Soulful Detroit techno tracks from Kevin Saunderson, working here outside his more well known Inner City moniker with Santonio Echols. 12-inch, Vinyl record

A nice 2LP set that collects material recorded on January 3, 1958 – originally issued as 2 separate LPs, The Big Sound and Groove Blues, but collected here together in its entirety, along with a good set of notes! The album's classic Ammons, playing in a laidback open-ended blowing session, with other strong Prestige players – like Coltrane, Jerome Richardson, Paul Quinichette, Art Taylor, and Mal Waldron, who always seems to be the driving force between most Prestige sides like this. Titles include "Groove Blues", "Jug Handle", "Cheek To Cheek", "Blue Hymn", "The Real McCoy", and "That's All". LP, Vinyl record album

A really beautiful collection of work from Ennio Morricone – one of the greatest soundtrack composers of all time, especially during the period covered in this set! The songs here are from a time when the maestro was effortlessly combining jazz, mod rhythms, rock instrumentation, and other stranger elements – all with a flawless sense of presentation and production that could make even familiar sounds come across in really different ways! The package definitely focuses on the groove promised in the title – but if you know Morricone at all, you'll know that that doesn't mean familiar funk, and instead hits some really mindblowing territory beyond description. Includes work from the films Com Impari Ad Amare Le Donna, Ruba Al Prossimo Tuo, Il Diavolo Nel Cervello, Spasmo, Ad Ogni Costo, Maddaelna, La Dona Invisible, Le Foto Proibite, and other Morricone classics! LP, Vinyl record album

The setting is the Golden Gate, but the sound is pure Philly International – a rare early live performance from the label, featuring some of its key vocal heavyweights working here with live accompaniment from MFSB! Although the instrumental group backed Philly artists often in the studio, this 1973 concert marks the only time they worked live with the singers – in a stunning showcase for the young label, performed as part of a Columbia Records convention in San Francisco! Given the setting, and the uniqueness of the whole event, the release of this rare material is a treasure for soul fans of many generations – a rare addition to the amazing run of music the label first started giving us at the time. The set begins with MFSB doing a version of "Freddie's Dead" – then runs into Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes singing "I Miss You", "The Love I Lost", and "If You Don't Know Me By Now" – followed by Three Degrees on "I Didn't Know" and "Dirty Ol Man". MFSB then follow with "TSOP", then Billy Paul sings "East" and "Me & Mrs Jones", and the set ends with The O'Jays on "Love Train", "Sunshine", "Back Stabbers", and "When The World's At Peace". LP, Vinyl record album

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Amazing work by The Delfonics – their first 2 albums, back to back on a single CD! La La Means I Love You is a landmark album in harmony soul – one of those records that pushed the genre to a whole new level! The Delfonics emerge fully formed here as one of the most compelling groups of their time – a tremendous trio with a really unique approach to soul music – one that's heartfelt and heartbreaking, but never too sweet to be cloying or poppy – definitely just the right groove to keep things hip while also cracking the charts! The album's their first full collaboration with legendary producer Thom Bell – and it's got a sound that's summed up perfectly in the quintessential cut "La La Means I Love You" – and which is followed through beautifully on a batch of tracks that includes "Losing You", "Can You Remember", "You're Gone", "I'm Sorry", and "Break Your Promise". Sound Of Sexy Soul is an equally groundbreaking album of vocal group soul – right from the first note! The record kicks off with the sublime "Ready Or Not, Here I Come" – which starts with fierce stepping strings that are actually funky, then soars into some of the best harmonies the group ever put to record, superbly arranged by the great Thom Bell, who also wrote the track. As the album progresses, the sound expands further to encompass many elements that would become the blueprint for vocal groups over the next few years – like twangy electric sitar, cascading orchestrations, and pinched lead vocals that take a lot more chances than most group singers had been taking for years! There's still a bit of a 60s soul sound to some of the cuts, but the album's a watershed – not only for Thom Bell and the group, but for harmony soul as well! Titles include "Ready Or Not Here I Come", "My New Love", "Loving Him", "With These Hands", "Somebody Loves You", and "Everytime I See My Baby". CD also features the bonus track "You Got Yours & I'll Get Mine". CD

