The Soul Party here is a soul jazz one – pulled from Blue Note albums of the late 60s and early 70s, most of them surprisingly funky! The set's got some very tight little numbers that are heavy on the Hammond and electric guitar – that great sound that started to show up on the Blue Note label as the 60s drew to a close. Titles include "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Grant Green, "Soul Limbo" by Candido, "Hold On I'm Coming" by Reuben Wilson, "Shake" by Stanley Turrentine, "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky" by Lou Donaldson, "Think" by Lonnie Smith, and "Ain't That Peculiar" by John Patton. CD

Fantastic Fender Rhodes from Yusuke Hirado – plus a fair bit of other keyboards too – all delivered in a set that mixes 70s space jazz funk with some great contemporary elements, and in a way that's nicely different than Hirado's work in the group Quasimode! The set's got some old school rhythms, but plenty more moments that soar and take off with very contemporary cosmic energy – very strongly in a jazz perspective overall, but with a strong knowledge of all the other musical changes that have taken place on the hipper scenes around the globe over the past 20 years – woven into classic keyboard sounds that take on a whole new shape in the setting! Titles include "The Kicker", "Early Bird", "Sonar", "Blue Sky", "Circle", "Galaxy Highway", and "Heady Dayz". CD

Really dynamic work from a group who mix up equal parts jazz and prog, but with a very 21st Century vibe – almost as if they'd been digging the post-Robert Wyatt Soft Machine records of the 70s, then decided to craft something different of their own! The drums alone are fantastic – crackling with bold energy that's both skittish and focused at the same time – which really sets fire to the saxophone lines, explodes the keyboards, and continues to shake up all the other sounds in the mix too! Titles include "The Tower Of Blue Horses", "Fictions", "For Henry Moore", "Keep The Apidistra Flying", and "An Astrologer's Day". LP, Vinyl record album

The title says it all – because the CD's overflowing with classic organ jazz numbers – tunes that are heavy on the Hammond, all from some of the heaviest hitters in the Blue Note catalog of the 60s! The set's a bit short, but it's got grooves a-plenty – the kind of sharp-edged organ numbers that Blue Note did better than anyone else, often with a bit more sophistication than Hammond hits on other labels. Titles include "Hot Rod" by Reuben Wilson, "Brown Sugar" by Freddie Roach, "Face to Face" by Baby Face Willette, "All About My Girl" by Jimmy McGriff, "The Silver Meter" by John Patton, and "Ya'll Remember Boogie" by Jack McDuff. CD

A weird batch of folksy rock tunes – composed and produced by Harley Hatcher for Sidewalk Enterprises, and sounding a lot more like a Sidewalk or Tower soundtrack than something on RCA. The groups are the usual obscurities that would show up on a Mike Curb soundtrack – pictured on the back cover, but still leaving us to wonder if they really existed at all. Tracks include "Holiday Rider" by The Saturday Revue, "Jailer Let Me Go Home" and "A Hurt In My Heart" by Don Epperson, "Playin Hard To Get" by Billie & Blue, and "Wine Women & Song" by Terry Stafford. LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the songs "I Wish You Love", "The Folks That Live on the Hill", "He Needs Me", "I Should Care", "June Night", "Impossible", "Try a Little Tenderness", "I'm Glad There Is You", "Love I've Found You", "Tower of Strength", "Serenade In Blue", "Don't Worry About Me", "Perdido", and "Stella by Starlight". CD

