"Black Cat" is a groovy little tune from Turkish rocker Durul Gence – maybe slightly more Anglo-styled than music from some of his contemporaries, but in a really great way! Lyrics are in English, and the tune's got this great groove that mixes acoustic guitar and fuzz with plenty of dark corners around the edges – and "Boo Song" maybe feels even more British overall, with this use of acoustic guitar amidst more soaring arrangements – which, with Durul's vocals, make the whole thing feel like some lost London gem from 1969! 7-inch, Vinyl record

... CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the great David Bowie song "Putting Out Fire" – plus lots of cool electronic moments from Moroder! LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A really pivotal album in the career of Mongo Santamaria – one that has Mongo stripping down the groove, kicking up some jazz, and mixing together soulful styles that brought him to the top of the Latin crowd of the 1960s! There's a tightness here that goes beyond any of Santamaria's previous albums – a no-nonsense approach that makes for some incredibly hard-hitting numbers – heavy on the conga, but also featuring strong piano lines from Rodger Grand, trumpet from Marty Sheller, flute and tenor from Hubert Laws, and alto sax and baritone from Bobby Capers! This small combo provides pretty much all of the instrumentation for the record – and there's no added tricks or gimmicks, just hard-grooving Latin jazz at its best! Titles include "El Pussy Cat", "Together", "Black Eyed Peas", "Ritmo Negro", "Sarai", "Hammer Head", and "Afro Lypso". LP, Vinyl record album

Compositions by Mary Jeanne Van Appledorn, Stephen Chatman, Michael Mauldin, Christopher Berg, and Andrew Violette. LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful album from Dionne Warwick – probably her greatest record after the early years! The session was recorded with production by Thom Bell at Sigma Sound in Philly – and the style is a sweet blend of Philly modes, from fragile ballads to midtempo groovers, all done in a warm and intimate style that's never cloying, and which really gets at the depth of Dionne's soulful style. The record's one of those that you might have passed by for years, but which if you heard it playing at someone's house, you'd say "Dang! What the heck is that?" Great all the way through, and with tracks that include "Track Of The Cat", "His House & Me", "Once You Hit The Road", "This Is Love", and "Love Me One More Time". LP, Vinyl record album

The depths of Louisiana soul know no bounds – not just the countless great singers and singles that came from the New Orleans scene, but the wealth of wonderful work that flowed from the rest of the state as well! This collection, like the others in the series, does a fantastic job of bringing forth a huge amount of under-documented Louisiana soul material – some of it issued on singles, some not released at the time – all given the fantastic treatment that we've always loved from Ace Records – which means very detailed notes, great sound, and everything you need to make the enjoyment of the compilation way more than just finding a set of songs online! Most of this material is from that time when R&B was shifting into soul – with plenty of bluesy currents in the mix – and titles include "Everybody Wants To Know" by Lester Robertson, "Tomorrow I'll Be Gone" by Elizabeth, "Come On Home" by Prince Charles, "Rocks On My Pillow" by Cookie & The Cupcakes, "It Happened So Fast" by Clifton Chenier, "I Wants You" by Ashton Savoy, "For Your Precious Love" by Sonny Martin, "Raise Some San" by Jay Nelson & His Jumpers, "Bye Bye Baby" by The Yellow Jacket, "My Life For Your Love" by Blues Boy Palmer, "Augustine" by Rockin Sidney, "Shake It Up" by Thaddeus Declouet, "Bop Cat Stomp" by King Charles, and even a few tracks by unknown artists, rescued from rare tapes – "I Found My Baby" and "Be My Baby Doll". CD

Wicked keyboards from Ronnie Foster – and a set that really steps forward from his previous two Blue Note albums! The record really has Ronnie moving into a more rounded soul space – singing along with his keyboards, in ways that may well be aimed at making Foster the next Stevie Wonder – although still with some of the hipper, quirkier touches that make his music so great! The lineup of players is very top shelf – almost more of a CTI/Kudu session, with George Benson and Joe Beck on guitar, Mtume on congas, and lots of heavy bass from William Allen and Gary King. Foster wrote all the cuts – save for a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Tuesday Heartbreak" – and titles include "Funky Motion", which was covered by Roy Ayers – plus "Cheshire Cat", "Fly Away", "Heartless", and "Like a Child". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderful 60s work from pianist Michel Sardaby – a smoking little quintet session, and one of his few non-trio dates from the time! The groove here is totally wonderful – almost in the space of a Blue Note or Prestige album of the 60s, but served up with a bit more sensitivity overall – as you might expect from Sardaby's piano! Players include Pierre Dutour on trumpet, Alain Hatot on tenor, Henri Tischitz on bass, and Michel Denis on drums – and Sardaby himself seems to have a new sense of fire in the larger setting – really attacking the keys of the piano with enough force to drive the combo strongly. Titles include "Punch", "My Sweet Eleonore", "Five Cat's Blues", "Sonia", and "Flippin Out On Monday". LP, Vinyl record album

