A really heady record from British drummer Brian Bennett – an artist known for both jazz and funky sound library work – here stretching out in a mode that really fits the image on the cover! The tunes are longer than some of Bennett's earlier sound library material – almost a mix of progressive energy with jazzier funk – a lot cooler than the disco reference in the title might imply! The set's got tremendous keyboards from Francis Monkman – who handles all the spacier elements, while the drums of Bennett works the rhythms with bass from Alan Jones – on long tracks with plenty of complexity, but also plenty of groove! Titles include "Voyage", "Solstice", "Chain Reaction", "Pendulum Force", "Air Quake", and "Ocean Glide". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic slice of work from WEB Dubois – materials showcased at the Paris Exposition of 1900, in a special exhibit in which Dubois tried to convey the reality of black life in America to a larger international audience! The materials include a number of handmade charts, graphs, and maps – all created by DuBois as an early sort of data analysis, with a very visual punch – images that instantly conveyed the black experience in America in the years after the Civil War – combined with a range of photographs that provided visual illustration of the contents. Much of DuBois' efforts were to showcase advancement and achievements – and the large 11" x 17" presentation of the softcover book allows the reproductions of these materials to really get the kind of prominence they had at the exposition. The book is the first-ever reproduction of all these items, along with the photographs – and features a new essay by historians Stephen G Hall and Jacqueline Francis. Book

An album dedicated to Sidney Bechet, but one that features some mighty strong tenor and soprano sax from the great Budd Johnson – a player who enjoyed the same sort of overseas attention as Bechet, but blew a much bolder horn! The album's an easygoing gem – of the sort that Johnson hardly ever got to cut in the US back in the day – and while Budd's tenor is always a big draw for us, his work on soprano sax is equally amazing here – blown with almost as much depth as his bigger horn, but with longer lines, and a nicely snakey feel that's really compelling – almost a 70s transformation of the older legacy from Bechet. The group features Earl Hines on piano, Jimmy Leary on bass, and Panama Francis on drums – and titles include "Am I Wasting My Time", "Dirty Old Man", "Linger Awhile", "Blues For Sale", and "Gone With The Wind". CD

A double-length set from the 360 Degree Music Experience – and one of their greatest recordings as well! The group's co-led by drummer Beaver Harris and keyboardist Dave Burrell – who here plays organ and celeste, in addition to his usual piano. And other players are a range of 70s spiritual jazz greats – including Azar Lawrence on tenor, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone and flute, and Cecil McBee on bass – all working in tight formation with arrangements from Harris, Burrell, Bluiett, and flute player Francis Haynes. The set's got a bit more structure than some of Beaver's other records, but in a really good way – almost a tighter restructuring of the loft jazz energy of the New York scene – taken to the more ambitious heights you might expect on Strata East. Titles include the side-long "Open", a great dedication to Jimmy Garrison – plus the 3-part "In: Sanity Suite", "Trade Winds", "Full Deep & Mellow", and "Sahara", which features some very odd use of steel drums. CD

A 70s 2-fer that collects 2 live sides originally issued by Argo, then subsequently by Chess under the Cadet label. Classic Chicago piano jazz – featuring the very popular pianist Ahmad Jamal, recorded at the legendary Pershing Lounge, down at 63rd and Cottage Grove and at the equally legendary Blackhawk Lounge in San Francisco. For many years we didn't get these earlier sides by Jamal, prefering the later electric stuff, but you can see the blueprint of both those later sounds and the piano style that had such a huge impact on Miles here, in sets that cover lots jazz standards, including 'But Not For Me", "Moonlight In Vermont", "poinciana", "Woody'N You", "All The Things You Are", "Cherokee", "It Might As Well Be Spring" and quite a few more. LP, Vinyl record album

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this second volume include "Step Lightly", "Vamp's Blues", and "What's New". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this third volume include "I Am In Love", "Whisper Not", and "Black Hawk Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

