Orange Mountain Music presents AFRICA SINGS, a probing celebration into African music, through classical music and jazz, through legacy and tradition. The recital begins with Angélique Kidjo singing Bella Bellow's Senye, segueing into the premiere recording of Philip Glass's orchestral song-cycle Three Ifé Songs, composed for Kidjo in 2014. The focus goes then to American music with Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige in Maurice Peress orchestral arrangement, before shifting to Europe and Alexander Zemlinsky's Symphonic Songs sung by Martin Achrainer which set, in translation into German, the poems of the great Harlem Renaissance poets Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Frank Horne. Kidjo joins the venerable Bruckner Orchester Linz and conductor Dennis Russell Davies who cruise through the Ellington before digging deep into the Zemlinsky with baritone Martin Achrainer in tour-de-force performances from beginning to end.

Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, founder members of Pulp and DJs/record collectors/music lovers extraordinaire have said they will only ever do one mix album. Well, here it is. Meticulously researched and compiled, it's an amazing journey through power pop, expansive soundtracks, blues, alternative cover versions, junk shop breaks and genuinely unexpected musical nuggets. It's a genuine treat to listen to and, a rarity these days, a great introduction to some amazing, underexposed and obscure artistes and tracks.

Cynics might point out the reality that greatest-hits packages on artists who have left a label are a ploy to milk the consumer, but the consumers care more about a solid package full of their favorite songs from the artist. The new Acoustic Alchemy (with Miles Gilderdale replacing the late founding guitarist, Nick Webb, as Greg Carmichael's partner) is riding high on Higher Octave Music, but the material on this collection – part of a new GRP collection series – will always be, to the true Acoustic Alchemy fan, the real deal. AA's post-Webb sound is fancy and feisty, extremely soulful, and very attractive. Yet, there's something more intimate about the way Carmichael and Webb interacted; theirs was a union of true musical soul mates. This wonderful 16-track collection from their GRP and earlier MCA "Master Series" projects was chosen and sequenced by their manager, Stewart Coxhead, and he smartly picks all the crowd favorites: "Mr. Chow," "Catalina Kiss," "Same Road, Same Reason," and more. The range from pop to Latin to reggae is fun to experience again. There's obviously a poignancy to all this because of Webb's 1998 death, but it's more important to celebrate the legacy. As syndicated radio host and Catalina Island Jazz Trax festival promoter Art Good says simply in his liner notes, "These are good songs." More importantly, they speak of an innocent time, the early days of smooth jazz when even the gentlest of these could become radio hits. ~ Jonathan Widran

THE BOSWELL SISTERS The Boswell Sisters inauspiciously launched their recording career in New Orleans, their hometown, on March 22, 1925, but their first release, I’m Gonna Cry and Nights When I’m Lonely didn’t shake any rafters. Early local appearances featured Connie, the eldest, on cello, Helvetia (“Vet”) on violin, and Martha at the piano, but the city’s jazz environment made Connie and Vet switch to saxophone and banjo, respectively. At first, the singing was almost incidental, but it became their ticket to national attention five years later when they moved to New York and became a fixture on radio shows. The Boswell Sisters were notable for their tight harmony as well as their unique ability to modulate pitch and give familiar songs a new melodic twist. They were the cutting edge that inspired future groups, including The Andrews Sisters, who began their own career by emulating them, even down to their Southern accent. The exuberant sisters recorded a string of hits in the 1930s, sometimes teaming up with fellow vocalists, such as Bing Crosby and The Mills Brothers. Instrumental accompaniments are by some of the day’s most popular musicians and bands, including The Dorsey Brothers, Don Redman, Red Nichols, and Benny Goodman. Considering their popularity and impact, the sisters had a relatively brief run, disbanding in 1936 when Martha and Vel married outside of the music industry and decided to give priority to family life. Connie, however, continued and enjoyed a successful solo career. This boxed set contains the entire Boswell Sisters output of commercially released recordings—a remarkable set of performances that paved the way for the vocal trio genre.

Irrepressible, off-the-wall and utterly unique - the late ‘70s/early ‘80s Latin jazz-funk and leftfield electronic boogie of Japanese composer and pianist Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi collected for the first time. A luminous soul with an indefatigable love for music, few artists have had careers as varied and successful as Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi. One of Japan’s leading jazz-funk pianists, she wrote and recorded cult albums with fusion legends at home and abroad. Obsessed with new electronic instruments, she penned some of the country’s most well-known TV themes and pioneered the use of drum machines in anime soundtracks. A star in Japan, she moved to Europe to record global hits with Depeche Mode and Swing Out Sister, toured the world with the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra and made beats with Attica Blues’ Tony Nwachukwu. Now based in London, Mimi currently fronts Tokyo Riddim Band - the intergenerational live Japanese Reggae outfit born from Time Capsule’s acclaimed 2023 compilation of the same name - playing live shows and releasing a trio of recordings made at Prince Fatty’s studio.

