Spiritual Jazz 11: SteepleChaseVarious Artists

Analog Africa focuses on a DIY scene in the African country’s capital Yaoundé during the 1970s. Recorded in haste in an adventist church and distributed by the DIY network set up by French label Sonafric. Launching the careers of several Cameroonian artists represented in this essential compilation!

Gone back from 2021-06-18 to 27/08/2021

Second part of MOV's Trojan compilation series, which celebrates the best works from the legendary reggae label Trojan Records. It was compiled by Laurence Cane-Honeysett, who also wrote the linernotes. Some of Trojan’s finest are featured on this compilation; as there are The Gladiators, The Melodians, The Gladiators, Ken Boothe a.o. 750 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl. The package also includes an exclusive Trojan / Music On Vinyl coaster.

This compilation focuses on uncovering hidden electronic and dance music gems - from house to disco and electro - from the overlooked ‘80s and ‘90s South Asian music scene.

First released by Trojan Records in 1968, “Explosive Rock Steady” was the first long-player to showcase the work of a budding record producer who in time would become one of the most popular and influential figures on the Jamaican music scene: Joel Augustus Gibson a.k.a. Joe Gibbs.

Unavailable on CD since 1997, the much sought-after album is here augmented by an incredible 46 bonus tracks from the rock steady era, their number including numerous Jamaican hits, alongside many long-lost rarities, including 7 tracks new to CD.

Featured artists on this double disc set include some of the most talented Jamaican performers to make their mark during the tail end of the Sixties, with the superior quality of the recordings demonstrating the high standards of work for which Gibbs would soon become renowned.

* Previously unavailable on CD

**Featuring amazing music from British jazz legends such as Don Rendell, Michael Garrick, Neil Ardley, Ian Carr, Dick Morrissey, Harry Beckett and more!**

A deep dive into the one of most collectable jazz catalogues in the world, a selection of some of the rarest and most sought-after recordings from the 60s and 70s, a time when British jazz began to find its own identity. Drawn from the iconic labels of Decca, Deram, Argo, EMI Columbia/Lansdowne Series, Fontana, Mercury and Philips.

Compilation of seldom heard tracks from UK tape label Mindscan Tapes covering late 80's and early 90's experiments with house, techno and industrial.

"The very personal vision of a young Englishman who would spend all of his dole money on the production of underground compilation cassettes spanning across electro, early techno, ambient, experimental, house and industrial music."

Tramp Records' top 'Can You Feel It?' series continues with some rare and obscure modern soul, disco and boogie originating from countries as diverse as Barbados, Guyana, Germany, and the US.

Cold Wave #2

Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + PURPLE VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + BLACK VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Dayglo CD + Slipcase + Booklet

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Soul Jazz Records new ‘Cold Wave’ is a new collection of current electronic artists who have all been shaped by the early European cold wave artists of the late 70s and early 80s.

This is the second release of Soul Jazz Records’ new Cold Wave overview.

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This second edition Cold Wave #2 comes in two vinyl editions – a one-off pressing purple coloured vinyl edition and a black vinyl edition. Both come as heavyweight double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves and the limited edition first pressing of this album comes with its own free pull-out fanzine on the groups featured. The CD edition comes with artist booklet/fanzine and slipcase. All editions are printed in special dayglo colour finish.

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These first artists created new electronic musical landscapes as well as pursuing a stubborn D-I-Y aesthetic, often releasing material on cassette and pioneering use of lo-fi technology, primitive drum machines and home-recording techniques. As part of this continued evolution today many of the artists featured here also self-release their own material, run labels, publish fanzines, or are part of wider musical collectives.

Aside from the first electronic, no wave, and post-punk artists cited as influences –Suicide, Patrick Cowley, The Normal, Martin Hannett, Laurie Anderson, Public Image – this new generation of artists also show an exquisitely open source of electronic and disparate influences, everything from Underground Resistance to Purcell, from Scientist to New Beat and more besides.

Most of the featured artists are based in Europe and include Krikor from France, Beta Evers and L.F.T. from Germany, Lena Willikens, Job Siffre and De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Toulouse Low Trax from Germany, Dave I.D. and Broken English Club from the UK, and V.C.V.S from Georgia

All of the bands featured here make distinctive contemporary music out of the 80s roots of the first cold wave movement.

