A wealth of great tracks that all feature altoist Earl Bostic, organist Richard Groove Holmes and guitarist Joe Pass! The first 7 cuts are from Bostic's excellent LP Jazz As I Feel It – one of his only few true jazz sessions! Bostic's tone has always been a favorite for us – and in this rare small combo jazz session you get to hear the the above mentioned titans with rhythm backing by Jimmy Bond, Shelly Manne and Charles Blackwell! The tracks are longer than usual for Bostic – and his edgey alto playing really sounds marvelous! Titles include "Don't Do It Please", "Hunt & Peck", "Fast Track", "Ten Out", and "Telstar Drive". The rest of the tracks are from Bostic's A New Sound LP from later in '63 – in which Bostic leads the crew on lesser known jazz numbers from the pens of Johnny Pate, Herbie Mann, Joe Puma and others, plus some Bostic originals. This one features some really dynamic solo work from Holmes and Pass! Al McKibbon is on bass and Earl Palmer hits the drums. Titles include "Karen", "Woodchuck", "Blues For The Ivy Leagues", "Nita", "Empathy", "Wednesday's Child" and "Inquiry". 73 minutes of music! CD

With Harold Vick and Teddy Edwards on tenor saxes, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Gene Edwards and Pat Martino on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass, and Billy Higgins, Freddie Waits or George Randall on drums. CD

Early work by Groove Holmes – the one organist who showed the scene that the west coast could boast a Hammond player as strong as the giants emerging from the east during the early 60s. The set features tracks recorded during the 1960s for the Pacific Jazz label, with Groove in groups that feature players like Teddy Edwards, Gene Ammons, Ben Webster, Joe Pass, and Les McCann. There's a total of 11 tracks in all – and titles include "Groovin Time", "Sweatin", "The Wailer", "This Here", "High Blues Pressure", "Comin Through The Apple", "Morris The Minor", and "That Healin Feeling". CD

A great later date for Hammond hero Groove Holmes – with Houston Person on tenor, Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet, and Jimmy Ponder on guitar! CD

A key album in the career of Richard Groove Holmes – his first session ever for Prestige Records, and the one that yielded the monster crossover hit version of "Misty"! The sound here is much leaner and cleaner than Groove in his Pacific Jazz years – a tight trio approach that brings plenty focus on Holmes' soaring style on the Hammond – that way of holding a note that made his organ work instantly recognizable in the 60s, in a groove that really set the tone for plenty of spacious keyboard work to come from others who would cop his style! Players include Gene Edwards on guitar and Jimmie Smith on drums – but Groove's organ dominates the records, and clearly sets the tone for the rhythm with his amazing sense of space and timing! Titles include a 6 minute version of Groove's "Misty", plus "Groove's Groove", "Song For My Father", and "Soul Message". CD

A key album in the career of Richard Groove Holmes – his first session ever for Prestige Records, and the one that yielded the monster crossover hit version of "Misty"! The sound here is much leaner and cleaner than Groove in his Pacific Jazz years – a tight trio approach that brings plenty focus on Holmes' soaring style on the Hammond – that way of holding a note that made his organ work instantly recognizable in the 60s, in a groove that really set the tone for plenty of spacious keyboard work to come from others who would cop his style! Players include Gene Edwards on guitar and Jimmie Smith on drums – but Groove's organ dominates the records, and clearly sets the tone for the rhythm with his amazing sense of space and timing! Titles include a 6 minute version of Groove's "Misty", plus "Groove's Groove", "Song For My Father", and "Soul Message". LP, Vinyl record album

Two of LA's leading soul jazz luminaries – playing head to head in an interesting session that mixes lines on piano and organ! McCann gives the set a good rollicking rhythm, and Holmes' increasing skill on the Hammond makes the set blow out over the top – and the pair get backing by Joe Pass on guitar, Ron Jefferson on drums, and the enigmatic Joe Splink on tenor, who we're sure is a more famous player, working here uncredited due to contract restrictions. The tracks are all originals by Les –a nd titles include "Black Groove", "Me & Groove", "Comin Through The Apple", "Carma", and "Somethin Special", which grooves for over 9 minutes! CD

