The Catalyst label was based in Los Angeles and between 1976 and 1978 they released some great spiritual Jazz albums. The best tracks from these are featured in this superb compilation double 180gm Lp by Rainer Truby and Miche. There are many great jazz dancefloor friendly cuts like Mark Levine heavy 'Ixtlan' which has a Cal Tjader influence, Hadley Caliman 'The Latin Thing', Frank Strazzeri 'Cloudburst' , Don Menza 'Mz Liz' , George Muribus 'Brazilian Tapestry' , Gary Bartz 'Juju Man' , Henry Franklin ' Tribal Dance' and Pat Britt 'Starrsong' have a certain intensity of playing above shifting grooves....
Ike White recorded 'Changing Times' for Far Out productions in 1976 whilst he was in prison. Jerry Goldstein managed to convert the recreation hall in the prison into a studio to record it. It is a superb album featuring the 9 minute long funky soul title track which has all the hallmarks of label mates War. 'Love and Affection' is a funky track with a Sly influenced Bay area style groove with popping bass and punchy horns. 'Antionette' is a beautiful mid tempo atmospheric soulful jazzy instrumental featuring Sly Stone drummer Greg Errico and members of Santana. 'Happy Face' is a...
MF Robots return with their third album 'MF Robots 111 part 1' with Brand New Heavies founder, drummer, songwriter and producer Jan Kincaid and former Heavies vocalist and multi instrumentalist Dawn Joseph in fine form across eight uplifting bright and breezy new tracks. 'That's The Way' and the outstanding jazz tinged 'Show us The Way' are uptempo songs that move along with pace. 'Children Of The World' is another upper tempo track that has a really old school party feel. 'The Pressure' is a really nice mid tempo song with an interesting groove that is another album highlight. 'Lay it...
Carlos Garnett hailed from Panama but made his name in New York in the 1970’s playing with Norman Connors and recording five great albums under his own name on the Muse label. For his fourth Muse album from 1976, Carlos leads a 25 Piece Big Band ‘Cosmos Nucleus’ making the sound on this album quite different from his other recordings. ‘Saxy’ is about as Funky as a Big Band can be. The Title cut is a 12 minute opus allowing the Band to develop the track as it flows through different sections. ‘Wise Old man’ is a lively highly rhythmic...
The disco/funkgroup Record Player were from Dayton Ohio. They only released one single 'Free Your Mind' in 1979 on the Gem City label which is now very rare selling for £800 if you can find one. It is a very funky killer track. However they actually recorded a whole albums worth of material which has never been released until now. 'Your Fantasy' , the Kool and The Gang influenced 'Magic', 'Funky Bone' and 'Nursery Rhymes' are also good disco funk tunes. The band disbanded in the early 80s and many of them joined bands including Slave, Aurra, Steve Arringtons Hall...
The Majestic Arrows were a four-piece vocal harmony group from Chicago put together by Bandit records owner and producer Arrow Brown. They consisted of Larry Brown from the 50’s vocal group The Moroccos, Tridia Brown (Arrows daughter), Gloria ‘Poolie’ Brown and Palario. They recorded this sophisticated but rare and in demand album ‘The Magic Of The Majestic Arrows for Bandit in 1973, featuring The Brown Orchestra, The Chosen Few and Scott Brothers on instrumentation. A characteristic of their music is switching between male and female vocals through the tracks. The funky soul ‘Going To Make A Time Machine’ and ‘One More...
Eddie Henderson recorded ‘Heritage’, his second album on Blue Note in 1976. He is accompanied by Headhunters Paul Jackson on bass and Mike Clark on drums, Patrice Rushen on keyboards, Mtume on percussion, Hadley Caliman on sax and Julian Priester on trombone amongst others. It includes the delightful mid tempo Jazz Funk ‘Inside You’, pulsating ‘Kudu’ and heavier funky Jazz ‘Acuphunture’. ‘Time And Space’ and ‘Dr Mganga’ are jazzier and darker, but equally impressive. Trumpeter Henderson deserves to be recognised as a leading figure in the development of Funky Jazz and ‘Heritage’ is one of his best slums of that...
Donald Byrd released his third album with the Mizell Brothers 'Stepping Into Tomorrow' for Blue Note in 1975. The title track is a classic with their distinctive production style , a chugging rhythm and nice soft trumpet playing from Donald.The album's killer track is 'Think Twice' a superb two stepper featuring Kay Haith on vocals alongside Donald. 'Design A Nation' highlights Gary Bartz on Sax who plays on the whole album. , 'Makin It' is also a nice Jazz-Funk instrumental with Donald blowing hard over a good rhythm. Donald is joined by a great cast of musicians including Harvey Mason,...
The Circling Sun are a Jazz Ensemble from New Zealand, whose debut album from 2023 'Spirits' was one of that year's highlights. They return with a possibly even stronger album 'Orbits' which combines Spiritual Jazz with Latin rhythms to create a beautiful album. 'Constellation' shows a very Pharoah Sanders 'Theresa' period influence with ethereal, incidental wordless backing vocals from the Love Affinity Choir, which in fact could be said about the whole album. 'Mizu' has a lovely feel, good factor and latin rhythms, a joyous track to behold. 'Seki' is more laid back and melodic. 'Amina' is a deeper and...
Jamiroquai keyboard player Matt Johnson's new album 'Warrior Princess' is a great album of Jazz-Funk and Soul grooves. 'Old Skool Funk' is a superb uptempo dancer with a right rhythm ft Jeff Lorber. The upper mid tempo 'In It To Win It' has a slick bassline and as expected nice keyboard riffs. 'Is It Too Late' has a shuffling rhythm. whilst 'Fascination' is more soulful. 'Personal Revolutions' has a Brit funk feel to it. 'Earth's Mysteries' is a lovely laid back mystical track. 'Warrior Princess' is another nice laid back groove with a harp in the background. 'Dance Of The...
