Prince Buster - Sister Big Stuff (Melodisc, 1976)

You've heard many a ska artist proclaim himself the King of Ska. Perhaps none has more right to do so than the unforgettable Prince Buster, especially since he won so many of those sound system battles against Dodd and the other greats of the early sixties.

By the late 1970s, Prince Buster was in serious financial trouble. Fortunately for him, ska was experiencing a revival in the United Kingdom. In 1979, the band Madness released its first record, a tribute to Buster called "The Prince", which urged ska fans to remember "the man who set the beat", stating "So I'll leave it up to you out there/To get him back on his feet". Interest in Buster soared during this time; he received royalties when his songs were covered by bands like The Specials, The Beat and Madness and his old records were reissued and sold well. Buster is similarly mentioned in The Toasters song "Shebeen": "And there was an old man/Who used to bring up the sounds/And he kept those beats, he kept those beats/From when Prince Buster was around".

Tracklist:

South of the Border
Protection
Sata Masa Gana
Still
Wish Your Picture
Stick By Me
Why Not Tonight
Sister Big Stuff
Stand Accused
Bride Over Troubled Water
Young Gifted and Black
Cool Operator

Prince Buster - Sister Big Stuff (Melodisc, 1976)
(192 kbps)

Harry Belafonte & Nana Mouskouri‎– An Evening With Belafonte / Mouskouri (1965)

Following the pattern of his album duet with Lena Horne on songs from Porgy and Bess, Harry Belafonte teamed up this time with Greek chanteuse Nana Mouskouri.

Belafonte first performed with Mouskouri in Burlington, VT in 1964 during his first college tour. As with Lena Horne, Belafonte sings only two duets with Mouskouri; the remaining tunes may as well have been featured on solo albums, because the two singers didn't even share instrumentalists - Belafonte used his usual stable of musicians, including guitarist Ernie Calabria, bassist John Cartwright, and percussionist Ralph MacDonald, while Mouskouri was accompanied by bouzouki player George Petsilas. The songs are sung in Greek with Mouskouri's naturally coming off as more authentic. Most of the tunes were written by the prolific Greek songwriter Manos Hadjidakis, writer of "Never on Sunday."         

Tracklist

A1	–Harry Belafonte	My Moon (Fengari Moo)	2:57
A2	–Nana Mouskouri	Dream (Oneero)	2:33
A3	–Harry Belafonte / Nana Mouskouri	If You Are Thirsty (Kean Tha Depsasees)	3:22
A4	–Nana Mouskouri	The Train (To Traino)	3:10
A5	–Harry Belafonte	In The Small Boat (Mes Tin Varka)	3:10
B1	–Nana Mouskouri	The Town Crier (Telalees)	2:08
B2	–Harry Belafonte	Walking On The Moon (Pame Mia Volta)	3:30
B3	–Nana Mouskouri	The Baby Snake (Feedakee)	3:12
B4	–Harry Belafonte	The Wide Sea (Thalassa Platia)	2:38
B5	–Harry Belafonte / Nana Mouskouri	Irene (Erene)	2:33

Harry Belafonte & Nana Mouskouri‎– An Evening With Belafonte / Mouskouri (1965)
(256 kbps, cover art included)     

John Coltrane - Coltrane (First Trane) (1957)

On his first session as a bandleader, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane is joined by Johnny Splawn on trumpet, Sahib Shihab on baritone sax, and a rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath with piano duties split between Mal Waldron and Red Garland.

