A gem of a sound library record from one of the all-time greats – and maybe one of the few artists who gave his equal all, whether he was cutting a full film soundtrack, or just a discreet batch of tracks like these in the studio! The music is as groovy as groovy can be – sometimes funky, sometimes slinky – and done in this blend of heavy electric bass, nicely snapping drums, riffing guitar, and some great use of wordless vocals – maybe no surprise, since Alessandroni was the man behind the legendary I Cantori Modern! There's a great sense of variety all the way through – all killer, no filler – and titles include "Vocalisation", "Spiagge Azzurre", "Aliante Giallo", "Ciclamino", "Arioso Spirituale", "Cielo Verde", and "Marmittone". LP, Vinyl record album

Piero Umiliani gave the world some fantastic soundtracks in the 60s, and incredible electronic and sound library work in the 70s – but in the immediate postwar years, he was a jazz musician at heart – as you'll hear in this great set of small combo jazz from 1959! The vibe is right up there with some of the hippest Italian moderns of the period – like the Basso/Valdambrini group, or work by Gil Cuppini – and if you've heard some of the early 60s jazz soundtracks from Piero, you'll know that he can definitely serve up straight jazz work when he wants to! Umiliani plays piano, and other musicians include Marcello Boschi on alto and flute, Ivan Vandor on tenor, Bill Gilmore on trombone, Peppe Carta on bass, and Roberto Zappulla on drums. All tracks are originals – and include "Tempo Jazz", "Tema In Blues", "Mezza Cottura", "Tipi Misteriosi", and "Battesimo Dell'Aria". LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure solo set from Italian bassist Giovanni Tommaso – best known for his work in the groundbreaking fusion group Perigeo in the 70s, but heard here in an obscure jazzy set at the start of the decade! The record's got plenty of surprises along the way – a well-recorded date that mixes the bass of the leader with other jazzy instrumentation, including a bit of soprano sax from Steve Lacy on one track – all augmented by just the right use of larger arrangements. Titles include "Jazz Gallery", "Steve", "Bass Pedal", "Due Per 5/4", "Strong Beat", "Walk Slow", "Mr Slam", "Clap Dance", and "Out". LP, Vinyl record album

Sound library funk galore, served up here by an obscure duo that features work from Anna Maria Assunta Andreassi – one of the few female composers working in the Italian library scene at the time! The tracks are short and punchy – with almost a Duke Of Burlington level of rhythms and instrumentation – a varied approach that sometimes features a tenor soloing in the lead, sometimes some really cool moogy keyboards – all over grooves that keep things funky throughout! The instrumental set is overflowing with groovy numbers that are every bit as great as their titles might imply – a lineup that includes "Clavi Rock", "Moog Yet", "Sax Rock", "Blue Sax", "Clavibeat", "Mysterious", "Rhythm & Sound", and "Moog Rock". LP, Vinyl record album

An early jazzy soundtrack from the great Piero Umiliani – made even better by some key work from Chet Baker on trumpet and Helen Merrill on vocals! The set was done at a time when both artists were spending some time in Italy – shaping the scene with their presence, and really standing out on a handful of rare recordings like this one – quite different than their American material of a few years before! Baker is especially striking – with lead solos that have a great sense of compression, and a depth of soul that really move beyond the Pacific Jazz recordings. And Merrill is wonderful, too – with that special flavor she only ever seemed to open up when she went overseas – and got to move into more unusual settings. But the real star is Umiliani throughout – balancing modern impulses with late night jazz in a way that really points the way towards his later scores in the 60s – but which is already nearly perfect here! Titles include "Smog" (done in instrumental and vocal versions by Baker and Merrill), plus "Dawn", "Tensione", "Tops", "California In The Summer", "Hollywood Tonight", "Bowling", and "Twilight At Los Angeles". LP, Vinyl record album

An Italian funk double-header – a sweet little set from the end of the 60s, and one that features killer cuts from both Sandro Brugnolini and Stefano Torossi! We love either artist on their other own records, but there also seems to be something about putting them together here that makes them even better than before – certainly funkier, as the album's full of the kind of sharp, hard-grooving titles that first made us fall in love with sound library records in the first place! The date of the album's 1969, and both musicians make nice use of psych elements in their instrumentation – adding a bit of fuzz, wah-wah, or trippy guitar in just the right spaces – never going over the top, or getting too indulgent – but just moving in a groove that's tightly jazz funky at the bottom, and maybe a bit freaky at the top. Wonderful work throughout – and titles include "Sweet Beat", "Repetition", "Starter", and "Makkaresh" by Stefano Torossi – and "Wawa", "Motuproprio", "Polyphony", and "Flyer" by Sandro Brugnolini. LP, Vinyl record album

A record with a nicely earthy vibe, and a sound that definitely lives up to the "misticismo percussivo" and "primitivismo sonoro" promise of the cover! The group's a quartet with plenty of percussion throughout – mixed with bass, keyboards, and some nicely moody woodwinds – all served up on a set of tracks dedicated to the four elements wind, water, fire, and air – in a style that's almost a contemporary blend of spiritual jazz currents with older exotica inspirations! The approach is great, and makes the record slide nicely between genres to a space that's all its own – on titles that include "Chango", "Oyanza", "Ile Aye", and "Omi Tuto". LP, Vinyl record album