Jamal's recorded here live at the Blackhawk in San Francisco – a club that always gave a warm welcome to pianists of any nature. The trio features Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums – and tracks include Jamal's own "Night Mist Blues", plus "The Best Thing For You", "April In Paris", "The Second Time Around", and "Like Someone In Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this first volume include "Summertime", "Our Delight", "Poinciana", "Blue Daniel", and "Theme From A Gem From Tiffany". CD

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this first volume include "Summertime", "Our Delight", "Poinciana", "Blue Daniel", and "Theme From A Gem From Tiffany". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this third volume include "I Am In Love", "Whisper Not", and "Black Hawk Blues". CD

Classic hardbop from the west coast – a set of live recordings done at the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco at the end of the 50s, featuring Shelly Manne at the head of a group that includes the great Joe Gordon on trumpet! Tracks are longer, livelier, and have a lot more solo room and spontaneity than Manne's usual albums from the time – and the rest of the group include Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. Tracks on this fifth volume include "Pullin Strings", "Eclipse Of Spain", "Wonder Why", "This Is Always", and "How Deep Are The Roots". CD

A great assortment of rare live material from Gerry Mulligan's groundbreaking piano-less years – tracks recorded between 1952 and 1954, in groups with either Chet Baker or Jon Eardley on trumpet! Tracks include 5 from a 1952 date at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, 15 more from The Haig in LA in 1953 (including a few with Lee Konitz on alto) – plus even more obscure dates at Stockton High School in 1954 and Hoover High School in San Diego from the same year! Chico Hamilton plays drums on all the high school dates, and the sound is surprisingly good – with the right sort of crispness to make Gerry's unique approach come through perfectly! 2CD set features a whopping 35 tracks that include "Line For Lyons", "Carioca", "Utter Chaos", "Bark For Barksdale", "Lover Man", "Bernie's Tune", "Funhouse", "Ida's Side", "Five Brothers", "Get Happy", "Poinciana", "Blues For Tiny", "Limelite", "Nights At The Turntable", "Ontet", "Soft Shoe", and "Piano Blues". CD

It's no secret that the Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond combo of the 50s was a huge hit with the college crowd – but it may be less remembered that the group cut some of their best live material in the university setting! This excellent 2CD set brings together the full 1953 recordings from the Desmond/Brubeck concerts at Oberlin and College Of The Pacific – as well as some additional bonus tracks from a date the same year at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco. The set features 22 tracks in all – all graced with some amazing alto work by Desmond – on tunes that include "Stardust", "Trolley Song", "Give A Little Whistle", "For All We Know", "These Foolish Things", "I Remember You", and "Lullaby In Rhythm". CD

The drums do plenty of talking here – in a wonderful set that looks at the return of deeper rhythms and percussion to the global house music underground! Just at a point when some pretenders were trying to claim too-strong influences from Cuba, Africa, and other deeper cultures – artists like these came into the fray and reminded us that if you're going to make a musical statement, you better have the sound to back it up – which they did wonderfully, with the kind of creative reworkings of percussive modes that you'll hear on this set! Gabriele Poso did a really wonderful job of choosing the tracks here – a no-nonsense batch of work that will make you throw away every "fake" Afro-remix you've got in your collection. Titles include "Naja" by Guem, "Cafe De Ochun" by Gabriele Poso, "Injection Of Blackness" by Malika B & Dave Hucker, "Polyrhythm Jizm (Lay-Far edit)" by Free Association, "Long Distance Lover" by Babatunde Olatunji, "Tembandumba" by Toto La Momposina, "Drum It Up" by Dudu Tucci, "Coming Home" by Mustapha Tetty Addy, "Ven Francisco" by Silvestre Mendez, "Guiro Elegua" by Bobby Matos, and "Ninu Opon Ori Tiwa (Kiko Navarro re-edit)" by Sola Akingbola. LP, Vinyl record album