Right out of the gate, the propulsive syncopated beat that drives through the heart of Coltrane's fellow Philly denizen Calvin Massey's "Bakai" indicates that Coltrane and company are playing for keeps. Shihab's emphatic and repetitive drone provides a manic urgency that fuels the participants as they weave in and out of the trance-like chorus. Coltrane grabs hold with bright and aggressive lines, turning the minor-chord progressions around into a spirited and soulful outing. While the refined and elegant "Violets for Your Furs" as well as the slinky and surreptitious "While My Lady Sleeps" are undeniably ballads, they aren't redundant. Rather, each complements the other with somewhat alternate approaches. "Violets for Your Furs" develops the role of the more traditional pop standard, whereas the somnolence is disrupted by the tension and release coursing just below the surface of "While My Lady Sleeps." The Coltrane-supplied "Straight Street" is replete with the angular progressions that would become his stock-in-trade. In fact, the short clusters of notes that Coltrane unleashes are unmistakable beacons pointing toward his singular harmonics and impeccably timed phrasing on 1960's G"iant Steps" and beyond. The closer, "Chronic Blues," demonstrates Coltrane's increasing capacity for writing and arranging for an ensemble.

The thick unified sound of Coltrane, Splawn, and Shihab presents a formidable presence as they blow the minor-chord blues chorus together before dissolving into respective solos. The trio's divergent styles prominently rise, pitting Shihab's down-and-dirty growl against Coltrane's comparatively sweet tones and Splawn's vacillating cool and fiery fingering. Regardless of the listener's expertise, "Coltrane" is as enjoyable as it is thoroughly accessible.       

Tracklist:

A1	Bakai	8:45
A2	Violets For Your Furs	6:10
A3	Time Was	7:25
B1	Straight Street	6:15
B2	While My Lady Sleeps	4:36
B3	Chronic Blues	8:00

John Coltrane - Coltrane (First Trane) (1957)
(256 kbps, cover art included)        

Hazel O´Connor - Alive And Kicking In L.A. (1994)

"Alive and Kicking in L.A." is Hazel O'Connor's live album, released in 1990 and then re-released under other names such as "L.A. Confidential". This live album includes hits like "Will You! and "D-Days" plus other rare tracks.

Tracklisting:

1	D-Days	4:29
2	Reach	4:55
3	Driftwood	5:20
4	Black Man	5:09
5	Summertime	4:19
6	Tell Me Why	3:53
7	Just Like A Woman	5:32
8	Time After Time	4:50
9	Will You	5:17
10	Sing Out Sister	4:33

Hazel O´Connor - Alive And Kicking In L.A. (1994)
(256 kbps, front cover included)

The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement - Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966

This double-CD reissue documents a central aspect of the cultural environment of the Civil Rights Movement, acknowledging songs as the language that focused people's energy. These 43 tracks are a series of musical images, of a people in coversation about their determination to be free. Many of the songs were recorded live in mass meetings held in churches, where people from different life experiences, predominantly black, with a few white supporters, came together in a common struggle. These freedom songs draw from spirituals, gospel, rhythm and blues, football chants, blues and calypso forms.

"The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966" documents the importance of songs in the Civil Rights Movement. The first disc features songs from mass meetings, where a singer or core of singers leads the people in the singing of the songs, while the second focuses on ensemble works by the SNCC Freedom Singers and other groups.

Chances are that unless you were involved in the Civil Rights Movement you will not especially recognize many of these songs, with "This Little Light of Mine," "Go Tell It On the Mountain," and "We Shall Overcome" being the obvious exceptions. But you will be surprised at some of the popular songs that were appropriate for the cause, such as "Calypso Freedom," based on Harry Belafonte's "The Banana Boat Song," and "Get Your Rights, Jack," based on the Ray Charles hit "Hit the Road, Jack." For me the song that stood out was "In the Mississippi River," written by Marshall Jones after the disappearance of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. As local rivers were dragged in search of the men, many other bodies were discovered, a chilling fact that certainly needs to be more than a historic footnote to that tragic event. There is also a lengthy segment from a sermon by Rev. Lawrence Campbell, which illustrates the song-sermons that were an integral part of the movement and its traditions. The result is a historical document of immense value.

