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". CD

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Excellent stuff from one of the hippest poets of all time – the amazing Sarah Webster Fabio – a 70s poet with a really wonderful groove! Unlike some of her contemporaries in the Folkways poetry scene, Sarah often recorded with music – in a way that's very similar to Camille Yarbrough or Wanda Robinson – very hip stuff that's sort of a female equivalent to the early work of Gil Scott-Heron! The album features both Sarah's voice and that of a male reader – and the music is a mix of spare percussion or larger funky rhythms with some great bass and riffing guitar – very cool elements that make for some wonderfully soulful music. Titles include "Work It Out", "Boss Soul", "Black Back", "Fungi & Calau", "Glimpses", "Soul Through A Lickin Stick", "Rainbow Sign", and "After Birmingham". CD

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 hard biting album of hip poetry from the great Sarah Webster Fabio! The title cut is a brutal attack on the free use of the word soul by black musicians – and Sarah delivers the words over spare conga backing by family member Cyril Leslie Fabio II. Cyril shows up on one other track – "Nina Giving Mr Backlash The Blues" – but most of the record features Sarah reading solo, without the musical accompaniment of her other Folkways album. The record's still a great one, though, as Sarah's voice and writing is always extremely compelling – without the cliches of some of her protest poetry contemporaries, and with an approach that's always smart and literate, yet still pretty spare and rhythmic. Titles include "Black World", "Hurt Of It All", "Bronzeville Breakthrough", and "For My People, A Jubilee". CD

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One of the coolest records we've ever heard from beat legend Allen Ginsberg – not just a record of his famous poetry, but one that also features him on harmonium as well! There's a really weird, dark sound to the record – as Ginsberg plays harmonium and sings/speaks his own words – older themes from the 60s and 70s, recast here with almost a new sense of blues and frustration. The approach is quite unique, and almost features a Ginsberg cowed a bit by the changes of time, but still with the same sense of wit and clarity he brought to his work a few decades back. Titles include "CIA Dope Calypso", "Put Down Your Cigarette Rag", "Come Back Christmas", "Bus Ride Ballad Road To Suva", "Prayer Blues", and "Dope Fiend Blues". CD

One of the lesser-known 70s albums by Nikki Giovanni – a wonderful selection of material from her book Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day – read in a spare setting, without any musical accompaniment! In some ways, this album's even better than the more famous Giovanni albums on Atlantic – as Nikki's vocals really come across beautifully without any music – strong and expressive, but without any overdone moments – and clearly no attempt to commercialize her words by turning them into songs. Titles include "Gus", "Habits", "Boxes", "Crutches", "The New Yorkers", and "Winter". CD

A beautiful post-Atlantic album from Nikki Giovanni – much more intimate and personal than her better known work, with only Nikki's voice throughout the album – heard on a number of shorter poems! At some level, Giovanni seems to have left behind the more righteous themes of before, and is going for a mode here that's a bit more everyday – but still touched with the deeper reflections that make her so great. The titles of the poems tell enough about the subject matter – and they include "Parent's Never Understand", "Mommie's Daddies", "Ego Tripping", "James Shell's Snowball Stand", "Knoxville Tennessee", "Winter Poem", "The Drum", and "Kidnap Poem". CD

A fittingly elegiac set devoted to folk hero Woody Guthrie from Smithsonian Folkways! This 2012 set celebrates the long-departed icon's 100th birthday, and it's a real treasure – with 57 tracks on 3CDs (21 of which are previously unreleased performances) – and it comes in a beautiful, full color 150-page, lavishly-illustrated hardcover book! The music is an excellent compilation of his most-revered songs and performances – a number of which appear here in alternate, rarely (if ever) heard versions – and a handful of original songs that are seeing release for the first time ever. The book is worth the price alone, filled with photographs of some of Woody's artwork, along with hand-written or typed lyrics, original sleeve art and notes on each recording. Songs include "This Land Is Your Land (Alternate Version)", "Talking Dust Bowl", "Pretty Boy Floyd", "New York Town", "Why, Oh Why?", "I've Got To Know", "Better World A-Comin'", "1913 Massacre", "Jackhammer John", "The Jolly Banker", "The Ranger's Command", "Dirty Overalls", "We Shall Be Free", "Reckless Talk", "All Work Together", "My Little Seed", "Goodnight Little Cathy" and much more – plus the legendary late 30s Los Angeles recordings (Woody's earliest known recordings), some mid 40s BBC sessions and more! CD

