Music From Around The World Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Jamaica Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Dancehall legend Al Campbell step forward, backed by Sly & Robbie + The Roots Radics, mixed by Scientist………..Nuff said.

Most hard to find Al Campbell on JB Music. Don't miss this, doesn't turn up often. This is the vocal LP that Scientist turned into his debut dub LP 'Introducing'...

For whatever reason some of the tracks on this album sound 'less than perfect'. Don't bother whining about the quality of the rip. Don't even bother trying to track down an original copy in mint condition. The sound issues aren't due to a bad remastering job. This album always sounded like this. Whether it was an issue with the tapes that were used to voice over, or just a production or pressing fault or whatever; but a couple of these tracks have a booming, distorted lo-fi feel that is kinda harsh to the ears.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound terrible. Just prepare yourselves is all.

Anyway, here's Al Campbell's "Working Man"; an excellent self-produced set made even nicer in partial showcase style. 7 out of the 10 tracks followed by their dub mix from Scientist's "Best Dub Album In The World" set... (And one DJ track too). -JeanCalvin

1. Al Campbell - Working Man 3:47
2. Scientist - Elasticated Dub 2:41
3. Al Campbell - Take Warning 3:17
4. Scientist - Rubber Foot Dub 2:23
5. Al Campbell - Rock It Up 3:02
6. U Brown - Step It Up 3:09
7. Scientist - Rocking Dub 2:29
8. Al Campbell - Don't Go 3:26
9. Al Campbell - You Won't Be Jamming 3:26
10. Scientist - Steppers Dub 3:21
11. Al Campbell - Lightning & Thunder 3:03
12. Scientist - Front Line Dub 2:26
13. Al Campbell - Who's Gonna Bell The Cat 3:33
14. Al Campbell - Teaser 3:39
15. Scientist - Jungle Dub 2:11
16. Al Campbell - Jah Love 2:49
17. Scientist - Chemistry Dub 2:54
18. Al Campbell - Cool Down Your Temper 3:37

Notes

Classic era Heavy and slower early Dancehall Roots Regae Dubs from Scientist in his early days, with Dub versions of most of Al Campbell – Working Man LP.

Spanish Harlem Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Latin funk neither begins nor ends with War, as good as they were. Latin artists from East L.A. to Spanish Harlem -- and Puerto Rico to Colombia, for that matter -- were getting groovier and earthier throughout the '60s, and the results were wide-ranging and usually just as sparkling as any developments within commercial R&B. The Fania label, as the home to most of the best Latin artists of the '60s and '70s, pumped out much more than its fair share of funky Latin tracks, and although most of them were never in-the-pocket like James Brown, the instrumentalists were just as good. Case in point being Ray Barretto, whose "Together" (which opens this collection) married horn blasts and furious conga drumming. The compilation may err slightly on the Latin soul end (Joe Bataan, Ralfi Pagan), but it's impossible to overlook the immense influence of Fania's artists on funk and groove music in the '70s -- think of War, Santana, Mandrill, Cymande, and Malo. El Barrio: Latin Funk is a great snapshot. -AllMusic Review by John Bush

1. Ray Barretto - Together 2:39
2. Monguito Santamaria - You Need Help 2:25
3. Joe Bataan - I'm Satisfied 3:35
4. Cafe - Identify Yourself 3:54
5. Flash & The Dynamics - Everybody's Got Soul 3:31
6. Gilberto Cruz - Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants) 3:52
7. Mongo Santamaria - Black Dice 4:41
8. Harvey Averne - Dynamite! 2:36
9. TNT Boys - I'm Gonna Get To You Yet 2:35
10. Fania All Stars - There You Go 3:10
11. Ralfi Pagan - La Vida 3:07
12. Chollo Rivera & The Latin Soul Drives - I Got The Feeling/Tengo Sentimiento 3:15
13. Seguida - Funky Felix 2:59
14. Jimmy Sabater - Kool It Here Comes The Fuzz 3:14
15. Azuquita Y Su Orquesta Melao - Guajiro Bacan 6:18
16. Harvey Averne - Stablishment 3:03

Credits
Compiled By – Adrian Gibson

Jamaica Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Two albums shared on a single CD, from Little John McMorris and Anthony 'Gunshot' Johnson, originally released on Burning Sounds in 1984 and 1983 respectively. Little John's Unite is a 6 track album from 1983 featuring the 13 year old Little John (McMorris) Produced by Anthony Dehaney. Anthony Johnson's Reggae Feelings is a 10 track album from 1983 featuring Mystic Eyes Anthony 'Gunshot' Johnson.

Essential 2LP on 1 CD Classic era Roots and early Dancehall Reggae with Little John, Anthony Johnson, Roots Radics and friends. Heavy slow bouncing bubbling intricate rhyhms, and great songs from a very young Little John, and Anthony Johnson (on his 2nd LP). From 1983-84. -Danon

Little John – Unite:
1. Unite (Declaration Of Rights rhythm) 5:59
2. Come On My Lover 4:16 (My Woman's Love ish rhythm)
3. You Are The One For Me (Stalag rhythm) 3:11
4. War In A Me Area (Rough Ole Life/M16 rhythm) 5:05
5. Africa Is The Black Man’s Land 5:09
6. Do Right 5:41

Anthony Johnson – Reggae Feelings:
7. Fussing & Fighting 3:44
​8. Run Too Much 2:29 (A Scenic Dub/Attack Dub rhythm)
9. Natty Dread Come In A Dance 3:19
10. Baby Your Loving 3:38
11. Reggae Feeling (He Prayed/Dub Organizer rhythm) 3:26
12. Dread Locks 3:25
13. Mother Mother 3:39
14. Loving You 3:25
15. Settle Down 3:19
16. Sitting Everyday 4:21

Musicians can include: The Roots Radics

Bass: Flabba Holt
Drums: Lincoln Style Scott
Guitar: Dwight Pinkney, Sowell Radics, Bingy Bunny
Keys: Steely Johnson, Winston Wright, Gladstone Anderson
Percussion: Sky Juice
Producer/Engineer: Delroy Wright, Jah Thomas, Anthony Dehaney, Scientist, King Tubby
Studios: Channel One (JA)

Sound mastering is excellent.

There is a similarly titled LP that has completely different songs but with many of the same crew:
Anthony Johnson ‎– Reggae Feeling -- Live & Learn Records ‎– LL LP 013

See also:
Anthony Johnson--Reggae Feelings is available separately (on a slightly infamous label):
Anthony Johnson ‎– Reggae Feelings -- Culture Press ‎– CP 44606-2 -- with bonus tracks taken from:
+ Anthony Johnson ‎– Gun Shot - Deluxe Edition -- Roots Records – RJMCD107

Worth seeking out other releases from everyone involved.
+ Burning Sounds have a mostly excellent series of 2LP on 1 CD reissues.

Northeast Thailand Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Globestyle Records, UK release from 1989. World music from Thailand. "Lively and amusing stories and lovely melodies that retain the traditional charms of Isaan music but fuse it with modern sounds."

Gorgeous molam from northern Thailand. Despite not having major memorable peaks, this collection flows with enough variations as to keep the listener engaged in its whole length. Besides, personally I find molam to be such a soothing yet vibrant style that I could potentially keep listening to it forever. -Mustapha89

Masters of the lam, the traditional singing style of the Isan region of Thailand, Saman and Sri-Ubon Hongsa have been performing for over 30 years, with concerts in their own country, Laos, Japan, Portugal, and the U.K. Like others in Isan, the Hongsas speak Laotian and integrate some of that country's culture into their music. For this 1989 GlobeStyle recording, they are joined by four other veteran musicians from around Thailand. The instrumentation includes the kaen, a bamboo mouth organ; the pin, a three-stringed guitar-like instrument; and the ponglang, a large wooden xylophone. The set is a mix of ancient instrumentals and traditional songs with updated lyrics (the subject matter takes in everything from economic hardship and modernization to courtship and boastful lam singers). While the ponglang conjures up the music of the Balinese gamelan, the sonorous kaen, rough-hewn vocals, and steady drum beats make the sound uniquely Thai (the lam tradition has been hugely influential on the modern, rock-influenced music of Thailand's youth, who have replaced the pin with the electric guitar and the kaen with electric keyboards). This nicely recorded and annotated album will make a fine addition to any international music collection. -AllMusic Review by Stephen Cook

1. Lai Lam Toei Sam Jangwa 2:28
2. Hua Ngawk Yawk Sao 4:19
3. Sutsanaen-Noeng Mode 2:52
4. Lam Phloen 2:04
5. Lai Pu Pa Lan 3:43
6. Toei Khong 4:58
7. Lam Doen Dong 2:47
8. Lai-Yai Mode 2:19
9. Lam Toei Thammada 3:22
10. Lai Ngua Khuen Phu 3:34
11. Lam Kio 2:49
12. Lai Phu Thai 2:59
13. Sustssanaen Mode 3:30
14. Kawn Lawng La 3:16
15. Lai An Nang-Sue 3:42
16. Imae, Imae 2:44

Bongo's Groove Tuesday, August 22, 2017

to quote the great man....let's all "cool it and do it right!"

