Milestone 2-fer combining two of our favorite late 60s soul jazz LPs, that practically defined the genre – Work Song and That's Right! "Work Song" was a whopping hit for Nat, plus Cannonball's killer "Sack O Woe", played here by a firey group that includes the great Bobby Timmons on piano, and Wes Montgomery on guitar, making a rare non-leader group appearance. On the second set Nat's trumpet is backed up by a "big sax section" – a trio of reed players that includes Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Heath, and Charlie Rouse, plus some additional baritone work by Tate Houston. The groove's pretty swinging – kind of in the mode of early work with Cannonball Adderley in that it's not as "in the pocket" soul jazz wise, but still quite strong overall. Heath and Jimmy Jones did the arrangements, and the rhythm section features Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones, and Jimmy Cobb. 17 tracks in all, including "Tadd", "The Old Country", "Chordnation", "ESP", "Scrambled Eggs", "Pretty Memory", and "Fallout". LP, Vinyl record album

A light and dreamy set of Brazilian vocal tracks – recorded in 1967, and featuring the voice of singer Lenita Bruno, a strong 60s talent with a style that's somewhat like Sylvia Telles. Arrangements on the set are by Clare Fischer – who plays piano, organ, and electric harpsichord in a small combo that also includes guitar by Laurindo Almeida, flute by Bud Shank, and percussion by Paulinho. Some tracks augment the ensemble with a string quartet – who give the material an appropriately sad tone, perfect for Lenita's blue-styled vocals. Includes a nicely grooving version of "Chove Chuva", plus the tracks "Wave", "Winter Moon", "Sing Sing More", "Dindi", "Stay My Love", and "Someone To Light Up My Life". LP, Vinyl record album

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A great batch of material that Art Farmer recorded for Prestige in the early fifties. This is way before he got hyper-lyrical, and his playing is raw and hard on a bunch of Quincy Jones arrangements, including the savage cut "Mau-Mau", which features a very early use of the electric bass, driving drumming by Sonny Johnson, and a savage Afro groove. This cut alone is worth the price of the album, and deserves to be a club classic. LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime subtle magic from the great Art Farmer – set up here in a laidback quartet setting that really lets him do what he does best! Art is on flugelhorn throughout – with a young Fred Hersch on piano, Bob Bodley on bass, and Billy Hart on drums. Includes the original Hersch songs "One For Sam" and "Summersong" – and a great reading of the fantastic Duke Pearson tune "You Know I Care". LP, Vinyl record album

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A small combo live recording at Ronnie Scotts – with Milt Buckner on Hammond and Tony Crombie on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet 80s groover from KC and his Sunshine Band – a set that's got the group sounding a lot different than during their Miami hit years of the 70s – but still every bit as groovy! The style is more 80s funk than before – a bit more emphasis on the keyboards, and basslines that rocked straight through the grooves – and Wayne "KC" Casey's voice often uses that cool level of processing you'll know from his hits, but in a wider range that even makes for some unusual moments on the mellower cuts and the ballads. Overall, there's still lots of sunshine in the mix – that ebullient atmosphere that always made KC and the group so great – and titles include "Don't Run", "Give It Up", "You'd Gimme Some More", ""When You Dance To The Music", and "You're Going Out Of Your Mind". LP, Vinyl record album

A strange and tasty little album that Roland Kirk made with organist Jack McDuff in the early 60s – one of his few outings in such a format, and a smoking little session that almost makes us wish he'd cut more of them! The format is relatively simple – with lots of interplay between McDuff's organ and Kirk's range of reeds (tenor, manzello, stritch, flute, and siren on this record!) And given that both players have a good sense of whimsy that still always manages to swing nicely, the pairing is a strong one – and makes for a record that's slightly different for both artists. Titles include "Makin Whoopie", "Funk Underneath", "Kirk's Work", "Three for Dizzy", and "Doin' the Sixty-Eight". LP, Vinyl record album

A strange and tasty little album that Roland Kirk made with organist Jack McDuff in the early 60s – one of his few outings in such a format, and a smoking little session that almost makes us wish he'd cut more of them! The format is relatively simple – with lots of interplay between McDuff's organ and Kirk's range of reeds (tenor, manzello, stritch, flute, and siren on this record!) And given that both players have a good sense of whimsy that still always manages to swing nicely, the pairing is a strong one – and makes for a record that's slightly different for both artists. Titles include "Makin Whoopie", "Funk Underneath", "Kirk's Work", "Three for Dizzy", and "Doin' the Sixty-Eight". LP, Vinyl record album

