A beautifully poetic take on the transplantation of African sounds in the US scene – played on a variety of different instruments by Bilal Abdurahman! The tracks are mostly short, percussive ones – with the strongest focus on instrumentation, but with occasional vocal refrains from ... (Global Grooves) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A hip batch of underground poetry tracks – collected together by the Before Columbus Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting the works of African-American and Native American artists! Despite the 1980 date, the collection has a feel that's similar to earlier righteous poetry albums on the ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Barons, Dominoes, Queenettes, & Others —
Roots – Rhythm & Blues ... CD Folkways, 1966. New Copy Gatefold ...
$12.9916.98
A weird little album from the Folkways label – one that features a bunch of 50s-sounding R&B tracks, but packaged almost in an ethnographic style – as if commercial American music was being examined from an outside scientific source! Given that the date of the album is 1966, and ... (Soul) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
The first album from obscure folk singer Guy Davis – a set that's got a much earthier feel than you'd expect from its late 70s release! Most tracks just feature Davis on vocals and acoustic guitar – singing in a style that's slightly blues-inflected in the vocals, but with playful ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A pretty cool collection produced by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee – focusing on famous speeches by important female African-Americans – mostly focusing on the civil rights era, but also featuring an early speech by Ida B Wells. Ruby reads the speeches, and works include "I Am A Black ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
East New York Ensemble De Music —
At The Helm ... CD Ikef/Folkways, 1974. Used ...
$12.99
An extremely righteous bit of soul jazz – originally issued in a very small pressing by Folkway Records, at a time when the label was doing some great underground recordings! The sound is loose and free – spiritually building in a manner that recalls the work of Ahmed Abdul Malik, Phil ... (Jazz) read moreCD
(Out of print.)
East New York Ensemble De Music —
At The Helm ... CD Folkways, 1974. New Copy ...
Out Of Stock
An extremely righteous bit of soul jazz – originally issued in a very small pressing by Folkway Records, at a time when the label was doing some great underground recordings! The sound is loose and free – spiritually building in a manner that recalls the work of Ahmed Abdul Malik, Phil ... (Global Grooves) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Entourage Music & Theater Ensemble —
Entourage ... CD Folkways, 1973. New Copy ...
$12.9915.99
Beautiful sounds from the Entourage ensemble – a record that's got a really meditative blend of acoustic elements with a few electric touches – used in ways that start in jazz, then move way beyond! Instrumentation includes guitar, flute, keyboards, violin, and mbira – coming ... (Out Sound) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Entourage Music & Theater Ensemble —
Neptune Collection ... LP Folkways, 1976. Near Mint- ...
$13.99
Warmly experimental music from the 70s Folkways scene – music that's a mixture of jazz, folk, electronics, and improvised styles – played with an open, honest sort of feel! The Entourage Music & Theater Ensemble features four composer/musicians – Joe Clark, Wall Matthews, ... (Out Sound) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
A hard biting album of hip poetry from the great Sarah Webster Fabio! The title cut is a brutal attack on the free use of the word soul by black musicians – and Sarah delivers the words over spare conga backing by family member Cyril Leslie Fabio II. Cyril shows up on one other track – ... (Soul) read moreCD
A really wonderful record – and one that maybe brings together a few key strands of the Folkways Records magic – as the album features narration by Langston Hughes, based on his First Book Of Rhythms book – layered with sound effects, folk songs, and music from around the world ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A great little 70s album of electric blues – a set that begins with a song about Watergate – then moves off into a whole other great range of themes too! Bob Kirkpatrick's got a vibe here that's in the better style of the small club scene of Detroit or Chicago at the time – lean, ... (Blues) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A beautiful little record – one that features cascading tones from the strings of the kora, mixed with occasional vocal moments too! The album was recorded in Dakar and Brikama in the mid 70s – and is maybe the start of a great run of later sessions that found a way of taking this ... (Global Grooves) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A beautiful little record – one that features cascading tones from the strings of the kora, mixed with occasional vocal moments too! The album was recorded in Dakar and Brikama in the mid 70s – and is maybe the start of a great run of later sessions that found a way of taking this ... (Global Grooves) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Very nicely-done reissue – with all the heft of an orginal Folkways pressing!)
Beautiful sounds from the overlooked minimalist composer Craig Kupka – a set that features two very different tracks, each issued by Folkways Records – with a presentation that's both far away from the more academic records of the time, and some of the self-released work of the growing ... (Out Sound) read moreCD
Beautiful sounds from the overlooked minimalist composer Craig Kupka – a set that features two very different tracks, each issued by Folkways Records – with a presentation that's both far away from the more academic records of the time, and some of the self-released work of the growing ... (Out Sound) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Beautiful heavy reissue – done just like an original Folkways album!)
The last album ever recorded by Trinidad calypso legend Lord Invader – and a set that really sums up all the genius he brought to his too-short career! At a time when the music was really entering the mainstream in commercial ways, Invader keeps things very spare, stark, and basic here ... (Global Grooves) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Beautiful reissue – with all the heft of a classic Folkways pressing!)