A crazed primal record Bongo Joe is a deserved cult classic; beating wildly on oil drums George Coleman delivers bizarre raps including “Innocent Little Doggie” and “Transistor Radio” — hilarious edgy stuff. -Allmusic

George Coleman made a great, scary, tension-filled record in one day with nothing but a hollow 55 gallon oil drum, hammer handles for drumsticks, his own ranting vocals, and some modest recording gear.  I've known guys with $3,000 guitars and $50,000 music educations and all they can do is bore you with their covers of Eagles songs. An exemplar of the resourcefulness that restless creativity can incite, George Coleman puts to shame everyone who thought they could make art if only they could afford the expensive equipment. Coleman dedicates himself to his primitive instrument with an inventor's mania. He "tunes" his oil drum with meticulously inflicted dents and surface slashes. The percussive insides of his drumsticks sound like maracas as he moves them around. His singing is the mad, yelping, fearless bleat of a man who honed his act busking on Houston, TX street corners in the 1960s, making a spectacle of himself beating that big metal can. As a singer, Coleman is a cousin to Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Don Van Vliet. Coleman's songs are mostly free and unpredictable rambling blues. This 45 year old man pounds his metal barrel with complex, mathematical precision while bellowing wild songs as if he was making up the whole thing on the spot—though he no doubt knew what he was doing down to the last insane whine, as years of street performances lead up to this record. The whole album grips your attention ferociously, but among the standouts are the crazed pro-animal, anti-human "Innocent Little Doggy", as well as "Transistor Radio", which deals with media addiction. It's the story of a thief who goes around robbing everyone, from a woman in the street in "half a dress"—"thankfully, she had on underwear"—to a bank clerk to a police station front desk, but he doesn't want money. He only wants everyone's transistor radios. Today the song would be about plasma TVs or laptops. The long-running Arhoolie Records released this on LP in 1969 and they still have it available on CD. In 2008 the great Mississippi Records add to their eccentric discography by putting George Coleman back on vinyl. -JasonHernandez

Ah, good ol’ Bongo Joe! Why the very name conjures up a deep well of memories for me. Otherwise known as George Coleman, Bongo Joe was an eccentric street musician from San Antonio, Texas whose "act" consisted of playing empty oil drums while regaling folks with his off-the-wall lyrics. Released on the independent label, Arhoolie Records, in 1968, Bongo Joe by George Coleman went on to become a cult classic.

During the 1980's, my wife Sweet Loretta and I would go down to New Orleans every year to attend the Jazz and Heritage Festival. At many of the Jazz Fests we attended, who would we see just outside the gates of the racetrack where the festival was held? Bongo Joe, of course! Pounding on his oil drums, his fez perched precariously on his bobbing head, eyes alive as he shouted out his free verse. Lemme tall ya, it don't get much better than that folks!

Here's the skinny on this unique musician, from Jame Lien's review in the CMJ New Music Report: "Born in Haines, Florida, in 1923, like many others he gravitated to Houston, Texas (known as Baghdad On The Bayou' because of its booming oil business) as a young man. Somewhere in the late '40s, Coleman volunteered to fill the drummer's chair in a local band, improvising around his lack of a trap set by building his own kit out of empty oil drums and tin cans. Having to lug a 55-gallon Texaco Firechief barrel from gig to gig hindered his musical progress through normal professional channels, but he quickly turned to free-lancing on the streets, playing on popular tourist piers and heavily trafficked places like Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, working his way up to legendary gigs at the San Antonio World's Fair and later the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Whether draping his drums with an American flag or washing them in swirls of psychedelic green and red paint, there's something beyond the typical street-corner busker in Bongo Joe's persona festive, unbridled quality that isn't just musical, but draws on a tradition of pure entertainment, with elements from sideshows, comedy and even the circus. The approach is primal, but not primitive: Bongo Joe drums on his oil cans with a thunderous, tympani-like effect, while discoursing rambling, insightful and hilariously funny lyrics that are often times more stories than songs. As Joe himself put it: ''I rap but not that bullshit they're putting down now. I play fundamental beat music.''

Marshall Miller, in his review in Broadside, captured the essence of the Bongo Joe mystique: "Coleman's drum sound is unique and quite full, as if a small band were playing, with little resemblance to the Caribbean steel drum sounds one might imagine.  The first tune is very honest in its title, I Wish I Could Sing.  Poor George really can't! Fortunately, we are spared his attempts at singing and listen only to his rapping, and what a satirical and social observer Bongo Joe is. In Innocent Little Doggie and Dog Eat Dog, the ruthlessness and inhumanity of man to his fellow man is captured by the observant eye, quick wit, and biting tongue of Mr. Coleman."  

As his musical chops matured, Coleman's Bongo Joe persona flourished. He became a familiar sight on street corners and at various tourist attractions across his home state of Texas. Over the years, Bongo Joe performed at such professional venues as the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival, appearing at this celebrated festival nine times. Coleman's off-th-cuff stage mannerisms and his natural eccentricity endeared him to many of his fans and followers. Sadly, Coleman passed on to his great reward in 1999 due to complications resulting from diabetes and kidney disease. The legend of Bongo Joe continues to live on.

The final word on Bongo Joe belongs to Chris Strachwitz, the founder of Arhoolie Records, who had the vision to record Bongo Joe's one and only album: "He was the original rapper...I tried to record him in the street, with the crowd interaction, but my tape machine went out. I took him to a friend's house and recorded him there...he was an amazing drummer too. I just saw him as a wonderful storyteller.  He was an improvising genius. His songs are powerful little statements." -johnnypierre

1. I Wish I Could Sing 3:20
2. Science Fiction 5:21
3. Innocent Little Doggy 7:16
4. Cool It Right 5:52
5. Listen At That Bull 3:53
6. Crazy With Love 2:35
7. Great (Instrumental) 4:49
8. Transistor Radio 5:53
9. Eloise 6:23
10. Dog Eat Dog 4:19

Notes
All tracks recorded in San Antonio, Texas on 12/7/1968.

Reissue of 1969 Arhoolie LP with three previously unreleased tracks (2, 6, 7).

Brazil Monday, August 21, 2017

A totally essential Brazilian Funk monster of an extremely rare album. 

In 1970 Brazilian genius João Donato was living in Los Angeles when the Blue Thumb label offered him carte blanche to make a record. Produced by Emil Richards, horn arrangements by Deodato, this is a funky Brazilian monster. Featuring Bud Shank, Dom Um Romao, Ernie Watts, Conti Candoli, Chuck Domanico, Oscar Castro Neves and the best of L.A.s session men.

A Bossa-Funk Classic

This is a classic early 1970's recording of super-funky Brazilian music of the highest order. I first heard of this record by a DJ friend of mine. He played a few tunes in his regular set and I was floored. When this re-release came up on Amazon I jumped immediately. The liner notes explain how the record came to be. Joao Donato had already made a name for himself in Brazil with his lovely jazz sound and piano playing, and he was invited to make this record at his complete discretion. He brought in a cadre of fine musicians and made a tight collection of incredibly funky and influential tunes. If you grew up in the 1970's, you will hear all those cop show themes in this music - it's clear where they got their influence! This is jazz/Brazilian/funk at it's greatest. If you have any interest in those sultry Carioca sounds, instrumental grooves, funky breaks or just like to hear an electric piano get a workout, this is a must-have. -Michael H. Ricereto

Funky Brazilian jazz fusion

This is a reissue of a 1970 album that many consider a jazz fusion benchmark. Brazilian pianist/arrangers Joao Donato and Eumir Deodato team up with an all-star cast, including fellow Brazilian expatriate Dom Um Romao and plenty of heavyweight North American jazz players to produce an energetic, somewhat aggressive set, built around Donato's electric piano work and a big, big beat. If you like "Bitches Brew"-era Miles Davis, or those early Chick Corea albums, you might really dig this album. -DJ Joe Sixpack

1. The Frog (A Rã) 2:37
2. Celestial Showers 2:36
3. Bambu 2:21
4. Lunar Tune 4:56
5. Cade Jodel? (The Beautiful One) 2:07
6. Debutante's Ball 3:01
7. Straight Jacket 3:27
8. Mosquito (Fly) 3:00
9. Almas Irmas 1:53
10. Malandro 2:32

Shreveport, Louisiana Monday, August 21, 2017

U.S. independent Funky Soul and Gospel from one of the greatest, funkiest gospel labels ever, Jewel Records based in Louisana. 

Founded in a humble record store in 1963 by Stan “The Record Man” Lewis elevating into an empire consisting of the Paula, Ronn and Soul Power labels. Compiled by gospel addicts, and serious collectors David Hill and Greg Belson, this double-disc 41-track comp is unmissable. Those of you who bought Soul Jazz Records "Soul Gospel" compilations or Numero's "Good God" series will love this.

OK, not Motown but lovers of Soul should find something on here..........

Continuing Harmless's policy of exploring all areas of Black Music we now turn our attention to the much under-explored area of U.S. independent Funky Soul and Gospel music which is currently one of most exciting areas of record collecting.

One of the greatest labels for funky Gospel releases was undoubtedly Jewel Records from Shreveport, Louisiana founded by Stan The Record Man Lewis in 1963 from his original tiny record store, Stan's Record Shop. From such humble beginnings sprang a recording empire which also included the Paula, Ronn and Soul Power labels.

Jump forward some 50 years to 2012 and suddenly the Jewel Gospel catalogue is being fiercely mined by collectors across the planet due to the sheer amount of quality funky Gospel records which are still being found. We invited serious DJs, Record Collectors and all round funky Gospel addicts, the UK based David Hill and US based Greg Belson, to compile 2 CDs of some the best funky Gospel and Spiritual Soul from the Jewel archives. Added to this combination we also have collector and historian Chris Menist on sleeve notes duty for the 16 page booklet which also includes a variety of label and album scans.

Also, as a timely inclusion, we're also delighted to include one of the rare records which made it into John Peel's legendary 7" record box the sensational "No More Ghettos In America" by Stanley Winston proof positive that Jewel's funky Gospel sound found supporters right across the spectrum!