An obscure early one from Groove Holmes! Despite the title, this one's actually a nice batch of pretty groovy tracks – played by Groove with two different trios, both of which give him plenty of room to stretch out, and prove that he always worked best in smaller ensembles! Lots of nice originals on the session – including "Groove Bird", "Do It My Way", "Minor Surgery", and "Sweatin". LP, Vinyl record album

Forget the "blues" in the title – because the set's as much a soul jazz cooker as any of Groove's classic records for Prestige! The format's a bit different than usual – in that Groove solos on Hammond over large arrangements by Onzy Matthews – in a sweet organ/big band mode that's got plenty of bounce! The tunes are mostly from R&B sources, but done here with a groovy 60s approach – and titles include "Organ Grinder", "Mean Old Frisco Blues", "Your Red Wagon", "In The Dark", and "I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town". CD

An assortment of tracks from Groove's later years on Muse Records – a great time when he dropped the electronics of some of his 70s sessions, and moved back to the small combo soul jazz grooving mode that first got him started in the jazz business! The tracks are all relatively long, and featuring an assortment of well-chosen players that include Idris Muhammad, Houston Person, Cecil Bridgewater, Jimmy Ponder, and Buddy Caldwell – all nicely recapturing the Prestige Records spirit, thanks to production work by Bob Porter and Houston Person. 10 tracks in all – including "Where Or When", "Groove's Groove", "My One & Only Love", "Stella By Starlight", "Broadway", and "Hackensack". CD

Tight trio material from the legendary Richard Groove Holmes – caught live at Count Basie's Nightclub in Harlem, working hard and heavy with a trio that features Gene Edwards on guitar and George Randall on drums! This live set is the kind of record that beautifully shows why Groove was so popular with live audiences in the 60s – because he can burn all night long, with no tricks, no gimmicks, just a straight-on soul jazz groove and some amazing work on the Hammond! Most cuts are pretty long – and there's some great groovers on here like Gerald Wilson's "Blues For Yna Yna", a cover of "Girl From Ipanema", Jimmy Heath's "Gemini", and Groove's own "Living Soul". LP, Vinyl record album

Plenty of groove, and plenty of spice – a set that has the heavy Holmes taking off in his best 60s soul jazz formation! The tracks are extremely tight – a bit shorter than usual, but in a really good way – almost to show that Grove Holmes could pack plenty of niceness into a tune, with less room than other players needed! Rhythms are great – tightly snapping throughout, and definitely in a "Misty" vibe – and the session features great guitar work from both Gene Edwards and Boogaloo Joe Jones, plus drums from George Randall, and some especially nice congas from Richard Landrum – which gives many numbers a sweetly skipping groove. Loads of fantastic covers here, that really transform the tunes – and titles include "If I Had A Hammer", "Old Folks", "123", "Never On A Sunday", "Boo D Doo", "Work Song", and "Day In The Life Of A Fool". LP, Vinyl record album

Quite an unusual date – both for the players, who are normally more at home on Prestige Records – and for the Pacific Jazz label, who were then a cornerstone of west coast cool jazz! That setting doesn't keep the album from being a killer, though – as Gene Ammons wails away on tenor, next to some lean, clean work on Hammond from the young Groove Holmes – who's already at his rhythmic best, and getting help here from Gene Edwards on guitar and Leroy Henderson on drums! Most tracks are nice and long – half recorded live, half in the studio – and titles include "Morris The Minor", "Good Vibrations", "Hey You What's That", and "Groovin' With Jug". LP, Vinyl record album