A great bit of electric jazz from the Japanese scene of the 70s – an album that easily rivals the best CTI work in the US at the time! Trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki heads up a quintet here – one that's heavy on electric piano and keyboards, played in a stretched-out sort of groove that reminds us a lot of the energy on Freddie Hubbard's funkiest albums from the same period. The tracks are all quite long – and step out with a wonderfully rhythmic sensibility – spare at times, and very focused on the right rolling approach to the groove. Suzuki's trombone solos are matched by some equally great sax work from Takeru Muraoka – and rhythm is from Kunimitsu Inaba on bass and Akira Ishikawa on drums. Filled with great breaks and laidback jazzy grooves – and featuring tracks that include "Cat", "Walk Tall", "Romance", "Shrimp Dance", and "Kuro To Shiro". CD

A great bit of electric jazz from the Japanese scene of the 70s – an album that easily rivals the best CTI work in the US at the time! Trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki heads up a quintet here – one that's heavy on electric piano and keyboards, played in a stretched-out sort of groove that reminds us a lot of the energy on Freddie Hubbard's funkiest albums from the same period. The tracks are all quite long – and step out with a wonderfully rhythmic sensibility – spare at times, and very focused on the right rolling approach to the groove. Suzuki's trombone solos are matched by some equally great sax work from Takeru Muraoka – and rhythm is from Kunimitsu Inaba on bass and Akira Ishikawa on drums. Filled with great breaks and laidback jazzy grooves – and featuring tracks that include "Cat", "Walk Tall", "Romance", "Shrimp Dance", and "Kuro To Shiro". LP, Vinyl record album

A pair of funky killers from tenorist Gene Ammons! Black Cat is one of the great funky albums that Gene Ammons cut for Prestige at the start of the 70s – quite different than his earlier work for the label, and a very different showcase for his tenor genius! The whole lineup here is amazing – a quintet that features heavy drums from Idris Muhammad, piano and Fender Rhodes from Harold Mabern, bass from Ron Carter, and some tremendously smoking guitar from the great George Freeman! Freeman goes nuts on the funky cut "The Black Cat" – and other tracks include "Jug Eyes", "Hi Ruth", "Something", and "Piece To Keep Away Evil Spirits". You Talk That Talk is a set done in collaboration with Sonny Stitt – and these two tenor giants meet in the period slightly before Ammons death, and they're grouped with some of the younger funky players on Prestige, like Leon Spencer, Idris Muhammad, and George Freeman. The sound is fairly traditional, but there's some nice funky moments. Tracks include "Out Of It", which was written by Harold Vick, "The People's Choice", written by Harold Ousley, and the title cut, which is a Leon Spencer original. The 14 track set includes the full titles from 2 LPs, plus 2 bonus cuts from a rare source! CD

An amazing collection of 40s and 50s jazz drawings by Gene Deitch – the complete anthology of his work for legendary jazz magazine Record Changer! Gene was an amazing artist and cartoonist, whose work helped solidify the legacies of some of the most famous cartoon characters in the American pop culture canon – from Popeye, to Tom & Jerry and beyond – but we're especially in love with his jazz-centric Record Changer era! Gene adored jazz and his love for it really shows! Cat On A Hot Thin Groove includes all of his magazine covers, cartoon panels and other bits from Record Changer – versatile work that ranges from fun, cartoon-y panels of "Jazz Cat" characters, to more elaborate and abstract illustrations. Wonderful, vital stuff – and it's very nicely anthologized here by Fantagraphics! Coffee-table scale paperback – 160+ pages of prime Deitch jazzy drawings with text accompaniment. Book

