A great one from Fab Trio – and proof that the group may be one of the best outlets for Billy Bang's talents in recent years! There's a spare, lean quality here – free interactions between the group members, but some of the warmth of Bang's more composed projects – a blend that almost takes us back to the Revolutionary Ensemble work of Leroy Jenkins – one of Bang's precursors on his chosen instrument by a few years! The lineup features Billy on violin, playing some really amazing sounds, plus Joe Fonda on bass and Barry Altschul on drums – on titles that include "Chan Chan", "From Here To There", "History Of Jazz In Reverse", "From The Waters Of New Orleans", and "Homeward Bound". CD

Rare recordings by one of the grooviest piano players ever – the fab Vince Guaraldi, known for his famous work on the Charlie Brown cartoons of the 60s! This set features Peanuts-related material done by Vince on a number of different sessions – the core of which took place in 1968, and features "The Charlie Brown Suite", a set of tracks that feature Vince's trio performing with some added orchestral backings. The mood of these tunes is varied, as some have the core small combo sound of the cartoons – while others expand the themes a bit more with added orchestrations, taking the tunes into emotions and tonal ranges we wouldn't have expected – and which make us like Vince even more! Added to these "suite" tunes are a few solo piano ones, and a great live recording with Eddie Duran on guitar! Titles include "Linus & Lucy With The Band", "Charlie Brown Theme", "Happiness Is", "Peppermint Patty", "Charlie Brown Theme", "Rain Rain Go Away", "Red Baron", and "Cast Your Fate To The Wind". CD

One of the grooviest girl groups of the 60s – a fab trio who hailed from Brooklyn, and who worked in the best sweet styles of both soul and rock groups of the time! Reparata & The Delrons have a sound that's a real cut above the usual – a way of handling a tune that's free of some of the cliches of other groups from the period, but which also does a good job of bringing out their best elements too. It's hard to sum up just why the group's so great – but it's possibly because they were working at the end of the girl group era, and have a bit more of a depth to their work – a style that's also influenced a bit by harmony folk and Sunshine Pop, but which is stil unabashedly focused on shorter tunes with groovy hooks. CD

Christian Fabian on bass, Matt King on keys, and Jason Marsalis on drums. CD

Beautiful twin trumpet work from the team of Flavio Boltro and Fabrizio Bosso – two Italian players who find some wonderful space together on this set! There's a soaringly sublime quality that takes us back to some of our favorite straight work of the 70s by Freddie Hubbard or Woody Shaw – both players who seem to be a key influence here, but not so much so that Boltro and Bosso are simply copping their styles. The way they come together on the heads of the tunes is great – filled with power, life, and joy – and when they spin out on their own solos, they've definitely each got their own bold voices – supported here with strong and sensitive rhythm from the trio of Luca Mannutza on piano, Luca Bulgarelli on bass, and Lorenzo Tucci on drums. Titles include "Woman's Glance", "Moontrane", "Eighty One", "First Smile Jazz A Doc", "Whoopin Blues", "Lotus Blossom", and "Little Sunflower". CD

A compellingly unconventional trio – one who work in a traditional format of piano, bass, and drums – but who do so with playfully creative touches that echo some of the inventions of The Bad Plus or Medeski Martin & Wood in their acoustic sides! A few of the tracks here are familiar ones, especially the jazz-based covers of 70s pop numbers – but the best work here might be the original music, which is often presented in forms that combine it with the familiar numbers – letting notes slide back and forth in a range of different territories. At times, the trio's perhaps a bit more sentimental than either of the 2 groups we mentioned above, but at other times they've definitely got a similar focus on bolder rhythms and unusual phrasings. Titles include "Tale Two", "Your Song", "And I Love Her", "Harvest", "Tale Four", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Begin The Beguine", and "Don't Give Up". CD

One of our all-time favorites! Trudy Pitts is a totally unique organist, with a wonderful sound that was spare and light – but still pretty darn soulful, and very very groovy! This rare first album has the lady playing in her famous trio with husband Bill Carney on drums and a young Pat Martino on guitar – plus some additional conga work by Abdu Johnson. The record's a unique blend of soul jazz and groovy organ lines – with a sound that's impossible to match. Plus, Trudy sings on a few songs – in a sweet low husky voice, similar to that used by Andy & The Bey Sisters. Titles include "Steppin In Minor", "Spanish Flea", "Take Five", "Music To Watch Girls By", "Fiddlin", and "Siete". Great! LP, Vinyl record album

