Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Studio One Showcase 45’ features a roll call of classic Studio One reggae legends including Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Jackie Mittoo, The Heptones, The Skatalites and more - seminal reggae artists who all launched their careers at the legendary Studio One label.

Featuring seminal cuts like Bob Marley and The Wailer’s original version of ‘One Love’, Freddie McGregor’s take on the classic ‘Beat Down Babylon’, Judah Eskender Tafari’s re-version of ‘Danger In Your Eyes’ plus tracks from The Skatalites, Lone Ranger, Johnny Osbourne and more.

The album was previously only ever released as a long-deleted limited edition 7” box set for Record Store Day. This album has now been expanded into a lavish double vinyl album edition as well as a first-time release on CD, with both formats featuring a massive eight bonus tracks of wicked Studio One classics and rarities. The album also comes with newly commissioned sleeve and track notes by Noel Hawks.

TRACK LISTING

Freddie McGregor - Beat Down Babylon
Cornel Campbell - No Man's Land
Judah Eskender Tafari - Danger In Your Eyes
Tony & Howie - Fun It Up
Liberation Group - Namibia
Winston Francis - Love Me Today, Not Tomorrow
Roland Alphonso - Jah Shakey
Joe Higgs - Dinah
Brown Eagle - Natural Living
Freddie McKay - So Long, Farewell
Jackie Mittoo - Mixing
The Heptones - How Can I Leave You
The Skatalites - Sudden Destruction
Lone Ranger - Dance A Fe Cork
Horace Andy - Mamie Blue
Johnny Osbourne - Run Up Your Mouth
Bob Marley And The Wailers - One Love
The Cables - What Am I To Do

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Secret Superstar Sounds - Scraping Bubblegum Off My Soul 1977-80: Punk - Powerpop - New Wave - DIY’ brings together a wealth of incredibly catchy tunes from late 1970s / early 1980s British groups that you have probably never heard of! Power pop mixed together a love of lyrical and melodically beautiful 1960s pop and garage sounds, together with the energy and attitude of 1970s punk. Almost completely out of kilter with the fashions of the day (punk, new wave and post-punk) these bands managed to fall between the musical cracks at almost every step of the way, leaving them practically unknown to all but a few.

Inspired by the DIY messaging of bands like The Desperate Bicycles, Sniffing Glue fanzine and early UK punk labels like Stiff, Chiswick and Rough Trade, these bands chose mainly to go into a studio and make their own private press / DIY records themselves - then try to work out everything else (promotion, marketing, etc.) afterwards. As mainly outsiders to the mainstream music industry, and usually unable to make any inroads into it, save for sending their own record to John Peel, most of these bands fell at the first hurdle.

These records remain both beautifully crafted three-minute musical gems and long-lost micro-histories of an essentially hidden genre.

Featured bands here include The Squares, The Meanies, The Monitors, Plummet Airline, Tours, Gobblinz, Krypton Tunes and more. Most of these records were selfpublished DIY releases made in very limited editions and were often the only tracks ever released by these groups.

TRACK LISTING

Gooblinz - London
Plummet Airlines - It’s Har
Xdreamysts - Right Way Home
Tours - Language School
The Squares - No Fear
The Monitors - Compulsory Fun
The Meanies - It’s True
Jeff Hill Band - Something’s Wrong With My Baby
The Squad - 24 Hours
Krypton Tunes - Limited Vision
The Zeros - Hungry
The Wardens - Do So Well
The Letters - Nobody Loves Me
The Tunnelrunners - Forever Crying At Love Songs
Comic Romance - Cry Myself To Sleep

100% killer Nu Yorican Latin funk masterpiece originally released in New York in 1974, issued here on Soul Jazz Records.

Alongside ‘Latin Strut’ this is one of the toughest Latin / funk tunes ever recorded. Both sides of this single are super heavy Latin / funk / salsa monsters.

This single is issued in exact replica label artwork and housed in a bespoke Soul Jazz Records recycled card master sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

Aftershower Funk
Fin

Singer songwriter Juliet Lawson’s album, ‘Boo’, was released on the Sovereign label in the UK in 1972. The album was the confident debut of a young British artist and featured twelve of Lawson’s own compositions.

In the same wave of early 1970s English singer songwriters such as Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan and Christine McVie and despite being described at the time as ‘Britain’s answer to Joni Mitchell’, ‘Boo’ was to prove her only major label release, with limited commercial success.

Over the next 50 years, the album’s reputation has slowly grown and is today an expensive and collectible item. ‘Boo’ is presented here in its entirety.

TRACK LISTING

Dear Fool
Igloo
Nothing New
I Won’t Get My Feet Wet
Again
Who Is India?
Let Me Not Put You Down
Only A Week Away
Playing Is No Song
You’re So Right,
September
The Weeds In The Yard
Rolling Back
Frog In The Jam
Rincón De Luna *
Voices *
* = CD / 7”

Hawksmoor’s new album ‘Oneironautic’ on Soul Jazz Records follows on from last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Telepathic Heights’, as well as a re-release of his album ‘Saturnalia’ on the Library of the Occult label earlier this year.

James McKeown, aka Hawksmoor, continues his fascination with the sounds and sensibilities of 1970s / 80s German electronic groups - think early Cluster, Harmonia, CAN, NEU!, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Michael Rother.

On new album ‘Oneironautic’, James McKeown successfully combines these pulsating ripples of Germanic electronica with a number of decidedly English references: the soaring, hypnotic and pastoral qualities of Brian Eno, circa ‘Another Green World’; the long, sustained lines of Robert Fripp’s Frippertonics; and the poetic feel of early Durutti Column.

McKeown combines all of these elements while also remaining with one foot firmly in the British melodic hauntological modular synth aesthetic of hauntology - Ghost Box, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Focus Group et al.

Once again using strictly modular synths, electronic drum rhythms, and guitars, Hawksmoor has created an electronic landscaped music world that is both new and old, immediately identifiable and yet utterly unique.

TRACK LISTING

Parallelograms
The Transcendentalist
Glass Teeth
Galadali
Traumzeit
Salpêtrière
Nereides
A Forest In The Sky
Yourcelium
The Oneironaut

New 18th anniversary edition of the long out of print ‘Studio One Soul 2’, the long-awaited second volume of one of the largest selling Soul Jazz Records Studio One collections.

‘Studio One Soul 2’ takes us deep into Jamaica’s long-standing fascination with American soul and funk music.

Featuring a host of seminal Reggae artists who all first established their careers at Studio One before finding worldwide success. Featured artists include Horace Andy, The Heptones, Cornell Campbell, Ken Boothe, Jackie Mittoo, Jacob Miller and many more Studio One legends interpreting both classic and little-known American soul and funk tunes by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, The Five Stairsteps, Marvin Gaye, The Stylistics, Lee Dorsey, Al Green, Syl Johnson and more.

Curtis Mayfield is without a doubt the main soul influence for many reggae groups in the 1960s and 1970s. Cornell Campbell’s ‘Ten to One’ is a stunning recut of the original Studio One single by The Mad Lads, who first covered this Curtis-penned hit for the Impressions. Another great Curtis Mayfield production, The Five Stairsteps and Cubie’s ‘Don’t Change’ is interpreted by Studio One soul man Winston Francis. Similarly, Devon Russell’s superb ‘Make Me Believe in You’ is, if anything, superior to Curtis Mayfield’s ground-breaking original.

While American soul and funk remain a constant source of inspiration on this album, classic DJs such as Prince Jazzbo and Little Joe also used these rhythms to ride vocal toasts over to serious effect.

This selection features a mixture of classics, rare and unreleased tracks from Studio One, all lovingly digitally re-mastered for this release.

TRACK LISTING

Jacob Miller - Westbound Train
Hortense Ellis - People Make The World Go
Round
Horace Andy - Aint’ No Sunshine
Soul Vendors - Swing Easy
The Heptones - Choice Of Colours
Jackie Mittoo And The Brentford Disco Set -
Choice Of Music Part 2
Prine Jazzbo - Fool For Love
Conrnell Campbell - Ten To One
Winston Francis - Don’t Change
Jackie Mittoo - Jumping Jeshosophat
Tony Gregory - Get Out Of My Life Woman
Dub Specialist - Darker Block
Little Joe - Red Robe
Devon Russell - Make Me Believe In You
Jerry Jones - Compared To What
Ken Boothe - Thinking
Anthony Creary - Land Call Africa
Jackie Mittoo - Fancy Pants

Spanning nearly 30 years of revolutionary music, and featuring the music of Count Ossie, Johnny Clarke, The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, Bongo Herman, Earth & Stone and many more, this is an in-depth look at some of the heaviest and righteous music ever made.

The album charts the many links between reggae music and Rastafarianism. The album comes complete with full gatefold, plus bespoke inner sleeves containing stunning exclusive photography and extensive sleevenotes.

Rastafarianism had its roots at the start of the 20th century and became widespread in Jamaica following the visit of Haile Selassie, the King of Ethiopia, to Kingston in 1966. By the 1970s, Rastafarianism become practically synonymous with reggae, as many roots reggae artists became known throughout the world, notably spearheaded by the success of Bob Marley and The Wailers.

As ‘roots reggae’ artists in the 1970s continued to spread the word of Jah in their music, Rastafari reggae became the ultimate rebel sound throughout the world.

"This may be the most righteous compilation to come from the Soul Jazz stable to date, as they focus on links between the Rastafarian religion and reggae music." - Irish Times

TRACK LISTING

Count Ossie's Rasta Family - Africa We Want Fe Go
Johnny Clarke - None Shall Escape The Judgment
Laurel Aitken - Haile Selassie
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Tales Of Mozambique
Mutabaruka - Say
Bongo Herman & Jah Lloyd - African Drums
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Sam's Intro
Bongo Herman, Les & Bunny - Salaam
Techniques All Stars - Zion I Version
Lord Lebby & The Jamaican Calypsonians - Ethiopia
Hugh Mundell - One Jah, One Aim, One Destiny
The Heaven Singers - Rasta Dreadlocks
Count Ossie & Leslie Butler - Soul Drums
Cornel Campbell - Conscious Rastaman
QQ - Betta Must Come
Roy Shirley - Israelites Leave Babylon
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Narration
Ronald Downer & Count Ossie - A Ju Ju Wa

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Down Beat Special’ is a rollercoaster Greatest Hits ride through many of the alltime classic tunes hand-picked from across the mighty vaults of, without doubt, Jamaica’s finest ever record label and pioneering powerhouse of reggae music.

Seminal tracks such as Michigan and Smiley’s ‘Nice Up The Dance’, Dawn Penn’s ‘No, No, No’, The Wailers’ ‘Simmer Down’, The Eternals’ ‘Queen of the Minstrels’… and on it goes. Non-stop big tunes - ‘Down Beat Special’ is an essential primer to Studio One Records.

Originally released as a one-off pressing limited edition (long-since deleted) 7” box set, this new edition is fully remastered and expanded to a massive 18 rare and killer cuts from the Studio One empire.

Featuring The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Lone Ranger and many more, the album features rare and classic tracks throughout.

Newly commissioned sleevenotes by Noel Hawks (History of the Jamaican Recording Industry) featuring a track by track historical and musical analysis, label scans and more added to this fantastic collection.

TRACK LISTING

The Eternals - Queen Of The Minstrels
Michigan And Smiley - Nice Up The Dance
The Mad Lads - Ten To One
Jackie Mittoo - Totally Together
Horace Andy - Just Say Who
The Skatalites - Addis Ababa
Sugar Minott - Live Loving
Lone Ranger - Can't Stand It
Wailing Souls - I've Got A Burning Fire
Bob Marley And The Wailers - Simmer Down
Dub Specialist - Hooligan
Alton Ellis - Your Heart Is Gonna Pay
Roland Alphonso - Do It Good
Wailing Souls - You Should Have Known
Dawn Penn - No No No 
Freddie McKay - You'll Be Sorry
Alton Ellis - We Need Love
Cornel Campbell - Best To Be Free

For this Studio One release we return to the roots of Reggae music-The Soundsystem. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s Soundsystems played throughout the city of Kingston, Jamaica. As well as Sir Coxsone's Downbeat Soundsystem other famous Soundsystem operators included Duke Reid (the Trojan), Prince Buster, Tom the Great and King Edwards.

These Soundystems were the birthplace of much of Jamaica's musical culture ­ Soundclashes, Dancehall and the idea of the Toaster who sang over records- theDJ. As ever Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd led the field and so for this release the focus is on DJ's at Studio One and features legendary toasters such as Denis Alcapone, Dillinger and Prince Far I as well as a host of rare material by lesser known artists. Also included is Count Machuki ­ the original DJ- the first man ever to speak over the mic-at Sir Coxsone¹s Downbeat Sound System- from where it all began.

As Steve Barrow (author of The Rough Guide to Reggae/Blood and Fire Records) writes in the sleevenotes, Jamaican deejay music is the source for all Rap music: From Count Machuki talking over records on Sir Coxsone's legendary Downbeat Sound System this style would eventually travel to America when the Jamaican-born Kool Herc began playing at Block parties (a version of the Kingston Soundsystem parties) in the Bronx. Cutting up rare-groove classics for the first B-Boys to rap over, Hip-Hop was born and theDJ music that had started on the early Soundsystems of Kingston would go on to conquer the world!

Studio One Records is the original Jamaican record label. Studio One Records started the career of hundreds of Jamaican artists from Bob Marley to The Skatalites, from Horace Andy to The Heptones. Studio One DJs (compiled by Mark Ainley) is the next in the series of releases where Soul Jazz Records are showcasing the music of Studio One, the label that literally defines Reggae.

TRACK LISTING

1. Count Machuki – More Scorcha
2. Prince Francis – Rock Fort Shock
3. Dennis Alcapone – Power Version
4. Dillinger – Natty Kung Fu
5. Jah Scotchie – Man Of Creation
6. Jim Brown – Seen Him
7. Jah Buzz – Love In The Arena
8. Prince Francis – Street Doctor
9. Lone Ranger – The Answer
10. Prince Jazzbo – Crime Don't Pay
11. Brigadier Jerry – Every Man A Me Brethren
12. Big Joe – Version Of Rights
13. Lone Ranger – The Big Match
14. Jah Jesco – Warning
15. Prince Far I – Natty Farmyard
16. Charlie Ace & Scorcher – Father And Dread Loc

Spanning tracks from 30 years of Studio One releases, ‘Studio One Story’ is a roller coaster ride through many of the label’s finest moments and features many of the tracks that defined its history as well as Reggae itself. Tracks such as Alton Ellis’s ‘I’m Still In Love With You’, The Skatalites’ ska anthem ‘Guns of Navarone’ through to the Roots killer, The Abyssinians’ ‘Declaration of Rights’, to absolutely monster party tunes such as Michigan & Smiley’s ‘Nice Up The Dance’. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

TRACK LISTING

1. Theo Beckford – Easy Snapping
2. The Skatalites – Guns Of Navarone
3. Delroy Wilson – Dancing Mood
4. Michigan And Smiley – Nice Up The Dance
5. Heptones – Baby
6. The Abyssinians – Declaration Of Rights
7. Alton Ellis – I'm Still In Love With You
8. Tommy McCook – Tunnel One
9. Sugar Minott – Jah Jah Children
10. The Skatalites – Man In The Street
11. Dub Specialist – Banana Walk
12. Dennis Alcapone – Run Run
13. Larry Marshall – Nanny Goat
14. Brentford Allstars – Throw Me Corn
15. Lone Ranger – Love Bump
16. Jackie Mittoo – Freak Out

‘Studio One Dub’ remains super-hard hitting, featuring classic and rare dub tracks from Studio One, many available on vinyl for the first time in over thirty years. ‘Studio One Dub’ includes the dubs of many classic tracks such as Horace Andy’s ‘Skylarkin’’, Johnny Osbourne’s ‘Truth and Rights’, John Holt’s ‘Hooligan’ and Freddie McGregor’s ‘Bobby Bobylon’, plus many more rare tracks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dub Specialist – Bionic Dub
2. Dub Specialist – Take A Ride Version
3. Dub Specialist – Sky Rhythm
4. Dub Specialist – Taurus Dub 2
5. Dub Specialist – Hooligan
6. Dub Specialist – Dub Rock
7. Dub Specialist – Rastaman Version
8. Dub Specialist – Jah Jah Version
9. Dub Specialist – Creator Version
10. Dub Specialist – Running Dub
11. Dub Specialist – Hi Fashion Dub
12. Dub Specialist – Pretty Version
13. Dub Specialist – Race Track Version
14. Dub Specialist – Spawning
15. Dub Specialist – In Cold Blood Version
16. Dub Specialist – Chase Them Version
17. Dub Specialist – Feel The Dub

Studio One's music in the 1970s took the label to new heights. The new style of Disco Mix brought many areas of Reggae together ­ Roots, Lovers, Disco and Dub all came together in extended form, re-versioning classic hits, experimenting with new studio technology, over-dubbing, syn-drums and more producing what many fans describe as the most creative and innovative phase in the history of the legendary Studio One Records.

