Sagram - Pop Explosions Sitar Style From Sagram [1972]

Clem Alford  was considered as the best western sitar player of his time.In 1970 he formed a group named Sargam with two other musicians - Jim Moyes (guitar) and Keshav Sathe (tabla) - and this innovative trio recorded an album inappropriately released as Pop Explosion Sitar Style! under the band name Sagram (Sargam is the name of a note in an Indian scale), mispelt by the Windmill recording company, who issued the recording without the bands consent or knowledge.The front cover picture is not of Clem. The whole thing was got up to look 'sexy' and 'cool' to improve sales. And of course it's not a 'pop explosion' but a beautiful Anglo Indian folk sound.

                                                                               Enjoy!

Eddie Russ - Fresh Out [1974]

A landmark bit of indie funk from the 70s – one of the few records cut by Detroit keyboardist Eddie Russ, and easily the best! The album features Russ going to town on electric piano – working with a hip combo called The Mixed Bag, which features some wicked work on flute and soprano sax by Larry Nozero – and a vibe that's a lot more laidback than standard funk, or even more mainstream jazz funk too – a sweet open groove that's mighty nice all the way through! The album's really a showcase for Nozero and Russ' solos – trading back and forth effortlessly over long tunes that roll along in a sweet electric-tinged groove – long vamping rhythms that really seem to drive both players onto new heights.

                                                                Enjoy!

Earl Hooker - Do You Remember The Great Earl Hooker [1973]

Heavy boogaloo grooves, organ slathered riffs, fatback bass and backbeat drums all lock together to form an undercurrent for Hooker’s spotlight guitar. On the tenacious funk of the title track he unrolls an ethereal web of tremolo-soaked slide patterns as the enigmatic drummer knocks out a syncopated rhythm on a cowbell and the bass bubbles along with a hip shaking ostinato. Dipping into the Stax songbook the band raises up a rousing rendition of “Hold On” again hinging on Hooker’s greasy slide work. Elmore James’ seminal slide classic “Dust My Broom” receives an organ friendly reworking replete with honking sax that is surprisingly sparse on bottleneck. Chitlin’ circuit funk opens side two in the guise of “Bertha” with vamping Junior Parker style sax and chicken-scratch guitar laying a thick coat of soul on the slippery theme. With “The Foxtrot” the band veers weirdly into teenage ballad territory winding through a syrupy series of changes drenched in heavy amplification. The effect on “End of the Blues” conjures what the Ventures might sound like if they could craft a convincing blues record, while “Hooker Special” finds the guitarist showing off his affection for Country roots by crafting some convincing lap steel style slide.

Two mystery tracks append the disc, presumably cut from the same session, the second and final meshing wah-wah and reverb-laden guitar in a rocking amalgam with over-amplified harp.

                                                               Enjoy!

The Nineteenth Whole - Smilin' [1972]

Indianapolis soul-jazz trio Nineteenth Whole first played together as backup musicians for jazz guitar great Grant Green, forming their own group to record the 1972 Smilin' album on Eastbound Records. Vibist/singer Billy Wooten, organist/singer Emanuel Riggins, and drummer "Mad" Harold Cardwell were joined by a few sessionmen for the LP, including noted guitarist Cornell Dupree, who took all the guitar solos. 
The record was solid early-'70s soul-jazz in which the musicians sounded more comfortable with the soul idiom than many did on releases given a soul-jazz tag, offering five mostly instrumental, lengthy pieces with funky grooves and some sparkling organ-vibes-guitar interaction. The group also recorded a live album, featuring Wooten, under the name Wooden Glass.



                                                 

                                                                        Enjoy!

Jackie Mittoo - Macka Fat [1972]

Jackie Mittoo is one of the most important artists in the history of Jamaican music. As founding member of the legendary Skatalites, as in-house arranger/producer at Studio One and as a solo artist in his own right leading groups such as The Soul Brothers, Sound Dimension and Soul Vendors.

 There are a dozen nice sultry hammond driven instrumentals on this LP.Certainly it has the sound of the best rocksteady music, some of its trancier grooves hinting at the dub era.

                                                                                Enjoy!   
                                                                                      

Freddy Robinson - The Coming Atlantis [1969]

This record was labeled funky jazz guitar and was arranged and conducted by Monk Higgins. Robinson was supported by King Errison on bongos & congo, Monk Higgins on organ, Paul Humphrey on drums and Joe Sample on piano .

 Robinson got his start as a blues musician backing Little Walter on the Chess label, before releasing some jazz albums on World Pacific. 

Before Six is an upbeat jazz tune with some congas and bongos as backing, but it sounds a little over orchestrated. Coming Atlantis is a strange mix between funky versus and a really light chorus. (I’m A) Fool For You is a Curtis Mayfield song and Robinson whips out the distortion and wah wah pedals to add some more funk to the mix. Black Fox has a bunch of strings at the beginning, but then gets down to a nice funky groove. Rita is a fast-paced soul-jazz song that builds a little tension at the beginning by slowing down, before the rest of the song takes off. Together a very nice listening experience.

