Featuring Frank Wakefield. CD

A beautifully poetic take on the transplantation of African sounds in the US scene – played on a variety of different instruments by Bilal Abdurahman! The tracks are mostly short, percussive ones – with the strongest focus on instrumentation, but with occasional vocal refrains from Bilal – usually in wordless or chanted form, although there's a few nice spoken bits too! Instrumentation is quite diverse – and includes balafon, xalam, and even Ugandan harp – on titles that include "Spirits Of Congo Square", "Ancestral Ode", "Fusion", "Congo Square Procession", "Lament", "Blues Is Born", and "Gogi Solo". CD

A hip batch of underground poetry tracks – collected together by the Before Columbus Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting the works of African-American and Native American artists! Despite the 1980 date, the collection has a feel that's similar to earlier righteous poetry albums on the Folkways label – proof that the flames were still burning strong in the underground, even though artists such as these weren't getting as much mainstream attention at the end of the 70s! Most readings are recorded live, with a relatively spare, stark sound – and performances include "Dope" by Amiri Baraka, "St Louis Woman" by Ishmael Reed, "For The Poets" by Jayne Cortez, "Bark Is What Us Dogs Do" by David Meltzer, "Flipochinos, Being Your Woman, & Pacific Lover" by Cyn Zarco, and "Artist/Art This" by Victor Hernandez Cruz. CD

A weird little album from the Folkways label – one that features a bunch of 50s-sounding R&B tracks, but packaged almost in an ethnographic style – as if commercial American music was being examined from an outside scientific source! Given that the date of the album is 1966, and most of the work has a sound from a decade before, the approach can be somewhat excused – but honestly, much of the material here would have done great on a commercial label as well – especially some of the more soul-based material. There's a great array of stuff here – and titles include 3 tracks by The Barons – "There's A Dream For You", "Until The End", and "I Can Jerk All Night" – plus "Don't Mistreat Me" by The Queenettes, "Baby Fat" by The Dominoes, "There Is Something About My Girl That Is Mighty Sweet" by Dave Bonds, "The Eel" by Johnny Larand & The Internes, and "A Fool In Love" by Naomi Bradley. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty cool collection produced by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee – focusing on famous speeches by important female African-Americans – mostly focusing on the civil rights era, but also featuring an early speech by Ida B Wells. Ruby reads the speeches, and works include "I Am A Black Revolutionary Woman (1971)" by Angela Davis, "The Right To A Decent Life & Human Dignity (1971)" by Coretta Scott King, "It Is Time For A Change (1969)" by Shirley Chisolm, and "Lynching, Our National Crime (1901)" by Ida B Wells. CD

Kind of silly – but also pretty darn hip! Nancy Dupree was one of the most righteous music teachers you could ever have – and here, she's working with some young kids from the rough side of Rochester, in an album of simple tunes that have a surprisingly soulful edge to them. Nancy plays piano, and the kids sing either solo or in ensemble format. The record's got a starkness that's extremely compelling, and it's a lot stronger than we expected, even if it's not like some of the funky stuff on the Folkways label. Includes a song called "James Brown" that has all the kids making grunts and groans ala 60s James, then singing about his shift from a process to an afro! Other titles include "I Want", "What Do I Have?", "Bag Snatchin", and "Docta King". CD

... CD

Beautiful sounds from the Entourage ensemble – a record that's got a really meditative blend of acoustic elements with a few electric touches – used in ways that start in jazz, then move way beyond! Instrumentation includes guitar, flute, keyboards, violin, and mbira – coming together with really unusual inflections that are partly borrowed from Eastern sources – like Noh theater, or Balinese music – but which unfurl with a more freewheeling, American underground vibe as well! No sounds are ever too sharp, and there's almost a hint of the instrumental experiments in the 80s underground – such as work by Penguin Cafe Orchestra or Soft Verdict – but with an earthier feel overall. Titles include "Jattle Boxes", "Giraffes", "Solo For Electric Viola", "Michael's Song", "Silver Drum", and "Percussion Dance". CD