Some of the rarest gospel funk records from Greg Belson’s amazing collection featuring everything from the laid back breakbeat laced “I Don’t Want to Be Alone by Allen Gauff Jr to the high octane and socially-on-point take of the Gospel classic ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ by the Gospel Ambassadors to drum break funk of the Wearyland Singers ‘If You See Me Doing Wrong” to the sublime soulfulness of Zella Jackson’s “Days Are Just People.

Industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton lifts the veil and exposes the sought-after tunes from his uber-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping/check list known as 'The Nurse With Wound List'. This volume via Finders Keepers focuses on lesser known music from the German kosmiche/rock scene.

Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + ORANGE VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + BLACK VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Dayglo CD + Slipcase + Booklet

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Soul Jazz Records new ‘Cold Wave’ is a new collection of current electronic artists who have all been shaped by the early European cold wave artists of the late 70s and early 80s.

This is the first release of Soul Jazz Records’ new Cold Wave overview and a second volume will be released just four weeks later.

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This first edition of Cold Wave comes in two vinyl editions – a one-off pressing orange coloured vinyl edition and a black vinyl edition. Both come as heavyweight double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves and the limited edition first pressing of this album comes with its own free pull-out fanzine on the groups featured. The CD edition comes with artist booklet/fanzine and slipcase. All editions are printed in special dayglo colour finish.

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These first artists created new electronic musical landscapes as well as pursuing a stubborn D-I-Y aesthetic, often releasing material on cassette and pioneering use of lo-fi technology, primitive drum machines and home-recording techniques. As part of this continued evolution today many of the artists featured here also self-release their own material, run labels, publish fanzines, or are part of wider musical collectives.

Aside from the first electronic, no wave, and post-punk artists cited as influences –Suicide, Patrick Cowley, The Normal, Martin Hannett, Laurie Anderson, Public Image – this new generation of artists also show an exquisitely open source of electronic and disparate influences, everything from Underground Resistance to Purcell, from Scientist to New Beat and more besides.

Most of the featured artists are based in Europe and include Krikor, Dissemblance and VQOA from France, De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Moisture from Sweden, Kriedler from Germany, Céline Gillain and Carcass Identity from Belgium. One exception is FIT Siegel out of Detroit, connecting the electronic pathways of Europe to the Motor City.

All of the bands featured here make distinctive contemporary music out of the 80s roots of the first cold wave movement.

'Oz Echoes' peels away another layer of Australia’s ‘80s DIY hive mind. The Oz Waves successor exposes a deeper circuit of micro-run cassettes, community radio archives and irrationally abandoned studio sessions, as Steele Bonus sequences a 10-track compendium of drone pop, psycheelectronics and agitated tape cut-ups. Highly recommended!

'Strong Love' explores the first wave of openly gay songwriting that emerged after New York's Stonewall Riots kickstarted the modern gay rights movement in 1969. It took just a few years for the defiant chanting and interlocked arms of early 70s pride marches to reverberate onto record, and Strong Love begins with one of the earliest known recordings of openly gay songwriting, 1972's 'A Gay Song' by London hippie collective Everyone Involved. Across 15 tracks, the compilation takes in disarmingly personal folk, uplifting soul, outsider country and dark synth-rock.

Expanded version of the best-selling TV advertised album from 1973, comprising 55 of the biggest reggae hits of the late Sixties and early Seventies.

The double disc collection includes numerous chart-busting hits and dancefloor-fillers, performed by some of the greatest Jamaican performers of the era, including such legendary artists as Desmond Dekker, the Maytals, Dave & Ansel Collins, the Pioneers, John Holt, Greyhound and Bob & Marcia.

Guaranteed to bring a touch of warm Jamaican sunshine to even the coldest of days, “The Best Of Reggae” is sure to brighten up any occasion, 365 days of the year!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One collection ‘Fire Over Babylon: Dread, Peace and Conscious Sounds at Studio One’ features a stellar selection of 70s roots music – classic and rare tracks recorded at Clement Dodd’s musical empire at 13 Brentford Road in the 1970s.

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Rastafarian-inspired Roots music was an ever-important aspect of Studio One’s output from the start of the 1970s onwards and this album features many of the ground-breaking groups and artists that established the sound of Jamaica during this decade and beyond.

Featured here are seminal artists such as Freddie McGregor, The Wailing Souls, The Gladiators, Horace Andy, Devon Russell, Cedric Brooks, Count Ossie, Judah Eskender Tafari alongside a host of lesser-known rare cuts made at Studio One from artists such as The Prospectors, Viceroys and Pablove Black.

