A pretty darn big collection of work from the 4 Tops – collecting the best of their early years at Motown on up through the 70s. There's a total of 39 tracks on the set, and titles include "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ask The Lonely", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", "It's The Same Old Song", "Something About You", "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing In The Shadows Of Love", "I Got A Feeling", "Bernadette", "I'll Turn To Stone", "You Keep Running Away", "Walk Away Renee","If I Were A Carpenter", "Yesterday's Dreams", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Everybody's Talking", "Reflections", "For Once In My Life", "A Place In The Sun", "Can't Seem To Get You Out Of My Mind", "Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me", "It's All In The Game", "Still Water (Love)", "In These Changing Times", "You Gotta Have Love In Your Heart" and "(It's) The Way Nature Planned It". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best 60s albums by the Crusaders – and a swinging Latin session to boot! The core group of The Jazz Crusaders is expanded with some funky flute from Hubert Laws, sweet organ licks from Clare Fischer, and lots of congas from Carlos Vidal – all of whom push the group past their usual (and excellent) soul jazz bag, into a realm of hard-grooving Latin numbers! The playing on the set is tremendous – as "in the pocket" as the group could be, but also a lot more hiply swinging and open to rhythmic changes. A total gem – with titles that include "Agua Dulce", "Tacos", "Soul Bourgeoisie", and "Latin Bit". LP, Vinyl record album

11 tracks total, including "Ya Cold Wanna Be With Me", "SWAT", "Ask Yo Mama", "So Be It" and "Master-Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

A double LP set that compiles side Bechet recorded for RCA (Bluebird?) in the 30s and early 40s – mostly in New York. There's a total of 35 tracks on the set – and titles include early recordings of "Jada", "Really The Blues", "Sweetie Dear", "Preachin The Blues", "Sidney's Blues", "Shake It & Break It", "Blues In Thirds", "Blues For You Johnny", "Coal Black Shine", and "Wild Man Blues". LP contains a few alternates as well as master versions. LP, Vinyl record album

A 2LP set that brings together earlier Sam Cooke titles for RCA – some remastered and made into stereo titles, others just cleaned up a bit. There's a total of 20 tracks in all – with hits like "Twistin The Night Away", "You Send Me", "Chain Gang", "Having A Party", "Another Saturday Night", and "Cupid" – plus lesser-known numbers like "Feel It", "Little Red Rooster", and "Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha". LP, Vinyl record album

Great lost work by Buddy DeFranco – rare Verve sides recorded with Sonny Clark that show a whole new side of the clarinetist! Forget what you might think about his playing – because these tracks have a tight swinging boppish groove, and Clark's piano work makes the whole thing move nicely, without some of the hoke of other DeFranco sessions. The set (now out of print) has a total of 5LPs, and is filled with mostly master takes, plus a few unreleased tracks. Titles include "Cable Car", "Monogram", "Mine", "Titoro", "Sonny's Idea", "Cooking The Blues", and "Minor Incident". Great stuff! LP, Vinyl record album

There's few folks who can put together an album like Alabaster DePlume – and even amidst the heady company of his labelmates on International Anthem, it seems like DePlume has a really special way of mixing live performance with a whole host of studio-based conceptions! Alabaster's previous album was already a groundbreaking effort – but this set really pushes things over the top, with this really hypnotic blend of words and music, recorded at London's Total Refreshment Centre – at a level that's every bit as genre-breaking as any other work we've heard from that legendary locale. It's kind of impossible to describe the sound here in words – as DePlume mixes his tenor, guitar, and voice with a host of different instruments – contributions from London contemporaries on tablas, cello, electronics, guitar, and a range of other elements – including other voices added to the mix. Titles include "Don't Forget You're Precious", "I'm Gonna Say Seven", "Do You Know A Human Being When You See One", "I'm Good At Not Crying", "Now Stars Are Lit", "I Will Not Be Safe", "Who Is A Fool", and "The Sound Of My Feet On This Earth Is A Song To Your Spirit". LP, Vinyl record album