With the market place awash with compilations offering tracks from gospel music's rich history, this 41 track treasure trove of mostly '70s recordings from the vaults of Shreveport's Jewel Records is still a truly outstanding collection. Lovingly compiled by enthusiasts David Bell and Greg Belson, a wide range of styles are featured here with light funk mingling with the occasional reggae, soul and R&B to underpin an essentially gospel feel to proceedings. It's clear that the compilers have dug deep to supply the best quality but not necessarily best known material and cuts from the likes of the Meditation Singers, the Soul Stirrers, Dorothy Norwood and countless others sound as fresh today as they would have done when first recorded. Whilst this collection evidences the fact that gospel music had evolved from the rawness of its earliest form into something that absorbed the black mainstream musical leanings of the time, the forthrightness of the Gospel message contained within the songs remains undiminished with the likes of "Watch That Rogue" and "Can You Treat Him Like A Brother" by the Silver Gate Quartet of North Carolina and the Armstrong Brothers respectively echoing the spirited and righteous conviction of their gospel music forefathers. Equally interesting is the choice by certain artistes to cover secularly released songs such as Dylan's "You Got To Serve Somebody" (Bill Moss and the Celestials), the Presley hit "In The Ghetto" (Brooklyn Allstars) and Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" (Meditation Singers) - all of which makes clear the fact that the gap between gospel and secular black music was a very small one at the time and adds further intrigue to an already fascinating release. -Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Disc 1
1. The Meditation Singers - Trouble's Brewin' 5:09
2. BPS Revolution - Brotherly Love 3:24
3. Soul Stirrers - I'm Trying To Be Your Friend 3:25
4. Ernest Franklin - Trying Times 3:08
5. The Hopson Family - Prayer Will Take You There 4:02
6. Chimes - Woke Up This Morning 3:33
7. Albertina Walker - Mama Said, Thank You 3:47
8. The Brooklyn All Stars - If Loving God Is Wrong (I Don’t Want To Be Right) 2:50
9. Keith Barrow - Everything’s Gonna Be Alright 3:07
10. Dorothy Norwood - He’s A Friend 3:09
11. The Brooklyn All Stars - I’m So Glad You’re Mine 3:11
12. Leomia Boyd and the Gospel Music Makers - Need More Love 4:40
13. The Southerners - Jesus Is Real To Me 2:52
14. The Traveling Echoes - The Golden Gate 2:49
15. The Violinaires - The Upper Way 3:28
16. Roscoe Robinson - Do It Right Now 2:14
17. Clarence Fountain - This Little Light of 2:35
18. Soul Stirrers - Crying On The Mountain 4:29
19. Armstrong Brothers - Far Away From God 2:58
20. The Meditation Singers - A Change Is Gonna Come 4:13

Disc 2
1. Armstrong Brothers - Can You Treat Him Like A Brother 2:56
2. Bill Moss & the Celestials - You've Got To Serve Somebody 5:00
3. The Southerners - I'll Wait For the Lord 2:21
4. The Meditation Singers - Good Old Gospel Music 4:41
5. Roscoe Robinson - There's a Creator 3:14
6. Mighty Sons of Glory - Don't Forget the Bridge (That Brought You Over) 3:47
7. Dorothy Norwood - There's Got to Be Rain In Your Life 3:07
8. Soul Stirrers - Lord, Oh Lord, I Believe 3:13
9. The Meditation Singers - I Love My Jesus 3:18
10. The Silver Gate Quartet of North Carolina - Watch That Rogue 4:37
11. The Fantastic Violinaires - I'm Not Worried 3:23
12. The Hopson Family - Hello Sunshine 2:59
13. Dorothy Norwood - Come and Go With Me 3:06
14. The Traveling Echoes - I'd Like To Know 2:57
15. The Spiritual Interns - He Walks With Me 2:09
16. The Brooklyn All Stars - In The Ghetto 3:19
17. The Violinaires - Message To My Friends 6:49
18. Dorothy Norwood - Winding Up 2:13
19. Rev. Oris Mays - Nobody Can Turn Me Around 2:26
20. The Travelling Echoes - God Don't Change 2:53
21. Stanley Winston - No More Ghettos in America 3:23

Los Angeles Monday, August 21, 2017

A funky treasure trove from Apple & The Three Oranges – a group we hardly know at all, but who really blow us away with the cuts on this collection. The groove is plenty hard right from the get-go – the best of the funky 45 underground of the early 70s – which means that there's more 60s rawness on the record than you'd get from bigger-label funk at the time – as Ed "Apple" Nelson still works here with a mostly underground vibe. Ed plays drums – which are mighty hard on most numbers – and his vocals have this offbeat, off-kilter, over the top quality that almost reminds us a bit of the Hank Ballard/James Brown recordings for late 60s King – particularly in the way that Nelson's completely unbridled with his energy. The whole thing's great – one of the best funky collections we've heard in years – and presented with a rich amount of notes and historical information too. -dustygroove

The complete recordings of LA soul/funk maverick Edward “Apple” Nelson.

It’s been almost three years since funk drummer/soul singer/all-around enigma Edward “Apple” Nelson first came by our offices to sign the papers that authorized a career-wise introspective. In the intervening years, the L.A. Weekly ran a cover story on Nelson, we sourced the only remaining photos that existed from Nelson’s Los Angeles heyday from the collectors DJ Shadow and Mike Vegh; we found the cleanest copies of Nelson’s 45s that we could; we even found an uncharted 45 that even the deepest collectors didn’t know of.

Edward "Apple" Nelson is best known for the small clutch of 45s he released under the Apple and The Three Oranges name on local Los Angeles labels in the 1970s. He first found credit as "Apple" on a Marie Franklin single released on disc jockey Douglas Moore's Stage Music imprint. He would engage Moore to issue "Free And Easy", the first record released as Apple and The Three Oranges. This rapid development from road hog to recording artist inspired him to found Sagittarius Records, named after his zodiac sign. His run with Sagittarius contains six unimpeachable soul and funk numbers released under the Apple and The Three Oranges banner and one issued under his own name, Ed. (sic) Nelson. These songs, and his prior recordings, are ripe for a historical reappraisal. Monday's manic rant relegated "What Goes Around Comes Around" to the funk freak show, but Nelson's introductory 12 bars contain some of the most unique funk drumming ever cut to lacquer. The low fidelity of every Apple and The Three Oranges single was never a problem for the low-riding Eastside Angelenos, who lionized tracks such as "True Love Will Never Die", but their muddy quality cast Nelson outside of the canon in which troubled soul singers like Bobby Womack have held court for decades. Nelson's master tapes lost in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina will never surface to right this wrong. And the records themselves are rare: the "Love Brings Out The Best Of You", "Curse Upon The World" and "I'll Give You A Ring (When I Come, If I Come)" singles are amongst the most sought after and expensive Los Angeles soul and funk records to ever list at auction. Thus, we are privileged to present Nelson's complete works in our Free and Easy anthology. Nearly forty years after he gave up on his recording career, we're left with little more than Nelson's explosive music and his straight-shooting stories of his life's arc. The fact that he can't explain his life's contradictions are what makes the extensive interview contained in Free and Easy's book a compelling read. Whether it's his first hand experience with the great New Orleans drummers who laid the foundations of funk, or his relating the oft-told, and always sad, tale of lust supplanting love, Nelson offers confounding words to complement his all too beautiful soul and funk music.

1. What Goes Around Comes Around 2:54
2. Free And Easy Pt. 1 2:50
3. Free And Easy Pt. 2 3:17
4. Down Home Publicity 2:58
5. True Love Will Never Die 3:10
6. My Baby 3:11
7. Love Brings Out The Best Of You 1:56
8. Curse Upon The World 3:02
9. Moon Light 3:00
10. Gotta Stand For Something Pt. 1 3:06
11. Gotta Stand For Something Pt. 2 3:00
12. My Love Needs Your Love (And Everybody Needs Love) 3:21
13. I'll Give You A Ring (When I Come, If I Come) 3:13

USA Sunday, August 20, 2017

Legendary collector, Joe Bussard is putting records out once again! After running the last 78rpm label in the US (R.I.P. Fonotone Records 1956-1974), Joe had relegated his efforts to promoting old-time music by making cassette tapes for people hungry to hear his rare treasures and producing his radio show Country Classics for stations in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. But last year, Joe and his daughter Susannah Anderson had the idea to produce a compilation of Civil War tunes and they rang the office of Dust-to-Digital to gauge interest in distributing such a compilation. It was an easy decision for DTD, mainly because Joe’s always been there for us so it was time to partner together once again.

“The recordings heard in this collection all come from the shelves of Joe Bussard of Frederick, Maryland. A lifelong lover of old-time music (and early blues and jazz besides), Joe is famous among record buffs for his single-minded passion for finding and preserving old discs, his hospitality to visitors who want to hear them, and his generosity in making them available for reissue so that they can be enjoyed by succeeding generations. But thanks to his homemade radio programs, which he continues to make and which can be heard on several stations, and to the hugely entertaining documentary Desperate Man Blues (Dust-to-Digital DTD-05V), Joe has become known far beyond the tight little community of collectors, and is recognized all over the world as a true American one-off, a man for whom the music of the past lives again every time he puts on a record.” – Tony Russell, from The Year of Jubilo liner notes

“Bussard’s got s**t that God don’t have. It is one of the great glory holds, probably the finest in the world. He was canvassing earlier than most, and he’s been at it longer, and he took everything: He recognized stuff that he really didn’t even like at the time, but he recognized it as being good, and he kept it.” – collector and musician Tom Hoskins, an authority on pre-World War II Delta blues, for the Washington City Paper

1. Ernest Stoneman - Pass Around The Bottle 3:08
2. Blue Ridge Mountain Singers - Lorena 3:14
3. Grant Brothers & Their Music - Johnson Boy 2:59
4. Red Mountain Trio - Dixie 3:18
5. Buell Kazee - The Faded Coat of Blue 3:15
6. G B Grayson & Henry Whitter - He Is Coming To Us Dead 3:03
7. Ernest Stoneman - Sweet Bunch of Violets 3:18
8. Ward & Winfield - In Those Cruel Slavery Days 2:52
9. Chubby Parker & His Little Old-Time Banjo - The Year of Jubilo 2:41
10. Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters - John Brown's Dream 2:46
11. Capt. M. J. Bonner (The Texas Fiddler) - Dusty Miller/Ma Ferguson 2:52
12. Cherry Lane Express Rebels Hornpipe 2:39
13. Henry C. Gilliland and A. C. (Eck) Robertson Turkey in the Straw 3:00
14. The Foreman Family - The Poor Old Slave 3:22
15. Asa Martin & James Roberts - Darling Nellie Gray 2:49
16. Henry C. Gilliland and A. C. (Eck) Robertson - Arkansaw Traveler 3:00
17. McGee Brothers & Todd - Old Master's Runaway 3:02
18. Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters - Richmond Cotillion 2:59
19. Fiddlin' John Carson & His Virginia Reelers - Dixie Division 4:12

Nigeria Sunday, August 20, 2017

Reissue of the highly sought after Nigerian funk-rock album, moving effortlessly between reggae, jazzy afrobeat and psych rock.

