McCoy Tyner on solo piano. CD

Some of the best recordings that Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams ever did together! The material here was recorded for the short-lived Warwick label in the early 60s – with a tight tight rhythm section that includes Jimmy Cobb on drums, Laymon Jackson on bass, and a very young Herbie Hancock on piano. Herbie kicks ass on his solos – and Byrd and Adams are very tight, with none of the clunkiness that sometimes mars their other work. The set includes a killer version of "Mr LuckyTheme", plus the tracks "Out Of This World", "Bird House", "It's A Beautiful Evening", and "Curro's". CD

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Recorded live at the former Villa Venice club just outside Chicago. CD

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Tracks include "Tired Of Being Alone", "Love TKO", "Take Me To The River", "Turn Of The Lights", "Call Me", "Life Is A Song Worth Singing", "Close The Door", and "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)". CD

Sublime stuff! When Teddy left Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, he was making one of the best moves of his career – as you'll hear on these amazing tracks, totally perfect bits of modern soul that moved the career of Teddy up about a zillion notches, and which also had a profound effect on the overall development of male soul vocals. Includes "Turn Off The Lights", "Close the Door", "Love TKO", "I Don't Love You Anymore", "You Can't Hide From Yourself", and the amazing "Come Go With Me". LP, Vinyl record album

As perfect a summation of the Teddy Pendergrass genius as you'll ever hope to find – a magnificent maturation of that incredible sound he first forged with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, set forth in even more confident, sophisticated soul territory! As with the Melvin albums, there's a nice mix here of sultry ballads and groovers – the latter of which are changing with the Philly modes of the time, but still very much at the top of their game – light years from clunky commercial work, or easy dancefloor fodder. The album's stunner is "Love TKO" – a killer mellow soul track that's not only one of Teddy's best, but which has enjoyed recent popularity due to a heavy bit of sampling by hip hoppers – but the whole thing's great, and other titles include "Take Me In Your Arms Tonight", "Let Me Love You", "Girl You Know", "Is It Still Good To Ya", "I Just Called To Say", and "Can't We Try". LP, Vinyl record album

Tracks include "Tired Of Being Alone", "Love TKO", "Take Me To The River", "Turn Of The Lights", "Call Me", "Life Is A Song Worth Singing", "Close The Door", and "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)". CD

Sublime stuff! When Teddy left Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, he was making one of the best moves of his career – as you'll hear on these amazing tracks, totally perfect bits of modern soul that moved the career of Teddy up about a zillion notches, and which also had a profound effect on the overall development of male soul vocals. 15 tracks in all – including "Turn Off The Lights", "Close the Door", "Love TKO", "I Don't Love You Anymore", "The More I Get, The More I Want", "The Whole Town's Laughing At Me", "You Can't Hide From Yourself", and the amazing "Come Go With Me". CD

3rd volume, and the righteous 70's soul and funk tracks keep on coming! Titles include "World Is A Ghetto" by War, "Ike's Mood" by Isaac Hayes, "Trouble Man" by Marvin Gaye, "Love TKO" by Teddy Pendergrass, "Breakout" by Johnny Hammond, "Ironside" by Quincy Jones, "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield, "Who Is He & What Is He To You" by Creative Source, "Melting Pot" by Booker T & The MGs, "Westchester Lady" by Bob James, and lots lots more! 25 tracks in all. CD

The title's a reference to another work, but seems especially well-put here to describe the special creative activity of pianist Simon Nabatov and reedman Frank Gratkowski – two players who've worked together many times over the space of decades, which really seems reflected in the sonic sensitivity of the album! Gratkowski blows alto, flute, clarinet, and bass clarinet – and the open tonal possibilities of the latter two instruments seem especially resonant with the feel of the record – these gentle tonal shifts that are almost painterly, as is Nabatov's piano – creating gentle structures of sound, on titles that include "Cagey", "Safe Home", "Layers Of Disguise", "Disgruntled Settlement", and "Turn Of Events". CD

Features Donny McCaslin on tenor and soprano sax. CD

Frank Gratkowski on reeds, Herb Robertson on trumpet and cornet, Dieter Manderscheid on bass, and Simon Nabatov on piano, e-bows, and cracklebox. CD

