Pretty darn cool stuff – and some of the rarest funky numbers you'll ever find! This great little set was put together by funky collector Josh Davis – and it's a totally fresh batch of tracks that digs through rare recordings that were cut by obscure groups working in colleges or high schools around the US during the 1970s! The focus is on funky material, and although the sources may be a bit suspect, the grooves are all pretty darn nice. The album features great versions of "Red Clay", "Soul Pride", "Loose Booty", "Chameleon", "Scorpio", and "The World Is A Ghetto" – as well as some very tasty originals of its own! The originals of this sort of record are always darn hard to find – and usually, they only ever have one good track – so with a compilation like this, how can you miss? CD

A heavy dose of rare TV performances – pulled from a Cali program that focused strongly on hillbilly sounds of the 50s, but also took time to feature some up-and-coming rockabilly acts too! The quality's about what you'd expect from 1950s TV, but the performances are great – and there's not much footage out there from some of these giant acts at the time! The DVD features 42 performances in all – great work from The Collins Kids, who were on the show all the time – plus more from Skeets McDonald, Jim Reeves, Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Wanda Jackson, Johnny Bond, Mac Wiseman, Tex Carman, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Patsy Cline, and others! DVD

A fantastic record from this Mexican/American combo from Salinas – a group who were championed by Doug Sahm, who also produced the set – and have a sound that's a nice bridge between Cali and Texas! The whole thing's great – a very unique album. LP, Vinyl record album

A really moody little record from Ennio Morricone – spare, subtle, and extremely beautiful – touched with notes of sadness and remorse, but also handled with a strong spirit of redemption! The sound here isn't as cold or atonal as that on some of Morricone's horror work – but it's also not sweet and dreamy either. Instead, there's kind of an economic use of piano, light strings, and odd sonic textures – woven into a tapestry of shorter tunes that convey a real sense of loss, but also a quietly growing beauty. There's a few wordless vocals on the set, but things are mostly instrumental overall – and titles include "La Califfa", "La Pace Interiore", "Fari Nella Notte", "La Cena", "Notturno", "Sotto La Pioggia", and "Sangue Sull'Asfalto". LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty amazing survey of the Cali art scene of the late 70s – served up here in a book that's half essay, half images – with work from dozens of important artists who include Edward Ruscha, Jim Melchert, Charles Gaines, Joe Goode, Patrick Hogan, The Kipper Kids, Hal Fischer, Judy Chicago, Robert Arneson, Peter D'Agostino, Karen Carson, Robert E Brown, Tony Berland, Terry Fox, Gary Panter, Raymond Pettibon, and even the folks at Survival Research Laboratories! The book offers up large, full-color images of dozens of important art works – and the writing does a great job of contextualizing the material – as part of an exhibition put together by the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. 312 pages, hardcover, and super-heavy! Book

A 70s classic from bassist Henri Texier – a musician who's been a key part of the French jazz scene for decades, and already had a very unusual approach in his early years! Texier is fantastic here on acoustic bass – but he's also already opening up in so many other ways too – sometimes vocalizing wordlessly alongside his instrument, sometimes going electric, and always avoiding the temptation to get too moody that he'd forget to swing – which sometimes happened with other 70s bass pioneers. A number of cuts even have a cool global jazz component – but not in a hokey way at all – as Texier mixes oud alongside the bass, and also uses a bit of flute, cello, and percussion. Titles include "Homme Rouge", "Quand Tout S'Arrete", "Les Korrigans", "Amir", and "Le Sage Le Singe Et Les Petits Enfants". LP, Vinyl record album