This Studio One Disco Mix album includes many sought after classic tunes only ever released in very small quantities (on Studio One's very first 12" records as well as it's infamous Music Lab 10"s out of New York) and consequently many of these track s have been unavailable since their day of release. Studio One Disco Mix features many of the classic Studio One artists such as Alton Ellis, Sugar Minott, Jackie Mittoo and Willie Williams (with his classic re-versioning of his own "Armigideon Time") alongside less well artists such as Doreen Schaeffer, Judah Eskender Tafari and George Dudley and many more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lloyd & Devon – Push Push
2. Judah Eskender Tafari – Rastafari Tell You
3. Doreen Schaefer – Ain't Gonna Change My Mind
4. Dub Specialist – Kampala
5. George Allen – Be Wise Brethren
6. Jackie Mittoo – Night In Ethiopia
7. George Dudley – Gates Of Zion
8. The Silvertones – Come Forward
9. The Ethiopian – Muddy Water
10. Willie Williams & Brentford Disco Set – Armagideon Time
11. Willie Williams & Brentford Disco Set – Armagideon Time (version)
12. Norma White & Brentford Disco Set – I Want Your Love
13. Norma White & Brentford Disco Set – I Want Your Love (version)
14. Alton Ellis – You Make Me Happy
15. Suagr Minott – Love And Understanding
16. Winston Francis, Jackie Mittoo & Brentford Roc

Lovingly compiled, this album features only the finest Lovers from Jamaica’s finest label. From Blues parties in London, Birmingham, Bristol etc Lovers Rock quickly became one of the UK’s finest-ever musical movements.

Sweet harmonies, soulful reggae, love songs – the key ingredients of Lovers Rock - were all based on the revival of many of the classic Rocksteady harmony groups of the late 60s and early 70s, such as The Heptones, Carlton and The Shoes, Larry & Alvin, The Paragons, that Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd’s Studio One and rival Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label produced hit after hit with as they fought for dominance in the dancehalls of Kingston.

As well as these classic harmony groups, this album also features fine contributions from many of the reggae greats – Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Delroy Wilson – All artists who became stars at the legendary Studio One Records which Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, describes as "The University of Reggae".

TRACK LISTING

1. Delroy Wilson – I Don't Know Why
2. Basil Daley – Hold Me Baby
3. Myrna Hague – Touch Me Baby
4. John Holt & The Paragons – Darling, I Need Your Loving
5. The Sharks – How Could I Live (1st Cut)
6. The Mad Lads – Ten To One
7. Jackie Mittoo – Reggae Magic (2nd Cut)
8. Larry & Alvin – Your Love
9. Freddy & Jenny – Too Long Will Be Too Late
10. Alton Ellis – Let Him Try
11. Albert Tomlinson – Don't Wait For Me
12. Horace Andy – Got To Be Sure
13. Carlton & His Shoes – Never Give Your Heart Away
14. The Heptones – Ready To Learn
15. Bob & Marcia – Really Together (No Strings)
16. Ernest Wilson – Undying Love
17. Bob Marley & The Wailers – I'm Still Waiting (1st Cut)
18. Doreen Schaeffer – We're All Alone

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘200% DYNAMITE!’ set the benchmark for reggae-meets-funk compilations that has never been bettered. Jam-packed with reggae tunes that crossed over to become dancefloor hits, such as Tenor Saw’s soundboy anthem, ‘Ring the Alarm’, K.C. White’s classic cut of the seminal ‘No, No, No’ and Augustus Pablo’s ‘Rockers Rock’, ‘200% DYNAMITE’ explores the links between reggae, jazz, funk and soul.

Carrying on perfectly from ‘100% DYNAMITE’, this second compilation continues to trace the history of Jamaican reggae and the influence of American styles such as funk and jazz had on this music.

Featured here are serious funk and rocksteady tunes from the likes of The Skatalites and Johnny Osbourne through to Jamaican jazz from masters such as Tommy McCook and Byron Lee, as well as some serious dub from the likes of Augustus Pablo, King Tubby and Jackie Mittoo.

New bonus tracks on this updated 2023 edition include seminal dancehall party cuts Sister Nancy’s ‘One Two’ and Chaka Demus and Pliers’ ‘Murder She Wrote’, alongside classic soul to reggae covers including cuts of Marlena Shaw’s ‘Women of the Ghetto’ and Odyssey’s ‘Don’t Tell Me Tell Her’.

“In Soul Jazz’s outstanding ‘DYNAMITE!’ series, ‘200%’ is the head turner. The label has its finger on the pulse of the now just as surely as it does on that of the past.” - Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Augustus Pablo - Rockers Rock
K.C. White - No No No
Tenor Saw - Ring The Alarm
Johnny Osbourne - Bewitched
Pinchers - Agony
The Abyssinians - Mandela
Sister Nancy - One, Two
King Tubby Meets Tommy McCook And The
Aggrovators - King Tubby Dub
Chaka Demus & Pliers - Murder She Wrote
Johnny Osbourne - Ready Or Not
Jackie Mittoo - Earthquake
Sandra Reid - Don't Tell Me Tell Her
The Skatalites Meet King Tubby - Herb Man Dub
Kim Harriott - Woman Of The Ghetto

You are about to embark on a new intergalactic journey into black space, fuelled by funk, powered by computers.

Soul Jazz Records’ new second collection of twisted hyperspace electro / funk ‘Space Funk 2: Afro Futurist Electro Funk in Space 1976-84’, continues its intergalactic journey. Featuring rare and off-the-wall space funk and electro rarities and obscurities, all released on small independent USA record labels in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Artists on this release include Alien Starr, Bobby Demo, Maggatron, Mid-City Crew, Tribe, Junie, Rich Cason and the Galactic Orchestra, and many more intergalactic space warriors.

The CD / 2LP comes in striking deluxe artwork featuring the radical African American model Pat Evans, who graced numerous album covers for The Ohio Players in the 1970s.

The space shuttle program has been altered, there are no star wars - only electro jam joyriders in space! Reactors are reacting, boosters are boosting, the countdown has started. This is space age bionic funk, programmed to make you dance.

TRACK LISTING

Alien Starr - Music-A-Lizer
Chance - Master Groove (Instrumental)
The Bobby Deemo Band - More Ounce Rap
Mack Simmons - Skin Tight
Maggotron - Computer Pop
Tribe - Vulcan Voyage
Command Performance - Breakdance
Junei - Let's Ride
The Graingers - Shine Your Light
Mid City Crew - Get Right
Chapter Three - Smurf Trek
X-Ray Vision - Video Control
Rich Cason And The Galactic Orchestra - Year 2001 Boogie
Frank James And Shadow - Summer Time

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Holy Church of the Ecstatic Soul - A Higher Power - Gospel, Funk & Soul at the Crossroads 1971-83’ draws upon the extensive links between black American gospel music and soul music, showing how the sensibilities of gospel artists such as Shirley Caeser, Dorothy Norwood, Andrae Crouch and others crossed over into secular soul music during this period.

The album was first available as a long-sold out coloured vinyl edition for RSD 2023 and is now available on black double vinyl and for the first time on CD.

Many of the most successful soul artists - from Aretha Franklin to Al Green, The Staple Singers to Sam Cooke - all drew upon their upbringing in the church for their musical inspiration. This album discusses how important the links between the black church and soul music were in creating soul music and spotlights some of the many important (and also little-known) gospel artists who walked this line between sacred music and soul, funk and disco in the 1970s and early 1980s.

‘Holy Church Of The Ecstatic Soul’ shows how sacred gospel music was at home with Stevie Wonder, Blaxploitation-style funk, and produced music celebrated both in New York’s underground discos (The Paradise Garage, Studio 54, etc) and later sampled by the likes of Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Mary J Blige.

“Curated with an obvious passion and sense of history, ‘Holy Church Of The Ecstatic Soul’ serves as the perfect intro to the funky spirituals that once served as the foundation for various schools of sound (Philly R&B, disco, soul) over the last 50 years.” - The Wire

TRACK LISTING

Andraé Crouch & The Disciples - Satisfied
Shirley Caesar - Jesus Children Of America
The Meditation Singers - Trouble's Brewin'
The Clark Sisters - You Brought The Sunshine
Dorothy Norwood - Let Your Feet Down Easy
Shirley Caesar - Jesus Is Coming
Swan Silvertones - If You Believe Your God Is Dead
The Alvin Darling Ensemble - Is There Anybody Here?
Roscoe Robinson - There's A Creator
Destiny - Nothing Can Stop Me Now
The Meditation Singers - Good Old Gospel Music
Keith Barrow - Everything Is Gonna Be Alright
Roscoe Robinson - Elijah
Dyson's Faces - Till I've Got This Feelin' Of Love
The Violinaires - The Upper Way
Leomia Boyd And The Gospel Music Makers - Higher In Jesus' Love
Keith Barrow - The Right Road Now

New 20th anniversary edition of Soul Jazz Records’ long out-of-print ‘Miami Sound: Rare Funk & Soul from Miami, Florida, 1967-74’. The album has been unavailable for more than 15 years and is newly remastered.

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Miami Sound’ features rare and classic funk and deep soul from Miami, Florida between 1967 and 1974. The album brings together million-selling artists such as Gwen McCrae, George McCrae and Timmy Thomas alongside artists little known outside of the sunshine state such as James Knight and The Butlers, Frank Williams And The Rocketeers and All The People.

Miami funk, soul and disco was dominated by TK Records, founded by Henry Stone in the early 1970s. Through myriad associated record labels such as Alston, Blue Candle, Dash, Glades, Cat and more, TK Records made international artists out of Gwen McRae and her brother George McRae, Betty Wright and KC and The Sunshine Band, all in the mid-1970s crossover period between soul and disco.

The music on this compilation shows the roots of this Miami sound. All the artists and musicians on this album worked together throughout the heyday of TK Records, when it produced hit after hit on an almost daily basis. The house band (the equivalent to Motown’s Funk Brothers) included songwriters such as Clarence Reid (AKA Blowfly, the adult comedian), Casey Finch (KC from KC and The Sunshine Band) along with musicians Little Beaver, Frank Williams and Robert Moore. As well as being the in-house band, most of these artists also ran successful solo careers, making Miami one of the most musically creative hot spots in the USA.

The artists on this compilation include Helene Smith, Miami’s first lady of Soul, Frank Williams and The Rocketeers (featuring a very young Little Beaver on vocals), George McRae’s rare groove classic ‘I Get Lifted’ (written by Casey Finch), Timmy Thomas’ truly experimental track ‘Funky Me’, Gwen McRae’s classic ‘90% Of Me Is You’, as well as a host of practically unknown Miami artists who never managed to make it outside the city borders.

TRACK LISTING

All The People - Cramp Your Style
Helene Smith - You Got To Be A Man
George McCrae - I Get Lifted
James Knight And The Butlers - Funky Cat
Gwen McCrae - 90% Of Me Is You
Little Beaver - Funkadelic Sound
James Knight And The Butlers - Save Me
Joey Gilmore - Do It To Me One More Time
Helene Smith - A Woman Will Do Wrong
James Knight And The Butlers - Fantasy World
Timmy Thomas - Funky Me
The New Clarence Reid - Cadillac Annie
Frank Williams And The Rocketeers - The Spanish Flyer
Della Humphrey - Don’t Make The Good Girls Go Bad
Frank Williams And The Rocketeers - You Got To Be A Man
Joey Gilmore - Somebody Done Took My Baby And Gone
Little Beaver - I Love The Way You Love

One-off Soul Jazz Records’ collectors Punk 45 pressing. Comes in fold out paper sleeve and specially silk-screened Punk 45 outer sleeve.

Electric Chairs’ ‘So Many Ways’ is post-punk / funk at its height in 1979 - tough rhythms, avant-garde, addictively hypnotic and hypnotic. Two hard to find bomb tunes.

Superb exact reproduction of this excellent postpunk / funk mini masterpiece by the Electric Chairs, who were Wayne / Jayne County and the Electric Chairs until Wayne / Jayne County, true to their own song, ‘Fucked Off’. The Electric Chairs included in their line-up Henry Padovani, who joined the group after being chucked out of a new band called The Police (replaced by Andy Summers).

However, it’s the production skills of David Cunningham that sets this apart from most punk / post-punk singles. At the time Cunningham was working with a stunning array of avant-garde artists including This Heat, Michael Nyman, David Toop and his own ‘experimental pop group’, The Flying Lizards.

Electric Chair’s ‘So Many Ways’ features on Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess’.

TRACK LISTING

So Many Ways
J’Attends Les Marines

Soul Jazz Records release a new expanded version of ‘Studio One 007 - Licenced to Ska: James Bond and other Film Soundtracks and TV Themes’, originally only available as a long deleted 7” RSD box set.

This new edition is fully remastered and expanded to a massive 18 super rare and killer cuts from the Studio One empire.

Featuring The Skatalites, Lee Perry, Jackie Mittoo, Bob Marley, The Wailers, Roland Alphonso and The Soul Brothers - rare and classic tracks from Jamaica’s no.1 record label, Studio One.

Extensive sleevenotes discuss the connections between James Bond, Jamaica and Ska music. Jamaica was the setting for ‘Dr. No’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ and the recent ‘No Time to Die’, and the home for Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming. There is also an extended essay on The Skatalites and their post modern love and ska-ification of all styles of music, from classical music to TV themes, from detective movies to ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.

Aside from the James Bond-related cuts, this album also includes killer tracks from the secret agent 1969 spoof, ‘Our Man Flint’, the Clint Eastwood-starring Spaghetti Western, ‘Hang ‘Em High’, the Brazilian movie masterpiece, ‘Black Orpheus’, and more besides.

TRACK LISTING

Jackie Mittoo And The Soul Brothers - James Bond
The Skatalites - Dick Tracy
The Soul Brothers - James Bond Girl
The Skatalites - Guns Of Navarone Roland Alphonso And The Studio
One Orchestra - From Russia With Love
The Soul Brothers - Thunderball
Jackie Mittoo - Hang 'Em High
The Soul Brothers - Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Soul Brothers - 007
Lee Perry And The Wailers - Pussy Galore
The Soul Brothers - Mr. Flint
The Skatalites - Ball Of Fire
The Soul Brothers - James Bond Danger Man
The Soul Brothers - Lawman
The Skatalites - Black Orpheus
The Skatalites - Exodus
The Skatalites - Dr. Kildare
The Soul Brothers - Fiddler On The Roof

Out of print for over 40 years, this is a true rare 12” party hip-hop classic, reissued by Soul Jazz Records.

Absolutely stunning very rare old school party disco rap 12” performed by members of the Chicago public high school, Carver High.

Originally released in 1982 on their own private press label, Challenger Records.

The track is the opening highlight of Soul Jazz Records’ recent ‘Yo! Boombox’ collection and is featured here in its full glorious seven and a half minutes and comes complete with exact replica of the striking original hand-drawn artwork.

TRACK LISTING

Get Live ’83 (The Senior Rap)
The Carver Senior Song (Class Of ’83)

This incredible new release follows a path along the electronic skyways first created by the German Krautrock electronic pioneers of the 1970s, such as Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Roedelius and Michael Rother.

Hawksmoor is James McKeown. He first created Hawksmoor five years ago as an imaginary hauntological soundtrack, inspired by the six Hawksmoor churches in London. Further releases have followed on Environmental Studies, the cassette-only label Spun Out of Control, Castles in Space and The Library of The Occult.

