CP came through professionally in the 1940s, most notably with Dizzy Gillespie. Amongst scores of recordings, he’s on Randy Weston’s Uhuru Afrika, Kenny Dorham’s Afro Cuban, and Baritones And French Horns, with Trane. Here, leading a seriously distinguished lineup — Dorham, Albert Kuumba Heath, Wynton Kelly and Wilbur Ware, produced by Clifford Jordan — he naturally brings his own retrospective gravitas to the late-sixtes jazz ferment, underlined by his opening each side here with tributes: Martin Luther King, with its strongly Milesian lines, and Slide Hampton, featuring some scintillating piano work. Both Dorham and Kelly died between the recording and release of this album — which honours Eric Dolphy, also recently deceased — and the music itself poignantly hinges together different eras in jazz, proposing new paths forward in the tight funk of Girl, You Got A Home, and rollicking Carib jazz of Flying Fish, to close. No bells and whistles; just lovely stuff.

Irresistible 1950s mento — singalong tunes, ebulliently performed, over-spilling with scandal, smut and impudence, sex, dancing and booze, word-play, jokes and up-to-the minute social commentary, and general love for life.

Two fine sides of expert, Curtis-inflected soul-reggae.

This classy lovers was Sharon’s breakthrough, fronting the Now Generation band for Geoffrey Chung in 1973, in an achingly regretful Armstead / Ashford / Simpson song about female disillusionment (laid waste by Cilla Black the previous year).

Two excellent, righteous vocal cuts to a tough, downtempo, rootical rhythm, in a brief respite from dancehall at Tubby’s HQ.
Latest in Dub Store’s lip-smacking series of Firehouse dub plates.