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Work Of Art is a great batch of material that Art Farmer recorded for Prestige in the early fifties. This is way before he got hyper-lyrical, and his playing is raw and hard on a bunch of Quincy Jones arrangements, including the savage cut "Mau-Mau", which features a very early use of the electric bass, driving drumming by Sonny Johnson, and a savage Afro groove. This cut alone is worth the price of the album, and deserves to be a club classic. Warm Valley is a wonderfully-titled set for Art Farmer – working here in a warm valley of sound, and blowing in that open, spacious tone that marked so much of his best later work! The group's a quartet – with Fred Hersh on piano, Ray Drummund on bass, and Akira Tana on drums – all sort of nicely sticking in the back and letting Art take center stage on his round, well-crafted fluegelhorn solos. Titles include "Eclypso", "And Now There's You", "Three Little Words", "Warm Valley", and "Sad To Say". CD

A wonderfully-titled set for Art Farmer – working here in a warm valley of sound, and blowing in that open, spacious tone that marked so much of his best later work! The group's a quartet – with Fred Hersh on piano, Ray Drummund on bass, and Akira Tana on drums – all sort of nicely sticking in the back and letting Art take center stage on his round, well-crafted fluegelhorn solos. Titles include "Eclypso", "And Now There's You", "Three Little Words", "Warm Valley", and "Sad To Say". CD

A wonderfully-titled set for Art Farmer – working here in a warm valley of sound, and blowing in that open, spacious tone that marked so much of his best later work! The group's a quartet – with Fred Hersh on piano, Ray Drummund on bass, and Akira Tana on drums – all sort of nicely sticking in the back and letting Art take center stage on his round, well-crafted fluegelhorn solos. Titles include "Eclypso", "And Now There's You", "Three Little Words", "Warm Valley", and "Sad To Say". LP, Vinyl record album

Large group of improvisational musicians performing works by Mike Nock including " Earthbound", "Floating Cloud", "Flowing Water", and others. CD

Here's where it all happens – the huge culmination of all the years of heavy funk and psychedelic soul created by George Clinton and the P-Funk empire – fused into an amazingly tight groove that helped win over much bigger audiences than ever before! The album title and cover are very fitting – as George Clinton launches the mothership, forges his classic space-funk image, and blows the P-Funk empire into an arena-filling mega-star act – all with grooves that are still some of the tightest, sharpest funk you'll ever hear – all these many decades later. The instrumentation is razor-sharp – played by giants like Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell – and the lyrics still have all the edginess and naughtiness of the earlier years – tied together wonderfully to make a very unified album, and one that's full of classics too! Titles include "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", "Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples", "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Handcuffs", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", and "Unfunky Ufo". CD

Here's where it all happens – the huge culmination of all the years of heavy funk and psychedelic soul created by George Clinton and the P-Funk empire – fused into an amazingly tight groove that helped win over much bigger audiences than ever before! The album title and cover are very fitting – as George Clinton launches the mothership, forges his classic space-funk image, and blows the P-Funk empire into an arena-filling mega-star act – all with grooves that are still some of the tightest, sharpest funk you'll ever hear – all these many decades later. The instrumentation is razor-sharp – played by giants like Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell – and the lyrics still have all the edginess and naughtiness of the earlier years – tied together wonderfully to make a very unified album, and one that's full of classics too! Titles include "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", "Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples", "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Handcuffs", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", and "Unfunky Ufo". CD features a bonus version of "Star Child", a promo radio version! CD

