Howard Alden on seven string guitar, Marty Krystall on reeds, and Buell Neidlinger on cello. CD

A record with a cover that references the Beatles, but a sound that's very different overall – as Japanese combo Happenings Four take the tunes in lots of weird and wonderful directions! The record's maybe much more psychedelic than the original recordings by the fab four – lots of fuzz and distortion at times, and some especially cool use of piano – which gets jazzy at times, but with offbeat twists and turns that further keep things interesting – as does the use of organ on a few of the cuts! The arrangements are great – hardly respectful of The Beatles' originals at all, and really opening up the tunes – to serve up fantastic unusual versions of "Drive My Car", "Don't Let Me Down", "Lady Madonna", "Fool On The Hill", "Ticket To Ride", "She Loves You", "Penny Lane", "Yesterday", and "Revolution". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "I Believe In Nothing", "That Cold Feeling", "Every Year About This Time", "When The Summer Is Through", and "Down Down Down". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". CD

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". CD

A great little record – very different than anything else that Hank Jones ever recorded! The album features arrangements by Oliver Nelson – done in that mod 60s pop-jazz style that he was using on his best work – and about half the record features Jones playing electric harpsichord, one of those groovy instruments that we can never get enough of! Needless to say, the combination of these two factors pushes the record far away from Jones' usual straight jazz piano trio approach – as does some tight added horn work, and an overall feel that's right up there with the grooviest sounds that Impulse or Verve had to offer in the 60s. Titles include "Broadwalk Samba", "Happenings", "Funky But Blues", "Fugue Time", "Jazztime USA", "Mas Que Nada", and "Cul De Sac". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". CD

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". CD

One of the greatest Bobby Hutcherson albums for Blue Note – a classic session recorded in quartet form, with a style that seems to set a whole new standard for the vibes in modern jazz! The group here is sublime – Herbie Hancock on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums – all working with Bobby in cool, blocky chords, with a sound that lies somewhere on the road to "out", but has more of a swing than Hutcherson's "new thing" recordings! The balance is a perfect one – exciting and fresh, but still always soulfully grooving – and titles include a sublime version of Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" – plus originals by Hutcherson that include "The Omen", "Aquarian Moon", "Rojo", and "Head Start". CD

One of Bobby Hutcherson's greatest records ever – and a session that never got released at the time! The album's an excellent quartet session, one that's very much in the best spirit of Bobby's great Happenings album on Blue Note – and it features a similar group that includes Hutcherson on vibes, Herbie Hancock on piano, Albert Stinson on bass, and Joe Chambers, one of Hutcherson's best accompanists from the 60s, on drums. The format's a bit more modal than Happenings – and the set features 6 wonderful little tracks that mix together the "new thing" sound of earlier Hutcherson Blue Notes, with some of the nascent soulfulness that started creeping into his work at the end of the 60s. The album was recorded in 1967, but only first issued in Japan in at the end of the 70s – and then later in the US, and even then only briefly – but we'd still rank the set as one of Bobby's best for Blue Note! Titles include "Til Then", "Mr Joy", "Subtle Neptune", and "Theme From Blow Up". CD

A wonderful set from Carroll Thompson, one that easily slides back and forth between easy rocking lover's numbers on the reggae front, and polished 80s commercial soul. The set was originally issued on the SG imprint, and fell unfairly into obscurity almost immediately, perhaps because Carroll didn't neatly fit into either the then-burgeoning UK soul scene or London's reggae happenings, which leaned more towards the rootsier side of the spectrum. But whatever vein she was mining, her sophisticated approach shines brightly in both her own production and arrangements, and her sweetly grooving vocals. A young Cleveland Watkiss makes a supporting appearance, as does heavyweight Kingston key-man Jackie Mittoo, but it's Thompson that's the real star here! There's 9 numbers on the original album, including "Word Of Love", "A Happy Song", "Change", "Stay With Me Tonight", "Music (It Will Never Die)", "Just A Little Bit", "Hoping On Love", "Dreams Of You" and "Your Love". 8 bonus tracks, too – including single mixes of Make It With You", "Honis I Do", "People Of The World", "Earth Man" and more. CD