From hipster comedian to schlocky roles in The Planet of The Apes, Severn Darden was one of the 60s more enigmatic performers. This early album has him doing intellectual standup and skits with the help of the Second City cast – including Alan Arkin, Paul Sand, and Barbara Harris. The stuff's a bit dated, but it has that nice pre-hippy early 60s intellectual camp sort of twist. LP, Vinyl record album

Rare lost work from funky drummer Les DeMerle – a set of tracks that were recorded for Atlantic Records in 1967, two years before DeMerle's classic Spectrum album – yet which finally appear here for the first time ever! Les is rock-solid, right from the start – definitely one of those younger players really helping to shift the sound of the larger jazz group at the end of the 60s – with fresh arrangements that bring in plenty of currents from soul, and a tight approach to the groove that makes the best of the excellent lineup! The set features work from some younger names who would break big later – including Randy Brecker on trumpet, Terry Plumeri on bass, and Lanny Morgan on alto and flute – as well as a touch of vocals from future rocker Genya Ravan. Titles include "Sticks", "Raunchy Rita", "Feelin Good", "Come Back To Me", "On A Clear Day", "That's Life", and "Signifyin". LP, Vinyl record album

Well, we don't know if Mr B could ever be considered "modern", but this is a pretty groovy batch of 60s pop tunes – like "Mister Kicks", "People", "Wanted", "Wives & Lovers", and "A Beautiful Friendship" – all done to arrangements by Billy Byers, Benny Carter, and Bobby Tucker, with that great mid 60s Mercury pop feel to them. There's some nice jazz elements in the mix, and Billy's always a treat for us! LP, Vinyl record album

The second album by The Freedom Sounds – a very cool west coast soul jazz collective, headed by Wayne Henderson, and featuring a great mix of jazz, soul, and Latin rhythms! This set's a little more ambitious than the group's first album – with a number of tracks that groove in a very strong Latin jazz mode, sounding a lot like some of the best work on Atlantic at the time by Mongo Santamaria, Hubert Laws, and others. Henderson's trombone is still a key solo instrument, but the album also features some incredible sax work from Willie Gresham – a player we know little about, but who makes the album cook in the same fantastic way that Hubert Laws and Sonny Fortune did for Mongo's best work of the 60s! The grooves are very right-on, with plenty of excellent percussion work – and titles include the originals "Love-Out", "Behold The Day", and "Soul Sound System", plus some groovy covers, like "All You Need is Love", "What The World Needs Now Is Love", and "Are You Sure?" – all done with a great Latiny groove! LP, Vinyl record album

Very groovy instrumental work from the legendary Tony Hatch – served up here in a package that would help American audiences understand his role in the Petula Clark tune "Downtown"! This set steps off the same sort of energy as Hatch's British bounce on that cut – offering up a range of instrumental tunes that groove nicely with a swinging 60s London feel – tight orchestrations with a great sense of syncopation at the bottom – one that helps the music move a lot more groovily than American albums of this type! Hatch has a great sense of timing throughout – one that really helps things move nicely – and he's getting some great help with the group from the legendary Johnny Harris! Titles include "Downtown", "Forget Him", "Music", "Where Are You Now", "Roundabout", and "Sugar & Spice". LP, Vinyl record album

Nothing innocent about this record – because the groove is hard and heavy, wild and trippy – a really heady brew of funky jazz and more psychedelic influences – all recorded with some weird sounds in the background too! The album's a great one from Japanese groove pioneer Takeshi Inomata – and it's almost a fusion of earlier 60s funky band jazz with some of the more tripped-out modes of the jazz rock era. Vamping rhythms and full-on organs are undercut by wiggy guitar parts and soaring organ lines – all augmented by spoken Japanese passages, sound effects, and production styles that abstract out some instruments into very unusual modes. There's plenty of soulful and funky moments throughout – and titles include "The Death Of Janis", "Child & I", "Blue", "Alone", and "Go For Nothing". LP, Vinyl record album

An overstuffed collection of work from the great Arthur Lyman – initially known as one of the hip percussionists in the Martin Denny group, then a huge exotica star on his own – thanks to wonderful work on vibes and a whole host of other instruments! As with Denny, Lyman's music was always tied strongly to themes of the Pacific – part of the wave of interest in the new statehood of Hawaii as many Americans made the trip for vacations – but also a key moment in a musical legacy that's really stood the test of time over the years – as tropical elements are brought into play with styles borrowed from jazz, Latin, and easy – all to forge a new sort of groove. The 2CD set features 48 gems from Lyman's best years – all hand-picked by Lux & Ivy – and titles include "Trigger Fantasy", "Leis Of Jazz", "Sim Sim", "Sea Breeze", "Kalua", "Bahia", "Jungle Jalopy", "Busy People", "Happy Voodoo", "Otome San", "Blue Sands", "Bwana A", "Quiet Village", "Lullaby Of Birdland", and "Dahil Sayo". CD

