A bit of a supergroup – thanks to heavy guitar from Harvey Mandel and vocals and electric violin from Don Sugarcane Harris! Lots of long tracks – and titles include "What Goes Around Comes Around", "Do It Yourself", "A Little Soul Food", "Where's My ... CD (Rock)
Sweet electric jazz set, okay we'll call it fusion, from this great bassist. While during these years Vitous was working with Herbie Hancock and Jack Dejohnette, this set features some lesser known players, like his Czech countryman Jaroslav Jakubovic on reeds, who shares the searching quality we ... CD (Jazz)
Recorded live at Shelly's Manne Hole – with cuts that include "Bluesette", "Spanjazz", "Mercy Mercy Mercy", "That's All", "Blues Theme #2", and "The Claw". CD (Jazz)
A later set from Blue Mitchell – but a great one too, and done in a fully-arranged soul fusion style that seems to bring out the best in his playing! The album's got a smoother sound than some of Blue's work for Blue Note or Mainstream – but the groove comes out surprisingly well, ... CD (Jazz)
Like a lot of the other Mercury jazz records from the late 70's, this release by the reed player from the Headhunters is a mix of out funky jazz playing with smooth studio production. The sound's a little bit more polished than the Headhunters LPs, and the production is by Pat Gleeson, who was ... CD (Jazz)
A classic set of 70s fusion from Caldera – performed with the group's usual touches on some of the rhythms, but also going for a stronger, more jamming approach – one that can be felt especially on the album's use of guitars on a few tracks. Our favorite tunes are still the mellower ... CD (Jazz)
A jazzy Latin fusion classic – and the first album by the border-crossing combo Caldera! The group featured both North and South American players – coming together in a hard-riffing approach to fusion that rivaled the best fusion combos of both the California and Brazilian scenes at ... CD (Jazz)
A funky fusion classic – and quite possibly Bobby Lyle's most perfectly realized album! The set was Bobby's first full US outing, and it's filled with soaring, riffing keyboards that stretch out into territory explored a few years before by Johnny Hammond and Lonnie Liston Smith! The real ... CD (Jazz)
Excellent early 70s work from jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo – a super-dope album that's one of the best he ever recorded! Part of the success of the record has to do with the presence of Bobby Womack – normally a soul singer, but also a heck of a guitarist, playing here alongside Szabo in ... CD (Jazz)
A wonderful classic from John Klemmer – one of those artists we've under-appreciated for years, but grow to love more and more as time goes by! The set's an incredibly soulful set of explorations played by Klemmer (on tenor, soprano, and Echoplex) with a group that includes Mike Nock on ... CD (Jazz)
Warm and mellow keyboards from the great Jorge Dalto – an obscure Japanese set from the early 80s, but one that has all the spacious grooves of his US classic from the 70s! Jorge plays a range of acoustic and electric keys here – mostly in a small group setting that features guitar ... CD (Jazz)
Bill Summers is a long way from The Headhunters on this record – but he's still sounding great! Unlike the acoustic rhythms of Summers' 70s albums, this set has Bill crafting some electro-tinged groovers designed to appeal to the street crowd indicated by the image of a boom box on the front ... CD (Soul)
One of the hippest albums that John Klemmer ever cut – a tremendous little set that's quite worthy of inclusion in the early 70s Impulse Records generation – and which is far different than any of his smoother sessions from later years! Klemmer's picking up bits of Coltrane here, but ... CD (Jazz)
A goofy cover, and a tribute to Alice In Wonderland, but a nice little record – one that has Chick Corea playing a wide variety of keyboards next to acoustic piano – coming up with a sound that's sometimes cosmic, sometimes spacious, but always a lot more creative than most of his ... CD (Jazz)
A lost bit of 70s fusion from the west coast – a group led by percussionist Manolo Badrena, with lots of nice Brazilian jazz touches! Many of the tracks have lyrics – soulful and sunny, somewhere in between late 70s work by Flora Purim and Seawind – and the overall groove is like ... CD (Jazz)
We don't know what Hugh's trying to reconstruct here, because from our perspective, it seems like he's trying to forge a new style – a nice one, with lots of soulful moments, and a strong Afro groove on the best tracks. Some tracks have Hugh singing mellow soul vocals, and others have a ... CD (Global Grooves)
A great lost treasure, and one of Marlena Shaw's most obscure albums – a really compelling batch of sophisticated vocal tracks with arrangements by Wade Marcus! The instrumentation is wonderful – with lots of soulful guitar and organ licks amidst the larger orchestrations, giving the ... CD (Soul)