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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 very cool record! Langston tells the story of jazz, using snippets of work from the Folkways catalog – like tunes by Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodd, Ma Rainey, Leadbelly, and others – all sewn together in a rich narrative on the history of the music, delivered with some surprising illumination by Hughes! His voice is always a treat, and even though his narration of the material is designed for an audience of newcomers to jazz, it more than held our attention throughout – and the record's got almost as much appeal as some of his own jazz poetry work. CD

A wonderful collection of work from Langston Hughes – material pulled from a handful of albums recorded for the Folkway labels in the 50s, all of which are pretty darn great and long out of print! Hughes' writings are well known – part of a rich tradition of African-American expression in the 20th Century – but his readings of his own work are equally great – performed at a level that really illuminates the text, and balances them with all the right stress and meaning that can sometimes be overlooked given the simple nature of his language. Most of the sides here feature Hughes alone, reading his work – but a few also feature bits of music too – touches of jazz or gospel that further set the scene, and point to Langston's later experiments with Charles Mingus. Titles include "Breath Of A Spiritual", "Homesick Blues", "The Weary Blues", "I Too", "The Negro Speaks Of Rivers", "Simple Prays A Prayer", "Rhythms Of The World", "The Struggle", "Youth", and "Mother to Son". CD

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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

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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

A fantastic soundtrack to an equally fantastic film – the sublime Little Fugitive, shot on New York in the 50s – and a lively little tale about a kid who escapes to Coney Island! Eddy Manson's music has a great mix of modernism and whimsey – a lot like the movie – and most of the songs are just solo harmonica, but played in this cool, chromatic way that sounds very different than most other uses of the instrument! Manson almost uses the harmonica like some sort of little symphony – making colors rise and fall, but without any hokey bluesy cliches – and his ability to paint the right sort of sounds is really amazing, as you'll hear on tunes that include "The Plot", "Ride Em Joey", "Deposit Bottles", "Coney Island", and "The Harmonica Player". CD

A later Folkways recording, but still handled with a nicely rootsy vibe! LP, Vinyl record album

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A fantastic little record, and one that definitely lives up to its promise – as Vaclav Nelhybel uses piano and electronics with a lot of echo and effects – all to create the sort of music you'd imagine if you were careening through space at the end of the 50s! The songs are relatively spare, but in a great way – a style that lets you focus on key elements in the music, as Nelhybel spins out short songs that often have a core cosmic melody, but with a very offbeat vibe – almost as if Vaclav is trying to claim a role here as the Moondog of outer space! Titles include "Space Meteors", "Sun Lava", "Dark Cosmic Clouds", "Cosmic Dawn", "Space Spirals", "Vibrations From Outer Space", "Cosmic Cycle", "Nebulae", and "Mars Craters". CD

A rare solo album from Nadi Qamar – an artist who's probably best known for his brief piano appearance with Charles Mingus, but who's working here on the Mama Likembi – an instrument of his own creation that's kind of like a big kalimba! From the information in the notes, it appears that the instrument is kind of an assemblage of smaller kalimbas – tuned pieces of metal over soundboards with hollow spaces – played simultaneously by Qamar with a really wonderful sound – haunting, and evocative, and even more stripped down than Phil Cohran's "On The Beach"! Titles include "After Glow", "Earth Quintessence", "California Sutra #2", "Australian Seascape", and "Tribute To Art Tatum". CD

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A great entry in the "intro to electronic music" style that was popular at the end of the 60s – and like others in the genre, a set that seems to use each new track to demonstrate certain aspects of electronic music! Techniques include tape echoes, moogy passages, and even stereo separation effects – and lots of wonderful analogue electronics from JD Robb! The date of the work is 1970, but the approach is a bit older – almost abstract, and very concerned with sonic textures and space – but also playfully assembled, at a level that's fairly tuneful for most of the set – even though there's not really that many "songs" to speak of. Titles include "Collage No 2", "Spatial Serenade (excerpt)", "Green Mansions", "Analogies", "Les Ondes Martenot", and "Transmutations For Orchestra". CD