Soundway fans first got a taste of Jay-U’s infectious beats with the track ‘Some More’, featured on the Soundway compilation “Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound Of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79”.

Originally released by EMI Nigeria in 1977, this now-rare album was written by Jay-U and engineered by disco-boogie artist Goddy Oku. Opening with the up-tempo reggae number “Reggae Deluxe”, the album descends into mind-blowing jazz-funk featuring several killer saxophone solos. The journey ends with a trip into psych-prog rock, with a sound not dissimilar to that coming out of the early 70s British rock scene.

Soundway come with a very necessary reissue of Jay U Experience’s Nigerian psych-funk-reggae blinder, Enough Is Enough after building dancefloor intrigue with his Some More peach on the Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound Of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79 compilation. First appearing on EMI Nigeria in 1977 and now available to the world at large, it’s clear that Some More wasn’t the only belter this LP has to offer. From the most infectious stripe of swaying reggae soul in Reggae Deluxe to the funky horns and disco strut of Get Yourselves Together, thru the hard bitten psych-funk of Enough Is Enough and the plangent, distorted flares of Baby Rock, this is 100% dynamite. Heads are seriously going to light up for this one! -Boomkat

Via Exy!

1. Reggae Deluxe 4:00
2. Get Yourself Together 6:03
3. Enough Is Enough 6:24
4. Some More 7:08
5. Baby Rock 5:22

Jamaica Sunday, August 20, 2017

The ultimate introduction to vintage reggae DJ sounds.

"Compiled by Jim Tracey, this 2-CD collection highlights the development of toasting on disc through the recordings of the pioneering stylists of the sixties and seventies. Included are performances by men now regarded as the founding fathers of the DJ sound, with many of the recordings included considered instrumental in shaping the sound of toasting - their influence still clearly audible in the music of today's Dancehall and R&B."

Wow what an album, took me right back. This is my era of reggae really, when I was grown up and and about doing clubs an t'ing, rather than being a youthful ska boy. Whilst I have always preferred the vocal cuts and particular the vocal harmony groups when the toasters cut loose on these wonderful rhythms in a dancehall – magnificent. These were the icons, not quite the originators, though Sir Lord Comic is represented, from which everything grew – the great U Roy, I Roy, Big Youth, Dennis Alcapone, Dillinger and so on they are all here. Too many tracks to mention but kicking of with seminal Rule the nation by U Roy (reggae's first DJ superstar) and followed by Dennis Alcapones DJ choice on the Baby Love rhythm – what a start. Concentrating on the big names with multiple tracks on show, U Roy is represented with the slower Way Down South, classic Duke Reid rocksteady 'Wear you to the ball', Drive her home (with Hopeton Lewis), the choppy Treasure Isle skank, Festival Wise over Eric Donaldson's strained vocal and Behold with echoes of Junior Walker's Way Back Home. I Roy kicks off with the organ led and rhyming Whisky Chest. I Roy, although thought by some to be a U Roy imitater, was typically sparser on the rhthm track making the vocal seem all the more prominent. Hi Jacking, the deep African descendant, almost singing vocal is portrayed on a more upbeat Red nuts and gin, Hot Bob (with the Jumpers) and Peace complete his selection. Dennis Alcapone aside from DJ Choice cut at Treasure Isle, It must come for Bunny Lee, Africa Stand for Lee Perry showed great consistency no matter which of the heavy weight producers he was working for. On some the screams went a bit wild like 'This is butter', much better on the mellower 'Number one Station', 'Shades of Hudson'completing Dennis' list, Big Youth cut an awesome figure and developed his own sound amply shown on the massive Cool Breeze on Derrick Harriott's Stop that train, Screaming Target from the album of the same name. The very excellent s90 skank is one of those motorcycle tunes that were prevalent at the time. Solomon a Grundy which also feature on the Screamin Target album. Aside from these heavy weights there is still plenty of worthy material. Lizzy's version of Come back and stay is catchy and humorous. Scotty too had a distinctive style and he is representd on Draw your brakes, Popularised on the Harder they come soundtrack, a kind of take on the old Prince Buster in a DJ style with Salvation Train, Children children, Clean Race and Unbelievable Sounds. Dillinger is represented on one Lee Perry track, his better times were to come a bit later. Charlie Ace was known as a record deal but he also put down a couple of version and a couple are on show. Shorty the President cut the porpular President Mash up the Resident with Rupie Edwards in a DJ style that was more understated than some of his peers. Nonetheless they would mash the dancehall, as in another motor bike track Yamaha Skank. The staccato sound of Dave Barker appears on a version of the Philly classic Only the Strong Survive. Jah Berry is also worthy of mention, which was aside from the Rasta Africa and consciousness at the time, with a piece of DJ slackness – whole lotta suga down deh. A cracking cut is Winston Scotland and My little filly, retaining gorgeous harmonies behind him. As is Prince Jazzbo who makes better of a skank rhthm on Mr Harry Skank. As we moved from th early to mid 70's towards 1975 and 1976 the sounds get slower, spacier and dubbier, none more so than Jah Woosh (Riding Melody). But with an eye to the past heritage the 1970 cut of Jack of My trade by Sir Lord Comic. King Iwah is superb on Perry's Give me Power. Last but not least is left for one of my favourites. Absolutely unique, the late and great Prince Far I – individual, gruff, laid back tones. Unfortunately this cut is not one of his best but a taster for what he did – more please. If this is your style this is a great album, certainly took me back to some sounds that I hadn't heard for a very long time.

Disc 1
1. U-Roy - Rule The Nation 2:35
2. Dennis Alcapone - DJ Choice 2:50
3. I-Roy - Whisky Chest 2:19
4. Lizzy - Come Back And Stay (Version) 2:34
5. Scotty - Draw Your Brakes 3:14
6. Big Youth - Cool Breeze 3:22
7. Dillinger - Headquarters 2:42
8. U-Roy - Way Down South 2:54
9. I-Roy - Hi Jacking 3:15
10. Big Youth - Screaming Target 3:32
11. Dennis Alcapone - It Must Come 2:36
12. Blake Boy - Deliver Us 3:10
13. Charlie Ace - Creation Version 2:25
14. Scotty - Salvation Train 3:38
15. Winston Prince - Place Called Africa 2:49
16. Dennis Alcapone - Africa Stand 2:51
17. I-Roy - African Descendent 4:14
18. Shorty The President - President Mash Up The Resident 2:48
19. Lloyd Young - High Explosion 3:03
20. Dave Barker - Only The Strong Survive 2:29
21. U-Roy - Wear You To The Ball 2:30
22. I-Roy - Red Nuts And Gin 3:36
23. Jah Berry - Daughter Whole Lotta Sugar Down Deh! 3:56
24. Dennis Alcapone - This A Butter 2:32
25. U-Roy - Drive Her Home 1:56

Disc 2
1. I-Roy & The Jumpers - Hot Bomb 2:26
2. Dennis Alcapone - Number One Station 2:44
3. U-Roy - Treasure Isle Skank 2:39
4. Charlie Ace - Ontarius Version 2:00
5. Winston Scotland - My Little Filly 2:22
6. Big Joe - Glitter Not Gold 2:27
7. Lizzie - Love Is A Treasure 2:39
8. Scotty - Children Children 2:47
9. Big Youth - S 90 Skank 2:50
10. Jah Woosh - It's Alright 2:50
11. Dino Perkins - Skin Him Alive 2:00
12. Dennis Alcapone - Shades Of Hudson 3:22
13. Jah Woosh - Riding Melody 2:58
14. U-Roy - Festival Wise 2:44
15. Shorty The President - Yamaha Skank 2:37
16. King Sporty - For Our Desire 2:53
17. Sir Lord Comic - Jack Of My Trade 3:27
18. Scotty - Clean Race 3:19
19. Big Youth - Soloman A Gunday 3:07
20. Prince Jazzbo - Mr. Harry Skank 3:15
21. Prince Far I - Deck Of Cards 2:53
22. King Iwah - Give Me Power (Version 2) 3:10
23. U-Roy - Behold 2:52
24. I-Roy - Peace 3:26
25. Scotty - Unbelievable Sound 3:21

USA Sunday, August 20, 2017

Sincerely raw gospel soul, including one outstanding blues number played on Sitar!

Despite her early years spent blazing the sanctified circuit alongside Candi Staton in the Jewell Gospel Trio, Shirley Ann Lee's solo work remains largely unknown. Collected here are Lee's most organic and orginal moments from her time spent recording downriver at Felton Williams' Double U Sound Studios in Escorse, Michigan. 