If you ever needed a record to convince you that The Yardbirds are pure genius, this one is it! Roger The Engineer captures all that was great about the group at their start – their sharp guitars, their undeniable wit, and that really special way they had of turning their bluesy inspirations into something completely new and different for the mod 60s scene! Jeff Beck is amazing on guitar – and the set's one of those that will have you go "oh yeah, that's why he was so important" – setting fire to the rest of the group, who themselves explode in ways that are mindblowing – and the whole thing's a blueprint for countless records to come from other artists who never got things this right. Titles include "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", "Over Under Sideways Down", "Lost Women", "The Nazz Are Blue", "Jeff's Boogie", "What Do You Want", "He's Always There", "Turn Into Earth", and "Pyscho Daisies". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Smokestack Lightning", "Heart Full Of Soul", "New York City Blues", "Shapes Of Things", "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", and "Over Under Sideways Down". LP, Vinyl record album

If you ever needed a record to convince you that The Yardbirds are pure genius, this one is it! Roger The Engineer captures all that was great about the group at their start – their sharp guitars, their undeniable wit, and that really special way they had of turning their bluesy inspirations into something completely new and different for the mod 60s scene! Jeff Beck is amazing on guitar – and the set's one of those that will have you go "oh yeah, that's why he was so important" – setting fire to the rest of the group, who themselves explode in ways that are mindblowing – and the whole thing's a blueprint for countless records to come from other artists who never got things this right. Titles include "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", "Over Under Sideways Down", "Lost Women", "The Nazz Are Blue", "Jeff's Boogie", "What Do You Want", "He's Always There", "Turn Into Earth", and "Pyscho Daisies". CD

A group here that features some key members from the American avant scene, but whose standout member might well be pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland – who contributed two originals to the set, and whose work on the keys seems to really direct the energy of this session that features fresh interpretations of tunes by Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk! The setting is quite a different one for saxophonist Keefe Jackson, but he's superb throughout – blowing tenor and sopranino sax at a level that has all the angular tones and inventive spirit that players like Steve Lacy or Charlie Rouse brought to their work in the Monk generation – but with all the freer qualities that live up to Keefe's legacy too! The rest of the group is great too – Joshua Abrams reminding us what a swinging bassist he can be, and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums – really punctuating the tunes nicely, on selections that include "Bemsha Swing", "The Happenings", "Epistrophy", and "Gotta Get Some Sleep – plus Hoogland originals "Wimpel" and "Aanhanguis". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic compilation of groovy tracks from the 60's, and one that we've had for years, and never tire of playing! The whole thing was put together by the genius Karminsky Brothers, and the tracks are a swirling mix of Latiny, Bossa-y, Groovy, and Now Sound material – including stuff by Serge Gainsbourg, The Gimmicks, Berry Lipman, Wilson Simonal, Ray Rivera, Roberto Delgado, and others! Two of the biggest highlights include Burt Bacharach's rare beautiful track "Something Big", which is worth the price of the CD alone – and Astrud Gilberto's great version of "Happenings". Very long, with 23 killer tracks, and a gorgeous package, too! Expensive, but one of the best things you'll buy this year! CD

A really unusual collection, and one that really captures a key musical moment in the London scene – a time when all sorts of underground activity was happening on the rave scene, but people didn't have the world of cell phones and internet to connect! So instead, folks got news out about these less-than-legal happenings by tapping into the mainstream – often with posters and flyers, but also through radio advertisements that would pop up often on pirate radio – often buried in some sort of mix of house cuts or jungle tracks! You'll hear plenty of those on here, but served up with these spoken ads that sneak in and tell about all sorts of events – almost three dozen of them, all with a blaring sense of fidelity that really takes us back to a time when radio was the most important way we found out about new and underground sounds. There's plenty to love here if you're a fan of the darker sounds of the London sound in the mid 90s – especially the world of jungle and early drum n bass! CD