Men At Work's Billboard #1 debut album featuring "Who Can It Be Now?", "Down Under", "Be Good Johnny", "I Can See It In Your Eyes", "Underground", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderfully sensitive work from pianist Mulgrew Miller – an album that's hardly "work" at all, and which seems to have the magical music flowing from his hands with ease! There's a really organic feel to the set – that never-forced approach to piano that made Miller a real standout when he first emerged in the 80s – a new chapter of jazz piano expression, rich with soul from past legacies, but also stating its own identity with a quiet sort of power. One track is a solo number, but the rest feature support from Charnett Moffett on bass and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums – and titles include "Work", "The Sage", "Blues Again", "Sublimity", and "Powell's Prances". LP, Vinyl record album

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Nicely gritty work from London's Rarelyalways – an artist who's certainly got a touch of grime in his music, but one who also manages to come across with a more widely soulful style as well! Rhythms are nicely sharp around the edges, and have a bassy bottom that we really love – qualities that are partly due to the great production work from Ricco Komolafe on most of the record – yet the set also features plenty of other musicians in the mix too, which is definitely part of the depth that gets nicely past what you might expect! Titles include "Urgent", "Remote", "Fire", "Work", "City Boy", "MSG", "Voice Note 0142", "Help Desk", and "AOB". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes "Harlem Shuffle" and "One Hit (To The Body)". Guests includes Jimmy Page, Bobby Womack, Ivan Neville, and Chuck Leavell. LP, Vinyl record album

A percussion-heavy batch of tracks that has Pete Rugolo starting from a mode explored heavily in the hi-fi years, but taking the genre into much jazzier territory! With the help of a large group of west coast players – including Don Fagerquist, Larry Bunker, Herbie Harper, Frank Rosolini, Jack Costanzo, and Shelly Manne – Pete really makes things swing nicely, and brings in as much dynamic energy from the horns as he gets from the percussion! Titles include "Bongo Riff", "Drumerama", "Funky Drums", "Interplay For Drums, Bass", "Artistry In Percussion", and "1+4". LP, Vinyl record album

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Sock-hard early soul from the team of Ike & Tina Turner – a great little batch of tracks recorded back in their early years on Sue Records, when the duo was just starting to come on strong, and really came across with a heck of a lot of power! There's none of the simple tricks or fake soul of some of the pair's later recordings – just down and dirty R&B-styled 60s soul – recorded when Ike was at the height of his bandleading power, and Tina was singing in a mode that blew away most other female singers at the time. Titles include "It's Gonna Work Out Fine"," Gonna Find Me A Substitute", "Sleepless", "A Letter From Tina", "Worried & Hurtin Inside", "You Should've Treated Me Right", and the instrumentals "Prancin" and "The Groove". LP, Vinyl record album

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A great set from the John Abercrombie Quartet – that late 70s group that seemed to find one of the best matches for John's unusual phrasing on the guitar – with round, warm work on bass from George Mraz, equally great piano from Richie Beirach, and drums from Peter Donald. The songs are a mix of melodic moments and more chromatic shades – and titles include "Blue Wolf", "Dear Rain", "Stray", "Madagascar", "Foolish Dog", and "Riddles". LP, Vinyl record album

A whole new kind of trio session for the 70s – one that has the airy, open lines of guitarist John Abercrombie stretching out nicely in the company of drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland! The music is archetypal ECM work of the time – a complete contrast to a guitar trio session from a decade before, or even a few years before on any different sort of label. Abercrombie's got a bit of bite at a few moments, but mostly keeps things spare and spacious – and Holland and DeJohnette are more than happy to follow suit. Titles include "Backwoods Song", "May Dance", "Waiting", "Jamala", and "Sorcery 1". LP, Vinyl record album