Teddy Wilson's definitely fabulous here – playing with a sense of poise and timing that really links together a number of different piano jazz traditions – no surprise, given how many different scenes Teddy influenced! The setting is simple – just a trio format, with either Al Hall or Al McKibbon on bass, and JC Heard or Kansas Fields on drums – but throughout the record, Wilson is at center stage – working at a level that may well be solo, as his inherent sense of rhythm and swing comes through so strongly in his own notes, there need not be any role for any other instrumentation at all! Most tunes are familiar – but as with the best of Wilson's generation, they're completely remade and remodeled into very personal expressions. Titles include "Them There Eyes", "These Foolish Things", "Rosetta", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", "I Surrender Dear", "Bess You Is My Woman", and "Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea". LP, Vinyl record album

A collection of rare studio and live tracks from assorted artists on the Jazzland label from Norway – easily one of the most inventive imprints we've stocked in the past decade or so – and a company that excels at both sweeter soul and more avant garde work! The tracks here represent the latter side of the Jazzland Community – and are mostly sparer, more "outside" recordings – often featuring some of the most adventurous material we've ever heard from these artists! Bugge Wesseltoft begins the set with two solo numbers – "Kordial" and "Fabrikk" – the latter of which is a wild bit of electronics. Next are two more electronic-oriented tracks from Eivind Aarset – "Electromagnetic" and "Connectic" – the latter of which is done with Hakon Kornstad. Kornstad blows tenor sax beautifully on the solo tune "Sweden" – and he's followed by a solo vocal number by Sidsel Endresen, the haunting "Slow Song". Sidsel, Bugge, and Eivind come together as a trio on "Western Wind" – and the CD is completed by "Downwind" and "Preparation", both by the entire Jazzland Community together! CD

One of the sweetest electric records to come from 70s Brazil – the fabulous first effort from the Azymuth trio, and work that's hardly been matched again! Although the group here have plenty of the warm keyboard touches of their more famous later work, they're also moving in territory that's a bit more abstract as well – using some noisier electronics amidst the smoother ones, to create a style that's somewhere between fusion, electric funk, and some of the more soaring Brazilian rhythms of the post-bossa years! The keyboards of Jose Roberto Bertrami are worth the price of admission alone – and include Fender Rhodes, Arp, and clavinet – plus bits of Hammond organ too! There's more than a few great breaks and samples on the set – and titles include "Brazil", "Caca De Conta", "Melo Dos Dois Bicudos", "Manha", "Periscopio", and "Montreal City". LP, Vinyl record album

Music from Jim Snidero Sextet, Piero Bassini Trio, Giovanni Tommaso, Bobby Watson, Steve Grossman, Jerry Bergonzi, Franco D'Andrea, 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, Fabio Morgera, Cedar Walton Trio, Piero Odorici Quartet, Ray Mantilla Space Station, Walter Bishop Jr. Trio, Victor Lewis Quintet, and Luis Agudo Quintet. CD

Leave it to the new set of French reissues to do a fabulous job with this, one of the best-ever Jimmy Giuffre albums! Jimmy's playing here in his classic piano-less trio format, in a group with Jim Hall on guitar and Bob Brookmeyer on trombone. The group was perhaps his best, and they achieve a perfect blend of free-flowing improvised lines, while still managing to retain a jazz swing (something that didn't always happen on Giuffre's other records). The centerpiece of the set is the extended "Western Suite" (don't be fooled by the name, because there's no sort of "Country & Western" tinge to it), and the record also includes beautiful long versions of "Blue Monk" and "Topsy". The whole thing is one of the most amazing jazz records ever recorded, and has an insane array of tones, colors, and sound shapes. Fantastic stuff, and beautifully repackaged with the original cover! CD

