Juan Martin - Muzica Alhambra [1996]

Juan Martín is an experienced flamenco guitarist performer. For this project he assembled an Arab Andalusian music group with Juan Martín, flamenco guitar, Abdul Salam Kheir, oud and vocals, Chris Karan, tabla, Rony Barrak, darbuka, and Stephen Dummer, clarinet and soprano sax. 

 In the ‘Musica Alhambra’ Juan Martin explores the roots of flamenco in Moorish and Indian gypsy music and plays Sephardic songs culminating in contemporary flamenco. Simply breathtaking.

                                                                   Enjoy!

EleKtroBalKana live Epirus

                          

Toufic Farroukh - Drab Zeen [2002]

Drab Zeen represents one of the finest examples of this important emerging new sub-genre, Arab-jazz. The genius of this disc is how Farroukh has effortlessly melded such disparate elements as jazz trombone and saxophone, chill-beats, French vocals, acoustic piano, oud, ney, and accordion into a singly tapestry of unique sounds, all the while retaining the essential elements of each instrumental voice even as he transforms the whole into something entirely new and heretofore unheard.
Farroukh has grown in every facet of his music-making: tighter and more evocative compositions, a richer and more varied sound palette, cleaner production, superior sax blowing, and a deeper groove.
An altogether remarkable disc.

                                                                   Enjoy!

Andre Williams & The Out Of Sighters - Red Beans & Biscuits – Rare & Unreleased Recordings 1966-1970

Some of the best material from Andre Williams' heady 60s funk days – including some tracks that were initially released as singles on the tiny Duo label in Chicago, plus a bunch more that have never been reissued at all! In the setting for the sides, Andre's working at his hardest and heaviest – really keeping things raw and hard throughout, even on the numbers that feature vocals. There's a number of really great instrumentals on the album – tunes that have the rough, ready, and nicely messed up approach of some of Andre's best Chess work of the time – and which are a seminal bridge between the soul instrumental style of the 60s, and the heavier funk of the 70s!

                                                               Enjoy!

The Funkees - Now I'm a man [1976]

This band was one of the best rock groups to come out of Nigeria in the 70s, during that country’s post-Civil War musical explosion.
They formed in the eastern university and oil town of Warri, in Delta State, and the members were veterans of the Biafran Army; their connections to people who traveled abroad often gave them access to a lot of British and American records that competing bands couldn’t hear.
After a series of singles, the band upped stakes and moved to London, where they quickly established a fierce reputation on the live circuit  and recorded two LPs. 
before they disbanded in 1977.
This is their second album,a fantastic combination of funk and rock mixed with african elements.

                                            Super!

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Sabicas - The soul of flamenco and the essence of rock [1971]

This is the second album that the great flamenco guitar player Sabicas is mixing his skills with rock elements,as he had done in '66 at the Rock Encounter album with Joe Beck.It is one of the first flamenco rock albums,a genre that a few years later became more popular in Spain.
Here we have five instrumental tracks,each one experimenting with a different backing rhythm.Probably the flamenco purists wouldn't love that kind of mix,but for the rest it is an interesting album.

                                                                                  Enjoy!

Bob Brozman & Debashish Bhattacharya - Mahima [2003]

The distinctive sound of the slide guitar is an intrinsic feature in blues, Hawaiian and Indian music. On Mahima, these traditions meet in the capable hands of two of the world’s greatest slide guitarists, Debashish Bhattacharya and Bob Brozman. In the process, the two have created a true hybrid, a spectacular union of guitarists on a unique album, which also showcases the vocal talents of Sutapa Bhattacharya and tabla master Subhashis Bhattacharya. 

                                                                 Enjoy!

Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt - A Meeting By The River [1993]

Ry Cooder has long had an interest in other people's music, from the blues and gospel of black America through classic jazz and the music of Cuba. Even by this standard, his meeting with Mohan Vishwa Bhatt is certainly a departure. He is neither a serious student of Indian music nor in any way a master of its intricacies. Yet on his improvised session (this album was recorded without rehearsal in one evening), he and Bhatt truly collided musically and created moments worthy of the world-music Grammy they received for it. Bhatt is an iconoclastic character himself. He plays a modified box he calls the mohan vina that is a hybrid of a classical Indian instrument and slide guitar. He is long trained in the arduous classical style, yet his work has always demanded a lot of freedom. His duets here with Cooder are completely unique, liberating both artists from the usual constraints and creating a new musical style that is unlikely to be repeated or imitated.

