The Baylor Project 'Generations' is a quality new album that borders Soul and Jazz featuring Vocalist Jean Baylor and husband drummer Marcus Baylor. Jean's vocals are extremely soulful throughout and she is backed by a large number of musicians including on some tracks strings and horns. 'Strivin' is an up tempo old school R&B jazzy number that really swings and features Kenny Garrett on Sax. 'Happy To Be With You' has gospel drenched vocals, 'Love Makes You Sing' is a lovely mid tempo ballad and there is a good version of Wayne Shorter's 'Infant Eyes'. '2020' is a beautiful message song, Jean's voice soaring above some great...
Geneva based reissue label We Release Jazz have put their hand to the seminal Japanese Jazz-Fusion album Cat by Hiroshi Suzuki (Japanese Trombonist extraordinaire), a half-speed mastered 180g clear audiophile release of which the sound quality has been widely acclaimed, truly paying homage to the album's Japanese roots with the unironic inclusion of an obi strip. Initially released in 1975, the album was initially overlooked up until recently, where it has been commanding fatuously high prices on discogs (recent sales have been upward of £1,000!) Cat was recorded in October 1975 at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting...
The 1973 album continues in the same vein as Ball of Eyes, though it's definitely funkier and head boppin' than the debut. The real-ear grabber is the superb Moog soloing by Moulin. Placebo is grooving your socks off in the first half of the album and a more concentrated jazzy swing can be found on the second half. Original copies of 1973 are in short supply and overwhelming demand, making this official reissue a much-needed one! Buy the LP Here Check out the album below; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeXyvOdZMbM&list=PLmZFFIVOSLJsJxMCP7mnZFG3pwwsrQwwk&ab_channel=CanBayram%C3%A7avu%C5%9F
One of the Queens of Neo -Soul , Conya Doss from Ohio returns with her ninth album 'Through Rose Colored Glasses'. It is a strong album which includes the typically Conya mid tempo head nodder's 'Take it Away', 'Wishful Thinking' and slightly off key 'Ain't Trading You' . 'Show Me' is more upbeat and features Lin Rountree on trumpet, whilst 'Long Haul' is more of a slow jam.'It Ain't Easy' ft Eric Roberson, which like most of the former titles is produced by Rodney A Jones. The album's highlights are the three songs written or co-written and produced by Myron...
Wood Brass and Steel were the last and the most famous house band of the All Platinum and Sugarhill Records groups of labels run by Sylvia and husband Joe Robinson. Although they recorded many tracks for themselves and on even more for other artists at the Englewood New Jersey studios in the 70's and early 80's, the band was formed in Hartford Connecticut and their roots go back to Cincinnati and Dayton Ohio in the late 60's. Drummer Harold Sargent had formed his first band in 1969 called The Pacemakers. The line up consisted of Bootsy Collins on bass, his...
Southern Energy—a long lost classic from the Black Fire vault—was the only album recorded by the group Southern Energy Ensemble, an R n’ B and Jazz collective of young, predominantly student musicians marshalled by James “Plunky” Branch of Oneness of Juju fame and Jimmy Gray of Black Fire Records. Originally recorded in 1977, it was only released physically on Black Fire Records some sixteen years later in 1993, copies of which tend to fetch fairly hefty price tags on Discogs. The group features Marvin Daniels on Trumpet—who was one of the founding members of 100% Pure Poison—and a who’s who...
Lamont Dozier, Eddie and Brian Holland formed Invictus the Creative Corporation when they left Motown in 1970. The Brilliant ‘Why Cant We be Lovers’ is an all time Soul classic and ‘New Breed Woman’ an in demand dancer. ‘Don’t leave Me’, ‘If you Don’t Want To be in my Life’ and ‘I’m So Glad’ are also good dancers. Also check the mid tempo ‘The Picture Will Never Change’. Classic early 70’s Soul. Buy the LP HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5fRdcLwTM&ab_channel=Ra%C3%BAl.Nicol%C3%A1s
Herbie’s 1975 album Manchild is a Jazz-Funk masterpiece, a great example of Herbie's forward thinking musical attitude that saw him take on a whole host of modern instrumentation and experimental electronic arrangements. His compositions from this period have a certain timelessness about them, music channelled and directed by a master of his craft who after having worked with Jazz giants such as Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis since the fifties, set about on his own musical path and totally redefined the contemporary landscape of Jazz insodoing. His wholesale adoption of the Funk and it's swaggering, syncopated rhythms while incorporating heavily...
Donny Hathaway had one of the strongest voices in Soul, both in mere vocal prowess and in his lyrical abilities. “The Ghetto”, one of his most beloved songs, is on par with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” (incidentally also a famous cover by Hathaway, as featured on this Live album) or Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up”. Live from 1972 cemented Hathaway’s reputation as one of the forerunners of Soul, giving wonderful Jazzed-up interpretations (two of them running over the 10-minute mark) of classics. Hathaway plays with the audiences of the Troubadour in Hollywood and the Bitter End in New York...
This eponymous album, Bunn Debrett Quintet, owes much to London Transport's 94 Night Bus. Drummer and percussionist Stephen Bunn (Bunny) and guitarist and keys player Jon deBrett first collaborated as founding members of 90's Acid Jazz Records signed act Mother Earth. With further partnerships as remixers, producers and DJs the pair called it quits on the music industry sometime around the turn of the millennium. Then in 2019 they bumped into each other at the world famous 100 Club in London's Oxford Street at a gig featuring a new incarnation of Mother Earth with Matt Deighton from the original line-up....
