Afro-space-disco murder — shuffling and wiggling, synthy and bubbling — from this re-incarnation of Willy Nfor’s Mighty Flames, recruited mostly from the wave of Cameroonian musicians drawn to Nigeria in the late-1970s by its heavy new funk sound. It’s a long way from Ohio, but the Troutmans are in the mix.

A third entertaining, deep selection of Studio One roots.

The drummer of the Gladiators Band and the Upsetters, recording with his own Solid Foundation Band at the Black Ark in the down-time of a Junior Byles’ session. A rework of The Animals’ version of an English folk song, with a leg-up from Byles’ own A Place Called Africa. Originally released on Sight’N'Sound, by Studio One.
Lovely, mystical roots, with an ace dub, touched with unmistakable Perry genius.

Magnificent 1980 roots, full of moody Channel One vibes.

Heavy, spaced-out, discombobulated rubadub cut at Munchie Jackson’s Sunshine Studio in the Bronx, in the mid-1980s, with Jackie Mittoo at the controls. Junior devotes his debut recording to a richly nostalgic, entertaining set of shout outs.
All-time killer New York dancehall. It’s a must.

Fragile, dignified performances by two of Cajun music’s finest and most unusual artists, originally released on 78 in the late 1920s. French vocals accompanied by guitar or fiddle, or sometimes both. Impeccable ballads and breakdowns. Old school tip-on cover.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Diop was celebrated in Senegal for her taasu, a form of oral poetry spoken call-and-response by griot women to the rhythmic accompaniment of sabar and tama drums. Then, in 1994, she dropped this incendiary combination of taasu and her own stripped, super-charged conception of mbalax…

Top-notch quartet-jazz, feeling and brainy. MT evokes Trane — though no chordal instrument here — and Shorter (to Avishai Cohen’s Miles). There are tributes to Stevie — ‘master of the blues’ — and Ursula Le Guin. ‘It needs to be personal, meaningful, otherwise the blues can be banal. I believe it to be sacred, like a spiritual discipline.’

This is a system test record.

BB was trumpeter for Ray Charles — actually he plays a double-trumpet — who co-produced this ace LP of funky big-band jazz for his own Crossover imprint in 1974. 
Also featuring Monk’s bassist Larry Gales, drummer Clarence Johnston (who recorded some killer Blue Notes with Freddie Roach), saxophonist Herman Riley (Side Effect, Pleasure, Letta Mbulu), and guitarists Jef Lee (from various Roy Ayers projects) and Calvin Keys (Black Jazz Records).

With the fabulous Forty Days, as sampled by Tribe Called Quest for Luck Of Lucien, and by Mobb Deep etc etc…

Another unmissable Ra LP — previously impossible to find — from the same 1972 sessions as Space Is the Place. The opener Pan Afro is a modal tear-up bossed by Gilmore’s saxophone; the title track is a hugely enjoyable, side-long, Ra-led space chant.

‘One thing is certain about a Sun Ra performance: You never know what to expect. Last week at the Chicago Jazz Festival, he presented a huge troupe of musicians, dancers and acrobats in a veritable circus of improvisation’ (John Litweiler, Chicago Tribune, September 9, 1988).
The entire show as originally broadcast by National Public Radio in the same year.

Three previously unreleased transmissions: two salvaged from the hallowed tapes of Strange Strings, his hardcore 1966 masterwork; whilst Calling Planet Earth / We’ll Wait For You — from the same time as Universe In Blue, five years later — is twenty-four minutes from a triumphant show at Slug’s, featuring June Tyson and heavy Ra synths on two Arkestra evergreens.