Studio One and founder Clement Dodd’s connection with Rastafarianism dates back to the early 1960s, with Dodd accompanying members of the Skatalites up to the hills of Kingston to listen to the music of the Rastafarianism Count Ossie and his drummers. The album sleevenotes discuss how Clement Dodd’s musical links, as well as his role in heading the most important record label in Reggae, are in many ways linked to the beliefs of Rastafarianism.

This album is released as a heavyweight black vinyl double-album with gatefold sleeve, full notes and download code, deluxe CD with full booklet and slipcase and digital album.

UNBELIEVABLE new compilation of deep spiritual music by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and other groundbreaking Impulse Artists.

"Orange and black. Fire and ebony. Fury and pride. Wearing its signature colors proudly and raising its exclamation point high, Impulse! Records was the go-to label for music that harnessed the searching and political stand-taking of the Sixties. Launched in 1961, Impulse grew to become an inherent part of the era’s velocity as well as its volume, pulling jazz into the age of Black Power, Afrocentricity, and Spiritual Expansion. In its balance of tradition and transition, it bridged the golden age of jazz, that brief window from the late Fifties to the Seventies when players representing every jazz era were alive and active—from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler, from the legends of lore to a new generation of energy players. Impulse treated all its musicians as innovators, revolutionaries even—from swing and bebop, to free and Afrofuturist. The performances on Impulse Records: Music, Message and the Moment draw their staying power from a wide embrace of styles and sounds, as well as a tight focus on a historic moment when the promise of change was in the air and the message of racial harmony was in the music. Today that music has lost none of its relevance: the promise still deferred, the message still on time."

Afro groove compilation featuring tracks from the late, great Manu Dibango alongside such luminaries as Dele Sosimi and Pat Thomas and more!

LAST COPIES

This is the new 20th anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases now available as a one-off pressing special blue vinyl very limited-edition pressing ( 2000 copies worldwide).

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Studio One Roots set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series of Studio One collections and features many of the classic artists from Clement 'Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae.

This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis, Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack-session men groups of Jamaican reggae history - The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. As ever the album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and super-rarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.

Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’s Blackish White, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie Nyabinghi and Rastafarian drummers genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites' seminal Rastafari anthem Addis Ababa and many, many more.

This album has been fully digitally remastered, analog cut and packaged complete with the following: Original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Honest Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, wicked images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover, and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves.

REVIEWS:

"Having established himself as one of Jamaica's top producers the day Studio One opened its doors in the early '60s, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd was unable to maintain his status during the roots era of the subsequent decade. This can be attributed to a couple of factors. One was Dodd's apparent reluctance to record the new, overtly Rasta-inspired music. The other was an infusion of new blood into the Jamaican music business. Eager to make a name for themselves, producers like Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Winston "Niney" Holness managed to supplant the island's "big three" (Dodd, Duke Reid, and Prince Buster) in the process, driving the music's evolution in the '70s.

There isn't a weak number across these 16 tracks, from the Gaylads' ode to "Africa" and Devon Russell's version of the heavyweight "Drum Song" rhythm, to a trio of stunning instrumentals: Jackie Mittoo and the Cyclones with nyahbinghi drummer Count Ossie on "Meditation," Lenny Hibbert's sparkling vibe work over Mittoo's "Ghetto Organ" ("More Creation"), and Sound Dimension's "Congo Rock."

The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection." All Music

Superb compilation of rare AOR tracks from the West Coast and some other oddities from Europe. Breezy sounding soft rock tunes that have been influence by the sounds of soul and disco; expertly compiled by Charles Maurice!

Mid-90s classics from Strictly's golden era feat. essentials from the likes of Mole People (Aramand Van Helden), DJ Sneak, Wamdue Project, Barbara Tucker and more!

It was in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating highlife music known as 'Edo Funk' was born. It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa´s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980's Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos, Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare minimum.

Analog Africa focus on this style with an essential, 12 track compilation with extended notes and photos.

Featuring boogie, house and modern disco vibes (check the killer version of the Dusty Springfield classic 'That's The Kind of Love I've Got for You' by Prospect Park) from the likes of The Sunburst Band and label boss Joey Negro with remixes from Andres (!), Jimpster, The Vision and Jkriv!