Folkways Records was founded by Moses Asch and Marian Distler in 1948 to document music and spoken word from around the world. The Smithsonian Institution acquired Folkways from the Asch estate and has succeeded in preserving the best of the label's 2,200 albums. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued this grand tradition. Their releases are superb, especially in terms of providing the historical context by which we can best appreciate these songs from another place and another time.
.

The Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement pt.1

The Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement pt. 2

Cornel Campbell - Natty Dread In A Greenwich Farm (1975)

Born 1948 in Kingston, Jamaica, Cornel Campbell got his start in the early 1960s at Studio One. In 1967 he became a member of short-lived Uniques. By 1969, Cornel had his own group called the Eternals.

Cornel sings in a falsetto style and made his mark as a lovers rock singer (although he did record a string of rasta hits in the mid 70s). He recorded 'Stars' and 'Queen of the Minstrels' at Studio One during the late 60s and moved on to Bunny Lee's studios in 1971. By 1984 their relationship ended and Cornel's career and output slowed considerably.                   

"Natty Dread in A Greenwich Farm" was produced by Bunny Lee, mixed by King Tubby and backed by the Aggrovators.

Tracklist :
Why Did You Leave Me To Cry
I Am Just A Country Boy
Somebody Has Stolen My Girl
King's Heart
I Wonder Why
Lost In A Dream
Duke Of Earl
Natural Facts
The Sun
Girl Of My Dreams
Dance In A Greenwich Farm
Natty Dread In A Greenwich Farm

Cornel Campbell - Natty Dread In A Greenwich Farm (1975)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Mance Lipscomb - Trouble In Mind

Like Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt, the designation as strictly a blues singer dwarfs the musical breadth of Mance Lipscomb.

Born on April 9, 1895 in Navasota, TX, Lipscomb was a sharecropper/tenant farmer all his life who didn't record until 1960, "songster" fits what Lipscomb did best. A proud, yet unboastful man, Lipscomb would point out that he was an educated musician, his ability to play everything from classic blues, ballads, pop songs to spirituals in a multitude of styles and keys being his particular mark of originality.

He appeared at numerous blues and folk festivals throughout the '60s, released several albums on Arhoolie and even one for a major label, Reprise, in 1970. Four years later, Lipscomb retired from the festival circuit and passed away on January 30, 1976 in his hometown of Navasota, TX. He was 81.

With a wide-ranging repertoire of over 90 songs, Lipscomb may have gotten a belated start in recording, but left a remarkable legacy to be enjoyed.        


Tracklist:

Corrina, Corrina
Rock Me Mama
Mama Don't Allow
Get Away Blues
Shine On Harvest Moon
Good As I Am To You
Baby Please Don't Go
Get Away Blues
Trouble In Mind
Going Down Slow
Night Time Is the Right Time
Long Way To Tipperary
So Different Blues
Ella Speed
See You Mama Every Night
Late Hours Blues
Nobody Cares For Me
Shorty George Cut Down


These recordings wer done in 1964 at Mance Lipscomb's home in Navasota, TX.

Mance Lipscomb - Trouble In Mind
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Max Collie's Rhythm Aces - Stomp Off, Let's Go

Trombonist John Maxwell "Max" Collie was born on February 21, 1931, in Australia but relocated to England in 1963. A fine trad player, he has led Dixieland-oriented combos ever since, usually under the name of the Rhythm Aces

He played with several different jazz band before forming his own group Max Collie's Rhythm Aces in February 1966.

They released their first record in 1971 and in 1975 they won a world championship in traditional jazz against 14 North American jazz band.





