A wonderfully wicked meeting of the minds – and a legendary bit of soul jazz from organist Big John Patton! The core of the record features the usual Patton groove – with John on Hammond, Grant Green on guitar, and Otis Finch on drums – but added to that mix is Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, making a rare appearance on an organ jazz session, with some wonderful results! The combination of vibes and organ is especially haunting – jangling a groove with a really modal feel, and creating a sound that instantly made this one stand out from the pack! The whole thing's great, and tracks include "The Turnaround", "Let Em Roll", "Latona", and "One Step Ahead". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that's every bit as cool as its cover – and one of the strongest Blue Note sessions from Hammond organ legend Big John Patton! The tracks are long, and have a great loping rhythm – a groove that Patton creates by using the bass pedals alongside the drums of Ben Dixon – a player who really helps John break past more familiar Hammond modes – and helps establish that unique sound that really made the organist one of the strongest 60s players on his instrument! The rest of the combo is fantastic too – with Fred Jackson on tenor, Grant Green on guitar, Richard Williams on trumpet – the last of whom is a real surprise, if you only know his work with Charles Mingus. The tracks are nice and long, and have a good balance between soulful roots and more modern intentions – on titles that include "Just 3/4", "The Way I Feel", "Jerry", "The Rock", and "Davene". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully wicked meeting of the minds – and a legendary bit of soul jazz from organist Big John Patton! The core of the record features the usual Patton groove – with John on Hammond, Grant Green on guitar, and Otis Finch on drums – but added to that mix is Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, making a rare appearance on an organ jazz session, with some wonderful results! The combination of vibes and organ is especially haunting – jangling a groove with a really modal feel, and creating a sound that instantly made this one stand out from the pack! The whole thing's great, and tracks include "The Turnaround", "Let Em Roll", "Latona", and "One Step Ahead". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliantly bubbling session from Hammond genius John Patton – and a set that serves as a real link between the gutbucket soul of his early years, and some of the fresher phrasing he was beginning to explore at Blue Note! Patton's lines on the keys are a wonderful thing to behold (and behear!) – as they're both rhythmic, but extremely fluid and exploratory – more conceived around some of the new ideas on tenor at the time, and pushing forward roughly into the same territory as Larry Young – but with more of Patton's rootsy soul still intact. Junior Cook is in the group on most tracks on tenor – sounding quite fresh himself in this context as he leaps around with new energy – and the rest of the group features Jimmy Ponder on guitar and Clifford Jarvis on drums. The cuts are all originals, further proof of Patton's genius through his writing – and titles include "String Bean", "I Want To Go Home", "Dirty Fingers", and "Daddy James". LP, Vinyl record album

A unique 2LP set from Blue Note Japan – all jazz organ gems from the label – with a number of tracks each by Baby Face Willette, Jimmy Smith, Lonnie Smith, Larry Young, John Patton, and Freddie Roach! LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal record from Lou Donaldson – one that has him forging out some of his first funky soul jazz sounds, moving from his bop roots, and working with a hip young group that includes Grant Green and John Patton, both of whom he discovered and brought to Blue Note (thanks Lou!) The tracks have a tight jaunty feel – very much like those on Patton's mid 60s sides for Blue Note, with lots of room for each player to solo intently – but still a strong focus on the overall groove of the ensemble. Cover's very nice – and tracks include "Funky Mama", "Spaceman Twist", and "Nice n Greasy". LP, Vinyl record album

Just when you thought Prince Paul and Cat Power would never make a record together PRESTO – it's the new Handsome Boy album! HBMS takes a bit more of a chillout tack with this long overdue second opus – with lots of laidback beats and samples, and a surprising amount of live instrumentation! The gleeful, sarcastic comedy of the stellar first album remains intact, with some genuinely amusing skits (including one with Jay Z appearing under the pseudonym Hines Buchanan), and the deep range of guest vocalists isn't as surprising as how strong their work is in the best tunes. It would have been pretty easy for Prince Paul and Automator to find a bunch of interesting names to flesh out their big pop culture frappe, but something else altogether to make trippy hip hop tracks featuring Cat Power and the Hieroglyphics make sense on the same record. A pretty solid set from the most adventurous pseudo duo in the game! Guests include Del The Funky Homosapien, De La Soul, RZA, Lord Finesse, AG, Rahzel, Jazzy Jay, Qbert, Mike Patton, Casual, Hieroglyphics, Grand Wizard Theodore, El-P, John Oates, Pharrell, Kid Koala, and George W. Bush (just kidding). Tracks include "If It Wasn't For You" with De La, "Are You Down With It" with Mike Patton, "The World's Gone Mad" with Del and others, "It's Like That" with Casual, "I've Been Thinking" with Cat Power, "Rock And Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Pt 2" featuring Lord Finesse, Qbert and others,"First. . .And Then" featuring Dres from Black Sheep, "A Day In The Life" featuring RZA, AZ and others and more, plus intro/outro by Father Guido Sarducci. LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the most righteous album ever from reedman Harold Vick – a crowning achievement of all his soulful years in jazz, cut as one of the key 70s releases on Strata East! Vick is fantastic here – light years ahead of his work as the funky tenorist on 60s albums by John Patton and Jack McDuff in the 60s, even as great as that material was – and emerging here as an incredibly sensitive soul jazz player, capable of turning out some incredibly sophisticated and emotional compositions – which are then graced by these really spiritual solos! Harold wrote and produced the whole album – really controlling his musical vision – and other players include Virgil Jones on trumpet, George Davis on flute, Joe Bonner on Fender Rhodes and piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Billy Hart on drums – a lineup that sounds even greater on the record than it does on paper. Titles include "Don't Look Back", "Melody For Bu", "Stop & Cop", and "Senor Zamora". LP, Vinyl record album

An album that's maybe one of the least familiar Blue Note records to most jazz listeners – a set that was barely pressed up at the time, and reissued infrequently – yet which is a tremendous debut as a leader from tenorist Harold Vick! At the time of the album's release, Vick had been bringing all these amazing sounds to Hammond albums by Brother Jack McDuff – reed lines that were very different in phrasing and tone than the tenor sounds of players like Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt – and he continues that magic here, in a really wonderful group – with John Patton on the Hammond, Grant Green on guitar, and the mighty Ben Dixon on drums – a player with a loose touch that really fits Harold's unique sense of rhythm. Blue Mitchell also plays trumpet up front, bringing a nice tonal brightness to the album – and titles include a great version of Vick's "Our Miss Brooks", plus "Steppin Out", "Vicksville", and "Trimmed In Blue". LP, Vinyl record album

Music from Williamson Brothers And Curry, Memphis Jug Band, Mississippi John Hurt, The Carter Family, Lydia Mendoza, Carolina Tar Heels, Hattie Hart & The Memphis Jug Band, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Charley Patton, Joseph Falcon, Frank Hutchison, Jimmie Rodgers, and more. LP, Vinyl record album