THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.


Soul Jazz Records’ new 10th anniversary one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition orange coloured vinyl pressing (+ download code) exclusively for Record Store Day 2024 of their long out of print ‘Punk 45: Kill the Hippies! Kill Yourself!’

Soul Jazz Records’ debut ‘Punk 45’ album charts the rise of underground punk across the United States of America in the years 1973-1980.

This album is fully remastered, relicensed with new tracks exclusively for RSD 24 and includes new tracks from Iggy & The Stooges, Nervous Eaters, Angry Samoans and more.

The ‘Punk 45’ album features a collection of seminal, classic, obscure and rare punk and proto-punk 45 singles from the likes of Electric Eels, The Pagans, The Deadbeats, The Randoms, The Lewd and many more – a lightning-rod journey across the states of America: Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Akron, New Orleans, Philadelphia – tracing the rise of punk music in these various towns and cities.

The album comes complete with extensive text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Special new 25th anniversary edition of this most popular and highly-acclaimed of all Soul Jazz Records' Dynamite! series - 300% Dynamite is jam-packed with reggae tunes that crossedover to become dancefloor hits and are 100% guaranteed to rock any party.

Out of print for the last 15 years, this new edition is being released in a one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition yellow coloured vinyl pressing + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2024.

This album is fully remastered, relicensed and with new tracks exclusively for RSD 24.

Wayne Smith's booming anthem ‘Sleng Teng’, Althea & Donna's worldwide hit 'Uptown Top Ranking', Sister Nancy's classic ‘Bam Bam’, Augustus Pablo, Lee Perry - it's all here as ‘300% Dynamite’ joins the dots between reggae, jazz, funk, dub and soul.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Soul Jazz Records’ new 18th anniversary one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition red and cyan coloured vinyl pressing (+ download code) exclusively for Record Store Day 2024 of their long out of print classic release ‘Studio One Rude Boy’. This album is fully remastered and relicensed for RSD 24.

From the early days of Bob Marley and The Wailers (whose striking sharp-suited Rude Boy style appears on the front cover) through to the classic 1970s Jamaican films ‘The Harder They Come’ and ‘Rockers’, Rude Boys have been synonymous with Jamaican Reggae culture.

This Jamaican Rude Boy anti-establishment attitude and stylish attire was later adopted by bands such as The Clash (in the film Rude Boy) as well as The Specials, Madness, Selector and others in the Two-Tone era that swept across the UK at the end of the 1970s.

The album features classic tracks from Studio One featuring Jamaica’s finest singers and groups such as The Wailers, John Holt, the Wailing Souls and Dennis Brown alongside super-rare hard-to-find tracks from artists such as Mr Foundation, Dudley Sibley and Jim Brown.

Driving Ska and Rocksteady rhythms, classic singers, killer horn lines, great Rude Boy themed-songs, all recorded under Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s supervision at the legendary Studio One.

With musical backing comes from the legendary in-house bands – The Skatalites, The Sound Dimension, Soul Vendors and Soul Defenders – this is rightly one of the most in-demand Studio One releases that Soul Jazz Records have ever released.

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

Soul Jazz Records’ new 10th anniversary edition of their long-out-of-print Punk 45: No Such Thing As Society. This is a one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition coloured vinyl pressing and download code.

The album charts the rise of underground punk and post-punk in the UK from 1977-81.

This new edition is fully remastered, repackaged and includes five new tracks from 23 Skidoo, Notsensibles, Pretty Boy Floyd, The Astronauts and The Impossible Dreamers.

The album is a collection of seminal, classic, obscure and rare punk and post-punk singles from the likes of The Mekons, Johnny Moped, The Killjoys, The Rings and many more which all chart the rise of independent music and Do It Yourself culture that exploded in the wake of punk and during the years of Britain under Margaret Thatcher.

The album comes complete with text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork. Limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double gatefold-sleeve vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes plus download.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Users - Sick Of You
2. Johnny Moped - Incendiary Device
3. The Astronauts - Everything Stops For Baby
4. Pretty Boy Floyd And The Gems -
5. Rough, Tough, Pretty Too
6. 23 Skidoo - Last Words
7. Notsensibles - I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher
8. The Rings - I Wanna Be Free
9. The Now - Development Corporations
10. The Killjoys - Johnny Won't Get To Heaven
11. The Impossible Dreamers - Spin
12. The Lines - White Night
13. 'O' Level - East Sheen
14. The Jermz - Power Cut
15. Roses Are Red - Can't Understand
16. Eric Random - 23 Skidoo
17. The Nerves - TV Adverts
18. The Mekons - 32 Weeks
19. The Freeze - For J.P.S. (With Love And Loathing)
20. The Scabs - Leave Me Alone
21. The Cravats - You're Driving Me
22. The Shapes - Wot's For Lunch Mum?
23. The Cigarettes - They're Back Again, Here They Come
24. Disturbed - I Don't Believe
25. Puncture - Mucky Pup
26. Josef K - Radio Drill Time

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

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH).

Soul Jazz Records’ new one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition coloured vinyl pressing + download code exclusively for Black Friday 2023 of Soul Jazz Records’ long out of print classic ‘Studio One Kings’.

Featuring a new striking alternative sleeve design (featuring the singer Freddie McKay) as well as a special yellow coloured vinyl pressing, ‘Studio One Kings’ is a 'who's who' of the world's greatest reggae artists.

Studio One’s list of singers launched at the famous label reads like a roll call of Jamaican music. Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne and more.

This album features classic and rare tracks that span the breadth of the legendary Studio One catalogue: Ska, Roots, Rocksteady, Lovers and more from the 1960s and 70s.