Tracklist:                           

A1	Stomp Off, Let'S Go	4:32
A2	Chimes Blues	4:58
A3	Doctor Jazz	4:00
A4	Brownskin Mama	2:40
A5	High Society	4:09
B1	Snag It	6:20
B2	Moarie	3:20
B3	Baby Brown	3:00
B4	Cakewalking Babies From Home	6:52

Max Collie's Rhythm Aces -  Stomp Off, Let's Go
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Monty Sunshine's Jazzband - The Glory Of Love

Monty Sunshine (9 April 1928 – 30 November 2010) was an English jazz clarinetist, who is known for his clarinet solo on the track "Petite Fleur", a million seller for the Chris Barber Jazz Band in 1959. Sunshine variously worked with the Eager Beavers, the Crane River Jazz Band, Beryl Bryden, George Melly, Chris Barber, Johnny Parker, Diz Disley and Donegan's Dancing Sushine Band.

Born in Stepney, London, he along with Lonnie Donegan, Jim Bray and Ron Bowden, formed the back line of what was the embryo Chris Barber Band. Ken Colyer was the first trumpet player, with Sunshine on clarinet, and the original 1953 band took the Colyer name until there was a split from Colyer in May 1954. Pat Halcox - who only turned the band down originally as he wanted to carry on his studies - took over the spot, and the band formally adopted the Chris Barber Jazz Band as its title.
The band quickly made an international reputation following their inaugural tour of Denmark, before their professional debut in the United Kingdom. Sunshine stayed with the band for several years, until he left around 1960, to be replaced by Ian Wheeler. He formed his own band, staying true to the original six man line up, whilst Barber expanded his band membership to seven, then eight and finally to eleven.

In January 1963, the British music magazine NME reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included George Melly, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Alex Welsh, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Sunshine.

Sunshine returned to play a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber Band at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon in June 1975. This was well received, and the band reformed once again for an international reunion tour in 1994. Sunshine retired from music around 2001.

Monty Sunshine's discography is extensive, and CDs have been issued of recordings with Colyer and Barber, as well as with his own band.

He died in November 2010, at the age of 82.


Tracklist:

A1	Wolverine Blues	4:45
A2	Yellow Dog Blues	4:13
A3	Sweet Sue	3:30
A4	Bugle Boy March	3:40
A5	Wild Cat Blues	2:59
A6	Margie	2:30
B1	The Glory Of Love	5:28
B2	Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet	2:50
B3	Riverboat Shuffle	4:16
B4	Mood Indigo	3:27
B5	What's The Reason	4:00

        
Monty Sunshine's Jazzband - The Glory Of Love
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Zebra – Live Rock mit Brecht/Weill Songs und Balladen (Amiga, 1987)

 

The band Zebra was established in the early eighties as a follow up to the band "Klinik - Formation" in the GDR. Members were Ekkehard Kind (voc), Uli Ackermann (g), Matthias Nilius (keyboards), Milo Herrmann (sax, fl), Jens Streifling (sax) Willi Reichert (dr) and Achim Gerber (bg). Later Albrecht Neumann (dr), Elmar Schwenke (keyb, ex-Logo), Larry Brödel (voc) and Olaf Mehl (voc) joined the project.

Zebra recorded in 1986 an live LP with rock versions of Brecht/Weill-songs, which was released in 1987.  In this and in the following year the band toured in the UdSSR. The band broke in 1989, Jens Streifling went to West Germany and played later with BAP, and Elmar Schwenke served at the army.

Side 1:
1. Erstens vergeßt nicht ... Ballade vom angenehmen Leben
2. Ballade von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens
3. Ruf aus der Gruft – Vision in Weiß
4. Ballade von der Höllenlili
5. Lied von der harten Nuß

Side 2:
1. Ballade von den Seeräubern
2. Alabama-Song
3. Die Moritat von Mäckie Messer
4. Anstatt-daß-Song
5. Erstens vergeßt nicht ... Kanonensong
6. Song von Mandeley

Zebra - Live Rock mit Brecht/Weill Songs und Balladen (Amiga)
(320 kbps, vinyl rip, front and back cover included)

John Coltrane - Soultrane (1958)

In addition to being bandmates within Miles Davis' mid-'50s quintet, John Coltrane (tenor sax) and Red Garland (piano) head up a session featuring members from a concurrent version of the Red Garland Trio: Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Taylor (drums).

