Johnny Hammond Gears (2015 reissue)

Cross section of the great recordings that Leon Thomas made for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman. It covers the relatively straight-ahead pieces from his first two albums, as well as the soul jazz fusions of later output for the label.

His last two albums have become increasingly in-demand in recent years in particular the eclectic experimentalism of 'Shape Your Mind To Die' and 'It's My Life I'm Fighting For'. BGP have also included some live tracks and a previously unreleased version of 'Um Um Um'.

The three albums Gil Scott-Heron recorded for Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman label are some of the most important in the history of black music. They show a multi-talented artist reaching maturity with his first recorded efforts. "The Revolution Begins” gathers together every piece of music released by Gil on Flying Dutchman, including a track recorded with Bernard “Pretty” Purdie which has never been previously reissued. All remastered from the original master tapes, bringing you sound that’s better than you’ll ever have heard and new clarity to Gil’s words and the musical performances. BGP have additionally assembled an alternate version of Gil's third album, "Free Will", based on access to the original recordings.

This is the root: Darondo's lost album, recorded in 1973 and 1974. Indispensible street funk and soul balladry from a Bay Area legend.

Classic Rare Groove album produced by Donald Byrd, loads of killer tracks including 'I Need You Girl, 'Backed Up Against The Wall' and more !

BGP returns to its jazz roots with a compilation that looks at the funky, Afro-centric and distinctly spiritual grooves coming out of North America in the latter part of the 60s and early 70s. Its musical landscape was dominated by the politics of the post civil-rights era, the two jazz totems of Miles and Coltrane, the success of soul and its little brother funk. The outcome was a mixture of rhythms from Africa, Detroit and Latin-America, imbued with a healthy dose of free thinking. As the jazz scene of the early 70s was shrinking, the music featured here was one attempt to get it out of its trough.

With sought-after records by Azar Lawrence, Gary Bartz and Jack DeJohnette, who learned their trade playing in the ground-breaking early 70's Miles Davis groups, and musicians who came out of the post-Coltrane school of jazz from McCoy Tyner to Norman Connors to Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson, this is truly deep, spiritual, often political, music for the soul from a fertile period in African-American history.

Great compilation of soul music recorded by latin musicians in New York in the 1960s!

The 1960s saw a new generation of young latin musicians rise to prominance, led by artists such as Joe Bataan, with pioneering styles such as boogaloo, which fused New York salsa with the sounds of African-American soul and RnB music. This compilation is a great collection of some of the most soulful moments from some of these soulful latin artists!

Check it out!

Expanded edition which now features five extra tracks!

This ground-breaking album features non-stop killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style. Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward (‘Ring My Bell’), Chaka Khan (‘I’m Every Woman’), Michael Jackson ‘Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough,’ Sugarhill Gang (‘Rappers Delight’ here performed by Derrick Laro & Trinity for producer Joe Gibbs) and more, all showing the hidden but inseparable link between the dance floors of New York, Kingston and London.

New bonus tracks to this collection include Derrick Harriott’s funky take on Eddie Drennon’s ‘Do It Nice and Easy’, the classic disco reggae of Risco Connection’s performing McFadden and Whitehead’s ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ and the London rare groove lovers rock of Charmaine Burnett singing Barbara Acklin’s soul classic ‘Am I The Same Girl’.

‘Hustle! Reggae Disco’ has been one of Soul Jazz Records’ best-selling releases since its first release 15 years ago (and subsequently featured heavily in the early Grand Theft Auto games!). This new edition comes complete fully re-mastered and with all original titles plus new tracks. This new expanded edition now comes as a triple album (+ download code), CD and digital album.

‘The effect of American R&B and soul music on Jamaican reggae is well documented, but the story doesn't stop there, for disco (and more so now for rap and hip-hop) have also been subsumed into the reggae mix, and while one might suspect that the resulting hybrid would die of its own implausibility, the feral mix of disco with reggae rhythms is so darn infectious that it hardly matters. Once you take your brain out of the frame and just let your feet go, this collection is a dancer's delight all done up in full-blown disco style, but with huge dub-style rhythm tracks … if you're looking for an impossibly infectious dance collection, this is it.’ All Music

Killer Mizell Brothers production. Original 70s blue label Blue Note

The wildly-talented keys player returns with a luminous jazz-funk masterstroke for Brownswood Recordings!

Zawinul, Shorter, Pastorius, Acuna and Badrena. Top class jazz fusion in the zone!