The album comes with sleeve-notes by the celebrated writer Chris Salewicz, author of Reggae Explosion, Rude Boy as well as notable books on Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page, Joe Strummer and more.

Limited to 1000 copies for the UK & Ireland.

TRACK LISTING

1. Larry Marshall - I've Got To Make It
2. Horace Andy - Every Tongue Shall Tell
3. Alton Ellis - The Well Run Dry
4. Johnny Osbourne - Water More Than Flour
5. Anthony Rocky Ellis - I'm The Ruler
6. Cornell Campbell - Pretty Looks Isn't All
7. Alexander Henry - Please Be True
8. Burning Spear - Them A Come
9. Joe Higgs - Change Of Plan
10. Devon Russell - Roots Natty
11. Ken Boothe - Be Yourself
12. Freddie Mcgregor - I Shall Be Released
13. Freddie Mckay - Father Will Cut You Off
14. The Ethiopian - Locust
15. George Philip - One One
16. John Holt - I Don't Want To See You Cry
17. Delroy Wilson - Won't You Come Home

“I think if a nuclear family could have a soundtrack, ours would be the Soul Jazz comp ‘Studio One Scorcher’. I wouldn’t say it’s the best record ever made, but if I heard it every single day for the rest of my life, I’d be 100% cool with it.” - DJ

New one-off press transparent orange coloured triple vinyl edition (with download code) of Soul Jazz Records’ long unavailable ‘Studio One Scorcher’, featuring a blistering collection of rare and classic cuts recorded at Studio One.

‘Studio One Scorcher’ is one of the most important collections in Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Studio One’ series, bringing together an unmissable collection of stand-out cuts from many of the finest players ever in Jamaica and in reggae music.

Featuring The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo, Tommy McCook, Cedric Brooks, Tommy McCook, The Sound Dimension, Don Drummond, Brentford Road All Stars and more. Heavy, heavy tunes from start to finish! All killer no filler! 

These tunes encompass ska, rocksteady, roots, dub and more. Studio One instrumentals are the foundation of reggae. They literally define reggae music. Many of these classic recordings became the basis for everything that followed in reggae music, replayed and versioned thousands of times. 

Here you will find Jackie Mittoo’s seminal ‘Sidewalk Doctor’, Don Drummond Jnr’s classic ‘Heavenless’, The Soul Vendors’ ‘Ringo Rock’ and the Sound Dimension’s ‘Heavy Rock’. All original artists and original classic tunes, all on one album. Not to mention a host of utterly superb rarities from the mighty vaults of Studio One.

TRACK LISTING

The Skatalites – Coconut Rock
Cedric Im Brooks & The Sound
Dimension – Mun-Dun-Go
Tommy Mccook, Richard Ace,
The Skatalites & Disco Height – Shockers Rock
Soul Vendors – Ringo Rock
Jackie Mittoo & Ernest Ranglin – Jericho Skank
New Establishment – The People Skanking
Karl Bryan & The Afrokats – Money Generator
Lester Sterling – Afrikaan Beat
Sound Dimension – Heavy Rock
Sugar Belly – In Cold Blood
Don Drummond & The Skatalites — Heavenless
Soul Bros. – Bugaloo
Vin Gordon – Red Blood
Pablove Black – Push Pull
Jackie Mittoo & Brentford Rockers – Sidewalk Doctor
Liberation Group – Namibia
Brentford Road All Stars – Last Call
Soul Defenders – Still Calling
Karl Bryan & Count Ossie – Black Up

“Vol 1 was mighty fine, presenting rare and deep recordings from Studio One’s mid-70s heyday. Hard to believe the Vol 2 is even better… As with all Soul Jazz material, the vinyl is heavyweight, with fine packaging and good liner notes. Reggae music doesn’t get much better than this: buy immediately and play loud” - David Katz, FACT

New one-off press transparent green double vinyl edition of Soul Jazz Records’ long unavailable ‘Studio One Roots 2’, which features classic tracks recorded at Studio One.

‘Studio One Roots 2’ delves deep into the vaults of the legendary Jamaican Reggae label and features rare and classic roots as well as an unprecedented seven unreleased tracks that up till now had never seen the light of day.

Roots and Rastafarian music was being recorded at Studio One by Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd from the early 1960s onwards to the 1990s and this album reflects the depth and diversity of roots music at the label.

From the slow-ska of Dudley Sibbley, to the deep instrumental jazz cuts of Cedric Im Brooks over classic roots rhythms such as Satta Massagana to Winston Mathews stunning eerie version of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Sun Is Shining’. The Zion All Stars features the Burro Rastafarian drumming of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.

This album features many of the classic Studio One artists - Willie Williams, Tommy McCook, Cedric Brooks, The Gladiators, Vin Gordon - as well as many less well known artists - all who produced classic roots music under the guidance of producer Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd and recorded at the legendary Studio One Records.

TRACK LISTING

Willie Williams & The Sound Dimension – Jah Righteous Plan
Al Campbell – Take A Ride
Cedric 'Im' Brooks – Satta
Ken Boothe & Joe Higgs – A Message Of Old
Jackie Bernard – Jah Jah Way
Devon Russell – Jah Hold The Key
Zoot Sims – Small Garden
The Saints – Sleeping Trees
Larry Marshall – Run Babylon
Vin Gorden – Babylon Rock
The Gladiators – Talawah
Prince Francis – African Skank
Cedric 'Im' Brooks – Full Time
Prince Lincoln – True Experience
Joseph Hill – Behold The Land
Winston Matthews – Sun Is Shining
Karl Bryan – LK Strut Count Ossie & The Zion All
Stars – Holy Mount Zion Tommy McCook & The
Discosonics – Tenor On The Call

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

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

‘Studio One Classics’: Spanning 40 years of the legendary label, this album is a celebration of the music of Studio One Records and features a who’s who of Jamaican Reggae: Bob Marley, The Heptones, Horace Andy, Sugar Minott, Don Drummond, Prince Jazzbo and more. Comes in the striking ‘Wailers’ sleeve.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE.