Built on an unaired "Shirley Ann Lee Radio Hour" that was intended (but never used) to promote her music, this LP contains the six songs originally pressed onto 45's, of which there are scant remains, plus ten songs heretofore unheard. Lush studio recordings are blended flawlessly with spontaneous spirituals and sincere sketches. A single LP revival of an unheralded gospel giant that is sure to convert the non-believers.

After wrapping the tracklist for Local Customs: Downriver Revival, we knew there was a smaller second record buried in the mountains of tape rescued from Felton Williams’ Ecorse, Michigan, basement. Born at the tail-end of a Depression that darkened the entire United States, Shirley Ann Lee took her talent as a singer and pianist from a grim, overcrowded house in Toledo, Ohio, to a glamorous, gospel-fueled adolescence on the road and in Nashville. It wasn’t until her return to Toledo after a disastrous marriage in Los Angeles that, for the first time in almost two decades of public performances, she found the urge to praise God with her own words. As the Revival label’s lone “star,” Shirley Ann Lee was afforded dozens of opportunities to record her songs, but only six sides managed to trickle out on 45 between 1967 and 1969. Using Revival’s aborted Shirley Ann Lee Radio Hour program as our guide, we’ve taken the best of her proper studio recordings, in-the-moment sketches, out-of-tune piano demos, and rehearsals with young kids talking in the background and created the Shirley Ann Lee album that never was. A one-LP revival of an unheralded gospel giant that is sure to convert the non-believers. (NG)

These songs were recorded between 1966 and 1968, but only a few of them were released at the time — and even those were just 45 rpm singles distributed by bicycle in Toledo, Ohio. In other words, even though this is old music, it didn’t truly see the light of day until 2012, thanks to the invaluable work of the master musical archeologists at Chicago’s Numero Group. These spare, occasionally primitive and off-kilter recordings feature little more than piano or electric guitar and Lee’s remarkable voice, but that’s all they need to showcase the heartfelt songs, mostly written by Lee herself. Each song is built around a gospel message, but they transcend any particular religious denomination’s beliefs, expressing life’s universal struggle. When the Numero Group’s Rob Servier visited Lee at her Toledo home in 2008, she had no copies of her own records. Lacking a CD player, she went out into Servier’s car so she could hear the disc he’d made of her old recordings. Hearing the music for the first time in 40 years, she sang along. And now, the rest of the world can marvel at these lost recordings.

1. Introduction 0:58
2. All I Have To Depend On 3:54
3. I Shall Not Be Moved 2:53
4. Stop Look & Listen 2:52
5. You Better Run 2:12
6. There's A Light 1:58
7. Everything Gonna Be Alright 1:26
8. You've Been So Good To Me 2:39
9. Blessed Quietness 1:28
10. Intermission 0:41
11. How Can I Lose 1:58
12. Time 2:16
13. Stay On Your Knees 3:02
14. Someday 1:40
15. Get Back 1:54
16. Walk Through The Valley 2:38
17. Please Accept My Prayer 2:07
18. I've Got To Make It 3:25

Virginia Sunday, August 20, 2017

This guy is a virtuoso and probably the best "traditional" american primitive player today. While he's been releasing great albums for years now, this one does feel like something special - an artist at the height of their craft. -Jeremiah

Guitarist Daniel Bachman is prolific. The double length River issued by Three Lobed, is his sixth album in the last four years, and ninth since 2010. It also marks the first set he's recorded in a proper recording studio. Masterfully recorded by Brian Haran at Pinebox in North Carolina, it was cut in a single day and is free of overdubs. The intimacy of the environment, combined with the care employed in capturing the best takes of these seven tunes, approach the immediacy, warmth, and excitement of his live performances. While Bachman's playing remains devoted to American acoustic guitar music from the Piedmont blues to the American Primitive traditions (he expertly covers fellow Virginians William Moore's "Old Country Rock" and Jack Rose's "Levee"), it has also evolved considerably. From the very beginning Bachman was capable of generating complex improvisational ideas and playing them at a furious, athletic pace. Here, he's far less concerned with speed and physicality. His technique is more relaxed and assured, allowing for in-the-moment ideas to flow more naturally through his beautifully constructed melodies. Opener "Won't You Cross Over to That Other Shore" is a case in point. With deep, mid-register strums, he deliberately asserts the tune's first cycle and harmonic framework. When the fingerpicking commences, one melody leaps forth with edges protruding from the repitition and gradually asserts three or four more in labyrinthine sequence, through several time signatures, and without losing sight of the tune's center. The dirgey slide blues of Rose's "Levee" offers a pronounced rhythmic palette that makes room for an intersection of drones and subtle, sun-dappled shadows. "Farnham" and the two-part "Song for the Setting Sun" are suite-like. When combined in sequence, they almost physically evoke the varying rural scenery coursing through country-gospel hymnody, crystalline, stomping Appalachian reels and rags, and song-like folk-blues reveries. Bachman closes River with a reprise of "Won't You Cross Over to That Other Shore." It mirrors the first one in compact form by commencing on a high-string strummed intro that shifts into American Primitive-esque bass string fingerpicking and ringing middle-register melodic statements that move elastically across waltz time. River is not only the work of a master guitarist, but also that of a sophisticated composer. Bachman's confidence in interpreting his own musical ideas on the fretboard is now equal to his skill in playing the lineage music that inspires him. -AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

1. Won't You Cross Over To That Other Shore 14:27
2. Levee (Written-By – Jack Rose) 3:28
3. Farnham 2:02
4. Song For The Setting Sun I 8:17
5. Song For The Setting Sun II 8:20
6. Old Country Rock (Written-By – William Moore) 2:32
7. Won't You Cross Over To That Other Shore (Reprise) 4:45

Greece Saturday, August 19, 2017

All the pre-war recordings of the most important figure in Greek Popular Music.

Our third collection of Greek music covers the pre-war output of Vassilis Tsitsanis. He was born at Trikala in January 1915, surrounded by music. His father played mandola and his mother sang. His brother Christos became a renowned bouzouki player. His home was near the barracks of the notorious 5th Regiment made up largely of ex-convicts, dope heads and gangsters, there to be knocked into shape. They gathered in the evenings to sing, play and dance, watched in awe by the brothers. Vassilis' musical talent was recognised by his father, who scrimped to buy him a violin and send him to music school. Eventually he became leader of the school orchestra. But Vassilis' interest in Classical music waned and he dropped the violin for the bouzouki, spending hours honing his skills and composing. His classical training helped make his work closer to Western music than hard-core Rembetica. There was pressure on Vassilis to help the family (his father had died) by getting a bank job or studying law. For the latter he left for Athens around 1935. In the city he was diverted, as word of his musical skill spread. After cutting his first sides in early 1936, he recorded sporadically over the next months until, in 1937, he cut Xelogiastra which was covered by Stellakis. Both versions sold well and his career took off. Tsitsanis was drafted in March 1938 and spent two years in Thessaloniki. He composed feverishly, travelling to Athens on his leaves for recording sessions. This phase ended in October 1940 when Greece entered WW2. Tsitsanis was again drafted and sent to the Albanian front where he spent some months. In early April 1941, when he was on leave, the front collapsed. He went to Thessaloniki where he spent the grim years of the Axis occupation and the early months of the Greek Civil War which followed. Despite the difficulties of the period, he created some great work and in 1946 he travelled to Athens to take part in Greece's first Postwar recording sessions.

Great Britain's JSP label is well known as a purveyor of great jazz and blues music and, more recently, bluegrass. Their multiple-disc sets are usually sold for a song (due to much more liberal copyright limitation laws in the United Kingdom, which are great if you're a consumer and really bad if you're an artist). That said, who would have thought that JSP would become the label for the history of rembetika in the Northern Hemisphere? The evidence is in the previous two multi-disc overviews of the music that the imprint issued in 2006 and earlier in 2008. This third entry in the series focuses on the most recorded musician of Greece's original underground outlaw music songwriter, and bouzouki master, Vassilis Tsitsanis, who was born in 1915 and passed away in 1984. Tsitsanis recorded from 1936 through the 1960s, taking a break during WWII, when he served in the Greek Army. This gigantic five-disc set concentrates only on the prewar years, 1936-1940. During that period, Tsitsanis recorded a whopping 101 sides! They range from his earliest, most youthful romantic ballads -- though his first hit, "Zembekiko," was a hashish ballad -- through more world-weary hard-luck, drinking, and gangster themes. Interestingly, many of his sides were credited to other artists, but as the liner notes explain (somewhat sketchily, it's true), often a side would be credited to the vocalist or a co-writer but scholars have determined authorship as belonging to Tsitsanis. Each track on these five discs is painstakingly detailed in the notes, though the biographical details are spare. The sound is more than reasonable considering the official source tapes. And the music itself? Timeless; its emotional intensity and the physicality of Tsitsanis' bouzouki playing are undiminished as well. These are powerful songs and should be heard by every rembetika fan. While it's true that Rounder Records spent two different entries on the prewar material by the artist and went deeper into details in their rather academic liner essays, the sheer weight of the music and its volume on this box tips the edge in its favor. -AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