A pretty much flawless collection of tunes from Townes Van Zandt's most loved album from the late 60s to late 70s – a different tracklist from earlier Best Ofs, and a set that really does serve up a treasure trove of achingly beautiful songs! Includes some of the best material from Our Mother The Mountain, his self-titled LP, High, Low And In Between, Delta Mama Blues, Flyin' Shoes, Delta Momma Blues, the earlier records in that run long beloved, the later just as great if not oft-mentioned or the songs as oft-covered, with 16 great songs on 2LPs: "For The Sake Of The Song", "Pancho & Lefty", "To Live Is To Fly", "I'll Be Here In The Morning", "St John The Gambler", "Black Widow Blues", "Tower Song", "Tecumseh Valley", "Lungs", "Rex's Blues" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The long-overdue return of a southern soul legend – as the great Willie Hightower returns to the Muscle Shoals scene that gave him some of his best music of the 60s! Hearing the sound of the record, it's as if nothing's changed at all – and we mean that in the best way possible – as Willie's vocals are still wonderful, and the backing has that right mode of easygoing soul to really let the singer flow – which he does wonderfully under the production guidance of equal southern soul legend Quinton Claunch, with backing from all star players who include Travis Wammack on guitar and Clayton Ivey on Hammond. The whole thing's better than you might even expect – like lost tapes from the mid 70s, with a warm glow that shows Willie in perfect for all the way through! Titles include "Everybody Wants My Girl", "No Gettin Over Me", "You Can't Love", "I Found You", "Raining All The Time", "Somewhere Dry", "Tired Of Losing You", and "Easy Loving". CD

The long-overdue return of a southern soul legend – as the great Willie Hightower returns to the Muscle Shoals scene that gave him some of his best music of the 60s! Hearing the sound of the record, it's as if nothing's changed at all – and we mean that in the best way possible – as Willie's vocals are still wonderful, and the backing has that right mode of easygoing soul to really let the singer flow – which he does wonderfully under the production guidance of equal southern soul legend Quinton Claunch, with backing from all star players who include Travis Wammack on guitar and Clayton Ivey on Hammond. The whole thing's better than you might even expect – like lost tapes from the mid 70s, with a warm glow that shows Willie in perfect for all the way through! Titles include "Everybody Wants My Girl", "No Gettin Over Me", "You Can't Love", "I Found You", "Raining All The Time", "Somewhere Dry", "Tired Of Losing You", and "Easy Loving". LP, Vinyl record album

Prime Grateful Dead from the mid 70s – a time when the group were traveling famously around the globe, spinning out long songs with plenty of solos – but also able to keep on coming up with nicely sharp songs on records like this! By this point in their career, they're so instrumentally strong, they hardly need to show off – that is, they certainly do, but in a much more subtle way than before, and maybe than in a live setting – packing decades of roots and years of deftness into songs that include "Franklin's Tower", "Crazy Fingers", "Sage & Spirit", "Blues For Allah", "Sand Castles & Glass Camels", and "The Music Never Stopped". LP, Vinyl record album

Meshell Ndegeocello just seems to grow more and more with each new record – quite a feat, given how unique she was at the start! Yet this record clearly marks a new chapter in her wonderful legacy – effortlessly weaving together soul, funk, and plenty of jazzy inspiration – all with an approach that's complex, but with a very down to earth appeal – and served up with all sorts of great guests on the sessions – including Brandee Younger on harp, Joel Ross on vibes, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, and Jeff Parker on guitar! Yet it's Meshell who's clearly the leader, the visionary, and the artist who's never content to stay in one lane – as you'll hear on cuts that include "Clear Water", "ASR", "Good Good", "Omnipuss", "An Invitation", "Call The Tune", "Georgia Ave", "Virgo", "Perceptions", "Towers", and "Tha King". LP, Vinyl record album

2 lost jazz rock classics from Cressida – back to back in a single package! While decidedly more rock-oriented than some of their progressive contemporaries in the UK jazz rock scene, Cressida still had a great approach to rock that used a lot of jazz-based chords and rhythms, in the manner that was being explored by other bands at the time – like Colosseum or Nucleus. On the self-titled Cressida album, the general instrumental mix features hard drums, organ, and guitars – plus vocals that are very much in a Moody Blues tradition, but which seem to have more of an early King Crimson approach to lyrics, touched by some of the Nick Drake chord progressions on guitar. A hard one to pin down, but surprisingly enjoyable today – and the kind of record that lives way way past its noodly progressive roots! Titles include "Lights IN My Mind", "The Only Earthman In Town", "To Play Your Little Game", "Time For Bed", and "Down Down". Asylum has an even fuller, more ambitious feel than the first album – and the lineup is expanded slightly to make some great room for the legendary Harold McNair on flute! Tracks are bold and focused – with great lead vocals from Angus Cullen, who sometimes sings in a jazzy mode – but other times comes off with a raspy, heartfelt quality – and there's almost a Moody Blues-esque sense of mysticism going on with some of the best tracks. Titles include "Munich", "Asylum", "Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye", "Let Them Come When They Will", "Summer Weekend Of A Lifetime", and "Survivor". CD