Jazzman take on the Cali scene – and the results are every bit as amazing as you might imagine! Like previous Texas, Florida, and Midwest Funk comps on the label, this volume is essential listening all the way through – a massive dig into rare west coast grooves of the late 60s and 1970s – presented with excellent notes on every single track, and more than enough historical detail to put the music in perspective! The whole thing's fully legit, with great mastering on most cuts – and the track list is filled with rare gems we've never seen on any other collections before – a massive funky treasure trove that includes "Turn It Over" by Chucky Thurmon, "Farm Song" by Leon Gardner, "What Goes Around Comes Around (part 1)" by Arthur Monday, "Get It Right" by Rhon Silva, "Funky Fire" by Billy Larkin, "WB" by California Gold Notes, "Curse Upon The World" by Apple & The Three Oranges, "Cold Heat" by Lil Lavair & The Fabulous Jades, "Bones" by Winter, "Smokin Tidbits" by Edwards Generation, "Al's Place" by Enrique Olivarez Y Los Vampiros, "Talking About My Baby" by John Heartsman & Circles, "What's Going On" by Mr Clean & The Soul Inc, and "All Bundled Into One" by Water Color. LP, Vinyl record album

A 70s classic from bassist Henri Texier – a musician who's been a key part of the French jazz scene for decades, and already had a very unusual approach in his early years! Texier is fantastic here on acoustic bass – but he's also already opening up in so many other ways too – sometimes vocalizing wordlessly alongside his instrument, sometimes going electric, and always avoiding the temptation to get too moody that he'd forget to swing – which sometimes happened with other 70s bass pioneers. A number of cuts even have a cool global jazz component – but not in a hokey way at all – as Texier mixes oud alongside the bass, and also uses a bit of flute, cello, and percussion. Titles include "Homme Rouge", "Quand Tout S'Arrete", "Les Korrigans", "Amir", and "Le Sage Le Singe Et Les Petits Enfants". LP, Vinyl record album

Genius work from Les Baxter – two of his best albums for Capitol, back to back on one CD! Ritual Of The Savage is one of those must-have albums from the 50s – a super-huge record upon its initial release, and an album that pushed the genre of exotica far further than most others at the time! Before this record, most attempts at exotica were simple instrumental pop, colored with slight worldly instrumentation – or too-dreamy recordings, putting over a sleepy version of life on the islands. Enter Les Baxter, who had an amazing ear for sounds, rhythms, and arrangements – one that was the first to record this sort of music in a way that was sonically evocative, and could stand on its own without other referents. Instrumentation is often conventional, but used oddly here – and Baxter's original compositions are all pretty darn great – playful without being goofy, and nicely mixing Latin and Pacific rhythms at the bottom. Titles include "Busy Port", "The Ritual", "Coronation", "Jungle Jalopy", and Les' original version of "Quiet Village". Heck, even the cover is gorgeous – with a brilliant blue illustration of some guy putting the moves on a woman amidst spooky tribal relics! The Passions is a really obscure box set recording – done as Les Baxter's classic exploitation of "a woman's passions", using vocalist Bas Sheva in the role of the tormented female! Shiva's got a bold, evocative style that's not unlike Yma Sumac – and she sings here wordlessly, as an added instrument on top of Baxter's orchestrations – playing the role of the inner psyche of woman, on titles that include "Lust", "Terror", "Joy", "Hate", "Ecstasy", and "Despair"! The whole thing's a mini docu-drama in sound – beautifully recorded in a flurry of red, blue, and other chromatic hues – not as exotic as Baxter's other work from the 50s, but equally great as a modern sonic psychoanalytic text! CD

A great summation of Jose Feliciano's genius during his initial years at RCA – that unique mix of Chicano soul, acoustic folk, and Latin rhythms that made him sound unlike anyone else at the time! There's a charm to this work that's undeniable – an instantly compelling feel that makes you understand just why folks went so nuts for Jose right from the start, and why his particular growth and contribution to American music was as important from his perspective during these years as was Stevie Wonder's over at Motown! The set features a mix of live work, singles, and album tracks – and titles include his haunting version of "California Dreaming", plus "Hitchcock Railway", "Nature Boy", "Light My Fire", "Susie Q", "Hi Heel Sneakers", "Destiny", "Malaguena", "Life Is That Way", and "Rain". LP, Vinyl record album

This issue looks at jazz singers from the postwar years onwards – starting with the generation of Jennie Smith, who's pictured on the cover – and running up through key hip vocalists well into the 21st Century! The issue follows previous ones in that it has a discography of the artists within – with a few key albums of dozens of singers, presented with a black and white image of the album cover, and other details in English – a huge rundown of vocalists, with a lot of albums to discover! And as always, there's other features too – a cool color section at the start, jazz reviews and other news, in a total of 216 pages with black and white images throughout. Book

