One of the unsung movers and shakers of 1970s reggae, Ivan Smith worked as in-studio producer and record promoter for both Bunny Lee and Channel 1, whilst quietly producing and releasing his own catalogue of high-quality 45s.
Here is the first ever compilation, pure classics, all taken from master tapes, in a lovely silkscreened sleeve.
Ace.

Hard bop burners and heart-melting ballads by a crack band including the great drummer Phil Seamen, and bassist Coleridge Goode, an anchor-man of our own London Is The Place For Me series.
‘Joe plays so fiercely on the record that at times it seems as though he’s about to blow his alto apart’ (Coleridge Goode).
‘Shepherd’s Serenade… always a big one! Great reissue’ (Gilles Peterson).
Newly mastered; with extended notes.

Half price.

From 1991, the debut, milestone release of this lineup featuring dual tubas and dual electric guitars.

‘Opens with the discotheque-friendly Hey, Rocky by front-cover stars The Shirelles of New Jersey, the USA’s most successful girl group until the Supremes broke through and stole their thunder, and closes with The Bermudas’ Chu Sen Ling, a record sure to appeal to those who favour the ethereal West Coast sound.
‘Other highlights include The Hollywood Chicks’ dance-craze Tossin’ A Ice Cube, which marks the recording debut of Barry White (on handclaps); great tracks by The Witches, The Pussycats and Linda Laurie from the catalogue of genius songwriter/producer Bert Berns; MayAlta Page’s densely produced rarity Don’t Worry About Me Baby (I Feel Just Fine); and, for the girl group buff who has everything, He Calls Me Child by Ohio duo 2 Of Clubs, and A Dumb Song by the soulful Delicates, both previously unreleased.’

Stunning solo, acoustic demos of Pale Blue Eyes, I’m Waiting For The Man, Heroin and co.

Blazing, hardcore bluegrass from 1967, including covers of the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Carter Family. Written for the duo by the father of bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, and saturated in blues music, closer The One I Love Is Gone is the killer blow.

Their monumental 1965 debut. Driving, full-strength bluegrass, with magnificent accompaniment by fiddler Chubby Wise, David Grisman on mandolin, and Lamar Grier from the Blue Grass Boys playing banjo.

‘The first in a new series from Jazzman featuring the lowest of the lowball schlock n’ roll 45s never known to exist! No box untouched, no crate unrummaged, no pile unpilfered! Just the greasiest and grimiest, the most shocking and sordid 45s… like The Zombie Walk, Night Sweats, The Chiller, The Prowler, and Screaming Vampire! By combos like The Sadists, The Monstrosities, The Nightmares, The Gravestone Four… Putrid pieces of raucous rot n’ roll.’

Originally out in 1982 on the London label Arts & Crafts, heralding a stint in the city for the great singer, and opening a collaboration with producer Stafford ‘Mafia Tone’ Douglas. All self-penned songs, over Roots Radics rhythms.

‘Heady, raw, druggy songs of love, dread, hardship, and yearning, recorded in Athens between 1932 and 1936, when Markos was already a master of the bouzouki. His forceful, clean playing compliments his hoarse voice and his stunning rhythmic sensibility, the result of his years as a champion zebekiko dancer. Tracks build and spiral outward, his open-note drones and melodic lines drawing calls of ecstasy and encouragement from his fellow musicians. These recordings mark the height of rebetika, the brief period between the music’s emergence on the recording scene in the early 1930s and government censorship of all lyrics starting in 1936. During the Axis occupation there was no rebetika recording, and though Markos had some hits in the years after the war, he never again attained this level. These are the dizzying, entrancing, and heaviest works of one of the great artists of the 20th century.’

Dark, hypnotic, tripping nyabinghi from 1974.
Led by Ras Michael over four extended excursions, the music is organic, sublime and expansive, grounation-drums and bass heavy (with no rhythm guitar, rather Willie Lindo brilliantly improvising a kind of dazed, harmolodic blues).
Lloyd Charmers and Federal engineer George Raymond stayed up all night after the session, to mix the recording, opening out the enraptured mood into echoing space, adding sparse, startling effects to the keyboards.
At no cost to its deep spirituality, this is the closest reggae comes to psychedelia.