Seminal sounds from trumpeter Ian Carr and his Nucleus group of the early 70s – maybe one of the few jazz rock groups that was ever able to work with a fair bit of jazz in their sound! Unlike his contemporaries, who often started in rock first, then added some horns – Carr was already coming off an important 60s legacy, co-leading a group with tenorist Don Rendell – so the vibe here is like an extension of that very rhythmic, very tonal modern work – but with the addition of electrified instrumentation – thanks to the guitar work of Chris Spedding and keyboards of Karl Jenkins – who plays some fantastic electric lines throughout! The vibe is maybe a bit in the territory of early 70s electric work by Miles Davis and Donald Byrd (pre-Mizell for the latter) – but there's maybe a farther-reaching concept at play on many of the records, at a level that always helped the group cross over to the prog crowd, and move beyond just a straight jazz audience. Other key players include Brian Smith on tenor and soprano saxes – a really fantastic part of the lineup – plus Jeff Clyne on bass and John Marshall on drums – and as the albums move along a bit, the lineup shifts slightly, and also opens up to guests who include Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett on trumpets, Tony Levin on drums, and Norma Winstone on voice. And although some of the albums have been reissued before, this is the first set to really dive in completely – and bring together material from the Vertigo Records releases that include Elastic Rock, We'll Talk About It Later, Solar Plexus, Belladonna, Labyrinth, Roots, Under The Sun, Snakehips Etcetera, and Alley Cat. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Belgian guitarist Rene Thomas was one of the leading lights of the Parisian hardbop scene in the 50s – and this set features some of his greatest work from the time! The core album is a cracker – a great date that has Thomas' guitar coming into play with the piano of Rene Urtreger, bass of Benoit Quersin, and drums of Jean-Louis Vitale – really grooving together strongly, with a clean, clear tone that made Rene one of, if not THE, best guitarist working in Europe during the postwar years. Andre Ross plays tenor on a few tracks, adding in an extra-great sound – and titles include "Lover Man", "The Continental", "If I Had You", "Relaxin At The Grand Balcon", and "L'Imbecile". CD also features 8 more tracks from a second album – one that features Serge Bib Monville on tenor, Roland Ronchaud on piano, Benoit Quersin on bass, and Jose Bourguignon on drums. Titles include "Night In Tunisia", "Easy To Love", "The Real Cat", "My Old Flame", "Shine", and "Goodnight Wherever You Are". CD

A very nice album of obscure soul jazz piano tracks – and certainly the best record ever from Rupert Cobbett! The tracks are a mix of straighter jazz cuts, plus others that have a mellow funky sound, and some nice electric piano. Cuts include the spacey "Bad Rooster", the funky "Seven Heaven", and the soulful "What It Is", which has some uncredited vocals. Other titles include "On Three Legs", "Play The Game", and "Ultra Wave". Not totally funky – but a nice lost little record, with a good vibe, perhaps thanks to the fact that Abbey Lincoln was the executive producer! LP, Vinyl record album

A rollicking mix of soul and rock elements – with titles that include "Cat Fever", "What's Wrong With Me", "Special Care", "Soul Child", "Place In The Country", and "A Little While Later". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Joe Farrell's first LPs as a leader – and a stellar session that's easily one of the early high points for the legendary CTI label! Farrell had been making some great noise in the underground during the late 60s – but here, he bursts forth as one heck of a soulful cat – working on these great modal grooves that slide out wonderfully and really have a sense of flow – a style that's different than Joe's later material, but equally powerful! Part of the strength of the record comes from the lineup – a key quintet of like-mined up-and-comers that includes Chick Corea on keyboards, John McLaughlin on guitar, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums – players who definitely know the farther reaches of jazz, yet hang just on the inside here with Joe – providing some amazing accompaniment for his lines on soprano, tenor, and flute. Titles include "Molten Glass", "Song Of The Wind", "Motion", "Follow Your Heart", and "Circle In The Square". LP, Vinyl record album

A perfectly balanced little set from Gentle Giant – a record that's progressive, but never overly jamming – jazzy, but still rock-based enough to contain some great straight ahead tunes – and whimsical, but never too flowery or hippy dippy! Gentle Giant were one of the few who could strike this balance so well, and an album like this is a perfect example of the great niche they carved out for themselves at the time. The keyboards here are especially great – and feature lots of moog and mellotron that skanes through the tunes with an almost flute-like feel. Titles include "Black Cat", "Plain Truth", "The Moon Is Down", "Acquiring The Taste", and "Edge Of Twilight". LP, Vinyl record album

