Organic Grooves Vinyl 397 Items

Why you'll love it...
Ray Barretto’s songs are cinematic. Artfully composed, richly orchestrated, each one feels like something deserving of big-screen wonderment. And, indeed, from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (''Ritmo Sabroso'') and Oliver Stone’s JFK (''El Watusi'') to Lee Daniels’ Precious (''Teacher of Love'') to Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight (''Cocinando Suave''), his music as a bandleader made it into movies of major importance across the decades. Of course, you don’t need to be a card-carrying cinephile to appreciate the moods and magnitudes expressed by his work, especially his seminal 1968 album Acid for Fania Records.

It takes more than a minute into ‘’Acid'' before Barretto begins showing off on the congas, leading into a nearly three-minute solo marked by fabulous flourishes that culminates with the full band, including pianist Cruz, showing their united might. Elsewhere on Acid, the group would have dutifully jumped headfirst into this mode, but here it is just a spectacular finish to a rhythmic story — Barretto’s story — told like the best film you’ve never seen.

Sourced From The Original Master Tapes; Out of print since the 1960s

Now joining Jackpot Record's ever-expanding collection of Martin Denny re-issues is the hypnotic "visual sound" of Exotic Percussion, which has not been on vinyl since its original release in 1961.

His production on Exotic Percussion is ambitious, adventurous, and fascinatingly futuristic, especially when a tumbler with ice was still the preferred way to let loose. Xylophones and chimes swim from ear to ear; traditional jazz instrumentation collides with such musical oddities as boo bas, shamisens, Manga harp, and Burmese gongs.

As always, the choice of compositions on a Martin Denny record is a bizarre yet exciting spin around the globe, but this one is even weirder than usual. From the faster-than-light of "Cumana" to the luscious groove of "Moonlight On The Ganges" (made famous by Frank Sinatra and a track that is still being played on a loop at Disneylan's Jungle Cruise attraction), it's a whiplash of a ride. But the stand-out on the record is the combo of "Misirlou" (which would be made famous a few years later by Dick Dale and even decades later with its appearance in Pulp Fiction).

So join the conga line and head out into the street as Martin Denny once again creates a world we yearn to return to and an album we can always revisit.

Debut 1969 Album by New Orleans Funk Legends: The Meters. Sourced From the Original 1969 Analog Master Tapes. Cut by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Features the hit song "Cissy Strut". Limited Red Apple Vinyl LP.

Kenny Burrell's album "Guitar Forms" stands as Burrell’s definitive musical statement. It was nominated for three Grammys in 1965, is considered one of the true masterpieces in the Verve catalog. This is partly due to the outstanding performance of the guitarist himself, of course, but also to the unforgettable arrangements that Gil Evans wrote for five of the album's nine tracks. According to AllMusic, these were in no way inferior to the brilliant arrangements that Evans had made for Miles Davis classics such as "Birth Of The Cool", "Porgy And Bess" and "Sketches Of Spain".



Verve Acoustic Sounds Series: mastered fully analogue from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, QPR pressing (180 g), firm tip-on gatefold (Stoughton Printing), padded inner sleeve, Gatefold Sleeve.

"Polk Salad Annie" was the song and cadence for delivering White's unmistakable swamp rock sound, which called to mind the sound John Fogerty whipped up on Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bayou Country" and "Green River". Released in 1969, White's album debut "Black And White" contains some of the best swamp-folk-soul-funk of the era. White grew up in the soggy marshlands of Louisiana, his real-deal deep voice sounding like it's dredged from the bottom of the Delta. Rural life in the dirty south provided the inspiration for witty, sometimes funny, and sometimes poignant lyrics (later Tony Joe would pen the smash "Rainy Night In Georgia"). This Analogue Productions edition is the highest-quality reissue of "Black And White" released to date. It was mastered from the original analog tape by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and features unsurpassed plating and pressing on 200-gram heavyweight vinyl by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the finest-sounding LPs in the world. The dead-silent LP playing surface captures White's voice and his strong and funky backing band in true analog majesty. Besides "Annie", side one of "Black And White" includes several other White originals. AllMusic judges the best of these to be "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", a song about race relations with an arrangement similar to "Ballad Of Billie Joe", and "Soul Francisco", a short piece of funky fluff that had been a big hit in Europe in 1968. "Aspen, Colorado" presages the later "Rainy Night in Georgia," a White composition popularized by Brook Benton. The second side of Black and White consists of covers of hits of the era, with the funky "Who's Making Love" and "Scratch My Back" faring better than the slow stuff. Dusty Springfield had a minor hit with "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", and White's songs were recorded by other performers through the years, but "Polk Salad Annie" and the gators that got her granny provided his only march in the American hit parade. Highly recommended for fans of Creedence Clearwater Revival, J.J. Cale, and 1960s soul!

