Unmissable, cornerstone Wackies, back in.
Horace Andy’s greatest artistic achievement, surpassing even his Skylarking set for Studio One. With definitive reworks of songs he first recorded for Bunny Lee and Derrick Harriott (Money Money and Lonely Woman); a deadly version of Lloyd Robinson’s Cuss Cuss; and a first outing for Spying Glass, later versioned by Massive Attack. Musicians include Wackies regulars like Owen Stewart and Oral Cooke from Itopia, and Ras Menilik and Jah T; also Sleepy’s multi-instrumentalist spar Myrie Dread from the In The Light sessions for Hungry Town. At the desk, Lloyd Barnes, Junior Delahaye and Douglas Levy coax unequalled vocal performances from the singer, bejewelling ineffable extended mixes.
Crucial.

Recorded at Bullwackies just weeks apart from Horace Andy’s Dance Hall Style: two of the very greatest vocal reggae LPs of all time.
Between stints in JA for legends like Glen Brown and Junjo Lawes, WJ commuted to the Bronx from Connecticut. With Clive Hunt in full effect, Showcase follows the six-track dubwise format of Dance Hall Style (Wayne never sounding more like Horace), including four utterly lethal Studio One versions — Azul’s killer Rockfort Rock, Sleepy’s Every Tongue (with outrageous Isleys fuzz), yet another Wackies’ Heptones via Leroy Sibbles, and a murderous Drum Song.
Hotly recommended.

Wayne Shorter, Frank Strozier, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Bob Cranshaw, and Louis Hayes taking turns with Albert Heath. The compositions are all Shorter’s.

The full 12:45 John Morales mix.

Terrific, propulsive, widescreen version of the Jon Lucien classic, flavoured with Curtis, featuring brilliant percussion by Montego Joe, alongside Ron Carter, Richard Tee, Ron Carter… Plus a Moondance excursion, on the flip.
One for the HJ pensioners massive.

Mostly quartet recordings, featuring Herbie and Ron Carter, from 1969, with Gene Orloff taking care of strings, and Jerome Richardson the woodwinds. Sonny Sharrock joins in on the Laura Nyro cover.

Radiant, probing piano-trio-jazz by this celebrated ensemble, reaching out in all directions from bluesy, funky, South African roots.

‘It just came down to playing some tunes that we like and we can flow with, so that we can be inspired and express ourselves in a very natural organic way,’ says Kyle. ‘We walked away from the from the studio feeling like – you know, we actually really enjoyed playing this record!
‘With this record, I felt less attached to any sort of predetermined concepts except that we would play some music that I wrote that we like – a selection of things that we like to play. It felt like a bit of a tonic – every musician gets a chance to breathe through the music, and the music just flows and moves as organically as we could make it.’

Ten Shepherd originals, plus a reading of Massive Attack’s Teardrop and a deconstructed take on Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.
The album’s title nods to William Kentridge, with whom Shepherd collaborated on Waiting For Sybil.