 

 

 

 

                                                              Enjoy!

Bert Jansch - Avocet [1979]

Avocet is the twelfth album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in 1979 in UK. Six beautiful and beguiling instrumentals: the 18-minute Avocet, and five other shorter pieces each named after a different bird. This is one of the finest acoustic guitarists of all time really at the top of his game. The pieces ebb and flow beautifully with various folky and jazzy themes disappearing and reappearing throughout. The mind boggles as to how the three musicians managed to remember the pieces, let alone play them so effortlessly.
 Much of the album conists of the simple trio of Jansch's guitar with Danny Thompson's superb double bass playing and Martin Jenkins on fiddle, punctuated by the odd bit of piano and flute.
The album was first released by Ex Libris in Denmark in late 1978 with alternate album cover and one alternate track title, although no difference in recorded content. The title song "Avocet" was inspired by the traditional song "The Cuckoo". All songs on the album are named after a sea bird or wading bird. The 1979 album, Avocet, was one of Jansch's most ambitious projects and remains one of his own favourites from his work.

                                                               Enjoy! 

Kristi Stassinopoulou - Taxidoscopio [2006]

Kristi Stassinopoulou has created her own unique electro-world style with Greek folk rhythms, psychedelia, haunting vocal harmonies and a crystal clear voice.
The successful blend of traditional Greek rhythms and sound colours, haunting Byzantine vocal lines, rembetika music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica, combined with Kristi's vivid scenic appearance and personality and her colourful band, sparked great response and led to frequent appearances in music festivals and clubs mostly in Europe, N. America and Brazil..
 As on this album, she normally collaborates with her long-time musical partner & husband : composer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their current approach is still internationalist, neo-hippie, paganistic, experimental and described by them as ‘greekadelia’.Normally a 5-piece, the band on this album play a wide variety of instruments including : saz, laouto, lyre, gaida (greek bagpipe), saxophones, guitars, keyboards, percussion & djembe - and is expanded by guest musicians on individual tracks playing harp, tablas, trumpet & trombone.

                                                                                Enjoy!

Sarah Webster Fabio - Jujus – Alchemy Of The Blues [1976]

An incredible album, and very unique! Sarah Webster Fabio was a hip 70s poet with a very righteous sound – and she's working here with funky backings by a tight group that includes family members, in a style that's similar to early 70s work by artists like Wanda Robinson and Camille Yarborough – both of whom also mixed together funk and poetry! The album's got a massive funky cut called "Sweet Songs" – the kind of groover we never tire of, with tight drums, great guitar, and wonderful vocals by Sarah herself. There's lots of other great tunes too ! 

                                                                  Enjoy!

Billy Larkin & The Delegates - Hole in the wall [1965]

 Organist Billy Larkin & The Delegates immediately came to the attention of the Los Angeles jazz audience when their first record was released, but they also picked up a larger audience when people discovered they could dance to it. They had an appeal that far exceeded just the jazz listener.

Basically an organ, guitar and drums jazz trio with heavy emphasis on the blues, Billy Larkin & The Delegates was a versatile and dynamic group that reached into all corners of music to come up with a distinctive style.

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Dr John - The Sun, Moon & Herbs [1971]

This classic recording sees Dr John's transformation into the persona of the Night Tripper fully complete. Most notably it benefits from some really fantastic production, sounding deeper and darker than ever before. His status as a cult musician had risen to the extent that the album featured numerous famous guests, with some guitar from one Eric Clapton. Other names that can be dredged up from deep within the smoky haze include Ronnie Barron, Graham Bond, Jim Price, Bobby Keys, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock and Fuzzy Samuels. Mick Jagger is also somewhere in the background. 

