London Jazz Classics - New 2026 edition Featuring Alive, Carlos Franzetti, Airto Moreira, Emilio Santiago and more!

• Alive ! – Skindo Le Le
• Emilio Santiago – Bananeira
• Carlos Franzetti – Cocoa Funk
• The Robin Jones Seven – Atlas
• Airto Moreira – Jump
• Antonio Adolfo – Cascavel
• Hannibal – Mother’s Land
• Doug Richardson – Salsa Mama

• 1. Alive ! – Skindo Le Le
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• 2. Emilio Santiago – Bananeira
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• 3. Carlos Franzetti – Cocoa Funk
  £0.99
• 4. The Robin Jones Seven – Atlas
  £0.99
• 5. Airto Moreira – Jump
  £0.99
• 6. Antonio Adolfo – Cascavel
  £0.99
• 7. Hannibal – Mother’s Land
  £0.99
• 8. Doug Richardson – Salsa Mama
  £0.99

First time in print in over 30 years for this seminal jazz dance collection.

One-off limited edition orange coloured vinyl edition.

London Jazz Classics was the first album collection ever to be released on Soul Jazz Records back in 1993. The album brought together rare and obscure dance tracks in a unique mix of jazz dance and fusion, funk, Brazilian and Latin grooves.

The album was ironically titled - none of the music was from London, none of the music was traditionally classified as jazz, and all of the tracks were at the time practically unknown to most people. Instead these were tracks that were filling dancefloors in a nascent jazz dance scene in London being created by a small group of DJs – Paul Murphy, Gilles Peterson, Sylvester, Patrick Forge and a few others.

As demand for these rare groove jazz tracks grew, previously unknown records such as Alive’s ‘Skindo Le Le’, Doug Richardson’s ‘Salsa Mama’, Carlos Franzetti’s ‘Cocoa Funk’ and Emilio Santiago’s ‘Bananeira’ became sort after and even-harder-to-find items with original copies going for £100s of pounds.

These tracks became part of the soundtrack to this jazz dance scene which has now spread across the world. This music paved the way for the arrival of many of the UK’s new wave of current artists such Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective who today offer a uniquely London sensibility of fusing jazz with wide-ranging cultural influences – everything from afrobeat to soul.

London Jazz Classics was the first album to bring this jazz dance music featured here to a wider audience. More than 30 years since its initial release Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new 2026 edition, bringing the music once more to a new generation of listeners.

This album brings together tracks from across the 3 original London Jazz Classics albums

REVIEWS

"When Soul Jazz Records first released this compilation in 1993, London’s jazz dance underground was still coalescing around a loose constellation of record shops and smoke-heavy basement clubs. DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge were excavating obscure Brazilian fusion, Latin jazz and jazz-funk records with the zeal of archivists and the instincts of dancefloor tacticians. This compilation captures that sensibility beautifully." Juno

'In the mid-nineties the ‘Soul Jazz Records’ label quietly released a series of compilations which were a huge influence on fans of black music, jazz dance and provided a summation of the time after seminal club events, such as Gilles Peterson’s Dingwalls in Camden Town (above which Soul Jazz Records was initially based). Podmatic

"London Jazz Classics gathers the obscure, dancefloor-driven cuts that defined a formative moment in London club culture. First issued as the label’s debut release, it sidesteps convention—drawing on fusion, funk, Brazilian and Latin sounds rather than traditional jazz.

Compiled from records championed by DJs including Gilles Peterson, Paul Murphy and Patrick Forge, these tracks—such as Alive!’s ‘Skindo Le Le’, Doug Richardson’s ‘Salsa Mama’, Carlos Franzetti’s ‘Cocoa Funk’ and Emilio Santiago’s ‘Bananeira’—circulated through a tight-knit scene before gaining wider recognition.

What began as a snapshot of a local movement went on to shape a global appetite for jazz-adjacent dance music, influencing later generations including Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective. A key document of a scene that continues to resonate." Norman