One of the most amazing jazz vocalists of our generation returns here with an incredible group – a majestic combo to match all the spiritual inclinations in his music – with work from Kamasi Washington on tenor, Mark De Clive-Lowe on piano, Miguel Atwood Ferguson on viola, and both Carlos Nino and Derf Reklaw on percussion! Dwight Trible on his own is already more than enough to get us to run out and buy a record – but here, the combination of his unique voice with these musicians makes for an album that's an instant masterpiece – and one that even has lots of new colors and styles compared to some of Dwight's previous work! Songs include numbers by older west coast spiritual jazz heavyweights – like Horace Tapscott, Linda Hill, Nate Morgan, James Leary, and Jesse Sharps – mixed with some of Trible's own songs, and versions of work by Carmen Lundy, Oscar Brown Jr, and Donny Hathaway. From top to bottom, start to stop, the album's a treasure – with tracks that include "It's All About Love", "Thank You Master", "Song For My Mother", "Brother Where Are You", "Some Other Time", "These Things You Are To Me", "Desert Fairy Princess", and "Mothership". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most amazing jazz vocalists of our generation returns here with an incredible group – a majestic combo to match all the spiritual inclinations in his music – with work from Kamasi Washington on tenor, Mark De Clive-Lowe on piano, Miguel Atwood Ferguson on viola, and both Carlos Nino and Derf Reklaw on percussion! Dwight Trible on his own is already more than enough to get us to run out and buy a record – but here, the combination of his unique voice with these musicians makes for an album that's an instant masterpiece – and one that even has lots of new colors and styles compared to some of Dwight's previous work! Songs include numbers by older west coast spiritual jazz heavyweights – like Horace Tapscott, Linda Hill, Nate Morgan, James Leary, and Jesse Sharps – mixed with some of Trible's own songs, and versions of work by Carmen Lundy, Oscar Brown Jr, and Donny Hathaway. From top to bottom, start to stop, the album's a treasure – with tracks that include "It's All About Love", "Thank You Master", "Song For My Mother", "Brother Where Are You", "Some Other Time", "These Things You Are To Me", "Desert Fairy Princess", and "Mothership". CD

Chick Corea on piano and keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, Lenny White on drums, Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, and Frank Gambale on guitars. CD

Here's where it all happens – the huge culmination of all the years of heavy funk and psychedelic soul created by George Clinton and the P-Funk empire – fused into an amazingly tight groove that helped win over much bigger audiences than ever before! The album title and cover are very fitting – as George Clinton launches the mothership, forges his classic space-funk image, and blows the P-Funk empire into an arena-filling mega-star act – all with grooves that are still some of the tightest, sharpest funk you'll ever hear – all these many decades later. The instrumentation is razor-sharp – played by giants like Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell – and the lyrics still have all the edginess and naughtiness of the earlier years – tied together wonderfully to make a very unified album, and one that's full of classics too! Titles include "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", "Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples", "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Handcuffs", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", and "Unfunky Ufo". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most amazing jazz vocalists of our generation returns here with an incredible group – a majestic combo to match all the spiritual inclinations in his music – with work from Kamasi Washington on tenor, Mark De Clive-Lowe on piano, Miguel Atwood Ferguson on viola, and both Carlos Nino and Derf Reklaw on percussion! Dwight Trible on his own is already more than enough to get us to run out and buy a record – but here, the combination of his unique voice with these musicians makes for an album that's an instant masterpiece – and one that even has lots of new colors and styles compared to some of Dwight's previous work! Songs include numbers by older west coast spiritual jazz heavyweights – like Horace Tapscott, Linda Hill, Nate Morgan, James Leary, and Jesse Sharps – mixed with some of Trible's own songs, and versions of work by Carmen Lundy, Oscar Brown Jr, and Donny Hathaway. From top to bottom, start to stop, the album's a treasure – with tracks that include "It's All About Love", "Thank You Master", "Song For My Mother", "Brother Where Are You", "Some Other Time", "These Things You Are To Me", "Desert Fairy Princess", and "Mothership". CD