Fats Domino Swings – a total of 12 million records, according to the cover! We're not sure if that claim's accurate or not, but we can say that the album's got a million dollar sound, and is a perfect demonstration of the genius that made Domino unlike anyone else back in the day – a completely unique artist to rise from the New Orleans scene in the 50s, but one who's also steeped in all the musical roots of the city! Fats has a way of laying down on the piano that brings forward older riffing styles, but in a leaner level that sits brilliantly alongside his raspy, early soul vocals – and the tight, jaunty rhythms of the tunes – which again are kind of a compression of older Nola modes, in a way that so many others would copy over the years. The set features a mix of hits like "I'm Walkin" and "Blueberry Hill", and great lesser known numbers like "Going To The River", "I'm In Love Again", "Bo Weevil", and "Whole Lotta Loving". LP, Vinyl record album

Smooth and soulful guitar work from Cornell Dupree – a player who recorded on countless sessions as a studio sideman, but didn't break out as a leader until the late 70s! The set has a full sound that's in the mode of the larger Kudu/CTI productions of the time – an approach that takes larger orchestrations and uses them as the backdrop for Dupree's work on guitar, often with a fair bit of keyboard support on Rhodes, Korg and piano from Mario Sprouse, who arranged the set. The set's made up of pop tunes from the day, and will remind you of 70s am radio at some level, which for us isn't a terrible thing, though there is a commercial sheen to the whole affair that still has a touch of what we love about the funky dancefloor style of David Matthews during the same stretch – and the album features a total of 7 tracks that include "Stayin' Alive", "Slip, Slidin' Away", "How Deep Is Your Love", "Lovely Day", "Boogie Nights", "It's So Easy", and "Shake It Well". LP, Vinyl record album

A collection of recordings by the Duke Ellington big band from late 1947, with sidemen that include Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown, Tyree Glenn, Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges, Al Sears, Harry Carney, Oscar Pettiford, and Sonny Greer. 22 titles total, including "How High The Moon", "Lady Of The Lavendar Mist", "It's Mad Mad Mad!", "H'ya Sue", "Kitty", "Air Conditioned Jungle", "Three Cent Stomp", "Stomp Look And Listen", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Killer 2LP set that includes a number of harder to find Fela tracks – and way more than the usual best of that you'd expect! The set has 2 tracks per side of an album, for a total of 8 cuts in all – and lots of the titles are tough to find, like "Chop & Quench", "Let's Start", "Black Man's Cry", "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)", and "Egbe Mi O Carry Me I Want To Die". LP, Vinyl record album

Obscure LP from Prince Rashad and DJ Brother Lee-Luv, both real life members of the NYPD– and an unusual later release on the 60s soul label Sue Records! The set features nine songs total produced by Juggy Murray, including "Turn It Up", "Beats Like This", "To Each His Own", "Smooth Tip", "5ive O", and "The Buck Stops Here". LP, Vinyl record album

A well-done showcase of Aretha's best early work for Atlantic Records – a collection that really gets at the deepest soul side of her style, and focuses on the transformation of sound that occurred when Franklin moved over to the label from Columbia. The set's overflowing with greatness – a total of 14 tracks in all, with killer arrangements by Arif Mardin, and landmark production from Tom Dowd, Jerry Wexler, and Mardin. Titles include "Spanish Harlem", "Chain Of Fools", "I Say A Little Prayer", "Dr Feelgood", "Respect", "Baby I Love You", "I Never Loved A Man", "Call Me", and "You're All I Need To Get By". LP, Vinyl record album

