The master drummer’s sparkling set of duets with Larry Young in 1977; plus JC doing full justice to Trane’s After The Rain, alone on piano.
Check your Bobby Hutcherson Blue Notes from the late-60s — records like Oblique and Spiral — for how Joe Chambers bends them round the wall and into the top corner, with his musicianship and compositions both.
Premier sampled Mind Rain for Nas’ NY State Of Mind (to put you out of your misery).
Very warmly recommended.

Stanley Bryan was a jack of all trades at Channel One in its heyday. As an engineer, he mixed the Eek-a-Mouse classic Wah Do Dem, for instance. If a drummer dropped out of a session, Stan was the man to step in. And into the night, Ranking Barnabas worked the mic for the Channel One Sound System, often toasting over rhythms that he had recorded himself in the studio. Though Barnabas mixed countless dubs during these years, The Cold Crusher is the only LP released solely under his name, as a limited edition in the US.
Very well presented by the Italian label Jamming, with new notes, and expert sound restoration at Dubplates & Mastering. The terrific cover photo is by Beth Lesser.
Dub fans, don’t dilly dally. This won’t stick around.

The superb Memphis vocal trio, powered by the sublime falsetto of Jasper ‘Jabbo’ Phillips.
Giddily soulful, ravishing slow jams and sweeter-than-sweet harmony overtures. Paradigmatic murder like If I Could Say What’s on My Mind, Love… Can Be So Wonderful, and I Love You, You Love Me. An all-conquering version of Dedicated To The One I Love, to cap it off.
We love The Temprees.

‘Girl group greatness, courtesy of the Chicago-based Hutchinson Sisters (with Theresa Davis on this record) and co-producers Isaac Hayes, David Porter and Ronnie Williams! Recording at Muscle Shoals and Stax studios seems to have added a little grit to The Emotions’ sound, too; this 1971 classic on the Volt label offers the perfect blend of sweet and sassy. Show Me How was the hit, but it’s Blind Alley that made Untouched one of the most collectible albums of its kind: that track’s one of the most sampled in all of pop and hip hop, most notably by Big Daddy Kane (Ain’t No Half-Steppin’) and Mariah Carey (Dreamlover).’

‘After keyboardist/composer Bayeté aka Todd Cochran established his musical presence on the San Francisco scene playing in Bobby Hutcherson’s band, and before becoming a key member of the innovative band Automatic Man, which he co-founded with Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, he recorded a couple of solo albums for the Prestige label that feature some of the most far-out, futuristic music the legendary jazz imprint ever released… Early ‘70s electric Miles is a clear point on the compass, but so are Parliament-Funkadelic and Lonnie Liston Smith, if he were playing a fuzzed-out clavinet instead of a Fender Rhodes.’

“While I’ve held space for the blues aesthetic and jazz in everything I’ve done, I was leaving one world and entering another, unmooring the ship and heading into a sea of unknowns, so to speak.”

Donato Dozzy & Neel.

Late seventies; Channel One.