In 1970 Miles Davis released “Bitches Brew”, which crystalised the trumpeter and bandleader’sexperiments in rhythm, electronics and musical structure which he had been building on over the previous three years. The album has since become one of the most influential in musical history and was joined over the next couple of years by “Jack Johnson and “On The Corner” in defining the future of music.

Miles was the master bandleader and his LPs at the time declared that these were his ‘Directions In Music’, but he forged them with the help of a hand-picked group of musicians who proved themselves good enough to share his space on stage and in the studio. These players would all become central to jazz’s continued relevance and many would go on the record best-selling jazz records of their own. This compilation looks at the records that they made around the time they played with Miles and how they fed into or were fed by their time in his group.

So we have Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul with versions of tracks they cut with Miles. Herbie Hancock’s journey into the electronic instruments that Miles convinced him to play, and Keith Jarrett’s firm rejection of them. Lonnie Liston Smith borrows the Indian percussion from “On The Corner” for his take on electronic funk. Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Gary Bartz all show their distinctive talents that were allowed to shine in Miles’ band. As a bonus, we have Miles’ musicians alongside Betty Davis (his wife at the time) on a take of Cream’s ‘Politician Man’ and Miles’ 1970 group live at The Cellar Door on Joe Zawinul’s ‘Directions’.

New York Rave Flyers from 1990 to 1995 - 88 page groovy small book. Well nice! Limited copies

**Upfront SOTU exclusive!**

Undercurrents is a stellar selection of moods, styles and MONSTER breaks from the albums recorded for the these UK music libraries between the late 1960’s and mid-1980s.

There are shimmering synth arpeggios/kosmiche by Tim Cross (Mike Oldfield, Hall & Oates, The Adverts); fretless ambient grooves by bassist and producer Mo Foster (Scott Walker, Dusty Springfield); fuzzy orchestral funk by German library don Peter Thomas; a tough, funky fusion jam by library supergroup Midas Touch; a bold as brass porno-Moog theme by Pete Smith (used in 1970’s skin flick Highway Hookers - check those breaks!) plus film-noir suspense and percussive jams by avant-garde UK jazzer Bob Downes and more!

Taking cues from Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane at their most delicate, harpist and member of Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra, Amanda Whiting's 'After Dark' album for Jazzman is a deep, mesmerising piece of work with lush arrangements that goes right in with some spiritual swing - so good!

Recorded in Sweden, 'Dark is the Sun' is a concept album based on themes and variations by British pianist/composer/arranger Greg Foat, who has created an intriguing blend of non-contemporary jazz sounds with classic scoring techniques. An exotic array of unorthodox instrumentation was utilized, including harpsichord, tubular bells and a 15 piece choir. With musical reference and influence from such luminaries as Bruno Nicolai, Michel Legrand and Serge Gainsbourg as well as a firm nod towards UK jazzmen Michael Garrick, Keith Mansfield and Alan Hawkshaw, the result is highly-listenable, enduring and fulfilling for those who like real music played with real instruments.

Jazzman delves deep into the catalogue of legendary label, Impulse! for the 12th release in their crucial 'Spiritual Jazz' series. This compilation features celebrated masterpieces from Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders into the arena, together with lesser known cuts from Phil Woods and John Klemmer as well as straight-up classics such from Yusef Lateef and Elvin Jones! ESSENTIAL!

Vibration Black Finger return with their Jazzman debut, 'Can You See What I'm Trying to Say'. A unique album that crosses over jazz, electronic and afro-trance styles - stunning release from this constantly, evolving band! RIYL Comet Is Coming and Melt Yourself Down!

This Jazzman release draws a selection from the jazz saxophonist's 2016 album 'Natural Time' ('Your Pace', 'Peace For All') and from 2017's 'Momentum' ('Elevation', 'Chant' and 'Rising'). Featuring her regular quartet of Radomir Milojkovic (guitar) Uros Stamenkovic (drums) and Gina Schwarz (bass), the music on Elevation is pure sound, soul and spirit!

U.K. jazz saxophonist and Jazzman mainstay Nat Birchall delivers 'The Storyteller', his album that pays tribute to the late, great, Yusef Lateef. Includes interpretations of Lateef classics, as well as original compositions inspired by the great man.

Jazzman continue their 'holy grail' series with this incredible rare album from Texas based jazz outfit, Forty Seven Times Its Own Weight. Obscure and sought after album with originals exchanging hands for large sums online. Another essential reissue!

Reissue of The Don Rendell / Ian Carr Quintet "Live" LP. A classic from British jazz and the Lansdowne catalogue. Exact replica reissue!