1936-1938
1-1 Yeoryia Mittaki - S 'Ena Deke Skarosame
1-2 Elvira Kakki - Mandili Chrysokendimeno
1-3 Elvira Kakki - Pikros Ine O Ponos Mou
1-4 M. Vamvakaris-Sophia Karivali - Na Yiati Perno
1-5 Sophia Karivali - Yitonissa
1-6 Dhimitris Perdhikopoulos - Mario Ke Manavis
1-7 Dhimitris Perdhikopoulos - Gouvernanda
1-8 D. Perdhikopoulos-V. Tsitsanis - Ola Ta' Cho Varethi
1-9 D. Perdhikopoulos-V. Tsitsanis - Xelogiastra
1-10 Stellakis & Pan. Chrysinis - Xelogiastra
1-11 Stellakis & Pan. Chrysinis - Ola Ta' Cho Varethi
1-12 D. Perdhikopoulos - Me Liker Ke Me Sampania
1-13 D. Perdhikopoulos - Me Thambonoun I Maties Sou
1-14 Stellakis Perpiniadhis-V. Tsitsanis - Yia Sena Xenychto
1-15 Stellakis Perpiniadhis-V. Tsitsanis - Ta Hano San Se Vlepo
1-16 Ev. Payioumidzis-St. Perpiniadhis - O Tsitsanis Sto Monte Carlo
1-17 St. Perpiniadhis - P. Chrysinis - Trikalini Chakpina
1-18 Evstr. Payioumidzis - Tha 'Rtho Mia Glykia Vradhia
1-19 St. Perpiniadhis & P. Chrysinis - S' Afton Ton Kosmo Dhystichis
1-20 Stratos-Stellakis - Boemissa
1-21 Stratos-Stellakis - Otan Se Protognorisa

1938-1939
2-1 A. Hadzichristos-V. Tsitsanis - I Xenitia
2-2 A. Hadzichristos-V. Tsitsanis - To Trellokoritso
2-3 Stratos - Plakiotissa
2-4 Evstr. Payioumidzis - Simera Xypnisa Proi
2-5 Stellakis - Ti Thelis Apo Mena
2-6 D. Perdhikopoulos-P. Chrysinis - Politissa
2-7 Dhimitris Perdhikopoulos - I Mikri Ton Podharadhon
2-8 Perdhikopoulos-Tsitsanis - Vasilo
2-9 Perdhikopoulos-Tsitsanis - Dhio Chronia S' Agapo
2-10 Perdhikopoulos-Tsitsanis - O Asyrmatistis
2-11 Perdhikopoulos-Tsitsanis - Apo Sena Ti Zilevo
2-12 Dhim. Roumeliotis - Parigoria Ta Matia Sou
2-13 Dhim. Roumeliotis - Dhen To 'Pa To Parapono
2-14 Stratos - Ta Veloudhenia Matia Sou
2-15 Stratos & Stellakis - O Gamos Tou Tsitsani
2-16 Ev. Payioumidzis-St. Perpiniadhis - Archondissa
2-17 V. Tsitsanis - Atelioto
2-18 Stratos - Mes' Tin Polli Skotoura Mou
2-19 Stratos & Stellakis - Tha Rotiso Tin Mama Sou
2-20 Rita Abadzi & Stellakis - Apopse Na Min Kimithis

1939
3-1 Evstr. Payioumidzis & V. Tsitsanis - Bravo Sou Pos Me Dhoulevis
3-2 Evstr. Payioumidzis & V. Tsitsanis - Sta Tavernia Tha Triyirno
3-3 Evstr. Payioumidzis & V. Tsitsanis - Stis Salonikis Ta Stena
3-4 Evstr. Payioumidzis & V. Tsitsanis - Tsiggana Mou Glykia
3-5 Stratos-Tsitsanis - Se Perimenoune Se Zisitoune
3-6 Stratos-Tsitsanis - Daizy
3-7 Stratos-Stellakis - Se Fino Akroyiali
3-8 Stratos-Stellakis - Na Pame Yia Ti Voula
3-9 Stratos-Stellakis - Tin Emorfia Sou Echases
3-10 Stratos-Stellakis - Tora Yirnas Stis Yitonies
3-11 Stellakis-Tsitsanis - Pane Ta Lefta Mou
3-12 Stellakis-Tsitsanis - Dhen Se Thelo Pia
3-13 Stratos Payioumidzis - Kapote Zilepsa
3-14 Stratos Payioumidzis - Melachrini Kopela
3-15 Stratos Payioumidzis - Mario
3-16 V. Tsitsanis - Horos Politikos
3-17 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - O Tsitsanis Sti Dzoungla
3-18 V. Tsitsanis - Serviko
3-19 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Dhodheka I Ora
3-20 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Tin Kyriaki To Dhilino

1939-1940
4-1 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Kalambakiotissa
4-2 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Michanika Me Berdhepses
4-3 V. Tsitsanis - Tatavliano
4-4 Stratos-Tsitsanis - O Sarkaflias
4-5 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - To Katsaro Sou To Mali
4-6 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Matsaranga
4-7 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Kamariera
4-8 Ioanna Yeorgakopoulou & Styl. Chrysinis - I Filenadhes
4-9 Str. Payioumdzis-V. Tsitsanis - Agapo Mia Pandremeni
4-10 Str. Payioumdzis-V. Tsitsanis - Proxenevoun Ton Stamati
4-11 Str. Payioumdzis-V. Tsitsanis - Pane Ta Palia
4-12 Str. Payioumdzis-V. Tsitsanis - Mazi Sou Ego Pou Ta 'Blexa
4-13 Stratos - Ta Soferakia
4-14 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - San Englezana Na Ferthis
4-15 Daizy Stavropoulou-V. Tsitsanis - Mikri Mikri S' Agapisa
4-16 Daizy Stavropoulou-V. Tsitsanis - Sklyrokardhi
4-17 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - To Syre Ki' Ela Archinisa
4-18 Daizy Stavropoulou-Haral. Mavridhis - Tha Protimiso Thanato
4-19 Daizy Stavropoulou - Afou M' Aressi Na Yirno
4-20 Daizy Stavropoulou-V. Tsitsanis - Ta Pandremenadhika

1940
5-1 Stratos-Tsitsanis - Ela Mikro Na Fygoume
5-2 Stratos-Tsitsanis - Larisini
5-3 Daizy Stavropoulou - Tha Vro Mia Alli Me Kardhia
5-4 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Haremia Me Dhiamandia
5-5 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Se Zilevo Se Pono
5-6 Keromytis-Tsitsanis - Yi' Afta Ta Mavra Matia Sou
5-7 Daizy Stavropoulou-V. Tsitsanis - Fina Tha Tin Pername
5-8 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Zoitsa Mou
5-9 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Yia Mia Xanthoula
5-10 Payioumidzis-Tsitsanis - I Meraklidhes
5-11 Payioumidzis-Tsitsanis - Mia Nychta Sto Pasalimani
5-12 Stratos-Keromytis-Tsitsanis - O Kosmos Ap' Ti Zilia Tou
5-13 Stratos-Keromytis-Tsitsanis - To Adhiko O Theos Dhen Theli
5-14 Daizy Stavropoulou-Haral. Mavridhis - Ise San Neraida
5-15 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - Mia Villa 'Go Tha Sou 'Chtiza
5-16 Stratos-V. Tsitsanis - I Magissa Tis Arapias
5-17 M. Vamvakaris-V. Tsitsanis - Fandazes San Pringipessa
5-18 A. Hadzichristos-Ise Aristokratissa Ke Orea
5-19 St. Keromytis-Io. Yeorgakopoulou - Batiris
5-20 Stellakis-Tsitsanis - M' Ena Pikro Anastenagmo

Notes
101 sides (CD1 to CD4 sides recorded at Rizoupolis, Athens)

USA Saturday, August 19, 2017

This double-disc set is the companion soundtrack to Soul Jazz's book of the same name. It documents 14 wide-ranging tracks by well-known foundational artists and those who followed the New Thing path to other realms during a fertile period during and after the Civil Rights Era. Soul Jazz has always done an admirable job both in curation and presentation. Here, the feel is less consciously outside and more global and spacious. Among the many highlights is the inclusion of Yusef Lateef's "Chang, Chang, Chang" from 1957's fantastic Before Dawn. It's a beautiful and poetic place to begin Dr. Lateef's journey from the very beginning; Dr. Lateef sought to combine the music of the East with modern sounds. Don Cherry's "Utopia and Visions," from 1973, is another excellent pick because of its complete integration of post-'60s modal and improvisational jazz with global traditions. Likewise, Grachan Moncur III's collaboration with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra seamlessly melds Latin and South African jazz to Nigerian highlife. "In the Moog" by Harold McKinney & the Creative Profile off Detroit's Tribe Records in 1974 is deeply funky, an all too brief insight into how Detroit was not only crossing musical boundaries and integrating various traditions, but was also completely unique in doing so. And speaking of funk, the inclusion of Richard Davis' "Dealin'," from his 1974 Muse album of the same name, is stellar. Archie Shepp and Jeanne Lee's "Blasé" melds everything from modal blues to moaning gospel. Lloyd McNeill and Marshall Hawkins' "The Banjo Lesson" is an exercise in chamber meets folk meets spiritual jazz. It's haunting, spare, and beautiful. The swinging pan-African post-bop of the Creative Arts Ensemble -- with Kaeef Ruzadun on piano, Gary Bias on saxophone, George Bohannon on trombone, and Henry Franklin on bass, is on full display in "Flashback of Time" from 1981. The big surprise here is the inclusion of Tyrone Washington's fantastic "Universal Spiritual Revolt," which is a joyous groove revolution with the saxophonist playing several instruments accompanied by Rene McLean, Idris Muhammad, and Hubert Eaves III, among others. Even Doug Hammond's texturally and harmonically brilliant "Spaces and Things," which is the most outside thing here, follows along rhythmic lines -- albeit labyrinthine ones. While this set is more for the newcomer than the seasoned collector, it is a hell of a mix and can be thoroughly enjoyed with or without the book. -AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Disc 1
1. Yusef Lateef - Chang, Chang, Chang 3:01
2. The Last Poets - It's A Trip 4:46
3. Don Cherry - Utopia And Visions 6:35
4. Richard Davis - Dealin' 6:06
5. Archie Shepp And Jeanne Lee - Blasé 10:28
6. Grachan Moncur III And The Jazz Composer's Orchestra - Angela's Angel 2:17
7. Tyrone Washington - Universal Spiritual Revolt 8:29

