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A long-overdue second full length albums from the SSS International years of the great Johnny Adams – tracks that were mostly issued as singles by the label, and which come together here with a punch that's even harder than the work on his Heart & Soul album from the time! Adams has a voice that's definitely trained in the deep soul modes of the south, but also gets some groovier help that's more in keeping with the SSS approach – a bit funky at times, nicely gritty at others – on titles that include "South Side Of Soul Street", "Give Me A Chance", "Release Me", "Proud Woman", "I Won't Cry", "In A Moment Of Weakness", "You Made A New Man Out Of Me", "I've Got Too Much To Lose", and "Living On Your Love". LP, Vinyl record album

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A massive look at the lost years of southern soul singer Johnny Adams – 2CDs worth of music that bring together a wealth of tracks recorded between his initial years on SSS International Records, and his later revival in the 80s on Rounder! These cuts all appeared on much more obscure albums – records issued by the Chelsea, Ariola, and Hep Me labels – none of which ever got much exposure back in the day, but which are wonderfully pulled together here to capture these lost years in Johnny's career! In a way, this material may be some of the best that he ever recorded – as it's got a sense of poise and maturity, but also feels somewhat relaxed and intimate – that stronger sort of sophistication that was bubbling in the undercurrent of southern soul as the 70s moved on. Adams' vocals are impeccable throughout – often crackling with a nice sort of rasp, even when the backings are tight or smooth – and titles include "The Image Of Me", "Chasing Rainbows", "I Can't Believe She Gives It All To Me", "After All The Good Is Gone", "Night People", "Memories", "Stand By Me", "I Can't Be All Bad", "Too Much Pride", "Nothing Takes The Place Of You", "Give Me A Chance", "I Don't Wanna Cry", "Baby Baby I Love You", and "I'll Never Fall In Love Again". CD

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The best work ever from the great Johnny Adams – a Crescent City soul singer with a hell of a lot of power, brought into wonderfully strong focus here on these early recordings for the Ric & Ron label! Johnny recorded later in Nashville and Jackson, but he's never sounded better than on these early sides – which have a depth of feeling and timeless power that we'd rank right up there with some of the most important names during the early years of soul. The material is nicely free of overdone New Orleans styles – and instead has this care and class that really reaches out from the roots of the material, to showcase Johnny as a singer with a great deal of care and class, but one who's still able to let loose in the best deep soul modes too. Adams hardly ever got the chart coverage he should have deserved – but this 24 track set will more than support his strong legacy – with detailed notes, and a stunning array of tracks that include "Closer To You", "Teach Me To Forget", "Who You Are", "Showdown", "A Losing Battle", "Life Is Just A Struggle", "Cold Cold Heart", "Coming Around The Mountain", and "Nowhere To Go". CD

Maybe one of the funkiest vocal numbers ever sung by Johnny Adams – and one that owes a lot to the super-funky backings of the Huck Daniels Co – who somehow manage to combine the tightness of the James Brown Band of the late 60s with the more sophisticated instrumention of the JBs in the early 70s! 7-inch, Vinyl record

Pepper Adams is easily one of the hippest players you'll ever hear on the baritone sax – an artist who changed in great ways over the decades, and always seemed to deliver something special when he got a chance to record as a leader! That's definitely the case here – as Adams stretches out on these really long tracks – blowing his horn with the kind of longform imagination that you might hear on a tenor performance of this nature by Dexter Gordon or Johnny Griffin – on a rare Canadian live date with backing from the trio of pianist Tommy Banks! Banks is a great player – with a nice raw edge that really brings a lot out of Adams – and titles are all very long, with versions of "Patrice", "Oleo", "Civilization & Its Discontents", and "Three & One". CD features bonus tracks "Stella By Starlight" and "Time On My Hands". CD

Few people could make a session cook like Johnny Griffin in his early years – and this late 50s sextet date is great proof of that fact! The album's a relaxed, open, almost unstructured set that might be dubbed a "blowing session", were it not for the tightness of the players and the relatively unified feel of the date. Griffin's tenor is very firmly in the lead, and he's very clearly the leader here – helping shape the sound of the group that includes Donald Byrd on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone, Kenny Drew on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. There's some really hard-wailing extended numbers that come across as full-on hardbop workouts – really driving things along as you might guess with a rhythm section like that in action – but other tunes show some more fully-fleshed sounds from the group – that slight undercurrent of modern expression that was always present in Griff's music. Titles include "Johnny GG", "Catharsis", "Stix Trix", and "What's New" – plus a take on "Woody N You" that just has Griffin wailing along with the rhythm section! CD

Classic Riverside and Blue Note albums featuring John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Drew, Julian Priester, Pepper Adams, Max Roach, and others! CD