Warmly experimental music from the 70s Folkways scene – music that's a mixture of jazz, folk, electronics, and improvised styles – played with an open, honest sort of feel! The Entourage Music & Theater Ensemble features four composer/musicians – Joe Clark, Wall Matthews, Rusti Clark, and Michael Smith – all individuals with a nicely subdued sensibility, despite the "theater" in the group's name. The work here is hardly performative – at least not in an aggressive sense – and instead is a beautiful matrix of sounds from instruments that include keyboards, acoustic guitar, soprano sax, viola, gong, and percussion – all used lightly, with an approach that's almost a folksier take on early 70s spiritual jazz – especially given the way the acoustic guitar is used. Titles include "Nature Spirits", "Incantation For The Death Of Self", "Space Needle Suicide", "Tar Box Poltergeist", and "Druid Dance". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible album, and very unique! Sarah Webster Fabio was a hip 70s poet with a very righteous sound – and she's working here with funky backings by a tight group that includes family members, in a style that's similar to early 70s work by artists like Wanda Robinson and Camille Yarborough – both of whom also mixed together funk and poetry! The album's got a massive funky cut called "Sweet Songs" – the kind of groover we never tire of, with tight drums, great guitar, and wonderful vocals by Sarah herself. There's lots of other great tunes too – with titles that include "Juju For Grandma", "Still A Red Hot Axe", "Chromo", "If We Come As Soft Rain", and "Jujus/Alchemy Of The Blues". CD

A really unusual concept for a soul record, but one that works wonderfully all the way through – a mix of kid-oriented themes and warmly expressive vocals – with a vibe that almost feels like a hip 70s singer recording an album for Sesame Street! Edgar Hendricks works with just congas, bass, and piano on most tracks – this very cool, open approach that really demands a lot from his vocals – which rise to the occasion, and provide all these powerful, positive inflections on lyrics that most other singers would have just taken in a much straighter way! The result is very cool, and very special – like Bill Withers recording a special for the Children's Television Workshop in the 70s – with titles that include "The Bee & The Boy", "A Good Education Will Help You Through Life", "Song Of The Alphabets", "Let's Play A Circle Game", "Counting From One To Ten", and "Message To All Young People". CD

A really wonderful record – and one that maybe brings together a few key strands of the Folkways Records magic – as the album features narration by Langston Hughes, based on his First Book Of Rhythms book – layered with sound effects, folk songs, and music from around the world – all put together in this wonderful sonic pastiche! Much as we love Langston's writings, we especially love his voice – and the record is almost like some global folk take on the area that Hughes explored in a jazz vein with Charles Mingus around the same point in his career. The set is one continuous very cool record – narrated by Langston Hughes, but featuring global music as well! There are songs at points, but the whole thing is really one continuous soundpiece, in the best Folkways tradition. CD

A great little 70s album of electric blues – a set that begins with a song about Watergate – then moves off into a whole other great range of themes too! Bob Kirkpatrick's got a vibe here that's in the better style of the small club scene of Detroit or Chicago at the time – lean, gritty, and with vocals wrapped around his guitar in a really wonderful way – getting support from a slightly unusual trio that features Jothan Callins on bass, Ron Burton on piano, and Harold White on drums – two of whom you'll know from work in spiritual jazz! Titles include "Watergate Blues", "Sweet Little Angel", "I Don't Know Why", "When The Sun Rose This Morning", "I Been Down So Long", and "I Got Love". CD

A beautiful little record – one that features cascading tones from the strings of the kora, mixed with occasional vocal moments too! The album was recorded in Dakar and Brikama in the mid 70s – and is maybe the start of a great run of later sessions that found a way of taking this amazing instrument to a wider audience – opening up the ringing, many-stringed tones of the kora with fidelity that really lives up to the tonal complexities of well-played performances like these. Some of the songs are quite long, and have a very hypnotic vibe – and titles include "Tutu Jara", "Sutukung Kumbu Sora & Solo", "Darisalami Amad Fal", and "Yeyengo High Life Tune". CD

A beautiful little record – one that features cascading tones from the strings of the kora, mixed with occasional vocal moments too! The album was recorded in Dakar and Brikama in the mid 70s – and is maybe the start of a great run of later sessions that found a way of taking this amazing instrument to a wider audience – opening up the ringing, many-stringed tones of the kora with fidelity that really lives up to the tonal complexities of well-played performances like these. Some of the songs are quite long, and have a very hypnotic vibe – and titles include "Tutu Jara", "Sutukung Kumbu Sora & Solo", "Darisalami Amad Fal", and "Yeyengo High Life Tune". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful sounds from the overlooked minimalist composer Craig Kupka – a set that features two very different tracks, each issued by Folkways Records – with a presentation that's both far away from the more academic records of the time, and some of the self-released work of the growing New Age underground! Side one features the long "Trombones Of Lithia" – piece that's heavy on the resonant sound of the trombone, but stretched out in this really longform way – nicely meditative, and clearly processed with a bit of electronics, but still with a warmly acoustic core. Side two features "Crystals" – a tune that has more keys, but a mix of 70s analogue and early 80s digital – again given some elements in the background that make the whole thing feel a lot warmer than you might expect, yet still with some of the experimental elements of earlier electronic composition. CD