 Not as downright funky as Grant Green, but much better than say George Benson or Charlie Byrd. 

                                                                Enjoy!

Ahmed Abdul-Malik - Eastern Moods Of Ahmed Abdul Malik [1963]

 One of the most compelling albums ever recorded by Ahmed Abdul-Malik – and that's saying a lot, since all of his albums are pretty darn great! The set's got a style that's very strongly in keeping with the "eastern moods" of the title – with less of a jazz sound than some of Abdul Malik's other work for Prestige, and more spare, exotic instrumentation overall. The group on the set is a trio – Ahmed on bass and oud, Bilal Abdurrahman on alto, Korean reed flute, and percussion, and William Henry Allen on bass and percussion. With that kind of lineup, you can imagine the feel – lots of spare rhythms, with snaking reed work over the top, done in a very evocative way – and although there's less jazz than usual, the alto sax solos still give the record enough of a jazz component to set it apart from straight world music. The album kicks off with a surprisingly great, and incredibly haunting take on "Summertime", then rolls into some really wonderful original tunes that include "Ancient Scene", "Magrebi", and "Shoof Habebe". 


                                            

                                                                 Enjoy!

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Soul Rebels [1970]

Soul Rebels is an album by The Wailers, their first album to be released outside of Jamaica. The Wailers approached producer Lee Perry in August 1970 to record an entire album, and the sessions took place at Randy's Studio 17 in Kingston, Jamaica until November. First issued in the UK by Trojan Records in December 1970, the album has since been re-released several times on several different labels.This 2004 re-issue contains three bonus tracks: 'No Sympathy (alt.version), 'Jah Is Mighty' and 'Soul Rebel [version 4]'. Perry's production is sparse and haunting, only featuring guitar, bass, drums, electronic organs, and vocals with no horns or other embellishments. Working with the newly configured Upsetters band, Marley and crew delivered a strange and wonderful set of early reggae that at times plays fast and loose with the already established conventions of the genre.A classic!

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Exile One - Beaucoup D'gaz A Bo, Lotsa Music Onboard [1975]

Fantastic Creole Dope Funk with long instrumental section led by singer Gordon Henderson and some cool english vocals. 7 tracks including: Ico Vole; Tout' Jeu Cé Jeu; You Have Lost The Battle; On N'Homm' Tomber; Vive Les Vacances Aux Antilles; Dem Higher; Instant Funk. 

                                                                                Enjoy!

Joe Cocker ‎– Joe Cocker [1972]

Joe Cocker is an album released by Joe Cocker in 1972. It was issued in the U.S. on A&M Records. It contains the hit single "High Time We Went", that was released in the summer of 1971.
Although A&M has so far never made the album available on CD in the U.S., it licensed the recording to UK-imprint Cube Records, which issued the album on CD (with a different cover and titled Something to Say) in Europe; that CD is currently out-of-print. 

 

The last of Cocker's classic early period records, it's an almost surprisingly strong affair. The amazing thing is that this time Joe wrote most of the material himself - in collaboration with Stainton and others, but still, this is a really independent record, and thus an absolute anomaly in the Cocker canon. Even more amazing, these songs are mostly good. This is also a good album for those who like their Cocker more rockin': lots of fast, upbeat, punchy grooves on here, and a solid enough amount of packed energy.

                                                             Enjoy!

Tim Buckley - Greetings from L.A. [1972]

Greetings from LA is about the night. About when 1960s free love became 1970s pleasure hunt.

All this is done to a deep, exotic, popping funk, provided by the best in the business: Chuck Rainey and many other funky associates. These were THE guys to get if making jazz or funk or both in the 70s.   

These songs are long, girating canvases, played perefectly by these amazing musicians. This is funk, not disco, but it is amazing how hard the beat is driven, yet how musically it is played. The opener is blues funk. "Get On Top" works as proto-dance music. "Sweet Surrender" is exotic, middle eastern, a slow naughty satin burn--the stuff of your knuckle rapping top-bottoned school teacher's most pleasent dreams.No doubt that the music is sure as hell great!

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Ouelele - Another collection of modern afro rhythms [1999]

It's unclear what is supposed to unite the tracks on Ouelele, an eclectic anthology of African and African-derived music, aside from the announcement in the too-sparse liner notes that all the tracks are "rare" and "obscure." But there is a theme here, intentional or not: All these songs -- from 12 different artists from the late '60s to the late '90s -- fuse Africa's native music with the jazz and funk devised by the descendants of Africans living in the West. And so we have South African Letta M'Bulu's "What's Wrong With Groovin'," which swings as much as it grooves; Henri Guéon's "Volcano," which marries Antillean drums to American brass; and "World War IV" by Antibalas, a band that plays hardcore Afrobeat -- in New York City. By the time Smahila and the S.B.'s concluded the nearly 19-minute "African Movement," it wasn't clear just who was being channeled, Fela Kuti or James Brown. There are no weak tracks on this album, but the best is "Unity" by Philip Cohran and the African Heritage Ensemble. From a droning, hypnotic violin line, Cohran builds a piece that would sound equally at home a million years in the past and a million years in the future.

                                                                              Enjoy!