His third RCA LP, from 1976, is the most soulful and laid-back, with groovy Marvin and Stevie covers, and the two-step killer I Love You. Don Blackman on lead vocals, Mchael Brecker leading the horns.

His ambitious 1974 breakthrough as leader, superbly mixing funk and jazz improvisation on a major-label recording budget, with strong political and spiritual themes, even a nod to the Duke.

From 1972, taking time out from the Nina Simone band to cut this funky Black-Jazz-style set for his own label, with Horace Silver’s ‘personal seal of approval’. Includes Mr. Clean and Sister Sanctified.

‘The sublime Time Capsule remains Weldon Irvine’s most fully realized and influential recording… unerringly soulful, spiritual, and funky. Assembled as a kind of musical scrapbook documenting the thought patterns and belief systems of the early ‘70s, it nevertheless boasts a surprising vitality and timelessness thanks to luminous funk grooves that anticipate the latter-day emergence of acid jazz. Irvine also rhymes over several tracks, further cementing his influence on successive generations of hip-hop. A profoundly righteous spirituality winds through all eight performances… deftly balancing between beatitude and bitterness. For fans of funk, soul and jazz, it doesn’t get much better than this 1973 classic’ (Jason Ankeny, AMG).