For his debut on Soul Jazz Records, Hawksmoor has created a fascinating blend of these two sensibilities – a love of German electronic music of the 1970s alongside the British retrofuturism and cultural memory bank aesthetic of hauntology - Ghost Box, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Advisory Circle, Focus Group, etc.

Using strictly modular synths (Moog Sub37), electronic drum rhythms and guitars, Hawksmoor creates an electronic landscaped music world that is both new and old, immediately identifiable and yet utterly unique.

TRACK LISTING

Cycloid
Nuclear Kites
Praxis
Telepathic Heights
Athanasia
A Neural Interval
Synesius
The City Ships Of Alpha
Dream Logic
Abstract Machines

‘Studio One Rocksteady’: With excellent sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of the classic book ‘Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King’), this album is dedicated to rocksteady at Studio One, as well as covering reggae soul and the birth of reggae. Featuring an all-star selection of artists: Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths, Jackie Mittoo, The Heptones, John Holt, Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown and more. “Soul Jazz’s excellent collection… even without the history, the importance, and the ins and outs, this music isn’t as much of an intellectual pursuit as it is a pleasure in every note… tremendously tight vocal arrangements… just chock full of creativity, developing a unique sound in every single.” - Pitchfork

‘Studio One Women’: Ska, rocksteady, funky reggae, roots, dub mixes, disco mixes, they’re all here from the queens of the Jamaican music scene - Studio One Women features a wide mix of classics and obscurities from the finest female voices in reggae. Until now most of these tracks have only ever been available as extremely hard to find Jamaican 7” and 12” singles, and even if you were lucky enough to find them, they’d cost you a small fortune.

Super cool one-off collector’s pressing in a fold out paper sleeve and specially silk-screened ‘Punk 45’ outer sleeve.

Exact reproduction of this excellent two-sider (double B-side) ‘The Only Sound’ / ‘New Musical Express’, the debut punk single by Dansette Damage from Birmingham, originally released on the tiny Shoestring Records in early 1978.

The tracks were produced incognito by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. “Robert put all needles in the red which is why it sounds so raw! Also, we couldn’t sing and you can hear Robert’s high falsetto at the top end, trying to keep us lot in tune!” said the band.

Original copies of this record sell for over £100, so here is a chance to see and hear what all the fuss is about.

Dansette Damage’s ‘NME’ features on Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess’.

TRACK LISTING

The Only Sound
New Musical Express

‘Mind Maze’ is the new album by Trees Speak on Soul Jazz Records.

‘Mind Maze’ is, amazingly, Trees Speak’s fifth album to be released on Soul Jazz Records in the space of little over two years - an output matched only by the intensity of their music created during this short time.

As with all their previous releases, ‘Mind Maze’ is a mind-boggling tightrope walk across an array of musical influences that seamlessly create the unique present-day world of Trees Speak.

The band’s sound is characterized by a combination of German Krautrock motoricbeat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, 60s spy soundtracks, psych, rock, jazz, and 70s synthesizers and vocoders. There is also a cosmic spatial awareness to their sound, both personal inner space and galactic outer space, as well as a wilful pushing of sonic boundaries.

Trees Speak are a musical duo based in Tucson, Arizona, composed of Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz. Their music is heavily influenced by the cosmic magic of the natural desert landscapes of Arizona, creating a unique and captivating sound that is both experimental and innovative. ‘Mind Maze’ was recorded in Brooklyn, New York with special guests Gabriel Sullivan, Alex Pope, Craig Dreyer, Ben Nisbet and Stephani Guilmette.

Here you will find the myriad sounds of 1970s German electronic music (everything from CAN to Cluster, Popul Vuh to Tangerine Dream); 1980s New York post-punk and synthcore (from No Wave to Suicide); John Barry’s 1960s movies, John Carpenter’s 1970s horror. You will also hear the influences of French and Italian progressive rock (Magma, Goblin) as well as cosmic, new age and experimental space soundscapes … an almost endless list of diverse influences that ebb and flow like an ocean of sound, in the process creating a truly unique soundscape that Trees Speak have made wholly their own.

The name Trees Speak reflects their interest in the concept of using future technologies to store information and data in trees and plants, with the idea that trees communicate collectively. This interest in nature and technology, combined with their passion for experimentation, has led Trees Speak to create a truly one-of-a-kind listening experience that is both unique and engaging.

If you ever wanted to hear CAN, Neu!, Destroy All Monsters, Pere Ubu, electric eels, John Cage, Liquid Liquid, Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Laurie Spiegel, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Barry, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, Sun Ra, Stockhausen, John Carpenter, Electro-Acoustic and Musique Concrète and Mars in one band, then this is it! Trees Speak are a band that defies categorization and offer an eclectic listening experience, both exciting and memorable.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Despite their blistering work rate, Trees Speak manage to consistently come up with the goods for 'Much More Known For A Great Compilation' behemoth Soul Jazz records. Their latest treads similar ground to the past few for the label but as ever branch out beautifully into a few subsidiaries of their extremely well-heeled kosmische groove.

TRACK LISTING

Mind Maze
Minotaur
Syndrome
Sospetto
Illusions
Scanner
Burner
Rare Earth
Pathways
Skip Breath
Odyssey
Passage
Signals
Black Phone
Mirror
Stone Tape

Bonus 7” (SJRLP527 Only)
Seraphim
Orpheus

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Space, Energy & Light’ is a collection of music by early electronic and synthesizer pioneers (from the 1960s through the 1970s), mid-1970s proto-new age gurus and 1980s guerrilla DIY cassette-era electronic artists, spanning in total over a near 30-year time frame. These artists used electronic advancements in music technology as a means of exploring not only space and the idea of the future but also of looking inwards to the soul and of creating music in harmony with the natural world.

From computer software and hardware experimentalists and sound pioneers such as Laurie Spiegel and Kevin Braheny, as well as Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company - the first synthesizer ensemble created in collaboration with Robert Moog - through to the earliest musique concrète experimentation of Tod Dockstader, the album shows how technological advancements and creative artistic expression went hand in hand.

In the mid-1970s artists Steven Halpern and Iaxos were instrumental in creating proto-new age music, experimenting in both the healing properties of sound and its relationship with the natural world. These artists also pioneered a new self-contained and underground DIY approach to music, creating their own record labels, forming new distribution networks (with albums sold in meditation centres, health food stores and ashrams) far away from the commercialism of the mainstream music industry. In the early 1980s after the revolution of punk, these DIY attitudes and ideas appeared once more in the growth of the distinctly anti-commercial and underground cassetteonly careers of artists such as Germany’s Stratis and Carl Matthews in Britain.

Album artwork includes some of the earliest photography of the Plieades star cluster dating from the 1880s.

“Listening to ‘Space, Energy & Light’ in one sitting is a bit like experiencing constellations exploding within constellations inside your brain.” - Record Collector

TRACK LISTING

J.B. Banfi - Gang (For The Rock Industry)
Michael Garrison - To The Other Side Of The Sky
Iasos - Lueena Coast
Carl Matthews - As Above, So Below
Tim Blake - Midnight
Stratis - By Water
Laurie Spiegel - Improvisation On A ‘Concerto Generator’
Mother Mallard’s Portable
Masterpiece Company - Ceres Motion
Michael Stearns - In The Beginning
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Ever New
Richard Pinhas - Variations VII Sur
Le Thème Des Bene Gesserit
Tod Dockstader - Piece #1
Kevin Braheny - Ancient Stars
Steven Halpern - Starborn Suite (Part 1)

18 years on from its original release, ‘Studio One Funk’ remains one of Soul Jazz Records’ most in demand Studio One titles.

‘Studio One Funk’ is made up of rare and unreleased reggae funk from the vaults of Studio One. Ever since the birth of funk in America, the sound has been an ever-present ingredient in the melting pot of Studio One’s musical output.

The music on this release is a combination of originals, US covers and versions of existing Studio One cuts. Jackie Mittoo shows his appreciation for Booker T and The MGs, the studio group at Memphis’ famous Stax Records, with ‘Hang ‘Em High’, itself a cover of a film soundtrack by Dominic Frontiere. Incredibly this version has never before been released. Booker T’s super funky ‘Melting Pot’ is also covered by the little-known Underground Vegetables.

Other versions include Isaac Hayes’ classic Blaxploitation soundtrack ‘Shaft’, again by Cedric Im Brooks, another unreleased gem, straight from the tape master. Motown gets a look in with Alton’s stripped-down version of the Spinners classic, ‘It’s A Shame’, written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta.

James Brown is apparent in spirit with the JBs-inspired groove on the super rare cut, ‘Now’, by Lee Arab. Lloyd Williams similarly does a fine Kingston-style version of the hardest-working man in showbusiness on ‘Reggae Feet’.

Version-wise, we have ‘Idleberg’, Cedric Im Brooks’ tough instrumental cut on Horace Andy’s seminal ‘Skylarking’. The little-known Prince Moonie gives us a rare DJ cut of another Horace Andy classic, ‘See A Man’s Face’.

Pablove Black’s cut of Sidewalk Doctor (aka Poco Tempo) is one of a handful of Studio One releases featuring Augustus Pablo’s trademark instrument, the melodica, played by Black himself.

Add to these original cuts from Studio One’s heavyweight session players, including Leroy Sibbles, Jackie Mittoo, Leroy Sibbles, Eric Frater, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, Richard Ace, Vin Gordon and more, and you have one of the finest selections of reggae and funk you will ever hear.

“An absolute treasure trove for the collector as well as being great for the ears and feet. Jackie Mittoo's 'Hang Em High' is worth the price of the album on its own.” - Echoes

“A superb collection that shows how much many Jamaican musicians were influenced by the heavy funk belting out of American studios from the early seventies onwards.” - Touch

“The most satisfying listening experience so far in the Studio One series.” - The Wire

TRACK LISTING

Cedric Im Brooks - Shaft
Alton Ellis - African Descendants
Pablove Black - Poco Tempo
Lloyd Williams – Reggae Feet
Jackie Mittoo - Hang ‘Em High
Cedric Im Brooks - Idleberg
Prince Francis - Beat Down Babylon
Lee Arab - Now
Soul Bros - 007
Prince Moonie - See A Man’s Face
Im And Sound Dimension - Love Jah
Leroy Sibbles - Do Your Thing
The Sharks - Music Answer
Underground Vegetables - Melting Pot
Devon Russell - You Found Heaven
Vin Gordon - Steady Beat
Alton Ellis - It’s A Shame
Roy Richards - Another Day
Delroy Wilson - Funky Broadway

Count Ossie is the central character in the development of Rastafarian roots music, nowadays an almost mythical and iconic figure. His importance in bringing Rastafarian music to a populist audience is matched only by Bob Marley’s promotion of the faith internationally in the 1970s.

Count Ossie’s drummers performed on the first commercially released single to integrate Rastafarian traditional music with popular music: the vocal group The Folkes Brothers’ groundbreaking song ‘Oh Carolina’, recorded for producer Prince Buster in 1959. In 1966 his drummers greeted the momentous arrival of Haile Selassie at Kingston airport.

His legendary jam sessions up in his Rastafarian compound in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, are famous for the many Jamaican musicians who attended including The Skatalites players - Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibbs - and many others.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, a union of Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers - variously known as his African Drums, Wareikas or his Afro-Combo - and the saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks’ horns group, The Mystics.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the defining group in bringing authentic Rastafarian rhythms into the collective consciousness of popular music, their unique music is at once rooted in the deep traditions and rituals of traditional drumming and chanting alongside a forward-thinking, even avant-garde, artistry influenced by the likes of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and other pioneering African-American jazz artists radicalised and charged by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

TRACK LISTING

Sam's Intro
Tales Of Mozambique
Selam Nna Wadada (Peace
And Love)
No Night In Zion
I Am A Warrior
Wicked Babylon
Let Freedom Reign
Lock, Stock & Barrell
Nigerian Reggae
Run One Mil
Rasta Reggae
Samia

‘Studio One Soul’ tracks the link between American Funk and Soul and Jamaican Reggae at the legendary Studio One Records.

Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Temptations, King Floyd, Booker T and The MGs - all these artists had a huge influence on Jamaican artists and this album contains versions of songs by all of them. Featuring classic and rare Reggae Funk and Soul cuts from the Reggae giants alongside rarer cuts, Studio One Soul spans over 20 years of classic Reggae from the Rocksteady Funk through to the deep Roots music.

Following on from Studio One Rockers, this second journey into the vaults of Studio One tells the story of the important link between American Funk and Soul and Jamaican Reggae. Ranging from music taken from the mid-1960s (and the arrival of Rocksteady) through to the beginning of the 1980s, Studio One Soul features versions of US Funk and Soul hits (many rarely heard before) from some of the many classic artists who recorded at Studio One. American Soul music has always been an important influence on Jamaican Reggae.

The beginning of the Jamaican recording industry at the end of the 1950s started with Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd (owner of Studio One) and a group of select in-house musicians (originally The Skatalites) recording their own version of American R&B. Playing on the off-beat, this music became Ska.

As American R&B progressed through Funk, Soul and Disco, Jamaican music was going through its own musical changes, from Rocksteady through to Reggae and Roots music. The house-band at Studio One recorded on a daily basis behind all Studio One vocalists as well as recording instrumentally in its own right.

Soul singers such as Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions (Queen Of The Minstrels) had a profound influence on Jamaican artists and many other US artists were constantly re-interpreted and re-worked. Artists such as Aretha Franklin (‘Respect’), Charles Wright (‘Express Yourself’), King Floyd (‘Groove Me’), Otis Redding (‘How Strong’) were all very popular in Jamaica in the 1960s.

At the end of the 1960s, Black Consciousness became an important part of American Soul music. At the same time many Jamaican artists were starting to look to their roots. Many artists would shortly become involved in Rastafarianism. The ‘conscious’ lyrics of American Funk and Soul again struck a chord with Jamaican artists. ‘Message From A Blackman’ (originally by The Temptations) and ‘Is It Because I’m Black’ (Syl Johnson) are examples of this. Through the 1970s Soul / Disco artists such as Barry White (‘Can’t Get Enough’ and ‘Deeper and Deeper’) and The Detroit Spinners (‘I’ll Be Around’) became the flavour of the day. The album finishes with Willie Williams’ interpretation of Ashford and Simpson’s classic ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’.

TRACK LISTING

Leroy Sibbles - Express Yourself
Norma Fraser - Respect
Leroy Sibbles - Groove Me
Sound Dimension - Time Is Tight
The Heptones - Message From A Black Man
Otis Gayle - I'll Be Around
Jerry Jones - Still Water
Sound Dimension - Soulful Strut
Richard Ace - Can't Get Enough
The Chosen Few - Don't Break Your Promise
The Eternals - Queen Of The Minstrels
Norma Fraser - The First Cut Is The Deepest
Ken Parker - How Strong
Ken Boothe - Set Me Free
Senior Soul - Is It Because I'm Black
Jackie Mittoo - Deeper & Deeper
Alton Ellis - I Don't Want To Be Right
Willie Williams - No One Can Stop Us

Massive double header of two killer instrumental anthems from Brentford Road in the latest in a series of special edition 12”s of all-time classic Studio One party bombs, available on super loud 12”. Cedric Brooks’ ‘Mun Dun Go’ was first released onStudio One / Bamboo in the UK in 1970, and is an incredibly hypnotic tune, with original copies extremely rare and fetching up to £600. Shortly after this recording, saxophonist Brooks went on to form The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari with Count Ossie. On the flip, The Sound Dimension’s ‘Heavy Rock’is one of the foundation instrumental tunes of reggae music, endlessly versioned by dancehall artists - a true anthem. 100% essential monster Studio One tunes that rock any dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

Cedric Im Brooks - Mun Dun Go
Sound Dimension - Heavy Rock

Willie Williams’ seminal ’No One Can Stop UsNow’ is a cover of Ashford and Simpson’s soul /disco classic ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’, and is simply one of the greatest, most soulful reggae / disco cuts ever made. This is the latest in the series of special edition 12”s of all-time classic Studio One party bombs available on super loud 12”. First released on Studio One in 1979, this party anthem features the sublime keyboards of Jackie Mittoo alongside the awesome studio group, The Brentford All Stars (here working under the name The Brentford Disco Set). 100% essential monster Studio One tunes that rock any dancefloor

TRACK LISTING

No One Can Stop Us Now
No One Can Stop Us Now (Version)

Soul Jazz Records’ long out of print classic ‘Studio One Women’ collection is being re-released as a new 18th Anniversary edition.

