Part funk, part disco, and all the way soul – served up in this one and only album from Strutt! The group were an obscure New Jersey combo from the 70s, but they step out beautifully on this rare Brunswick album – which has the same sort of funk club groove you'd find on a few of the label's other gems from this late period – like work by Tony Valor or Marilyn Farra & Satin Soul! All cuts have vocals, but the real strength of the group lies in their funky combo backings – an approach that's really honed to a "t" here, in a style that shows that the best early club music always had plenty of live, spontaneous instrumentation in the mix! Willie Bridges turns in a few great sax solos on the set – and titles include "Funky Sign", "Funky Baby Feet", "We've Come A Long Way Baby", "Said You Didn't Love Him", "If Wishing Made It So", "Time Moves On", and "Front Row Romeo" – in both vocal and instrumental versions. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most legendary albums on Blue Note – or maybe THE most legendary albums on Blue Note – a stunning session that shows what the label was capable of when it was really hitting on all burners – from the lineup to the music to the production – and even the classic cover art on the front! The album's a crowning achievement for pianist Sonny Clark – a player who'd already brought greatness to the world before the record, but really knocks it out of the park during the session – leading a razor sharp lineup that includes Art Farmer on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums – all coming together with some magic in the studio, crafting a sound that forever put Blue Note on the map! Tracks are long, open-ended, and almost effortlessly soulful – and titles include Clark's classics "Cool Struttin" and "Blue Minor", plus versions of "Sippin At Bells" and "Deep Night". LP, Vinyl record album

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With Johnny Windhurst on clarinet, Ray Parker on piano, Pops Foster on string bass, and George Thompson on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

The Meters are struttin plenty here – stepping out with those hard, tight New Orleans grooves that practically changed the way funk sounded in the 60s – and which had a huge impact on the sound of so many other groups in the decade to come! The approach here is wonderfully lean – whomping rhythms, bubbling Hammond organ, and scratchy guitar work – all used in a nicely spare, understated way – very different than the fuller New Orleans sound of their later records – and very much the kind of energy of the funky 45 underground! The whole thing is fantastic – all great cuts, all the way through – given sharp edges through the production work of Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn, on titles that include "Same Old Thing", "Joog", "Chicken Strut", "Liver Splash", "Hand Clapping Song", "Hey Last Minute", "Tippi-Toes", and "Ride Your Pony". A bucket of breaks in every track! LP, Vinyl record album

Herb Alpert's first-ever album – a runaway hit that was the birthplace of so many groovy things – not just the start of the Tijuana Brass sound, also the birth of A&M Records! The album's the first to feature Herb's trademark take on the Mexican band style – done here with a bit more "jaunty" pop stylings than in later years, including a "rocking" electric bass that kicks along nicely at the bottom of some of the more chart-oriented tunes. The first full album on A&M – and the beginning of an empire – with titles that include "The Lonely Bull", "El Lobo", "Desafinado", "Mexico", "Never On Sunday", and "Struttin With Maria". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the standout moments in the career of Rod Argent – a record that gave his self-named group one of their biggest hits ever, yet a set that still kept all the depth and diversity of their other records too! The album starts out with the group's famous "Hold Your Head Up" – the anthemic strutter that crossed over big, and which burns here with plenty of great organ lines from Rod. Other numbers really mix things up – rocking harder than Rod's Zombies work, but also showing some complicated sensibilities too – brought out nicely by co-producer Chris White, who also wrote most of the songs on the date with Argent. Titles include "Pure Love", "He's A Dynamo", "Hold Your Head Up", "Be My Lover Be My Friend", "Keep On Rolling", and "I Am The Dances Of Ages". LP, Vinyl record album

