Beautiful early work from Cannonball Adderley – and a record that's quite different than most of his better known sets from the time! The album's more spare and stripped-down than usual – with Cannon's alto in a quartet alongside Bill Evans on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Connie Kay on drums. The style is almost more that of Evans than it is Cannonball – lightly lyrical, with a good sense of space – in a way that has Adderley playing out front very strongly, cutting some beautiful lines with his solos, in a really unfettered way! Titles include versions of two of Evans' tracks – "Waltz For Debby" and "Know What I Mean?" – plus nice moody takes on other material, like John Lewis' "Venice", Clifford Jordan's "Toy", and Gordon Jenkins' "Goodbye". LP, Vinyl record album

Really unique material from Sun Ra – a pair of recordings that were initially circulated much more strongly than some of his Saturn Records material, thanks to the power of the BYG/Actuel label in the early 70s – but tracks that actually come from a variety of different sessions that Ra himself did with the Arkestra in the late 60s! Tracks are shortish, but very inventive – a well-chosen snapshot of all the new ideas that the group were cooking up during the end of the 60s in New York, with an increased mission to explore the outer reaches of space, and use more electronics than ever before! Ra plays some killer keyboards – moog, spacemaster, and acoustic piano – often with these really eerie tones – and other players include Kwame Hadi on trumpet, Akh Tal Ebah on space dimension mellophone, Ali Hassan on trombone, Marshal Allen and Danny Davis on alto and flute, John Gilmore on tenor, and Pat Patrick on baritone – and the whole group vocalizes at points, joined by other singers who include June Tyson and Art Jenkins. There's also some great use of "strange strings" on the sessions, not to mention a bit of reverb – and tracks on this first volume include "Spectrum", "The Satellites Are Spinning", "Seen III Took 4", "Adventures Of Bugs Hunter", "Legend", and "The Realm Of Lightning". LP, Vinyl record album

Never-issued work from this legendary fusion group – a 1971 live performance recorded in Rotterdam, and a set of tracks that's a perfect complement to the legendary Nucleus albums issued by Vertigo at the time! Leader Ian Carr is upfront on trumpet – but as with the best Nucleus recordings, this is definitely an all-out group affair – driven by very strong work from John Marshall on drums and Roy Babbington on bass – and filled with work from two different simultaneous electric pianos, handled by both Hywel Thomas and Karl Jenkins, the latter of whom also blows a bit of oboe. Other reeds are from Brian Smith on tenor, soprano sax, and flute – and all tracks are nice and long, and often quite funky – with titles that include "Snakehips Dream", "We'll Talk About It Later", "Song For The Bearded Lady", "Exit Interlude 1", "Persephone's Jive", "Exit Interlude 2", and "Oasis". LP, Vinyl record album

Never-issued live work from British jazz legend Graham Collier – a performance that follows hot on the heels of his classic Down Another Road album, and which continues with a very similar vibe! That album is a modal masterpiece that stands as one of the key moments in British jazz at the end of the 60s – and here, bassist Collier furthers the magic of that wonderful album, but with a freer, more spontaneous sort of live energy – leading a very cool group that features Nick Evans on trombone, Harry Beckett on trumpet and flugelhorn, Stan Sulzman on tenor and alto, Karl Jenkins on piano and oboe, and John Marshall on drums. Collier's basslines alone are worth the price of admission – but there's so many other wonderful touches too – even the oboe work by Jenkins, which echoes some of the exotic tones of Yusef Lateef a few years earlier. Titles include "Molewrenceh", "The Barley Mow", "Aberdeen Angus", "Down Another Road", "Lullaby For A Lonely Child", and "Burblings For Bob". LP, Vinyl record album

A crucial album from that moment when British jazz was colliding with progressive rock – in key ways that were really elevated past their roots on records like this! By the time of the record, trumpeter Ian Carr already had a great run on the left side of the UK jazz spectrum – and here, with his group Nucleus, he embraces all sorts of amazing sounds and styles – using plenty of electric piano from Soft Machine's Karl Jenkins, guitar from Chris Spedding, and a VCS3 synth from Keith Winter – alongside more familiar jazz elements on tenor from Tony Roberts, soprano and flute from Brian Smith, and additional trumpets from Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett! The great John Marshall plays drums next to bass from Jeff Clyne and Ron Matthewson – and the album's got a mighty sense of experimentation and power, on titles that include "Torso", "Snakehips' Dream", "Changing Time", "Spirit Level", and "Bedrock Deadlock". LP, Vinyl record album

Greasy Mike's at it again – and while he might not make any dates by flashing his vinyl collection to the gals on the street, he more than wins us over with his cool collection of rare and offbeat gems from the glory days of the 7" single! This time around, the tunes are all by female singers – some jazzy, some more soulful, some with a very unusual approach – and as always with Mike's collections, it's important to take the presentation and politics with a grain of salt! Titles include "Melancholy Mood" by Wini Beatty, "The Wrong Guy" by Patti Dane, "Interlude" by Anna Marie, "Dark Midnight" by Helen Alvey, "Out Of This World" by Marilyn Ross, "Nobody But Me" by Ann Cole, "Leave My Heart" by Tommie Jean Whitley, "Come Back Pretty baby" by Mecie Jenkins, "I Walk The Streets" by Lyn Avalon, and "Red Wine For My Blues" by Miss Johni Naylor. LP, Vinyl record album