A helluva set from saxophonist James Carter – smoking numbers recorded live in Detroit at Baker's – featuring some of the hottest soloing we've heard on a recently recorded set! It's an all around great showcase for Carter and guests like David Murray and Johnny Griffin (who both blow some astoundingly strong tenor) plus Detroit allstars like Dwight Adams on trumpet, Larry Smith on alto, Ken Cox on drums and others. Tracks include Oscar Pettiford's "Tricotism", Jimmy Forrest's "Soul Street", Eddie Harris's "Freedom Jazz Dance", Don Byas's "Free And Easy" and others. Great stuff – and a wonderful return to form from James Carter! CD

Features this New Orleans legend on tenor – with work from Clyde Kerr on trumpet, David Torkanowsky on piano, and guest vocals from Johnny Adams and Germaine Bazzle – who each sing on one track apiece! LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet little set that definitely aims to stake out its own little territory – with a groove that lives up surprisingly well to the title! The music here is way funkier than you might expect – and comes from a time when many popular singers were working in studios staffed by cats who were pretty darn cool – and had a great ear for picking up some of the best musical undercurrents from other scenes – including some of the best soul and funk that was really breaking out in the US at the start of the 70s! As a result, many of these tracks have unexpectedly funky rhythms at the bottom – way different than the kind of backings that you might have heard in country soul records from a few years before – and different too than the redneck rock that was becoming more popular with some of the bigger acts on the charts. You're bound to recognize a few bigger names here – as the set's not just country artists – and as usual, the Light In The Attic crew have done a stunning job of putting the whole thing together. Titles include "LA Memphis Tyler Texas" by Dale Hawkins, "Georgia Mountain Dew" by Johnny Adams, "Light Blue" by Bobby Darin, "I Wanta Make Her Love Me" by Jim Ford, "Hawg Frog" by Gray Fox, "Fire & Brimstone" by Link Wray, "Street People" by Bobby Charles, "Bayou Country" by Gritz, "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Johnny Jenkins, and "Studspider" by Tony Joe White. CD

With tracks by Johnny Powers, Art Adams, Lonnie Allen, The Dazzlers, Tommy Smith, Bob Vidone, Tommy Holmes, Jackie Gotroe, Gary Engel, Bobby Lollar, and Jerry Adams. LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent UK-only collection of rare vintage soul – filled with lost southern soul tracks from Shelby Sigleton's Silver Fox, Minaret, and SSS labels! A classic set – with cuts by Willie Hobbs, Big John Hamilton, Johnny Soul, Reuben Bell, Tommy Bush, Johnny Adams, Clarence Murray, Eddie Giles, George Perkins, Mickey Murray, and Danny White. LP, Vinyl record album

Includes selections by Johnny Powers, Harry Hepcat, Bill Davenport, The Dazzlers, Morris Brothers, Art Adams, Carl E Tyndall, County GJs, Ray Campbell, Billy Tidwell, and Bob Vidone. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the hippest collections of New Orleans soul we've ever heard – and one of the funkiest, too – a set that comes on with a sock-solid groove that even beats the previous entries in this series! In fact, since this is the fourth from Soul Jazz, the label's done an even deeper job of digging – really finding unusual cuts that aren't nearly as reissued as some of the bigger NOLA classics – and which represent a commitment to funk that stretches from the R&B years of the 50s, all the way up to the 70s! Most of the cuts are from the late 60s, and really show the Crescent City scene working hard to come up with some of the newest, freshest sounds of the time – music cut in the shadows of The Meters and Allen Toussaint, but every bit as powerful as their classic work. Titles include "You Make A New Man Out Of Me" by Johnny Adams, "Let The Groove Move You" by Gus The Groove Lewis, "The Monkey" by Dave Bartholomew, "Live It Up" by James K-Nine, "Here I Come" by Lou Johnson Frisco, "Junco Partner" by James Waynes, "No Competition" by Norma Jean, "I'm A Carpenter (part 1)" by David Robinson, "Pop Popcorn Children" by Eldridge Holmes, "Y'Er Comes The Funky Man" by Bob French's Storyville Jazz Band, "All I Want Is You" by Zilla Mayes, "Stay" by Chuck Colbert & Viewpoint, and "Play Me A Cornbread Song" by Joe Haywood. CD