Donald Byrd in a sweet electric mode – as you'd guess from the title! The set was recorded right before Byrd's legendary run with Larry Mizell in the early 70s – and the electric approach is a bit different here – a style that blends Byrd's wonderful trumpet lines with the larger ... CD (Jazz)
Funky funky funky! Lonnie plays live with a tight group that includes tenor, guitar, and some very heavy drumming – really wailing at a level that was surprising for funky organists of the time, and which really set the pace for a whole new generation! The players are more obscure than on ... CD (Jazz)
A stone killer from organist Lonnie Smith – one of his completely cooking early albums for Blue Note, and a hard-burner all the way through! Smith's working here with a really great group that includes Idris Muhammad on drums and Melvin Sparks on guitar – both of whom give the album a ... CD (Jazz)
A beautiful stripped-down session that was recorded in the mid 60s, but not issued until the end of the decade, for some strange reason! Grant Green plays guitar in a laidback quartet with Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – all working wonderfully ... CD (Jazz)
One of the last records that Booker Ervin ever recorded, and one of the best! There's a depth of tone and conception here that goes far beyond even Ervin's already-great albums for Prestige – a mix of modernism and soulful expression that really points the way towards jazz expression in the ... CD (Jazz)
Beautiful album! Jack Wilson's soaring lyrical piano is joined by the vibes of his long time compaitriot Roy Ayers (his only Blue Note appearance?), and the result is a beautiful set of mellow vibes that manage to still maintain a sort of dark edge to them. There's some great Jack Wilson ... CD (Jazz)
One of Ornette's classic Blue Note sessions, with a free-wheeling group that features only Ornette, Charlie Haden, and Ornette's young son on drums. Ornette plays his usual alto, plus trumpet and violin, and the sound is great. With "Good Old Days", "The Empty Foxhole", "Z ... CD (Jazz)
Arguably the best of Cherry's albums for Blue Note – and a real masterpiece of soulful avant playing! The group features Cherry on cornet, Gato Barbieri on tenor (and he's incredible, by the way!), Henry Grimes on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums. Grimes and Blackwell are more than just ... CD (Jazz)
A brilliant statement of modernist jazz from Sam Rivers – one of his groundbreaking early albums for Blue Note, and one of the most challenging sessions issued by the label during the 60s! The record's a real departure from Rivers' already-great Fuscia Swing Song – with tunes that go ... CD (Jazz)
Quite possibly our favorite album ever from pianist Andrew Hill – a really unique outing that features the vibes of Bobby Hutcherson and a rare non-Sun Ra appearance by tenorist John Gilmore! The presence of Hutcherson brings a real "new thing" energy to the album – a feel ... CD (Jazz)
Oh Baby is right – as the album's one of the best John Patton albums for Blue Note – a perfect mix of funky organ and burning hardbop! The tracks hare are all originals penned for the album – mostly by Patton, but also by other group members – the kind of fresh grooves that ... CD (Jazz)
One of the hardest to find of the early Three Sounds albums – and one of the best, too! The record has a slightly more sophisticated groove than some of the others from the time – possibly because of the title, which invokes a darker level than usual, but also because of the set list, ... CD (Jazz)
One of the most obscure records from trumpeter Blue Mitchell – a great session recorded in the 60s, during Blue's classic stretch with Blue Note – but not issued until 1980, and even then, only briefly! The record's a great example of Mitchell's strong capacity to play well in a larger ... CD (Jazz)
Excellent John Patton album, and one that's got a two-tenor lineup for an extra-heavy soul jazz sound! Fred Jackson and Harold Vick are on the dual reeds, and Grant Green brings up the rear on guitar. Over it all is John Patton's searing organ, and Ben Dixon grooves nicely on drums. Most of the ... CD (Jazz)
An excellent album by this lusty tenor player – and one of the rarest Blue Notes ever! Brother Don plays lean and mean, in a nice tight group that features Grant Green on guitar, Sonny Clark on piano, and Billy Higgins on drums – all of whom give Wilkerson a freer setting than he ever ... CD (Jazz)
Sublime trio grooving from Gene Harris and the Three Sounds – one of their more obscure albums for Blue Note, and a great set of standards, plus the odd original – all given the Three Sounds touch! The format is simple, but effective – and hearing the set, it's no wonder Harris ... CD (Jazz)
One of the few American releases cut by the legendary British trumpeter Dizzy Reece – and a great one! The album was strange for Blue Note, in that it was a joint US/UK session – featuring American players Donald Byrd and Art Taylor, along with great Brit players Reece, Tubby Hayes, ... CD (Jazz)