A shot of tequila and a whole lot more – one of the few albums issued by the legendary Champs, a group who helped reinvent the sound of instrumental rock at the start of the 60s! The group's classic "Tequila" is a very familiar mix of raunchy sax, strutting guitar, and some slightly south of the border rhythms – and the other tunes here follow suit beautifully – offering up some of the grittiest side of late 50s/early 60s instrumental rock you could hope to find. The album's a definitely all-killer, no-filler set – and in addition to "Tequila", titles also include "Go Champ Go", "I'll Be There", "Sky High", "Lollipop", "Night Beat", "Robot Walk", "Midnighter", and "Train To Nowhere". LP, Vinyl record album

A boldly strutting debut from Crow – a group who are maybe a bit forgotten in terms of the pop music history books, but who were really up-and-comers on the American hard rock scene at the end of the 60s! The lead off cut on the album is their great "Evil Woman" – a bassy, fuzzy track that's got some very catchy lead vocals – of the sort that would have sounded great coming out of an AM radio through that tiny speaker that graced the dashboards of most cars in 1970. And the rest of the record is equally nice – with cuts that include "Gonna Leave A Mark", "Busy Day", "Rollin", "White Eyes", "Thoughts", "Da Da Song", and "Sleepy Woman". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic set from brassman Bobby Hackett – the kind of set that really helped him reach a big new audience in the postwar years! The style here is trad, but the set was recorded for Capitol in LA – so there's this sort of sparkling vibe to the whole thing too – a bit of an update that comes across in the lean presentation of the music, and the west coast way the players really manage to make a lot happen in a relatively small space! Bobby plays cornet, and other musicians include Abe Lincoln and Jack Teagarden on trombones, Matty Matlock on clarinet, Don Owens on piano, and Nappy Lamare on guitar – and Teagarden manages to sing a bit, in that raspy style of his we really love. Titles include "That's A Plenty", "New Orleans", "I Want A Big Butter & Egg Man", "Struttin With Some Barbecue", and "Royal Garden Blues".. LP, Vinyl record album

A great remake of the Wet Willie hit – one that's got a soaring, strutting clubby feel that's totally wonderful! The tune's a superb anthem from the old days – and although the hook's a bit commercial, it still sounds plenty great to us after all these years! 12-inch, Vinyl record

Obscure work from Gerry Mulligan – and some of his best of the 70s! The record is a soundtrack for a French film starring Yves Montand, and the soundtrack was handled by Mulligan with assistance from Don Elliott – who brings in a funky style that's quite different than you'd expect from most of Gerry's work. Mulligan's horn sounds really great in these arrangements – strutting out nicely on the funky tracks, and kicking back with a cool sound on the mellower ones. Titles include "Trucking Again", "The Trap", "Dance Of The Truck", "Watching & Waiting", and "Theme From La Menace". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant bit of psychedelia – still as fresh today as it was many decades back – and the crowning achievement of Pink Floyd during the early Syd Barrett years! The album's got all the best elements of the group firmly in place – the penchant for long-jamming tracks that still manage to always maintain a sharp edge – mixed with some of the wittier, more playful lyrics that Barrett brought to the group – all wrapped up with a sense of depth and darkness that goes way beyond most of their contemporaries. The record's a masterpiece through and through – from its first guitar-heavy jam on "Astronomy Domine", through the strutting, vamping madness of "Bike" – all up and down other gems that include "Lucifer Sam", "The Gnome", "Take Up Thy Stethoscope & Walk", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Chapter 24", and "The Scarecrow". LP, Vinyl record album

No blues at all – just some great funky soul from the mighty Willie Hutch – served up here on one of his classic full length sets for Motown in the 70s! The vibe's kind of an extension of Willie's great blacksploitation soundtrack material from a few years before – lots of bad-strutting rhythms, peppered with some larger horn arrangements – but a bit more vocals from Willie himself, and lots of sweet guitar too! There's a few great mellow moments that remind us that Hutch can be as super-dope in a laidback mode as in a funky one – and the whole thing was arranged and produced by Willie himself. Includes the single "Party Down", plus "Baby Come Home", "I Finally Made The Headlines", "Stormy Weather", "Precious Pearl", and "Don't Let A Little Money Keep You acting Funny". LP, Vinyl record album

