Very hip work from Art Turk Burton – percussionist, educator, and underground figure on the AACM scene in Chicago for decades – working here on a set of very long, live readings of key jazz tunes, served up with help from some equally hip musicians on the scene! The great Ari Brown plays tenor in the group, alongside the alto of Edwin Daugherty, keyboards of Ed Beard, and bass of Yosef Ben Israel – in a group that also features plenty of congas from Art, and more percussion from Sammie Torres and Dushun Mosley too – as the group takes off on these very extended performances that are filled with plenty of strong solos over equally strong percussion too! Maggie Brown brings in some vocals and spoken parts too – and titles include long takes on "Song For My Father", "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Listen Here", "Afro Blue", and "Inner City Blues". CD

A great look at the bright world of female soul in Japan during the 80s – a time when the nation was hitting some of its greatest heights of the postwar years – and was coming up with a magical musical groove to follow! While disco reigned in American clubs in the late 70s, the style really took off in Tokyo during the following decade – maybe mixed a bit with European and 80s club styles, but still unabashedly as upbeat and bubbling as American work of previous years – all to showcase a range of female singers whose style really matches the groove! The music takes off a bit from that shift into soul by Japanese jazz singers in the 70s – but is much farther than that mode overall, especially once the beats and keyboards get going. The package does a great job of being faithful to this legacy – and includes notes on each song and artist, along with album covers too. Titles include "Wanna Kiss" by Hitomi Tohyama, "Dancin" by Junko Ohashi, "Dress Down" by Kaoru Akimoto, "I'm In Love" by Aru Takamura, "Broken Eyes" by Mariko Tone, "TNT" by Rie Murakami, "Love Is A Work Of Mind" by Ra Mu, "Mystical Composer" by Kikuchi Momoko, and "Sky Restaurant" by Yumi Seino. CD