Other-worldly sounds from a Kenyan fiddle player, but one who uses the instrument in ways that are completely unique – a style known as Orutu music, in which the instrument is used to spin out these hypnotic waves of sound next to spare percussion and really incredible chanted vocals! There's nothing of the familiar fiddle here – as the instrument has this repetitive tonal quality, almost like a harmonium played at a very fast speed – which then resonates with some of the more sonorous percussive elements, often with a nice current of distortion from the recordings! Most of the tracks here are singles issued in the 70s – and titles include "Stephen Otombo", "Yago Owaga", "David Yambo", "Salina Rambe", "B Otieno", and "Oo Ajuma". LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the most haunting music we've ever heard from spiritual minimalist La Monte Young – a set that was issued on his own small label at the end of the 60s, as a series of duets with his wife, Marian Zazeela – who's a heck of a creative force on the album! The set's got plenty of the longspun passages we love in Young's music – but with much more of a focus on trance-like vocals, handled by both Young and Zazeela, as they deliver these sonorous chant-like passages that build slowly alongside electronics – going in and out of phase like some of the best minimal experiments of the time, but with a much earther, personal sort of approach. LP, Vinyl record album

A smoking overview of work from the glory days of the Venezuelan scene – that moment when the nation's economy was opening the doors to rich new avenues of expression – including the important Discomoda label, which recorded all the gems on this set! The vibe is great – kind of a sideways take on NYC Latin modes of the years involved, but with some of the rootsier elements you might expect from Colombian work too – all presented with really stark, simple, no-nonsense production that really makes the music burst out loud! The selection of tracks here is great – all killer, no-filler, with a focus on the best Discomoda grooves from this stretch – 21 tracks that include "Mambo Tema" by Genaro Y Sus All Stars, "Disparo Goajira" by Nelson Y Sus Estrellas, "No Salgas De Tu Barrio" by Los Kenya, "Fiesta En Venezuela" by Los Satelites, "Lija" by Rodrigo Mendoza, "Mi Rendencion" by La Renovacion, "Analiza" by Principe Y Su Sexteto, "Juana Guaguanco" by Supercombo Los Tropicales, "Algo Diferente" by Johnny Sedes Y Su Orquesta, "Muneca" by Los Megatones De Lucho, "Pero En Caracas" by Sonora Venezuela, "Maracaibo" by Microbanda Marabina, and "Oye Como Suena"b y Orquesta Sonoramica. LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic tracks from two ultra-rare labels from the New York scene – the Latin Soul empire Speed Records, and the super-tight Fonseca label – which provided a real mainline to Puerto Rican grooves at the time! Both labels cut some of the hardest-hitting Latin tracks of the time – music that was often rawer and more unbridled than material for other indies, like Tico or Fania – and the tracks here are from some of the obscure albums issued by both imprints, and some even-rare 7" singles – all with an upbeat groove, and a sound that's much more the Latin groove of the streets uptown, instead of the bigger ballrooms down in midtown. Titles include "Descarga Los Bravos" by Kent Gomez, "Asi Asi Descarga" by Mike Hernandez & Su Sonora Casino, "El Bembe" by Terrible Frankie Nieves, "Milton's Jala Jala" by Milton Zapata, "Palos Bravos De St John" by Orquesta Oliveri, "Yemaja" by Kent Gomez, "Palacio Descarga" by Danny Palacios, and "Melao Melaito" by Orquesta Oliveri. LP, Vinyl record album

Veronique Chalot sings in French, but she cut this beautiful album for the Materiali Sonori label in Italy – with a really groundbreaking mix of styles that definitely loves up to the other gems we love on the label at the time! As you might guess from the cover, Veronique plays dulcimer, and sings in a dreamy style that befits her image on the front – but the small group behind her also brings in all sorts of other unusual instrumentation – flutes, percussion, bass, and violin – used in these eerie ways alongside Chalot's moody vocals – creating a vibe that's somewhere between early solo work by Nico, and the soundtrack to Wicker Man! A really haunting record throughout – a lot like the best experiments on the Saravah label – with titles that include "L'Empoisonneusse", "Chant De La Montagne", "Le Souliers De La Belle", "Danse Des Sorcieres", "Chant De La Mer", "An Dro-Ronde", and "Bourree". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare jazz gem from tenor saxophonist Fitz Gore – originally issued on the Gorbra label in Germany in a very tiny quantity! The record's a bit unlike anything else of the time – spiritual jazz, certainly, but with all these different approaches that vary from track to track, as does the lineup – really showing a richness that leaves us breathless once the record is done! Gore's got this nicely edgey tone on the tenor – a tendency to maybe craft the occasional angles you might hear from an alto, but with a deeper sound overall – and other players on the record include Ulrich Gore on piano, Gerhard Ebbo on bass, and Phillipe Zobda Quitman on drums – although one track has gamelan, another has vibes, and another has congas – all of which makes for a nice shift in flavors! At times, Fitz has this slow-burning quality, at others he almost echoes a Coltrane ballads mode, and at one point he sings a bit – really surprising us with his mellifluous voice. Titles include "Steal Away", "Requiem For Julian Cannonball Adderley", "Delilah", and "A Sinner Kissed An Angel" – most nice and long. LP, Vinyl record album