Archives: Features
Albums and Singles of The Year 2016
Louie Vega ‘Starring XXVIII’ is our top album of 2016 a mixture of Soul, Soulful House and Jazzy grooves, a superb uplifting set. Frank McComb returned with his best in years ‘Soul Mate’ being our Soul album of the Year. Kindred and the Family Soul ‘Legacy of Love’ was also their best in over a decade another excellent Soul album. Chantae Caan took us on a ‘Journey to Golden’ and delivered an excellent quality debut album backed in places by Snarky Puppy. Terisa Griffin made her best album to date and what a ‘Revival of Soul’ it is, with great...
Soul Reissues of The Year 2016
There were fewer Reissues this year than in recent Years but there were some real gems. ‘This is Eleanore Mills’ was our pick for Soul Reissue of the year, a great lesser known 70’s Soul gem from the All Platinum vaults. Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes ‘To Be True’ is one of their best albums a real Philly Soul classic. The JB’s ‘Doing it to Death’ is an iconic Funk album and the re-master in a mini LP sleeve sounds fantastic. Anglo Saxon Brown are a less well known Philly band, their album ‘Songs For Evolution’ is an underground classic,...
Compilations of The Year 2016
2016 saw some great Compilations ‘Mainstream Modern Soul’, Soul on the Real side Vol 5’, ‘Sprirt of Philadelphia Vol 4’, ‘Beauty’, ‘Black Gold’, ‘Extra Added Soul’ and ‘Greg Belson’s Divine Disco’ were all superb compilations of heritage material whilst ‘Soul Togetherness 2016’ has proved to be one of the most popular of this long running series highlighting contemporary dance floor winners
Smooth Jazz Albums of The Year 2016
There were some great Smooth Jazz albums in 2016, Richard Elliot ‘Summer Madness’ was the best, but also check albums from Gerald Albright, BWB, Rippingtons, U-Nam, Kim Waters and more
Jazz Albums of The Year 2016
2016 was an incredible year for Jazz. Top of the pile was an amazing album by Trumpeter Theo Croker ‘Escape Velocity’, we haven’t heard music like this for many years. It just piped Terrace Martin ‘Velvet Portraits’ another great album fusing Jazz, Soul , Funk and a little hip-hop to great effect. Shola Adisa Farrar joined with Florian Pellissier Quintet to make the best vocal jazz album of the year, the deep and at time spiritual ‘Lost Myself’. Tom O’Grady from Cambridge is Resolution 88 who made a superb heavy jazz fusion album ‘Afterglow’. Ashleigh Smith charmed us with her...
Soul Albums of The Year 2016
Sharon Jones – R.I.P
Sharon Lafaye Jones – 4th May 1956 – 18th November 2016 Sharon Jones was considered by many to be the spiritual leader of the 2nd wave of funk music production that initially grew out of the late Acid Jazz/early ‘Deep Funk’ days, where more commonly heard sounds where being replaced by a desire to dig deeper into the vast back catalogue of America’s otherwise unheard black music past. Often taking James Brown as their departure point, the productions that labels like Desco, Pure and Hotpie & Candy were creating deliberately plugged into the analogue side of soul and absorbed the...
New releases – 18th November 2016
Solange has made a new album that includes the beautiful 'Cranes in the sky' a killer new soul cut. Hannah Williams teams up with the Affirmations for some retro soul in 'Late nights and Heartbreak' and John Ellis has a nice floaty jazz album on Gondwana, plus there a limited edition single from Lee Fields. There are some classic 180gm vinyl reissue,albums on the Be With label from Edna Wright and Willie Hutch, and a couple more Northern soul comps on Outta Sight. Kenya enjoyed her birthday with Gwendolyn Collins and other artists at Soul Brother last friday , you...
Limited warehouse vinyl stock find!
Check this list of out of print Soul brother and Expansion vinyl titles which have recently been found, some we haven't had for years. We only have limited quantities on these titles so please order early to avoid disappointment, once they are gone it is unlikely that we will find any more. happy diggin Laurence
