Paul Hession on drums, Michael Bardon on double bass, and Christophe De Bezenac on tenor saxophone. CD

Percussion duets between Tony Oxley and Stefan Holker – with electronics by the latter – all served up at a level that reminds us why Oxley has been such an important improvising talent on the drums over the course of his many decades in music! As with the best improvisers, Tony is able to shift into a mode that's very resonant with his partner on a date – which in this case means work on drums that's often more spacious and textural than some of his other recordings – very aware of all the sonic possibilities of his instrument, and served up in ways that are often far from conventional sounds and rhythm! The CD features six improvisations, of varying lengths – but with a nicely unified vibe. CD

Vocals by Julie Tippett, Martin Archer on keyboards, electronics and woodwinds and Peter Fairclough on drums with Micheal Somerset Ward on flutes, sax and sea flute. CD

A record that crackles with spiritual energy right from the start – a mixture of strongly rhythmic structures and more open improvisations, all handled at a level that really seems to bring out the best of the musicians involved in the project! There's some London ties to the set, and the music resonates partly with that shift to that city from the South African jazz scene in the 70s – not entirely Blue Notes territory, but maybe not that far off either – and a fantastic testament to the strengths as a leader of Paul Dunmall. Paul blows tenor and c soprano saxes, alongside more work from Xhosa Cole on tenor and Soweto Kinch on tenor and alto – in a very cool lineup that also features vibes from Corey Mwamba, bass from Dave Kane, and drums from the great Hamid Drake! Titles include "Disbelief", "Many Sparrows", "You Look Away", "I've Had A Lot", and "Bright Light A Joyous Celebration". CD

Moss Freed on electric guitar, Laura Jurd, Charlotte Keeffe and Sam Eastmond on trumpet, Tullis Rennie on trombone, Rachel Musson on tenor saxophone, George Crowley on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Chris Williams on alto saxophone, Rosanna TeronBerg on flute and piccolo, Brice Catherin on cello, Otto Wilberg on double bass, Steve Beresford and Elliot Galvin on piano, Will Glaser and James Maddren on drums, and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay on electronics and electric bass. CD

Excellent 70s work from Tony Oxley – a record that features the legendary drummer in three different settings! The set features two quartet tracks with a very string-heavy sound – the bass and bass guitar of Barry Guy, the violins of David Bourne and Philipp Wachsmann, and even some more violin from Oxley, who handles electronics as well as drums – in a sublime melding of sounds that seems to take most of the instruments way past their usual territory! Wachsmann returns on two more tracks, which also include Ian Brighton on guitar – very sonic-sensitive improvisations that really show the more sensitive side of Oxley's work on drums, as well as more electronics. The set lastly features three tracks with Tony just on percussion and electronics – maybe the most compelling of the batch, as the result of textures he makes on his own is breathtaking. Titles include "Trio", "Chant Quartet", "Sounds Of The Soil", "Brushes", "Combination", and "Quartet 1". CD

A stunning large-concept work from pianist Keith Tippett – done with help from a variety of singers, who really help elevate the music to a new level! Julie Tippetts, as you might expect, is a key part of the group – a sextet of singers who group together, then solo – while Tippett conducts a larger ensemble that features improvisations from Paul Dunmall on soprano sax, Kevin Figes on alto, and Ben Waghorn on tenor – plus additional contributions from the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, and what must be a larger organ – given that the work was recorded in a cathedral in England! Julie speaks a few text passages, but mostly sings – and the BBC Singers provide some larger backdrop for the soloists. CD

Keith Tippett on piano. CD

Tremendous live work from avant piano legend Cecil Taylor and always-creative drummer Tony Oxley – a duo who recorded most famously for FMP at the end of the 80s, but who also turned in some great live performances over the following decades! This set is definitely one of those – captured at a time when Taylor was not making many forays into the studio, but still very much at the top of his game in the sort of long form improvisational setting that defined his 70s material – especially when in the company of a player as great as Oxley! There's a balance here between percussive attacks and gentler flows on both instruments – spontaneous creativity in action from both musicians, on the very long titles "Power Of Two" and "Being Astral & All Registers". CD

Keith Tippett and Matthew Bourne on piano –performing together in the studio and live in concert. CD