Beautiful sounds from the overlooked minimalist composer Craig Kupka – a set that features two very different tracks, each issued by Folkways Records – with a presentation that's both far away from the more academic records of the time, and some of the self-released work of the growing New Age underground! Side one features the long "Trombones Of Lithia" – piece that's heavy on the resonant sound of the trombone, but stretched out in this really longform way – nicely meditative, and clearly processed with a bit of electronics, but still with a warmly acoustic core. Side two features "Crystals" – a tune that has more keys, but a mix of 70s analogue and early 80s digital – again given some elements in the background that make the whole thing feel a lot warmer than you might expect, yet still with some of the experimental elements of earlier electronic composition. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

An insane album of keyboard tracks – almost as if Sun Ra was taking on an electrified version of boogie woogie! Pianist Red Camp's been recorded by the Cook label before, but this set features Red handling the clavichord – an instrument that's like a harpsichord, with a similar metallic sound overall! The approach is very odd – as Camp's work on the keys is quite dynamic and jamming, hardly the sort of take on the instrument you might expect, and one that really pushes its tones into weirdly distorted range – almost like Ra's use of the rocksichord on some of his 70s albums. The sound is amazing, and the record's unlike anything else we've heard from the time – and titles include "The Bluesando", "Nagasaki", "Alma Llanera", "Slow Slow Blues", "Prelude For Twelve Fingers", and "Twofer Atonement". CD

A really unique little record – an album of original songs based on older tradition, and one that interweaves elements of Portuguese culture with deeper roots of Angolan music! Lilly Tchiumba penned all the tracks herself, and sings in the Angolan language of Kimbundu – but there's a mix of percussion, guitar, and soaring vocals that echoes strongly with rootsier Brazilian, Cuban, and Haitian styles too – maybe in part because the Monitor label did such a wonderful job of recording the songs, and giving them this righteous, powerful vibe that still holds up strongly over the years! And by all of that, we almost mean that there's this sort of trans-global power to the whole record – one that moves beyond just a regional expression of culture, and past any sort of basic ethnographic mode – a lot like the Songs Of Protest album by Zelia Barbosa, also on the Monitor label. Titles include "Manazinha", "Gilagi Bu Kanga", "N'Zambi", "Mona Ki N'Gui Xissa", "Luanda M'Bolo", and "Kubata Di Rosinha". CD

A landmark album – and one of the best records you'll ever find by Mary Lou Williams! The record's a mixture of jazz and spiritual themes, and it features Mary Lou's piano set in some super-hip jazz arrangements that include players like Grant Green, Budd Johnson, Larry Gales, Melba Liston, Ben Tucker, and Percy Heath. The bass and piano work is amazing, and many tracks have a dark groove that's very subtle, but very compelling. About half the tunes feature hip choral vocalizing – in the mode of some of the Donald Byrd or Max Roach albums from the same time – mostly handled by the group of Howard Roberts. Includes the classic groover "A Grand Nite For Swinging", plus "A Fungus Amongus", "Anima Christi", "Miss DD", "The Devil", "It Ain't Necessarily So", and "My Blue Heaven". Great stuff all around – and even better than we're describing it! This CD issue features the original Mary Records cover art – different than the Saba/MPS or later Smithsonian CD versions. CD

A fantastic document of the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival – the start of a great event that would blossom into other styles of music in the 70s, but which stood as a strong blues-based event in its initial year of 1969! In some ways, the three day series of concerts is a roots answer to Woodstock – which took place just a few weeks before – as the festival featured a great scope of blues talents, from the rootsier sort of artists who were recording for labels like Folkways or Arhoolie, to some of the sharper modern talents rising to the top on Chess or Delmark! The package alone is almost worth the price of admission – beautiful photographs of the event, detailed notes, and the first-ever release of this music – which has sat in the vaults for decades, finally to see the light of day. Titles include "Dirty Mother For You" by Roosevelt Sykes, "So Glad You're Mine" by Arthur Big Boy Crudup, "Everybody Must Suffer/Stone Crazy" by Luther Allison & The Blue Nebulae, "Help Me" by Junior Wells, "I Wonder Why" by Jimmy Dawkins, "Too Much Alcohol" by JB Hutto & His Hawks, "So Many Roads So Many Trains" by Otis Rush, "Long Distance Call" by Muddy Waters, "Off The Wall" by James Cotton Band, "Juanita" by Big Joe Williams, "Jelly Jelly Blues" by Shirley Griffin, "I Feel So Good" by Magic Sam, "Call It Stormy Monday" by T-Bone Walker, "Death Letter Blues" by Son House, "Key To The Highway" by Sam Lay, and "Mojo Hand" by Lightnin Hopkins. CD

