Disco

New fully remastered re-release of Soul Jazz Records’ ‘The World of Arthur Russell’, the seminal collection of Arthur Russell’s essential music back in print on awesome limited-edition heavy deluxe triple vinyl and deluxe CD edition.

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This album brings together some of Russell’s best-loved and most accessible works including his wide-ranging music both solo and in groups including Dinosaur L (the essential ‘Go Bang’), Loose Joints (the equally classic ‘Is It All Over My Face’) as well as rarities such as the 7” only ‘Pop Your Funk’, Indian Ocean’s ‘Schoolbell/Treehouse’, Lola’s ‘Wax The Van’ and more.

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“Arthur Russell fused the avant-garde with disco and sounds like nothing else on earth.” The GUARDIAN

“Russell is the great enigma of the New York music scene” THE WIRE

“Simply one of the best compilations of this or any year.” RECORD COLLECTOR

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Arthur Russell’s music effortlessly crossed musical boundaries making it timeless. His dance music credentials are faultless and this collection features mixes from Larry Levan, Françcois Kervorkian and Walter Gibbons. Similarly, his song-writing, musicality and performance skills are equally cherished as composer Philip Glass wrote, ‘this was a guy who could sit down with a cello and sing with it in a way that no one on earth has ever done before or will do again.’

When Soul Jazz Records’ The World of Arthur Russell first came out in 2003, Russell’s music had slipped into near obscurity. Nearly 18 years later there are over a dozen releases of his music, reissues of his original albums and more. ‘The World of Arthur Russell’ is the classic first collection of his work available once more.

Soul Jazz Records’ are releasing Tee Mac’s ‘Night Illusion’, a lost classic Nigerian Afro soul meets disco boogie funk album originally released in Nigeria in 1980. Impossibly hard to find, the record remains practically unknown outside of Nigeria.

Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger and features on Soul Jazz Records’ recent collection Nigeria Soul Fever – Afro Funk Disco and Boogie alongside Joni Haastrup, Christy Essien and others, as well as on a recent compilation ‘Nepa Oh Nepa’ (released on Hot Casa earlier this year). 

The timelessness of this soulful, ground-breaking funk jazz lost masterpiece ‘Night Illusion’ leads to comparisons with James Mason’s legendary lost classic album Rhythm of Life, with his unique individualism and intensity hinting at the boogie funk of groups such as Mass Production and Slave so loved by artists such as Moodyman and Theo Parrish.  While Fela Kuti is now a cultural icon of Nigerian music throughout the world, the recent crossover success of William Onyeabor shows just how much undiscovered Nigerian music remains waiting to be explored outside of the country.

Tee Mac was born in Lagos, the son of a Nigerian princess and a Swiss diplomat. He picked up the flute at age 7 and ten years later was studying classical musical in Switzerland under his uncle the composer J.J. Direndirger. Returning to Lagos, Nigeria in 1970 he formed the heavyweight afro rock group Tee Mac and Afro Collection (which included Johnny Haastrup on keyboards and The Lijadu Sisters on vocals). This band was famously joined by the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker who came to Nigeria to play with them in 1971 (captured in the film Ginger Baker in Africa).

At age 24, Tee Mac moved to Germany where he co-wrote and recorded the European disco group Silver Convention (whose ‘Fly Robin Fly’ became number one in the USA charts). 

Tee Mac continues to live in Lagos today and travels the world as a composer – one of whose pieces is The City of Mer Kailash (2009), a two-hour ballet featuring over 60 dancers and a 100+ piece orchestra.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this lost classic Nigerian album as a strictly limited-edition 1000 copies worldwide exact-replica artwork reproduction LP (+ sleevenotes + free download), CD and digital album.

Soul Jazz Records’ new Nigeria Soul Fever is their first release to explore the vast wealth of Nigerian music recorded in the 1970s. The new album comes with introductory sleevenotes by Bill Brewster (author of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life).

Packed-full with Afro-Funk, Disco and Boogie all from Nigeria, this triple album/double CD set brings together a stunning collection of diverse West African sounds. Whilst a small handful of the artists featured (Joni Haastrup, Tee Mac, Christy Essien) have seen the light of day outside Africa, this is essentially a collection of killer tracks by an array of artists completely unknown outside of Nigeria. 