An early Warner Brothers classic from the Grateful Dead – a set that has them stretching out in maybe a more collaborative way than usual – using a few key guests to expand their freewheeling sound! Titles include "Cosmic Charlie", "China Cat Sunflower", "Doin That Rag", "Mountains Of The Moon", and "Dupree's Diamond Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

An early Warner Brothers classic from the Grateful Dead – a set that has them stretching out in maybe a more collaborative way than usual – using a few key guests to expand their freewheeling sound! Titles include "Cosmic Charlie", "China Cat Sunflower", "Doin That Rag", "Mountains Of The Moon", and "Dupree's Diamond Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal sides from Herbie Hancock – amazing material recorded for Warner Brothers in the years between his time at Blue Note and his big fame at Columbia Records – all sides that definitely show Hancock as one mighty righteous cat! Herbie's really stretching past his more conventional jazz of earlier years here – working both with a bit more electricity in his keys, and some larger arrangements that have a wonderful sense of flow and funk – a groove that definitely puts Hancock on a par with Quincy Jones at his funky best during the early 70s! The album's filled with great grooves pulled from the Warner Brothers albums by Hancock – including some quite long numbers – titles that include the funky nuggets "Wiggle Waggle", "Lil Brother", and "Tell Me A Bedtime Story" – plus "Sleeping Giant", "Crossings", "Quazar", "Ostinato", and "You'll Know When You Get There". LP, Vinyl record album

The genius of Neal Hefti comes through for us again! Have you ever stopped to listen to the Odd Couple theme? Really listen to it – break it apart with your ears, and let the strange and complex nature of the groove sink into your brain? It's mad stuff, we tell you – one of the most genius moments ever in 60s scoring! This soundtrack features a few versions of Hefti's amazing tune – including one stunning vocal version, with very strange lyrics about Oscar and Felix that almost seem to "out" them as a real couple! The record mixes music from the film with snippets of dialogue – and titles include "Clean Poker", "The Odd Couple", "End Title", "Curse Of The Cat People", "Dirty Poker", "Metropole", and "Down With The Lights". LP, Vinyl record album

Hello have cleaned up their look a bit from previous records, but they're still hitting hard in that glam-inspired groove we love so much! Guitars are fuzzy, the vocals flanged-out too, and even though the rhythms are tight, there's a spooky sort of mid-70s pop vibe going on overall – an undercurrent of nastiness that hides beneath the group's power pop look and catchy tune hooks. Production is relatively simple too – somewhat smoother than before, but still with more than enough rough edges in the right parts. Titles include "99 Ways", "Back Seat Talking", "The Cat Is Wild", "You Shot Me Down", "Oh Caroline", "How To Survive The Night", "Walking Midnight", "Elenore", and "Hi Ho Silver Lining". CD also features 8 more bonus tracks that include "Good Old USA", "Too Much Hesitating", "Night Watcher", "One By One", and "You Got Class Babe". CD

Country music talent Eddie Hill is maybe best known to the world as the guy who gave the Louvin Brothers their first work, or as a big force on the Grand Old Opry – but he's also a hell of a guitarist who cut some fantastic sides during the postwar years – records that ring out with all sorts of great guitar modes that easily puts Hill right up there with some of the greats of his time! The package is the first to ever do justice to the strengths of Eddie's talents – and features singles recorded for Decca, Mercury, RCA, and Columbia, plus some rare Apollo Records work too – all brought together in a collection that has Hill stepping easily through a variety of hillbilly talents, always with plenty of vocal charm to match his instrumental strengths too. Titles include his classic "The Hot Guitar" – a commentary on all the rising hillbilly styles in 1951 – plus "The Gottalotta Song", "Black Denim Trousers & Motorcycle Boots", "High Wide & Handsome", "Lovin Spree", "Who Wrote The Letter To Old John", "My Sugar Booger", "Bless Your Little Thumpin Gizzard", "Melting Steel", "Mind Your Own Business", "Fire Ball Eight", "Buckshot", "Wild Cat", and "Hard Road To Travel". CD