Soul Jazz Records’ new Holy Church of the Ecstatic Soul: Gospel, Funk and Soul at the Crossroads 1971-83 is a one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition coloured vinyl pressing + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2023.

The album draws upon the extensive links between black American gospel music and soul music, showing how the sensibilities of gospel artists such as Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Andraé Crouch and others crossed over into secular soul music during this period.

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.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Andraé Crouch & The Disciples - Satisfied (3.07)
2. Shirley Caesar - Jesus Children Of America (4.19)
3. The Meditation Singers - Trouble's Brewin' (5.01)
B
1. The Clark Sisters - You Brought The Sunshine (5.49)
2. Dorothy Norwood - Let Your Feet Down Easy (2.42)
3. Shirley Caesar - Jesus Is Coming (3.50)
4. Swan Silvertones - If You Believe Your God Is Dead (3.11)
C
1. The Alvin Darling Ensemble - Is There Anybody Here? (3.24)
2. Roscoe Robinson - There's A Creator (3.10)
3. Destiny - Nothing Can Stop Me Now (2.57)
4. The Meditation Singers - Good Old Gospel Music (4.32)
5. Keith Barrow - Everything Is Gonna Be Alright (3.07)
D
1. Roscoe Robinson - Elijah (2.33)
2. Dyson's Faces - Till I've Got This Feelin' Of Love (3.45)
3. The Violinaires - The Upper Way (3.24)
4. Leomia Boyd And The Gospel Music Makers - Higher In Jesus' Love (2.53)
5. Keith Barrow - The Right Road Now (3.06)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Soul Jazz Records’ new 20th anniversary one-off limited-edition heavyweight specialedition coloured vinyl pressing + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2023 of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One Ska. 

A blistering collection of non-stop Ska classic tunes from Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s legendary Studio One Records, Jamaica's foundation label of reggae music. Featuring classic cuts from the originators of Ska alongside a heavy dose of superb rarities from the mighty vaults of 13 Brentford Road - pure fire!

Studio One Records and the seminal in-house band The Skatalites created and defined Ska in the process making Jamaican music famous throughout the world. This compilation features classic vocal and instrumental tracks from The Skatalites, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Delroy Wilson alongside super-rare tracks from the likes of Ken Boothe, The Maytals, Jackie Mittoo, Tommy McCook and many more.

Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s musical empire was founded on Ska, the first explosive and most exciting music to come out of the newly independent Jamaica, which soon spread across the world. This album is a celebration of the music of Studio One Records’ seminal Ska releases and features a who’s who of the most important artists and musicians in the history of reggae. Studio One is often described as both the University of Reggae and the Motown of Jamaica.

“Utterly brilliant collection of Ska music. Essential stuff” - Q 

"There are a million ska compilations around, but this selection outshines them - yet another blinder from Soul Jazz“ - Wallpaper 

"This shows the Soul Jazz Records vault digger’s gold standard of quality” - Mojo

“Every side collected here is a classic” - All Music

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Jackie Mittoo – El Bang Bang
2. Ken Boothe & Stranger Cole – Arte Bella
3. The Wailers – (I'm Gonna) Put It On
4. The Skatalites – Addis Ababa
B
1. Roland Alphonso – President Kennedy
2. Joe Higgs – (I'm The) Song My Enemies Sing
3. The Skatalites – Beardsman Ska
4. Delroy Wilson – I Want Justice
C
1. Tommy McCook's Orchestra – Sampson
2. The Ethiopians – I'm Gonna Take Over
3. Tommy McCook – Freedom Sounds
4. The Maytals – Marching On
D
1. The Skatalites – Exodus
2. Roland Alphonso – Look Away Ska
3. Don Drummond – Don Cosmic
4. Roland Alphonso – Scambalena
5. Andy & Joey – You're Wondering Now

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 22ND ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.



IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 24TH).





New one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition coloured vinyl pressing + 28-page booklet insert + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2023 of Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Gipsy Rhumba: The Original Rhythm of Gipsy Rhumba in Spain 1965 – 1974’.



Soul Jazz Records’ Gipsy Rhumba is the first album ever outside of Spain to focus on one of the most exciting musical culture clashes ever that first took place in the early 1960s.



Primarily known as the creators of Flamenco, Gypsies from the Catalan region of Spain came up with a fascinating hybrid style – Gipsy Rhumba – which blended together Latin and Rhumba music of Cuba and the Caribbean together with their own Flamenco, as well as the emerging Rock and Roll from America.



The extensive booklet contains definitive sleevenotes by the musicologist Jose Manuel Gómez, record designs and stunning photography from the celebrated photographer Jacques Leonard.