A really groovy entry in the Folkways series of electronic music releases – a set that's far less academic than some of the others! Gianni Safred's music is quite tuneful at times – with a catchy, rhythmic quality that's almost like some of the best electronics coming out of the UK or Italy at the same time – especially the latter scene, as we could almost hear some of these tracks getting play at the Cosmic nightclub! Most numbers are somewhat spare, but in a really good way – and titles include "Disco Propulsion", "Robot Party", "Last Rain", "Supermind", "Future City Traffic", "Disco Satellite", "The Life To Come", and "Machines Forever". CD

A vivid audio document of New York City in the late 50s – put together by creative sound recorder Tony Schwartz! The set's one of a few amazing albums put together by Schwartz – who spent a lot of time on the streets with his microphones and recorder, then really got creative putting the whole thing together in the studio – so that there's some good structure, and almost a sense of narrative to the record – yet in a way that also preserves all of the vivid, spontaneous aspects of the "on the street" recordings. Schwartz narrates a bit, includes some interviews, background sounds from certain areas of the city, and a range of performances in styles that run from jazz to folk to gospel and beyond! CD

A very cool document of New York in the 50s! Tony Schwartz turns the Folkways ethnographic microphone to the streets of the city – and comes up with amazing sounds and audio documents of life in the Big Apple – specifically, all material recorded in postal zone 19 – hence the title of the album! There's a fair bit of unusual things going on here – spoken bits, sound effects, and a variety of music from different sources – street preachers, jukeboxes, corner instrumentalists, and even some work by the legendary Moondog – who was maybe more of a figure on the New York streets of the 50s than he was a force in the concert halls and recording studios! Schwartz really gets at the cultural melting pot of the city over the course of the record – weaving together elements of Puerto Rican, Italian, Romanian, Jewish, Nigerian, and other cultures. CD

Great work from Tony Schwartz – one of the most compelling artists to ever record for the Folkways Records label, and almost more of a filmmaker than anything else! The set's a compelling audio documentary on the new and growing community of Puerto Rican residents in New York – particularly those in upper Manhattan – and it mostly features spoken passages by new immigrants, older residents of the city, and some who were opposed to the changing social scale – all with fascinating details about the struggles and triumphs of this growing side of the city. Most tracks are relatively short – there's 36 in all – and the recording quality really reflects that many voices involved in the project, with some great on-site elements, and a few other sonic surprises along the way! CD

Tony Schwartz must have been one of the coolest cats working on the New York scene in the 50s – not a musician, or a singer – but instead a sound artist whose legacy was dedicated to documenting the city in a very poetic way! This album may well be Tony's masterpiece – a long tone poem love letter to New York – narrated by Tony, but filled with sounds that he captured on his travels around the city – people, ships, machines, animals, vehicles, and lots lots more – all with a keen ear for the vibrancy of the New York story at its best – the kind of true promise the city has to offer, captured here in an array of actual sounds from the postwar years! CD

Dialogue excerpts from two early 70s films documenting the shift between the Civil Rights and Black Power eras in the US! Side one is taken from the film Huey – and features Black Panthers Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver and H Rap Brown – plus what sounds like interviews with police and other officials at the time. One of the highlights is as speech in which the platform of the Black Panther party is enumerated, with its 10 point program. The second side is drawn from the film Listen Whitey – and features bits from phone-in radio programs the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated, as well as pieces taken from official statements from pundits and other black leaders from the period. CD

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A rough-edged batch of spiritual jazz tracks from trumpeter Charles "Cha Cha" Shaw (not to be confused with Charles "Bo Bo" Shaw) – recorded in an open-ended loft jazz mode with a really open, echoey feel! The album's a rare 70s jazz date on the Folkways label, and it's almost got the freer, open sound of an ESP session from a decade before – experimental jazz that's very much at the fringes, but also played with some of the spirituality of the post-Coltrane generation. Shaw's trumpet has a really earthy sort of feel – blown with a great sense of personality, and a sound that's almost heart-wrenching at times – especially on some of the more modal numbers. Other players include Brian Ross on tenor, Billy Lyes on piano and guitar, and Ronnie Boykins on bass. Boykins is really the only player we know here from other records – and titles include the nicely grooving "KZ", plus "Juggety", "Super Slik", and "Eternal". LP, Vinyl record album