180 gram high quality pressing vinyl!

Why you'll love it...
"‘I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You’ runs the stylistic gambit without feeling Franklin is doing things just for show. The album isn’t trying to function as a resumé of her skills. Genre shifts feel organic and natural. “Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream” is built on a bossa nova groove, while “Do Right Woman Do Right Man” has a little country ballad flavor. “Dr Feelgood (Love Is A Serious Business)”—one of four songs penned by Franklin herself—is a bluesy belter. She might have been Queen of the genre, but pigeonholing Franklin in soul is like calling Sugar Ray Leonard just a welterweight. She could shuffle through styles as smooth as velvet. Everything is stamped with her own distinct character."

Donald Byrd was off to the races after joining Blue Note in 1958 and had fully hit his hard bop stride by 1961 with his excellent album "Royal Flush". Joining the trumpeter was a state-of-the-art rhythm section featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums plus Byrd’s frequent collaborator Pepper Adams on bari sax.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

This 1967 set, recorded live at Boston’s Jazz Workshop, showcases virtuoso guitarist Szabó—a veteran of Chico Hamilton’s and Charles Lloyd’s bands—at the top of his game on a diverse program featuring standards (“What Is This Thing Called Love”) and pop hits (“The Beat Goes On”) as well as the original and psychedelic-tinged jam, “Space.”



Verve BY Request Series: remastered, audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl from Third Man Pressing/Detroit, gatefold sleeve.

Recorded in November 1969 at Teichiku Kaikan Studio, Tokyo, "Speed and Space - The Concept of Space in Music" is one of those landmark works in which Masahiko Togashi is accompanied by talented musicians who possess a unique style and innovative approach. The album is an exploration of Togashi's notion of the “Time Law" and can be seen as a study of how texture, rhythm and differing rates of change effect our perception of the passage of time in music. Sounding quite obscure and contemplative, the brief introductory theme signed as “Presage” prepares the listener for powerful and scathing Free Jazz. In a pace of increasing intensity, “Panorama” remits us to the liberating ways of an absorbing percussion where the more muscular interventions are interspersed with moments of enormous sensitivity. Grounded by Togashi’s varied percussion, the disconcerting piano of Masahiko Sato and the vigorous bass of Yoshio Ikeda mark the guidelines of this long abstract exercise. Among several solo notes and brilliant moments played through an energetic improvisation, this theme of 14:35 minutes flows into a grand finale with the involvement of all the musicians. “Expectation” closes the A side in a short but intense reverie of percussion, bass and flute, guided by an improvisation free of harmonic prejudices. The floating world of 'Expectation' closes side A in a brief but intense reverie of percussion, bass and flute, guided by an improvisation devoid of harmonic prejudices. At the piano (and gong), Masahiko Sato (another illustrious representative of Japanese music) assumes a mediation function, granting some harmony traits to the, almost always, abstract and corrosive concepts of this collective. Certainly less known, bassist Yoshio Ikeda (which in the 70s recorded, among others, with trumpeter Terumasa Hino and in the early 80s with the renowned pianist Aki Takase) through a valuable contribution, imprints a decisive mark to the robust rhythm-section as to the overall sound of this date. Even with a less active participation, Mototeru Takagi helps impart a tonal diversity and a colorful exoticism through his forays into the tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute. Of sharp forms dominated by technique and irreverence, side B continues with the title track, divided in two distinct but equally penetrating parts. With a depth marked by Togashi’s percussion, “Speed & Space # 1” unfolds on a fast tune over 11 minutes of a harsh and incisive improvisation. The interaction of an irreverent rhythm section finds its complement in the disturbing screams of a delirious saxophone. Shorter, the 2nd part gives voice to an ambiental and minimalist concept in which the central role of Togashi finds an interesting matching in Masahiko Sato’s piano as well in the saxophone and flute of Mototeru Takagi. In this challenging exercise, the flank “space” reaches its fullness before culminating in an entrancing performance by Togashi (percussion, vibraphone, bells, etc.). Includes OBI and insert

A deep dive into the one of most collectable jazz catalogues in the world, a selection of some of the rarest and most sought-after recordings from the 60s and 70s, a time when British jazz began to find its own identity. Drawn from the iconic labels of Decca, Deram, Argo, EMI Columbia/Lansdowne Series, Fontana, Mercury, & Philips. If one were asked to pick an album that represented the best of British jazz in the 1960s, Le Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe by the New Jazz Orchestra would be a serious contender. Recorded in September 1968, it draws together many of the key streams that had developed in British jazz in the preceding years, and also presages much of what was to come. Notwithstanding the line-up, which includes some of the very best British jazz musicians directed by an inventive and ingenious leader in Neil Ardley, the session features pieces written by the most distinctive jazz composers active in Britain at that time alongside idiosyncratic interpretations of works by John Coltrane and Miles Davis. And it’s all captured beautifully by engineer Howard Barrow and producer Tony Reeves and it features a stella cast of some of the greatest musicians, not just from that era or genre but beyond; Jack Bruce, who would become one of the founding members of Cream, Barbara Thompson, Ian Carr, Michael Gibbs, Dave Gelly, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman, who went on to form one of the greatest jazz/progressive/rock bands – Colosseum.