“A capsule of supercharged clapping and joyous vocals’” - The Guardian



“Must-have’ ‘You all know Gipsy Kings’ blend of flamenco and Latin rhythms … but where did this convergence of Latin music styles occur? This compilation demonstrates how mid-1960’s Barcelona hot-housed gypsy musicians who employed the rumba rhythm… Gipsy Rhumba unearths a forgotten corner of Europop” - The Sunday Times



“Musicologists aren’t the only ones who will enjoy pulling at the threads that bind this particular sound clash … Messing with the traditional form is daring at any time, but the result was something quite fantastic, potent and intriguing, full of marvellous grooves and compelling rhythms” - Irish Times

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Rabbit Rumba – Nuestro Ayer
2. El Noi – Labios Morenos
3. Los Gitanos Polinais – En El Fondo Del Mar De Lima
4. Antonio González – Sarandonga
5. Peret – La Fiesta No Es Para Feos
B
1. El Gitano Portugués – Fui A Bahía
2. Maruja Garrido – Ché Camino
3. Juncal Y Sus Calistros – Tequila
4. Moncho Y Su Wawankó Gitano – Orisa
5. Peret – Voy, Voy
C
1. Dolores Vargas "La Terremoto" – Anana Hip
2. Chango – El Guapo
3. Ramonet Y Sus Rumberos – Bacalao Salao
4. Lola Flores Y Antonio González – Meneíto Men
5. Dolores Vargas "La Terremoto" – A-Chi-Li-Pú
D
1. El Noy – El Loco
2. El Noi – Sí, Compay
3. Chacho Y Sus Rumbas – El Pan Y Los Dientes
4. Maruja Garrido – Amanecí En Tus Brazos
5. Antonio González – Levántate

‘Studio One Space-Age Dub Special’ is a brand new Studio One release on Soul Jazz Records which draws on more rare and classic dubs taken from the mighty vaults of Studio One Records.

Most of these tracks are taken from Studio One’s superb long out-of-print series of dub albums released between 1974 and 1980, such as ‘Zodiac Sounds’, ‘Ital Sounds and System’, ‘Roots Dub’, ‘Dub Store Special’, ‘Juks Incorporation’ and others. Many of these classic dub albums were originally released only in Jamaica in shortrun pressings with special silk-screen printed sleeves, all with striking minimal designs, and which now fetch many, many hundreds of pounds.

These tracks, credited to the Dub Specialist, use the original music tracks to seminal Studio One rhythms, which are broken down, reconstructed, and manipulated using the studio mixing desk as an instrument. With these albums, producer Clement Dodd and engineer Sylvan Morris helped create some of the finest dubs ever known.

The cover shows Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd in orbit, an image inspired by DJ Lone Ranger‘s 1982 ‘Badda Dan Dem’ album for Studio One, the cover of which portrays Sir Coxsone at the controls of a spaceship with the DJ in space.

The tracks on ‘Studio One Space-Age Dub Special’ are mainly instrumental cuts with occasional snippets of original vocals brought into the mix. Lone Ranger’s complete vocals feature on ‘A Lie Gal A Tell’, a superb six minutes plus dubbed out piece of musical madness. Also included are a selection of rare dub versions that only ever appeared on rare singles.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Intriguing release (all new releases), credited to Dub Specialist yet mining the wealth of Studio One-released source material to create shimmering new dubscapes that refract the past through a space echo and a reverb. Dub heads will need no convincing on this one!

TRACK LISTING

1. Dub Specialist - Red Neck
2. Dub Specialist - Marcus Dub
3. Dub Specialist - Accra
4. Dub Specialist - A Lie Gal A Tell
5. Dub Specialist - Squash Dub
6. Dub Specialist - Pick Up The Version
7. Dub Specialist - Saucy Perila
8. Dub Specialist - RoaringReggae
9. Dub Specialist - Still Water Version
10. Dub Specialist - My Man (Part 2)
11. Dub Specialist - Disco Dub
12. Dub Specialist - Tricky
13. Dub Specialist - Illiteracy Version
14. Dub Specialist - Wailing Sounds
15. Dub Specialist - Juk’s Inc.
16. Dub Specialist - Barb Wire Version
17. Dub Specialist - Queen Of The Rub
18. Dub Specialist - I A See I

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

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.

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

‘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

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

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

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

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

This is the first release of Soul Jazz Records’ new Cold Wave overview and a second volume will follow.

These first artists created new electronic musical landscapes as well as pursuing a stubborn DIY 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, Dissemblance and VQOA from France, De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Moisture from Sweden, Kreidler from Germany, Céline Gillian and Carcass Identity from Belgium. One exception is FIT Siegel out of Detroit, connecting the electronic pathways of Europe to the Motor City.

All of the bands featured here make distinctive contemporary music out of the 80s roots of the first cold wave movement.

This first edition of ‘Cold Wave’ comes in two vinyl editions – a one-off pressing orange coloured vinyl edition and a black vinyl edition. Both come as heavyweight double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves and the first pressing of this album comes with its own free pullout fanzine on the groups featured. The CD edition comes with artist booklet / fanzine and slipcase. All editions are printed in special dayglo colour finish.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Not content with rocking our Piccadilly socks with the angular energy of their contemporary post punk round up, Soul Jazz now take a tour through the modern age of Cold Wave, picking out former Piccadilly records of the week from Krikor, Wang Inc., De Ambassade, Celine Gillain and Krikor. As a result, this whole comp comes most highly recommended from your favourite vinyl hustlers.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dissemblance – Capture
2. Carcass Identity – Reflexion Ocean
3. FIT Siegel – Wayne County Stomp
4. De Ambassade – Standhouden
5. Wang Inc. – Approdo
6. Krikor Kouchian – Niños Matadores
7. Céline Gillain – Fight Or Flight
8. Kreidler – Kannibal
9. Moisture – Gammut
10. Violent Quand On Aime – Of Course I’m A Liar

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

This is the new 20th Anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases, now available as a special one-off blue double vinyl pressing.