Here we go - Jazzman come up with the goods and reissue a British jazz classic from the Lansdowne catalogue. Exact replica, taken from original analogue master tapes, re-mastered at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180g vinyl. deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions, UK jazz at it's absolute finest!

First time reissue for this unbelievably rare, gospel jazz and funky soul obscurity. 'Two Sisters From Bagdad' was composed and orchestrated by two precocious young talents, E.J. Garrison and Rhodia McAdoo. It's an album full of surprises, and is notorious for the heavy funk workout 'Though's Were The Days' - don't sleep!

James Tatum's stunning, spiritualised Contemporary Jazz Mass is one of the only true jazz masses ever released. Inspired by Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts, Tatum's masterwork was recorded on its first ever performance at St Cecilia Church in Detroit, and released on his own private label in 1974. 

N.B. The CD version of this release also includes Tatum's independent second release 'Live at the Orchestra Hall & Paradise Theater'.

An astonishing collaboration between two artists of very different disciplines, and one of the most unique and seamlessly original projects of its ilk to date - the soulful vocal of Tom Misch and the powerhouse drumming from prodigious talent Yussef Dayes of Yussef Kamaal fame.

Moving fluidly through sleek electronica, avant-garde jazz, vintage hip hop and so much more, Misch and Dayes take you on a journey that is by turns surprising and spontaneous, heady and head spinning, and nothing less than compelling.

VINYL FACTORY COMPILATION OF THE YEAR 2020!!!

See chart here

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LIMITED EDITION COMES WITH FREE GRAPHIC STORY!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore is a brand new collection of heavyweight ragga-influenced hardcore jungle tracks from the early 1990s. Dark and heavy!

Featuring classic and seminal tracks from the likes of Levictus and Krome &Time, alongside a host of rare and little-known ragga & junglist hardcore tunes from the likes of Babylon Timewarp’s hypnotic Durban Poison, Rhythm for Reasons’ mad ‘The Smokers Rhythm’, The Freaky rave-y breakbeat sound of ‘Time and Age,’ Trip One’s super dark ‘Snowball’ and loads more!

Expect super heavy basslines, equally heavy twisted Amen drum loops, even heavier ragga vocals! Original jungle style - roots and culture - from the earliest days of drum and bass.

Included with the album is a free limited-edition graphic mini-novel “Black Riot: The Mysterons save Planet Earth from the Xatheroid Angels.” This is the third collaboration between Soul Jazz Records and writer/illustrator Paulo Parisi, the highly respected author of graphic books on Jean Michel Basquiat and John Coltrane.

This new graphic story continues the story of black electronic dance music – this time set around the birth of Jungle and continues onwards from Soul Jazz’s earlier ‘Invasion of the Killer Mysterons’ (Jamaican electronic Dub, co-compiled by Kevin Martin (The Bug)) and Mysterons Invade the Jackin’ Zone (about Chicago Acid & Experimental House).

Tenderlonious heads up this incredibly special release for Jazz Detective Records, paying homage to the British jazz legend Tubby Hayes. A chance sequence of events lead to Tenderlonious, getting his hands on Tubby Hayes’ Piccolo, resulting in this outstanding re-interpretation of four classic Tubby Hayes tracks. Featuring some of London’s finest jazz musicians today, with the hope; to introduce a whole new generation of jazz fans to a true great of British jazz.

KILLER rare 1875 Strata East deep jazz released on Gilles Peterson's new label! W/ Harold Vick and Billy Higgins - the bomb!

Classic album of deep, deep, funky jazz......Includes 'Astral Travelling', as covered by Pharoah Sanders. Heavyweight line-up including Cecil McBee on Bass.

THE original acid house classic by DJ Pierre and Spanky aka Phuture. Produced and mixed by Marshall Jefferson.

Ruby Rushton super limited 7"!! Heavy jazz dance mover!! Don't miss out!

Seminal jazz funk deep fusion classic featuring "A Chance For Peace".

Essential in anyone's collection!

UK jazz trumpeter, Matthew Halsall, drops a set of archive recordings from sessions back in 2008. Deep meditative spiritual-jazz music released via his own Gondwana imprint.

Author Tim Lawrence (Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene) compiles 'Love Saves the Day: A History Of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979', an 18 track album that focuses on this important decade of American music. Features music from the likes of Wilson Pickett, Charles Earland, Jackson 5, Gladys Knight And The Pips, James Brown and more!