An incredible double dose of boogie funk and spacey soul grooves selected by Joey Negro and Sean P – nearly 2 1/2 hours of fat basslines, funky drums, squelching synths and floor shaking rare groovers from the late 70s and early 80s! Joey Negro and Sean P are master compilers of rare funk & soul – and Supafunkanova is right up there with their best work. Totally incredible stuff from those magic years – when the sophisticated sheen of the disco era was being combined with the grittier funk of earlier years –with boundless possibilities!. Mostly rare cuts – the full length jams, too! Disc 1 includes "Hang With The Gang" by Backlash, "Clap Song" by Pied Piper OF Funkingham, "I'm So Glad" by Legacy, "Tighten It Up" by BLT, "Got This Feelin'" by Hypertension, "Bottom Line" by South Bronx, "Soul Kick" by Billy Mersey Band, "West Coast Drive" by VIP Connection and more. Disc 2 is just as wonderful, and touches on early party hip hop a bit more, and titles include "We Rap More Mellow" (Joey Negro remix) by Younger Generation, "The Man With The Master Plan" by Billy Lamont, "Reach Out (And Touch Someone)" by Leprechan, "Feel The Beat" by Johnny Adams, "Freak Unique" by Nature's Creation, "Funk Affair" by Standing Room Only, "Power Funk" by Power Band and more. CD

A sweet little set that definitely aims to stake out its own little territory – with a groove that lives up surprisingly well to the title! The music here is way funkier than you might expect – and comes from a time when many popular singers were working in studios staffed by cats who were pretty darn cool – and had a great ear for picking up some of the best musical undercurrents from other scenes – including some of the best soul and funk that was really breaking out in the US at the start of the 70s! As a result, many of these tracks have unexpectedly funky rhythms at the bottom – way different than the kind of backings that you might have heard in country soul records from a few years before – and different too than the redneck rock that was becoming more popular with some of the bigger acts on the charts. You're bound to recognize a few bigger names here – as the set's not just country artists – and as usual, the Light In The Attic crew have done a stunning job of putting the whole thing together. Titles include "LA Memphis Tyler Texas" by Dale Hawkins, "Georgia Mountain Dew" by Johnny Adams, "Light Blue" by Bobby Darin, "I Wanta Make Her Love Me" by Jim Ford, "Hawg Frog" by Gray Fox, "Fire & Brimstone" by Link Wray, "Street People" by Bobby Charles, "Bayou Country" by Gritz, "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Johnny Jenkins, and "Studspider" by Tony Joe White. LP, Vinyl record album

Way more than just classic disco – hardly the hits package you might expect, and a really well-chosen batch of grooves that gets right down to the music that really mattered on the dancefloor back in the day! As you'd hear in the best clubs of the late 70s, the grooves here come from a range of different sources – funky jazz, clubby soul, crossover club, and more – tracks from both big labels and small, laid out back to back at a level that really recreates the excitement of a hip disco back in the day – not in a live mix, so you can enjoy each song on its own, but still in a way that makes you feel like there's a legendary DJ guiding the grooves. Titles include "Love Magic" by John Davis & Monster Orchestra, "Thanks For Loving Me" by Double Discovery, "Do Your Dance" by Rose Royce, "Keep On Dancin" by Gary's Gang, "Counting On Love" by Peter Jacques Band, "Gone Gone Gone" by Johnny Mathis, "What A Difference A Day Makes" by Esther Phillips, "Makes You Blind (re-edit)" by Glitter Band, "Just A Groove" by Glen Adams Affair, "Livin Up To Love" by Companion, "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" by Manhattan Transfer, "Turn The Music Up" by Players Association, "It Burns Me Up" by Change, "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" by Idris Muhammad, "Lady Bug (disco mix)" by Bumblebee Unlimited, "Bama Boogie Woogie" by Cleveland Eaton, "Can't Live Without Your Love" by Tamiko Jones, "Dancin" by Grey & Hanks, and "Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon" by Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. 2CD set comes in a cool 7" package – with 24 tracks in all! CD

Music from Kermit Ruffins, Fats Domino, Dr. John, Louis Armstrong, Beausoleil, the Meters, Marcia Ball, the Radiators, Johnny Adams, Clifton Chenier, Earl King, Irma Thomas, the Hawketts, Boozoo Chavis, Aaron Neville, Coolbone, Raymond Myles, James Booker, Little Richard, Tim McLaughlin, Eddie Bo & more. CD

A sweet little dip into the catalog of the LA-based Kent/Modern label – the legendary imprint that started in the R&B years, and stayed strong in the soul generation – providing inspiration and a name for the Kent branch of UK-based Ace records, home to some of the best reissues in the Dusty Groove catalog! And while Kent issued some great material back in the day, they also recorded a fair bit of work that never hit the pressing plants – some of which is on this collection, which mixes unreleased numbers with rare singles from back in the day! The set features 28 sublime numbers – a mixture of sweet soul, hard soul, group harmony, and a bit of funk – rare tunes all of them, most never issued on any full length albums. Titles include "I Got Love" by The Other Brothers, "I've Got To Win Your Love For Me" by The Sims Twins, "Baby You're Alive" by The Styles, "The Hunch" by Gene Taylor, "Come Back Baby" by Tami Young, "I'm Gonna Be Sweeter" by Clay Hammond, "You've Got It" by Johnny Williams, "Gimme Some Of Your Lovin" by Arthur Adams, "I Dig It The Most" by Jackie Day, "Down In The City" by The Marvellos, "Make A Little Love" by Lowell Fulsom, "New Lease On Life" by The Universals, "The Sun Don't Shine Every Day" by The Saints, and "That's A Rockin Good Way" by Vernon & Jewel. CD