On first listen the pace is so leisurely as to possibly seem uneventful, but if you are patient and allow yourself to succumb to its odd charms it will begin to draw you into a very strange headspace and worm its way under your skin. It is certainly quirky...a kind of funky, gritty, gumbo blues with a mind-bending undercurrent of light psychedelia mixed with equal doses of voodoo and humour.

 The Sun, Moon & Herbs is best listened to on a hot, muggy night with the sound of thunder rumbling off in the distance like jungle drums. A monumental recording!

 

 

 

                                                               Enjoy!

Afro Soultet - Afrodesia [1968~1971]

The wildly diverse, heavily percussive global jazz, soul, and exotica inspired Afrodesia from the late 60s combo Afro Soultet – a crazy rare one, too! The group purportedly has roots in Texas, but incarnations of it were gigging around LA a bit earlier as Afro Latin Blues Quintet +1 and a bit later as Afro Latin Soultet. Here they play with boundless inspiration from around the globe. Afro Latin percussion and rhythms hold it all together, but they bring in strains of Latin soul, African rhythms, straighter jazz and madly percussive instrumental rock.

                                              


                                                                Enjoy!

Afro Blues Quintet Plus 1 - New Directions In Sound

A great compilation of songs from this vibes heavy group.A mid-'60s sextet with a Latin edge, the Afro-Blues Quintet + 1 featured a vibes/sax front line and a rhythm section augmented by congas and timbales assisting the standard piano/bass/drums instrumentation. The group's albums included political and protest pieces, originals, remakes of standards like "Green Dolphin Street," religious/spiritual numbers, soul/jazz and R&B hits, plus some challenging tunes such as "3/4-5/4-7-2." 
Not a funky or even jazzy group as the name may suggest but an almost pop jazz hybrid with some catchy melody throughout. Some of the songs sound a bit playful and some have a great "nightime" feel, with a constant heavy vibe sound going on. 

                                                               Enjoy!

Magic Carpet - Magic Carpet [1972]

True psych-folk eastern fusion. Blended sitar (Clem Alford), keening vocals (Alisha Sufit), guitars (Jim Moyes and Alisha Sufit) and Indian tablas (Keshav Sathe).

High quality combination of classically trained sitar player - as opposed to usual home counties chancer - imaginative songs delivered in slinky timbre and quick moves from lower to higher register. Hypnotic, dreamy and melodic chime.  An unique journey of sounds!

                                                                   Enjoy!

Ross Daly - Selected Works [1994]

Ross Daly is a composer and multi-instrumentalist of Irish descent who lives in Greece. He is known as the creator of his own musical universe. Influenced and inspired by the modal music traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Orient, he leads his audience (both in concerts and on his CDs) on magic musical voyages.

 In this album he performs some of his own compositions and some traditional tunes,all played and arranged in a very beautiful way.In the six long tracks of this album he plays 18 instruments(!) and with the help of some excellent musicians they selected and played a few fine pieces of the work of this great artist.

                                                                                  Enjoy!

Billy Wooten - Lost Tapes [2007]

Rare material from Indianapolis vibesman Billy Wooten – previously unreleased tracks that start with his years in The Wooden Glass, then stretch out into even more obscure territory! The first 3 tracks on the set are all live jams with plenty of heavy vibes from Billy – tracks that have that chilled out, slow funk approach that's made Wooten a big artist with the Stones Throw generation. Other tracks feature Wooten in a number of different modes – working in a small combo mode with guitar on some tracks, jazzing it up with Oliver Nelson Jr on another, and moving back to heavier funk on the last 3 numbers – live trio numbers that feature some great work on organ from Caesar Frazier!

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Jay Mitchell - Mustang Sally [1972/2007]

 Another Numero Group gem, this time lifted from their Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay compilation. The A-side features a full thirteen minute rendition of 'Mustang Sally' that borrows heavily from James Brown in its funk-enhanced breaks, laced with a standout Hammond organ line throughout. On the other side you get a couple of extra versions, 'Le Spam's Edit' and the 'Shoes Ready To Ride Mix' which shifts into a soulful, laidback house groove in fine style.

 

                                                                               Enjoy!