A great assemblage of rare early material by Charles Mingus – recorded, as the title implies, on the west coast during the late 40s. The range of styles is pretty strong – as some tracks are small group sides, some larger ensembles, some with vocalists, and others more experimental – but the tunes are all united by a tightness even in the face of more complicated settings, showing Mingus as an incredibly talented leader even at this early point in his career. There's strands of bop and swing moving through the set with a dark edge – especially on the vocal numbers, which often have a off-beat sound that's quite different than the usual singer-with-band 40s approach. Titles include "Lonesome Woman Blues", "Swingin An Echo", "Ain't Jivin Blues", "Weird Nightmare", "Bedspread", "Pipe Dream", "Mingus Fingers", "Boppin In Boston", "Inspiration", "The Story Of Love", "Lyon's Roar", "This Subdues My Passion", and "The Texas Hop". 23 tracks in all. CD

Rare rock from the Golden Triangle scene of Southeast TX in the late 60s and early 70s – a well-curated overview of the stylistically sprawling material being cut at Mickey Rouse's Lowland Recording Studio in Beaumont! Texas rock of the late 60s and early 70s justifiably brings to mind acts like The 13th Floor Elevators and The Bubble Puppy – tripped out psychedelia in other words, but Texas is huge, and there was a heck of a lot more going on than just the best remembered cult favorites. The music coming out of just the Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, Texas "triangle" chronicled here was incredibly diverse. It includes proto TX boogie rock that's a clear precursor to early ZZ Top, harmony flavored numbers that sound closer to Cali than they do The Lone Star State, one track that somehow fuses CS&N with The Beatles and does so with prominent cowbell in the mix (and it's good!!!), punchy psych grit, and swaggering country rock with some twang in the strings that feels a bit more profoundly Texan. You don't need our word that The Numero Group has devoted some serious attention to detail – with a 35-page booklet of notes, photos and histories, plus the impressive Lost In The Golden Triangle "family tree" of the regional musicians involved – as if discovering these long buried regional relics wasn't impressive enough already. Beautiful! 22 tracks in all: "Trash One" by the Lowland Studio Band, "Live My Life Today" by Insight Out, "Simple House" by Mother Lion, "Love Of The Morning" by Circus, "Take A Look At Your Friends" by Next Exit, "You Know I Love You" by Roy Briggs & Alton Tew, "Calling Me Home (Demo)" by Donald Thomas and more. CD

Tremendous work from the great Roy Brown – pulled from his groundbreaking years at King/Deluxe Records – and featuring very pure sound taken from original acetates in the vault! Brown is one of our favorite R&B singers ever – a vocalist with the range and skill of a jazz singer, but able to get down and dirty at a level that was a huge influence on later soul – and rock and roll as well. The package is way more than a greatest hits set, or just another Roy Brown collection – as it features close examination of his recordings in the years 1949 and 1950 – including work recorded in Texas, New Orleans, and Atlanta – and a good number of songs we'd never heard before. In the early years, King recorded directly to acetate discs, not tape – so these recordings are the purest, strongest versions of Brown's music you'll ever hear – served up with power that really beats some of the lower-end collections on the market – none of which feature this intense of a track selection either. Titles include "Fanny Brown's Wedding Day", "Special Lesson #1", "Love Don't Love Nobody", "Dreaming Blues", "Sweet Peach", "New Rebecca", "Butcher Pete (parts 1 & 2)", "End Of My Journey", "I Feel That Young Man's Rhythm", "Miss Fanny Brown", "China Blues", and "Cadillac Baby". CD

The third album from Seatrain – a record with a title that refers to their move to Marblehead, Massachusetts from their original home in Marin County, California! That geographic shift maybe signals a bit of a musical shift too – some slightly stronger bluesy currents mixed in with their roots rock elements – fleshed out with songwriting that feels a bit more complicated and personal too! As with the previous album, George Martin produced – and has a sense of compression that really helps the sound of the set – and titles include "Gramercy", "The State Of Georgia's Mind", "Marblehead Messenger", "London Song", "Losing All The Years", "Despair Tire", and "Lonely's Not The Only Way To Go". LP, Vinyl record album