Artists such as Don Bruce & The Angels, Akin Richards & The Executives, Angela Starr, Jimmy Sherry & The Music Agents. It’s no surprise that these records are extremely rare and expensive to buy individually so this album will save you going broke trying to find them.

These recordings were made at a time when Nigeria’s trade restrictions banned imported records. Whilst new musical trends (such as American soul, funk, disco etc) entered and influenced the country, the local music scene remained just that – local. Consequently, these recordings remain practically unknown to anyone outside of the country.

Nigeria Soul Fever is released as triple-album vinyl + download, double-CD digi-pack and digital download. This album follows on from Soul Jazz Records’ 1960s collection Nigeria Freedom Sounds, released last month, and will be followed by the reissue of the incredibly rare and groovy Nigerian 1980 disco boogie funk album Tee Mac’s Night Illusion.

"Excellent new soul jazz compilation Nigeria Soul Fever: Afrofunk, Disco And Boogie: West African Disco Mayhem!" THE GUARDIAN

READ Guardian top 10 Nigerian Disco full feature here

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

Oh yes! 50 x 70cm KILLER poster!!

Choose "Poster Freepost" if you want this poster sent with any other vinyl order item (LP/12" vinyl only) at NO extra postage charge (poster will be folded into six parts)

Choose "Poster+Tube" if you want the poster rolled up and sent in a customised, protective tube (more expensive to cover postage)

THIS ALSO means if you want more than one poster then you should only put 'Poster+Tube' for one of the posters and select 'Poster freepost' for any others as the rest will be free shipping.

MASSIVE Chic meets reggae - monster tune!

This is a second selection of independent disco records featuring rare and classic tracks originally released in the USA between the halcyon years of 1977 and 1985.

This release features only the finest disco, modern soul and boogie and is compiled by Disco Patrick who put together for Soul Jazz Records the mighty 'Disco - An Encyclopedic Guide to the Cover Art of Disco Records' 400+ page deluxe book, as well as the first installment of 'Disco - A Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul and Boogie.'

This album is released as a double CD, as well as two separate volumes of double vinyl (plus free download codes) and a worldwide digital release.

Rare, classic and in-demand tracks from the mighty vaults of labels such as New York's Salsoul and Miami's TK Records - which during the main disco era became the main competitors to the major established record industry - through to killer virtually unknown tracks released on tiny bespoke one-off labels, now impossible to find either in the history books or record shops of the world.

All the music on this album has been sonically and digitally remastered with love and is presented complete with sleevenotes, original label artwork and full-length extended disco editions.

OUT NOW! New 400-page 12"x12" deluxe heavyweight book on Soul Jazz Records/Books.

Foreword by Tom Moulton and Nicky Siano (The Gallery).

Presented by Disco Patrick and Patrick Vogt.

Introduction and interviews by  Claes 'Discoguy' Widlund. 

This large-format deluxe hardback book features the amazing artwork of thousands of disco record cover designs from the 1970s up to the mid-1980s.

Together, the record cover designs gathered here create a unique visual history of disco culture. Featuring more than 2,000 album cover designs (including hundreds of full-size covers) as well as over 350 12-inch sleeves, this book is truly an encyclopedic document of disco music and the industry and culture attending it.

In addition to the visual documents from the era, the book includes interviews with a number of important disco figures such as Mel Cheren (West End Records), Henry Stone (TK Records), Ken Cayre (Salsoul), Marvin Schlachter (Prelude) and others, as well as histories, biographies and discographies of all the major disco record companies, plus sections on roller disco sleeves, disco instruction albums, 12-inch sleeves and a scrapbook of disco ads.

Among the many musicians featured here are Bohannon, James Brown, Jocelyn Brown, Cerrone, Dennis Coffey, Donna Summer, Chic, Fatback Band, Gino Soccio, Giorgio Moroder, Gloria Gaynor, Grace Jones, Isaac Hayes, Kool and the Gang, DC LaRue, Loleatta Holloway, MFSB, Ohio Players, Salsoul Orchestra and The Trammps.

This is the latest volume in Soul Jazz's deluxe series of books featuring full-size reproductions of record cover art designs. It is presented by Disco Patrick and Patrick Vogt, editors of the book Disco Patrick Presents: The Bootleg Guide to Disco Acetates, Funk, Rap and Disco Medleys.

See Independent newspaper four-page feature/gallery here.