A fantastic document of the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival – the start of a great event that would blossom into other styles of music in the 70s, but which stood as a strong blues-based event in its initial year of 1969! In some ways, the three day series of concerts is a roots answer to Woodstock – which took place just a few weeks before – as the festival featured a great scope of blues talents, from the rootsier sort of artists who were recording for labels like Folkways or Arhoolie, to some of the sharper modern talents rising to the top on Chess or Delmark! The package alone is almost worth the price of admission – beautiful photographs of the event, detailed notes, and the first-ever release of this music – which has sat in the vaults for decades, finally to see the light of day. Titles on this first volume include "Dirty Mother For You" by Roosevelt Sykes, "So Glad You're Mine" by Arthur Big Boy Crudup, "Everybody Must Suffer/Stone Crazy" by Luther Allison & The Blue Nebulae, "Help Me" by Junior Wells, "I Wonder Why" by Jimmy Dawkins, "Too Much Alcohol" by JB Hutto & His Hawks, and "So Many Roads So Many Trains" by Otis Rush. LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing 3CD set, put together from mid 50s recordings by Unesco – and featuring one of the richest looks at Indian music we've ever heard! The collection is much more ethnographic than the better-circulated Indian recordings of the time – and although the word "classical" is used in the title, the overall feel is often quite rootsy – filled with earthy percussion, raw vocal passages, and some especially captivating use of flute! Original material was issued by the Ducretet Thomson label in 1955 – but this set features a full 3CDs' worth of titles – 33 tracks in all, with a great sense of variety. CD

Nothing too dirty about this jazz – especially considering that the "south" in the title is actually the Caribbean – an overlooked hotbed of creative improvisational activity! The album's similar to some of the other Caribbean jazz recorded by Cook Records at the time – highly rhythmic, with a somewhat exotic feel – but the music here is also a bit more conventionally jazz-based at times, with echoes of older swing and trad modes mixed in with rougher percussion on the bottom. There's some great sax parts at times – nice and snakey – and titles include "Serenade", "Kiss Me In the Country", and "Mme Kilio" by Cyril Diaz; "Vicki" and "Cook's Cooking" by Johnny Gomez, "My Salty Sin" and "Choro" by John Buddy Williams, "All Of Me" by Conrad Jones, and "Jungle Blues" by Lorna Pierre. CD

A wealth of recent recordings from the SWP label – an ethnographic powerhouse who are really furthering the sorts of material initially captured by earlier labels like Folkways or Ocora! The style here is very much like the latter – very faithful to the presentation, and very well-recorded – and there's also a clear social mission to really push deeper and farther – in this case well into the eastern side of Zambia's Luangwa province, which includes some musical styles and cultures that have never been recorded before! The set is huge – 4CDs with a tremendous amount of music – presented in a very cool book-styled cover, with copious notes – and separately themed CDs, with titles that include Southern Province Mix, Leya Ceremony & Songs, The Complete Kalonda Band Recordings, and Chikunda Nsenga Soli Cewa. CD

Solo piano sessions recorded for Capitol and Folkways, plus a few tracks by the Joe Sullivan Quintette. CD

An amazing record from the legendary Cook label – billed in the cover as "patois jazz" – but with a sound that's surprisingly sophisticated overall! Rupert Clemendore works here in a mix of piano, vibes, bass, and lots of cool percussion – in a style that's somewhere between the music of Moondog and early small group sides from Sun Ra – tunes that are often very rhythmic at the core, but with an earthy sort of orientation that's quite unique – and a way of hitting sounds and styles that's quite hard to pinpoint! The notes refer to the music as "sophisticated jazz with a pixie beat" – and that's not far off, given the mix of modernism and lightness in Rupert's style. Really wonderful, and quite unique – with titles that include "Offbeat", "Eastern Conga", "Mambo Chop Suey", "Mambo Ebonier", "Doris Oh", "Drummer's Mood", and "Clem's Confusion". CD