‘Studio One Roots’ set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series of Studio One collections and features many of the classic artists from Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae. This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis and Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack session men groups of Jamaican reggae history, including The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. As ever the album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and superrarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.

Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’ ‘Blackish White’, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie Nyabinghi and Rastafarian drummers’ genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams’ awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites seminal Rastafari anthem ‘Addis Ababa’ and many, many more.

This album has been fully digitally remastered, analogue cut and packaged complete with original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Hones Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, fantastic images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves.

“The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection” - All Music

TRACK LISTING

The Cyclones With Count Ossie - Meditation
Cornell Campbell With The Brentford Rockers - Natty Don’t Go
Freddie McGregor With The Sound Dimension - Africa Here I Come
Bunnie & Skitter - Lumumbo
Willie Williams With The All Stars - Addis Ababa
L Crosdale With Drum Bago & The Rebel Group - Set Me Free
Leroy Wallace With The New Establishment - Far Beyond
Lennie Hibbert - More Creation
Alton Ellis With The Sound Dimension - Blackish White
Winston Jarrett With The Sound Dimension - Fear Not
Devon ‘Soul’ Russell - Drum Song
The Gaylads - Africa
Black Brothers With The New Establishment - School Children
Linton Cooper With The Brentford Disco Set - You’ll Get Your Pay
Sound Dimension - Congo Rock
Zoot Simms - African Challenge

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

This is the new instalment of Soul Jazz Records’ ground-breaking ‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik’ series, “a near-definitive guide to some of the world’s most extraordinary music” - The Guardian.

This new Soul Jazz release features many of the classic German electronic and Krautrock groups from the 1970s and 1980s, including Can, Amon Düül II, Harmonia, Conrad Schnitzler, Agitation Free and Roedelius, as well as a host of lesser known artists such as Dzyan, Klaus Weiss, Gruppe Between and many more.

Deutsche Elektronische rarities unearthed on the album include Kalacakra (whose fanbase included the great Moondog) and their superb ‘Nearby Shiras’, taken from their super-rare spiritual / psychedelic private press concept album ‘Crawling to Lhasa’ from 1972. 

‘Deutsche Elektronische 4’ includes a wealth of German electronic experimental artists - the seminal pioneering group Harmonia (Roedelius, Moebius and Michael Rother) and avant-garde guru Conrad Schnitzler, as well as lesser known synthetic artists such as Klaus Weiss, Deutsche Wertarbeit, E.M.A.K. (Elektronische Musik Aus Köln), Günter Schickert and others.

Finally, the album also features an array of heavy and progressive German cosmic rock groups - Dzyan, Virus and the amazing Turkish/German tripped out sound of Alex’s ‘Patella Black’, recorded at Can’s Inner Space in 1973, produced by Holger Czukay and Jackie Liebezeit.

‘Deutsche Elektronische 4’ comes with extensive newly commissioned sleevenotes by David Stubbs, author of the seminal books ‘Future Days: Krautrock and the building of Modern Germany’, ‘Mars By 1980: The story of Electronic Music’ and ‘Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy’.

This album comes as a deluxe double CD edition with outsize booklet and slipcase, as well as a heavyweight triple vinyl edition with full colour inner sleeves. Both formats include full liner notes and extensive rare photography.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I really can't get enough of these compilations. Superb, unheard of gems mixed in with some undeniable classics, and presented beautifully in true Soul Jazz style. Unsurprisingly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Alex – Patella Black
2. Klaus Weiss – Driving Sequences
3. Can – I'm So Green
4. Agitation Free – Laila, Part II
5. Deutsche Wertarbeit – Guten Abend, Leute
6. Amon Düül II – Wolf City
7. Michael Rother – Flammende Herzen
8. Klaus Weiss – Pink Sails
9. Virus – My Strand-Eyed Girl
10. Conrad Schnitzler – Ballet Statique
11. Kalacakra – Nearby Shiras
12. EMAK – Tanz In Den Himmel
13. Et Cetera – Mellodrama 2a
14. Between – Triumphzug Kaiser Maximilian I
15. Roedelius – Halmharfe
16. Dzyan – Dragonsong
17. Harmonia – Deluxe (Immer Wieder)
18. Günter Schickert – Suleika
19. Witthüser & Westrupp – Schöpfung (1. Mose 1)

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)

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore’ is a brand new collection of heavyweight ragga influenced hardcore jungle tracks from the early 1990s. Dark and heavy. Featuring classic and seminal tracks from the likes of Levictus and Krome & Time alongside a host of rare and little-known ragga and junglist hardcore tunes, featuring the likes of Babylon Timewarp’s hypnotic ‘Durban Poison’, Rhythm For Reasons’ mad ‘The Smokers Rhythm’, The Freaky rave-y breakbeat sound of ‘Time and Age’, Trip One’s super dark ‘Snowball’ and loads more. Expect super heavy basslines, equally heavy twisted ‘Amen’ drum loops, even heavier ragga vocals. Original jungle style - roots and culture - from the earliest days of drum and bass.

Included with the first edition of the ‘Black Riot’ vinyl and CD is a free graphic mini-novel ‘Black Riot: The Mysterons save Planet Earth from the Xatheroid Angels’. This is the third collaboration between writer Paulo Parisi and Soul Jazz Records. This new graphic story continues the story of black electronic dance music - this time set in London circa 1992 - from Soul Jazz’s earlier ‘Invasion of the Killer Mysterons’ (Jamaican electronic dub, co-compiled by Kevin Martin (The Bug)) and ‘Mysterons Invade the Jackin’ Zone’ (about Chicago acid and experimental house 1986-93).