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One of the first higher-concept recordings from pianist Mary Lou Williams – recorded in the mid 40s, but with a musical vision that holds up beautifully all these many years later! Despite the large group expectations you might have from the "suite" in the title, the tracks are all relatively intimate – played by a trio with Williams on piano, Al Lucas on bass, and Jack Parker on drums – and recorded in a way that often has Mary's piano out front in the mix, with Lucas' basslines providing a close second – working together in almost drumless formation at many points in the session. Titles include "Taurus", "Leo", "Libra", "Capricorn", "Pisces", "Cancer", "Virgo", "Scorpio", and "Aquarius" – and the CD feeatures 6 previously unreleased alternate takes! CD

An excellent album by Mary Lou Williams – a set recorded during the 70s period when she was mixing in a bit of funk with her jazz! The sound here is wonderful – quite different than other work you might know from Williams, and much more in the sort of groove you'd expect from Junior Mance, Ray Bryant, Ramsey Lewis, or other soul jazz-oriented pianists! Williams plays acoustic piano in a very hip trio with Mickey Roker on drums and Bob Cranshaw on electric bass – the latter of whom brings in this well-rounded, soul-drenched tone that's a lot like the bass work on some of Monty Alexander's own best albums from the 70s. And Williams herself is totally great too – playing with some slightly exotic tones at points, and with a really in-the-pocket groove at others. Funky tracks include "Intermission" and "Rosa Mae" – and other titles include "Ghost Of Love", "Medi II", "Zoning Fungus", and a great version of Dizzy Gillespie's "Olinga". CD also features 2 previously unreleased tracks – "Syl-O-Gism" and an alternate of "Gloria". CD

Spare and haunting flute work – recorded by Samuel Charters in the Gambia River basin in the mid 70s, but with a timeless sound that's really compelling! The music was recorded in two different villages, and some of the tracks feature just one or two flutes, played together with a snakey, hypnotic quality that's really haunting – while other tracks are accompanied by a bit more percussion, and some lively chants at times – possibly sung by the dancers who are credited on the record, although their main actions clearly can't be "seen" in the recording! Titles include "Yergo", "Sarsang", "Sereba", "Sembelu", "Sokhadange", "Dung N Kaheng Serrehule", and "Tama Jung Jung Serrehule". CD

A great overview of overlooked banjo work from the postwar years – the king of lightning-fast performance that was made famous by Earl Scruggs, but which is served up here by a host of lesser-known talents from the time! Think of the set as a more underground take on the Flatt & Scruggs 50s material on Columbia – and revel in performances that include "Jesse James" by Eric Wissberg, "Pretty Polly" by Bob Baker, "Rueben's Train" by Kenny Miller, "Cindy" by Dick Tittler, "Wildwod Flower" by Eugene Cox, "I Don't Love Nobody" by JC Sutphin, "Rosewood Casket" by Smiley Hobbs, "Cacklin Man" by Joe Stewart, "Lonesome Blues" by Snuffy Jenkins, and "Jenny Lynn" by Don Bryant. LP, Vinyl record album

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40s field recordings in pre-Castro Cuba – a series of tracks recorded in Havana and more rural locations, all of which document the surviving African traditions in Cuban music! Much of the work here is relatively spare and percussive – done with instrumentation that includes gourd scrapers, calabash rattles, friction drums, and bells – topped by vocals that often have a rhythmically chanting feel. Styles document the Lucumi, Arara, Abakwa, and Kimbisa cultures – and titles include "Lucumi Song", "Song To Orisha Oko", "Djuka Drums", "Song To Chongo", and "Song To Obatala". CD

A wonderful collection of early electronic music – issued by the less-high tech Folkways label, but every bit as compelling as similar collections from bigger labels at the time! Most of the work was composed in the 50s and early 60s, and is from the Electronic Music Studio at the University of Toronto – one of the key academic outposts for the style in its pre-commercial years. Composers include Myron Schaffer, Arnold Walter, Harvey Olnick, and Hugh Le Caine – all working in weird tones and sounds that remind us a lot of the best early work of Pierre Henry. There's some great tracks, including "The Orgasmic Opus", "Dripsody", "Inferno", "Noesis", "Summer Idyll", "Collage", and "Pinball" – which features only sounds from pinball machines! CD

