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

Appalachian vocals and banjo tunes from great Roscoe Holcomb – mid 60s Folkways recordings with his gorgeously weary, soul stirring and sometimes otherworldly passionate voice commanding your attention and cutting real deep – and his banjo playing making a playful progressions underneath. Holcomb puts it all in that voice of his, an impressive, cutting instrument on its owns – and getting a lot of different sounds out of his banjo than many players of the era. Titles include "Wandering Boy", "Hook And Line", "Omie Wise"., "In The Pines", "Little Bessie", "Willow Tree", "Married Life Blues" and more. CD

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One of the weirdest sound effects ever recorded – a record that's filled with sounds of the human body! Side one features a bizzare surgical operation – narrated by the doctor, who's removing a cyst from the neck of a small boy. You hear his talking more than the operation, but side two offers up a variety of odd sounds heard through a stethoscope – including a fair bit of odd sounds from the lungs, heart, and bowels – all narrated by the doctor too! CD

The bugs take over on this weird early album from Folkways – an assortment of odd insect sounds and noises, all with some nicely hokey narration! The quality of the recording is surprisingly gritty – so that the vibrations of wings and legs almost comes across like an early set of analogue electronics – which it might well pass as, if it weren't for the narration. Classics include "Fly Caught On Fly Paper", "Viceroy Butterfly In Flight", "Small Longhorn Beetle Shriek", "Dragonfly In Flight", "Japanese Beetles On A Rose", and "Hover Fly". CD

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One of the most meditative albums ever recorded for the Folkways label – two side-long tracks from composer Craig Kupka, each of which has a dream-like, very hypnotic quality! It's a bit hard to say what exactly is going on here in the instrumentation – we definitely hear vibes, or maybe celeste, plus light guitar, percussion, and a touch of piano – but everything has almost a pillowy sort of blend – so that the instrumentation is abstracted from its roots into something completely different – a really thoughtful sonic experience, and one that definitely evokes the "Clouds" in both of its two numbered titles! CD

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A 60s album that brings together classic work recorded by Alan Lomax and Frederic Ramsey – a total of 20 tracks in all – including "Black Girl", "Sukey Jump", "Rock Island Line", "Pigmeat", "Laura", "Yellow Gale", and "Good Night Irene". LP, Vinyl record album

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

A rootsy Folkways set from Little Brother Montgomery – with tracks that include "Dangerous Blues", "Vicksburg Blues", "Farro Street Jive", "Special Rider Blues", "Sweet Momma", and "Alabama Bound". LP, Vinyl record album

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

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

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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Way more than an instructional record – given that the set features lots of nice banjo solo material from Pete Seeger! LP, Vinyl record album

An album from the 80s, but one that echoes a much older tradition of folk and blues – with a vibe that hardly fits the dated spelling of the duo's name! Serious Bizness is the team of Jaribu and Ngoma Hill – who harmonize together on some very message-oriented music, in a way that was often a bit overlooked in the generation of beatboxes and keyboards, but which has all the pride and power of acoustic sessions from the Civil Rights generation! Instrumentation is just acoustic guitar on most numbers, but Jaribu and Ngoma have a way of really making the songs ring out with a great deal of power – on titles that include "High Tech", "Southern Shame", "Down Underground In A Company Town", "Stolen Dreams", "Stop The Bosses", and "Malcolm Lives". 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

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

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 very unusual record – one that has the Folkways ethnographic team on the streets of New York, recording the songs and calls of "six boys in trouble" as they riff and sing on some rough and raw numbers! The record's an odd turn of the ethnographic ear to the American scene – and in terms of recording style, it's not that different than some of Folkways' percussion albums from Africa and Latin America in the post-war years – especially in the starkness of the recording quality. Most of the music seems to be improvised, and instruments include sticks and bongos – and other tracks feature the boys just singing and shouting, almost in a beat poetry way. Titles include "Bo Diddlie", "One Boy Playing Three Sets Of Bongo Drums With His Hand & One Drum Stick", "Gang Fight", "The Fox", "Money Honey", "I Want Some Food", "Shoe Shine Shakedown", and "Cha Cha Cha". CD

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

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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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

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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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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

Moody electronics from maestro Jon Appleton – a spare set that's quite a bit different from some of his early 70s tape experiments for Flying Dutchman! This Folkways album has Appleton doing some wonderfully weird work on the keys – mostly a synclavier, but also some other early digital systems too – but used in these really textural ways that still sound a lot like early analogue electronics! The tunes have an almost poetic feel – usually building slowly, with an Eno-like approach to sound – and titles include "Mussems Sang", "Zoetrope", "Syntrophia", and "In Deserto". CD

