Writer John Corbett has given us words on a huge variety of musical styles over the years – a fair bit of them left field and avant – but this time around, he's tackling the full range of 70s rock, pop, and soul music – in a huge book that's unlike anything he's ever written before! First off, the large volume is very personal – part listening autobiography, part paean to the musical giants who shaped the decade, and part hindsight record review of all the amazing sounds that were created during the 70s! The book follows the decade with year-by-year chapters – yet it's hardly a history at all – as Corbett picks key songs and albums as touchstones for each year – partly because of their impact, but more because of the power they had for him as a listener. The albums run the gamut – from Nursery Cryme by Genesis, to Les Stances A Sophie by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, to Pink Moon by Nick Drake – and songs include "Sex Machine" by James Brown, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, and "Long Time" by Boston. 496 pages, hardcover. Book

Music from Martin Denny, Dean Elliot, King Curtis, Leroy Holmes, Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Leroy Holmes, John Barry, Yma Sumac & more. CD

A key addition to any collection of The Brand New Heavies! The set features remixes of some of the group's best tracks, plus a few older and rarer cuts, and some other favorites. Titles include "Mind Trips (BNH rmx)", "Bang", "Brother Sister (Angel rmx)", "Keep Together (Jan Kincaid version)", "O Fa Fu", "Keep It Coming", "Midnight At The Oasis", "Worlds Keep Spinning", "Close To You", "Country Funkin", "Dream On Dreamer (Angel rmx)", and "Forever (Soulpower rmx)". CD

A wicked batch of melodic house – selected and mixed by Ian Pooley with a nice feel for a soaring groove! Titles include "Tears (classic voc)" by Frankie Knuckles, "Joy (Kerri Chandler mix)" by Janet Rushmore, "Feel It" by Ian Pooley, "Do You Want Me" by Cloud 9, "54" by Ron Trent & Chaz Damier, "12 Inches Of Pleasure" by Braxton Holmes, "Miss Took" by Johnny D & Nicky P Present Promonade, "Sueno Latino" by Sueno Latino, and "Lost" by The 2nd Symphonium. 18 cuts in all. CD

Clare Fischer on solo piano. CD

The third meeting of this world jazz ensemble, with Colin Walcott of Oregon on sitar, tabla and hammered dulcimer, Don Cherry on trumpet, organ and doussn'gouni and Nana Vasconcelos on berimbau and percussion. All three players have always had a very wide reaching approach to playing, even incorporating international elements in their less overtly "world music" projects, and this set finds them once again vibing well off each other. The tunes feature a wide open approach with improvised excursions on traditional and contemporary themes, with 7 tracks in all: "Goshakabuchi", "Hey Da Ba Doom", "Travel By Night", "Lullaby", "Trayra Boia", "Clicky Clacky" and "Inner Organs". LP, Vinyl record album

Nice later material by Cugie – recorded slightly before his 60s pop excursions, and with a sound that retains a lot of his original conception, but which touches it with some nice exotic hi-fi production. Titles include "Siboney", "Anna", "Jungle Drums", "Jungle Concerto", "Say Si Si", and "Poinciana". LP, Vinyl record album

The Mo Wax version of Divine Styler's third LP, with a super fancy fold out sci-fi cover design! As always, the Styler unleashes his sharp, intellectual rhymes in a complex vernacular, following up on the promise of the original Word Power LP, without the weird excursions he'd dabbled in on Spiral Walls, with a nanotech approach for the new millenium. 18 cuts on the first two LPs, including "Satan Dynasty Killer", "Triple Irons", "One Self Duel", "Before Mecca", "Directrix", "Nova" and "Make It Plain", plus a third album with 15 instrumentals too! CD

The complete Riverside recordings! Complete! That's 12 CDs worth of Bill Evans, documenting some of the finest performances he ever recorded. As you'd expect, there's quite a lot of trio sides presented here, including the great group featuring Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, but there's also a few early excursions into the solo setting he'd return to again and again as well as a few sessions featuring horns. The list of sidemen is filled with heavies from Paul Chambers, Teddy Kotick, Philly Joe Jones and Cannonball Adderley to Freddie Hubbard, Jim Hall, Zoot Sims and Ron Carter. If you know any of the Riverside recordings, you know this is where Evans established himself as one of the leading pianists of his age, and laid the blueprint for a much imitated style. This set features the entirety of loads of great LPs, like New Jazz Conceptions, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Portrait In Jazz, Sunday At The Village Vanguard and more! CD

The title certainly gets it right – as the album's one of the funkiest ever from guitarist George Freeman, and one of the few to really hit that messed-up groove he was working in the clubs before his mid 70s retreat to Chicago! The style here is often all over the map – a mix of soul jazz and funkier numbers, but often served up with less of the direction than you'd get on Prestige, and even less of that on Groove Merchant – more in a raw small combo mode, with Freeman's guitar hitting plenty of raspy notes and weird solo excursions that keep even the mellower tunes exciting! The record features 2 different groups – one with John Young on piano, the other with Bobby Blevins on organ – and brother Von Freeman plays tenor sax on the whole set, although not nearly in the spotlight as George! (Definitely in keeping with something that Von told George many years back – quoted to us by George – "When you've got your own album, make sure that people know that you're the star!") Titles include "New Improved Funk", "Daffy", "Happy Fingers", "Confirmed Truth", "Guitar Lover Man", and "Big Finish". CD