Three unreleased slices of work from the legendary Tony Oxley – a British drummer who's had an impact on his scene's music for decades – and also an artist who can handle a whole lot of other musical sources as well! The set begins with some very seminal sounds from Oxley – music from 1974 with a quintet that features Barry Guy on acoustic and electric bass, Dave Holdsworth on trumpet and effects, Howard Riley on piano, and Paul Rutherford on trombone – all giants from the key years of the Brit free jazz scene – working here with Oxley on drums, electronics, and effects – on titles that include "The Embrace", "Ensemble 1", and "Ensemble 2". Next is a long piece from 1981, titled "Frame" – with Oxley on drums, electronics, and even violin – next to Hugh Metcalfe on guitar and cymbals, Howard Riley on piano, Phil Wachsmann on violin and electronics, and the mighty Larry Stabbins on saxes! The final piece is "Combination" from 2016, and is spare, but equally striking – Oxley on electronics, working next to the percussion of Stefan Hoelker – almost evoking an older electro-acoustic style. CD

Wonderful work from Brook Benton – and the kind of record that always gets overlooked in discussions of southern soul, but which is proof that Benton's always been a key force in the genre! Brook virtually invented the style with his earlier country soul recordings – and by the time of this 1970 set, he's in perfect form vocally – and working under some wonderfully sophisticated arrangements by Arif Mardin. The result is the kind of cross-genre record that Brook could do effortlessly – and which should have made him huge, but instead kind of got him left behind by all the other folks who were copping his style. Yet with the strength of a record like this, we'll take that overlooked fame as still OK – because the set's a gem just waiting to be discovered by later generations like us! Rhythm's by the Dixie Flyers – augmented by jazz players that include King Curtis, Pepper Adams, and Joe Newman. Titles include "Aspen Colorado", "For Lee Ann", "Whoever Finds This, I Love You", "Don't It Make You Wanta Go Home", and "Let Me Fix It". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunning session by Ornette, and one that always seems to get overlooked in discussions of his albums for Atlantic! His quartet here features the amazing Scott LaFaro on bass, and a young Ed Blackwell on drums – both of whom give the tracks an amazing pulse that brings new energy out of Ornette and Don Cherry's solos – working in a modal groove that's as catchy as it is modern! All tracks are named after initials of titles of books by Sigmund Freud, including "T & T" (Totem & Taboo), "C&D"(Civilization and Discontent), "W.R.U.", and "R.P.D.D.". CD also features the bonus track "Proof Readers"! CD

A stunning session by Ornette, and one that always seems to get overlooked in discussions of his albums for Atlantic! His quartet here features the amazing Scott LaFaro on bass, and a young Ed Blackwell on drums – both of whom give the tracks an amazing pulse that brings new energy out of Ornette and Don Cherry's solos – working in a modal groove that's as catchy as it is modern! All tracks are named after initials of titles of books by Sigmund Freud, including "T & T" (Totem & Taboo), "C&D"(Civilization and Discontent), "W.R.U.", and "R.P.D.D.". LP, Vinyl record album

A really unique document of the struggle and story of Angela Davis – recorded in 1971 by ABC news, and packaged together here as kind of a sonic program by Folkways! The record works like a short news program – starting out with a statement by Angela, then moving to a narrated introduction, then a long interview conducted by Joe Walker of Muhammad Speaks. Side two continues with a panel discussion on the case, then ends with some very cool "man in the street" style interviews! Capped off with a really great cover photo of Angela too! CD

Amazing sounds from Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski – penned for a legendary horror film from the early 80s! The movie goes way beyond typical grit and gore – with a surreal bent that's made it the stuff of much discussion over the years – and Korzynski's music definitely lives up to the spirit of the images on the screen – mixing 80s electronics with offbeat strings, odd percussion, and other compelling bits – often used in very short songs that shift often throughout the course of the album – easily making the record one of the most playful we've ever heard from Finders Keepers – yet also one of the darkest too! A few sweet keyboard melodies offset some of the spookiness in a nice way – and titles include "Helen Has Green Eyes", "Opetanie 1", "The Night The Screaming Stops", "Blue Ford B AZ6", "Heinrick's Demise", "Mark Looks In The Fridge", "What Is It", and "Closely Observed Anna". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the most visual issue of Maggot Brain to date – as the issue features a look at the music photography of Michael Lavine, rare images of Pavement from Gail Butensky, and the wonderful artwork of Mingering Mike! Heck, there's even a review of Irreversible Entanglements that's filled with great photos of the group – but don't worry, as there's plenty of text too – including a discussion of prog rock with the great Matt Berry, a look at Philly guitarists Rosali Middleman and Emily Robb, and the diary of legendary hobo Bill Aspinwall! Plenty more too – including a great tape section, the Visuaels collective, Lea Bertucci, the band Cindy, and 75 Dollar Bill. Magazine