A whole new kind of trio session for the 70s – one that has the airy, open lines of guitarist John Abercrombie stretching out nicely in the company of drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland! The music is archetypal ECM work of the time – a complete contrast to a guitar trio session from a decade before, or even a few years before on any different sort of label. Abercrombie's got a bit of bite at a few moments, but mostly keeps things spare and spacious – and Holland and DeJohnette are more than happy to follow suit. Titles include "Backwoods Song", "May Dance", "Waiting", "Jamala", and "Sorcery 1". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic acoustic set on ECM – a pairing of guitarists John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner, working here together in a beautifully spare sound! The album predates the bigger wave of work like this that would soon become cliched by the start of the 80s – and both players stretch out with sensitivity not always found on some of their other albums. Abercrombie plays mostly acoustic, but also some slight electric guitar – mostly in the background – and Towner plays 12-string and classical guitars, and a bit of piano as well. Titles include "Sargasso Sea", "Fable", "Avenue", "Elbow Room", "Parasol", "Romantic Descension", and "Staircase". LP, Vinyl record album

The only full album from Johnny Ace – a key figure in the Memphis scene of the 50s, and one of the first great casualties of rock and roll! Johnny was one of the first singers to record for the legendary Duke label, and worked in a mode that helped transform the smoother style of the west coast postwar R&B singers into a rougher, rawer mode that would pave the way for Memphis soul in years to come. And although Johnny died a tragic early death (and partially because of it), the impact of his work was tremendous, even in the few short years for which he recorded for Duke – leading to countless posthumous collections, mostly illegitimate, which often presented Johnny's work in less-than-superior conditions. This set is still the best – and features 12 tracks that Ace recorded for the Duke label. Titles include "How Can You Be So Mean", "My Song", "The Clock", "Cross My Heart", "Anymore", "Don't You Know", "Saving My Love For You", "So Lonely", and "Pledging My Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Bold new work from the legendary Pyramids ensemble – a spiritual jazz group who go back to the 70s, but who've reemerged in recent years with a renewed sense of energy, and a very forward-thinking sound! Leader Idris Ackamoor is still a master of tone and feeling on reeds – including alto and tenor, plus some other instrumentation as well – and he also vocalizes a bit on the record too hitting some righteous expressions that are in the spirit of Leon Thomas or Dwight Trible, mixed along with instrumentation from other players on drums, percussion, keyboards, trumpet, trombone, and guitar. The album's got a beautifully positive vibe – and titles include "Police Dem", "First Peoples", "Afro Futuristic Dreams", "Garland Rose", "Truth To Power", and "Requiem For The Ancestors". LP, Vinyl record album

Really fantastic sounds from The Action – a set that maybe has them stepping a bit from mod to psych, but still with all the catchier elements of their earlier work! There's a very open-minded set of production going on here – a bit like the shift that Small Faces took with Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, but without the sillier sides of that record – and the simple lineup of guitar-based instrumentation somehow hits this richer sense of majesty – maybe a bit like The Hollies' shifting their sound at a similar point. Reg King is fantastic on vocals, really bringing a subtle edge to the music – and titles include "Icarus", "Love Is All", "Strange Roads", "Brain", "I'm A Stranger", "Look At The View", "Climbing Up The Wall", "Come Around", and "In My Dream". LP, Vinyl record album

Open, swinging live work from the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet – and a set that shows both the group's sense of jazz tradition, and their willingness to play with it on their own terms! The tracks here are all quite long, jamming numbers – built on lively rhythms from the bass of Cameron Brown and drums of Dannie Richmond, and featuring a mix of exploratory solos and more swinging moments from Adams on tenor and Pullen on piano. Titles include a great reading of the Mingus tune "Diane" – plus "The Necessary Blues", "Intentions", and "Solitude" – all of which are over 13 minutes long! LP, Vinyl record album