18 years on from its original release, ‘Studio One Women’ remains one of the ‘Studio One’ series’ most in demand titles and, like all the earlier special coloured editions, is sure to sell out fast.

Ska, rocksteady, funky reggae, roots, dub mixes, disco mixes - they’re all here from the queens of the Jamaican music scene - ‘Studio One Women’ features a wide mix of classics and obscurities from the finest female voices in reggae.

Until now most of these tracks have only ever been available as extremely hard to find Jamaican 7” and 12” singles, and even if you were lucky enough to find them, they’d cost you a small fortune.

Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley (here with her first group, The Soulettes, whose iconic image features on the cover) are two of Jamaica’s most famous female singers, hugely popular today. Both artists became internationally famous as The I - Threes (along with Judy Mowatt), Bob Marley’s backing singers alongside The Wailers. Also featured are Hortense Ellis, sister of Alton, who cut many smash hits on the island, and Jennifer Lara, a lady who had a long career with Studio One, singing on countless sides.

‘Studio One Women’ refers not just to the small selection of artists featured here but also to those who took integral roles throughout the Studio One empire, starting with Doris Darlington, mother of Clement Dodd. Sir Coxsone’s Downbeat Soundsystem, which ruled the dancehalls of Kingston throughout the 1950s and 60s, started off as the musical entertainment for customers of Mrs Darlington’s Nannys Bar.

Clement Dodd often referred to his mother as ‘Jamaica’s first female DJ’, as she would play records at the bar whenever he was on trips to the US, hunting down R&B records. Other important women behind the scenes included Norma Dodd (wife of Clement), whose sleevenotes featured on many Studio One releases, and Enid Cumberland who, as well as being a successful artist (half of the duo Keith and Enid), taught harmony in the studio and ran the studio shop.

It would also be impossible not to mention Sister Ignatius, who ran the infamous Alpha Boys School for over 50 years, encouraging students which included Tommy McCook, Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore, Lester Sterling and Don Drummond, Theo Beckford, Cedric Brooks, Johnny Osbourne and countless other musicians and artists to excel at music, and many of whom became integral to the success of Studio One.

TRACK LISTING

Claudette McLean - Give Love Another Try
Jennifer Lara - My Man
The Soulettes - A Deh Pon Dem
Della Humphrey - Dream Land
Jennifer Lara - Consider Me
Denise Darlington - War No Right
Hortense Ellis - I’m Just A Girl
Angela Prince - No Bother With No Fuss
Jerry Jones - There’s A Chance For Me
The Soulettes - King Street
Jennifer Lara - Tell Me Where
The Tonettes - I’ll Give It To You
Marcia Griffiths - Tell Me Now
The Jay Tees - Come To Me
Angela Prince - You A Fool Boy
Jennifer Lara - I Am In Love

Initially released in a deluxe vinyl-only edition (now totally sold out), Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess!’ is now released in standard double album vinyl (and for the first time on CD).

Soul Jazz Records’ long lasting ‘Punk 45’ series are high quality editions of early punk 45s. While previous editions have focused on the early days of punk in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Akron, France, and proto-punk, this new edition focuses on mainly do-it-yourself, or self-released 45s, all made in the UK in the early days of punk.

While only a handful of Punk 45s were released in 1976, the following two years produced an avalanche of them. Aside from the few punk bands who signed to major labels, many of these singles were self-released private press 45s or independent label 45s. With limited distribution and access to the media, many of these sunk without trace and were lost in history. This album features many of these independent punk 45 gems, lost nuggets of gold from the sea of time.

The bands featured here come from all across the United Kingdom. Here you will find The Drive, Scotland’s answer to the New York Dolls, Dansette Damage from Newcastle, Stormtrooper from the Isle of Wight and many more - a snapshot of some of the finest private press 45s ever made. Other bands include Cybermen, The Exile and Neon, as well as the early punk incarnations Johnny and The Self-Abusers (who later became Simple Minds) and The Killjoys (led by Kevin Rowland, who later formed Dexy’s Midnight Runners).

These are all one-off and super rare releases from bands that you have probably never heard of - totally hidden gems from the wastelands of the early days of punk. Totally in keeping with the spirit of the time, this is high octane and righteously independent.

TRACK LISTING

The Art Attacks - I Am A Dalek
The Drive - Jerkin
Johnny And The Self Abusers - Saints And Sinners
Trash - Priorities
The Carpettes - Help I'm Trapped
Stormtrooper - I'm A Mess
The Electric Chairs - So Many Ways
Social Security - I Don't Want My Heart To Rule My Head
Neon Hearts - Venus Eccentric
The Cybermen - Cybernetic Surgery
The Killjoys - Naive
The Reducers - Things Go Wrong
Johnny Moped - No One
Neon - Bottles
V2 - Speed Freak
The Exile - Fascist DJ
Lucy - Feel So Good
Machines - True Life
Dansette Damage - N.M.E.

New special one-off pressing gold CD / gold vinyl edition of this deep spiritual jazz classic.

Drummer legend extraordinaire, Vietnam conscientious objector, ex- Black Panther, Steve Reid has played with everyone from James Brown to Sun Ra, Fela Kuti and Miles Davis, was a friend of John Coltrane, worked at Motown and, in the latter part of his career, worked extensively with Kieran Hebden, following his path of a radical, revolutionary music up until his untimely death in 2010.

Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing this rarest release of deep heavyweight jazz by Steve Reid and The Master Brotherhood, entitled ‘Odyssey of the Oblong Square’, first released over thirty five years ago on Steve Reid’s own Mustevic Sound record label (where it came out in an edition of 1000 copies) and has been a serious collector’s album ever since.

Steve Reid became known worldwide for his radical collaborations with Kieran Hebden after they first recorded together on the Steve Reid Ensemble album, ‘Spirit Walk’, released on Soul Jazz in 2005, releasing five joint releases together in the following years.

Steve Reid is steeped in musical history and a true pioneer of US deep leftfield jazz. He played in Sun Ra’s Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer and backed James Brown at the Apollo. He was a Black Panther, imprisoned during the Vietnam war as a conscientious objector and lived in Africa in the early 1970s. Reid worked with Freddie Hubbard, Gary Bartz, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Fela Kuti, Leon Thomas, Miles Davis and many more in his long illustrious and groundbreaking career.

TRACK LISTING

1. Odyssey Theme
2. Deacon’s Son
3. Odyssey Sweet
4. Ginsameng

‘Disco Reggae Rockers’ features wicked reggae disco versions of funk, soul and disco classics.

This new album follows on from Soul Jazz Records’ earlier highly successful ‘Hustle: Disco Reggae’ and features reggae covers of classic songs by Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers, Candi Staton, Curtis Mayfield and more, as performed by Derrick Harriott, Devon Russell, Hortense Ellis, Glen Adams, Dave Barker and others.

The most straightforward definition of ‘Disco Reggae’ is to describe it as American disco and soul songs covered by reggae artists. But the relationship is binary – this is no mere subservient island appreciation of North American dominant culture but instead an example of the interweaving thread of Jamaican and American music that travels back and forth between the major cities of Kingston, London, Toronto, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

TRACK LISTING

Devon Russell - Move On Up
Crashers - Flight To Jamaica
Valerie Harrison - Fool’s Paradise
Bill Campbell - For The Love Of You
Risco Connection - It’s My House
Dave Barker - Glow Of Love
Derrick Harriott - Caught You In A Lie
Hortense Ellis - Young Hearts Run Free
Ed Watson And Brass Circle - Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
Devon Russell - We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue
Seventh Extension - Reasons
Derrick Harriott - Brown Baby
Ed Watson And Brass Circle - Let’s Groove
Pete Campbell & The Sunshine Girls - Don’t Let Love Get You Down
Webby Jay - In The Rain
Glen Adams Affair - Just A Groove

Like Sun Ra’s Arkestra and John Coltrane are to jazz, the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are to reggae - the ultimate expression of roots music and Rastafarian ideology in reggae music, music functioning at a high level of spiritual consciousness combined with an equally avantgarde and forward-looking approach to sound.

The group’s stunning, unique and groundbreaking 1973 album, ‘Grounation’, a mighty conceptual triple album (the first ever reggae triple) is, similar to Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, a definitive all-encompassing cultural statement of its time and place. A sprawling album of raw and unique cultural expression that combined Rastafari consciousness with deep spiritual jazz music - an absolute and essential classic of Reggae music.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari group came into existence at the start of 1970s, the union of two artists (and groups) of equal repute - Count Ossie and his African Drums and saxophonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’ and his group, The Mystics. Both Ossie and Brooks were alumni from the great Studio One Records.

Master drummer Count Ossie and his collective of Rastafarian drummers performed for Haile Selassie on his momentous visit to Jamaica in 1966. Cedric Brooks came out of the Alpha Boys School - the fertile breeding ground of musicians who dominated the Jamaican music scene from the 1960s onwards: Tommy McCook, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Headley Bennett, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Leroy Smart, Bobby Ellis, Joe Harriott, Eddie Thornton, Vin Gordon, Rico Rodriguez, Owen Gray, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace and more.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari’s ‘Grounation’ is a massive opus, a work of profound musical genius that tells the story of Jamaica through music and words. The album is a cornerstone in the history of reggae, a unique and other-worldly album the like of which has never been made since.

TRACK LISTING

2CD / 3LP
Bongo Man
Narration
Narration Continued
Mabrat (Passin Thru)
Poem
Four Hundred Years
Poem II
Song
Lumba
Way Back Home
Ethiopian Serenade
Oh Carolina
So Long
Grounation
Grounation Continued
Bonus 7” Single (With Box Set Version Only)
Blacker Black
Grounation

Collection of the lost recordings of Fast Eddie, one of the most exciting live bands of the early 1980s Rhythm ‘n’ Soul-fuelled Mod Revival.

From Billericay, the band followed in the wake of Thames Delta Blues pioneers Dr. Feelgood, originally playing raw, authentic R&B before expanding their sound to incorporate club soul and a broader palette of influences and sounds.

Originally produced and managed by legendary label man and broadcaster Eddie Piller, founder of Acid Jazz, who released their first single on his first own Well Suspect marque in 1982.

An exciting collection of Mod-Revival-era tunes, and an important document of the wider Mod Revival and Acid Jazz Records story.

TRACK LISTING

Shake A Tail Feather
I Don’t Need No Doctor
Sugar Coated Love
Sweet Sensation
Turn On Your Love Light
Vicinity
My Babe
Ninety-Nine & A Half
Out Of Sight
Fever
Keep Your Hands Off It
Teenie Bit Of Your Love *
Barefootin’
Hit The Road Jack
36-22-36
Homework
Treat Her Right *
Land Of 1000 Dances *
Little Suzy (Instrumental) *
Help Me *
* = CD Only Track

This new Studio collection on Soul Jazz Records delves deep into a melting pot world of reggae and funk and dub created at the music laboratory of 13 Brentford Road, Kingston in the 1970s - an intense collaboration of crack musicians, singers, DJs and engineers under the guidance of producer Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd.

Here you will find some of the deepest and rawest cuts to emanate out the Studio One factory - truly hypnotic rhythms, powerful funk guitar and bass, soaring horns and more interspersed with occasional vocals and toasting as musicians reach for the highest heights and deepest roots of reggae music.

Some of these tunes here are rare and classic versions to seminal Studio One vocal cuts from the likes of Horace Andy and Hortense Ellis. There is also a wealth of cuts from simply the greatest musicians ever to come out of Jamaica (let alone Studio One). These include Jackie Mittoo, Roland Alphonso, Cedric Brooks, Ernest Ranglin and the Brentford All-Stars. You’ll find straight up funk bombs such as Lennie Hibbert’s mindblowing ‘Go For Yourself’ (sounding like The Meters meets James Brown), the Brentford All-Stars covering War’s classic ‘The World is a Ghetto’, and Jackie Mittoo showing how to make Cream’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ into a reggae funk bomb.

All of these sit beside super-deep roots and dub cuts that exemplify together how Studio One was unique in Clement Dodd’s pioneering vision of reggae, the music created functioning with a continuous level of experimentation that blurred the lines between genres and pushed the outer limits of reggae music at all times. This album is deep.

The album comes with extensive sleeve notes by Steve Barker

TRACK LISTING

Hortense And The Sound Dimension -
People Make The World Go Round Version
Leroy Wallace And The New Establishment -
Far Beyond Version
Sound Dimension - Face Man Version
Fabian & The Vibes - Mother And Child (Part
2)
Lennie Hibbert - Go For Yourself
Dub Specialist - Chainey Roots
Brentford All Stars - The World Is A Ghetto
The Jay Tees And Brentford Rockers -
Forward To Jah (Part 2)
Roy Richards - Summertime
Lennie Hibbert - Snow Bird
Pablov Black - Dread Head
Cedric Im Brooks - Glory To Sound
Jackie Mittoo - Lazy Bones
Dub Specialist - Message From Dub
Jackie Mittoo - Sunshine Of Your Love
Roland Alphonso - Tenor Man Trip
Ernest And The Sound Dimension - Surfin’

"A near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music." - The Guardian

‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ is the second voyage into the world of Krautrock and German electronic music from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Two double LPs (with over 2½ hours of amazing music) featuring a stunning line-up of seminal German groups, including Can, Faust, Popul Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, Amon Düül II and La Düsseldorf, as well as a host of lesser known and more obscure groups and artists, such as Agitation Free, Bröselmaschine, Niagara and many more.

As well as the original pioneers, ‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ also features many of the second wave of German electronic artists and groups from the late 70s and early 80s (DAF, Asmus Tietchens, Rolf Trostel), who successfully connected new wave, minimal synth and a European post punk avant-gardism with the earlier more established Krautrock pioneers who began at the start of the 70s.

Influenced as much by the electronic experimentalism of Stockhausen as the progressive rock of USA and UK underground rock, young German artists seamlessly created a new music with its own unique identity, which they ironically entitled Krautrock. By the end of the 1970s, with the arrival of new wave synthetics and complex drum machines, this music had mutated once again into new electronic visions reflecting a new Germany.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
A.R. & Machines - Globus Im Selben Boot
Can - Halleluwah
Roedelius - Le Jardin
Michael Rother - Karussell
Michael Hoenig - Sun And Moon
Agitation Free - You Play For Us Today
D.A.F. - Co Co Pino
Harald Grosskopf - Emphasis
Amon Düül II - A Morning Excuse
Conrad Schnitzler And Wolf
Sequenza - Fata Morgana
Bröselmaschine - Nossa Bova
Eno, Moebius And Roedelius - Base & Apex
Gila - In A Sacred Manner
Wolfgang Riechmann - Himmelblau

Disc 2
A.R. & Machines - Als Hätt Ich
Das Alles Schon Mal Gesehen
Gila - Sundance Chant
Neu! - Isi
Pyrolator - Danger Cruising
Sergius Golowin - Die Weisse Alm
You - Electric Day
Niagara - Gibli
Rolf Trostel - Der Prophet
Electric Sandwich - China
Asmus Tietchens - Zeebrugge
Faust - Krautrock

"A near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music." - The Guardian

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Deutsche Elektronische Music Volume 2’ is now available as two separate double LPs for the first time in over 10 years.

‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ is the second voyage into the world of Krautrock and German electronic music from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Two double LPs (with over 2½ hours of amazing music) featuring a stunning line-up of seminal German groups, including Can, Faust, Popul Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, Amon Düül II and La Düsseldorf, as well as a host of lesser known and more obscure groups and artists, such as Agitation Free, Bröselmaschine, Niagara and many more.

As well as the original pioneers, ‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ also features many of the second wave of German electronic artists and groups from the late 70s and early 80s (DAF, Asmus Tietchens, Rolf Trostel), who successfully connected new wave, minimal synth and a European post punk avant-gardism with the earlier more established Krautrock pioneers who began at the start of the 70s.