Hodges leads a large group of Ellington players that includes Willie Cook, Clark Terry, Cat Anderson, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney, Ray Nance, and Jimmy Woode. The overall sound has that Ellington-minus-Ellington, plus-Hoges feel of similar Verve sessions like these – with lots of nice strong Hodges tenor work in the foreground. Titles include "Digits", "Viscount", "Segdoh", "An Ordinary Thing", and "Little Rabbit Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

The "triple play" in the title refers to the fact that Johnny's working here with 3 different groups – all of them large ones, and stuffed with Ellington-esque players that include Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves, Milt Hinton, Tiny Grimes, Hank Jones, Cat Anderson, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney, and Billy Butler. Tracks are short, but there's a few nice ones that have the raw bite of Hodges' best work for Verve – with titles that include "Fur Piece", "Take Em Off Take Em Off (parts 1 & 2)", "Sir John", "On The Way Up", and "Wild Onions". LP, Vinyl record album

Hodges blows out front in a set of shimmering Billy Strayhorn arrangements – conducted by Strayhorn himself, and featuring players that include Cat Anderson, Howard McGhee, Lawrence Brown, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney, and Paul Gonsalves. The set's a bit more mellow than some of Hodges' more firey sets for Verve – but in a good way. Titles include "Azure", "Tailor Made", "Day Dream", "Jeep's Blues", "Gal From Joe's", and "Your Love Has Faded". LP, Vinyl record album

A great journey in sound – one undertaken by a New Zealand group who spent the second half of the 60s with a new name, and recording in London too! The combo first started out as The Four Fours in the southern hemisphere – a raw group with a sound that was maybe a bit influenced by the Brit Invasion era, but often carried off with a grittier, garagier vibe – one that offsets the more melodic moments with a nice sort of edge, and really keeps things interesting as the set unfolds through more than a dozen of the group's New Zealand singles for the Allied and Zodiac labels! The set then features later work by The Human Instinct – the new name for the group as they hit the British scene, where they recorded with a bit more psych in the mix – on singles here that were issued by Mercury and Deram. Later Human Instinct material has been reissued, but this is the first time the early side of their career has gotten its full due – on titles that include "Stingray", "From The Bottom Of My Heart", "Theme From An Empty Coffee Lounge", "Barrow Boy", "Jungle Cat, "It's Gonna Rain", "Time Slips Away", "One Track Mind", and "Don't Print My Memoirs" by The Four Fours – plus "A Day In My Mind's Mind", "Renaissance Fair", "Can't Stop Around", "Rich Man", "Pink Dawn", "Death Of The Seaside", and "Want To Be Loved By You" by The Human Instinct. CD

A crowning moment in New Jack Swing – or New Jill Swing, as it were – a perfect step forward for Janet Jackson, as she continues to work with the duo of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, with a vibe that was setting the scene for the rest of mainstream soul at the time! The album's got a larger overall feel than her previous set – partly because it makes use of the expanded CD recording style to add in interludes that link the tracks, and create a great flow through the record – while the lady herself still soars through plenty of catchy cuts that would win her some big hits! Titles include "Escapade", "Miss You Much", "Rhythm Nation", "Alright", "Love Will Never Do (Without You)", "Black Cat" and "Come Back To Me". LP, Vinyl record album

The stunning debut of a really tremendous talent – a singer we'd put right up there with Jon Lucien or Terry Callier for his uniquely soulful approach to music! Like both of those previous stars, Jose James has a voice that's completely his own – a way of approaching a tune that instantly defies genres – but never in those cloying cliched ways that weigh down the Starbucks generation of singer/songwriters! Instead, James has a breathy presence that reminds us of Nina Simone at her best – and like Callier, he's clearly informed by jazz, but not truly a jazz singer – more of an open-minded cat who's able to embrace a broad history of sound, then work it out into his own personal musical vision. Instrumentation here is mostly small combo – piano, keyboards, guitar, trumpet, bass, and drums – used in a simple but shifting array to fit the mood of each new tune. Trust us, this is one you'll file with your classics right away! Titles include "Spirits Up Above", "Blackeyedsusan", "The Dreamer", "Velvet", "Red", "Winterwind", "Desire", "Love", and "Park Bench People". CD