Rare Capitol country from the great Kay Adams – a female singer with a distinct love of trucking songs, and one who also hails from the Buck Owens side of the spectrum too! Kay only cut a handful of records over the years, and this set's a great addition to her catalog – as it features unissued cuts that were recorded live with backing from Buck's group The Buckaroos – all done at the Buck Owens Ranch Show, and with a sound that's very much like Owens' excellent work of the time – with some of the more truck-themed tunes you'd be likely to hear from labelmate Red Simpson. Titles include "Rocks In My Head", "Six Days A Waiting", "Roll Out The Red Carpet", "Little Pink Mack", "Bottle Baby", "I Let A Stranger Buy the Wine", "Down Down Down", "Loose Talk", and a duet with Dick Curless on "A Devil Like Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful music from Chicago, set to another Chicago-themed project – a film based around the Roy stories of writer Barry Gifford! Yet that literary reference aside, the music here has fantastic merits of its own, even if you've never read Gifford at all – a very different, more compositional side of the spectrum from vibist Jason Adasiewicz, yet still music that has a loose small combo vibe as well – serve dup by a cool quintet that features Jonathan Doyle on saxes, Josh Berman on cornet, Joshua Abrams on bass, and Hamid Drake on drums! There's a mix of new tones and modern ideas that take us back to that late 50s time on the Chicago scene when Sun Ra's Arkestra was still in town – and the tunes penned by Adasiewicz are not only superb, but a perfect showcase for his incredible tones on vibes. Doyle is a real revelation too – a player we don't know well at all at this point, but whose sense of timing and presence really makes the whole record sparkle – as does the work of the rest of the better-known players in the group. Titles include "Ballad For Kitty", "River Blindness", "Walkin To Clinton", "Rudy's Basement", "Sand", and "Blue People". LP, Vinyl record album

A great lost chapter in the Cannonball/David Axelrod story! The record features Cannon's classic quintet performing some longer, more serious works with orchestral backing – and the sound is vaguely similar to some of Axelrod's "high concept" work for Capitol. The record features a recording of Axelrod's "Tensity" and William Fischer's "Experience In E", both conducted by Fischer, a hip modern soul-oriented arranger, with a sound that's not dissimilar to Axelrod. The last piece on the album is a nice long one by Lalo Schifrin, "Dialogues For Jazz Quintet & Orchestra", which is also conducted by him as well. LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful early work from Cannonball Adderley – and a record that's quite different than most of his better known sets from the time! The album's more spare and stripped-down than usual – with Cannon's alto in a quartet alongside Bill Evans on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Connie Kay on drums. The style is almost more that of Evans than it is Cannonball – lightly lyrical, with a good sense of space – in a way that has Adderley playing out front very strongly, cutting some beautiful lines with his solos, in a really unfettered way! Titles include versions of two of Evans' tracks – "Waltz For Debby" and "Know What I Mean?" – plus nice moody takes on other material, like John Lewis' "Venice", Clifford Jordan's "Toy", and Gordon Jenkins' "Goodbye". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful early work from Cannonball Adderley – and a record that's quite different than most of his better known sets from the time! The album's more spare and stripped-down than usual – with Cannon's alto in a quartet alongside Bill Evans on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Connie Kay on drums. The style is almost more that of Evans than it is Cannonball – lightly lyrical, with a good sense of space – in a way that has Adderley playing out front very strongly, cutting some beautiful lines with his solos, in a really unfettered way! Titles include versions of two of Evans' tracks – "Waltz For Debby" and "Know What I Mean?" – plus nice moody takes on other material, like John Lewis' "Venice", Clifford Jordan's "Toy", and Gordon Jenkins' "Goodbye". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from King Sunny Ade – one of his first truly global releases, and an album that marked a whole new sound in his music! Sunny had been issuing lots of his own records back home in Nigeria – but this set has the juju master working in London, with really fantastic production that pushes his sound in really great ways – echoey waves of basslines and percussion, subtle but powerful vocals, and percolating guitar that takes on a whole new sonic sensibility in the setting! There's a richness to the texture that's amazing – almost as if Brian Eno produced – and titles include "Synchro Feelings Ilako", "Mo Ti Mo", "Penkele", "Maajo", "Synchro System", "E Saiye Re", "Tolongo", "E Wele", and "Synchro Reprise". LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool Ethiopian record, but not the sort you might expect – as most of the instrumentation here is heavy on electric elements, which includes a fair bit of 80s keyboards, synth, and drum machine lines! The group were actually exiles, living in the Washington, DC area during the early 80s – and the record is almost a fusion of Ethio roots with more familiar American styles – a bit like the work that Mulatu created during his early time in the US, but with a very different vibe! There's lead vocals on one track, but most of the set is instrumental – and filled with plenty of sweet keyboard lines and guitar riffs – jazzy, electro, and plenty charming – on titles that include "Kalatashew Waga", "Anchi Bale Game", "Tez Alegn Yetintu", "Bahta's Highlife" and "Samba Shegitu". LP, Vinyl record album