That's a pretty enticing title, and the record's got a pretty enticing sound as well – fantastic long-spun lines from the trio of Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Whit Dickey on drums – all players with a long history together, and a perfectly-matched sound on the record! Shipp is at his most spiritual here – really reveling in that new sense of warmth that's graced his more recent material – a quality that Parker is only happy to support and emphasize, while Dickey proves once again that he can be an incredibly versatile talent on the drum kit – sometimes almost feeling like a different player on each different track on the record. Titles include "Down Void Way", "Nothing & A Thing", "Whirling In The Void", "Village Mothership", and "Nothingness". CD

Keyboardist Bernie Worrell first rose to fame in the P-Funk universe of George Clinton – but as the decades moved on, he also became a very different sort of keyboardist overall – one with a lot more way out sounds than he ever would have contributed to a record by Funkadelic – as you'll hear on this set with the contemporary group Khueex! The music is some of the last that Bernie ever recorded before leaving this planet all too soon – and the keyboard work here is right up there with the wildness he really unleashed from the late 80s onward – with lots of great organ lines that are especially nice, interwoven with the heavy bass, guitar, and keyboards from the core group. Titles include "T Funk", "Going North", "The Phaser Is Broken", "No More Planks", "Angry Bear", "Killer Whale Creation", "Spiritual Warfare", and "Receiving Alien Transmission". CD

Keyboardist Bernie Worrell first rose to fame in the P-Funk universe of George Clinton – but as the decades moved on, he also became a very different sort of keyboardist overall – one with a lot more way out sounds than he ever would have contributed to a record by Funkadelic – as you'll hear on this set with the contemporary group Khueex! The music is some of the last that Bernie ever recorded before leaving this planet all too soon – and the keyboard work here is right up there with the wildness he really unleashed from the late 80s onward – with lots of great organ lines that are especially nice, interwoven with the heavy bass, guitar, and keyboards from the core group. Titles include "T Funk", "Going North", "The Phaser Is Broken", "No More Planks", "Angry Bear", "Killer Whale Creation", "Spiritual Warfare", and "Receiving Alien Transmission". LP, Vinyl record album

Jeff Clayton on alto saxophone, soprano, and tenor saxophone, and flute, Bill Green on alto and tenor saxophone, Rickey Woodard on tenor saxophone, Charlie Owens on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Lee Callet on baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, George Bohanon, Ira Nepus, and Thurman Green on trombone, Maurice Spears on bass trombone, Bobby Bryant, Clay Jenkins, Oscar Brashear, Ray Brown, and Snooky Young on trumpet and flugelhorn, Bill Cunliffe on piano, Jim Hershman on guitar, John Clayton on arco bass, Herb Mickman on double bass, and Jeff Hamilton on drums. CD

Anita O'Day pays tribute to Downbeat poll winners by singing vocal versions of their big hits in this lively set of jazz tracks from the 50s! Arrangements are by Marty Paich and Russ Garcia, both swinging as nicely as they ever did – and the setting of the album keeps Anita nicely in line, sticking to more straight jazz material than you might hear on some of her other sets from the same period. Titles include "Frenesi", "Sing, Sing, Sing", "Early Autumn", "Four Brothers", "Four", and "Night In Tunisia". CD also features 7 bonus tracks – including "Whisper Not", "Peel Me A Grape", "Star Eyes", "Hershey Bar", and "Don't Be That Way". CD

A nice live snapshot of a later P Funk incarnation, circa 1983 – with players like Dennis Chambers and Michael Hampton aboard the mothership with Clinton's family of funk all stars! The rest of the crew includes includes stalwarts Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel, Blackbird McKnight, Maceo Parker, Mudbone Cooper and George Clinton working hard to extend their legendary style of live funk into the 80s. There's a slow build up of energy that's works well – kicking off slowly but surely with a laidback intro and band intro before busts open in a big way, and from there it's one exciting classic after another 'til the very end! Includes lengthy live riffs on P-funk classics like "Cosmic Slop", "(Not Just) Knee Deep", "Maggot Brain", "Atomic Dog"and "Flashlight", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", "Do That Stuff", "Cosmic Slop" plus a medley of "Let's Take It To The Stage", "Mothership Connection (Starchild)" and "I Call My Baby Pussycat" in a nearly 100 minute set! CD