A double-length set of experimental electronics from Folkways – music recorded a bit later than some of the early analogue sides on the label, but done with a similarly spare and spooky feel! There's a nice maturation going on here – a move away from some of the more academic electronics of the immediat postwar years, into that more art-oriented space the music hit at the end of the 70s – a somewhat freer, more open, and almost more playful mode at times – although not in the manner of late 60s crossover pop electronic records. Most tracks are pretty long, and often introduced by the composers – and titles include "Heavy Music For Four Crowbars" and "The Sorcerer Revisited" by Barton McLean, "Nova" by Reed Holmes, "Through To The End Of The Tunnel" by Kevin Hanlon, and "Invisible Chariots" by Priscilla McLean. CD

Features piano from Boris Poliakine and narration by Williams Geib. LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark collection of music – the now-famous series of American Folk Music volumes put together by Harry Smith in the 50s! The work here spans the space of a few early decades of recorded music – all in styles expertly chosen by Smith, with countless examples of music that might have fallen beneath the sands of time if not otherwise included in the series! Even back at the original release of the collection, the series was a crucial bit of musical archeology – and over the ensuing space of decades, has only gone onto become even more important. Styles run the gamut from blues to roots to folk and other styles in between – and this second volume focuses on social music, with songs by Bunt Stephens, JW Day, A Hunt's Ramblers, Sister M Nelson, Sanctified Singers, Phipps Singers, Blind Willie Johnson, Breux Freres, Joseph Falcon, and many others! LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool set of music – originally recorded as part of a mixed sound/image experiment shown at the San Francisco Planetarium in the late 50s! There's definitely a lot of early analogue electronics going on here – but the presentation is also sometimes a bit more playful, and almost earthy, too – a great change from some of the more avant or academic records of this nature – and an illustration that even early on, there were poetically creative folks who found a lot of ways to work with a personal approach to the new medium! Titles include "Notes On The History Of A World Part 3" by Gordon Longfellow, "Rhythm Study No 8" by Henry Jacobs, "Trilogy" by David Talcott, "Electronic Kabuki Mambo" by Henry Jacobs, "For The Big Horn" by William Loughborough, and "Loop No 3" by David Talcott. CD

Includes work by Cab Calloway, Jimmy Rushing, Ivy Anderson, Bertha Chippie Hill, Sonny Terry, Champion Jack Dupree, and many others! LP, Vinyl record album

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A fantastic little package – and one that may well have more meaning these days than ever before! The lavish set features a huge hardcover book – 124 pages of notes, photos, and other information – all put together in conjunction with a Smithsonian exhibition of the same name – which presents the undeniable power of music in the 20th century – themes of progress, politics, struggle, and achievement – spun out over a variety of different genres that include blues, folk, jazz, gospel, and a huge amount of global styles too! As you'd guess from the label, many of the tracks come from the rich holdings of the Folkways label – but other imprints have also been folded into the mix, which makes for a really fantastic assemblage of music. 4CDs feature over 80 titles in all – with work by Woody Guthrie, Joe Glazer, Rumel Fuentes, Sandoval Begay, Cantor Abraham Brun, The Old Harp Singers Of Eastern Tennessee, Pete Seeger, Strange Creek Singers, Inger Nielsen, Grupo Raiz, Caravan, Mikis Thedorakis, Chippewa Nation, Lester Bradley & Friends, Sam Brothers Five, Austin Pitre, John Littlehohn, Quetzel, Kristin Lems, and many others. CD

A fascinating little record – and one of the oddest releases ever issued by Folkways Records! The set is exactly what it promises in the title – human speech, but after the voice box has been removed from an individual – so that vocalizations have to take the form of noises and phrases that are uttered in a completely different way than conventional conversation! Instead, most of the sounds here come from air moving through different parts of the mouth of esophagus – but with results that are completely unusual, and which often feel more like haunted house sound effects than any sort of speech. Titles include "Buccal Speech", "Man Without Larynx", "Singing Voice", "Esophageal Voice", "Western Electric", and "Singing Voice With Larynxphone". LP, Vinyl record album

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The sounds of the Tuareg culture have gotten some surprisingly strong global circulation in recent years – thanks especially to a few key guitarists who've gained international attention – but this 1960 recording by Folkways Records may well be one of the first times the music of the nomadic culture got exposure on this side of the Atlantic – all handled in a raw style that's very different than some of the more commercial recordings of the past decade! There's not really any guitar on here – and all the instrumentation is acoustic, usually heavy percussion mixed with some stringed instruments – used in ways that are pulsatingly rhythmic, and often featuring chanted vocals as part of the ecstatic tradition in the roots of the Tuareg sound. Titles include "Hunting Song", "Azale", "Song Of The Enaden", "Tohimo Dance", "Tarakemt", "Chikishikishin", "Ilougan", and "Camel Song". LP, Vinyl record album