Early 70s Cali country rock at its finest! This is the first album by Detroit-born, Texas-raised JD Souther – who has a deft hand for sadness-tinged songcraft, a charismatic and genuine southern drawl to his voice, and just enough grit to give his tunes the right kind of emotional undercurrent. There's a realness here that really sinks in. We sort of wish he would've shot to stardom is prominently as other Asylum singer-songwriters and his friends in The Eagles – he definitely deserves it – but there's something warm and cozy (and maybe a little selfish) about having him more to ourselves and other knowing fans. Includes "The Fast One", "Run Like A Thief", "Kite Woman", "Jesus In 3/4 Time", "It's The Same", "White Wing", "Out To Sea", "Lullaby" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Four classic albums from one of the early masters of exotica! First up is Ritual Of The Savage – one of those must-have albums from the 50s – a super-huge record upon its initial release, and an album that pushed the genre of exotica far further than most others at the time! Before this record, most attempts at exotica were simple instrumental pop, colored with slight worldly instrumentation – or too-dreamy recordings, putting over a sleepy version of life on the islands. Enter Les Baxter, who had an amazing ear for sounds, rhythms, and arrangements – one that was the first to record this sort of music in a way that was sonically evocative, and could stand on its own without other referents. Instrumentation is often conventional, but used oddly here – and Baxter's original compositions are all pretty darn great – playful without being goofy, and nicely mixing Latin and Pacific rhythms at the bottom. Titles include "Busy Port", "The Ritual", "Coronation", "Jungle Jalopy", and Les' original version of "Quiet Village". Next up is The Passions – a really obscure box set recording – done as Les Baxter's classic exploitation of "a woman's passions", using vocalist Bas Sheva in the role of the tormented female! Sheva's got a bold, evocative style that's not unlike Yma Sumac – and she sings here wordlessly, as an added instrument on top of Baxter's orchestrations – playing the role of the inner psyche of woman, on titles that include "Lust", "Terror", "Joy", "Hate", "Ecstasy", and "Despair"! The whole thing's a mini docu-drama in sound – beautifully recorded in a flurry of red, blue, and other chromatic hues – not as exotic as Baxter's other work from the 50s, but equally great as a modern sonic psychoanalytic text! Tamboo was cut with Les Baxter's orchestra and chorus – and it's a swirling mass of tribal drums, singing strings, and moody voices that would forever change the face of easy listening. Les' compositions are astounding – filled with all the sophistication of a great soundtrack, but simple enough to evoke the fake primitive charm of the album's cover. Every cut is great – and tracks include "Simba", "Oasis of Dakhla", "Mozambique", and "Zambezi". The cover's got a gorgeous blue painting of natives dancing in the background, while a drummer drums in front. Caribbean Moonlight is not as all-out exotic as some of Les' earlier Capitol albums, but still pretty darn great! The theme here is Caribbean exotic, and the rhythms have a little bit more of Cuba and Haiti than they do of primitive Borneo. Les handles them nicely, as always, and contributes some wonderful arrangements to the album. Titles include "Deep Night", "Green Eyes", "Sway", "Out Of This World", and "Adios". CD

