This is Mel Torme's best-ever album, and it's one that we'd recommend to anyone who likes jazz vocals at all – even if you can't usually stand Mel! The Velvet Fog is backed by a great 10-piece group, led by the great Marty Paich, and featuring excellent west coast players like Pete Candoli, Jack Montrose, Bob Cooper, and Bud Shank. The whole group wails tremendously, and they make Mel get a bit more swingin and a bit more jazzy than usual – especially on cuts like "Lulu's Back In Town", "The Carioca", "Sing For Your Supper", and "Lullaby Of Birdland". 70s pressing of the album Mel Torme & The Marty Paich Dek-Tette – with a different title and cover. LP, Vinyl record album

Popular cuts from Camroun, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Zaire, Senegal, and The Congo, with selections by Mekongo, Eba Aka Jerome, Kambou Clement, Pablo, Etoile De Dakar, and Menga Mokombi. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest records ever cut by altoist Herb Geller, and one of the few to document the work of his group that included wife Lorraine Geller on piano! Lorraine's quite nice, and the rhythm by Keith Mitchell and Mel Lewis is good too – but the real wonder is Herb's alto, which cuts along in a razor-sharp mode that clearly defines him as one of the best players of his generation on the instrument! The set's one of the few times you can really hear Herb cut loose – unencumbered by overwritten arrangements, or by other players in the group – and its his work on the album that makes this record a treasure! Titles include "The Answer Man", "Patterns", "Suppertime", "The Heather On The Hill", and "Love". CD

A killer set from Freddie Hubbard's legendary years on CTI! Like the classic Red Clay album, there's 4 tunes here, all longer cuts – where everyone gets a chance to stretch out a bit, over smooth (but not too smooth!) electric grooves, supported by great orchestrations from Don Sebesky! Ron Carter & Billy Cobham provide a tight but elastic rhythmic underpinning – a great foil for solos by players who include Keith Jarrett on electric piano, George Benson on guitar, Hubert Laws on flute, and Freddie himself on trumpet. Airto & Ray Barretto are on percussion, with some nice percolating accents to the grooves – and titles include the classic "Povo", an oft-sampled monster – plus "In A Mist", "The Godfather", and "Sky Dive". LP, Vinyl record album

A real gem from guitarist Larry Carlton – a set that's very jazzy, but which also shows the strong focus he'd developed on his rock session work in the 70s – including some famous recordings with Steely Dan! There's a sharpness to Carlton's guitar that cuts through some of the sleepier modes of fusion players of the time – a style that's right out front, able to solo with a great sense of voice, but also no cheesier sounds as well – very appealing to fans of 70s guitar fusion, and Carlton's great blend of soulful undercurrents as well. Titles include "Sleepwalk", "Last Night", "Blues Bird", "Upper Kern", "10:00pm", and "You Gotta Get It While You Can". CD

His last LP for Profile produced by Herby Luv Bug. 12 cuts in all, including "Dana Dane To It", "A Little Bit Of Dane Tonight" and "Tales FromThe Dane Side". LP, Vinyl record album

The last 2 albums that the Impressions ever cut for ABC during the 60s, both of them pretty darn nice! The Fabulous Impressions has a vibe that's way more than you'd expect from the group's supper club style on the cover – as the record features a great set of original Curtis Mayfield compositions, sung by the group in great form, with arrangements by the total genius Johnny Pate! The record is filled with haunting soul tracks like "Isle Of Sirens", "Aware Of Love", "It's All Over", "Love's A Comin", "You Ought To Be In Heaven", and "She Don't Love Me" – all written by Curtis, and all proof that he's always been one of the best soul songwriters! A nice little gem that often gets lost in the band's catalog – but one to seek out, even if you're a bit nervous about a record with "fabulous" in the title! We're A Winner is a whole new level of pride and power for The Impressions – as you might guess from the bold statement of the title track! It may seem hard to believe from the perspective of the 21st Century, but back in the mid 60s, a message like "We're A Winner" was quite a strong one – a new anthem of righteous identity that was one of the first truly political statements from a young Curtis Mayfield, and a great precursor of the genius to come in the 70s! But even at this early state, there's still plenty of genius going on – not just in Mayfield's sublime songwriting, but also in the harmonies of the group, and the beautiful treatment they get in the studio from arranger Johnny Pate. The album's one of their key classics from the ABC years – and titles include "We're A Winner", "Moonlight Shadows", "Nothing Can Stop Me", "I'm Gettin Ready", "Let Me Tell The World", and "Little Brown Boy". CD

Way more than just a set of "lost tapes" – but that's what we've come to expect for any project that involves Madlib – an artist for whom even the smallest of moments is a thing of greatness! Lootpack are the trio that first helped Madlib rise to fame in the 90s – working alongside Wildchild and DJ Romes, and really perfecting his production skills – and the cuts here are from the years before they got signed to Stones Throw, including work from the Psyche Move EP that was their first solo release. Yet there's also plenty of Stones Throw guests on the project – including Declaime (aka Dudley Perkins), God's Gift, Kazi, Oh No, and Medaphoar – fleshing things out nicely on tracks that include "Inner Soul", "Psyche Move", "I Come Real With This", "Situation", "Get Whack", "Antidote To Antidope", "Attack Of The Tupperware Puppets", "Forever Beef", and "I Declare War". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible first album from The Moody Blues – way way different than any of their later high-concept work, and much more in the best soul and R&B-drenched material of the UK mod scene of the time! A number of cuts here are remakes of American soul tracks – including their stellar take on "Go Now" – and like some of the Moodies' best contemporaries, like Manfred Mann, the group really transform the material – and don't just offer up blue-eyed takes on the tunes. Instead, there's a free sense of play with the material – leanings that are definitely rockish on the solos, even though the overall vibe is quite soulful – and done with this tightly compressed style that's perfect for the vocals of the young Denny Laine – with a vibe that's further expanded by some nice use of echo in the production. Surprisingly wonderful – and very different than "Knights In White Satin" – with titles that include "Go Now", "I'll Go Crazy", "True Story", "Can't Nobody Love You", "I've Got A Dream", and "Let Me Go". LP, Vinyl record album