Big Bill is interviewed, but he also sings and plays too! LP, Vinyl record album

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An incredible relic of the early days of experimental radio – a series of sound collages from the Berkley-based Music & Folklore program by Henry Jacobs – originally issued in the mid 50s by Folkways Records, and lovingly restored and reissued here by Locust Media! Henry Jacobs was a real pioneer in audio collage – stringing together bits of jazz, folk music, sound effects, and spoken bits in a style that was years ahead of similar late 60s radio experimentation. The approach is sometimes jarring, sometimes comical – but always fascinating – and the note do a wonderful job of telling Jacobs' full story, and uniquely revolutionary views on sound. Titles include "Informal Rhythm Session", "Comments On The Indian Raga", "Loop 2 Channel Rhythms", "Audio Collage", and "Sonata For Loudspeaker". LP, Vinyl record album

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 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

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Includes Memphis Jug Band, Cannon's Jug Stompers & The Mobile Strugglers. LP, Vinyl record album

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

A drum-heavy spectacular – recorded with a really rootsy feel! The first half of the material was recorded in Africa – not credited especially well, but done with a stripped-down sound that's very heavy on drums and other odd percussion instruments – recorded in that rough, loud Folkways style that really makes the music sound nicely bombastic. The remaining tracks on the set are from a variety of North and South American locales – Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, and even the US – as Baby Dodds turns in a solo on the final track! Titles include "Ceremonial Drums", "Dance Drums", "Stamping Tubes", "Salute To A Chief", "Sit Log Talking Drum", "Djuka Dance Drums", "Lucumi", "Jumping Dance Drums", "Cuminia Drums", "Rhythms For The Deity Ogoun", and "Jazz Drumming". CD

Not the usual sorts of Brazilian songs that you might expect – no tight samba or bossa, but instead a batch of rootsy music from Bahia – all with rhythmic qualities that strongly inspired both later genres! Percussion is the strongest element on most of these tunes, but there's also some sharp stringed instrumental lines too – similar to cavaquinho in samba, or guitar in bossa – all topped with vocals from Oneyda Alvarenga – who almost seems to blow the microphone into the red with the intensity she brings to some of the performances. The whole set was recorded in Mar Grande, Itaparica – and titles include "O Embole Embole", "Samba Urbano", "Marcha Larga", "E Foi A Vaca", "Pena Verde", "Embolada", "A Tempo De Samba", and "Movemento De Marcha". CD

One of the last live appearances by Louis Armstrong – presented here in a really charming little album, issued in a small pressing by The National Press Club! The album's a great document of all the Armstrong charms in one package – as Louis talks as much as he plays – telling stories and speaking about the music on the first half of the set. The second half then features material recorded after Armstrong's passing – with Tyree Glenn and Tommy Gwaltney keeping up the vibe, especially on some of the spoken passages where Glenn talks about Louis! The sound quality is a bit "broadcast"-styled at the start – and titles include "Rockin Chair", "Royal Garden Blues", "Love For Sale", "Crazy Rhythm", and "It's Alright With Me". 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

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

Mindblowing sounds at a level we've never heard before – a really unique combination of electronics and Persian music, done in a way that's quite different from any other recording of its nature! The electronics are used in a way that's relatively spare, but which definitely sets a sonic texture next to the acoustic sounds from sehtar and tar – not this moogy way of interfering with them, but more in terms of waves of sound that augment their qualities and deepen the overall feel of the music in really special ways. This is hardly any sort of gimmicky "world meets moog" record – and instead has an ethereal feel that's all its own – and this pulse that comes from the really modal use of all elements! Titles include "Zahab", "Razm", "Shabistan", and "Sama". 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

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

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

Nikki Giovanni reads a host of her own work – material from the previous decade or so, originally published in 5 different books, and read beautifully here by the author! Giovanni's got a wonderful style of reading – clear, crisp, and with an understated sense of feeling – one that never tries too hard to push the agendas of the poems, and which nicely underscores the personal touches in her writing. Many of these numbers have a really vivid sort of feel – with language that sets scenes in the same way as Langston Hughes at his best, but with a more 70s-oriented vibe, and an obviously female perspective. Titles include "Poem For Nina", "Nikki-Rosa", "How Do You Write A Poem", "The Women Gather", "The Life I Led", "Legacies", and "Once A Lady Told Me". 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

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 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 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

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

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

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

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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

Amazing! One of the best box sets ever. Compiled by Harry Smith and originally released in 1952. It was a seminal album then, and it is now too. A variety of traditional american songs, country and blues, hymns and political songs. Essential. Music from Dick Justice, Coley Jones, Buell Kazee, Kelly Harrell, the Carter Family, the Bently Boys, Henry Thomas, the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, Blind Willie Johnson, Dock Boggs, Blind Lemon Jefferson & more. CD

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

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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

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

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

Music from Franklyn Hernandez Y Su Tipican Brothers, Dona Chicha, Conjunto Folklorico De Alianza Dominicana, Claudio Fortunato Y Su Guedeses, Francia Reyes, Luis Dias, Willie Lapache, Boni Raposo, Coco Merenson & more. CD