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

One of the strangest albums ever from John Cage – but one of the most compelling too – and a record that really gets at the larger person behind his incredible music! The album has a very spare format – and features John Cage reading 90 stories – all short, spoken bits that are woven with Cage's theories on art, music, chance, and existence – backed by music from David Tudor, who plays piano passages from Cage's "Concert For Piano & Orchestra" and tape sections from the classic "Fontana Mix". Cage's voice alone is worth the price of admission – especially on some of the more autobiographical sections! LP, Vinyl record album

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A fantastic record from Nancy Dupree – a hip poet with a mission towards raising social consciousness and increasing a sense of pride and power in the younger generation – all of which comes through very strongly in this classic Folkways Records set! The album is way more than just another album of poetry – as Nancy introduces all of her writing before reading things direct – with a voice that's very down to earth, and which, in reaction with the small audience on the recording, provides this fantastic context of the material – most of which is still amazingly relevant all these many decades later. Selections include "Self Praise", "Black Success", "Letter To Young Sisters", "Tears", and "Bulletholes". CD

Seminal 70s work from Sarah Webster Fabio – an amazing blend of poetry and music, and incredibly hip all the way through! Fabio's got a depth that goes beyond other commercial poets of the time – a righteousness that's right at home in the spiritual jazz scene of the 70s, and which is supported here by some great backings on guitar, bass, and percussion – plus some especially evocative saxophone, played by Denianke (Leon Williams) on some of the best tracks. The voice of Thomas Fabio joins Sarah on some of the numbers – with a brooding, echoey feel that's really great – and titles include "Eclipse", "Interrogation", "Together To The Tune Of Coltrane's Equinox", and "A Black Girl's Mean Ol Low Down Blues". CD

Very free-flowing poetry from a group of artists that includes older beats and younger hippies – all gathered together for the New York Workshop In Nonviolence! The album's got a bit of an ESP Records sort of feel – not in an avant jazz way, but in the manner of the freely open style that some of the label's rock and experimental groups were allowed to work – although here, the sound is relatively free of music and recorded with a sense of starkness that makes the sharper edges of the poetry come through nicely. Performances were recorded at St Mark's Church in 1967 – and titles include "Auto Poesy To Nebraska" by Allen Ginsberg, "June 20, 1961 Tangiers" by Peter Orlovsky, "From The Black Plague" by David Anton, "Speech" by Jackson McLow", "Elegy, Poems From Oklahoma" by Allen Katzman, "Peace Freak Poem" by Ed Sanders, and "Life Has No Dimension" by Art Berger. CD

A very cool record! Langston tells the story of jazz, using snippets of work from the Folkways catalog – like tunes by Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodd, Ma Rainey, Leadbelly, and others – all sewn together in a rich narrative on the history of the music, delivered with some surprising illumination by Hughes! His voice is always a treat, and even though his narration of the material is designed for an audience of newcomers to jazz, it more than held our attention throughout – and the record's got almost as much appeal as some of his own jazz poetry work. CD

A very cool record! Langston tells the story of jazz, using snippets of work from the Folkways catalog – like tunes by Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodd, Ma Rainey, Leadbelly, and others – all sewn together in a rich narrative on the history of the music, delivered with some surprising illumination by Hughes! His voice is always a treat, and even though his narration of the material is designed for an audience of newcomers to jazz, it more than held our attention throughout – and the record's got almost as much appeal as some of his own jazz poetry work. LP, Vinyl record album

Kenneth Patchen, like Kenneth Rexroth, was one of the few poets who really understood what it meant to read and write in a jazz idiom – as you'll hear on this excellent set of beatnik jazz tracks! The album features Patchen reading in a great style – angular, cynical, really working the words of his poems perfectly over backings by the Alan Neil Quartet. The poems are set to music written by George Wallington, Charlie Parker, and others – and tracks include "There's A Place", "They Won't Let You In There", "Do I Not Deal With Angels", "Not Many Kingdoms Left", "The Lonesome Boy Blues", "As I Opened The Window", and "A Sight Is Little Altered". CD