An overlooked slice of early eighties dub from Striker Lee. Actually mixed by Prince Jammy at Tubbys studio. CD has 13 tracks and an added free cd of Delroy Wilson's 'Go Away Dream' album thrown in for good measure. The vinyl LP sticks to the original 10 track release. Sleevenotes by Diggory Kenrick and photos by Howard Johnson of Channel 4s Deep Roots Music fame. An excellent package.

Seminal rare groove debut album from the legendary Leroy Hutson released on Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label in 1973. Killer

All of her Warner Bros. stereo single sides - most of them previously unavailable on CD! 

Produced by Roy Ayers and James "Jaymz" Bedford in 1981, 'Give Me your Love' is a digger's delight, deep soulful disco that really captures the spirit of the times.On the flip is the rare groove monster 'You Can't Turn Me Away'.

Essential stuff!

The first ever complete release of the '68, ‘69 and ’70 sessions on a deluxe, limited edition double 180g vinyl album.

This Duke Pearson album was previously partially released by Capitol in 1996 under the title ‘I Don’t Care Who Knows It’ as six tracks on a single LP. This new release features 12 tracks over two LPs, released together for the first time, with tracks taken from five recording sessions from 1968 to 1970. It features, amongst others, Bobby Hutcherson, Andy Bey, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira.

This issue has been mastered 'All Analogue' from Van Gelder 1/4" tapes and housed in a gatefold sleeve featuring previously unpublished session photography.

Wicked compilation contrasting Simon’s much overlooked up-tempo northern soul output backed with his chart-topping ballads.

Blue Note take a leaf out of their rivals at Prestige for an all-star soul jazz line-up. Blue Mitchell, Idris Muhammad, Melvin Sparks, Charles Earland, Lonnie Smith all play in Donaldson's group here. Features Lou's classic version of the funky Lee Dorsey anthem. Rare!

Primarily released to showcase the sublime talents of one of Jamaica's most celebrated vocal trios, The Heptones, the aptly titled Heptones & Their Friends album features a selection of superior reggae sides by the group alongside hugely popular works from the three of reggae's biggest stars of the period.

Killer Memphis deep funky soul. Produced by Willie Mitchell. Recommended!

'Bad Neighbor' is the brainchild of MED – a cornerstone in Stones Throw’s history - and Blu – the voice behind modern classics like 'Below the Heavens' plus there is 100% production from the mighty Madlib - who needs no introduction. '

Bad Neighbor' is hazy, heavy, and blunted under the influence of Madlib’s aesthetic backbone, and floats effortlessly above the smoke by virtue of MED and Blu’s sometimes topical, sometimes acrobatic, and always on-point interplay. The album is undoubtedly an extension of all three artists’ signature sounds, but it simultaneously defies all precedents to reaffirm each individual’s position at the forefront of LA’s legendary hip-hop landscape.

Features guest appearances from MF Doom, Aloe Blacc, Oh No, Mayer Hawthorne, Dam-Funk and more.

Repress of Larry Heard's much-needed, heart-breaking deep house classic, 'Missing You'! Features the bonus cut 'Larry's Jazz Cafe Mix'.

Killer old school Detroit style techno vibes from the man like FIT Siegel! Check the icy cool EBM thump of 'Wayne County Stomp' on a Liaisons Dangereuses tip!

Double album turquoise vinyl showcasing modern soul classics from Pat Lundy, Brother To Brother, The Moments, First Class and more!

Recorded around the same time as All Seeing Eye but not released until 15 years later as Blue note 'unreleased' sessions, this has stood the test of time for ex-Miles Davis group saxophonist Shorter (and later to join Weather Report).

Soul Jazz Records’ limited-edition black vinyl 1000-copies worldwide LP (+ download code), (as well as CD and digital) issue of this very rare deep spiritual jazz meets Brazilian and Latin album first released as a private-press album in 1978 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Baobob Record label in Washington, DC. The album has been out-of-print for 43 years and is lovingly remastered by Soul Jazz Records.

Tori is a stunning album that blends Brazilian and Latin flavours with deep Spiritual Jazz, recorded in 1978. The album features an unbelievably strong line-up which includes legendary Brazilian figures like Dom Um Romao, Nana Vasconcelos and Dom Salvador alongside jazz heavyweights such as Buster Williams, Howard Johnson, John La Barbera and more. These A-team musicians were all regulars in McNeill’s long-running and highly successfull resident live group in New York all set up to blend deep jazz, Brazilian and Latin music together.

Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC.

McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US.

Excellent budget-priced collection of 15 songs from one of the greatest soul voices ever, including his duets with Roberta Flack.

Jigmastas aka DJ Spinna and MC Kriminul, formed in the County of Kings, NY in 1991. With The dynamisma dnlyrical talent of the likes of Pete Rock & CL Smooth (to name a duo) they were thrust into the middle of a rising NY underground hip-hop scene where they garnered a lot of mainstream label attention but things never work out in their favour, rolling around in pre-Rawkus movements and artists like Natural E, Co Flo, and Bobbito Garcia's Fondle 'em crew. This is their first compilation of rare tracks and out-tracks from their first LP "Infectious". Featuring the likes of Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch and the late great Guru! Golden age masterclass!

Re-issue of the legendary Detroit collective Slum Village (Baatin, T3, Jay Dee) debut album.

'Fantastic Vol. 1' brings the now beloved raw and rugged lyricism of the 1990’s, it is the first taste of the now heralded production of Jay Dee that makes this album a must have on wax.

Marcia Maria's killer, mid-tempo, Brazilian disco burner "Amigo Branco", another sought after Brazilian reissue for the Mr Bongo 45 series. Massive playout tune! Features a wicked version of an Arthur Verocai gem from Simone on the flip.

Soul Jazz Records’ new release ‘Soul of A Nation: Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher’ is a powerful new collection of radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap made in the era of Black Power (1969-75).

This is the second ‘Soul of A Nation’ album released by Soul Jazz Records to coincide with the exhibition ‘Soul of a Nation – Art in the Age of Black Power’, critically acclaimed and enormously successful when it opened at the Tate Modern in London last year (as was Soul Jazz Records’ accompanying first album ‘Soul of A Nation – Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power 1968-79’). The blockbuster international exhibition is now at the Brooklyn Museum, New York and then travels to Los Angeles in 2019.

This new album features a number of important and ground-breaking African-American artists – The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and more – alongside a host of lesser-known artists all of whom in the early 1970s were exploring new Afrocentric poly-rhythmical styles of music – radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap – while at the same time exploring the Black Power and civil-rights inspired notions of self-definition, self-respect and self-empowerment in their own lives.

During this era African-American jazz musicians ripped up traditional definitions – rejecting the term ‘entertainer’ to redefine themselves instead as ‘artists’. They worked outside of the mainstream music industry perceiving this artistic relationship to be fundamentally exploitative and politically flawed. Artists instead formed their own pan-arts community-centric collectives, set up their own record labels, ran concerts in alternative performance spaces – art galleries, parks, lofts, community centres – all as a way of taking control of their own creative destinies.

At the start of 1960s jazz musicians had embarked on an intense period of musical experimentation as artists John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry sought to dismantle the traditional definitions of jazz by creating new music that broke free from its establishment shackles. By the end of the 1960s, forward-thinking African-American jazz musicians had absorbed the ideas of this radical and avant-garde path but also began to introduce many new elements – not just civil rights concepts of freedom but also black power ideas of self-respect, righteousness and anger.

Their music developed into a radical and intense Afrocentric mix of jazz, funk, soul and street poetry, all in search of a new musical language that could better represent artistic African-American cultural expression.

All of the featured artists here were involved in this search in different ways; A shared sense of Afrocentric collectivism joined the dots between the deep avant-garde experimentalism of The Art Ensemble of Chicago (here featuring soul singer Fontella Bass singing the powerful ‘Theme de Yoyo’) to the hyper funk psychedelia of George Clinton’s Funkadelic.

The poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and Sarah Webster Fabio performed with a backdrop of street funk and heavyweight percussion laid down the template for the birth of rap. The Har-You Percussion Group, a group of young Harlem teenagers, showed how government-sponsored social initiatives helped create great art and music. Gary Bartz and The Oneness of Juju offer spirituality and cosmology. Collectives like The Pharaohs and Detroit’s Tribe add deep jazz and street funk in equal measures. And so on.

Influenced and radicalised by Black Power and civil rights, all these artists were involved in creating – in the words of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – ‘Great Black Music: Ancient to Future.’

This album is available as heavyweight triple vinyl (+free download), full and extensive text, exclusive photography, with house inners, and as deluxe CD with slipcase, 40-page outsize booklet and jewel case.