A 3CD package that brings together a CD apiece by each of the artists mentioned in the title – a low-priced way to get these Groove Merchant classics from the 70s! First up is the CD Afrodesia by Lonnie Smith – a confusing one from the Lester Corporation – but a great CD nonetheless! The title and cover make you think that the album's the same as Lonnie Smith's Afro-Desia album – but it actually contains little material from that set, and features more grooves from the even rarer When The Night Is Right session! Players listed include George Benson on guitar, Joe Lovano on tenor sax, and Greg Hopkins on trumpet – part of the Afro-Desia group, but also banked here on some tracks by larger arrangements from Brad Baker. The vibe is still quite hip – hard and searing on some tracks, and laidback and more Kudu jazz funky on others – and the album's an excellent one throughout, even if it is kind of a mystery in relation to Smith's discography! CD features 7 tracks in all – including "Apex", "Flavors", "Afrodesia", "Good Morning", "It's Changed", "When The Night Is Right", and "All In My Mind". Groovin With Groove is a monumental batch of organ jazz groovers from Richard Groove Holmes – recorded with some larger backings from Manny Albam, and a super-dope, super-funk sort of 70s feel that's really outta site! The tracks are lean and very rhythmically oriented – all instruments grooving very strictly on the beat, except for Groove's wailing Hammond – which takes off over the top in some fierce musical flights! Bernard Purdie chops up some wicked drums on the set, and titles include "Red Onion", "Meditation", "Good Vibrations", "Chu Chu", and the solid groover "You've Got it Bad". And like most LRC titles, the dates and information on this one are a bit suspect – because the CD definitely contains the 7 tracks from the New Groove album – but also features 5 more bonus tunes too – including "Go Away Little Girl", "Young & Foolish", "It's Impossible", "It's Gonna Take Some Time", and "Groove's Groove". And note that the cover lists the dates for the sessions as 1978 and 1979, but the music is definitely the same as that on Groove's early 70s album New Groove. And last but not least is Main Squeeze – one of the grooviest albums ever from Jimmy McGriff – a hard-wailing session that's filled with plenty of cooking lines on the organ, and a few especially funky tracks! The groove here is tight, short, and very sharp – strongly in the mode of other post-Sue sessions by McGriff – like The Worm or other Groove Merchant sides – with a style that's often much more focused than Jimmy's earlier years, and strongly turned towards the rhythms of the tunes! A few numbers are more familiar soul jazz, but these are nicely offset by the harder funk numbers of the record – like the romping, stomping break classic "The Main Squeeze", the totally groovy "The Worm Turns", and the fast-vamping "GMI". The group features Jimmy Ponder on guitar and Connie Lester on alto sax – and other titles include "The Sermon", "Stella By Starlight", and "The Blues Train To Georgia". CD

Tasty small group work from Groove – with Mr Holmes himself on organ, and the great Larry Willis on electric piano – coming up with a twin electric organ/piano sound that's similar to the one that Groove used on his Comin On Home LP for Blue Note. The difference here is that things aren't as funky as on the Blue Note record – more in the style of the mellow soul of some of the other Groove Merchant albums, with a sweet use of percussion and guitar next to the keys – in a nice laidback kind of groove! Titles are mostly covers – like "St Thomas", "American Pie", and "Who Can I Turn To" – but the lineup also includes two Holmes originals, "Catherine" and the jazzy "Fingers", which is a nice little cut! CD

Sweet 70s funk from the legendary Groove Holmes – an album that has his funky organ riffing nicely over some tight larger arrangements! The style is really great, and a nice departure from the smaller combo Groove Holmes sound of the 60s – more in keeping with his later Blue Note work, in that the organ's in the lead, grooving soulfully, and the rest of the band vamps and comps behind him with a tight style that's almost in the soundtrack mode! Players include Pretty Purdie on drums, Horace Ott on electric piano, and Seldon Powell on tenor – and Horace Ott wrote two nice originals – "Night Glider" and "Flyjack" – and Groove contributed "Pure Cane Sugar". Other tracks include "Go Away Little Girl", "Young & Foolish", and "One Mint Julep". CD

Twin organs back to back – and a heck of a hard-wailing set from Groove Holmes and Jimmy McGriff! The album cooks from the very first note – and features long tunes that open up with the same sort of solo-heavy approach that you'd get on Holmes' Prestige albums of the 60s – very stretched out, in a way that offers the keyboardists no cover at all, and forces them to keep thinking on their feet to come up with great notes! Bernard Purdie plays some nicely tight drums on the set, and guitar is by George Freeman and O'Donel Levy – both of whom add some nice superdope touches to the set! A winner all the way through, with great solos – and titles that include "Licks A Plenty", "The Squirrel", and "Finger Lickin' Good". CD