Influenced as much by the electronic experimentalism of Stockhausen as the progressive rock of USA and UK underground rock, young German artists seamlessly created a new music with its own unique identity, which they ironically entitled Krautrock. By the end of the 1970s, with the arrival of new wave synthetics and complex drum machines, this music had mutated once again into new electronic visions reflecting a new Germany.

The vinyl edition comes in two volumes of heavyweight, superloud vinyl double LPs, featuring full sleevenotes and text.

TRACK LISTING

A.R. & Machines - Als Hätt Ich
Das Alles Schon Mal Gesehen
Gila - Sundance Chant
Neu! - Isi
Pyrolator - Danger Cruising
Sergius Golowin - Die Weisse Alm
You - Electric Day
Niagara - Gibli
Rolf Trostel - Der Prophet
Electric Sandwich - China
Asmus Tietchens - Zeebrugge
Faust - Krautrock

"A near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music." - The Guardian

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Deutsche Elektronische Music Volume 2’ is now available as two separate double LPs for the first time in over 10 years.

‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ is the second voyage into the world of Krautrock and German electronic music from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Two double LPs (with over 2½ hours of amazing music) featuring a stunning line-up of seminal German groups, including Can, Faust, Popul Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, Amon Düül II and La Düsseldorf, as well as a host of lesser known and more obscure groups and artists, such as Agitation Free, Bröselmaschine, Niagara and many more.

As well as the original pioneers, ‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2’ also features many of the second wave of German electronic artists and groups from the late 70s and early 80s (DAF, Asmus Tietchens, Rolf Trostel), who successfully connected new wave, minimal synth and a European post punk avant-gardism with the earlier more established Krautrock pioneers who began at the start of the 70s.

Influenced as much by the electronic experimentalism of Stockhausen as the progressive rock of USA and UK underground rock, young German artists seamlessly created a new music with its own unique identity, which they ironically entitled Krautrock. By the end of the 1970s, with the arrival of new wave synthetics and complex drum machines, this music had mutated once again into new electronic visions reflecting a new Germany.

The vinyl edition comes in two volumes of heavyweight, superloud vinyl double LPs, featuring full sleevenotes and text.

TRACK LISTING

A.R. & Machines - Globus Im Selben Boot
Can - Halleluwah
Roedelius - Le Jardin
Michael Rother - Karussell
Michael Hoenig - Sun And Moon
Agitation Free - You Play For Us Today
D.A.F. - Co Co Pino
Harald Grosskopf - Emphasis
Amon Düül II - A Morning Excuse
Conrad Schnitzler And Wolf Sequenza - Fata Morgana
Bröselmaschine - Nossa Bova
Eno, Moebius And Roedelius - Base & Apex
Gila - In A Sacred Manner
Wolfgang Riechmann - Himmelblau

One of three monster New Orleans Funk 45s rereleased by Soul Jazz Records.

Only ever exclusively available on the Soul Jazz Records site and long out of print, these new 45s are pristine loud dancefloor fillers housed in a Soul Jazz recycled card house bag.

Inell Young’s searing vocal performance backed by the unbelievably funky James Black’s seriously awesome second-line syncopated drumming. The three funkiest drummers in the world are the Meters’ Zigaboo Modeliste, James Brown’s Clyde Stubblefield, and James Black.

An awesome Eddie Bo arrangement and production. 100% essential.

TRACK LISTING

The Next Ball Game
Part Of The Game

Soul Jazz do it again with this awesome Studio One compilation that follows Jamaican music from ska, via rocksteady, reggae, deejay and dub to early dancehall. Featured here are many of the classic tracks from Studio One. From Dawn Penn's legendary "No, No, No" to classics such as Horace Andy's "Skylarking" and Marcia Griffith's "Feel Like Jumping". The Coxsone Soundsystem in the early 60s was one of the three main soundsystems operating in Jamaica alongside his competitors, Prince Buster and Duke Reid. The Studio One catalogue is possibly the largest in Jamaican music and this release is the first in a series of Studio One compilations on Soul Jazz Records. This album comes with an in depth interview with Mr C.S. Dodd, about how he set up and ran his record label in the 1960s and 1970s. Absolutely essential.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sound Dimension - Real Rock
2. Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping
3. Freddy Mcgregor - Bobby Babylon
4. Horace Andy - Skylarking
5. Lennie Hibbert - Village Soul
6. Brentford All-Stars - Greedy G
7. Johnny Osbourne - Truth And Rights
8. Ernest Ranglin - Surfin
9. Michigan & Smiley - Eye Of Danger
10. Dawn Penn - No, No, No
11. The Skatalites - Phoenix City
12. Prince Jazzbo - Crabwalking
13. Jackie Mittoo - Hot Milk
14. Lone Ranger - Badder Dan Dem
15. Cedric Brooks - Ethiopia

‘Black Pride’ is the seminal Lovers Rock tune from Brown Sugar, pressed loud for the first ever time on this new one-off press edition 12” on Soul Jazz Records.

Brown Sugar formed in London in 1976, made up of teenagers Pauline Catlin, Caron Wheeler and Carol Simms. After Brown Sugar, Caron Wheeler became known worldwide as the vocalist in Soul II Soul, and Carol Simms launched a successful solo career under the name Kofi. 

‘Black Pride’ was originally released on the Lovers Rock label, a fledgling reggae label formed by musicians Dennis Bovell and John Kpiaye and producer Dennis Harris. Brown Sugar were unique - not only were they one of the most important of the first wave of lovers rock groups, they were also the only group who managed to successfully blend together a reggae roots consciousness with a lovers rock sensibility. The classic ‘Black Pride’ perfectly reflects this unique sound.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: As lover's rock fever takes over one of the seminal hits of the genre is given a timely repress from the good folks at Soul Jazz

TRACK LISTING

A. Black Pride
B. Proud

Soul Jazz Records follows up one of their most popular Studio One releases with a brand new selection of rare and classic releases by women in reggae. Featuring legendary artists such as Marcia Griffiths, Rita Marley and Hortense Ellis (with a guest appearance by her brother Alton), alongside a host of rarities from lesser-known names such as Nina Soul, Nana Mclean, Denise Darlington, Myrna Hague and also Doreen Schaeffer, a vocalist who was a founding member of The Skatalites.

There are notable covers, from Tyrone Davis’ soul classic ‘Can I Change My Mind’ to The Band’s 60s psychedelic classic ‘Turn Turn Turn’ in a rub-a-dub style. Doreen Schaeffer reversions Alton Ellis’s seminal ‘I’m Still In Love With You’, Nina Soul reversions the slack rocksteady anthem ‘Barb Wire’. A number of these tracks are almost impossible to find, and many have never been issued ever since their initial release.

The music on the album is of course 100% killer and features backing from all of the seminal groups at 13 Brentford Road, including The Skatalites, Sound Dimension, Soul Brothers and the Brentford All Stars, and ranges from ska, rocksteady, roots, lovers and more from the 60s, 70s and 80s. All produced by Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd at Studio One Records, the number one sound in reggae music.

TRACK LISTING

Hortense Ellis - Can I Change My Mind
Marcia Griffiths- Melody Life
Myrna Hague - New World
Marcia Griffiths - Shimmering Star
Nora Dean - Heartaches
The Jay Tees - Buck Town Corner
Jennifer Lara - Turn Turn Turn
Doreen & Alton - I’m Still In Love
Doreen Schaeffer - Sugar Sugar
Denise Darlington - Feel So Good
Angela Prince - My Man Is Gone
Nana McLean - Till I Kissed You
Nina Soul - Barb Wire
Jackie And Doreen - Welcome You Back Home
Nina Soul - Sleeping Trees
Rita Marley - Friends And Lovers
Hortense Ellis - Secretly
Marcia Griffiths - You’re No Good

18 years on from its original release, ‘Studio One Dub’ remains superhard hitting, featuring classic and rare dub tracks from Studio One, many available on vinyl for the first time in over thirty years.

‘Studio One Dub’ includes the dubs of many classic tracks, such as Horace Andy’s ‘Skylarkin’, Johnny Osbourne’s ‘Truth and Rights’, John Holt’s ‘Hooligan’ and Freddie McGregor’s ‘Bobby Bobylon’, plus many more rare tracks.

The album also comes with two rare interviews - one with Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd about dub and dubplates and one with the sound engineer Sylvan Morris, talking about his ground breaking period at Studio One and the many innovations that he evolved there. In short, this is a 100% essential album.

“Soul Jazz’s ‘Studio One Dub’ collection cannot help but to serve as loving tribute to Sir Coxsone Dodd. This giant of a man not only defined popular music for the isle of Jamaica, but for the world over, his innovations laying the foundations for hip-hop, dance and postrock […] Dodd's dubs drew on such a fertile ground of classic Jamaican rhythms that he rarely missed. As such, it's difficult to find fault with the versions presented here and many of these cuts are ridiculously rare […] This burning set celebrates Dodd's extraordinary life by mashing time and space until it's joyfully suspended. What better tribute could there be?” - Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Dub Specialist - Bionic Dub
Dub Specialist - Take A Ride Version
Dub Specialist - Sky Rhythm
Dub Specialist - Taurus Dub 2
Dub Specialist - Hooligan
Dub Specialist - Dub Rock
Dub Specialist - Rastaman Version
Dub Specialist - Jah Jah Version
Dub Specialist - Creator Version
Dub Specialist - Running Dub
Dub Specialist - Hi Fashion Dub
Dub Specialist - Pretty Version
Dub Specialist - Race Track Version
Dub Specialist - Spawning
Dub Specialist - In Cold Blood Version
Dub Specialist - Chase Them Version
Dub Specialist - Feel The Dub

What do Tyler the Creator, Mantronix, Stetsasonic, DJ Shadow, Eric B and Rakim, Brand Nubian, Jay-Z and N.W.A. have in common? How about UK Apachi and Shy FX, DJ Zinc, Bukem, Ganja Kru, Lemon D Ice, Dillinga, Photek, 4-Hero, Congo Natty, Krome and Time, Roni Size, Skream and Shut Up and Dance? Not to mention The Prodigy, Squarepusher, Leftfield, Oasis, Aphex Twin, Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa, David Bowie, Primal Scream, Lady Gaga and Dizzee Rascal?

Answer: They have all sampled The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’, the most sampled drum break in the history of music (over 5000+ according to whosampled.com), it has shaped the history of electronic music ever since its creation in 1969.

This is the official release of the Winston’s ‘Color Him Father’ album, out of print for fifty years on vinyl, a glorious, break-heavy album of soul, funk and gospel featuring the tracks ‘Color Him Father’, ‘Amen, Brother’ and loads more.

The fully remastered album is housed in exact-reproduction original sleeve and design and comes with 4 extra bonus tracks that the group released only as singles. There is also a very special one-off, first pressing only of this album that comes with an exclusive one-sided dubplate special 12” of ‘Amen, Brother’ featuring a specially extended break mix of the classic tune.

The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’ was originally the B-side to ‘Color Him Father’, a superb soul tune released by a multi-racial group from Washington, DC, in 1969. The drum break was played by George GC Coleman, and the song was based on a Curtis Mayfield guitar riff. The soul connection was no coincidence. The Winstons were formed from the backing groups to both Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions before they came into their own spotlight. The Winstons signed to Mayfield’s Curtom Records in Chicago in 1968. Drummer extraordinaire GC Coleman had already played with The Marvelettes, Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield (and in the 1970s would play with the funk group Brick).

‘Color Him Father’ became a million-selling Number 1 R&B hit single in the US and the following year The Winstons released their debut (and only) album, also entitled ‘Color Him Father’, on Metromedia Records, featuring both sides of the single alongside nine other excellent soul, funk, gospel and R&B cuts. Unfortunately, the group split up the following year, citing difficulties in touring the southern US due to their inter-racial line-up, and their sole album has long-since sunk into obscurity.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and the ‘Amen, Brother’ break was discovered by hip-hop producers after the song appeared on the seminal ‘Ultimate Breaks & Beats’ series of original breaks (alongside ground-breaking tracks such as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’, The Incredible Bongo Band’s ‘Apache’ and Herman Kelly’s ‘Dance to the Drummers Beat’) in 1986. The track became the staple of hip-hop, with countless songs based on George GC Coleman’s epic six-second drum break.

Fast forward once more, this time to the UK at the start of the 1990s, and 100s of drum and bass producers began sampling and speeding up the ‘Amen, Brother’ break, adding reggae bass lines to create first jungle and then drum and bass, and by the 1990s the ‘Amen’ drum break dominated this new musical genre.

The Winstons’ ‘Color Him Father’ is a superb rare slice of soul, funk and gospel music that has changed the course of music over the last fifty years.

TRACK LISTING

CD / LP
Color Him Father
I’ve Gotta Be Me
The Chokin’ Kind
The Greatest Love
A Handful Of Friends
Everyday People
Love Of The Common People
Wheel Of Fortune
The Days Of Sand And Shovels
Birds Of A Feather
Only The Strong Survive
Traces
Amen, Brother
Say Goodbye To Daddy
Mama’s Song

Bonus 12” (SJRLP497 only)
Amen Brother (Extended Mix)

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Life Between Islands’ collection is inspired by the launch of Tate Britain’s exhibition of the same name. This landmark exhibition explores the links between Caribbean and British art and culture from the 1950s to now. ‘Soundsystem Culture: Black Musical Expression in the UK 1973-2006’, focuses on the most important Black British musical styles to emerge out of the distinctly Caribbean world of sound systems. The album features an all-star line-up including Dennis Bovell, Shut Up and Dance, Cymande, Digital Mystikz, Brown Sugar, Funk Masters, Janet Kay, Ragga Twins and more.

The album is a lightning-rod journey across Roots Reggae, Jungle , Jazz- Funk, Lovers Rock, Jazz, Dubstep and more. Much of Soul Jazz Records’ catalogue comes out of these genres and this album is partly an overview of some of Soul Jazz’s earlier releases (including Digital Mystikz’ long-deleted groundbreaking and now highly collectible single ‘Misty Winter’) alongside some choice rare and classic tunes that span over 30 years of sound system culture.

Many of the tracks represent how Black British artists defined their own identity, with songs such as Brown Sugar’s righteous ‘Black Pride’, ‘I’m In Love with A Dreadlocks’ and Tabby Cat Kelly’s powerful ‘Don’t Call Us Immigrants’. Aside from being musically rooted in the distinctly Jamaican-born phenomenon of the sound system, much of this identity is also shaped by the triangular relationship of being British-born, of Caribbean heritage, and with an equal love of African-American Jazz, Funk and Soul, as evidenced with many Lovers Rock reggae covers of American soul tunes (such as those of Jean Carn, William de Vaughan and Rose Royce featured here). This stateside influence can also be heard in groups such as the Funk Masters, a group formed by reggae radio DJ Tony Williams, whose jazz-funk music successfully crossed over into New York’s clubland, as well as the great Cymande, whose unique street-funk became staple material for numerous US hip-hop artists in the years that followed.

In the early 1990s, jungle and drum and bass artists took the essence of reggae’s soundsystem culture - MCs, dubplates, crews - and applied them to their own music, applying heavy reggae bass lines to intense double-speed drum breakbeats. At the forefront of this new movement were the duo Shut Up and Dance, working closely with The Ragga Twins, aka Deman Rocker and Flinty Badman, both MCs for North London’s infamous Unity reggae soundsytem. In the early 2000s, dubstep, spearheaded by Digital Mystikz, became the latest instalment in this ever evolving soundsystem culture.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Dang this is good! Skilfully joining the dots of sound system culture from its very beginning till now would seem like a daunting task for anyone. But guided by the Black identity of the majority of Sounds, Soul Jazz offer up a catch-all release that takes us from roots reggae and soul to jungle and dubstep without ever losing sight of the subwoofer. A phenomenal collection which, by way of a few choicely licensed joints ("Misty Winter", "RK1" especially), should be a instant-buy for anyone with a penchant for UK dance music.

