The Prince of Sophisticated Soul, Will Downing returns with a new 7 track CD. Will is in fine voice throughout, supported by some fine musicians including Hubert Eaves IV on bass,John 'Lil' Roberts on drums and David P Stevens on guitar and his wife Audrey Wheeler Downing on backing vocals on certain tracks' Love On You' , 'Make You Mine Again' , 'You Deserve Better', 'Dammit I Want You' and 'Kinda Guy' are good mid tempo soul tracks. There is a nice cover of Barry White's rare groove classic 'Early Years'. 'What I Gotta Do' has a little more tempo...
Bob Thiele Jr resurrects his father's Flying Dutchman label with this beautiful album from Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth. It contains versions of classic message songs mainly from the early 70's. The message of these timeless songs is still as revelant today as it was in those ground breaking times 50 years ago. Billy is accompanied by many great musicians including James Gadson, Jeff Parker, Larry Gouldings, The Croker and more. The album is superbly produced by Bob Thiele Jr. Tracks include Curtis Mayfield 'We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue', Gil Scott Heron 'Home Is Where The...
NDR Kultur have put out a rare and hitherto unreleased live recording of Pharoah Sanders in concert at the Fabrik club in Altona, Hamburg in 1980, accompanied by Curtis Lundy on upright bass, former Jazz Messenger John Hicks on keys and the experienced Idris Muhammad on drums. The set is an energetic, powerful live affair, comprised mainly of tracks taken from Pharoah’s 1980 Theresa album Journey to the One, in my book one of his finest bodies of work which eschews the free form and polemical musical stylings of some of his braver and more spiritual output on Impulse back...
There are some great new releases and reissues this week on Cd. Lp and 7" singles. Will Downing returns with a great new 7 track Ep/Cd 'Pieces' (arriving on monday). Reel People also return after a 10 Year gap with 'Love 2' featuring many guest vocalists including Eric Roberson, Raheem DeVaughn and Chantae Cann. Bob Thiele's son has recreated the Flying Dutchman label and the first album is Billy Valentine & the Universal Truth a great album covering classic tracks from the early 70's by CurtisMayfield, Gil Scott Heron, Leon Thomas and more. The Jack Moves also have a new...
Reel People return after a ten year wait with a new album 'Love 2'. It features many guest vocalists and is a mixture of uptempo and mid tempo contemporary Soulful and R&B grooves. Eric Roberson soulful voice fronts the superb uptempo dancer 'Save A Lil Love'. Jill Rock Jones sings on the upper mid tempo plodder 'Everything's So Crazy'. Chantae Cann lends her sweet voice to 'Dance In Her Eyes' another mid tempo groover which ends with an unnecessary rap from Dayne Jordan. Raheem DeVaughn vocalises on the pulsating mid tempo Deja Vu'. Paula features on two neo soul tracks...
Kool and the Gang recorded this great album live at P.J.’s in Hollywood California in 1971. The Album illustrated what great musicians these guys were, even through most of the band members were still teenagers at the time. ‘N.T’ (No title) is a funky bass led track with nice horns, flute and a drum break which has been sampled over 300 times. ‘Ricksonata’ has a slight Caribbean feel. There is great version of Charles Lloyd’s Latin groover ‘Sombrero Sam’ with great flute playing from D.T. ‘Ronnie’s Groove’ is a funky tune written and led by tenor man Ronnie Bell. ‘Lucky...
Alex Rodriguez’ 1978 Venezuelan Latin jazz-funk rarity has had the full re-issue works from kindred spirits Vampi Soul, who seem to be on the charge lately with a spate of timely and well put together reissues, uncovering rare, south American esoterica from salsa dura to Latin soul. This release showcases a surprisingly groovy body of Venezuelan jazz-funk led by guitarist Rodriguez alongside pianist Jorge Dalto, percussionist Nené Quintero, Eddie Palmieri’s go to reedman Ronnie Cuber, George Benson, Stevie Wonder and Roy Ayers’ drummer Dennis Davis and another Benson acolyte in Stanley Banks on bass. The album was recorded in New...
Check out this batch of 50 Original Vinyl Soul LPs with a big batch of Spinners/Detroit Spinners, Love Unlimited Orchestra and many more, form the large collection that we are processing. All records are in great condition , most are hardly played Ex or Near mint , a couple are still sealed and covers have below average wear for their age (many have original shrinkwrap) as individually graded. Most tiles are one off's, so please order early to avoid disappointment. You can combine with other recently listed original vinyl here to optimise postage costs Records can be ordered on-line, over the phone on...
There are some really good new albums and reissues on Cd and LP this week. Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin has a new album 'Pheonix' , and Jose James a tribute to Erykah Bafu 'on and On'. There is a Cd reissue of the early 70's Soul 'With Love From The Lovelites' (LP coming in the next month) plus a great 3CD Set of Randy Crawford complete Warner brother albums. There is a nice batch of very rare Soul and Funk albums issued on the Japanese P-Vine label from Lemuria, Touch of Class, Tomorrow People and Ron Henderson and Choice Of Color, available...
Ray Perez was a pianist and bandleader of seminal Venezuelan salsa group Los Dementes, recording seven albums between 67 and 68 with this outfit. Off the back of these initial successes, he was exported to New York where he worked alongside Kako’s orchestra (Francisco Angel Bastar) in the late 60’s. After finishing his stint in NYC, Perez returned to Caracas where he summoned the finest indigenous talent available to him at the time (Luis Arias, Alfredo Naranjo, Perucho Torcat, Larry Francia) and founded Los Kenya, an Afro-Venezuelan salsa group that were one of the rawest and most exiting contemporary musical...