Call it psycho-funk, call it Brit easy, call it downtempo abstract – whatever the case, it's all great! This second volume in one of our favorite all-time series is a stunner – and it comes up with a sparkling blend of very fresh grooves that we've only ever heard matched by a few other compilations over the past few years. The general vibe is rare soundtrack and sophisticated jazz funk material – and a huge amount of these cuts come from sources we've never seen before! Tracks include "The Rub" by Alan Tew, "Pretexte Indicatifs" by Guy Pederson, "Abstraction" by Projection, "Plummer Park" by Pete Jolly, "My Love For You & The Ugly" by Ed Green, "Beach Buggy" by Pierre Duchamp, "Beat Construction" by David Seeland Band, "Sour Soul" by Gentle Rain, "Night Is Blues" by Performance, "Name Of The Game" by Brian Bennet, and "Bass In Action #1" by Tonio Rubio. 19 cuts in all!

Brazil has always had its own brand of musical virtuosity, one that combined a distinctive and innate rhythmic swing with an effortless ability to turn seemingly abstract riffs into ridiculously catchy hooks. In the late '60s and '70s when these talented players in Rio and Sao Paolo turned their focus towards the North American funk scene and bands like Kool & the Gang, the Meters and the JBs, a new element was added to the mix. As the more polished sound exemplified by Quincy Jones and CTI Records took hold, Brazilian musicians red right back with their own distinct twist on the sound, one that inevitably revolved around a rhythm section laying down grooves that were both the tightest and the most supple imaginable. If that combination seems paradoxical, this collection will make the notion clear. Culled from the times no vocalist was claiming the spotlight, these instrumentals focus firmly on the rhythm section and its funky accompaniment, a journey through the '70s heyday of instrumental funk from Brazil from its rawest roots to refined boogie gems.

It's sure hard to call Castle's 2006 triple-disc box a "deluxe" release – it has the drab title of Invictus Soul Box Set and it's just slapped together in a CD-sized cardboard box, containing good liner notes by Peter Doggett but little else in the way of packaging (there are no photos from the label, either of the artists or the singles, anywhere to be found). This stands in contrast to Castle's previous treatment of the Invictus catalog, when they released a bunch of stellar single-artist retrospectives in the early 2000s, but ultimately it doesn't matter: on a sheer musical level, Invictus Soul Box Set is superb. It follows no strict chronological order, jumping from year to year within each disc, but it roughly breaks down to having the biggest hits on the first disc, follow-ups and neglected treasures on the second, with the funkiest stuff reserved for third. This gives the box a flow, but the truth is, this music could be played in random order and it would still be satisfying because each cut was designed to stand on its own merits as a single. Ironically, several of the versions showcased here are album versions – such as Flaming Ember's dynamic "Westbound Number Nine" – instead of singles, but these are subtle differences that do not change the overall effect of this box's addictive onslaught of soul. Holland-Dozier-Holland's skills as writers, producers, and overall talent scouts and shepherds were not diminished at all.

“Padre, fammi partire!”. Franco Battiato, orfano di padre, canta questo verso in “Da Oriente a Occidente”. Lo declama in modo solenne e deciso. Più che la richiesta di una benedizione è una dichiarazione d’intenti. La forza con cui viene recitata questa preghiera non ammette debolezze, compromessi o ostacoli. Partire è necessario. Il vulcano è lì, ad indicare la via. La potenza di questa frase rispecchia l’impazienza di un falco che, legato al braccio del proprio falconiere, attende di essere liberato dello chaperon, il cappuccio che lo rende cieco, per poter finalmente scattare e spiccare il volo. Il falconiere, per Battiato, è Federico II di Svevia, “Il Cavaliere dell’Intelletto”. Per noi, che tributiamo questo omaggio, il falconiere è Battiato stesso. “Padre, fammi partire!” è una piccola impronta che vuole testimoniare l’eredità musicale, intellettuale e spirituale che Battiato ci ha donato. Composizioni originali e rielaborazioni di repertorio attraversano tutto quello che Battiato è stato: fondamentalmente, un nucleo fermo e solido che ha mutato diverse forme, tutte assolutamente necessarie. Completiamo questo album nella primavera del 2021. Qualche settimana dopo Battiato muore, a Milo. E’ il 18 maggio 2021. Decidiamo di archiviare il progetto. A distanza di quasi sei anni, lasciamo che queste tracce risuonino, senza troppo clamore, sussurrate, così come deve essere una vera e sincera dichiarazione di amore.