Herbie Mann's groove is mighty darn great here – a rich refinement of his earlier flute jazz styles, into the tighter sound that really sparkled with soul during the Atlantic Records years of the 60s! Most cuts mix Latin rhythms with some very soulful inflections in the overall instrumentation – with arrangements from Herbie, Oliver Nelson, and Rene Hernandez that really make the whole thing shine – and instrumentation from a tight group of hip players that features Dave Pike on vibes, Don Friedman on piano, Atilla Zoller on guitar, and added percussion by Willie Bobo and Patato Valdez! Titles include "Vikki", "Blues In The Closet", "Saudade De Bahia", "Spanish Grits", "Mushi Mushi", and "Soul Guajira". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice bit of funky organ work from Jimmy McGriff – a set that's got his famous talents on the Hammond out front of a larger ensemble – but in a way that's very different than some of his albums of that type from the 70s! There's lots of electricity in the mix – electric piano from Horace Ott, bass from Richard Evans, and guitar from Wayne Bennett – mixed with sharp work on horns from Cliff Davis on tenor and flute, Murray Watson on trumpet, and Johnny Beard on baritone – three players who really flesh out the sound! The album's got some excellent stone funky classics – like "The Bird", "Groove Grease", and "Plain Brown Bag" – plus some surprisingly funky readings of standards like "Canadian Sunset" and "Mr Lucky", both made to sound super-nice, thanks to excellent work on bass and drums! CD

A nice bit of funky organ work from Jimmy McGriff – a set that's got his famous talents on the Hammond out front of a larger ensemble – but in a way that's very different than some of his albums of that type from the 70s! There's lots of electricity in the mix – electric piano from Horace Ott, bass from Richard Evans, and guitar from Wayne Bennett – mixed with sharp work on horns from Cliff Davis on tenor and flute, Murray Watson on trumpet, and Johnny Beard on baritone – three players who really flesh out the sound! The album's got some excellent stone funky classics – like "The Bird", "Groove Grease", and "Plain Brown Bag" – plus some surprisingly funky readings of standards like "Canadian Sunset" and "Mr Lucky", both made to sound super-nice, thanks to excellent work on bass and drums! LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure west coast set – featuring some very hard-driving big band arrangements, short but with breakout solos that really keep things moving along at a good pace. Murphy wrote and arranged most of the material – cool little offbeat tunes, many with a space theme to match the cover of the album. Players include Frank Morgan, Milt Bernhart, Chico Hamilton, Buddy Colette, and Bob Gordon – and titles include "Lost In A Fugue", "Frantastic", "Frankly Speaking", "Tone Poem", and "Orbit". LP, Vinyl record album

A definite New York groove from bassist Teuro Nakamura – and a set that really takes us back to some of the best American/Japanese fusion sessions of the late 70s! Like some of those classics, this one was recorded in the US, with a Japanese player in the lead – bassist Nakamura – and the sound is wonderfully smooth and soulful, with a wickedly spacious take on jazz funk – and this open groove set up by the basslines, which then allow plenty of room for the other musicians to take flight! The album features guitar from Joe Berger, Bill Washer, and William Spaceman Patterson – plus loads of sweet keyboards and Fender Rhodes from Ron Thompson, whose work on the record is almost worth the price of admission! The set also features a bit of soprano sax from Antoine Roney, and some tenor from Jay Rodriguez – and titles include "Bushman Song", "Sequoia Forest", "Sweet Romance", "Midnight Song", and "Certain Doubt". LP, Vinyl record album

Groovy groovy work from the Japanese scene of the late 60s – performed by a cool quartet who harmonize vocally along with their instruments! The group's got a jazzy style – using piano, guitar, bass, and drums to lay down a groove – but their real charm comes from their harmonies, which are often recorded with a bit of echo, and which sound quite different than American or Brazilian work of this type, due to the Japanese lyrics! Many tunes appear to be original – which is great, as these cats aren't just harmonizing 60s hits, like so many other groups did at the time – and the record has a fresh feel that we really like, kind of a cross between American and Euro easy vocal group modes of the 60s. Song titles are all in Japanese, as are the notes – but there's a definite appeal here to Western ears! CD