Two sides of McLaughlin, both showcasing his spiritual exploratory inclination. The first side of this album features McLaughlin in a group with Billy Cobham, Airto, Charlie Haden, Dave Liebman and Jerry Goodman plus nice Indian touches from Mahalakshmi on sitar and Badal Roy on tabla. They perform two extended numbers, "Peace One" and "Peace Two", both modal free-ish excursions. Side 2 is solo guitar, or rather McLaughlin multi tracking himself, performing number of shorter pieces, like Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and Miles' "Blue In Green", plus "Follow Your Heart", "Something Spiritual" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Uber-classic dub from Augustus Pablo! Dubbing In A Africa was produced by Pablo and features a rhythm section of Bingy Bunny, Sly & Robbie and Gladdy. Here they deliver a nice, tight set of tunes which like many of Pablo's other classics, veer closer to rhythm workouts than deep space dub excursions – and we ain't complaining about that! Tremendous stuff from one the greats! Titles include "King Of Kings Dub", "Herbal Weed Dub", "Dub In Ethiopia", "Dubbing In A Africa", "Nigerian Love Dub", and "Mount Of Olives Dub". CD

Overseas excursions from the Charles Lloyd Quartet – a group who were already breaking down plenty of boundaries at home in the US! The lineup is a bit different than some of the other Lloyd sessions of the time, in that Cecil McBee is in the group on bass – adding in some wonderfully spiritual tones to a lineup that features Charles on tenor and flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, and Jack DeJohnette on drums – playing with those inventive rhythms that made his work a perfect fit for Lloyd's lines on the tenor! Titles include "Tagore", "Karma", "Little Anahid's Day", "Manhattan Carousel", "European Fantasy", and "Hej Da!". CD

The second album from the immortal Tribe Called Quest – one of the absolute essential hip hop LPs, and a record that should be an anyone's shortlist of the best albums in several subsections of hip hop – just a straight up masterpiece anyway you cut it. The album is so high up on the ladder, we're a loss to add any fresh insight o the critical consensus, so just get it. Classics one after another, steeped in bass note snapping, head nodding funk jazz beatcraft of the first order! "Buggin Out", "Excursions", "Rap Promoter", "Verses From The Abstract", "Check The Rhyme", "Everything Is Fair", "Jazz (We've Got)", "What?", "Scenario" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Huge, dark, and heavy – an album of mythical proportions, and that's a lot to say for a mainstream album – especially one that crossed over as big as this one! It would be hard to imagine the modern rock landscape without this album or group, who provided the template for so much music to follow – and the soundtrack to many bong-fueled excursions to the dark side – a huge legacy in sound, but one that may well still be best begun on this landmark self-titled album! Titles include "Black Sabbath", "The Wizard", "Behind The Wall Of Sleep", "NIB", "Wicked World", and "Warning". LP, Vinyl record album

Huge, dark, and heavy – an album of mythical proportions, and that's a lot to say for a mainstream album – especially one that crossed over as big as this one! It would be hard to imagine the modern rock landscape without this album or group, who provided the template for so much music to follow – and the soundtrack to many bong-fueled excursions to the dark side – a huge legacy in sound, but one that may well still be best begun on this landmark self-titled album! Titles include "Black Sabbath", "The Wizard", "Behind The Wall Of Sleep", "NIB", "Wicked World", and "Warning". CD

One of a number of unofficial live recordings of Miles, the kind that seem to crop up every once in a while, but that you never find on vinyl anymore. This set features the great 60s quintet with Miles joined by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and like the more famous live sides from the period like the Plugged Nickel set the group is playing with a fiery intensity here that shows why they are considered one of the greatest small jazz ensembles of the period. Beautiful modal excursions on "Stella By Starlight", "Walkin", "Autumn Leaves" and "So What". CD

The title certainly gets it right – as the album's one of the funkiest ever from guitarist George Freeman, and one of the few to really hit that messed-up groove he was working in the clubs before his mid 70s retreat to Chicago! The style here is often all over the map – a mix of soul jazz and funkier numbers, but often served up with less of the direction than you'd get on Prestige, and even less of that on Groove Merchant – more in a raw small combo mode, with Freeman's guitar hitting plenty of raspy notes and weird solo excursions that keep even the mellower tunes exciting! The record features 2 different groups – one with John Young on piano, the other with Bobby Blevins on organ – and brother Von Freeman plays tenor sax on the whole set, although not nearly in the spotlight as George! (Definitely in keeping with something that Von told George many years back – quoted to us by George – "When you've got your own album, make sure that people know that you're the star!") Titles include "New Improved Funk", "Daffy", "Happy Fingers", "Confirmed Truth", "Guitar Lover Man", and "Big Finish". LP, Vinyl record album

Uber-classic dub from Augustus Pablo! Dubbing In A Africa was produced by Pablo and features a rhythm section of Bingy Bunny, Sly & Robbie and Gladdy. Here they deliver a nice, tight set of tunes which like many of Pablo's other classics, veer closer to rhythm workouts than deep space dub excursions – and we ain't complaining about that! Tremendous stuff from one the greats! Titles include "King Of Kings Dub", "Herbal Weed Dub", "Dub In Ethiopia", "Dubbing In A Africa", "Nigerian Love Dub", and "Mount Of Olives Dub". LP, Vinyl record album

With selections by The Higsons, The Farmers Boys, Animal Magic, Popular Voice, Maximum Joy, Vital Excursions, Dislocation Dance, Design For Living, and Pinski Zoo. LP, Vinyl record album