TRACK LISTING

Black Slate - Sticks Man
Dee Sharp - Rising To The Top
Asher Senator - One Bible 
Cymande - Fug
Digital Mystikz - Misty Winter
Winston Curtis - Be Thankful For What You’ve Got
Trevor Hartley - It Must Be Love
Shut Up And Dance featuring The Ragga Twins - Java Bass
Brown Sugar - Black Pride
The Terrorist - RK1
Black Harmony - Don’t Let It Go To Your Head
Pebbles - Positive Vibrations
The Ragga Twins - Ragga Trip
Janet Kay And Alton Ellis - Still In Love
Funk Masters - Love Money
Cosmic Idren - Compelled
Harry Beckett - No Time For Hello
Sandra Reid - Ooh Boy
Tabby Cat Kelly - Don’t Call Us Immigrants
Brown Sugar - I’m In Love With A Dreadlocks

Roots reggae sure-shots from the Studio One archive, produced by the legendary bossman Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. The yearning, bouncing skank of The Gaylads’ Africa launched from the top, and backed with another percussive beauty in Sound Dimensions’ instrumental staple, Congo Rock on the other side.

TRACK LISTING

Africa Congo Rock

It’s really all about that kinked 16th note shuffle and bluesy cadence on the mondo charming Soulful Strut, but sure the gangsters and suedeheads will find something to skank with on the B-side’s Time Is Tight.

TRACK LISTING

Soulful Strut Time Is Tight

Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 2 is the new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that takes off in exactly the same vein as the much-acclaimed Vol. 1 – exploring the many styles that came out of Cuba in the 1970s as Latin and Salsa mixed with heavy doses of Jazz, Funk, and Disco to create some of the most dancefloor-friendly music ever made!

The album comes as a heavyweight 3xLP and deluxe 2xCD set, complete with extensive sleeve notes, and is jam-packed with heavy bass lines, synth and Wah-Wah guitar funk combined with the heavyweight percussion, powerful brass lines and the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of Cuban music known throughout the world.

Much of the music on this album is featured in the deluxe large format book ‘Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90’, released by Soul Jazz Books and also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records), featuring the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution.

The music on this new album features a host of rarities from legendary Cuban artists such as Los Van Van, alongside Grupo De Experimentación, Farah Maria, Ricardo Eddy Martinez, Juan Pablo Torres, Grupo Sintesis and Orquesta Riverside, most of whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba but have long been favourite club tracks and secret-weapons in Gilles Peterson’s record boxes!

The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s – all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms reflecting both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album has never been heard outside of Cuba.

Both Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have been involved in Cuban music for more than two decades – Gilles Peterson with his many Havana Cultura projects for his Brownswood label and Stuart Baker with a number of Soul Jazz Records albums recorded in Cuba. This Soul Jazz Records album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company, and has been put together after the many crate-digging trips that both compilers have made on the streets of Havana and beyond in Cuba stretching over a 20-year period, searching out rare and elusive original Cuban vinyl records. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Though I've travelled extensively, I've not yet made it to Cuba, but with this great set of Latin grooves I feel it might be my next hunting ground.

TRACK LISTING

CD1
1. Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Y Que Bien (4.24)
2. Orquesta Los Van Van - Por Que Lo Haces? (4.10)
3. Los Latinos - Quemando (2.46)
4. Farah María - Amame Y No Pienses Mas (4.13)
5. FA 5 - Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon (5.53)
6. Tambores De Enrique Bonne - Como Arrullos De Palma (2.47)
7. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - Expresso Ritmico (4.11)
8. Los Papines - Solo De Tumba Y Bongo (5.31)
9. Grupo Sintesis - Aqui Estamos (2.31)
10. Los Van Van - Llegada (2.08)
11. Grupo Raices Nuevas - Baila Mi Guaguancó (5.02)

CD2
1. Luis Carbonell - La Rumba (3.53)
2. Orquesta Riverside - En Casa Del Trompo No Bailes (3.02)
3. Juan Formel & Los Van Van - Llegue, Llegue (5.51)
4. Grupo Los Yoyi - Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar (3.09)
5. Los Papines - Para Que Niegas? (4.23)
6. Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Cuba Va! (3.06)
7. Raul Gomez - Luces En La Pista (4.40)
8. Los Brito - El 4-5-6 (2.50)
9. Leo Brouwer - Tema De El Rancheador De La Naturaleza (1.37)
10. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - La 132 (4.23)
11. Los Reyes 73 - Finalizo Un Amor (3.37)

A
1. Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Y Que Bien (4.24)
2. Orquesta Los Van Van - Por Que Lo Haces? (4.10)
3. Los Latinos - Quemando (2.46)
4. Farah María - Amame Y No Pienses Mas (4.13)

B
1. FA 5 - Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon (5.53)
2. Tambores De Enrique Bonne - Como Arrullos De Palma (2.47)
3. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - Expresso Ritmico (4.11)

C
1. Los Papines - Solo De Tumba Y Bongo (5.31)
2. Grupo Sintesis - Aqui Estamos (2.31)
3. Los Van Van - Llegada (2.08)
4. Grupo Raices Nuevas - Baila Mi Guaguancó (5.02)

D
1. Luis Carbonell - La Rumba (3.53)
2. Orquesta Riverside - En Casa Del Trompo No Bailes (3.02)
3. Juan Formel & Los Van Van - Llegue, Llegue (5.51)

E
1. Grupo Los Yoyi - Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar (3.09)
2. Los Papines - Para Que Niegas? (4.23)
3. Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Cuba Va! (3.06)
4. Raul Gomez - Luces En La Pista (4.40)

F
1. Los Brito - El 4-5-6 (2.50)
2. Leo Brouwer - Tema De El Rancheador De La Naturaleza (1.37)
3. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - La 132 (4.23)
4. Los Reyes 73 - Finalizo Un Amor (3.37)

Soul Jazz Records’ new oxblood red coloured vinyl LP (plus download code) issue of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album, first released as a private-press album in 1970 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Asha Record label in Washington DC. Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet and photographer born in Washington D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington. 

McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US.

TRACK LISTING

1. Home Rule
2. Just 71% Moor
3. 2504 Cliffborne Pl.
4. Fountain In The Circle
5. City Triptych
6. Fountain In The Circle (Part 2)

Soul Jazz Records’ CD / LP reissue of this very rare album, first released as a private-press LP in 1978 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Baobab Record label in Washington, DC. The album has been out-of-print for 43 years and is lovingly remastered by Soul Jazz Records.  ‘Tori’ is a stunning album that blends Brazilian and Latin flavours with deep Spiritual Jazz. The album features a strong line up which includes legendary Brazilian figures such as Dom Um Romao, Nana Vasconcelos and Dom Salvador alongside jazz heavyweights such as Buster Williams, Howard Johnson, John La Barbera and more. These A-team musicians were all regulars in McNeill’s long-running and highly successful resident live group in New York, all set up to blend deep jazz, Brazilian and Latin music together. 

Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C. in 1935. His multidisciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. 

Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington DC. McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US.

TRACK LISTING

1. O Mercado (Brazilian Market)
2. Tori (Segment One)
3. Tzigane
4. Tori (Segment Two)
5. Sambinha
6. Time Still / Passaro - Pifaro (Flute Bird)
7. Tori (Segment Three)
8. Tranquil

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Cold Wave #2’ is a new collection of current electronic artists who have all been shaped by the early European cold wave artists of the late 70s and early 80s.

These first artists created new electronic musical landscapes as well as pursuing a stubborn D-I-Y aesthetic, often releasing material on cassette and pioneering use of lo-fi technology, primitive drum machines and home-recording techniques. As part of this continued evolution today many of the artists featured here also self-release their own material, run labels, publish fanzines, or are part of wider musical collectives.

Aside from the first electronic, no wave and post-punk artists cited as influences - Suicide, Patrick Cowley, The Normal, Martin Hannett, Laurie Anderson, Public Image - this new generation of artists also show an exquisitely open source of electronic and disparate influences, everything from Underground Resistance to Purcell, from Scientist to New Beat and more besides.

Most of the featured artists are based in Europe and include Krikor from France, Beta Evers and L.F.T. from Germany, Lena Willikens, Job Sifre and De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Toulouse Low Trax from Germany, Dave I.D. and Broken English Club from the UK and V.C.V.S from Georgia. All of the bands featured here make distinctive contemporary music out of the 80s roots of the first cold wave movement.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: If you've been paying attention to the fringe shit Matt and I have been pushing for the last five or so years, you should be well acquainted with the cuts on this killer Soul Jazz comp. Part 2 is just as its twin, boasted certified bangers from Lena, Tolouse Low Trax. De Ambassade and Job Sifre.

TRACK LISTING

Lena Willikens - Howlin Lupus
Beta Evers - Hiding
L.F.T. - Stay Away From The Light
Job Sifre - At Least We Try
De Ambassade - Niet Van Mij
Tolouse Low Trax - Rushing Into Water
V.C.V.S. - Hum
Dave I.D. - Help Starts
Broken English Club - Vacant Cars
Krikor Kouchian - Deserver Dub

Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One collection ‘Fire Over Babylon: Dread, Peace and Conscious Sounds at Studio One’ features a stellar selection of 70s roots music - classic and rare tracks recorded at Clement Dodd’s musical empire at 13 Brentford Road in the 1970s.

Rastafarian-inspired Roots music was an ever-important aspect of Studio One’s output from the start of the 1970s onwards and this album features many of the groundbreaking groups and artists that established the sound of Jamaica during this decade and beyond.

Featured here are seminal artists such as Freddie McGregor, The Wailing Souls, The Gladiators, Horace Andy, Devon Russell, Cedric Brooks, Count Ossie and Judah Eskender Tafari alongside a host of lesser-known rare cuts made at Studio One from artists such as The Prospectors, Viceroys and Pablove Black.

Studio One and founder Clement Dodd’s connection with Rastafarianism dates back to the early 1960s, with Dodd accompanying members of the Skatalites up to the hills of Kingston to listen to the music of the Rastafarian Count Ossie and his drummers. The album sleevenotes discuss how Clement Dodd’s musical links, as well as his role in heading the most important record label in Reggae, are in many ways linked to the beliefs of Rastafarianism.

TRACK LISTING

Freddie McGregor - I Am A Revolutionist
The Silvertones - Burning In My Soul
Wailing Souls - Without You
Devon Russell - Jah Jah Fire
Trevor Clarke - Sufferation
The Gladiators - Sonia
Judah Eskender Tafari - Always Trying
The Viceroys - Ya Ho
Im And Count Ossie - Give Me Back Me Language And Me Culture
The Gladiators - Serious Thing
The Prospectors - Glory For I
Wailing Souls - Things And Time
Pablove Black - Inner Peace
The Gladiators - Peace
Horace Andy - Mr. Jolly Man
Wailing Souls - Rock But Don’t Fall
Albert Griffiths And The Gladiators - Righteous Man
So Many Problems - The Viceroys

Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One release ‘Rocksteady Got Soul’ is a collection of uplifting and superb rocksteady and soulful reggae from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Studio One is the number one label in the history of reggae and the album features - as ever with Studio One - an impeccable and unbeatable line-up of reggae superstars, all soaring at the height of their creative powers. Alton Ellis, John Holt, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Ethiopians, Lee Perry and more.

The album is a mix of classic tunes and rhythms alongside rarities that were released in a dazzlingly complex web of Studio One labels and issues, deftly navigated with new sleeve notes from author and Studio One authority Rob Chapman, plus exclusive photography.

TRACK LISTING

Alton Ellis - It’s True
The Heptones - You Turned Away
The Gladiators - Mr Sweet
The Jail Breakers - Work It Up
Lee Perry & The Gaylads - Run Rudie Run
The Heptones - Young Generation
Jackie Mittoo - Good Feeling
C. Marshall - I Need Your Loving
Alton Ellis - I’ll Be Waiting
The Clarendonians - The Tables Gonna Turn
Ken Parker - When You’re Gone
Sound Dimension - Traveling Home
Errol Dunkley - Get Up Now
John Holt - My Heart Is Gone
Freedom Singers And Larry Marshall - Monkey Man
The Ethiopians - Let The Light Shine
Im And David - Money Maker
The Viceroys - Lose And Gain

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Two Synths, A Guitar (And) A Drum Machine’ is a new collection of current DIY post-punk shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid).

Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield’s industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can.

Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles DIY band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, Vex Ruffin from the Philippines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups.

That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound - hip hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture and more.

TRACK LISTING

Automatic - Too Much Money
Zongamin - Underwater Paramid
New Fries - Lily
Vex Ruffin & Fab 5
Freddy - The Balance
Ixna - Somebody Said
Leroy Duncann - Dream River
Tom Of England - Neon Green
Toresch - Tocar
Becker & Mukai - La Rivière Des Perles
Gramme - Discolovers
Niagara - Ida
Charles Manier - Sift Through Art Collecting People
Black Deer - Baseball Shorts
Madmadmad - Hot Disco
Wino D - Untitled

‘Cuba: Music and Revolution’ is a new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state of Cuba. The album comes as a deluxe double CD and heavyweight triple vinyl, complete with extensive sleeve notes, jam-packed with heavy basslines, synth and WahWah guitar funk combined with the heavyweight percussion, powerful brass lines and the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of Cuban music known throughout the world.

The album is released to coincide with the massive new deluxe large format book ‘Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90’, which is also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) and which features the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution. The music on this album features legendary Cuban groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and Pablo Milanés, as well as a host of lesser known artists such as the radical Grupo De Experimentación, Juan Pablo Torres and Algo Nuevo, Grupo Monumental and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, groups whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba owing to the now 60-year old US trade embargo which remains in place today and which prevents trade with Cuba - and thus most Cuban records were only ever available in Cuba or in ex-Soviet Union states.

The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s - who were all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms that reflected both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music - and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album has never been heard outside of Cuba. Both Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have been involved in Cuban music for more than two decades - Gilles Peterson with his many Havana Cultura projects for his Brownswood label and Stuart Baker with a number of Soul Jazz Records albums recorded in Cuba. This Soul Jazz Records album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company, and has been put together after the many crate-digging trips that both compilers have made on the streets of Havana and beyond in Cuba stretching over a 20-year period, searching out rare and elusive original Cuban vinyl records.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Following on from *that* gorgeous book with all of the beauty in it is the musical collection of the same. Compiled by some of the greatest selectors around on the scene, this is a fascinating and superb collection of groovers, shakers and under-appreciated heavy hitters.

TRACK LISTING

Grupo Irakere - Chequere Son
Conjunto Rumbavana - El Son Del Campeon
Juan Formell & Los Van Van - Mi Ritmo Caliente
Grupo Monumental - Mi Son Caridad
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Sondeando
Las D'Aida - Con Cadencia Y Con Dulzura
Juan Formell & Los Van Van - Y No Le Conviene
Pablo Milanés - Te Quiero Porque Te Quiero
Emíliano Salvador - Luna Wanestain
Los Reyes 73 - Un Lamento Hecho Cancion
Eduardo Ramos - Vocación Revolución
Grupo Mounmental - Hasta Las Cuantas
Los 5 U 4 - Solo Esta Musica
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Canción Con Todos
Orquesta Los Van Van - Yo Se Que Van Van
Grupo Mounmental - Nadie Se Siente Cansado
Orquesta Ritmo Oriental - Maria, Baila El Son
Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Rompe Cocorioco
Los Reyes 73 - Grandes Amigos
Paquito D'Rivera - La Patica
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Grifo
Raúl Gómez - Dacapo
Grupo Irakere - Juana 1600

Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band group have an instantly powerful and unique sound that is reminiscent of the ensembles of Sun Ra and his Arkestra as well as Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, one that channels the righteous spirits of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner together with a stunning Latin rhythmical and new consciousness and percussive energy. Added to this are elements of the Samurai film soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa, Popol Vuh’s musical spirituality (especially their work with film director Werner Herzog), Tibetan Buddhism and over-blowing chants, all combining to give a truly unique new sound.

Enrique Rodríguez is a composer, percussionist, keyboardist and producer from Santiago, Chile, whose work shows many similarities with the music featured on Soul Jazz Records’ recent collection ‘Kaleidoscope - New Spirts Known and Unknown’, featuring new forward-looking jazz artists including Mathew Halsall, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and Makaya McCraven.

Like all these artists, Rodríguez’s work is a progressive and experimental fusion of earlier influences that combine into a new and definitely 21st Century ground-breaking sound that, on account of its South American setting, give the group its truly unique feeling. Hypnotic modal piano riffs, powerful brass and flutes, an army of Latin percussion instruments and addictive vocal chants all combine in this powerful mix of radical 60s Afro-centric jazz, Eastern spirituality and cosmology and Latin American rhythmical movement.

