Beautiful, balladesque quartet album — moody, blue and restrained.

‘From the Czech Supraphon archives, this 1966–1970 selection focuses on her roughest songs, with plenty of fuzz guitars and funky beats, punchy horns and razor-sharp organs underlying her deep and soulful voice.’

Superb, refined soul music, mostly written in the Brill Building (including a bunch of Bacharach & Davids), originally issued by Big Top in New York.

‘Every song is a mini-masterpiece, be it heavy acid rock psychedelia, horn and guitar drenched funk grooves, or gripping soul ballads reflective of life during wartime.’

Fabulous survey of Allen Toussaint’s Sansu label, from 1965 on, mixing one-aways with legends.

Lovely highlife and palm wine, wheezing afrobeat from the late sixties, early seventies.

Ace, vibesing, early seventies new-jazz album by this New Orleans drummer by way of the NYC loft scene, and musical cohorts there like Leon Thomas, Lonnie Liston Smith and Strata East.

The Richard Evans jazz funk terror.

Cleveland funk from 1971, featuring a popping version of Express Yourself, a do-over of The Temps’ Message From A Black Man, and — crucially — the b-boy jazz anthem, Burning Spear.

‘The Greatest Hits And More, 1960-1978’ — with early obscurities, live stuff, ads and demos. The hits themselves are sublime New Orleans genius.

Brilliant digi dancehall rhythms — from Firehouse to Lenky — with some new stuff thrown in by the likes of Diplo and Harmonic 313.

RH came through with Les McCann and Gerald Wilson. Prestige tried him out with Gene Ammons and Joe Pass, before this trio debut as leader, in 1965.
Top-notch, archetypal soul jazz — the opener states the case, the closer sums up — hard-swinging, blues-saturated, lots of chords, propulsive bass, open and gritty.
Nicely Latinized version of Song For My Father.