Seminal early work from Charles Mingus – a session that really shows him beginning to work in tightly arranged, deeply resonant styles – pushing much more deeply towards the brilliance of the late 50s! The set's recorded with a great lineup that includes Mal Waldron, Max Roach, and the enigmatic George Barrow on tenor – and includes a fantastic reading of "Percussion Discussion", played here by Roach and Mingus as a drum and bass duet (as opposed to Roach solo, as on a later version.) Also features the brilliant "All The Things You C-Sharp", a pivotal track in the Mingus book, and one of our favorites ever by him – plus "Septemberly", "Work Song", and "Jump Monk". LP, Vinyl record album

70s geekazoid hi-fi culture at it's finest! The folks at JBL put together this 2LP set as sort of a "bible" of a 70's understanding of hi-fi – and it's a weird mix of documentary discussion, speaker demonstration, and rock tracks by the likes of Alex Harvey and Hoyt Axton. Nutty, and chock full of open drum breaks! LP, Vinyl record album

A supremely fantastic album, and one that's always woefully overlooked in discussions of James Brown's incredible People label! Sweet Charles, Charles Sherell, was a great lost soul vocalist who had a voice that was warm and mellow, with a sweetness that was often missing from James' singing – but which sounded great with his arrangements and production. Fred Wesley and Dave Matthews arranged this one and only album, and the record's a great blend of sweet soul tracks, funky numbers, and other stellar grooves. There's a killer version of "Soul Man", that begins with a very tasty break; the monster "Yes, It's You", which has a sweetly sliding intro that's ripe for sampling; the righteous political "Why Can't I Be Treated Like A Man" – and lots of other nice ones too! CD

A killer set of southern rock – even if the whole thing was recorded in London, while the group was on tour with Eric Clapton! Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett are at the height of their powers here – really reworking rootsy southern elements into the kind of sharp-edged 70s sound that made them such an important part of the scene at the time – even though they never went as mainstream to get the kind of crossover fame as some of their contemporaries! But it's that true-to-roots quality that really keeps things great here – as they work with famous help from Eric Clapton and Dave Mason on guitars – alongside sounds by southern stalwarts who include Bobby Whitlock on organ, Jim Price on trumpet, Bobby Keys on saxes, and Jim Gordon on drums. Titles include "Things Get Better", "Little Richard Medley", "Coming Home", "That's What My Man Is For", and "I Don't Want To Discuss It". LP, Vinyl record album

Vijay Iyer on ECM – a great new setting for one of the most-discussed pianists in recent years – and a chance for him to offer up some even more creative sides of his talents! The record still features Vijay playing piano with some of those blocky tones and rhythmic pulses that we love from his other trio and solo recordings – but the album also features him on electronics, and working with a string quartet on one number too – all in ways that are looser and more abstract than some of his better-known records, and creates a bridge between his jazz work and some of the new music modes of ECM. Titles include "Vuln Part 2", "Spellbound & Sacrosanct Cowrie Shells & The Shimmering Sea", "Mutations I to X", and "When We're Gone". CD

A hefty journal that's almost bigger than a book – 300+ pages, all delivered with the kind of well-penned text and really compelling subjects that always makes Blank Forms such a winner! This time around, there's a very long interview with Detroit underground legend Theo Parrish – referenced in the title, and served up with a huge amount of full color images as well – of posters, records, fliers, and more – so that the Theo Parrish section alone is over 175 pages in length! The rest of the book also features a combination of interviews and writings from creative forces – also illustrated – the first a long section that interviews dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni, followed by two pieces penned by her – the second a discussion of the music of Takehisa Kosugi by Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda, followed by writings by Kosugi on the sound objects of Suzuki! 324 pages, softcover, with illustrations throughout. Book

Given that Capitol had recently linked up with the ever-growing EMI corporation in the early 60s, it was able to take advantage of the global catalog of the music giant, and managed to dip pretty heavily into the Brazilian Odeon catalog of tunes to cash in on the American popularity of bossa nova. This album was one of their bigger imports, and it features material originally recorded in Brazil, with Gilberto up front, backed by arrangements by Jobim. This is the classic material that made Gilberto's fame in the early days – and titles include "Doralice", "O Pato", "Discussao", "Outra Vez", and "Corcovado". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the most compelling volume in this excellent series – a set that unearths all sorts of unusual moments from Joni Mitchell's years on Asylum Records – a stunningly creative period when she was really opening up her music, and also bringing in a lot of inspiration from jazz as well! All the material here has never been issued – and the set features a long live 1974 set with Tom Scott & The LA Express, plus other live performances from the time – and tracks from rare sessions done with James Taylor, Neil Young, Graham Nash and David Crosby too! But maybe the best material here is the huge array of session tracks and demos – for the albums For The Roses, Court & Spark, and Hissing Of Summer Lawns – really letting you hear Joni's creative process at work as she explores early versions of dozens of tunes, some very different than the famous recordings. The whole thing comes with a big booklet of notes and images – and includes Joni discussing her music with Cameron Crowe! CD