Meshell Ndegeocello just seems to grow more and more with each new record – quite a feat, given how unique she was at the start! Yet this record clearly marks a new chapter in her wonderful legacy – effortlessly weaving together soul, funk, and plenty of jazzy inspiration – all with an approach that's complex, but with a very down to earth appeal – and served up with all sorts of great guests on the sessions – including Brandee Younger on harp, Joel Ross on vibes, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, and Jeff Parker on guitar! Yet it's Meshell who's clearly the leader, the visionary, and the artist who's never content to stay in one lane – as you'll hear on cuts that include "Clear Water", "ASR", "Good Good", "Omnipuss", "An Invitation", "Call The Tune", "Georgia Ave", "Virgo", "Perceptions", "Towers", and "Tha King". CD

A groundbreaking album of solo piano work by Sun Ra! The album's one of Ra's classic sides for the Saturn Records label – and at the time of its release, it was one of the most "out there" albums of solo piano ever recorded! Ra spins out these incredibly complex lines on haunting original compositions like "Blue Differentials", "The Galaxy Way", "Space Towers", and "Cogitation" – and he shows once again why he was head and shoulders above most jazz players in his class! CD

Pink Floyd rose out of the same London scene that gave the world a huge amount of psychedelic records in the late 60s – but with a set like this, they're clearly head and shoulders above most of their contemporaries – already working with a boundless sense of imagination and impeccable instrumentation, on a record that's full of delight and surprise at every single twist and turn! The group still sport Syd Barrett vocals and lyrics here, but are also really opening up their guitar spaceship too – soaring to the heavens on the tremendous "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" – and sending the whole thing home with the cuts "Let There Be More Light", "Corporal Clegg", "Jugband Blues", "See Saw", and "A Saucerful Of Secrets". LP, Vinyl record album

A famous 70s session from the great Muddy Waters – one that has him heading over to London, and rubbing shoulders in the studio with some key musicians whose work he'd helped inspire! Chess Records first tried this mode out with Howlin Wolf in 1970 – but the Waters session is maybe even more cohesive and uplifting – thanks in part to Muddy's ability to really reach out and welcome in fans and supporters from the outside! There's still some Chicago help at the core, thanks to a young Carey Bell on harmonica – working here alongside UK rock superstars who include Rory Gallagher on guitar, Rick Grech on bass, and Steve Winwood on piano and organ – plus some work on organ from Georgie Fame (billed as Georgie Fortune), and guest vocals from the great Rosetta Hightower. Back in Chicago, Johnny Pate added a few touches with his arrangements – and titles include "Key To The Highway", "Walkin Blues", "I Don't Know Why", "Sad Sad Day", "Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I'm Gone", "Blind Man Blues", and "Young Fashioned Ways". LP, Vinyl record album

A massive amount of music that definitely lives up to its title – not the debut album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but instead 4CDs' worth of rare music, both live and studio – more than enough to deeply enrich your experience of the music of Jimi Hendrix! The package is a real delight to those who've been trying to track down bits like these on bootlegs over the years – a fully-licensed package put together with the Experience Hendrix folks, filled with unreleased alternates, live recordings, unusual mixes, and more! The set features a whopping 56 rare tracks, four whole new songs mixed with live tracks and alternates – and an 80 page booklet of rare photos and notes on the tracks. Titles include live versions of "Little Wing", "Red House", "Purple Haze", "All Along The Watchtower", "In From The Storm", "Fire", and "The Wind Cries Mary" – plus unreleased recordings of "Little Wing", "Slow Blues", "If 6 Was 9", "Title #3", "Hey Joe", "Highway Chile", and "Room Full Of Mirrors" – and alternate versions of "Sweet Angel", "Gloria", "Message To Love", and lots more! CD