This was the second date to feature the core of this band. A month earlier, several sides were cut that would end up on Coltrane's "Lush Life" album. "Soultrane" offers a sampling of performance styles and settings from Coltrane and crew. As with a majority of his Prestige sessions, there is a breakneck-tempo bop cover (in this case an absolute reworking of Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby"), a few smoldering ballads (such as "I Want to Talk About You" and "Theme for Ernie"), as well as a mid-tempo romp ("Good Bait"). Each of these sonic textures displays a different facet of not only the musical kinship between Coltrane and Garland but in the relationship that Coltrane has with the music.

The bop-heavy solos that inform "Good Bait," as well as the "sheets of sound" technique that was named for the fury in Coltrane's solos on the rendition of "Russian Lullaby" found here, contain the same intensity as the more languid and considerate phrasings displayed particularly well on "I Want to Talk About You." As time will reveal, this sort of manic contrast would become a significant attribute of Coltrane's unpredictable performance style. Not indicative of the quality of this set is the observation that, because of the astounding Coltrane solo works that both precede and follow "Soultrane" - most notably "Lush Life" and "Blue Train" - the album has perhaps not been given the exclusive attention it so deserves.  

Tracklist:     

A1	Good Bait	12:26
A2	I Want To Talk About You	11:10
B1	You Say You Care	6:25
B2	Theme For Ernie	5:03
B3	Russian Lullaby	5:42

John Coltrane - Soultrane (1958)
(256 kbps, cover art included)    

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy (1972)

Alice Coltrane had become a musical world unto herself by the time she issued "World Galaxy", recorded in late 1971. With jazz-rock fusion taking over the mainstream and the terminal avant-garde heading over to Europe, Coltrane stubbornly forged an insistent, ever-evolving brand of spiritual jazz that bore her own signature as much as it did her late husband's influence.

On the two days in November when "World Galaxy" was recorded, Coltrane chose drummer Ben Riley, bassist Reggie Workman, violinist Leroy Jenkins, saxophonist Frank Lowe, and timpanist Elayne Jones in addition to a string orchestra of 16 to help her realize her latest vision. Coltrane herself plays piano, harp, and organ on this date, sometimes within a single track, as she does on her glorious post-modal reworking of "My Favorite Things." This was a gutsy move, considering it was one of John Coltrane's signature tunes, but Alice has it firmly in hand as she moves from organ to harp to piano and back, turning the melody inside out wide enough for the strings to whip up an atmospheric texture that simultaneously evokes heaven and hell and skewers the prissy nature of the tune in favor of bent polyharmonics that allow the entire world of sound inside to play. The jazz modalism Coltrane presents on "Galaxy Around Olodumare" is quickly undone by Lowe in his solo and reconstructed into polyphony by the string section; it's remarkable. The harp work on "Galaxy in Turiya" (Alice's religious name) is among her most beautiful, creating her own wash of color and dynamic for the strings to fall like water from the sky into her mix. As colors shift and change, the rhythm section responds, and focuses them in the prism of Coltrane's textured harpistry. The album closes with another John Coltrane signature, "A Love Supreme," here given an out of this world treatment by the band with Jenkins playing full force through the middle of both channels.

There is a narration by Coltrane's guru inside it, a poem really, spoken by the great guru Satchidananda, which no doubt would have moved John Coltrane, but the real news is Alice's killer, funky breakbeat organ solo that covers the tune top to bottom in blues, in stark contrast to Jenkins' improvisation. This set may take some getting used to for some, but it's easily one of the strongest records Alice Coltrane ever released, and one of the finest moments in jazz from the early '70s.

Tracklist:

My Favorite Things	6:22
Galaxy Around Olodumare	4:15
Galaxy In Turiya	9:55
Galaxy In Satchidananda	10:25
A Love Supreme	9:58

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy (1972)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Gil Evans - New Bottle, Old Wine (1958)

Gil Evans' second album as a leader (a World Pacific set that has been reissued by Blue Note) features his reworking of eight jazz classics including "St. Louis Blues," "Lester Leaps In" and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue."