Paul McCartney is on the cover, and they even got him to sit for great interview to discuss 50 Years of "Band On The Run" – plus a free CD featuring a slew of great bands inspired by that classic album! Other great features including Jon Anderson on the trailblazing prop pedigree of Yes, a farewell to Shane MacGowan, African women singer supergroup Les Amazones D'Afrique and lots more – along with the usual motherlode of reviews and regular items. The CD Jet Powered Pop includes tracks by Teenage Fanclub, Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet, Lemon Twigs, Heatmiser, XTC, Shoes, The dBs, Those Pretty Wrongs, Nada Surf, Brendan Benson and others. Magazine

Two of the greatest French songwriters of the postwar years – each dealing with a variety of topics, served up here in a very unique setting! The package features five CDs that each bring together themes that are strong in the music of both – love, death, injustice, and so on – with alternating songs from the classic Phillips recordings of George Brassens and Barclay material of Jacques Brel – so that the songs play back and forth in a very cool way, showing different perspectives on these themes – all handled with the wit and vision that make each singer great! Each CD also begins with a bit of interview passages – again having Brel or Brassens discuss the topics, before the CD then launches into their songs. There's a massive 107 songs in all – and the set's a great overview of some of the strongest work of these legendary talents! CD

The legendary 1970 recordings Alex Chilton made at Ardent Studios – recorded in a brief moment after the bust up of the Box Tops and before the debut of Big Star – and a truly powerful precursor to that most iconic of soulful Memphis rock acts! For the longest time, the 1970 sessions were something of a rock & roll holy grail – having been oft-discussed, if rarely heard, by Chilton and Big Star diehards. In the mid 90s, Ardent Records finally released the heart of this collection as 1970 – and here it's done up with even more love and respect by Omnivore, which over the course of just a handful of releases has become one of the very best deep digging reissuers of great, should-be classic soul & rock treasures. The vibe swings from stripped down, soulful rock that sometimes flirts with country rock – those songs featuring gruff, bluesy vocals from Chilton that belie his actual youth, just as greatly as his vox for The Box Tops – to gentler soul pop numbers that truly prefigure the Big Star sound to come. The collection features 20 tracks: all of the material from the long out of print 1970, plus other songs from the period, including demos (these are raw in the right kind of way, as finished as we'd ever want to hear them) and some original mono mixes. Great liner notes by Bob Mehr, a living encyclopedia of Memphis musical knowledge. Includes "Free Again (Original Mono Mix)", "Come On Honey", "Something Deep Inside", "I Can Dig It", "The EMI Song (Smile For Me)", "Every Day As We Grow Closer/Funky National", "I Wish I Could Meet Elvis", "All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain", "Sugar, Sugar/I Got That Feeling", "All I Really Want Is Money", "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and more. CD

A killer set of southern rock – even if the whole thing was recorded in London, while the group was on tour with Eric Clapton! Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett are at the height of their powers here – really reworking rootsy southern elements into the kind of sharp-edged 70s sound that made them such an important part of the scene at the time – even though they never went as mainstream to get the kind of crossover fame as some of their contemporaries! But it's that true-to-roots quality that really keeps things great here – as they work with famous help from Eric Clapton and Dave Mason on guitars – alongside sounds by southern stalwarts who include Bobby Whitlock on organ, Jim Price on trumpet, Bobby Keys on saxes, and Jim Gordon on drums. Titles include "Things Get Better", "Little Richard Medley", "Coming Home", "That's What My Man Is For", and "I Don't Want To Discuss It". CD

A wonderful album of Joao Gilberto's early bossa tracks from Brazil – loaded up here with various numbers from other great Brazilian stars! The original one of the first few that he ever recorded, and it's a masterpiece of understatement, recorded with arrangements by a young Antonio Carlos Jobim, and a soaring bossa sound that would soon make history. Tracks include "Discussao", "O Pato", "Outra Vez", "Doralice", and "Samba De Uma Nota So", "Se E Tarde", "Corcovado", "So Em Teus Bracos" and more. This version in El UK fills out the CD with covers of some of these numbers and many more by Sergio Mendes, Sylvia Telles, Walter Wanderly, Silvio Silveira, Carlos Lyra and others. 35 tracks in all! CD

Not the first album of spoken word by Dr King to be issued by Motown – but one that came out on their important Black Forum label after King's death – as a message about the Vietnam War, which was still going strong after many years! King's peaceful approach to protest makes for a natural shift to a discussion of the Vietnam War – and as with all his speeches, the timing, tone, and rhetoric is still extremely powerful all these many years later! LP, Vinyl record album