Gilles Peterson launches his label Arc Records with a reissue of cult record “Musica Infinita” by Mexican drummer and composer Tino Contreras. A stunning, psychedelic, experimental jazz fusion record, originally released in 1978.

New edition of this seminal album available as a 1000 copies edition only on new premium RED vinyl!

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'A truly phenomenal artist.' GILLES PETERSON

'Steve Reid is one of the greatest drummers. He is a musical genius' KIERAN HEBDEN (Four Tet)

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As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists – including Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Dionne Warwick, Archie Shepp, Chief Bey, Olatunji, Arthur Blythe, , Dextor Gordon, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sam Rivers, Leon Thomas, Lonnie Smith and Horace Silver!

Reid was born in the South Bronx, and grew up in Queens, New York. He played in the house band at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, accompanying James Brown, as well as playing in Sun Ra's Arkestra. He lived next to John Coltrane, worked in a department store with Ornette Coleman, had a son who played drums with NWA. He began his career as a teenager in the 1960s as a drummer at Motown when he played on Martha and The Vandellas "Heatwave" (aged 14).

At the end of the 1960s Reid was sentenced to four years in jail as a conscientious objector of the Vietnam war. On his release from prison in 1974, he formed the Legendary Master Brotherhood and started the independent record label, Mustevic Sound, to release his debut LP Nova in 1976. This album is released in its entirety and with full original cover art here. Nova was the first in a series of stunning independent records he released in the 1970s.

At the start of the 21st century, his career took a new twist when Steve Reid began a successful collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). Hebden referred to Reid as his ‘musical soul mate’, resulting in a number of joint albums.

Steve Reid died in New York in 2010. Subsequently the Steve Reid Foundation was set up in his name, to help aspiring musicians and artists.

'Shakara', originally released in 1972, shows Fela's sarcastic sensibility: 'Lady' criticizes modern African women as becoming overly westernized while 'Shakara (Oloje)' sticks it to arrogant loud mouths.

'London Scene' was recorded at Abbey Road in 1971 and is a great, early example of the Afrobeat stew that Fela was starting to create. Politics began to show up on Fela's lyrics, specifically on the anti-colonial 'Buy Africa'.

Deluxe digipack, with booklet including Fela’s biography and track-by-track commentary from Afrobeat historian Chris May.

This stunning new release looks at the explosion of music that came out of the Congo in the years leading up to independence in 1960. Congolese rumba, a wild combination of African, Jazz and Latin influences, created future stars of its now legendary creators – Franco, Grand Kalle, Tabu Ley, Dr. Nico, Papa Wemba - and all feature here in their ground-breaking early groups such as O.K.Jazz, Brazzos, Rock-A-Mambo, African Jazz and The Beguen Band.

The Congo is in fact two countries – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) and the Republic of the Congo. Congo Revolution was first released as a sampler 7” box set for RSD, and this expanded release includes a 50-page booklet/double gatefold and inner sleeves containing extensive text explaining the evolution of the music and history of the two Congos, and how music, politics and popular culture intersected at the point of independence from the two Congos’ European colonisers – Belgium and France – through songs such as ‘Vive Patrice Lumumba,’ and ‘MNC Uhuru,’ which celebrated the Congolese independence leader prior to his political assassination.

Also included is the stunning images of the Congolese photographer Jean Depara who documented the Congo’s vibrant nightlife in the period 1955-65 as well as being the official photographer for the superstar Congolese artist Franco up until his death in 1989. Depara also documents the rise of the Bills (Congolese teenagers who dressed as cowboys) and sharp-suited évolués (which later gave rise to the fashion-conscious phenomenon of the Congolese ‘Sapeurs’). These superb images are reproduced in collaboration with Revue Noire in France.

This album comes as a deluxe heavyweight double vinyl with gatefold sleeve and individual inner sleeves, CD with slipcase and 50-page outsize booklet and as digital release.

Amazing sought-after record from the brainchild of one J. Pluncky Branch and one of the greatest underground jazz groups. Space Jungle Luv goes on a slightly different tangent from African Rhythms (1975) heavy funk, to a more spiritual soul jazz (and soul vocals provided by Eke-Eta Jackie Lewis), technical playing, mixing fusion, funk and Coltrane's modal style - expanding styles. Check out "River Luvrite", "Space Jungle Funk", "Soul Love Now", but all the tracks are killer!