Evans' charts utilize three trumpets, three trombones, a french horn, a prominent tuba, one reed player, altoist Cannonball Adderley and a four-piece rhythm section. Most memorable is a classic rendition of "King Porter Stomp" featuring the exuberant altoist Cannonball Adderley, who is the main soloist on most of the selections. Other key voices include Evans' piano, guitarist Chuck Wayne and trumpeter Johnny Coles.

This is near-classic music that showed that Gil Evans did not need Miles Davis as a soloist to inspire him to greatness.    

Tracklist:

St Louis Blues	5:26
King Porter Stomp	3:17
Willow Tree	4:40
Struttin' With Some Barbeque	4:30
Lester Leaps In	4:16
'Round About Midnight	4:07
Manteca	5:16
Bird Feathers	6:54

Gil Evans - New Bottle, Old Wine (1958)          
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Chuck Willis - Let´s Jump Tonight! - The Best Of Chuck Willis 1951 - 56

Before he donned his jeweled turban as "The King of the Stroll" and topped the charts with rock & roll hits like "C.C. Rider" and "It's Too Late," Chuck Willis was a bona fide R&B star and one heck of a songwriter to boot. Let's Jump Tonight contains Willis's essential R&B tracks from that period (1951-56), along with some exciting previously unissued tracks.

Willis was a master vocalist who could swing effortlessly from heartrending ballads to rollicking jump blues. His plaintive singing and intuitive phrasing on songs like "My Story," "I Feel So Bad," and "You're Still My Baby" showcase a soulful jukebox balladeer in his prime.

Willis delivers a stirring interpretation of Fats Domino's style on "Going to the River," and on wild tunes like "Rule My House" and "Blow Freddy Jackson" his full-throated shouting is every bit as powerful as the roof-raising sax solos he sets up. Thrilling music from a very influential R&B stylist.


Tracklist:

1		Be Good Or Be Gone
2		Let's Jump Tonight
3		Can't You See
4		It's Too Late Baby
5		I Rule My House
6		My Baby's On My Mind
7		Loud Mouth Lucy
8		My Story
9		Wrong Lake To Catch A Fish
10		Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)
11		My Baby's Coming Home
12		Going To The River
13		I Feel So Bad
14		You're Still My Baby
15		What's Your Name
16		Keep A Knockin'
17		If I Had A Million
18		My Heart's Been Broken Again
19		I Don't Mind If I Do
20		Blow Freddy Jackson
21		If I Were You
22		Lawdy Miss Mary
23		Search My Heart
24		One More Break
25		Bless Her Heart
26		Charged With Cheating

Chuck Willis - Let´s Jump Tonight!
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Merle Haggard & The Strangers - Someday We´ll Look Back - Rest In Peace!

Merle Haggard, an icon of American music, died at his home in California on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. It was the singer, songwriter, and musician’s 79th birthday. In 2008 he battled lung cancer, and was hospitalized in December 2015 with double pneumonia. Haggard returned to the stage soon after, but was sidelined again in February due to continuing health concerns. “A week ago Dad told us he was gonna pass on his birthday,” Merle’s son and lead guitarist, Ben, revealed the day his father died, “and he wasn’t wrong.”

"Someday We'll Look Back" is a terrific early-'70s LP from Merle Haggard, one that showcases not only his exceptional songwriting skills, but also his rich, subtle eclectism. Much of the album is given over to ballads, including both lush, string-laden country-pop crossovers and simple, folky tunes, but there are also hints of twangy Bakersfield honky-tonk and blues, as well as western swing. But what really makes the record so distinctive is the quality of the material. Haggard's original songs - including "Someday We'll Look Back," "Tulare Dust," "I'd Rather Be Gone," "One Sweet Hello" - are uniformly excellent, while he invests considerable emotion into covers of Tommy Collins' "Carolyn," Dallas Frazier and Elizabeth Montgomery's "California Cottonfields," and Roger Miller's "Train of Life." The result is one of the finest albums he ever recorded. 


