The Parliaments Good Old Music (1968)

7"

Often quoted as being one of the greatest Soul records of all-time, 'Open The Door To Your Heart' was Darrell Bank's first release and biggest hit. A one-off UK issue copy on London Records recently sold for a huge £14,543 in 2014 and is testament to the quality of the song and recording.

Here, for the first time ever, is the previously unreleased instrumental version by the Funk Brothers - the Solid Hitbound musicians including Rudy Robinson, Uriel Jones, Eddie Willis, Bob Babbit and Dennis Coffey. This work of art will be reissued on the original Revilot label.

This album coincides with the massive new exhibition Soul of A Nation - Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern, London.

Watch Channel 4 news piece here

Read Guardian feature here

The album shows how the ideals of the civil rights movement, black power and black nationalism influenced the evolvement of radical African-American music in the United States of America in the intensely political and revolutionary period at the end of the 1960s following the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.

Featuring groundbreaking artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Ayers, Don Cherry, Oneness of Juju, Sarah Webster Fabio, Horace Tapscott, Phil Ranelin and many others, Soul of A Nation shows how political themes led to the rise of ‘conscious’ black music as new afro-centric styles combined the musical radicalism and spirituality of John Coltrane and radical avant-garde jazz music alongside the intense funk and soul of James Brown and Aretha Franklin and the urban poetry and proto-rap of the streets.

The Soul of a Nation exhibition draws on the links between Black art forms – art, music, poetry - and how they came together during the civil rights and black power era as part of the wider black arts movement across the United States.

Iconic African-Amercian revolutionary figures such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, John Coltrane, Muhammad Ali all appear in the radical artworks of Barkley L. Hendricks, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O’Grady and Betye Saar.

Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) will appear with the curators on the panel of Jazz for Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power discussion at the gallery as part of the show. You can book a ticket for this event here

The Soul of a Nation album comes with extensive sleeve-notes and exclusive photography in a large 36-page outsize booklet and slipcase. Double gatefold vinyl album edition comes with full colour inners + bonus download code and includes full sleeve-notes/photography.

Read More Reviews of the Soul of A Nation Exhibition:

Independent

Time Out

The Telegraph

Frieze

BBC News

Storming 60's groovy soul rhythm and blues tune!

UNPLAYED USA ORIGINAL 45

Funky Emotions! heavy drums....killer!

UNPLAYED ORIGINAL ISSUE USA FUNK 45

Shrinkwrap-opened mint copy

 Mindblowing album from legendary latin percussionist Sabu Martinez!!!

Two years prior to making 'Afro Temple' Sabu Martinez arranged and composed a percussion musical which are included here on 'Dalecarlia Recordings'. All the musical content was performed by Sabu's pupils who also appeared on the 'Afro Temple' album. The music is amazing, mixing killer latin percussion with funky soulful grooves and lashings of heart-stoppingly brilliant hammond organ. The tapes have been buried deep down in the vaults of the KSB studio ever since the recording session took place back in 1971.

RARE Killer New Orleans female funk bomb ! (Listen actual audio - one tiny glitch about 10 secs in, peachy clean!)

(1 copy £125 on Discogs)

Proto-rap in original USA picture sleeve!

O.D. is the A, but Black Thighs is the tune - wicked Percussion + proto-rap. Killer.

This is the brand new album from eccentric Trunk label boss, Jonny Trunk!

True to form this album is far from ordinary armed with some very unusual equipment; An EMU E5000 Ultra (according to Johnny not very reliable), an old Beocenter 1800, Logic 4.7 software on and old Apple, a Yamaha P90 electric piano and a small Mackie mixer and a few hints of creative madness Jonny Trunk unleashes his scrap book of ideas to the world, featuring rare sounds, curiosities, soundbites, effects and real world recording!

This is his follow up to the successful debut album `The Inside Outside', Jonny has continued to make music. The sounds he creates are based on all his musical loves - film music, TV music, library music, strange music, sex music, jazz, a bit of folk and early electronics. Those influences clearly permeate in the tracks he has made over the last few years, and all can be heard here in his Scrapbook. A bizarre alchemy of sound signatures and composition, though it should not work it works in a very amusing and intelligent way!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

All time New Orleans party bomb 45!!! 

Here we go with our latest slice of £100+ killer rare New Orleans funk seven-inch single. This is an exact-replica bespoke New Orleans funk 45 - including the 'even funkier than the A-Side' part 2!

THIS 7-inch can ONLY be bought directly here from Soul Jazz Records or Sounds of the Universe websites and shop. It is a very limited 500-copies pressing and you need to buy it now!