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: In a year when some serious questions were asked about the whitewashed narrative of Britain’s dance floor history, Soul Jazz go back to the start of the Hardcore Continuum to celebrate the black artists pushing the boundaries of system rinsing sounds.

TRACK LISTING

Rhythm For Reasons - The Smokers Rhythm
Babylon Timewarp - Durban Poison
The Terrorist - RK1
DJ Dubplate - Tings A Go On
Leviticus - Burial (Lovers Rock Mix)
The Freaky - Time And Age
Trip One - Snowball Remix
DJ Krome & Mr. Time - Ganja Man
New Vision - Way Of Life
DJ Dubplate - Original Rubadubstyle
Hi Fi Power - Chill Out (Raggafunks U)
Nu Jacks Featuring Ivory Ranks - House Sensation

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 release this stunning new collection featuring music influential to the artist Keith Haring.

The art of Keith Haring is today one of the most recognisable of any visual artists of his generation, defining 1980s New York during an intense period when downtown artists and musicians collaborated like never before. Haring’s musical inspiration took in the punk/dance downtown sounds of clubs like The Mudd Club, underground disco at Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage, as well the early days of hip hop and electro.

The album is released to coincide with the opening of the first major exhibition in the UK of Keith Haring’s work at Tate Liverpool, which runs for the next six months.

Haring’s many friends included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Fab Five Freddy, William Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, Grace Jones, Larry Levan, Futura 2000.

The music here includes the work of a number of Haring’s close friends, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yoko Ono, Larry Levan, John Sex and George Condo (The Girls), as well as healthy dose of rare disco, early electro and New York punk/dance tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Where a lot of Soul Jazz compilations focus on a genre, or a precursor of that genre, Haring's affiliated acts read like the toilet walls of CBGB, Paradise Garage and the Mudd Club. It's a brilliantly varied but cohesive snapshot of the 80s in music and art incorporating art-rock, electro and the burgeoning hip-hop scene. Absolutely essential.

TRACK LISTING

2CD 
B Beat Girls - For The Same Man
Damon Harris - It’s Music
Pylon - Danger
The Jonzun Crew - Pak Man (Look Out For The OVC)
Funk Masters - Love Money
John Sex - Bump And Grind It
Sylvester - Over And Over (12" Disco Mix)
The Girls - Jeffrey I Hear You
Johnny Dynell And New York 88 - Jam Hot (Rhumba Rock)
Talking Heads - I Zimbra
Art Zoyd - Sortie 134 (Part 2)
Class Action - Weekend (Larry Levan Mix)
Adiche - Chuka-Ja (Get Ready)
The Girls - The Elephant Man
The Golden Flamingo Orchestra - The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us
Gray - Cut It Up High Priest
Extra T’s - E.T. Boogie
Convertion - Let’s Do It
Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice
Fab 5 Freddy - Change The Beat

3LP
B Beat Girls - For The Same Man
Damon Harris - It’s Music
Pylon - Danger
The Jonzun Crew - Pak Man (Look Out For The OVC)
Funk Masters - Love Money
John Sex - Bump And Grind It
Sylvester - Over And Over (12" Disco Mix)
Johnny Dynell And New York 88 - Jam Hot (Rhumba Rock)
Art Zoyd - Sortie 134 (Part 2)
Adiche - Chuka-Ja (Get Ready)
Class Action - Weekend (Larry Levan Mix)
Gray - Cut It Up High Priest
The Golden Flamingo Orchestra - The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us
Extra T’s - E.T. Boogie
Fab 5 Freddy - Change The Beat
Convertion - Let’s Do It
Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice

All of the music featured on this new Soul Jazz Records collection was created by Brazilian artists in the USA in the 1970s. In the early 1970s North American jazz musicians were eager to work with upcoming Brazilian musicians. Miles Davis invited Airto Moreira to join his new ‘electric’ band, Dom Um Romao (part of Sérgio Mendes’ legendary Brazil ‘66 in the 1960s) joined the fusion group Weather Report, Flora Purim and Airto both became a part of Chick Corea’s new project Light As A Feather, Wayne Shorter collaborated with Milton Nascimento, George Duke recorded Brazilian Love Affair and so on. With all the attention placed on them from these important jazz artists, North America became the new musical playground for a large number of these Brazilian artists - Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Sérgio Mendes, Luiz Bonfá, Eumir Deodato, João Donato and many others. 

Most of these musicians had already experienced success through the earlier popularity of bossa nova in the 1960s, either at home in Brazil or in the USA. However, by the end of the 1960s, many Brazilian artists had left their own country, as the military dictatorship became progressively more authoritarian and repressive. In the USA, through their critically acclaimed work for Miles Davis, Weather Report, Light As A Feather etc., all of these artists were now given reign to explore new musical terrains away from the restrictions of both a musical genre and a state censor back in Brazil.  

This collection brings together some of these finest works and comes complete with extensive notes that explains the path these musicians took from Brazil to the USA and shows the political and musical links between Brazil and the USA that created the conditions for this unique fusion of these two distinct cultures, North American Jazz and Brazilian music, that occurred in the 1970s. 

The CD contains large 40-page outsize booklet all housed in Soul Jazz slipcase. The double LP comes in a deluxe gatefold complete with digital download code, full sleevenotes and exclusive photography.