A very cool group, and one who are every bit as groovy as they look on the cover – a hip early 70s Indonesian quartet, and one who mix together equal parts rock and funk – but all with a very trippy sound throughout! These guys are incredible – an under-discovered group who've clearly drunk deep of some of the best Anglo influences of the time, but also then come up with a unique hybrid of their own – singing English at times, Indonesian at others – and mixing up fuzzy guitars with freaky rhythms in styles that are often a few years behind the rest of the world – more late 60s funky than you might expect from the date of the tracks, but in a way that's A-OK with us! The groove and the group are plenty playful throughout – and titles include "Come On You dance", "Rock & The Sea", "Jakarta City Sound", "Haai", "Let Us Dance Together", "Indonesia My Lovely Country", "Bye Bye", "Mengapa Begini", and "Kampung Halaman". LP, Vinyl record album

The front cover might look a bit dramatic, but the set's got a warm and wonderful feel – lean, soulful instrumentation from a Finnish trio that features Aleksi Heinola on drums, Temu Akerblom on bass, and Marku Holkko on reeds and flute – coming together with this gentle groove that's got a subtle glow all the way through! The music of Holkko is sometimes in a familiar mode, with sax or flute lines snaking through over the grooves – sometimes a bit more laidback and textural – and there's clearly some other instrumentation on the record that warms up the sound from time to time, including a bit of uncredited keyboards. Titles include "Blue Sitar", "Joyous Water", "Hunting Heads", "Waves Of Sound", "Friday Gig", "Momentum Finale", "Amboseli", and "Little Dandelion". LP, Vinyl record album

A set that has Sid Ramin working with a large group, but getting a really tight sound out of them throughout – a mode that's more soundtrack-styled than any sort of jazz big band – but which still has lots of jazzy flourishes from the horns in the group! Arrangements are plenty playful throughout – like some of Ramin's great soundtrack scoring – and titles include "Nola", "In The Mood", "Never On Sunday", "Ruby", and "And The Angels Sing". LP, Vinyl record album

Very very cool! If you've never seen this baby before – either as the Soundwagon from the 70s, or as the Vinyl Killer from the 90s – here's the scoop: It's a cool little Hot Wheels-type van that actually drives around your record and plays music out of a self-contained speaker! It's got big rubber wheels, an internal motor, and a stylus on the bottom that holds the van in the groove and which tracks the music. Watch the van drive to the middle of the record in slowly descending curves, and hear it play the record while it makes the trip! Honestly the coolest thing we've ever seen, and it comes in a few different colors. (And just so you know, this isn't a hi-tech item that's going to replace your stereo. It's got a tiny little toy speaker on the top – and it sounds like a toy speaker – but it's plenty cool!) Turntable

Sweet funky keyboards from the Japanese scene – a set recorded by Shigeo Sekito as part of an ultra hi-fidelity series in the 70s, but done with a lean groove that's much more like some of the late 60s instrumental gems we love so much! Shigeo moves between electric piano, organ, and some moogier moments – and the backing is spare, but with a nice groove on most cuts – including percussion that helps the tunes skip along in a bossa-styled movement at times! Titles include very cool versions of "Maiden Voyage", "For Heaven's Sake", "Days Of Wine & Roses", "Summertime", "Wives & Lovers", "Fly Me To The Moon", and "Just Met A Strawberry Love". LP, Vinyl record album

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Barbara Acklin's first album – and a landmark of Chicago soul that firmly established Acklin as one of the city's best writers and new female singers! Acklin had a classy sound that was different than some of her raw soul sisters in the city – but although she was classy, she also didn't have any of that little girl stuff that you might hear from singers like Denice Chandler or Barbara Mason. Instead, she had an approach that mixed a real soul vocal with more sophisticated material, in a manner that worked well with the evolving blueprint for the Brunswick Chisoul sound. Carl Davis and Eugene Record do a perfect job producing Barbara's songs, all forged nicely into the loping soul groove that set Chicago apart from other cities in the late 60s. Includes the big title track "Love Makes A Woman" – plus "Be By My Side", "Your Sweet Loving", "Come and See Me Baby", and a great cover of "The Look of Love"! LP, Vinyl record album