Essential reissue from Mr Bongo!!!!

A post-Tropicalia masterpiece from one of the movements key  figures and true legends of Brazilian music, Gal Costa. Features a stellar line up of musicians including Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Dominguinhos, Rogerio Duprat and Tenorio Jr. amongst others. Replica original gatefold including the cover that was banned by the Brazilian military government in 1973 during the brutal dictatorship.

Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 1 is the new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state of Cuba.

The album comes as a heavyweight 3xLP and deluxe 2xCD set, complete with extensive sleeve notes, and is jam-packed with heavy bass lines, synth and Wah-Wah guitar funk combined with the heavyweight percussion, powerful brass lines and the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of Cuban music known throughout the world.

The album is released to coincide with the massive new deluxe large format book Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90, published in November, which is also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records), and which features the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution.

The music on this album features legendary Cuban groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and Pablo Milanés as well as a host of lesser known artists such as the radical Grupo De Experimentación, Juan Pablo Torres and Algo Nuevo, Grupo Monumental and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, groups whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba owing to the now 60-year old US trade embargo which remains in place today and which prevents trade with Cuba – and thus most Cuban records were only ever available in Cuba or in ex-Soviet Union states.

The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s – who were all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms that reflected both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music - and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album have never been heard outside of Cuba.

Both Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have been involved in Cuban music for more than two decades – Gilles Peterson with his many Havana Cultura projects for his Brownswood label and Stuart Baker with a number of Soul Jazz Records albums recorded in Cuba. This Soul Jazz Records album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company, and has been put together after the many crate-digging trips that both compilers have made on the streets of Havana and beyond in Cuba stretching over a 20-year period, searching out rare and elusive original Cuban vinyl records.

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REVIEWS:

"It may only be January, but we already have a strong contender for 'compilation of the year'. Put together by devout crate-diggers and Cuban music enthusiasts Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records)" JUNO

"It's abundantly clear that these compilers are at the very top of their game. Everything here was previously unheard outside of Cuba, making this a feast for the curious" Vinyl District

"Priceless comp goes beyond Buena Vista" UNCUT

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*Please note the vinyl sticker of this album says "+download code" but it's a mistake! There is no download with this particular album due to legal reasons. Sorry for this error!

Tough, tough funky version! check the break!

ORIGINAL USA ISSUE VINYL 45

Rare New Orleans funky jazz instrumental

Reissue of these two gems from South Africa's dance music history. 'Bayanyonyoba' is a house tune from the kwaito-era of '93 and 'Don't Judge Me Bad' is a wicked boogie jam from '87!

Boogie funk groovy disco tune.

Unplayed original USA 45

KILLER rare funk and soul reggae LP from 1975 - covers of Kool and the Gang's FUNKY STUFF, Betty Wright's seminal 'I LIVE THE WAY YOU LOVE' + loads more. 100% ESSENTIAL REGGAE FUNK!

Great Funky Soul tune.

ORIGINAL USA 45 G ONLY CONDITION

Red hot super-rare New Orleans funk!

It's a classic ...

Northern soul monster!

TUFF and Killer Richard Evans instrumental production! Soaring strings, tuff funk bass and drums. Written by Donny Hathaway!

Original unplayed USA 45

Monster funk soul tune on Chess! Mint!

MINT ORIGINAL UNPLAYED USA VINYL 45

The funk / disco dancer A-side ‘Outlaw’ was originally released as a private press 45. Since the early 80’s a few copies were in circulation, and since, this obscure single has become high on the wantslist. The B-side ‘Buffalo Funk’, is previously unreleased break-beat loaded instrumental from the same session taken from the master tapes. Killer!

A couple of excellent Wackie's 12" sides from the '80s now paired together for maximum pressure. Each originally appeared on separate 12"s in approximately '85 and '80 respectively. The A-side is another killer Sugar Minott shot, one of his many for Wackie's. That is paired with a more obscure one in the Wackie's catalog, "Zion Land", a great shimmering and chanting roots tune which is tough to find on original pressing.

Superb, rare funky jazz cut from a tiny label in Chicago!

Unissued clevleand ohio soul gem!

Mother Braintree were a 1973 group out of Cleveland Ohio. Influenced by Funkadelic, Sly and the family stone and Hendrix. Which you can hear on the amazing ghetto funk b side of “let me lay beside you” that’s flute led and drops into a killer drum break. The a side is the one here though - getting air play from the likes of Gilles Peterson and JM on Mi-soul. Essential!!!!