Excellent, excellent west-coast period soulful singer-songwriter supremo with stellar line-up including LA session kings and queens such as David Walker, Harvey Mason, Bobbye Hall, Bobby Bryant, George Bohannnon and Ernie Watts.

'Expensive Shit' is one of Fela's most notorious albums! This killer afro-beat LP was originally release in 1975 and now gets a reissue on Brooklyn-based Knitting Factory Records! 

Minimal electronics, jazz and dub experiments from Paradise Bangkok's Chris Menist aka Awkward Corners featuring a guest spot from the excellent Sarathy Korwar. Support from Four Tet, Gilles Peterson, Auntie Flo, Beatrice Dillon and more! Killer release!

It's the bomb - don't miss this chance to only one of the finest and rarest Japanese-only-released albums ever!

Dee Dee Bridgewater's 1974 album ‘Afro Blue’ features an exquisite collaboration of American and Japanese musicians,such as Cecil & Ron Bridgewater, Motohiko Hino and producer Takao Ishizuka. The result is a sublime deep soul-jazz masterpiece with timeless versions of ‘People Make The World Go Round’, ‘Love From The Sun’, and ‘Afro Blue’. It is arguably one of the finest albums in its genre and has long been a sought-after item for DJs and collectors alike,

If you have heard of 'ambient' music and are wondering about buying an album, look no further. relaxing, easily listenable and along with Music For Films II a great collection of pieces. Amateur or professional film directors look no further for some decent background music. To paraphrase a well known advert, 'it does what it says on the cover'. Turn on, tune in, drop out (for forty odd minutes anyway!).

Sixth release in Africa Seven's essential compilation series, 'Africa Airways'. High-flying, Afro-boogie goodness, featuring big hitters and sought-after gems from the likes of Akwassa, Airto Fogo, Eko and more!

"The next young generation of British jazz” has been applied many times to London’s current jazz scene, but this headline from Melody Maker was actually used to describe Alan Wakeman and his band back in 1970. And if a prototype for Binker and Moses' viscerally energetic semi-free sound is sought, you would be hard pressed to find a closer relative than the second part of climactic Disc 1 highlight 'Dreams'. Elsewhere, the dextrously varied compositions ooze curiously English-sounding brass band pastoral warmth, nods to traditional chorales
and on Disc 2 (from the 1979 broadcast) leanings toward atonal conceptual forms This unearthed gem features two separate Wakeman Octet ensemble recordings, made in ‘69 and ‘79 for BBC radio broadcast, both of which are being released commercially for the first time as a double album, mastered directly from the original analogue tapes and treated to the highest production values synonymous with Gearbox Records. Important for the quality of the music but also as a document of an under-explored era, the recordings offer a snapshot of a
time when the quality of British jazz was, as now, at a high. Featuring John Taylor, Alan Skidmore, Paul Lytton, Art Themen, Gordon Beck and many more.

Super rare deep spiritual jazz album with a heavy Brazilian influence featuring Nana Vasconceles, Dom Salvador, Portinho, Cecil McBee and more. Originally released privately by the artist and flautist Lloyd McNeill in 1980 and out of print for nearly 40 years.

Soul Jazz Records' newly remastered edition of ‘Elegia’ is released as a limited-edition 1000-copies worldwide on Vinyl (+ download) and 1000-copies worldwide CD edition.
Lloyd McNeill is a cultural polymath – a multi- disciplinarian flautist, painter, academic, poet, and photographer – who has worked with everyone from Mulatu Astatke to Nina Simone, Eric Dolphy and Nana Vasconcelos (and as a painter was befriended by Picasso!). McNeill grew up during the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. All of his music was only ever released on his own private-press record label, echoing the Civil Rights and African-American themes of the era - black economic empowerment and self- sufficiency – and there is a beautiful spirituality in all his music.

This is the fifth Lloyd McNeill album that Soul Jazz Records have made newly available and follows on from the earlier McNeill albums ‘Asha’ (1969), ‘Tanner Suite’ (1969), ‘Washington Suite’ (1970) and 'Treasures’ (1976) all now reissued by Soul Jazz Records.

Two essential Afro-beat classics from Fela Kuti with 'Upside Down' (1976) and the 'Music Of Many Colours' collaboration with Roy Ayers (1980). Their version of "2000 Black" is a rare groove classic!

Wicked independently published book containing 180 pages of rare and classic Studio One cuts with the author talking about each song. Nice label artworks. Completely idiosyncratic and groovy too.