Really beautiful later work from Michael Hurley – a set recorded in the 21st Century, and with some slightly more sophisticated settings than some of Hurley's earliest records – yet still overflowing with all the charms that make his music so great! Hurley handles guitar, vocals, and a bit of piano – and there's some light backing elements on bass clarinet, dobro, bass, and violin – the last of which sounds very nice, as it's used in these really light, sweet ways – not polished, but also not like a fiddle either. Katie Clayborn sings some backing vocals at times, almost acting like the Emmylou Harris to Hurley's Gram Parsons – on titles that include "Edinburg Lag", "Got Over It", "O My Stars", "The End Of The Road", "Blockade Stillers", and "The Rue Of Ruby Whores". LP has a different track order than the original CD – and includes a bonus recent live recording of "Murderer's Home Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

Deanna Witkowski on piano and vocals, Donny McCaslin on soprano and tenor saxophone, Dave Ambrosio on bass, and Vince Cherico on drums. CD

A really fantastic groove from this Bay Area group – one with this swing-step sort of style that's maybe more like southern beach grooves from a few years before – nice and spare, and topped with these really wonderful vocals that are every bit as playful as the rhythms! "Ooh Baby Baby" is the famous tune you already know – but the vocals here really send things over the top – raw but sweet at the same time, at a level that makes for one of the best versions of the song we've ever heard! 7-inch, Vinyl record

Chicago attracted many great European improvisers to its scene in the 90s – and one of them was pianist Georg Grawe, who moved to the city to take advantage of its thriving jazz and free music scene! Here, Grawe demonstrates his rapport with the city – working with a great group that features Kent Kessler on bass, Hamid Drake on drums, and Frank Gratkowski on reeds – in modes that are quite different than some of George's other recordings of the period! A wild mix of jazz harmonies, intricate polyrhythms, free blowing, and tight bits of straight jazz – on titles that include "Multiversum", "Trajectory", "Nodality", "Pressing Scopes", "Fringe Factor", and "Memory Of Wings II". CD

Lezlie Harrison's a great singer, and she sounds especially wonderful here next to the Hammond B3 of Ben Paterson – a player who really seems to click with Lezlie's great approach! There's a slight current of soul in Harrison's music, but the music is definitely jazz – as she's got a richness of expression, and way of using her voice that we'd rank right up there with vocalists like Carmen Lundy or Dee Alexander – given plenty of space to open up and soar here in a small combo setting, with work also from Matt Chertkoff on guitar and Pete Zimmer on drums. The approach is great – very different than some straight old school Hammond/vocal session – as Harrison's take on the tunes is very fresh, with more contemporary approach to arrangements – on titles that include "Love Won't Let Me Wait", "Let Them Talk", "A Lover Is Forever", "What A Little Moonlight Can Do", "Fly Like An Eagle", and "Close Your Eyes". CD

A fantastic mix of heady sounds and heavy funk from The Heliocentrics – and a record that continues the vibe of their previous set – in which the team of Malcolm Catto and Jake Ferguson were joined by the lovely vocals of Barbora Patkova! Patkova's presence is just what the group needs to really ground their sound – a female singer up front, but one who's as equally comfortable with distortion, fuzz, and echoey spaces as the two instrumentalists – a trio who continue that unique tradition of psychedelic funk that we first loved in Catto's early work on Mo Wax! Titles include "99% Revolution", "Hanging By A Thread", "Nonsense (part 1)", "Light In The Dark", "People Wake Up", "Burning Wooden Ship", and "Elephant Walk". LP, Vinyl record album

A way way deeper set than the first volume of Bay Area Funk – and a collection that shows that things got pretty heavy on the San Francisco and Oakland scenes of the 70s! A good number of the tracks here are instrumental, and show some wonderful interplay between the trippier sides of funky jazz and the harder sides of soul going on in the Bay Area back in the day – killer music from the fringes that often got lost in the shuffle of all the better-known music coming out on the bigger labels! The work here is all from very tiny labels – expertly selected and all officially cleared by the Luv N Haight team with keen respect for the artists involved – and in a way, the package has set a new high standard for the label! A tremendous discovery, and filled with tracks we'd never heard before – titles that include "Stop Look Listen" by Primevil, "Poor Sad Child (part 1)" by The Windjammers, "Born To Live With Heartache" by Mary Love, "Move In The Room" by Dawn & Sunset, "Ebony" by Project Soul, "Acid Lady" by San Francisco TKOs, "Hip Breakin" by Little Denise Stevenson, "Devil's On The Run" by Uptights Band, "Brute Strength" by Mile Selesia, and "Lenient With My Love" by The Relatives. CD