TRACK LISTING

Dónde?
Descenso
Vindakalla-Welukan (Autoconfrontación)
No Quiero Seguir Así
Acabar De Conocerse
Paso Firme
Dónde? (Alt. Take)

Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic night-time magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives - and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.

Trees Speak’s new album ‘Shadow Forms’ is a blend of 1970s German electronic and ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals (think Harmonia, Can, Cluster, Popul Vuh, Neu!), haunting and powerful 1960s and 1970s soundtracks (think Italian prog rock Goblin and John Carpenter horror movies, Morricone and existential John Barry spy movies), together with a New York no wave electronic synth and guitar analogue DIY-ness (think Suicide, anything on Soul Jazz’s ‘New York Noise’ series or Eno’s ‘No New York’). Trees Speak segue together all these elements into ‘Shadow Forms’, which follows on from their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Ohms,’ released on Soul Jazz Records less than six months ago.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Shadow Forms' is a perfectly balanced juxtaposition of grooving, angular kosmische and haunty, soundtrack sort of business. We get little bursts of jazzy instrumentation and smooth-flowing psychedelia, all brought together with a deftness of touch and a keen ear for melody.

TRACK LISTING

‘Shadow Forms’
Large Array
Tear Kisser
Those Who Know
Transforming
Automat
False Ego
Communication
Crystal System
Agonize Signal
Magick Knives

Bonus 7” (SJRLP457)
Outtake
Transmitter

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the groundbreaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years.

Featured artists include Matthew Halsall, Yazmin Lacey, Ill Considered, Tenderlonious, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and many, many more in this ground-breaking release.

As well as sharing a pioneering spirit in these new artists’ approach to frontier-crossing musical boundaries, a further theme of this album is that many also share a determination to independent practices – and most of these artists’ recordings featured here are either self-published or released on independent labels. While the attention of this new wave of jazz artists up until now has been London-based, this album shows how this movement is spread across the whole of Britain (and indeed beyond).

‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ shows that while there is commonality in these artists’ approach to music, there is a wide variety of styles – from deep spiritual jazz, electronic experimentalisation, punk-edged funk, uplifting modal righteousness, deep soulful vocals and much more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Emily says: It’s been a breathless few years for British jazz, with essential new artists appearing by the day on a plethora of labels up and down the country. Thankfully Soul Jazz are here to help us keep track, taking stock of the scene on this bumper triple vinyl collection.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - When The World Was One (7.38)
2. Yazmin Lacey - 90 Degrees (4.16)
3. Hector Plimmer - Communication Control (3.04)

B
1. Ill Considered - Long Way Home (Live At The Crypt) (8.03)
2. The Expansions - Mosaic (6.58)
3. Chip Wickham - Red Planet (5.44)

C
1. Levitation Orchestra - Odyssey (9.26)
2. Emma-Jean Thackray’s WALRUS - Walrus (2.47)
3. Tenderlonious And The 22a Arkestra - The Shakedown (6.18)

D
1. Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin Featuring Nubya Garcia - Tanner's Tango (4.48)
2. Collocutor - Gozo (6.02)
3. Makaya McCraven - Untitled (3.14)

E
1. Nat Birchall - Ancient World (9.50)
2. Ruby Rushton - Moonlight Woman (9.05)

F
1. Ebi Soda - Dimmsdale (3.11)
2. The Cromagnon Band - Thunder Perfect (5.12)
3. SEED Ensemble - Mirrors (7.38)

BONUS 7" SINGLE (With Indies Exclusive Vinyl Only)
A. Vels Trio - Yellow Ochre (Part 1) (3.04)
AA. Ishmael Ensemble - Kito's Theme (4.15)

When the band Trees Speak, coming out of nowhere, released an exclusive one-off 100-pressing white label 45, described as Can/Neu! meets Liquid Liquid, it sold out so quickly (in less than 30 minutes) that Soul Jazz Records decided to release their album almost immediately. Soul Jazz Records rarely release new music but found the music of Trees Speak’s album ‘Ohms’ so stunning and to have so many elements of music that they admired that they felt compelled to release it. The group Trees Speak are from Tucson, Arizona and create new music that sounds like German Krautrock meets no wave/post-punk and psych rock - music for fans of Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Can, Neu!, Silver Apples and early Kraftwerk.

The album ‘Ohms’ sounds at times like a tripped out and moody John Carpenter/Goblin/Morricone soundtrack that seamlessly segues into propulsive, ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals loaded with fuzzy, hypnotic mellotron, synths and analogue effects, as well as elements of Art Ensemble free jazz, and all at times reaching a kind of post-rave psychedelia. More recent comparisons would include Beak> and Ghost Box who draw upon similar themes and styles. Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz plus musicians from the Tucson, Arizona scene such as Giant Sand, XIXA and James Hunter. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A very rare 'New Album' outing from the venerable Soul Jazz here with the thumping, krautrock majesty of 'Ohms'. Like if Kraftwerk got off those bloody podiums long enough to rail a significant slug of ketamine and break the cones on their amplifiers. ACE.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Soul Sequencer
Nitrous Cross
Shadow Circuit
Blame Shifter
Spirit Duplicator
Nobody Knows
Sadness In Wires
State Of Clear
Sleep Crime
Knowing
Splendid Sun
Ohms
Out Of View
Psychic Wounds
Silicone Emotions
Octave Cycle
Witch Wound

LP
Soul Sequencer
Nitrous Cross
Shadow Circuit
Blame Shifter
Spirit Duplicator
Nobody Knows
Sadness In Wires
State Of Clear
Sleep Crime
Knowing
Splendid Sun
Ohms
Out Of View
Psychic Wounds
Silicone Emotions
Octave Cycle

Kollington Ayinla’s celebrated 1978 album "Blessing" is a rare lost classic of Nigerian Fuji music and features Ayinla’s sharp political lyrics together with his new band Fuji ’78. "Blessing" blends the heavily percussive style of Fuji music with a stunning array of modern instruments, including synthesizers, Bata drums and guitars, to create one of the most forward-thinking and heavily danceable sounds ever to come out of Nigeria - a highly successful mixture of profound Fuji rhythms and Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat.

Kollington Ayinla ranks alongside his friend and competitor Ayinde Barrister as the two most important artists to dominate Fuji music from its inception in the 1970s through to the 1990s by which time it had grown to become one of the most popular dance genres in Nigeria. At the start of the 1980s Ayinla started his own record company, Kollington Records, to release his music and remains to this day an extremely prolific artist, having recorded over 50 albums, most of which have never been released outside of Nigeria.

This is a one-off pressing (1000 copies) of this unique piece that has only ever previously been released in Nigeria. 

TRACK LISTING

E Ye Ika Se
Oromo Adie Fo
Ko S’Ohun Tan O Le Fi Gberaga
Adio Shile
Won Ti Gbe Oye Fun Mi
Pataki L’Omo
To Ba Jisoro Mi
Engineer Olatunji / Iya Suna
Odun Titun De
Ao Toro Emi Gesa Fun Enia
Ki Aiye Ma Gbagbe Mi

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Nigeria Soul Power 70’ album showcases the influence of funk, rock and disco on Nigerian music during the 1970s. Originally released as a nowlong- out-of-print collectors’ 7” box, this fully expanded album release now also includes extra tracks from Sonny Okosuns, Wings, Chief Kollington Ayinla and more.

While for many people the fusion of funk and jazz music with Nigerian rhythms and aesthetics began with Fela Kuti and his afro-beat sound, in fact this can be traced further back to the phenomena of the 1960s Nigerian artists and house bands in nightclubs and hotels who interpreted US soul and pop music with a local flavour and none more so than Geraldo Pino, the ‘African James Brown’ who features heavily in this collection. Other similarly inspired Nigerian funk and soul artists featured here included Tony Grey and his Ozimba Messengers and Don Bruce and The Angels.

‘Nigeria Soul Power 70’ includes a number of tracks from the group Wings originally known as BAF (Biafran Air Force) Wings, an army band formed during the Biafran civil war in Nigeria. The groups’ heavy mixture of funk, rock and African styles was popular among many Nigerian groups at the time.

Beneath the shadow of the few Nigerian artists who signed international recording deals in the 1970s - Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey - lies of vast wealth of largely undiscovered musical transmutation and cultural cross-pollination and included here are heavy afro-funk/rock and disco tracks from artists such as the legendary Sonny Okosuns as well as rare cuts from little-known outside of Nigeria - groups such as Colomach and MFB. Most of these obscure artists signed to major labels in Nigeria in the commercial slipstream that opened up as Philips, Decca and EMI tried to emulate the international success of the big three international Nigerian artists.

Finally featured here is Kollington Ayinla, one of the co-founders of Nigerian Fuji music, who gives us perhaps the heaviest of all tracks on this album. Ayinla is the great moderniser of the Fuji sound and in the late 1970s began adding Bata drums and synthesizers to his authentic music to create a powerful and heavy new fusion of traditional and modernist aesthetics, embracing both new technology and experimentation while rooted firmly in Nigerian historical lineage.

TRACK LISTING

Geraldo Pino - Shake Hands
Sonny Okosunds Ozziddi - Dance Of The Elephants
The Wings - We'll Get Home
Alhaji (Chief) Prof. Kollington Ayinla - E Ye Ika Se
Colomach - Kassa Kpa Sama Kpa
Geraldo Pino - Heavy Heavy Heavy
MFB - Beware
Tony Grey And The Ozimba Messengers - You Are The One
Sonny Okosuns - Oba Erediauwa I
The Wings - Single Boy
Geraldo Pino - Power To The People
Original Wings - Igba Alusi
Don Bruce And The Angels - Sugar Baby
Geraldo Pino - Africans Must Unite

Soul Jazz Records re-release Airto Moreira’s classic album ‘Samba de Flora’, out of print for 30 years ever since its original release in 1988.
The impact of Airto Moreira in both the world of American jazz and in Brazilian music is unparalleled. At the start of the 1970s Airto was invited to join Miles Davis’ groundbreaking ‘electric’ group, which with albums such as the seminal ‘Bitches Brew’ helping Davis regain his title from John Coltrane as the most important jazz artist of all time.
Two years later Airto helped establish two of the most important jazz fusion groups of all time: Weather Report, with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vituous; and Return to Forever, with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Flora Purim.
Airto Moreira also began his solo career in the USA in 1970 and alongside his wife, the singer Flora Purim and Brazilian artists such as Hermeto Pascoal, Sivuca, Deodato, Raul de Souza, Azymuth, all played a major part in the Latinised sound of American jazz fusion throughout the 1970s. By this time Airto established himself in the USA in the 1970s, he had already had a formidable career back in Brazil in the 1960s as an important figure in the Bossa Nova movement, which soon after spread throughout the world. Airto played in a number of important groups during this time - Quarteto Novo Sambalanco Trio and Sambrassa Trio (all of with Hermeto Pascoal) - which proved to be three of the most ground-breaking groups of this era.
The album ‘Samba de Flora’, including the seminal jazz dance title track, is a masterpiece of jazz and Brazilian fusion and features Airto Moreira alongside Flora Purim, fellow Brazilian artist Raul de Souza and heavyweight USA jazz musicians Alphonso Johnson, percussionist Don Alias (from Stone Alliance), Cuban conga player Cachete and Argentinian pianist Jorge Dalto.
The album was originally released on the small independent Montuno Record label (which was run out of the unassuming Record Mart record store situated in the Times Square underground subway station!) and has been unavailable for many, many years.
This album is fully remastered and re-released by Soul Jazz Records for the first time ever.

TRACK LISTING

Parana
Samba De Flora
La Puerta
Dedos
Yanah Amina
El Fiasco
Mulambo
Latin Woman

Soul Jazz Records presents this new collection featuring the heavy 70s roots reggae of Bunny Lee - a living legend, one of the last of the great Jamaican record producers who helped shape and define reggae music in the 1970s from a small island sound into an internationally successful musical genre.

From teenage fan to young record plugger for Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone and other early pioneering Jamaican musical entrepreneurs, Lee has spent his whole professional life inside the Kingston music industry. In the 1970s he rose up to become one of the major record producers in Jamaica alongside Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the other ‘small axe’ producers who broke the dominance of the ‘big tree’ producers that had ruled Jamaican music in the 1960s.

Featuring some of the heaviest Jamaican artists, including Johnny Clarke, King Tubby, Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo, Tommy McCook, The legendary Aggrovators (featuring Sly and Robbie), The Mighty Diamonds and more, the album is a rollercoaster ride of rare, deep and classic 1970s roots, dub and DJ sounds.

During this era, ‘flying cymbals’, crashing reverbs, dark echoing thunderclap gunshots and other ‘implements of sound’ filled his record productions as Bunny Lee explored the outer limits of dub with his friend King Tubby in the mix on wild versions that accompanied any 45. A Bunny Lee record provides a creative and mysterious hidden guide to reggae music itself, a double-sided three-minute intangible history lesson etched in wax.

Bunny Lee was one of the first Jamaican producers to travel to England in the late 1960s, at the beginning of the nascent British reggae music industry as record companies such as Trojan, Pama and others began licensing Jamaican music in the UK to supply the expanding West Indian communities living up and down England. Lee encouraged other Jamaican producers to do the same, including Lee Perry, Harry J and Niney The Observer and also became a conduit between the British music industry and numerous younger Island-based producers - a frequent flyer reggae ambassador, a musical courier exchanging tapes for royalties.

Bunny Lee’s first recordings in the late 1960s were mainly rock steady but as the 70s approached the music soon began to mutate and slow down into ‘reggae’ as the sound became heavier, more rootsy and the sound itself began to change with the explosion of dub.

Lee was at the forefront to this dramatic musical shift into roots reggae and by this time had become a major producer, capable of working with whoever he chose as world-famous singers, DJs and musicians lined up to work with the charismatic man. Lee also employed a fluid but stable set of crack session musicians who he named The Aggrovators.

Most of the recordings featured here come from the mid 70s, a time when Bunny Lee was definitely in the zone, releasing heavyweight singles at an almost unstoppable rate. Bunny Lee’s career stretches over five decades and he has upwards of 2,000 production credits on vinyl.

This album comes with extensive sleevenotes, an interview with Bunny Lee and exclusive photography.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The 'flying cymbals' pioneer gets properly exhibited by the Soul Jazz firm here - possibly the most in-depth, all inclusive collection to date of this skilled dub creative.

TRACK LISTING

Johnny Clarke - Enter Into His Gates With Praise
King Tubby Meets Tommy McCook and The Aggrovators - The Dub Station
Gene Rondo - Why You Do That
Vin Gordon & The Aggrovators - Magnum Force
Jackie Edwards - So Jah Seh
The Aggrovators - So Jah Seh Dub
Jah Youth - Principle And Dignity
King Tubby Meets Tommy McCook and The Aggrovators - King Tubby Dub
Jah Stitch - Real Born African
The Aggrovators - African Love Call
Gene Rondo - A Land Far Away
The Uniques - Queen Majesty
Johnny Clarke - Time Will Tell
The Aggrovators - Drums Of Africa
Winston Wright - Marvelous Rocker
The Mighty Diamonds - You Should Be Thankful
King Tubby, Prince Jammy And The Aggrovators - A Thankful Version
Dillinger - Check Sister Jane
Prince Jazzbo - The Wormer
The Uniques - You Don't Care For Me
Shorty The President - Natty
Dread Have Ambition
King Tubby And The Aggrovators -
This A The Hardest Version

‘Soul Of A Nation: Jazz Is The Teacher, Funk Is The Preacher’ is a powerful new collection of radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap made in the era of Black Power (1969-75).

This is the second ‘Soul Of A Nation’ album released by Soul Jazz Records to coincide with the exhibition ‘Soul Of A Nation - Art In The Age Of Black Power’, critically acclaimed and enormously successful when it opened at the Tate Modern in London last year (as was Soul Jazz Records’ accompanying first album ‘Soul Of A Nation: Afro-Centric Visions In The Age Of Black Power 1968- 79’). The blockbuster international exhibition is now at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, travelling to Los Angeles in 2019.