One of the best of Elton's early years – with cuts that include "Hercules", "Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters", "Salvation", "Slave", "Rocket Man", "Honkey Cat", "Mellow", and "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the few albums by the enigmatic Tony Kosinec – produced by Peter Asher, with titles that include "Bad Girls", "Dinner Time", "Wheatfield", "The Sun Wants Me To Love You", "My Cat Ain't Comin Back", "Gemini At Pains", and "The World Still". LP, Vinyl record 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 – reminding us that at the core, calypso was not only a really revolutionary musical style in the Caribbean – but also a way for under-represented cultures to really get a chance to speak out! Lord Invader does plenty of that here – mixing social commentary with a fair bit of wit, all while the percussion is going crazy at the core – on titles that include "Cat O Nine Tails", "Crisis In Arkansas", "Fidel Castro", "My Experience In The Reeperbahn", "Me One Alone", "As Long As It Born In My House", and "Steel Band War". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible end of the 60s effort that's essentially the final album by West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – although credited as Markley! Bob Markley and Michael Lloyd co-produced and co-wrote most of the tunes but fellow WCPAEB members are photographed and credited – and the tunes themselves are short little blasts of richly strummed psychedelic folk with a trippy, often dark lyricism that sometimes bely some upbeat arrangements. Wonderful stuff – and the most unjustly overlooked set by an unjustly overlooked group! Titles include "Booker T & His Electric Shock", "Next Plane To The Sun", "Roger The Rocket Ship", "Elegant Ellen", "Little Ruby Rain", "Message For Miniature", "Sarah The Sad Spirit", "Truck Stop", "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom", "Sweet Lady Eleven", "The Magic Cat" and "Outside/Inside". CD

Incredible work from Rod McKuen – raspy-voiced pop poetry – served up in a style that's completely sublime! The album's the sort that should make us wince – Rod, the best-selling author of quirky crossover poems – working here both as a speaker and singer to deliver his own words. Yet both in the voice, and in the writing, there's this sort of broken-down masculinity – a new variant of the postwar male, supposedly set free in the new scene of the 60s – but exposed as even more off center than anyone might have expected. Arthur Greenslade's gentle pop arrangements work perfectly for the setting – as does Rod's raspy delivery of the words – whether sung or spoken. Titles include "Round Round Round", "A Cat Named Sloopy", "It's Raining", "Weekend", "Brown October", "Where Are Why", and "The Singing Of The Wind". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best early albums from the legendary Moondog – a set that got wider circulation than his first few releases, and really helped expand his reach beyond New York City! Moondog's still at his simple best here – working in a blend of rhythmic percussion, stringed instruments, flute, and other rootsy instrumentation – all with echoes of Eastern styles, but served in a way that definitely has more of a touch of American exotica! All numbers are played by small groups – or even solo by Moondog – and any vocalizations take on almost an instrumental feel – sliding in alongside sound effects, animal noises, and other obscure utterings. The album's almost the art world equivalent of Martin Denny – but has a lot more depth than easy kitsch – and is still tremendously powerful stuff all these years later! Titles include "Caribea", "Big Cat", "Frog Bog", "To A Sea Horse", "Surf Session" and "Trees Against The Sky". This reissue is the original version of the record that was also issued as Moondog on Prestige. LP, Vinyl record album

Lee Morgan on the hippest side of his 60s talents – working here in a style that's really stretching out, and in the same territory as similar unreleased gems from the time – like Tom Cat or Sonic Boom! The group here is very inventive – Jackie McLean on alto, Larry Willis on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – players who really represent the left side of Blue Note, but not as out as the "new thing" crowd – with a really creative approach to both the rhythms and the solos, commanded by Morgan's rich imagination at this point in his career. All tunes are great, and titles include "Zip Code", "Infinity", "Miss Nettie B", "Growing Pains", and McLean's fantastic "Portrait of a Doll". CD

Although Buddy Morrow's best known for his more crime-jazz and Night Train jazz work, this album's got him sounding surprisingly great in a set of tracks dedicated to the work of Edgar Allen Poe! The feel of the music shifts wildly from track to track – with a few that feature Keith McKenna reciting work by Poe, in a Vincent Price-y style, and others that groove with more of a swinging jazz feel. Titles include "The Gold Bug", "Annabel Lee", "A Descent Into The Maelstrom", "The Raven", "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Black Cat", and "The Pit & the Pendulum". LP, Vinyl record album