George Clinton may have pretty well disbanded Parliament and Funkadelic by the time the 80s came around, but the Mothership is still soaring highly on this first album from the P-Funk All Stars project – featuring some (but not all) of George Clinton's better players from various groups! Urban Dancefloor Guerillas his a pretty great little set of jammed-up cuts produced by Clinton, Bootsy, Gary Shider, and Sly Stewart. The flame was still burning, even in the "dark years" of the litigious early 80s – on a set that's actually a bit more stylistically diverse than some the related projects, though unified by never wavering funk! Titles include "Copy Cat", "Pumpin' It Up", "Catch A Keeper", and "Generator Pop". CD

An oft-overlooked gem from Parliament – released during the year 1976, and sometimes hidden between monster LPs like Funkentelechy and Mothership Connection – but every bit as great as those two classics! The album's got that tightened-up P-Funk sound that was working so perfectly at the time – still with all the fuzzy haired elements of earlier years, but presented with a bit more focus – and a powerhouse swing that really drives the tracks home with a funky groove on the bottom! There's a flowing sort of energy here that almost makes you think that the whole thing just emerged naturally from the brain of George Clinton – but all ensemble players have a strong hand in the action, and really get some great moments in on the set. Cuts include "Gamin' On Ya", "Do That Stuff", "Children Of Production", and "I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body)". CD

The Mothership goes under water – as George Clinton and crew groove away nicely on this water-themed set of tracks designed to raise Atlantis from the deep! The overall sound is perhaps not as totally perfect as some of the earlier records, but the P-Funk machine is still in full effect – cranking away nice and hard on tracks like "Liquid Sunshine", "Motor Booty Affair", "Deep", "Rumpofsteelskin", and "(Your'e A Fish And I'm A) Water Sign". Plus, the album more than makes up for a lack of standout tracks with a nicely-united theme – almost a "concept album" of the funky type! LP, Vinyl record album

Vintage live recordings by George Clinton and his mighty P-Funk empire in the mid 70s – rehearsal sessions for the famous P-Funk Earth Tour – recorded in an airplane hanger in upstate New York! The sound is incredibly crisp and vibrant – these aren't sloppy rehearsal moments, but the group at their best – working with a tightness that's mindblowing, and having a sense of presence that's maybe even more upfront than the famous live album from the tour – as the smaller venue and recording style really captures the spontaneous energy of the performance! All the classic names are here, except Bootsy Collins – Fuzzy Haskins, Garry Shider, Jerome Brailey, Bernie Worrell, and even Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns – on titles that include "Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On", "Undisco Kidd", "Gettin To Know You", "Comin Round The Mountain", "Do That Stuff", "Dr Funkenstein", and "Mothership Connection". LP, Vinyl record album

Stone cold great collection of funk cuts by this legendary group – all wrapped up in a nice package with a good memory for the hits! Tracks include monsters like "Chocolate City", "Up For The Down Stroke", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", "P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Bop Gun", "Flash Light", "Aqua Boogie", and "Mothership Connection (Star Child)". Why even bother going out of the house? CD

After beginning life as a super fuzzed-out psychasouladelic band, Parliament emerged as one of the best pop-funk combos of the mid/late 70s – with a tight tight sound that mixed the smooth major label sound of Casablanca with the mad funk genius of George Clinton. This huge 3LP set brings together some of the band's best tracks from their glory years of the late 70s – when they were hitting the charts and selling a huge amount of albums to college kids stoned out of their mind waiting for the mothership to land. Tracks include "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", "Testify", "Mr. Wiggles", "Bop Gun", "Up For The Down Stroke", "Theme From The Black Hole", "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)", "Flashlight", "Ride On", "Rumpofsteelskin", "Agony Of Defeet", and "Children Of Production". 25 tracksin all! CD