Very righteous work from this obscure 70s poet – a contemporary to Nikki Giovanni, Camille Yarbrough, and others – but not nearly as widely recorded! The album features no instrumentation, just Sonia reading her poems – and the work itself is pretty progressive, very much in the spirit of other hip female poets of the time, although perhaps a bit more personal in some of the subject matter – especially given that the album is introduced by Sanchez as "talking about love – a black woman's love for her man, children, nation." Titles include "A Black Woman Speaks", "Listen To Big Black", "Liberation Poem", "A Needed Poem For My Salvation", "When We Come", "It's A New Day", and "To Anita". 24 tracks in all. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Recorded in N'guni villages for the film, produced by Cornel Wilde. Most of these tracks are smaller vocal groups chanting in nice rhythmic form, with minimal percussion accompanying. The tracks on side 1 were used directly in the production, and are nicely focused and seem rehearsed (in a good way). The second side is more field recordings from the same time period, with everything from animals to marketplace activity, to work songs. Tracks include "N'guni Tribal", "Courtship Song", "Drinking Song", "Urban Song", "Village Celebrations", and plenty others. LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal set of righteous underground poetry – a key bridge between the earlier work of Langston Hughes and some of the bigger spoken sides of the 70s by artists like Gil Scott-Heron or Wanda Robinson! As the title promises, there's a definite undercurrent of jazz in the work – but mostly in the subject matter of the poems, or in the riffing way the readers approach the material – since there's really no instrumentation at all to accompany the voices. There's a few names on here that you might recognize, but there's a lot more that you won't – and that makes the album a key look at this under-documented 60s scene. Titles include "Elvin Jones Gretch Freak" by David Henderson, "The Jackal Headed Cowboy" by Ishmael Reed, "Poem To Americans" by Gerald Jackson, "Poem To Ernie Henry" by Gloria Tropp, "Listening To Sonny Rollins at the 5 Spot" by Paul Blackburn, "African Memories" by Joel Oppenheimer, and "Autumn 1964" by Peter LaFarge. 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

The first album from obscure folk singer Guy Davis – a set that's got a much earthier feel than you'd expect from its late 70s release! Most tracks just feature Davis on vocals and acoustic guitar – singing in a style that's slightly blues-inflected in the vocals, but with playful themes that are definitely in the more confident territory of American folk – clearly influenced by some of the folk/soul experiments by others in the early 70s. Titles include "Nappy Hair", "Try To Catch The Colors", "Never Fart In Front Of Company", "Friendly Feet", and "When I'm Gone". CD

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

An extremely righteous bit of soul jazz – originally issued in a very small pressing by Folkway Records, at a time when the label was doing some great underground recordings! The sound is loose and free – spiritually building in a manner that recalls the work of Ahmed Abdul Malik, Phil Cohran, and some of the AACM – and the album has a style that's exploratory, but never goes too far out, or loses its sense of rhythm and swing. Tracks are longish, and the core group features soprano sax and Korean reeds by Bilal Abdurahman and vibes by Ameen Nuraldeen – plus guest work on bass by James Smith, and appearances by a lot of different world percussion players. There's a nice Eastern feel to some of the tracks, and titles include "Mevlana", "Ti Ti", "Sun Flower", and "Bent El Jerusalem". CD

Some groovy backing here – a trio with Jimmy Bond on bass, Earl Palmer on drums, and John Ewing on trombone! LP, Vinyl record album

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 wonderful early bit of psychedelia from an academic perspective – a record that features Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert – all reading from the book The Psychedelic Experience A Manual Based On The Tibetan Book Of The Dead! The album's divided up into two sections – "Going Out" and "Coming Back" – and there's a nice "scientific" feel to some of the work, especially striking given the early date! Vocals are recorded in a stark sort of way – almost dream-like at times – and there's a bit of Tibetan bells which further adds to this quality of the record. CD

A massive lost funk classic – one of those rarer than rare albums that's well worth the fuss! The Montgomery Express were a Florida combo who played on the state's small club circuit – working equally well on their own, or backing up a number of better known singers. The group's got a diversity that's really great – and they're equally well-suited to longer, trippier funk instrumentals, and shorter more soul-based tunes. The vocal numbers are especially haunting, as they've got a moody and sad feel that's more like New Jersey or Detroit group soul of the time than the usual Miami soul – and the funkier tunes have a nice psychedelic approach that uses plenty of sweetly-tuned guitar! 8 tracks in all – "Party Fever", "Precious Wing", "Montgomery Movement", "Gotta Make A Comeback", "Who", "Steal Away", "I'm Standing By", and "Left Me With A Memory". CD