One of the best ever sets of sprawling, spacey soul funk and jazz from the impossible to pen in Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber – never an easy group to describe in a nutshell, and that's a good thing – their best work in years and their first effort for the Livewired label! Making Love To The Dark Ages is a weirdly apt title, starting out with kind of dark, bluesy soul backdrop for Lisala's vocal in the beginning of the opening three part suite "Chains And Waters", slowly building into a tense, free jazz groove that's unafraid to pepper it up with some psyche rock guitar, heady/heavy bass, keys and synth, sax and drums. Guitarist and group leader Greg Tate conducts a sprawling chamber with slightly altered lineups depending on the piece, with players including vocal chanteuse Lisala, fellow vocalists Jeremiah, Karma Johnson, Justice Dilla X (who moonlights on piano, too) and others, alto & tenor sax by Matana Roberts and Petre Radu Scafaru, synth by Bruce Mack, cello by Will Martina, acoustic and electric bass by Jason DiMatteo and Jared Michael Nicherson, drums by Chris Eddleton and Trevor Holden & others, guitars by Rene Akan, Vernon Reid, trombone by David Smith, trumpet by Lewis 'Flip' Barnes, Jr, – lots more instrumentation and orchestration. The record rolls in and out of evocative soul, bits of electro and hip hop soundcraft, spaced out astral jazz, sharp solos and textured bursts of noise – never sacrificing a confluent sense of togetherness for all of the diverse sounds. Titles include the suites "Chains And Water" and the title track, plus "Thorazine/81", "Love To Tical" and "Dominata (The Gabri Ballad)". CD

One of the hippest albums ever cut by Letta Mbulu – a perfect mix of her Soweto roots and the funky styles of her adopted California home! The album's the only one that Mbulu ever recorded for Fantasy Records – and the style brings together those great sing-song vocal modes perfected on her 60s records, with some of the funky jazz elements that were bubbling in the Fantasy scene during the years of Cannonball Adderley and David Axelrod! No surprise, both Cannonball and Nat Adderley appear on the record, and the set's produced by their own company – with lots of great early arrangements from the great Wayne Henderson. Some of the best tracks have a spacious groove that leaves plenty of room for funky basslines – and titles include "Afro Texas", "Learn To Love", "Never Leave You", "Zimkile", "Setho", and "Saddest Day". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most complex Cecil Taylor records we've heard in years – and that's saying a lot, given the usual complexity of his music! Taylor plays piano and vocalizes a bit – but he's also tied strongly here to the Italian Instabile Orchestra – a large lineup of varied horn, string, and percussion players – all of whom vocalize a bit themselves – working with Cecil to create these amazing textures in sound – every bit as free as his unfettered solo recordings, but played here with these layers of depth that really amaze us! The CD features one long piece, composed by Taylor – running for about an hour in length, and divided into seven movements. CD

A bold leap forward from Gilberto Gil – his first album recorded during the Tropicalia years, and an amazing collaboration with arranger Rogerio Duprat! The album's got a sound that really bridges scenes in Brazil – elements of older folkloric musics, folded with samba rhythms, folded again with psychedelic touches from Os Mutantes – who also help out on the set – all wrapped together with a sound so revolutionary, it still crackles with energy all these many years later! The sound and style are impossible to describe accurately, which is part of the charm of the record – and it's key placement as one of the prime musical texts of the Tropicalia years. Titles include "Marginalia II", "Luzia Luluza", "Pega A Voga, Cabeludo", "Frevo Rasgado", "Domingou", and "Domingo No Parque". CD also features 4 bonus tracks – "Barca Grande", "A Coisa Mais Linda Que Existe", "Questao De Ordem", and "A Luta Contra A Lata Ou A Falencia Do Cafe". CD

Soulful blues and bluesy soul – a sweet split CD of work from Al King and Arthur Adams – both singers originally from the south, but relocated to the California scene for the best recordings of their career! Al King's got a great vocal approach – not really blues, and more in the soulful style that certain 60s singers were taking as a new approach to the genre – somewhere in the territory of Bobby Blue Bland, but without Bobby's trademark rasp. The cuts here all feature laidback backings and a mellow groove that really lets King inflect the notes wonderfully – and titles include "Without A Warning", "Get Lost", "Maybe My Last Song", "My Name Is Misery", and "Better To Be Yourself". Arthur Adams is a name you're bound to recognize from countless 70s sessions – with singers, on soundtracks, and even with jazz artists like The Crusaders – but the cuts here represent Art at the earliest point in his career – fresh on the LA scene from Texas, singing and playing guitar with plenty of soulful southern modes! Tracks here feature both Adams on his own, and dueting with either Edna Wright or Mary Love – on titles that include "She Drives Me Out Of My Mind", "I'm Lonely For You", "I Need You", "Is That You", "Let's Get Together", and "Gimme Some Of Your Lovin". CD