MUSIC

At the very beginning of the Sixties, almost every American Jazz musician in the business had to somehow express his attraction for the exotic yet challenging Brazilian sound of the day. Originally released in 1962 on Argo Records this is the album that shows Ramsey Lewis's trio embracing the light and infectious groove of Bossa Nova, a genre and a style in which Lewis's Pop sensibility fits perfectly. The trio, here and there augmented by Brazilian guests, shines throughout a well chosen track-list of songs from the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá plus a bunch of originals in the same vein.

Originally released as an obscure private-press LP by the Florida trio of Ben Champion, Ken Burkhart and Danny Burger. Special guest on this super rare funky jazz outing is Mike Longo who says a few words on behalf of the group on the back cover, and sure enough he contributes scorching Rhodes in the style of his early 70s Greasy Groove sides for Groove Merchant and Mainstream. Also on board are Kelton Champion on guitar, Gary Champion on Bass, Mickey McGann on keys and David Winters on Congas and Percussion: (Just what we love to see on these kind of grooves. Added Phat Funkiness!) The 20 minute title number weaves, bobs, and scorches with a sound that has been described as a "Headhunters Headspace" the groove never dropping for an instant with a Fender Rhodes meets Hammond B3 Prestige Style Scene with an added flavouring of some chunky Moog Synthesizer. This has gotten a lot of chatter on the underground Jazz Vibes lately, copies changing hands for $300 and more. The track "These Are My Friends " regularly sells for upwards of $500 and is one of the most hard to find singles on the Rare Soul circuit. The band are from South Florida, a well known melting pot of culture and music.This area has produced an impressive number of Super Star Jazz Musicians. Among them Cannonball Adderly, Blue Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, and Mike Longo and a multitude of others. Jazzberry Patch can now be added to that roster with this fantastic re-issue from Jazz Room Records.

Pure Wicked Tune is a mixtape-style collection of extracts & cut-ups, taken from DIY cassette recordings featuring rare groove and "soul blues" soundsystems playing at early morning house parties and blues dances - mostly in South & East London - between the mid 1980s & early 90s. Sounds like Funkadelic, Touch of Class, Latest Edition, JB Crew, Manhattan, 5th Avenue (and the many more featured on this tape) originally began to form in the mid-1980s. With lovers rock dwindling, and the reggae scene becoming dominated by harder digital-style dancehall, these sounds provided a tight but loyal crowd with a potent alternative - playing a mixture of killer rare soul, funk and boogie records in an inimitably reggae soundsystem style, complete with toasting, sirens and effects aplenty. They were most well-known for playing at house parties and blues dances, typically in small flats or warehouses, with timing of such events generally running from the early morning hours until late the next afternoon. Though the popularity of the sounds faded following the dance music explosion of the early 1990s, there has been continued demand for revival sessions ever since. Whilst the influence of key British reggae & dancehall soundsystems on subsequent UK sounds like hardcore & jungle is relatively well documented, a similar line can just as easily be drawn from these sounds and the aforementioned styles' tendency toward sampling popular rare groove cuts, particularly well evidenced in the work of Tom & Jerry, 4hero, Reinforced & LTJ Bukem among others. This represents the first outing in a series of collections exploring the sounds of UK soundsystem culture, via extracts from archival DIY cassette recordings of blues parties, dances & clashes made between the late 70s and early 90s. Often duplicated and shared widely, these ruff and ready "sound tapes" provided keen ears with music that wasn't otherwise readily available on the airwaves or in the record shops, and would go on to leave a deeply-rooted but too often overlooked influence on the UK's musical landscape. The first work of a new series that explores the sound of change.

First solo album by the most acclaimed Italian drummer! Originally released in 1974, this record has become the holy grail in the drum-breaks library field, a true cult among DJs and producers all around the world! Now available again in a faithful replica of the original gatefold sleeve and of the original master tapes The holy grail of all the drum-breaks library LP, a true "cult" among DJ and producers, is availab …

Lost & found Japanese jazz-funk from 1986 surfaces for the first time on Estonia’s Memme Vaev, featuring overproof levels of wiggly machine funk backed by a driving Italo-acid remix by US-based Estonian JT (DJ Julius Talvik) “With unprecedented prosperity and growing worldwide fame in broadcast, game, and synthesizers, the 1980s Japan entered a golden decade. New genre splashes from technopop, Pacifica, and AOR/City pop merged local sensibilities with jazz-funk and Latin influences. Spiced in sugary US West coast sparkle and boasting naive lyrics with opulent arrangements and cover designs, it beamed millions of listeners on the cosmic journeys of Japan and its connections with Asia. Looking to bet on the city pop phenomenon, a group of young, just out-of-school in-house studio players gathered for ad hoc recording sessions between 1982-1986. Spearheaded by up-and-coming associate producer and arranger HASEGAWA Joe and keyboardist KATSURAGI Mariko their goal was to produce a hit album concept with a musical journey from Japan to Asia and beyond. Just short of wrapping a handful of test-pressings for studio and radio executives and a few tapes of demo recordings, the sessions came to an abrupt halt in 1986 with a striking personal loss. With the band's consequent disbanding and members embarking on their decades-long sessions careers, the original tapes were archived and lost in the Akihabara district for decades… …until Japanese pop culture *connoisseur extraordinaire* and producer Sten SALUVEER aka MILDHANS discovered a rare demo of the original recordings in one of Tokyo's Ebisu district's revered vinyl bars. After a lengthy period of digging and tracings for the original tapes, the lush soundscapes of KATSURAGI Mariko and HASEGAWA Jo are finally here to take you on a jazzy journey to City Heights of Asia.”

At Jazzman have already given legitimate release to albums that fell foul of the notorious '70s 'tax scam' practice, namely those by Sounds of the City Experience and Ricardo Marrero. It now gives us great satisfaction to present Reality's 'Disco Party' album, for the very first time in agreement with the surviving members of the band. Possibly the most obscure of all the obscurities in the TSG catalogue, 'Disco Party' isn't actually 'disco' at all, moreover it's a fully rounded excursion into mid-70s dancefloor funk and proto-disco-jazz, performed by a group of expert musicians at the height of their powers. Recorded in one long session in NYC, until now, bandleader Dr. Otto Gomez and the rest of his crew had never even heard the recordings they'd made almost 50 years ago. Indeed, none of the band even knew that their album had been released! At Jazzman, we consider it our mission to shine new light on music that went under-appreciated at the time of its original release. There are many varied circumstances which can cause an otherwise great record to not do so well - for instance, poor budget, marketing, promo and sometimes just plain old bad luck. Perhaps the most unjust circumstance involves the tax loss releases of the mid-70s - records made purely to cheat a few dollars out of the tax man. Here, along with restoring the music, we have dug deep into the backstory of the group, interviewing Gomez and others to find out exactly who this unheralded NYC funk orchestra were and what happened to them before and after the monumental session laid out on this record. Our liner notes tell the story of the TSG label and the 'tax loss' phenomenon, and we delve into the history of the band from their humble beginnings as the Smokin' Shades of Black(!) to the present day. We also find out exactly what it means to record some brilliant music - only to have it taken away - and discarded.