A treasure trove of soul from LA's mighty Money Records – home to some of the best indie singles on the west coast at the end of the 60s! The work here really runs the gamut of hip styles from the time – and includes group soul, Northern groovers, and even a bit of funk too – packaged together beautifully by the folks at Kent Records, who make this third volume sparkle every bit as strongly as other volumes in their Money Records series! There's an equal mix of male and female singers on the set, and the package features not only rare 45s on Money and related labels, but also a few unissued cuts as well – making the whole thing essential to own, even if you've got a pile of rare Money singles at home. Titles include "Girl You're So Fine" by Bobby Angelle, "Give Back Your Lovin" by Don Trotter, "The Skate" by The Larks, "If She Wants To Go" by Choice Of Colors, "I'll Give My Love To You" by Eric Williams, "You Got Me Dizzy" by Bobby Angelle, "Don't Take My Mind" by Bettye Swann, "Put Your Weight On It (part 2)" by Filmore Street Soul Rebellions, "Doin The Thing" by Question Marks, "Open Up Your Eyes" by The M&Ms & The Peanuts, "Why'd You Put Me On" by Bobbi Row & The Englishmen, "Sad & Blue" by The Mysteries, "Speak To Me In Your Soulful Way" by Hank Jacobs & The TKOs, and even "Hard Times Are Coming" by an Unknown Duo! CD

Stellar work from the Star Creature label – the Chicago imprint that seems to be picking up the torch where all those fancy London and European labels dropped it many years ago! The work here is fresh and forward-thinking – rooted in older house and funky soul modes, but completely contemporary – filled with rhythms that really find the way forward, instrumentation that soars to the heavens on waves of cosmic energy, and vocals that keep the whole thing nicely grounded on the planet! The quality is superb – and titles include "A Shooting Star" by Saucy Lady, "Tunnel Vision" by Proh Mic, "The Finest (E Live rmx)" by Kutkorners with Amalia, "Instant Sunshine" by Ourra & The Gravity Drive, "Do Me Like That (slight extension rmx)" by E Live with Chesta Blake, "Exoplanet Love" by Shrio Schwarz, and "Cassette Funk" by Giovanni Damico. LP, Vinyl record album

Lezlie Harrison's a great singer, and she sounds especially wonderful here next to the Hammond B3 of Ben Paterson – a player who really seems to click with Lezlie's great approach! There's a slight current of soul in Harrison's music, but the music is definitely jazz – as she's got a richness of expression, and way of using her voice that we'd rank right up there with vocalists like Carmen Lundy or Dee Alexander – given plenty of space to open up and soar here in a small combo setting, with work also from Matt Chertkoff on guitar and Pete Zimmer on drums. The approach is great – very different than some straight old school Hammond/vocal session – as Harrison's take on the tunes is very fresh, with more contemporary approach to arrangements – on titles that include "Love Won't Let Me Wait", "Let Them Talk", "A Lover Is Forever", "What A Little Moonlight Can Do", "Fly Like An Eagle", and "Close Your Eyes". CD

Chicago attracted many great European improvisers to its scene in the 90s – and one of them was pianist Georg Grawe, who moved to the city to take advantage of its thriving jazz and free music scene! Here, Grawe demonstrates his rapport with the city – working with a great group that features Kent Kessler on bass, Hamid Drake on drums, and Frank Gratkowski on reeds – in modes that are quite different than some of George's other recordings of the period! A wild mix of jazz harmonies, intricate polyrhythms, free blowing, and tight bits of straight jazz – on titles that include "Multiversum", "Trajectory", "Nodality", "Pressing Scopes", "Fringe Factor", and "Memory Of Wings II". CD

Fantastic work from avant saxophonist Hans Koller – rare material that stands with the best Free Sound albums he released for MPS in the 70s! By this point in his career, Koller was really exploding with talent – a sax player who first begun in the postwar years with modes that were more California modern, but expanded and changed throughout the 60s – to the point where Hans was one of the most open-minded, freely-creative musicians on the central European scene! If you've only heard Koller's straighter tenor, you'll really be blown away here – as Hans blows both that horn and soprano sax, in a freewheeling group that also features Wolfgang Dauner on piano, Zbigniew Siefert on alto and violin, Adelhard Rodinger on bass, and Janusz Stefanski on drums. And while the music definitely lives up to the Free Sound name of the group, it's also not entirely free jazz – as there's a sense of structure and larger modern ideals that hearkens back to some of Koller's earlier music, even while the soloists are taking off. Titles include the 40 minute workout on "Nome", the 11 minute "Ulla M Kompanie 22/8", and the surprisingly spiritual "Kunstkopfindianer/Adea". CD

