Citrus sun return with a great new album ‘Expansions and visions’ ft Noel Mckoy on ‘California Soul’ Oscar Jerome is the latest New London jazz artist to release an album aided by Joe Armon jones Lianne Lahavas and more, also check the Blue Note reimagined 45 from Steamdown and Yasmin Lacey. Jazz stalwart Bill Frisell has a new album on Blue Note and Paul Hardcastle has hardcastle 9.
There is a superb compilation of the Black Fire records label , I fondly remember visiting Jimmy Gray at his house in DC many times in the early years of Soul Brother when on buying trips and hearing some of the tracks included here.
There are many vinyl reissues this week, with a large batch of Blue Note albums that haven’t been available for a few years, and some nice soul titles from Demon.
Pre-order
Pre-order for next week for new albums from Nubya Garcia, Tenderlonius, and the week after Gregory Porter and a batch of four Blue Note Tone poets. There is also a very limited unreleased Soul 45 from Johnny Baker. See all the pre-order titles here.
RSD 20
The first Record store day drop date is Saturday 29th August. You can see what we have confirmed and the expected titles at this linkThe releases includes the two amazing releases on Soul Brother Gaston -My Queen one of the best holy grail Soul and Funk albums and the first commercial release of the record that created the 12″ single Bobby Moore ‘Call me your anything man. We will be open at 8am with social distancing in the queue and will operate a ticket scheme to help minimise the time you have to wait.
Shop now open
The shop at 1 Keswick Road, SW15 2HL is now open from 11am – 6pm Monday – Saturday. We can only allow 2 people in the store at a time so please be prepared to wait if needs be.
Please note, face coverings are mandatory unless you have a validated exemption.
Stunning vinyl collection just in
See all newly arrived vinyl here
We are delighted present Earl White Jr’s 1977 modern soul rarity ‘Very Special Girl’ out on a 45. Buy yours here
LIMITED AMOUNT OF DJ COPIES JUST FOUND.
Check the video here
‘Fill the Gap’ – classic albums on vinyl…
In the meantime you can see our ‘fill the gap’ feature here
We are now back in stock of the majority of Bill Withers Lps and CDs which you can see in our feature here. Also the fantastic 9cd set of his complete albums is now in stock.
An introduction to Blue Note – 10 albums you must hear
Arguably Blue Note is the greatest Jazz label ever and was responsible for releasing so many classic albums over its 80+ year history. Its halcyon era was 1950’s/ 1960’s, when it pioneered Hard Bop. At various times, its roster included the likes of Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Horace Silver plus geniuses such as Miles Davis. The label recorded the first albums by a host of legends – for example, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard to name just a few. The label remained active in the Jazz Funk era and Donald Byrd’s 1973 album ‘Black Byrd’ was not only ground-breaking but was Blue Note’s biggest selling LP at that time.
Selecting 10 classic albums (100 would be hard enough) is a challenge, but this introductory selection is just a taster. See the list here
Collector’s vinyl
Recent original Vinyl Soul and Jazz LP arrivals can be seen here, there are some great collectors items still available.
Recent Original vinyl 12″ singles and Original vinyl 45’s here.
The massive range of Outta Sight Modern and Northern Soul 45’s can be seen here.
Radio Show
Our usual spot on Solar will be suspended for the time being as we practise responsible social distancing by not putting ourselves or others at risk, both by travelling to the studio and also being in the studio. We think that the health of ourselves and others while also protecting the NHS is important at this time.
We are however going to continue to bring you the best weekly releases and collector’s pieces with a weekly two-hour mix that you can find on our Mixcloud. At present we don’t have the facility to record voiceovers, but hopefully you can still enjoy the music.
We timestamp the playlists and provide a download link so you can listen any time, anywhere.
Find the latest show here.
See all radio mix playlists here
Have a great weekend.
Laurence and Jason