Super-groovy work from The Bluebells – a Scottish group who should have been one of the bigger acts from the British Isles in the 80s, but who broke up before ever getting the shot they deserved! There's plenty of smart songwriting here – and a production approach that's in the territory of Prefab Sprout or some of their better contemporaries – nicely understated at times, so that the tunes can cross over, but also aren't destined to get overplayed on mainstream radio. If you dig 80s UK pop, you'll find plenty here to discover – a real overlooked legacy that includes the tracks "Learn To Love", "Young At Heart", "I'm Falling", "Cath", "Red Guitars", "Syracuse University", "South Atlantic Way", and "The Patriot Game". CD

Super-groovy work from The Bluebells – a Scottish group who should have been one of the bigger acts from the British Isles in the 80s, but who broke up before ever getting the shot they deserved! There's plenty of smart songwriting here – and a production approach that's in the territory of Prefab Sprout or some of their better contemporaries – nicely understated at times, so that the tunes can cross over, but also aren't destined to get overplayed on mainstream radio. If you dig 80s UK pop, you'll find plenty here to discover – a real overlooked legacy that includes the tracks "Learn To Love", "Young At Heart", "I'm Falling", "Cath", "Red Guitars", "Syracuse University", "South Atlantic Way", and "The Patriot Game". 2CD edition is overflowing with bonus material – 22 bonus cuts that include non-LP singles, b-sides, extended versions, and five never-issued tunes! Bonus titles include "Holland", "Tender Mercy", "Smalltown Martyr", "All I Ever Said", "Fall From Grace", "Happy Birthday Turn Gold", and "Forevermore". CD

Esbjorn Svensson on piano, Dan Berglund on bass, and Magnus Ostrom on drums. Titles include "The Unstable Table & The Infamous Fable", "In The Tail Of Her Eye", "Letter From The Leviathan", and "Eighty-eight Days In My Veins". CD

Unusual work from the final year of Chet Baker's life – recorded with the Italian trio of Enrico Pieranunzi on piano, Enzo Pietropaoli on bass, and Fabrizio Sferra on drums! CD

A trio of New York labels from the 60s – all of which worked together closely, under the guidance of the mighty Al Sears – and turned out a motherlode of uptown soul gems in the process! The work here is mostly deeper than any chart hits of the time – tunes that have all the care and perfection of soul material you'd hear from bigger NY labels of the time – like Atlantic, Wand, or Scepter – but the cuts are all pretty darn obscure, in a way that makes the collection a huge discovery in soul! A few artists are ones who scored big on other imprints, but most are much lesser-known – yet there's a focus and clarity to these tunes, right from the start – the best sort of New York soul sharpness of the time, cut with a few deep soul touches too. Titles include "I Can't Stay Away" by Joan Moody, "When The Going Gets Rough" by Tutti Hill, "Take My Hand" by Gene Burks, "Love Is Such A Good Thing" by The Corvairs, "It Won't Work Out" by Junior Lewis, "Did You Hear" by Don Covay, "Another Sleepless Night" by The Larks, "Kindness Love & Understanding" by Eddie King, "Something Else" by Chet Ivey & His Fabulous Avengers, "You Were All I Needed" by The DC Playboys, "This Is My Prayer" by Theola Kilgore, "It Ain't No Big Thing" by Van McCoy, "Chained Am I" by Ansler Montell, "I Wanna Come In" by Billy Washington, and "Nobody But Me" by Sinner Strong. CD

The music of Sun Ra, taken into very different territory – every bit as cosmic as before, but maybe also a bit more down to earth in its presentation! Sun Ra classics are reworked here by a mix of different Brazilian musicians, with contributions from a few key American artists who really enrich the soulful qualities of the proceedings – with results that are tremendous, and which make the record one of the real standout projects in the long legacy of Red Hot recordings! The sounds here are all original, created for the project – and the Brazilian artists include some of our favorite underground talents of the past decade, mixed with a few who are more well-established, yet still very much on the left side of the spectrum! Titles include "Astroblack Orunmila" with Jazzmeia Horn & Orquestra Afrosinfonica, "Interstellar Low Ways" with Hamilton De Holanda Trio, "When There Is No Sun (Intergalactic version)" with Xenia Franca & Tigana Santana, "Eu Sou Um Instrumento" with Fabricio Boliveira & Jazzmeia Horn, "O Codigo" with Fabricio Boliveira & Edbrass Brasil, "Nature's God" with Meshell Ndegeocello & Munir Hossn, and "Nine Rocket For The Planet" with Meta Meta & Edgar. LP, Vinyl record album