Need a new dance? There's no better place to start than the ever-growing catalog of Vampi Soul – fast becoming one of the greatest sources on this planet for older grooves! This low-priced set offers a huge amount of rare groovers from the Vampi catalog – 23 titles in all, and all picked with an ear for the genre-bending style of funk that's fast becoming standard in the international groove circuit. The tunes range from Latin soul to jazz funk, funky rock, rocking funk, socking soul, and beyond – all lovingly collected to keep a really lively sound throughout! Titles include "What You Mean" by Johnny Colon, "Inca Snow" by Traffic Sound, "Out Of Sight" by Cannibal & The Headhunters, "Call My Name" by Joe Bataan, "Loaf & Jug" by Diplomats Of Solid Sound, "Git In There" by Betty Davis, "Let The Monkey Out" by Celofunk, "South Side Of Soul Street" by Johnny Adams, "No Me Molestes" by Totem, "Meltin Pot" by Boris Gardinier, and "Soul Nuevo" by Sexteto Electronico Moderno. CD

Weird, wild, wonderful work from the 7" single underground of the postwar years – music from a time when monster themes pervaded all sorts of musical styles – rock, soul, jazz, and even blues too – which resulted in a great run of very groovy records! This package digs deep into the sounds of those glory days – serving up some cuts that are pretty horroriffic, mixed with others that might have a slight novelty sort of approach – qualities that are sometimes emphasized by odd production techniques and other studio tricks! The package features 28 tracks in all, including a number of horror rockers we've not seen compiled elsewhere – titles that include "Horror Show" by Johnny Thunder, "The Hammer" by Faye Adams, "Terror" by The Bees, "Vampire" by Bobby Barrett, "Jack The Ripper" by The Tip Tops, "Shiverin & Shakin" by Edwin & Alvin, "Jack The Ripper" by The Elites, "Horror Pictures" by The Calvanes, "Graveyard Blues" by John Lee Hooker, "The Mummy" by Bob McFadden & Dor, "Igor's Lament" by Tony & The Monstrosities, "Cemetery Blues" by Lightnin Hopkins, "The Hex" by The Moroccos, "Witchcraft In The Air" by Betty Lavette, and "Graveyard Disposition" by Gatemouth Moore. CD

Compiled by Los Angeles radio station KGFJ – with selections by Jennell Hawkins, Oscar Toney JR, The Vanguards, Billy Stewart, Etta James, Lee Dorsey, Barbara Acklin, Brenton Wood, Village Callers, Brothers Of Soul, Bobby Bland, James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Darrell Banks, Bettye Swann, Johnny Adams, The Impressions, The Ballards, The Artistics, BB King, and Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson. LP, Vinyl record album

Loads of rare tracks from one of the greatest indies on the west coast – the legendary Kent/Modern label, a company that started during the indie heyday of R&B in California, but continued to put out some really strong soul records in the 60s and 70s! This side of the label's output isn't nearly as well known, but there's some real killers here – tracks that never broke big, especially outside of California, but which are filled with sharp funky edges, and some really wonderful vocals! The collection brings together a few of our favorite singles from Kent that we've never seen reissued, plus lots of other gems, and even a few unreleased tracks from the same stretch – and the whole thing's a real treasure trove of discovery, augmented by the usual really well-done Ace Records approach to notes. Titles include "I Need A Love" by Wally Cox, "Take A Look In Your Mind" by Robert Ramsey, "Cherry Pie" by Lord Charles & The Prophets, "I Want Action" by Jeanette Jones, "No In Between" by Johnny Adams, "My Love She's Gone" by The Intentions, "I Don't Know" by Earl Wright, "Tear My Love Down" by Wayne Boykin, "Push On Jesse Jackson" by The Pace-Setters, "Gone On Home" by Tommy Youngblood, "You're My Girl" by Larry Sanders, "It's Been A Long Time Baby" by The Other Brothers, "Move A Little Closer" by Millie Foster, and "All That Shines Is Not Gold" by The Windjammers. CD

Includes tracks by Irma Thomas, Johnny Adams, Marcia Ball, Beausoleil, Alvin "Red" Tyler, James Booker, Buckweat Zydeco, Phillip Walker, and others. CD