A classic solo piano album from Thelonious Monk – recorded live in San Francisco, and maybe one of his best albums ever in the format! There's a special sort of quality that makes Monk's solo work so different from his trio, quartet, and larger group music – this real understanding of the piano, and a personal sense of sonic shading, even when covering some of his familiar compositions – maybe a bit like the way that Sun Ra's solo piano is also so distinct. Most of the tunes here are Monk originals or standards that Thelonious has played before at least a few times on record – but the solo setting almost has him pulling the tunes apart slowly – contemplating their components, then stepping through them with new inspiration as he puts them back together. Titles include "Blue Monk", "Pannonica", "Remember", "Reflections", "Bluehawk", "Everything Happens To Me", and "Round Lights". LP, Vinyl record album

Early work from Les – recording at the Jazz Workshop in SF, with his famous trio that included Herbie Lewis on bass and Ron Jefferson on drums. The album's pretty standard fare – short soul jazz piano numbers, with more than a bit of church in the grooves. Titles include "Come On & Get That Church", "We'll See Yaw'll After While, Ya Heah", "I Am In Love", "Big Jim", and "Oh Them Golden Gates". LP, Vinyl record album

Really great early work from Dave Brubeck – recorded with his early trio that included Cal Tjader on both drums and vibes – instruments he'd sometimes play on the same track! Cal's so young here, the notes are billing him as "Callen Tjader" on the label – and the rest of the trio is completed by Ron Crotty, an excellent bassist who did plenty of great work on the San Francisco scene in the 50s. Titles include "Tea For Two", "Blue Moon", "That Old Black Magic", and "September Song". LP, Vinyl record album

Pryor really busted into the mainstream with this one – as the album secured him a grammy for best comedy LP in the year it was released. Recorded live in San Francisco, at Don Cornelius' Soul Train – with tracks that include "Wino & Junkie", "Flying Saucers", "Black Man/White Woman", "I Hope I'm Funny", "Exorcist", and "Wino Dealing With Dracula". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the biggest moments in the career of guitarist Harvey Mandel – an album based around his famous cover of "Cristo Redentor", a tune written by Duke Pearson for one of Donald Byrd's "with voices" albums, which was then turned into a spacey guitar classic by Mandel's trippy work. The tune's here in full force – backed up by an album of like minded tunes – 60s trippy guitar mixed with jazz influences, in a messed up Bay Area style that was every bit the product of its time as more famous rock albums coming out of the San Francisco scene. Titles include "Cristo Redentor", "Before Six", "The Lark", "Snake", "Long Wait", "Bradley's Barn", and "You Can't Tell Me". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic run of records from Waylon Jennings – brought together in a single package! First up is Lonesome Onry & Mean – a pivotal album for Waylon Jennings – the record where he really found the new direction that would finally get him the fame he deserved – delivered in a way that's free from all the later cliches, and which also ties Waylon pretty strongly to the hipper currents of the underground – especially that point where singer/songwriter genius intersected with country! The production is his own, and vastly different than the late 60s records – even though we love those to death too – and that magical Jennings vocal approach does fantastic things to tunes by Steve Young, Mickey Newbury, Kris Kristofferson, and others! Titles include the fantastic "Lonesome Onry & Mean", plus "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues", "Freedom To Stay", "Lay It Down", "You Can Have Her", "Pretend I Never Happened", "San Francisco Mabel Joy", "Sandy Sends Her Best", and a great take on "Me &Bobby McGee". Honky Tonk Heroes is genius material from Waylon Jennings – one of those career-defining records from the early 70s that completely put him on top, and heralded a whole new generation in country music! The set's maybe equally noteworthy as a showcase for the up-and-coming Billy Joe Shaver, who wrote much of the songs on the record – and it's also a great showcase for the important production talents of Tompall Glaser, who really gets the spirit of the music right! Titles include great versions of "Honky Tonk Heroes", "Old Five & Dimers Like Me", "Ride Me Down Easy", "Black Rose", "Willy The Wandering Gypsy & Me", "Omaha", and "Ain't No God In Mexico". This Time is one of those Waylon Jennings records from a time when he could do no wrong – fighting the stronger powers at RCA to really find his voice – recording at the studio of Tompall Glaser, with great production help from Willie Nelson – who was enjoying his own transformation at the time too! As with the previous two gems from this period, the choice of material and presentation is great – songs by Willie, JJ Cale, and Billy Joe Shavers – in a set of titles that include "Heaven Or Hell", "It's Not Supposed To Be That Way", "This Time", "Pick Up The Tempo", "If You Could Touch Her At All", "Walkin", "Slow Rollin Low", "Louisiana Woman", and "Slow Movin Outlaw". Ramblin Man is Waylon Jennings at peak mid 70s perfection! Ramblin' Man fits in stylistically with the gruff honky tonk hero mode he first fully realized a couple albums earlier, but he's still fiercely blazing trails here, pairing his gruff lead vocals with sweeter female harmonies on some tracks, changing the groove from laidback swagger to fast-paced honky tonk, working in some tender ballads with the gruffer numbers...Waylon at his best. Starts up with the eternal title track and equally classic "Rainy Day Woman" and hardly lets up in greatness from there, with "Cloudy Days", "The Hunger", "It'll Be Her", a great cover of the Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider", "Memories Of You And Me", "Amanda" and more. Features bonus tracks too – "Laid Back Country Picker", "The Last One To Leave Seattle", "Big Big Love", "Got A Lot Going For Me", "The Last Letter", and "The One I Sing My Love Songs To". CD