A really unusual music from the duo of Jaribu and Ngoma Hill – a pair who work together here in a mode that's partly the acoustic blues of the rural scene in the south, but fused with more urban elements too – including a bit of gospel spirit, and folk-inspired righteousness! As you might guess from their name, these guys have a fair bit of message in their music – delivered maybe with even more power in this setting than if they had a larger group behind them – as the duo vocals and acoustic guitar seem to be more than enough to get the meaning across! Titles include "High Rise Tenements", "Where Is The Justice", "The No Nuke Song", "Registration", "White Power Dreams", and "Undocumented". CD

A rough-edged batch of spiritual jazz tracks from trumpeter Charles "Cha Cha" Shaw (not to be confused with Charles "Bo Bo" Shaw) – recorded in an open-ended loft jazz mode with a really open, echoey feel! The album's a rare 70s jazz date on the Folkways label, and it's almost got the freer, open sound of an ESP session from a decade before – experimental jazz that's very much at the fringes, but also played with some of the spirituality of the post-Coltrane generation. Shaw's trumpet has a really earthy sort of feel – blown with a great sense of personality, and a sound that's almost heart-wrenching at times – especially on some of the more modal numbers. Other players include Brian Ross on tenor, Billy Lyes on piano and guitar, and Ronnie Boykins on bass. Boykins is really the only player we know here from other records – and titles include the nicely grooving "KZ", plus "Juggety", "Super Slik", and "Eternal". CD

The second Folkways album from trumpeter Charles Shaw – and even more wonderful than the first! This one changes up the groove a bit – still sticking in Shaw's spiritual jazz vein at times, but also tripping things out a bit more with use of electric guitar and the ultra-cool "bag flute" – which is almost like a wah-wah sort of reed instrument, and which makes for some really funky moments! The electric touches are totally great – and mix with rougher acoustic jazz elements in ways that remind us of earlier 70s work from Luther Thomas and Joe McPhee – also both avant players who could show a funky side like this at times. Shaw plays trumpet, flugelhorn, and the bag flute – and other instrumentation includes guitar from James Greggo and Tom Lee Harris, alto from Brian Ross, tenor from Glenn Spears, bass from Ronnie Boykins, and drums from Art Blakey Jr. Titles include "Kid Zorro", "Postage Paid", "Mr Zip", "Chain Reaction", and "Melted Soul". CD

A haunting batch of commercial music from the 70s – billed in the notes to Bosworth Ensembles, which makes us almost think that the work's from the Bosworth Sound Library – even though the record was issued in the US by Folkways! Most of the music here is relatively gentle – seductive 70s themes played on piano, keyboards, guitar, and other light instrumentation – the kind of tunes that must have been beautiful slinking behind the products featured in the TV ads – which include Zenith TVs, Buick station wagons, Dannon yogurt, and Revlon perfumes! Composers are listed as T Kinsey, J Pearson, V Flick, B Ebbinghouse, and K Palmer – all names that might be Brit Easy composers – and titles include "Guitarama", "Walking On Velvet", "Theme For Two Lovers", "Pastorella", "Fleeting Clouds", "Devil's Delight", "Apollo 15", and "Slow Glow". CD

Way more than just the kids record you'd guess from the title – and instead, one of the cool earthy percussion records cut by Bilal Abdurahman for Folkways! The format is that of an introduction to sounds and rhythm for children – and the set mixes some spoken bits with some ultra-cool percussive passages – often odd drums, bells, gongs, and even weirder stuff – including some great rhythms on typewriter! Titles include "Hammer & Saw", "The Subway Train", "The Bus", "Sounds Are All Around Us", "8 String Harp Uganda", "Body Rhythms", and "Typewriter With Woodblock". CD

A really weird, and very cool entry in the science series on Folkways Records – actual recordings of sounds from Satellites – which includes both spoken information, and lots of weird electronics and other space-age effects! Recordist TA Benham provides spoken introduction to many segments – which almost makes the whole thing feel as if he's performing the music himself – these weird electric pulses and cycles, which provide a very haunting presentation of the new cosmic landscape of the time – a mysterious array of pulses from Sputnik, Explorer, Vanguard, and other satellites – plus the heartbeat of Laika, the famous Russian dog cosmonaut! CD