A surprisingly enchanting album of piano work by Mingus – and very different than the other album of piano material he cut for Atlantic. This record's a very laidback session of solo work, featuring Mingus sitting at the keys, working out his ideas in a very unhampered fashion. Tracks are a ... LP, Vinyl record album (Jazz)
Fantastic – and one of Mingus' greatest albums ever! This one ranks right up with The Clown and Pithecantropus Erectus for sheer raw power and emotion – and Mingus' writing here is incredibly tight, giving soloists like Charlie Mariano, Jaki Byard, Richard Williams, and Jerome ... LP, Vinyl record album (Jazz)
Titles include "In The Sand", "This I Swear", "I Got Carried Away", "Let's Be Closer Together", "You Need Love", and "If That's What It Takes". CD (Soul)
James Brown gets a new injection of life at the end of the 80s – thanks to a collaboration here with Full Force, who wrote, arranged, and produced the album! The groove here is often more in a Full Force mode than you might expect from James – a full-on 80s urban sound, filled with ... CD (Soul)
Far and away our favorite album by Phyllis Hyman – her first, and with lots of the same smooth jazzy soul touches you'd find in her work with Norman Connors! Phyllis is still as sophisticated as she is on later albums, but there's a bit freer style to the record – and Phyllis breaks a ... CD (Soul)
A classic 1979 album from Phyllis Hyman! Hyman was one of the few female singers who started in the pre-disco years and managed to move through the disco years with a good groove – but never get totally swamped by the production styles of the day. She stuck close to her roots as a jazzy ... CD (Soul)
The really cool, totally underrated first album from the mighty Thin Lizzy on Decca – a self-titled effort from a few years earlier in the 70s than the badass, harder rocking style to come – and with some nicely tripped out folk psych influences! It's interesting to listen this first ... LP, Vinyl record album (Rock)
A killer hardbop session from the early 60s – one of Sonny Clark's later sides for Blue Note, and an album that features a great lineup of players that includes lesser-known Blue Note hornmen Charlie Rouse and Tommy Turrentine! The record crackles with the energy and imagination of Clark's ... CD (Jazz)
Stunning! This is one of Jackie McLean's best-ever albums, and it's a haunting mix of hard bop and some of the more modernist tendencies that would inform his "new thing" period. Butch Warren plays bass, and he drives the set with an intensity that reminds us of Mingus – and which ... CD (Jazz)
Although the title might make you think that this is the group's first album, it's actually their 6th for Blue Note – but they're all so darn great, who's got time to count? Gene Harris and crew work simple but effective magic on a set of standards, plus one original – taking the piano ... CD (Jazz)
A real standout in the Bill Evans catalog for Riverside – and that's saying a lot, given how important all of his Riverside albums are! The session's a rare quintet outing for Evans – one that breaks the mode of the usual trio format by adding in Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Jim Hall ... LP, Vinyl record album (Jazz)
The pioneering reggae compilation series from Trojan – documenting the great singles that were busting boundaries and paving the way for the worldwide love of Jamaican music! The second volume in the Reggae Chartbusters series features a fantastic collection of singles from 1969 and 1970 ... CD (Reggae)
A searing second set from Souljazz Orchestra – easily one of the funkiest groups in the contemporary Afro Funk underground! The set's even sharper than their first – really tight on the rhythms, which are filled with skittish guitars that cut a groove strongly – vamping and quick- ... LP, Vinyl record album (Global Grooves)
More Afro Funk than the soul jazz you might guess from the group's name – but that's OK with us, because the record's plenty darn great! Souljazz Orchestra are one of the best of the current wave of Afro combos to hail from Canada – and they manage to get an incredible full sound from ... LP, Vinyl record album (Global Grooves)
One of the funkiest records ever cut by studio jazz genius Janko Nilovic! This set definitely earns the "soul" in the title – as Janko blends his usual mad mix of studio sounds with some heavier 70s elements – including a fair bit of fuzzy guitar, funky beats, and some nice ... LP, Vinyl record album (Sound Library)
East coast instrumental funk players working together as Fabulous Three – Leon Michels, Jeff Dynamite, Quincy Bright, Homer Steinweiss, Phillip Lehman, Michael Leonhart and others from the Truth & Soul team – with a sound that's a blend of gritty raw funk, hazier psych soul ... LP, Vinyl record album (Deep Funk)