Release is exclusive to RSD BF. A special 10 track collection of unique covers by Garbage, spanning their impressive 30 year career. "copy/paste" is a musical journey, showcasing the band mastery for reinterpreting classic recordings, and paying homage to luminaries such as David Bowie, Ramones, Patti Smith, U2, Big Star, The Jam, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Psychedelic Furs, The Velvet Underground, Tim Buckley and This Mortal Coil. Curated by Garbage, "copy/paste" is released exclusively for Record Store Day and available on special colour gatefold vinyl, featuring a previously unreleased track.

Release is exclusive to RSD BF. A special 10 track collection of unique covers by Garbage, spanning their impressive 30 year career. "copy/paste" is a musical journey, showcasing the band mastery for reinterpreting classic recordings, and paying homage to luminaries such as David Bowie, Ramones, Patti Smith, U2, Big Star, The Jam, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Psychedelic Furs, The Velvet Underground, Tim Buckley and This Mortal Coil. Curated by Garbage, "copy/paste" is released exclusively for Record Store Day and available on special colour gatefold vinyl, featuring a previously unreleased track.

Christoph Dallach, Andreas Dorau and Daniel Jahn present Echo Neuklang, a compilation which explores the question of how Krautrock has influenced generation after generation of musicians since its inception. A contentious genre at the best of times, the music within its spectrum is essentially intangible. The common thread running through it is a compulsion to seek out the new. Beginning in the year 1981 and extending as far as 2023, the music in this collection demonstrates how the idea of what passed for Krautrock in the 1970s has been interpreted or reinterpreted by a diverse array of artists with distinct approaches in the decades which followed, without recourse to any generic conventions.

Kris Needs repositions the roots of Sonny Blount aka Sun Ra on three discs (60 tracks) spanning his earliest 1933 recordings of big band jazz and be-bop, thru the birth of Sun Ra and the "future shock" of his later visions. "CD1 (Pre-flight) features Sun Ra’s earliest recordings from the 1940s, playing piano for Wynonie Harris and Lil Green, jamming with Stuff Smith, and coaching or arranging for artists such as Andrew Tibbs, the Hambone Kids and the Dozier Boys with Red Saunders’ Orchestra. Other artists he worked with featured here include pianist Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Jo Jo Adams and LaVern Baker. There’s also an intriguing brace of tracks displaying his experiments with mid-1950s vocal groups such as Nu Sounds and Cosmic Rays, while introducing berserk space-preacher Yochanan. All along, Ra was blueprinting his sonic spaceship until the time was right to launch under his own name in mid-1956 with effervescent debut single, ‘Saturn’, on his newly-established label of the same name. Saturn is also the planet he claimed to be his birth-place. CD1 ends with the first 1956 Arkestra sessions, picked up again on CD2 (Lift-off), which runs through early Saturn singles such as ‘A Call For All Demons’, then tracks from Sun Ra’s early albums Jazz By Sun Ra, Sound of Joy, Visits Planet Earth and Super-Sonic Jazz, his sound tangibly expanding through the stunning Arkestral manoeuvres of tracks such as ‘Sunology’. CD3 ( Future Shock) mixes tracks from Sun Ra’s twin landmark albums Jazz In Silhouette and The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra, with intoxicating one-off singles such as ‘Great Balls Of Fire’, ‘Space Loneliness’ and ‘Big City Blues’, the massively weird ‘Teenager’s Letter Of Promises’ with singer Juanita Rogers, before signing off with Yochanan’s demented ’Message To Earthman’."

Amazon review by Runmentionable
This is a comprehensive, well-selected and obviously well-informed collection of late 40s jazz and R&B (in the old sense) of the type you might expect to hear in nightclub scenes in films noir. Appropriately enough, both discs are bookended by the theme music from classics of the genre. Some of the selections are very familiar - Monk's original recording of Round Midnight - while others are drawn from deeper wells, like Leo Parker's exquisite Solitude. The key point is - they're all excellent representations of their genres. After that, it's down to personal tastes. I prefer Billie Holiday in more sprightly mode, but lots of people love the tracks here which I find a bit too self-pitying, and the difference of opinion don't signify when it comes to assessing this excellent compilation.

"1st Avenue" Minneapolis 1994. Complete version of the live at 1st Avenue Club, Minneapolis, 5th December 1994 concert. Secret show played under “The O. D. Jubilee Band”.