A really beautiful record from Ann McMillan – one of the lesser-known talents in the female legacy of electronic music – but one we'd put right up there right next to Daphne Oram for her inventive genius! The set was recorded at the legendary Princeton Center For Electronic Music ... (Out Sound) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Beautiful heavy reissue – done just like an original Folkways album!)
A really beautiful record from Ann McMillan – one of the lesser-known talents in the female legacy of electronic music – but one we'd put right up there right next to Daphne Oram for her inventive genius! The set was recorded at the legendary Princeton Center For Electronic Music ... (Out Sound) read moreCD
A massive lost funk classic – one of those rarer than rare albums that's well worth the fuss! The Montgomery Express were a Florida combo who played on the state's small club circuit – working equally well on their own, or backing up a number of better known singers. The group's got a ... (Soul) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A tremendous collaboration between these two important folk talents – with wonderful vocals from Jean Ritchie, deft guitar and more vocals by Doc Watson, and added banjo and fiddle from Roger Sprung. (Folk/Country) LP, Vinyl record album
A vivid audio document of New York City in the late 50s – put together by creative sound recorder Tony Schwartz! The set's one of a few amazing albums put together by Schwartz – who spent a lot of time on the streets with his microphones and recorder, then really got creative putting ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Tony Schwartz must have been one of the coolest cats working on the New York scene in the 50s – not a musician, or a singer – but instead a sound artist whose legacy was dedicated to documenting the city in a very poetic way! This album may well be Tony's masterpiece – a long ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Bobby Seale/Eldridge Cleaver/H Rap Brown —
Huey/Listen Whitey ... CD Folkways, 1972. New Copy Gatefold ...
$12.9916.98
Dialogue excerpts from two early 70s films documenting the shift between the Civil Rights and Black Power eras in the US! Side one is taken from the film Huey – and features Black Panthers Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver and H Rap Brown – plus what sounds like interviews with police and ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A really unusual music from the duo of Jaribu and Ngoma Hill – a pair who work together here in a mode that's partly the acoustic blues of the rural scene in the south, but fused with more urban elements too – including a bit of gospel spirit, and folk-inspired righteousness! As you ... (Blues) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A rough-edged batch of spiritual jazz tracks from trumpeter Charles "Cha Cha" Shaw (not to be confused with Charles "Bo Bo" Shaw) – recorded in an open-ended loft jazz mode with a really open, echoey feel! The album's a rare 70s jazz date on the Folkways label, and it's ... (Jazz) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Super-heavy vinyl and cover – feels like a vintage record on Folkways!)
A very unusual record – one that has the Folkways ethnographic team on the streets of New York, recording the songs and calls of "six boys in trouble" as they riff and sing on some rough and raw numbers! The record's an odd turn of the ethnographic ear to the American scene – ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
An excellent album by Mary Lou Williams – a set recorded during the 70s period when she was mixing in a bit of funk with her jazz! The sound here is wonderful – quite different than other work you might know from Williams, and much more in the sort of groove you'd expect from Junior ... (Jazz) read moreCD
A wonderful collection of early electronic music – issued by the less-high tech Folkways label, but every bit as compelling as similar collections from bigger labels at the time! Most of the work was composed in the 50s and early 60s, and is from the Electronic Music Studio at the University ... (Out Sound) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
Features tracks from Oliver Naylor's Orchestra, The Cotton Pickers, The Charleston Chasers, Gene Rodemich's Orchestra, Ray Miller And His Orchestra, Savoy Bearcats, Jesse Stone & His Blue Serenaders and much more. (Jazz) LP, Vinyl record album
(Includes booklet. In the blue tinted cover which has a ripped top left corner and some wear in the spine.)
A haunting batch of commercial music from the 70s – billed in the notes to Bosworth Ensembles, which makes us almost think that the work's from the Bosworth Sound Library – even though the record was issued in the US by Folkways! Most of the music here is relatively gentle – ... (Sound Library) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A seminal set of righteous underground poetry – a key bridge between the earlier work of Langston Hughes and some of the bigger spoken sides of the 70s by artists like Gil Scott-Heron or Wanda Robinson! As the title promises, there's a definite undercurrent of jazz in the work – but ... (Spoken Word) read moreCD
(Special limited CD – pressed up for us by the Smithsonian Folkways label. Comes with original cover artwork, and the CD also features a PDF file with the original liner notes and other materials from the original record release.)
A fascinating little record – and one of the oddest releases ever issued by Folkways Records! The set is exactly what it promises in the title – human speech, but after the voice box has been removed from an individual – so that vocalizations have to take the form of noises and ... (Spoken Word) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
The sounds of the Tuareg culture have gotten some surprisingly strong global circulation in recent years – thanks especially to a few key guitarists who've gained international attention – but this 1960 recording by Folkways Records may well be one of the first times the music of the ... (Global Grooves) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(Very nicely-done reissue – with all the heft of an orginal Folkways pressing!)