Disc 2
1. Creative Arts Ensemble - Flashback Of Time 10:58
2. David Lee Jr. - Second Line March 1:42
3. Harold McKinney And The Creative Profile - In The Moog 10:54
4. Lloyd McNeill And Marshall Hawkins - The Banjo Lesson 8:34
5. Pheeroan Aklaff - Tzaddi Vau (Part 1) 2:23
6. Joe Henderson - Black Narcissus 4:51
7. Doug Hammond - Spaces And Things 5:11

USA Saturday, August 19, 2017

Compilations like this are the reason why Soul Jazz remains one of the greatest labels, such an incredible selection of tracks and an incredible focus. This is not your typical "blue note" jazz, this is the more underground and avant-garde stuff from those years, it showcases the artists that weren't afraid to explore. The music is deeply tied with the civil rights movement, the compilation tries (and suceeds) at showing the connection between the movement and the music. Everything included here on both CD's is incredible material, it gives you so many good artists to discover. I know most jazz heads tend to ignore compilations, rather focusing on albums, but this one is really too good to pass by especially if you are interested in this sort of jazz. -diction

''This album features revolutionary jazz music created by artists inspired by the ideals of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement. Starting in the mid-1960s the avant-garde of jazz fused with black power, Afro-centricity and spirituality as notions of self-determination, economic empowerment and musical freedoms.''

So what does Soul Jazz mean by ''revolutionary jazz music''? The term is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally, and, given the huge time frame covered, could conceivably include a wide range of different musics, styles, and movements in jazz. It's a bit late for the first wave of free jazz, though not too late for the adventurous mid-1960s albums on Blue Note and Impulse - the Coltranes and Andrew Hills and Jackie MacLeans and Pharaoh Sanders of the world. It encompasses the entirety of the fusion moment in all its various forms (Miles and Herbie, Ornette and Don Cherry), as well as the loft scene in New York. And then there's the abstraction of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and their kin, the afro-futurism of Sun Ra, and the creative infusion from Europe, both the BYG/Actuel moment and the European free improvisers who pushed the concepts of jazz in their own direction.

While not all of that could be directly tied to the civil rights movement, Soul Jazz's fusion of ''black power, Afro-centricity and spirituality,'' they all could be thought of as being inspired by it. Even AMM's Eddie Prévost drew something from those American movements, even if it was metaphorical: ''[Jazz's] historical impetus suggests it to be an alienation strategy with which AMM can easily identify: jazz struggled to escape the confinement of a white-dominated capitalist culture.'' So if so many of the diverse strains of the jazz avant-garde can be so readily tied to the notions Soul Jazz enumerates above, why is everything on these two discs so funky? To put it another way (and to paraphrase ethnomusicologist Steven Feld), why is it so easy to associate African-ness with funky rhythms and vamps? And why, given the 20-year span these discs purport to cover, is almost everything here from the 1970s?

Before I take this critique any further, though, I should take a step back and talk about what's actually going on over these two CDs. Since it is the companion piece to Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker's book, published by Soul Jazz, of the same name (exceptionally reviewed by Dusted's Kevan Harris), all of the music featured here comes from albums covered in the book. The lone exception is Gato Barbieri and Dollar Brand's ''81st Street,'' a fiery improvisation that manages to be simultaneously melodic, harmonically adventurous, and timbrally challenging, all over a lilting/lurching vamp. It comes from a 1969 BYG/Actuel release that doesn't appear in the book, though its inclusion is totally justifiable on musical grounds alone. The rest of the tunes here are by a hodgepodge of different musicians, representing many of the different creative collectives that sprung out in urban centers across the country: AACM in Chicago (represented by the Art Ensemble, Philip Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble, and Steve Colson's Unity Troupe), the Black Artists Group in St. Louis (Oliver Lake), Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra in Los Angeles, the Detroit Arts Workshop (the Hastings Street Jazz Experience), etc. Beyond this, there are an assortment of characters, including Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Gary Bartz, Mary Lou Williams and Joe McPhee, who all had their own unique visions of jazz, vastly different from those of the collectives. And needless to say, all the playing on this set is superb, featuring some of the best players of the time period.

However, I come back to the question of why everything here is so funky. Given the vast diversity of players available, and the huge diversity of the book, it seems a shame that the curators of this compilation would choose to lean on the funky side of things. The dominant mode of these songs is a polyrhythmic vamp, laid down by a rhythm section supplemented with exotic percussion instruments, underlying a fairly simple, looping chord progression, with an expanded set of melodic instruments, often with vocals in the soul/r&b vein. There are brief glimpses of other approaches - the aforementioned Barbieri/Brand track, and the pieces by the Art Ensemble, Joe McPhee and Edward Larry Gordon - but they are largely drowned out by a barely differentiated mass of (pardon the pun) soul jazz, funky jazz, and various jazz/r&b fusions. Sun Ra's ''Nuclear War'' is the exception that proves the rule: the fact that the curators chose this, with its laid back grove, its (relatively) straightforward approach, its (irresistible) vamp, and its call and response vocals, over the thousands of other Ra recordings from this time period belies the fact that they are looking to raise as few musical eyebrows as possible.

I realize that I'm starting to tread into fuzzy territory here, since many of these artists did, in fact, believe that they were expressing their connections to Africa, that they were declaring their independence from the dictates of the capitalistic structures of the record labels, and that they were exploring some kind of deeper spirituality. It's not my place to question that, nor do I have any reason to doubt their sincerity. But other musicians were trawling in the same philosophical territory with drastically different results, folks like Wadada Leo Smith, the Revolutionary Ensemble, Myra Melford, Steve Reid, Pharaoh Sanders and Don Cherry, all of whom are entirely absent from this compilation. And herein lies the fundamental contradiction of the album: the music here is all individually great and generally underexposed, but also all relatively homogeneous given the sweeping claims made in its writeup. -Dan Ruccia

Disc 1
1. Oliver Lake/NTU - Africa 10:50
2. Stanton Davis' Ghetto/Mysticism - Space-A-Nova 4:40
3. Steve Colson & The Unity Troupe - Lateen 8:15
4. Mary Lou Williams - Miss D.D. 2:30
5. Joe Henderson - Foregone Conclusion 4:58
6. Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Old Time Religion 7:40
7. Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble - The African Look 3:35
8. Gary Bartz NTU Troop - The Drinking Song 5:16
9. Pheeroan Ak Laff - 3 In 1 6:21
10. The Hastings Street Jazz Experience - Yes Lord 5:04
11. Gato Barbieri & Dollar Brand - 81st Street 8:39
12. Ralph Thomas - Big Spliff 5:55

Disc 2
1. Archie Shepp - Attica Blues 4:50
2. Horace Tapscott & The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - Peyote Song No. III 7:09
3. Sun Ra And His Outer Space Arkestra - Nuclear War 7:44
4. Joe McPhee & John Snyder - Shadow Sculptures 3:38
5. Errol Parker - Street Ends 8:13
6. Amina Claudine Myers - 3/4's Of 4/4 5:15
7. The Pharaohs - Freedom Road 5:52
8. Edward Larry Gordon - All Pervading 2:33
9. Michael White - The Blessing Song 6:04
10. Roy Brooks & The Artistic Truth - Black Survival 2:27
11. The Lloyd McNeill Quartet - Dig Where Dat's At! 3:34

Notes
Track 1-01 taken from the Oliver Lake album "NTU: Point From Which Creation Begins", and the artist is wrongly referred to as "Oliver Lake/NTU" on this release.
Track 2-07, "Freedom Road", is incorrectly titled "Freedom Time" on this release.
Track 2-11 is slightly incorrectly titled on this release as "Dig Where Dat's At" (without the exclamation mark on the end), and the artist is wrongly referred to as just "Lloyd McNeill" on this release.

USA Saturday, August 19, 2017

New Thing! tells the story of Deep Jazz in the USA. Post-Civil Rights, Post- Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, Post-John Coltrane, this album shows how radical musicians developed musically, politically and spiritually at this time. 

New Thing! shows how these musicians redefined themselves and their music to present a new Black American music that encompassed Jazz with Eastern music and philosophies, space travel, classical music, ballet and African music alongside other American musics such as Gospel, Funk, Soul and Blues. The period of music covered on New Thing is from 1970-1985. (One exception and a forerunner to much of this music, the Sun Ra track "Angels and Demons at Play" is from 1957! and clearly shows a man ahead of his time in his music and ideas). New Thing! features heavyweight Jazz artists such as Alice Coltrane, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp alongside many other less-well known, but equally important artists such as Rashied Ali (who played alongside John Coltrane) and Stanley Cowell (who started one of the first independent labels for this music, Strata-East Records, along with Charles Tolliver). 

The music on New Thing! ranges from the deep street funk of "Street Rap" and "Funky AECO" to hypnotic eastern-influenced tracks such as "Tibetan Serenity" and radical left-field tracks such as Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe’s "Duo Exchange". The album comes with extensive sleevenotes and exclusive photos (many by celebrated photographer Val Wilmer, herself an important chronicler of this period in music).