One of the coolest collections of work related to Ray Charles that we've ever seen – a huge box that brings together both some of the music that inspired Ray, then his own recordings, then tracks that he did that inspired other artists too! The first four CDs feature work from a generation both before Ray started recording, and material contemporary to his important early sides – and the set first begins with cuts by artists doing a song, then moves into Charles' own interpretation of the song – showing the way that he really changed things up, as he take son music from Cecil Shaw, Lowell Fulson, Tommy Dorsey, Leroy Carr, Don Gibson, Charlie Parker, T Bone Walker, Swan Silvertone Singers, and dozens of other artists! The last three CDs then feature songs first sung by Ray, followed by either covers of the same tunes, or songs that really owe a lot to them – music from Eddie Bo, Jimmy McGriff, Bobby Peterson, Sammy Davis Jr, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Richard Groove Holmes, Bobby Parker, Sandy Nelson, and dozens of others too! The package features 171 titles in all – including 15 never-issued live tracks from Ray Charles. CD

Hip big band sounds from West Coast arranger Onzy Matthews and a group that features Curtis Amy, Sonny Criss, Lou Blackburn, and Richard Groove Holmes! This set includes both of his Capitol album plus 29 previously unissued tracks! CD

Heavy Hammond from a time when the use of the organ in jazz was really changing up from the 60s – music that often had more of a funky current in the rhythms than some of the more soul and gospel-influenced styles of the decade before! All the work here was recorded for the Groove Merchant label – most by older heavyweights who'd recorded for Blue Note and Prestige, but were given a chance to hip things up a bit more for the 70s – as you'll hear in the great style of these tunes! Sonny Lester produced most of the music – and titles include "Cisco Kid" and "Superfly" by Reuben Wilson, "Afrodesia" and "Funk Reaction" by Lonnie Smith, "Groove Grease" and "Tailgunner" by Jimmy McGriff, "Good Vibrations" and "Out Of Nowhere" by Richard Groove Holmes, "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Reuben Wilson, "Preacher's Tune" by Richard Groove Holmes, and "Let's Stay Together" by Jimmy McGriff. CD

Great little collection from Wilson's Pacific Jazz albums featuring the likes of Joe Pass, Leroy Vinnegar, Roy Ayers, Richard Groove Holmes, and Harold Land! 16 tracks total including "Jeri", "Viva Torado", "Moody Blue", "Paco", "Lighthouse Blues", and "The Serpent". CD

Includes tracks by Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Gil Scott-Heron, Bobbi Humphrey, Don Cherry, Stanley Cowell, Carmen McRae, Eddie Harris, Roy Ayers, Richard Groove Holmes, Clifford Thornton, and others! CD

Plenty of street funk and just a bit of jazz here – all served up in the kind of killer funky collection we've always loved from the BGP label! As with some of their other gems, this set goes way beyond the obvious – and digs deep to not just feature rare singles and album tracks, but also include some never-issued recordings from the same period – which makes the set every bit as important for collectors of vintage 45s as it is for newcomers just looking to get a funky taste! There's a hard, deep vibe to most of these tracks – definitely some of the righteous message promised by the cover and title, but also just some plain old funky elements too – served up with lots of sinister guitar lines, heavy drums, and a mix of instrumental riffing and hard soul vocals. Titles include a special instrumental DJ edit of "A Joyful Process" by Funkadelic – plus "Dose Of Soul" by Chet Ivey & His Fabulous Avengers, "Do It" by Billy Sha Rae, "Music For The Brothers" by The Solicitors, "What's The Matter With The World" by Dave Hamilton, "Chains" by Blacks & blues, "Things Gonna Get Better" by Clarence Coulter, "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" by Pretty Purdie & The Playboys, "One Man's Loss" by Vernon Garrett, "125th Street & 7th Ave" by Richard Groove Holmes, "Mucho Macho" by Macho, "Push On Jesse Jackson" by The Pace Setters, "Shorty The Pimp" by Don Julian, and "Payin Dues" by Ruby Delicious. CD

Includes work by Willis Jackson, Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, and Richard Groove Holmes! CD

With selections by Funk Inc, Charles Earland, Richard Groove Holmes, Houston Pearson, Bernard Purdie, Idris Muhammad, Melvin Sparks, and Boogaloo Joe Jones. LP, Vinyl record album

Twenty tracks from Thelonious Monk, Art Pepper, Mose Allison, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane, The Bill Evans Trio, The Montgomery Brothers, George Benson with the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet, Rusty Bryant, Sonny Stitt & Brother Jack McDuff, Ivan 'Boogaloo' Joe Jones, Idris Muhammad, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and more. CD