Dramatic, orchestral, dramatic-orchestral, and dramatic-exotic tunes – all scorred for this Indian-themed adventure film that starred Yul Brynner and Trevor Howard. There's a bit of sitar on a few tracks, mixed in with the orchestrations, and titles include "The Leopard", "Jail Break", "The Wrecked Bhanta Camp", "Strutting At Gynkhana", "Fire At The Fort", "Freddy & Jane", "The Train", and "Hanging Bridge Incident". Also includes a slight vocal performance on "The World Is Ready", by Vince Hill. LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Muskrat Ramble", "Heebie Jeebies", "Gut Bucket Blues", "Struttin' With Some Barbecue", "I'm Not Rough", "Hotter Than That", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Thanks A Million", "Lyin To Myself", "Ev'ntide", "Swing That Music", "Thankful", "The Skeleton In The Closet", "Jubilee", "Struttin' With Some Barbecue", "I Double Dare You", "It's Wonderful", "You're A Lucky Guy", "Everything's Been Done Before", "Hey Lawdy Mama", and "Grooving". LP, Vinyl record album

Betty Davis was one of the nastiest ladies in 70s soul – and this is one of her greatest albums – a killer batch of funky tracks all the way through! Betty has a sound like nobody else – and she takes heavy drums, throbbing bass, and ripping guitars – all as a hard and funky backing for raunchy, raspy vocals that are belted out with a slinky, sexy sort of sound! Davis' vocals are unlike anyone else we can think of – easily some of the most badass work you'll ever find on record – and the tracks are a mix of hip themes about sex, gal power, and struttin your stuff – all delivered by a righteous woman who can definitely do just that! The album features the classic break tracks "If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up" and "Steppin in Her I Miller Shoes", but every cut is a funky monster – including "Ooh Yea", "In The Meantime", "Your Man My Man", and "Anti Love Song". A great one if you dig hard female soul, heavy funky guitars, or both at the same time! LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal early album from Ian Dury – recorded before his funky dancefloor crossover work, and a key link between those sides and his earlier pub rock years. Dury's wonderfully deadpan vocal approach is already very firmly in place – and in fact perhaps sounds even more disaffected next to the heady guitars and stiffly strutting instrumentation of the set. Chaz Jankel's just developing his bassy style at this point – soon to explode more strongly on later work – but the core sound is very firmly in place on the set! Titles include "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", "My Old Man", "Wake Up & Make Love With Me", "Clever Trevor", "If I Was A Woman", "Sweet Gene Vincent", "Billericay Dickie" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest, sharpest albums ever recorded by Frances Faye – a set that has the singer working with unusual backing from Frank Hunter, who brings a lot more punch to the grooves than you might expect! The horns are full – with work by Herbie Mann on flute and tenor, Allen Eager on tenor, and both Bernie Glow and Nick Travis on trumpets – and that unique Faye style of singing really fits in well with the lineup – that kind of short-range quality that makes Frances sound so personal at all the right moments. Titles include "Love Is Just Around The Corner", "Just You Just Me", "Darktown Strutter's Ball", "Well All Right", "My Baby Just Cares For Me", and "Don't Blame Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Strutting guitars, stomping rhythms, and a great mix of glam and soul – the trademark groove of the UK's classic Hot Chocolate! The album's filled with great tunes that resonate with their trademark compressed sound – vocals wrapped on guitars and set to sweetly stepping rhythms – all produced to perfection by the mighty Mickie Most, with a sound that so many other current groups try to go for, but can never reach this right! Errol Brown's on lead vocals, and wrote a good deal of the tunes – and titles include "Heaven Is In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac", "Living On A Shoe String", "Sugar Daddy", "Man To Man", "You Could've Been A Lady", "Seventeen Years Of Age", and "Sex Appeal". LP, Vinyl record album