "Baleines" by Francois De Roubaix, "Lileth" by Leonie, "Ystor" by Ys, "Chanson Pour Que Tu M'Aimes U Peu" by France Gall, "Le Victime" by Karl Heinz Schafer, "Les Adventures Extraordinaires D'Un Ballet De Banque" by Bernard Lavilliers, "Helicoptere" by Mireille Darc, "Les Garde Violent Au Secours Du Roi (alt version)" by Jean Claude Vannier, and "La Chanson D'Helene" by Romy Schneider & Michel Piccoli. LP, Vinyl record album

Very cool work from Belgian artist Jacques Charlier – music that almost brings a cold wave style into play with some more familiar French song styles – but with this dark edge that almost feels like work on Factory Records or Disques Du Crepuscule! A good deal of these tracks are unreleased, and fit nicely to the few that came out on albums in the mid 80s – almost all with a spare drum machine rhythm behind Charlier's effects-laden guitar and stark vocals – sometimes coming across like Vini Riley of Durutti Column in an angry mood on a bad day! We'd not heard any of this work when it was release, which makes the whole thing a great discovery, especially given the unreleased tracks – a set with titles that include "Vampirella", "Perki Show", "Check Up", "L'Amour Dans Les Chansons", "Sambas", "Passing Time", "Tout Va Bien", "Un Chat Dans Mon Lit", and "End Of WE". LP, Vinyl record album

An early example of the genius of Baden Powell in Europe – a record that helped the bossa guitarist break out of his usual Brazilian bag, and expand his sound a bit with appreciative influences from the Parisian scene! The record still has Powell working in the style of his early work in Brazil – acoustic guitar dancing alongside jazzy bossa rhythms – but the sound is expanded a bit more with arrangements by Paul Mauriat, in a way that produces a slightly more forceful style – one that never overwhelms the bossa, but which emphasizes its best parts. There's almost a soundtrack approach here at times, and the record features a slight bit of vocals from singer Francoise Walch – and includes the tracks "Deve Ser Amor", "Adagio", "Chanson D'Hiver", "Samba Triste", "Garota De Ipanema", "Bahiana", and "Euridice". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderful sounds from the films of Jacques Tati – a set that overflows with the kind of warmly wistful tunes that really help define the images on the screen! Music is by Francis Lemarque, Francois Rauber, Charles Dumont, and others – and overall, the music is mostly in a small combo mode – with instrumentation that includes piano, vibes, guitar, and accordion – used in very whimsical ways throughout, with a quality that's almost as visual as the images on the screen – almost little cartoons in music, but with that warmer, more sentimental quality that made Tati's films so much more than slapstick. The collection runs much further in time than previous Tati collections – material from films that include Traffic, Play Time, Jour De Fete, Mon Oncle, Parade, and Les Vacances De Monseuir Hulot. Titles include "Paris Circus", "Super Market", "Play It In Time", "Musette", "Tournez Les Maneges", "Bereceuse", "Theme Oriental", "Take My Hand", "La Cours D'Auto", "Tournee Rapide", "Chanson Des Forains", "Voitures Ballet", "Mon Oncle", and "Pianissimo". LP, Vinyl record album

We know what you're thinking, how rare is the "rarest soul label" in the title, and more than that, how good are the tracks? Fortunately, in this case, the answer is really rare, and really great! 14 tracks from the rare Washington DC Shrine label, produced by Eddie Singleton and compiled in the early 90s for the Horace's reissue imprint. This set's a nifty batch of 60s soul stormers, with more of a Detroit sound than you might guess, and titles include "Don't Let Him Hurt You" by Les Chansonettes, "Guess Who Loves You" by Eddie Daye & The Four Bars, "No Other Way" by the Cautions, "Mad At The World" by the Epsilons, "No More Like Me" by Ray Pollard, "Stop Overlooking Me" by the Cairos, "I Believe I'll Love On" by Jimmy Armstrong, "You're My Only Love" by the Counts, "She Went Away" by Linda & The Vistas and "Huh Baby" by the Prophets. Nice stuff, and as you've guessed, you'll never find the originals! LP, Vinyl record album