The towering Marshall amps on the cover will give you a good idea of what's going on here – as this heavy 70s combo really turn things up to 11 with their searing power trio style! The group recall earlier efforts from that moment when three-member rock groups really set fire to the new generation of hard rock – drawing plenty of inspiration from lean blues of vintage years, but amping things up with all the fuzz of the psychedelic years, while also proving that guitar, bass, and drums were more than enough to resonate with a hell of a lot of power! Yet the album's also got a different vibe than work from bigger early 70s acts – cut almost in obscurity, with no attempts at commerciality, which really keeps things hard and heavy – on tracks that include "My Mind", "Remember", "Down The Road I Go", "No Rest For The Wicked", "The Light", and "It's All Above Us". LP, Vinyl record album

Classic kitschy biker material from Davie Allan and The Arrows – one of the best-ever groups to play on schlocky soundtracks during the 60s! There's lots of guitar and lots of fuzz – and guessing from the photos of the movie, the music was the best thing about it! Toddler Mike Curb put the whole thing together – but the vibe is much more like some of Allan's excellent guitar instrumental albums of the time – apart from the few more standard rock band tracks you'd find in Curb's other productions from the period. Most of the album's instrumental Arrows work – and tracks include "The Chase", "Bongo Party", "Blues Theme", "Theme From Wild Angels", and "The Unknown Rider" – plus the vocal cuts "Theme From The Wild Angels" by The Visitors and "Midnight Rider" by The Hands Of Time. LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from Eternity's Children – a really unique soft psych group, one with roots in the south, but a sound that was later polished by LA sunshine! The tracks on the set have a wonderfully dreamy quality to them – a style that takes bits of fuzzy guitar, Hammond organ, and some slight folk and harmony touches – and fuses them together with a tight sense of conception that holds the sound together even through a few personnel shifts over the years. Some of the cuts here were issued as singles – and appeared on the group's Rev-Ola singles set – but a few others appear to be previously unissued as well, and all titles are pretty darn groovy! CD features 17 tracks in all – including "Woman's Blues", "Time & Place", "Cigarette", "Taste Of Honey", "Rumours", "Girl's Song", "Living Is Easy", "Somebody's Watching You", "Didn't We", "Just One Smile", "Laughing Girl", "Hard Hard Year", and "Down The Aisle". CD

A great mix of material here – earlier classics and some tracks recorded in 1971! Titles include the nwer cuts "I Shal Be Released", "You Ain't Goin Nowhere", and "Down In The Flood" – plus "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall", "She Belongs To Me", "All Along The Watchtower", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", "Don't Think Twice", "Lay Lady Lay", "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", "If Not For You", "It's All Over Now Baby Blue", and "Maggie's Farm". Cassette

A well-done collection of work from one of the real giants of the early days of Sun Records – and we mean that in more ways than one, as Carl Perkins was a towering figure of a man! Perkins may not have hit the fame as Elvis Presley or Johnny Cash, but his work here is every bit as wonderful, and a key part of the Sun Records sound – raw material that's way more than the standard rockabilly you'd hear on other labels – as there's this special kind of mojo that really knocks these tracks out of the park! Titles include classics like "Matchbox", "Honey Don't", and "Blue Suede Shoes" – plus all sorts of other gems that include "Put Your Cat Clothes On", "Sweethearts Or Strangers", "Look At That Moon", "Movie Magg", "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby", "YOU", "All Mama's Children", and "You Can Do No Wrong". LP, Vinyl record album

The last album ever recorded by Townes Van Zandt – and a set that shows just how strong his talent was, right up until the end! The album came out two years after Townes passed away in 1997, and features core recordings of the legend on vocals and guitar, augmented by studio backings added to flesh out the sound of the material – yet done in a way that's very respectful to the spirit of the original tunes! The vocals are wonderful – maybe even more powerful at this point in Van Zandt's career than on some of the earlier recordings – and titles include a version of the great "Pancho & Lefty", which seems to have learned from the Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson version of Townes' classic – plus "Tower Song", "For The Sake Of The Song", "Waitin Round To Die", "Sanitarium Blues", "Greensboro Woman", "Dollar Bill Blues", and "To Live's To Fly". LP, Vinyl record album