A really compelling blend of jazz and electronics – served up here in a way that's very different than any other project of its nature! This isn't one of those records where reed improvisations mix with free analog electronics, yet it's also not one where electric rhythms provide the base for jazz samples – as Konrad Agnas criss-crosses all sorts of lines and styles with the record – sometimes reveling in the acoustic warmth of the saxophone work of Per Texas Johanssen, other times letting rhythms get crisp and crackling from his own drums, informed with work on an OP1 synthesizer! Torbjorn Zetterberg provides some amazing bass – almost funky at times, and certainly some of his most soulful work on record – and the group also features Hammond B3 and piano from Johan Graden. Titles include "Manech Och Vargen", "Bismillah", "Half Year Song", "Siwa", "Untitled 1972", "Don Rythmicon", "Rite Of Passage", and "Arthur & Jeremiah". LP, Vinyl record album

Easily one of the greatest records that Brazilian percussionist Airto ever recorded – a stunning blend roots and jazzy currents, and a set that follows strongly off his work in the group Quarteto Novo! The set's got contributions from one of his key partners in that combo – reedman Hermeto Pascoal – and like Pascoal's material at this point, the whole thing is maybe one of the most perfect realizations of the musical vision that Airto was going for! There's none of the tighter, more polished sounds of his later fusion years – and this is the record that will show you just why his arrival on the American scene made such big waves at the time. Flora Purim also sings on the record – and titles include "Andei", "On Sonho", Papo Furado", and "O Galho da Rosiera". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunning celebration of one of the greatest pairings in Brazilian music – and in American music as well, given that both Airto Moreira and Flora Purim recorded plenty of these cuts up in our neck of the woods! Airto's percussion is the stuff of legend – a key force in Brazilian recordings in the late 60s, and then equally important in American jazz – in famous recordings with Miles Davis and other artists, and plenty of great records on his own! Flora's vocals are equally crucial – a soaring, fluid approach that forever changed the way that female singers approached jazz – bred in 60s bossa, but instantly something new by the time the 70s came along – especially when Airto was supporting her with great grooves! This huge package brings together material that both artists recorded – often under the name of one or the other, but often with the other artist present on the recording – with a heavy batch of work from the 70s and 80s, but also crucial cuts from other years too! 5LP set features 37 tracks and a really great package – with titles that include "Love Lock", "The Happy People", "Hungry On Arriva", "The Road Is Hard", "Samba De Flora", "O Canto Da Sereia", "Jeito Bom De Sofrer", "Papo Furado", "Xibaba", "Back Streets Of Havana", "Vera Cruz", "Flora's Song", "When Angels Crie", "Celebration Suite", "Casa Forte", "Black Narcissus", "A Secret From The Sea", "O Cantador/I Just Want To Be Here", "Jump", and "Hot Sand". LP, Vinyl record album

A jazz trio, but one with a really unusual combination of instruments – vibes and marimba from Benoit Lavollee, drums from David Georgelet, and bass trombone from Stephane Montigny – who also plays some great work on shells as well! The music is heavy on currents from global sources, but is definitely jazz as well – and given the performance of Montigny, there are some aspects of the record that maybe remind us of a more stripped-down take on the territory of Steve Turre when he reaches for some non-American modes as well! The drumming of Georgelet is great – often more tribal and percussion-like than standard swing – and the use of vibes and marimba moves nicely between rhythm and melody. Titles include "Fauve", "Sancocho", "Traverse", "Rococo", "Lonnie's Lament", and "Tony". LP, Vinyl record album

A gently beautiful record from trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire – one driven by a desire to create open space, which Ambrose does wonderfully in the company of Bill Frisell on guitar and Herlin Riley on drums! All players have a great sense of timing and work with a "less is more" sort of approach – a quality you'll certainly know from some of Frisell's music, but which is delivered here with a warm balance that's also nicely different than those recordings too! In the wrong hands, the set could have the coldness of an ECM recording, but instead there's a much more sensitive approach going on here – but also one that's never sleepy or too laidback. Titles include "Mr Frisell", "Owl Song 2", "Weighted Corners", "Grace", "Mr Riley", "Henya", and "Flux Fuelings". LP, Vinyl record album