TRACK LISTING

1. Airto - Samba De Flora
2. Duke Pearson And Flora Purim - Sandalia Dela
3. Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Batucada (The Beat)
4. Deodato - Skyscrapers
5 .Milton Nascimento - Catavento
6. Airto - Tombo In 7/4
7. Luiz Bonfá - Bahia Soul
8. Dom Um Romao - Braun- Blek-Blu
9. Moacir Santos - Kathy
10. João Donato - Almas Irmãs
11. Sivuca - Ain't No Sunshine
12. Milton Nascimento - Rio Vermelho
13. Tamba 4 - Consolation (Consolação)
14. Flora Purim - Moon Dreams
15. Dom Um Romao - Escravos De Jo
16. Airto - Andei (I Walked)

Soul Jazz Records present this new collection of music from the great Fashion Records, one of the most important and iconic, independent reggae labels to come out of the UK, running from 1980 for nearly 20 years. In that time Fashion released hundreds of records that successfully reflected - and indeed set - the changing styles and perspectives of reggae music in the UK, from UK dancehall and lovers rock in the 1980s through to the mighty rise of jungle in the second half of the 1990s.

While nearly all other UK reggae labels focused on releasing Jamaican music, from the early days of Island and Trojan in the 1960s, through Island and Virgin in the 1970s and Greensleeves that came up in the 1980s, Fashion’s focus was firmly on music produced in the UK. This unique British perspective shaped both lyrical content and musical fashion. And like all the great music labels, from Studio One to Blue Note, Fashion was able to create a significant roster of its own artists. Amazingly for a small independent label, a number of Fashion artists achieved mainstream UK chart and crossover success, including Laurel & Hardy, Smiley Culture and General Levy. But although this success was welcomed, crossing over into the mainstream was never the main focus for label owners Chris Lane and John McGillivray (who also runs the successful Dub Vendor record shop), whose starting point was always primarily focused on producing quality music first.

In the early 1980s, Fashion Records captured the rise of the emerging British dancehall scene in its ascendency. The large roster of first generation British-born artists and MCs on the label, including General Levy, Papa Face, Smiley Culture, Bionic Rhona, Asher Senator, Laurel & Hardy, Top Cat and many more, often gave a unique and sometimes humorous British lyrical perspective to Fashion releases, discussing everyday subjects, from police harassment to road safety.

Throughout much of the 1980s and into the 1990s Fashion continued to release an almost relentless array of UK dancehall releases as well as continuing with lovers rock and the occasional dub releases. Then, in the mid-90s, with the dancehall and reggae releases still coming on strong, Fashion released a superb series of early jungle tracks linking Jamaican and British MCs and dancehall artists with young jungle mixers, remixers and producers. By this time dancehall artists General Levy and Cutty Ranks had become the staple vocal samples of literally hundreds of white label jungle records and Fashion took advantage of this, often getting young producers to work in exchange for sample clearances.

This album is a subjective and scatter-gun ride through some of the many unique and heavyweight tracks to come out of the Fashion stable - some classics, some lesser-known, all 100% killer.

TRACK LISTING

Papa Face Featuring Red Man - Dance Pon De Corner
Dee Sharp - Let’s Dub It Up
Cutty Ranks - Limb By Limb (DJ SS Remix)
General Levy - Mad Them
Laurel & Hardy - You’re Nicked
Bunny General - Played By This Ya Sound
General Levy & Hard ‘n’ Pure - Wikkeda!!
Carlton Lewis - Small Talking
Poison Chang - Shot Fe Bust (Marvellous Cain Remix)
Dee Sharp - Rising To The Top
Papa Face With Keith Douglas - DJ Jamboree
General Levy - Heat
Carlton Lewis - Sweet Soul Rocking
Top Cat - Ruffest Gun Ark (DJ Rap Mix)
Papa San - DJ Business
Papa Face & Bionic Rhona - To The Bump
Cutty Ranks - As You See It
Janice Walker - You’ll Never Need Somebody
Asher Senator - Bubble With I

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

This is the latest installment of Soul Jazz Records’ on-going collection of Rastafarian music at Studio One, featuring classic material from legendary roots and culture artists The Gladiators, Horace Andy, Freddie McGregor, Sugar Minott and the Wailing Souls, alongside a superb selection of rarities from Sir Coxsone’s musical empire made up of one-off and practically unknown Rastafarian artists who recorded on myriad Studio One off-shoot labels in the 1970s - The Manchesters, Mellodies, The Nightingales and others.

In this new collection, we see that once again the prescient Clement Dodd was a man who saw the wider picture. In the 1960s it was Sir Coxsone who identified the creative potential of The Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, Heptones, Burning Spear and many, many others. In the 1970s Studio One released an untouchable selection of the finest as styles moved from reggae to deejay to dub and, in the latter half, the emergence of dancehall.

What is also clear is that throughout this era Studio One released an incredible amount of roots music and not just the most commercially obvious. For alongside the career-building catalogues of Burning Spear, The Wailing Souls, The Gladiators and so on, one needs to be an ardent Studio One collector to know some of the truly raw Rastafarian music featured here. Groups such as The Manchesters or The Nightingales feel as if they were recorded straight out of the churchical chants of the mansions.

Black Man’s Pride explains the links between the ideology of Clement Dodd at Studio One and the Rastafarian faith, which was the creation of Afro-Jamaicans and concerned above all else with a black consciousness and empowerment, a rediscovering of the personal and racial identity of black people. The movement began in the 1930s and, in tandem with this black consciousness, called for a rejection of the British imperial culture that dominated Jamaica, while creating an identity based on a re-appropriation of an African heritage.