Tracklist:                           

A1	Someday We'll Look Back
A2	Train Of Life
A3	One Sweet Hello
A4	One Row At A Time
A5	Big Time Annie's Square
A6	I'd Rather Be Gone
B1	California Cottonfields
B2	Carolyn
B3	Tulare Dust
B4	Huntsville
B5	The Only Trouble With Me

          
Merle Haggard & The Strangers - Someday We´ll Look Back   
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Joe Bataan - Salsoul

No recording artist has more impeccable street credentials than Joe Bataan, the originator of the New York Latin Soul style that paralleled Latin bugalu and anticipated disco. His musical experience began with street corner doo-wop in the 1950s, and came to include one of the first rap records to hit the charts, 1979's "Rap-O, Clap-O".



In between these milestones, he recorded classic albums like "St. Latin's Day Massacre", a perennial favorite in the salsa market, "Salsoul", which gave the record label its name and helped spark the national explosion of urban dance music, and "Afrofilipino", which included one of the very earliest New York disco hits, an instrumental version of Gil Scott Heron's "The Bottle".

Born Peter Nitollano, of African-American/Filipino parents, Joe Bataan grew up in Spanish Harlem, where he ran with Puerto Rican gangs and absorbed R&B, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Rican musical influences. His music career followed a pair of stints in Coxsackie State Prison. Self taught on the piano, he organized his first band in 1965 and scored his first recording success in 1967 with "Gypsy Woman" on Fania Records, . The tune was a hit with the New York Latin market despite the English lyrics sung by Joe, and exemplified the nascent Latin Soul sound. In early anticipation of the disco formula, "Gypsy Woman" created dance energy by alternating what was fundamentally a pop-soul tune with a break featuring double timed hand claps, . Joe would take this tendency even further on his influential "Salsoul", which fused funk and latin influences in slick yet soulful orchestrations.

"Salsoul" remains influential as a rare groove cult item, but pointed to the future at the time of its release. The LP embodied the artist's highly deliberate and culturally aware musical concept. Bataan theorized the '70s next big thing as a hybrid: an Afro Cuban rhythm section playing Brazilian influenced patterns over orchestral funk. In many ways, his vision was on the money, though most of the money would go to others, and mainstream stardom would elude him. He did, however, get in on the ground floor of the new trend as an early hit maker.

Joe Bataan - Salsoul
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Animals - Live At The Club A Go-Go (1963) - Happy Birthday, Eric Burdon!

Let´s celebrate Eric Burdon´s 75th birthday with an Animals live recording from the Club A Gogo, Newcastle-on-Tyne, December1963           

In 1964, the Animals exploded onto the international music scene when their intense and ominous version of the folk standard "House of the Rising Sun" became a hit single in England and the United States. But in 1963, they were just another group from Newcastle-on-Tyne eager to show audiences they had something special.

"Live at the Club a Go-Go" was recorded during a December 1963 appearance at a nightspot in Newcastle, several months before they cut their debut single, where the group was serving as both opening act and backing band for the great American blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson. This release only features tracks by the Animals without Williamson, but it offers a vivid picture of the band's raw intensity and drive as they charge through a set of blues and rock standards with an energy and passion they rarely matched in the studio. The quality of the audio is flawed but serviceable.


Tracklist:

1	Let It Rock
2	Gotta Find My Baby
3	Bo Diddley
4	Almost Grown
5	Dimples
6	Boom Boom
7	C. Jam Blues

Animals - 1965 - Live At The Club A Go-Go 
(320 kbps, cover art included)          

Lindval (Linval) Thompson - Cool Down

The first thing to understand about "Cool Down" is that, like many other early reggae records, it has been issued a number of times by the same labels. Often the same songs are present but in a different order and with different artwork. Not that it's a particularly big deal, but a certain Clocktower LP pressing even credits Thompson as "Lindval," so look out for that if you think it might bother you.