Soul Jazz has done it again. This two-disc, 16-track overview of the "New Thing" -- vanguard jazz in the period that began after the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Coltrane -- is a treasure trove of spirited, brave, and deeply emotional music that references both past and future.. The music coming out of the avant-garde at that time broke down many boundaries and incorporated many sounds and rhythms. There are familiar tunes here, such as Alice Coltrane's re-visioned read of her late husband's "A Love Supreme" with narration by Swami Satchidananda; Eddie Gale's experiments with free jazz, R&B, and gospel are referenced in the title track from his Black Rhythm Happenings, the soulful and spiritual side of exploration is revealed in Hannibal & Sunrise Orchestra's "Forest Sunrise." Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago both make appearances, as do Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe. The spiritual dimension as recontextualized with non-jazz instruments is explored by Stanley Cowell on "El Space-O," and the tough urban element gets the treatment by Archie Shepp with "Money Blues, (Part 1)," and Maulawi's "Street Rap." The spacey funk of Travis Biggs' "Tibetan Serenity" is a wonderful addition here, as is Bob Rockwell's "Androids," and the deep, hard groove in Lloyd McNeill's "Home Rule." What's highlighted and put on display here is one of the richest jazz compilations to come out in years and its sequencing is utterly priceless. Add a deluxe package that includes an exhaustive and engaging essay by Patrick Coopar and we have one of the more essential compilations to come out this year. Get it.  -AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Disc 1
1. Maulawi - Street Rap 6:14
2. The Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Funky Aeco 7:35
3. Sun Ra - Angels And Demons At Play 2:51
4. Paris Smith - Pentatonia 3:08
5. Travis Biggs - Tibetian Serenity 4:09
6. Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe - Duo Exchange 6:11
7. Archie Shepp - Money Blues 9:08
8. Hannibal Marvin Peterson & Sunrise Orchestra - Forest Sunrise 9:37
9. Amina Claudine Myers - Have Mercy Upon Us 11:00

Disc 2
1. Alice Coltrane - A Love Supreme 10:48
2. Lloyd McNeill - Home Rule 6:18
3. East New York Ensemble - Little Sunflower 13:19
4. Robert Rockwell III - Androids 7:35
5. Eddie Gale - Black Rhythm Happening 2:51
6. Stanley Cowell - El Space-O 8:16
7. Steve Davis - Lalune Blanche 5:25

Notes
The tracks, as indicated in the sleeve notes, were released in the following years: 1956 (1-03), 1969 (2-05, 2-07), 1970 (2-02), 1971 (1-07), 1972 (2-01), 1974 (1-01, 2-03, 2-04), 1978 (2-06), 1979 (1-09), 1983 (1-04), 1984 (1-02).

Strata-East Friday, August 18, 2017

Groove to the deepest, most beautiful jazz you've probably never heard.

Strata-East Records was a pioneering record label founded in 1971 that went deep down the post-bop, spiritual jazz path most famously explored by John Coltrane on his iconic 1964 work "A Love Supreme." Strata-East was a radical label, featuring radical sounds by the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, label founders Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell, Clifford Jordan, Pharaoh Sanders, Cecil McBee, Sonny Fortune, Shirley Scott, and other greats.

This is an excellent introduction to the wonders of the Strata-East Records label. Unlike Soul Jazz Records second compilation of this label, this album is slightly more user friendly due to the tunes on here being more funkier, more soulful, basically just more of the approachable stuff from the label. A couple of  choices of note are Shamek Farrah’s haunting masterpiece “First Impressions” which has to have some of the most hypnotic bass and sax work you could ask for, and ...’s killer break-beat funk jam “Hopscotch” which definitely wanders into the darker zones of what can normally be the quite safe waters of the funk-jazz genre.

A lot of the albums that source this compilation have since been reissued, like; Gil Scott-Heron’s Winter In America, Pharoah Sanders’s Izipho Zam (My Gifts), Clifford Jordan’s Glass Bead Games, Larry Ridley’s Sum of the Parts, The Heath Brothers’ Marchin' On!, Stanley Cowell's Musa Ancestral Streams, plus First Impressions and ... from the two earlier mentioned artists. In fact, so much has been reissued from here that this compilation is probably harder to get hold of than the albums that compile it. The only reissue resistant record used to compile this album is Billy Parker’s Fourth World’s Freedom of Speech, which is apparently the most pricey and collectible album from the whole Strata-East back catalogue. As previously mentioned, this album is as rare as rocking horse shit, but along with Soul Jazz Records second Strata-East compilation, it is definitely worth hunting for a copy, as you will not get two finer introductions to what is one of the most impressive jazz labels out there. -MH1000

1. Gil Scott-Heron - Peace Go With You Brother 5:35
2. Larry Ridley - Well You Needn't 8:30
3. Pharoah Sanders - Prince Of Peace 8:52
4. Larry Ridley - Changa Chikuyo 4:09
5. Clifford Jordan - John Coltrane 6:49
6. Charles Rouse - Hopscotch 7:17
7. Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle 5:19
8. Stanley Cowell - Travelling Man 2:29
9. Shamek Farrah - First Impressions 10:29
10. Billy Parker - Dance Of The Little Children 5:10
11. Clifford Jordan - Eddie Harris 4:19
12. The Heath Brothers - Smiling Billy Suite Pt.II 4:25

Notes
Tracks 1, 7 originally released on Winter In America (SES19742, recorded 1973)
Tracks 2, 4 originally released on Sum Of The Parts (SES19759, recorded 1975)
Track 3 originally released on Izipho Zam (My Gifts) "Dolphy Series #2" (SES1973, recorded 1969)
Tracks 5, 11 originally released on Glass Bead Games "Dolphy Series #5" (SES19737/19738, recorded 1973)
Track 6 originally released on Two Is One (SES19746, recorded 1974)
Track 8 originally released on Musa Ancestral Streams (SES19743, recorded 1973)
Track 9 originally released on First Impressions (SES7412, recorded 1974)
Track 10 originally released on Freedom Of Speech (SES1975/4, recorded 1974)
Track 12 originally released on Marchin' On! (SES19765, recorded 1975)

Quiet perfect and synonymous with Spiritual Jazz collection from the legendary Strata-East label. Deleted compilation.

As much as Strata-East is an amazing album, and a faultless introduction the mighty Strata-East Records label, I find this compilation a much more interesting selection of tunes that cover the more diverse reaches of the label’s back catalogue. Even though every selection is worth discussing, a few of the real high points for me were the very funky “Field Holler” by Charles Sullivan, Stanley Cowell’s very soulful “Trying to Find a Way”, Weldon Irvine’s classic “Turkish Bath” and “Ode to Ethiopia” from John Betsch Society’s truly excellent Earth Blossom album. The album’s real high point for me though is Dick Griffin’s “Jakubu’s Dance”, a beautiful uplifting melody that bounces along in the most optimistic and hopeful fashion and can not help but put you in a positive mood. As I said though, all the tunes are worth a mention, whether they are good, challenging or just downright bad. Soul Jazz Records really have pulled out the stops on this, their second Strata-East compilation, rather than the more obvious selection that went on their first appreciation of the label. -MH1000

1. Keno Duke - Too Late, Fall Back Baby 6:59
2. Charles Sullivan - Field Holler 3:39
3. Dick Griffin - Jakubu's Dabce 4:10
4. Stanley Cowell - Travelin' Man 3:47
5. John Betsch Society - Ode To Ethiopia 4:28
6. Harold Vick - Senor Zamora 5:42
7. Stanley Cowell - Trying To Find A Way 3:58
8. Piano Choir - Barbara Ann 4:50
9. Weldon Irvine - Turkish Bath 6:56
10. Oneness Of Juju - Freedom Fighter 3:25
11. Billy Parker's Fourth World - Get With It 4:07
12. The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe - Chick Chick 3:05
13. Cecil McBee - Tulsa Black 6:11
14. Shirley Scott - Keep On Movin On 9:56
15. The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe - Coltrane 4:58

Oakland, California Friday, August 18, 2017

An unauthorised compilation from universal sounds. Spiritual, experimental but never too abstract, this is Black Jazz at its best...

Universal Sound's Best of Black Jazz 1971-1976 is a monumental album that pays tribute to the struggle of an independent jazz label in difficult economic times. The label was able to put out 20 records in five years before folding. The tracks are selected from these recordings, made mainly by unheard of musicians. Most of these recordings wouldn't have been made, let alone reissued, without the commitment to creativity that Black Jazz records had. Surprisingly, there isn't one track that stands out and outshines any of the others on the album. This is perhaps a testament to the record label's consistency. The songs selected for this compilation lean closer to the jazz end of the funk/jazz spectrum, and occasionally dip into free jazz. All tracks stick close to the groove and make a classic blend of funk and jazz. The well-blended and evolving style seems to announce the arrival of the '70s. There is a kind of freedom in the songs that allows the sound to be taken in any direction. This points out the value of independent record labels and their commitment to the music, rather than to the business. The musicians should be given equal credit, but with the consistency of this compilation, it is obvious that the Black Jazz Records had the right stance and objectives to make good creative music. The gamble that independent label's can take certainly paid off for Black Jazz Records, and has allowed for an outstanding retrospect to be compiled. This retrospect will give further life to music that deserves far wider recognition than it received when it was first released. -AllMusic Review by Matt Whalley

1. The Awakening - Mode For D.D. 5:37
2. Doug Carn - Higher Ground 5:03
3. Calvin Keys - Aunt Lovely 7:30
4. Roland Haynes - Eglise 3:14
5. The Awakening - Slinky 6:10
6. Walter Bishop, Jr. - Coral Keys 6:20
7. Rudolph Johnson - Diswa 6:33
8. Henry Franklin - Blue Lights 7:03
9. Kellee Patterson - Maiden Voyage 5:15
10. Chester Thompson - Powerhouse 6:30
11. The Awakening - March On 5:30
12. Walter Bishop, Jr. - Soul Village 6:18
13. Rudolph Johnson - The Highest Pleasure 7:37