This new album features a number of important and ground-breaking African-American artists - The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Don Cherry, Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and more - alongside a host of lesser-known artists all of whom in the early 1970s were exploring new Afrocentric poly-rhythmical styles of music - radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap - while at the same time exploring the Black Power and civil-rights inspired notions of self-definition, self-respect and self-empowerment in their own lives.

During this era African-American jazz musicians ripped up traditional definitions - rejecting the term ‘entertainer’ to redefine themselves instead as ‘artists’. They worked outside of the mainstream music industry perceiving this artistic relationship to be fundamentally exploitative and politically flawed. Artists instead formed their own pan-arts community-centric collectives, set up their own record labels, ran concerts in alternative performance spaces - art galleries, parks, lofts, community centres - all as a way of taking control of their own creative destinies.

At the start of 1960s jazz musicians had embarked on an intense period of musical experimentation as artists John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry sought to dismantle the traditional definitions of jazz by creating new music that broke free from its establishment shackles. By the end of the 1960s, forward-thinking African-American jazz musicians had absorbed the ideas of this radical and avant-garde path but also began to introduce many new elements - not just civil rights concepts of freedom but also black power ideas of self-respect, righteousness and anger.

Their music developed into a radical and intense Afrocentric mix of jazz, funk, soul and street poetry, all in search of a new musical language that could better represent artistic African-American cultural expression.

All of the featured artists here were involved in this search in different ways; A shared sense of Afrocentric collectivism joined the dots between the deep avant-garde experimentalism of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago (here featuring soul singer Fontella Bass singing the powerful ‘Theme de Yoyo’) to the hyper funk psychedelia of George Clinton’s Funkadelic.

The poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and Sarah Webster Fabio performed with a backdrop of street funk and heavyweight percussion laid down the template for the birth of rap. The Har-You Percussion Group, a group of young Harlem teenagers, showed how government-sponsored social initiatives helped create great art and music. Gary Bartz and The Oneness of Juju offer spirituality and cosmology. Collectives like The Pharaohs and Detroit’s Tribe add deep jazz and street funk in equal measures.

Influenced and radicalised by Black Power and civil rights, all these artists were involved in creating - in the words of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago - ‘Great Black Music: Ancient To Future’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: This compilation has collected all the best tunes from the funk/soul genre from Gil Scott-Heron to Baby Huey. Spread over three LP's, this is a feast for the ears!

TRACK LISTING

Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Theme De Yoyo
The Har-You Percussion Group - Welcome To The Party
The Pharaohs - Damballa
Baby Huey - Hard Times
James Mason - Sweet Power, Your Embrace
Byron Morris And Unity - Kitty Bey
Funkadelic - Nappy Dugout
Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe - Exchange Part 2 (II)
Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Celestial Blues
Oneness Of Juju - Space Jungle Funk
Sarah Webster Fabio - Work It Out
Tribe (Wendell Harrison & Phillip Ranelin) - Beneficent
Gil Scott-Heron - Whitey On The Moon
Don Cherry - Brown Rice

"Studio One Freedom Sounds" is the new collection from the nation's favourite one-stop shop, focusing on the intense period in the second half of the 1960s when Studio One’s vast and unbeatable output of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae made it literally one of the hottest musical empires in the world.

During this highly successful period, Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd released hundreds and hundreds of superlative singles seemingly on an almost daily basis, in the process making huge stars out of Jamaican singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Wailers, Slim Smith, Jackie Opel and many more.

Powered by the finest in-house musicians working in Jamaica, whether it was The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo’s Soul Brothers, The Sounds Dimension or The Soul Vendors, Studio One functioned as hit factory on the scale of Motown in the USA, shaping and defining reggae music for decades to come.

Singlehandedly Studio One’s founder Clement Dodd was able to create the most successful vertically-integrated record company that Jamaica had ever known with pressing plant, printers, studio, shops and sound systems all running at once, with over 50 employees and hundreds of artists working with Studio One during this time.

"Studio One Freedom Sounds" tells the story of Studio One in the 1960s with a stunning set of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae killer tunes as well as informative sleevenotes and track-by-track info by Noel Hawks.

TRACK LISTING

Don Drummond & The Skatalites - Rain Or Shine
The Gaylads - Morning Sun
Delroy Wilson - Just Because Of You
Alton Ellis - Sunday Coming
Jackie Opel - I Am What I Am
Peter Tosh - I Am The Toughest
Delroy Wilson - Get Ready
Mr. Foundation - Timo-Oh
Roland Alphonso & The Soul Brothers - Provocation
Leroy & Rocky - Love Me Girl
Slim & Delroy - Look Who Is Back Again
The Skatalites - Spread Satin
Barrington Spence - Contemplating Mind
Ernest Ranglin - Psychedelic Rock
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Destiny
Roland Alphonso - Reggae In The Grass
Zoot Simms - We Can Talk It Over
Jackie Mittoo - Hi Jack

This new edition of Soul Jazz Records’ ‘The World Of Arthur Russell’, the seminal collection of Arthur Russell’s essential music, is released on heavy deluxe triple vinyl and deluxe tip-on Japanese style CD edition.
This album brings together some of Russell’s best-loved and most accessible works including his wide-ranging music, both solo and in groups, including Dinosaur L (the essential ‘Go Bang’), Loose Joints (the equally classic ‘Is It All Over My Face’) as well as rarities such as the 7” only ‘Pop Your Funk’, Indian Ocean’s ‘Schoolbell / Treehouse’, Lola’s ‘Wax The Van’ and more.

Arthur Russell’s music effortlessly crossed musical boundaries making it timeless. His dance music credentials are faultless and this collection features mixes from Larry Levan, Françcois Kevorkian and Walter Gibbons. Similarly, his songwriting, musicality and performance skills are equally cherished, as composer Philip Glass wrote, “this was a guy who could sit down with a cello and sing with it in a way that no one on earth has ever done before or will do again.”

When Soul Jazz Records’ ‘The World Of Arthur Russell’ first came out in 2003, Russell’s music had slipped into near obscurity. Nearly 15 years later there are over a dozen releases of his music, reissues of his original albums and more. ‘The World Of Arthur Russell’ is the classic first collection of his work available once more.

TRACK LISTING

Dinosaur L - Go Bang (Francois Kevorkian Mix)
Lola - Wax The Van
Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face (Larry Levan Mix)
Arthur Russell - Keeping Up
Arthur Russell - In The Light Of The Miracle
Arthur Russell - A Little Lost
Loose Joints - Pop Your Funk
Arthur Russell - Let's Go Swimming (Walter Gibbons Mix)
Dinosaur L - In The Cornbelt (Larry Levan Mix)
Arthur Russell - Treehouse
Indian Ocean - Schoolbell/Treehouse (Walter Gibbons Mix)

Soul Jazz Records’ latest album ‘Yoruba! Songs & Rhythms For The Yoruba Gods In Nigeria’ is newly recorded in Lagos, Nigeria. The album is co-produced by Soul Jazz Records label head Stuart Baker and Laolu Akins (founding member of the legendary 1970s Nigerian Afro-Funk/Rock group Blo).

‘Yoruba!’ features an array of local master drummers led by Olatunji Samson Sotimirin and singers (featuring the lead vocals of Janet Olufanmilayo Abe) performing heavyweight Afro-rhythms, with talking drums, Bata and Dundun drums and a mass of percussion in these deep spiritual and sacred songs used to honour and worship the traditional and ancient Yoruba gods in Nigeria, West Africa.

The enormous impact of Yoruba and West African music and culture is worldwide - from the first Afro-centric explorations of African- American jazz musicians in the 1950s such as Art Blakey, Randy Weston and Dizzy Gillespie, the explosion of Nu Yorican Latin music in New York City starting in the 1960s - Mambo, Boogaloo, Latin funk and soul - through to the sacred and powerful Afro-derived music of the religions of Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil and Voodoo in Haiti, which all came into existence on account of the Atlantic slave trade which began over 400 years ago. On a wider scale West African music remains the primary root of all African-American musical forms - from New Orleans jazz to Bronx rap, gospel, soul and more.

This album features songs honouring the Nigerian gods of the Yoruba traditional religion - Yemoja, Obatala, Ogun, Sango and others - as well as a selection of instrumental cuts focusing on the Bata and Dundun drums.

The album comes complete with extensive text and photography. 40- page outsize booklet / gatefold double vinyl and inners showing the influence of Yoruba culture throughout the world and the social and historical context for the music contained here.

TRACK LISTING

Homage To Yemoja
Homage To Esu
Sakara Instrumental
Ensemble
Homage To Obatala
Eulogy To Amila
Homage To Sango
Agbe Gbe-Wadele
Eulogy To Ori-Ola
Bata Drums Ensemble
Homage To Osun
Eshere
Dundun Instrumental
Ensemble
Homage To Ogun

Soul Jazz Records’ new release ‘Soul Of A Nation: Afro-Centric Visions In The Age Of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & The Roots Of Rap 1968-79’ is released in conjunction with a major worldwide art exhibition, ‘Soul Of A Nation: Art In The The Age Of Black Power’, which takes place at the Tate Modern, London, UK (July-Oct 2017) and The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA.

The album shows how the ideals of the civil rights movement, black power and black nationalism influenced the evolvement of radical African-American music in the United States of America in the intensely political and revolutionary period at the end of the 1960s following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.

Featuring ground-breaking artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Ayers, Don Cherry, Oneness Of Juju, Sarah Webster Fabio, Horace Tapscott, Phil Ranelin and many others, ‘Soul Of A Nation’ shows how political themes led to the rise of ‘conscious’ black music as new afro-centric styles combined the musical radicalism and spirituality of John Coltrane and radical avant-garde jazz music alongside the intense funk and soul of James Brown and Aretha Franklin and the urban poetry and proto-rap of the streets.

The ‘Soul Of A Nation’ exhibition draws on the links between Black art forms - art, music, poetry - and how they came together during the civil rights and black power era as part of the wider black arts movement across the United States.

Iconic African-Amercian revolutionary figures such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, John Coltrane and Muhammad Ali all appear in the radical artworks of Barkley L. Hendricks, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O’Grady and Betye Saar.

Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) will appear on the panel for a ‘Soul Of A Nation: Art In The Age Of Black Power’ discussion at the gallery as part of the show.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This really is a fascinating and varied look into the start of an international appreciation of hip-hop, soul and funk. With more mellow afrobeat pieces segueing beautifully into more traditional fare, and even including some highly politically charged spoken-word accompaniments, this is yet another win for the Soul Jazz camp.

TRACK LISTING

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Mandingo Griot Society With Don Cherry - Sounds From The Bush
Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Red, Black And Green
Philip Cohran And The Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Malcolm X
Sarah Webster Fabio - Sweet Songs
Phil Ranelin - Vibes From The Tribe
Horace Tapscott With The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - Desert Fairy Princess
David Mcknight - Strong Men
Joe Henderson - Black Narcissus
Oneness Of Juju - African Rhythms
Doug Carn - Suratal Ihklas
Duke Edwards And The Young Ones - Is It Too Late?
Carlos Garnett - Mother Of The Future

Featured here is a new collection spanning Studio One’s dancehall period - singers and deejays on classic Studio One rhythms, studio and electronic wizardry from the Brentford Road headquarters, lots of rare 12” singles, all effortlessly brought together to nice up the dance.

When Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd first ruled the dancehalls of Kingston in the 1950s, fighting off the soundsystem competition of Duke Reid, King Edwards and others, few could imagine how far the reign of Studio One would last. However, the emergence of dancehall as a distinct style of reggae at the end of the 1970s, as upstart competing producers began recording vocalists and deejays performing over replayed classic Studio One rhythms, in many ways made the influence of Clement Dodd’s vision more omnipotent than ever before (and lasting to this day).

Not surprisingly, Clement Dodd’s creativity and business acumen made him quick to respond to this musical phenomenon - he soon began voicing the new stable of Studio One singers and deejays, such as Sugar Minott and Lone Ranger, over original classic Studio One rhythms recorded in the late 1960s - by producing some of the most innovative, time-bending and creative music of his career.

This album comes as CD with slipcase, super-loud, super-heavy triple vinyl with free download code.

TRACK LISTING

Ernest Wilson - Why Oh Why
Johnny Osbourne - Lend Me The Sixteen
Windel Haye - Haunted House
Green Tea & Chassy - Ghetto Girl
Johnny Osbourne - Time A Run Out
Lone Ranger - Noah In The Ark
Devon Russell - Thanks And Praise
Brentford Disco Set - Rebel Disco
Doreen Schaffer - I Don’t Know Why
Slim Smith - Lonely Lover
Field Marshall Haye - Roots And Herb Style
DJ Dawn & The Ranking Queens - Peace Truce Thing
Jim Brown - Cure For The Fever
Sugar Minott - Peace Treaty Style
Lloyd Robinson - It Deep
Barry Brown - Far East
Windel Haye & Captain
Morgan - Flood Victim
Ernest Wilson - Pick Them Up

Kevin Martin (aka The Bug / King Midas Sound) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) have put together a unique project bringing together new, exclusive and in demand digital music by electronic futurists Harmonic 313, Diplo, Roots Manuva, South Rakkas Crew,The Bug and more, alongside a killer selection of Jamaican digital and electronic scientific dub and dancehall. Exclusive new tracks and mixes by Harmonic 313, Stereotyp, Federation; in demand tracks from the likes of Roots Manuva, Diplo and South Rakkas Crew; the toughest digital and twisted rhythms from legendary producers King Jammy, Steely and Clevie, Sly Dunbar, Prince Jazzbo, King Tubby, Firehouse Crew and more all feature on this unique release.

The double album comes in special edition heavyweight deluxe hardcover 2CD card casing complete with a deluxe graphic novel by Italian comic book designer Paolo Parisi (whose books include subjects as diverse as John Coltrane and Chernobyl). This specially commissioned graphic novel is a science fiction vision of the future of digital music, featuring King Tubby, Steely & Clevie, Jammy, Jazzbo, complete with Alien Sound Lord Abductors, Aural Freedom Fighters and Digi-Dub Voyagers.

TRACK LISTING

CD ONE:
1. Steely & Clevie ‘Streetsweeper’
2. Lenky & Sly ‘Now Thing’
3. Ricky Ranking Ft. Roots Manuva ‘Doogoo Dub’
4. Dave Kelly ‘The Return’
5. Annex Crew ‘Summerbounce’
6. Federation Sound ‘Flatlands (Brooklyn Dub Mix)’
7. Lenky ‘Diwali Riddim’
8. Team Shadatek ‘Yoga Riddim’
9. Stereotyp Ft. Alley Cat ‘Modern Times’
10. The Grynch Ft. Tippa Irie ‘Electro Agony In Dub’
11. Fira ‘Hummer Version’
12. Diplo ‘Diplo Rhythm’
13. Harmonic 313 ‘Bazooka Riddim’
14. Ward 21 Productions ‘Pit Bull’
15. Redlight ‘M.D.M.A’.
16. The Bug ‘Aktion Dub’

CD TWO:
1. Fat Eyes ‘Clothes Pin Rhythm’
2. Steven Ventura 4 Kings Of Kings ‘Throw Your Hands Up Version’
3. Sly Dunbar And Christopher Birch ‘Corners Boy’
4. David Jahson ‘King Of Kings Dub’
5. Fat Eyes ‘Steel Plate’
6. South Rakkas Crew ‘Red Alert’
7. Parara And McCoy ‘Them Can’t Hold Yuh Gal Version’
8. King Tubby ‘Fat Thing Version’
9. World Beat ‘Gold Mine’
10. Andre ‘Suku’ Gray (Jammys) ‘Sign Rhythm’
11. Henfield And Shadowman ‘Babatunde’
12. Firehouse Crew ‘No False Hair’
13. Computer Paul ‘World Talk’
14. Fat Eyes ‘Overdose’
15. Prince Jazzbo ‘Great Stone Version’
16. Kickin’ Productions ‘What You Gonna Do’
17. Pliers (Bonner Productions)’ I’m Your Man Dub’
18. Wiz Kidz ‘Team In My Heart Version’
19. Jammys ‘Jam 2’ James (Jammys) ‘Peenie Peenie’