The Rastafari movement was like a pivot, bringing together and balancing many vectors of ideologies. Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement, trades union discourse, anti-colonialism and nation independence, maroon self-definition and independence, the spirit of African rebellion in the Caribbean. For Clement Dodd, a black man and producer growing up in Kingston in this era, Rastafari was simply a part of his everyday world - from witnessing Count Ossie’s grounations to the faith of many Jamaican artists at Studio One - from the Skatalites onwards.

Featured here alongside these classic and rare tracks from Studio One are new and extensive sleeve notes with track-by-track notes by Rob Chapman, author of the acclaimed Downbeat Special and Never Grow Old Studio One books.

TRACK LISTING

Horace Andy - Conscious Dreadlocks
The Gladiators - A Prayer To Thee
Freddie McGregor - Beat Down Babylon
The Manchesters - Selassie Bandman
The Mellodies - Dread Oppression
Big Joe - Jah Jah Help Us 
Horace Andy - Oh Lord Why Lord
Lloyd Jones & The Super Natural Six - Get Up And Try
Wailing Souls - Can't Catch Me
The Nightingales - Jehovah
Alphonso Stewart - Its No Secret
Errol Dunkley - Satisfaction
Mr Manchester - Give Natty Dread Glory
Sugar Minott - Wrong Doers
Noel Campbell & The Gladiators Band - Sufferation
African Brothers - No Cup No Brock
Zoot Simms - When The Time Comes
Glen Miller - Whey No Dead

‘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

Soul Jazz Records are releasing a new 2017 edition of their classic album ‘Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture’. This long-out-of-print collection is now available as a double CD and triple vinyl. The album is a lightning-flash collection of all-time classic and definitive dancehall classics as well as a stellar selection of more obscure tracks. Featuring Yellowman, Tenor Saw, Sister Nancy, Ini Kamoze, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Michigan & Smiley, Super Cat, Cutty Ranks, Eek-A-Mouse, Gregory Isaacs and more, this album features non-stop floor-filling party tune rockers throughout. ‘Dancehall’ is released to coincide with the new 2017 edition of the stunning 400+ photos deluxe coffee table book ‘Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture’, featuring Beth Lesser’s amazing ‘Dancehall’ photography (also newly published by Soul Jazz Records). This book has become the definitive cultural reference book for Jamaican dancehall and features hundreds of killer photographs, extensive text and interviews with many of the artists. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Soul Jazz can always be relied upon to pack a comp full of heat, and this dancehall collection has all the greats on here. Yellowman, Sister Nancy, Ini Kamoze, Super Cat – you name ‘em, they’re on here. Plus, we get “Murder She Wrote”. Mega!

TRACK LISTING

Yellowman - Bam Bam
Tenor Saw - Pumpkin Belly
Reggie Stepper - Cu Oonuh
Chaka Demus And Pliers - Murder She Wrote
Pinchers - Agony
Michigan & Smiley - Diseases (3.31)
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
Junior Murvin - Cool Out Son
General Echo - Arleen
Cornel Campbell - Boxing
Cutty Ranks - Chop Chop
Lone Ranger - M16
Super Cat - Trash And Ready
Gregory Isaacs - Soon Forward
Jacob Miller & Trinity - I'm Just A Dread / One Shut
Eek A Mouse - Wa Do Dem
Sister Nancy - Only Woman DJ With Degree
Trinity - Uptown Girl
General Echo - Track Shoes
Cornel Campbell - Mash You Down
Horace Ferguson - Sensi Addict
Clint Eastwood - Jump And Pawn

‘Black Man’s Pride’ is the striking new Studio One collection of deep righteous reggae, featuring Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, The Gladiators, Sugar Minott, The Heptones, Freddie McGregor, Cedric Brooks & more.

While the righteousness of blackness is at the heart of the Rastafarian faith, this collection illustrates how black pride remained a central theme, if not the defining essence, at the very core of all the music created at Studio One Records under the direction of Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd.

In order to understand the centrality of black identity in the music created at Studio One, we need look no further than Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd who created the first black-owned record company in Jamaica.

In similar fashion Alton Ellis’s defining ‘Black Man’s Pride’ brings up emotions that are at the heart of many of these uplifting songs. Alton Ellis’ birthplace was the Trench Town ghetto of Kingston, also the birthplace of The Wailers, Ken Boothe and many other Studio One luminaries.

Clement Dodd established a musical empire firmly rooted by the core musicians working at Studio One, many of whom came out of the Alpha School for Wayward Boys, essentially an orphanage run by Roman Catholic nuns, whose luminaries include Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Tommy McCook & more.

Many of the songs featured here come from the transitory phase in reggae at the start of the 1970s, after the exhilaration of Ska and following the cooling down of Rocksteady.

While reggae awaited the arrival of roots, Studio One’s vocalists were already producing some of the moodiest music imaginable.

Here are 18 heavyweight tunes, both classic cuts and super-rare tunes.

TRACK LISTING

Alton Ellis - Black Man's Pride
Horace Andy - Child Of The Ghetto
Dennis Brown - Created By The Father
The Gladiators - Roots Natty
The Classics - Got To Be Cool
The Nightingales - Rasta Is Calling
Glen Miller - Love & Understanding
Sugar Minott - Woman Shadow
Lloyd Jones & The Super Natural Six - Red In A Babylon
Dudley Sibley & The Soul Gang - Love In Our Nation
The Heptones - Equal Rights
Glen Miller - You Must Be Love
Winston Jarrett - Up Park No Mans Land
Cedric Im Brooks - Why Can’t I
Larry Marshall - Let's Make It Up
Freddie McGregor - Children Listen To Wise Words
John Holt - Build Our Dreams
Johnny Osbourne – Forgive Them

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