A great little set from Sylvester – 3 sides recorded live in San Francisco, one more recorded in the studio! All the sides have a complicated approach to the groove – larger orchestrations that really show Syl pushing his conception of soul to the max, sounding really wonderful, and almost a bit jazzy on the best tracks – much more than the colder dancefloor act of later years, and with a depth of soul that should have made him rank right up there with some of the more righteous soul geniuses of the 70s. Tracks include "Body Strong", "Blackbird", "Happiness", "Lover Man", "You Are My Friend", "Can't Stop Dancing", "In My Fantasy", and "Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves". CD

The first-ever full release of material from the Velvet Underground's amazing run at The Matrix in San Francisco – part of which were issued previously on the Robert Quine collection, all finally out together in one overstuffed set! If you only know the Velvets in the studio, the group in a live setting is something else entirely – often a lot noisier and more unbridled, with especially strong interplay on the guitars – cascading sheets and layers of sound that show just how strongly these guys were influencing generations to come – years ahead of their time, with styles that few others would touch until the Sonic Youth generation! Quine's tapes are great, and full of fire – and there's lots of improvisation going on that makes versions of the same song sound quite different. Plus, some of the tracks here are ones that later appeared on Loaded – worked out in live versions long before the group took them in the studio – all in a whopping 42 tracks on 4CDs, with titles that include "Heroin", "Sweet Jane", "Rock & Roll", "I Can't Stand It", "White Light/White Heat", "Ocean", "We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together", "Lisa Says", "I'm Beginning To See The Light", "Over You", "Some Kinda Love", "Sweet Bonnie Brown/Too Much", "After Hours", "Pale Blue Eyes", "Venus In Furs", "Black Angel's Death Song", "There Shoe Goes Again", "New Age", and a 36 minute version of "Sister Ray"! LP, Vinyl record album

A famous pairing of talents from the early 60s – Columbia Records giants Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett, both recorded at a time when that label was at the forefront of jazz in the US – joined up for a special performance at the end of the set! The special performance was done at the Kennedy-era White House – and features an initial instrumental set from the Dave Brubeck Quartet – with completely amazing alto from Paul Desmond, especially on the album's long reading of "Nomad" – one of our favorite overlooked tunes by the the group at the time – plus versions of "Take Five", "Castillian Blues", and "Thank You". Tony Bennett then takes the stage with backings by the Ralph Sharon trio – on titles that include "Make Someone Happy", "One For My Baby", "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", and "Just In Time". But the real highlight of the set is when Bennett sings with backings from the Dave Brubeck Trio – in a mode that's both different from Tony's work with Bill Evans or Basie, and from Brubeck's work with singers like Jimmy Rushing or Carmen McRae! Titles from the Brubeck/Bennett lineup include "That Old Black Magic", "There Will Never Be Another You", "Lullaby Of Broadway", and "Chicago". CD