That having been said, this offering will likely not disappoint fans of rocker's reggae. Bunny Lee's "flying cymbal" production dominates the session and consequently the listener might recognize several of these cuts from dub compilations on Blood & Fire. "Black Princess Lady," for example, can be heard in dub form on "Tapper Zukie's In Dub" as "Rush I Some Dub" and it's downright difficult to find a dub record without a version of "Money Money."

Generally speaking, though, this is not a dub record. Only the last song on each side is followed by a dub version. These are straight-ahead rockers with no frills and, depending on the pressing, rather muddy production. It is also worth mentioning that "Money Money" and "Blood Gonna Run," among others, find Robbie Shakespeare at his slippery and infectious best. Serious basslines throughout.   - allmusic.com     

1. Cool Down Your Temper
2. Jah Jah The Conqueror
3. Big Big Girl
4. No Escape
5. Long Long Dreadlocks
6. Dreadlocks Dub
7. Don't Cut Off Your Dreadlocks
8. Black Princess Lady
9. Blood Gonna Run
10. Money Money
11. Don't Trouble Trouble
12. Double Trouble Dub

Lindval Thomspon - Cool Down
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Luiz Bonfa & Antonio Carlos Jobim - Orfeu Negro (Soundtrack, 1959)

"Black Orpheus", the film by Marcel Camus, and its soundtrack, were the signposts by which the world first learned of samba and bossa nova and fell in love with it. Therefore, it is staggering to consider that it took until 2008 for a definitive edition of the soundtrack to be released, one that assembled all the songs and music heard in the film. After all, this is the score that created the partnership of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes, and introduced the brilliant and influential guitarist Luiz Bonfá. 

The sounds of the various samba schools from the carnival parades are accompanied by the gorgeous instrumental interludes by Bonfá (including the now ubiquitous "Manha De Carnaval," written with poet Antonio Mara), and the songs of de Moraes and Jobim (including "A Felicidade," as sung by Elizeth Cardoso). The songs may be well known now; the music of the favelas, as practiced by the escolas de samba with their agogo bells, atabaques drumming, stomping batacuda solos, and duels, folk line chants, and unusual (even now if one thinks about it) blend of African rhythms, dissonance, and extended harmonics, is still revolutionary today.  

Luiz Bonfa & Antonio Carlos Jobim - Orfeu Negro (Soundtrack, 1959)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist - First, Second And Third Generation Of Dub (1981)

During the 1970s, Tubby's work in the studio gave rise to modern dub music. He had a long string of hit songs, and worked as a producer for some of Jamaica's most popular artists, including Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo and Yabby You. In 1973, he began recording vocals to put along the instrumentals. By the later part of the decade though, King Tubby had mostly retired from music, still occasionally recording remixes and tutoring a new generation of artists, including King Jammy and Scientist. In the 1980s, he focused on production for Anthony Red Rose, Sugar Minott and other popular musicians. He was shot and killed by unknown persons, probably in a robbery attempt, in 1989, February 06th.

"First, Second And Third Generation Of Dub" was mixed by King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist at King Tubbys Studio, Waterhouse, Kingstone, Jamaica and released in the UK in 1981.

Tracklist:
01. First Generation - King Tubby
02. Second Generation - Prince Jammy
03. Third Generation - Scientist
04. Tubby's New Fashion - King Tubby
05. Prince Jammy On The Scene - Prince Jammy
06. Scientist At His Best - Scientist
07. Tubb's The Originator - King Tubby
08. Original Stylee - King Tubby,Prince Jammy & Scientist

King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist - First, Second And Third Generation Of Dub (1981)

(192 kbps, cover included)