Some of the hippest work we've ever heard from German clarinetist Rolf Kuhn – a beautiful set from the 60s, and one that's filled with modern touches, but never goes too far out! Rolf's clarinet is definitely sharper here than in the decade before – informed by much of the modern jazz changes around him, and stretching out in space that's nicely open, and often moved along with some modal rhythms on the bottom. As with some of his other European contemporaries, Kuhn manages to use the instrument in completely new ways than before – no trad jazz clarinet lines that echo Benny Goodman's generation – and instead, an extremely evocative sound that often carries some nicely exotic overtones. The rest of the group's great too – and includes brother Joachim Kuhn on piano, Michal Urbaniak on tenor and soprano sax, and Czeslaw Bartkowski on drums. Titles include "Lady Orsina", "Mountain Jump", "Minor Impressions", "Solarius", and "Soldat Tadeusz". CD

A really great entry into one of our favorite series ever – and a set that's overflowing with rare jukebox jazz from the 60s! These aren't the heady tracks of the Coltrane generation, but the kind of soulful stompers that were brewing underneath – circulating on 45s from lots of indie-labels – and often sitting in a sweet space between hardbop and R&B! Lots of tunes have a very mod feel – hence the title – either a strong tenor solo, or some sweet Hammond, or some skittish rhythms – and the set features lots of tracks that we'd never heard before, and a few more than we'd forgotten about too. Titles include "Bossa Baby" by Googie Rene, "Hen House" by Paul & Rick, "Another Child Lost" by Floyd White, "The Fat Man (part 1)" by The TKOs, "Bucket Full Of Soul" by Trudy Pitts, "Cooking In Grease" by Reuben Wilson, "Watermelon Walk" by The Five Counts, "Hard Working Girl" by Clarence Daniels & Obie Jessie, "You Were Wrong" by The Miles Grayson Trio, and "El Tacos" by Frenchy & The Chessmen. CD

Bob Parton on lead trumpet, Art Davis, Joey Tartall, Mike McGrath, Scott Wagstaff, and Vincent DiMartino on trumpet, Antonio J Garcia, Brian Jacobi, Craig Sunkin, Jack Schmidt, and Tom Matta on trombone, Bob Frankich, Bob Reszutko, Brian Budzik, Kurt Berg, and Mark Colby on saxophone, Deanna Witkowski on piano, Paul Martin on bass, Tom Hipskind on drums, with vocals from Kristy Parton. CD

An incredible companion to the book Enjoy The Experience – and like that volume, a set that's filled with gems from the obscure sides of the American recording industry – vanity and privately pressed records that are plenty darn groovy, and pretty darn funky in all the right spots! The book is a painstakingly researched collection – and this soundtrack is just as carefully put together – with a great range of styles – heavily steeped in freaky funk, upbeat boogie, acid folk, offbeat psych, and trippy jazz! The range of sounds is really wonderful – with a feel that's somewhere between a Trunk Records or Finders Keepers compilation – and titles include "Intro (Excerpt)" by The Muzzy Band, "Spacing Out" by The Invaders, Diska Limba Man" by Medico Doktor Vibes, "Music Slave" by Jade, "White Panther" by Arcesia, "Never Come Back" by Boa, "ESP Switch" by Michael Farneti, "6.4 = Makeout" by Gary Wilson, "Just To Say Goodbye" by Russ Saul, "Cadillac Woman" by Stephen David Heitkotter, "Piledriver" by Dennis The Fox, "Old Time Feeling" by Circuit Rider, and "666" by Ray Torske. CD

Super-heady work from the global psychedelic underground – exactly the kind of work we've come to love from the Now Again reissue projects over the years! The label has its roots in the hip hop and funk world of parent company Stones Throw – and has used that legacy to open up an understanding of unique moments in rock music where funk, soul, and other elements can creep into the mix too – heard here in a blend of really wonderful cuts that are all the sort that normally change hands for high-dollar prices in impossible-to-find originals, but which finally get full exposure on a collection like this! Titles include "Tickets For Doomsday" by Chucky Thurmon, "All Bundled In Love" by Water Color, "In Your Time" by Christopher, "Time" by JB Green & Band, "Leavin" by Misty, "Hari Yang Mulya" by Golden Wing, "Sad Man's Story" by Icecross, "Paradise Lost" by Upheaval,a nd "I Don't Mind (part 1)" by Stephen David Heitkotter. CD