Sublime solo guitar work from Wall Matthews – a musician who's maybe best known for his work in the group Entourage, who issued two 70s albums on Folkways – although that group is also pretty darn obscure too! Matthews has a great sound here – a solo acoustic mode that's filled with experimental elements, but also very down to earth – part of the 60s legacy of Robbie Basho and John Fahey, but also graced with a chromatic sensibility that points the way towards the direction of William Ackerman. Those references are all pretty huge in our mind, and very well-attached here – on a beautiful set of tracks that should get Wall a much larger place in the acoustic underground. Titles include "Spine River", "The Doves Of Venus", "Wendy's Piece", "The Dance In Your Eye", "Roping", "Kotokes", and "Walk In A Country Rain". LP, Vinyl record album

A really great set of Italian electronics – a set that's maybe known better to Americans than most of the generation, due to a surprising 70s release on Folkways Records! Yet this set is quite different than the more academic electronics that usually grace that label – and echo more that shift towards moogier modes that would really crest in the Italian clubs of the next decade – still here more in a sound library mode, but turned towards nice little tunes that move between spacey instrumentals and keyboard groovers! Gianni Safred plays a range of different instruments – minimoog, polymoog, Arp Odyssey, Fender Rhodes, and Roland keyboards – layering the electronics in a way that's nice and warm, and surprisingly soulful at most moments too. Tracks include "Jazz Computer", "Future City Traffic", "Electronic Brain", "Supermind", "The Life To Come", "Disco Satellite", "Autumn 2001", and "Robot Party". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic document of the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival – the start of a great event that would blossom into other styles of music in the 70s, but which stood as a strong blues-based event in its initial year of 1969! In some ways, the three day series of concerts is a roots answer to Woodstock – which took place just a few weeks before – as the festival featured a great scope of blues talents, from the rootsier sort of artists who were recording for labels like Folkways or Arhoolie, to some of the sharper modern talents rising to the top on Chess or Delmark! The package alone is almost worth the price of admission – beautiful photographs of the event, detailed notes, and the first-ever release of this music – which has sat in the vaults for decades, finally to see the light of day. Titles on this second volume include "Long Distance Call" by Muddy Waters, "Off The Wall" by James Cotton Band, "Juanita" by Big Joe Williams, "Jelly Jelly Blues" by Shirley Griffin, "I Feel So Good" by Magic Sam, "Call It Stormy Monday" by T-Bone Walker, "Death Letter Blues" by Son House, "Key To The Highway" by Sam Lay, and "Mojo Hand" by Lightnin Hopkins. LP, Vinyl record album

Whoa! An incredible, gargantuan 8 CD box set of the Louvin Brothers complete catalog for the Capitol, Apollo, Decca, and MGM labels in the late 50s and early 60s! Ira and Charlie are probably the greatest country harmony duo of all time – and the set is way too huge to even think about soaking up in a single sitting – but it's an essential slice of history for the completists out there, and thanks to Bear Family many of these tracks that might have disappeared forever live on thanks to the magic of CD! 220 songs – including tons of alternate versions from throughout the years, many of which still have the crackly quality you have on a lot of Folkways recordings – the kind that only contribute to the sincerity of the recordings rather than standing out as a flaw. The box also includes a massive book, with rare photos, a montage of all the original album cover art, a complete list of tracks recorded by other artists, and everything you need to know about the boys and their lives at the time! A small sample of what you'll find here – "Alabama", "Seven Year Blues", "Weapon Of Prayer", "Robe Of White", "Great Atomic Power", "Broadminded", "Satan And The Saint", "I Can't Say No", "Pitfall", "In The Pines", "Kentucky", "Katy Dear", "We Could", "Tennessee Waltz", "Dog Sled", "Blue", The Drunkard's Doom", and a couple hundred more! CD

A stone classic from this legendary percussionist – a raw and rootsy set that's one of the standouts from the catalog of Cook Records! Like some of the best Cook titles, this one's recorded in a no-nonsense format that's quite live – as if you're happening upon a performance by Tiroro in his native scene – playing with a very vibrant set of rhythms! The album just features two side-long tracks – each mostly with a focus on the percussion, with some slight additional vocal and instrumental bits as well – and done in a mode that's right up there with the best late 50s percussion sides. CD