A great collection of Jordan's material from the mid 40s to the mid 50s – starting with his jazzy numbers of the earlier years, and moving into the more blues/rock 'n roll sound of later recordings. His band always sounds great and it also sounds like they're having a good time especially when they participate in the dialogue of the songs. There are a total of 20 songs and they include "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", "Saturday Night Fish Fry", "Barnyard Boogie", "I Want You To Be My Baby", "Caldonia", "Run Joe", "School Days", "Buzz Me", "Beans & Corn Bread" and "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the grooviest Henry Mancini soundtracks of the 60s – a wonderful blend of jazzy themes and action moments, and a record that's possibly better-remembered than the film for which it was recorded! The main "Charade" theme is a total gem – performed here in both a guitar-heavy instrumental version and a cool vocal version with a Mancini chorus – but the other tunes are arguably even better, and range from Euro-styled numbers to Latin groovers, to some tenser dramatic moments. The recording quality is wonderful – filled with echo and space – and titles include "Orange Tamoure", "Punch & Judy", "Latin Snowfall", "Bateau Mouche", "Bistro", and "Mambo Parisienne". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "How High The Moon", "Monopoly", "I Know That You Know", "Darn That Dream", "Celia", "Lady Bird", "Una Noche Con Francis", and "Conception" – 21 tracks total. LP, Vinyl record album

Recorded at Sigma Sound and produced, arranged and conducted by Vincent Montana Jr., this is a compilation of some of the Salsoul Orchestra's big disco tunes. Montana composed just about every song on the record and the tracks include "Nice N Naasty", "You're Just The Right Size", "Chicago Bus Stop (Ooh, I Love It)", "Salsoul Hustle", "Magic Bird Of Fire","It's Good For The Soul", "Salsoul Rainbow", and "Salsoul: 3001". A total of twelve tracks in all. LP, Vinyl record album

A killer set from British tenorist Ronnie Scott – and a record that's very different than anything else he's ever done! There's a lean sound to the record, as Ronnie blows in a hip trio with organ work from Mike Carr – a very groovy sthle that has Scott taking off with all these styles he never had before! The group's totally on a classic Jack McDuff organ combo vibe, and they do total justice to the sound on four long cuts – including a great reworking of McDuff's "Lou's Piece", plus "The More I See You","Midnight Blue" and "Sombrero Sam". LP, Vinyl record album

The brilliant 3rd album from Mike Westbrook – a sharp-edged, two volume set with a scathing anti-war theme! The work is Westbrook's first total-concept album, and it's still one of his best – written with an edge that's free from some of the more whimsical touches that showed up in Mike's later years, and played by a core group of British avant soloists with searing intensity! You've never heard large group scoring like this – bold, ambitious, and quite different than most of what's come before. And although the whole thing sounds as if it's going to fall apart at any moment, it always snaps back into a sharp focus just in the nick of time – with brilliant results that bring the same sense of surprise that you might get from, say, a classic album from Charles Mingus or Archie Shepp! Players include Kenny Wheeler and Henry Lowther on trumpets, Mike Gibbs and Paul Rutherford on trombones, John Surman on baritone and soprano sax, Mike Osborne on alto and clarinet, Alan Skidmore on tenor and flute, Brian Smith on tenor, and Harry Miller and Barre Phillips on bass. This set features both volumes of the recording – with titles that include "Landscape", "Hooray", "Other World", "Marching Song", "Transition", "Rosie", "Tension", "Ballad", "Conflict", and "Requiem". LP, Vinyl record album

This great series just keeps on getting better and better – serving up the rare disco and club tracks that we can never seem to find, and doing so in a way that's a heck of a lot hipper than the usual disco set! The groove here isn't really straight disco – it's more a mix of funky club, modern soul, and some of the better rhythms that bubbled around in the underground club scene years back – grooves that were way ahead of their time, and which have still continued to sound fresh over the years! The 2LP set features a total of a dozen tracks – nearly all of which would break your bank if you found them on the original vinyl – and titles include "We Want To Play" by Brief Encounter, "Rebel On The Run (rmx)" by Selection, "Let's Get It On (inst)" by Marini, "Remember To Remember" by Rick Holmes, "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Savana, "Feel So Good" by Mac Thornhill, "Slide Into Your Heart" by Time Spectrum, "Summer Groove" by The Joneses, "City Lights (rasta funk)" by Onyx, "Get It On The Ground" by Joe Coleman, "Ooh Wee Baby" by Ron Richardson, and "I Still Feel Like Dancing" by Newstar Band. LP, Vinyl record album