Recorded live by Rudy Van Gelder this is one of a pair of Dolphy's albums documenting the 1961 historical residency at the Five Spot, the New York's major temple of the early avantgarde. This is timeless music performed by one of the essential lineups in modern Jazz. A marvelous quintet featuring the great Booker Little on trumpet and the amazing rhythm section of Mal Waldron — piano, Richard Davis — double bass and Ed Blackwell — drums plus, of course, master Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute. "All forward thinking and challenged listeners need to own these epic club dates" Allmusic

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

This is one of Eddie Harris' great records. The playing is inspired! What a band! Cedar Walton (piano) and Billy Higgins (drums), Lee Morgan's favourite rhythm section. The underrated but popular tenor saxophonist introduces his "Freedom Jazz Dance," which would become a jazz standard after featuring on Miles Davis' album Miles Smiles. Plays one of the earlier versions of "The Shadow of Your Smile," romps on "Love for Sale" and "'S Wonderful," and also performs "Born to Be Blue" and his own "Cryin' Blues." Harris is heard in prime form in a quartet/quintet with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Billy Higgins, and part-time trumpeter Ray Codrington. A gem. - Scott Yanow/AMG

Recorded 1965
Engineer – Tom Dowd

11 tracks ... sampled by Guru, Ghostface, Geto Boys ... 180 gram vinyl

Leon Thomas’ debut as a leader was this classic of spiritual jazz recorded for Bob Thiel’s Flying Dutchman label. Originally pressed in 1969, it features an all-star band including Pharoah Sanders (under the name Little Rock), Lonnie Liston Smith (piano), James Spaulding (alto sax), Cecil McBee (bass), Roy Haynes (drums) and Richard Landrum (bongos).

“Spirits Known And Unknown” features versions of ‘The Creator Has A Master Plan (Peace)’, the classic ‘Song For My Father’, ‘One’, ‘Echoes’ and the topical ‘Damn Nam (Ain’t Goin’ To Vietnam)’. Subtitled New Vocal Frontiers upon release, the rear sleeve noted that “Thomas is searching as far into himself as he can go for spirits known and unknown and is creating new dimensions of vocal expressiveness to bring these spirits – these feelings – into the experience of others.” The fact that this album is hailed as a classic shows that he succeeded.

Pressed on 180gm vinyl we have remained faithful to the original pressing replicating the Flying Dutchman label style and gatefold-sleeve.

Released in 1967, California Dreaming was Wes Montgomery's last album for Verve (other than an exciting collaboration with Jimmy Smith). It’s an extraordinary orchestral date featuring arrangements by Don Sebesky that showcases soloists such as pianist Herbie Hancock and percussionist Ray Barretto. The songs (which include "Sunny" and the title tune "California Dreaming") are in this case mostly pop material of the era, from which the great performer extracts magic sounds. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard jazz album chart and No. 4 on the R&B chart, and was one of the last great works by Montgomery, whose later guitar style influenced jazz fusion and smooth jazz. At the peak of his popularity, the guitarist unexpectedly died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968, at the age of 45.

Blues And The Abstract Truth is Oliver Nelson’s triumph. Featuring his all-time classic ‘Stolen Moments’, Nelson assembled one of the most potent modern jazz sextets ever. Lead trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is at his peak of performance, while alto saxophonists Nelson and Eric Dolphy (Nelson doubling on tenor) team to form an unlikely union that was simmered to perfection. Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums) can do no wrong as a rhythm section.

Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Recorded in 1957, Kenny Burrell’s third session as a leader for Blue Note presented the guitarist’s signature stylings with a crack team of hard boppers featuring Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins, and Louis Hayes. Previously only issued on vinyl in Japan (1979) this swinging set is given a new shine with this mono Tone Poet Vinyl Edition.



BLUE NOTE TONE POET EDITION: Mono, produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Why you'll love it...
During the pagan hours of an otherwise uneventful Harlem pre-dawn in 1963, Gary Bartz glimpsed a galactic mystery that conventional aeronautics could not explain. Only a few weeks prior, the nascent alto saxophone virtuoso had acquired his first telescope to pursue a newfound passion for astronomy. The purchase was already yielding dividends.

The recent Juilliard graduate’s fascination with the heavens began with astrology, but the then 22-year-old quickly realized that those celestial sketches were just photographs of the sky as captured during a specific orbit. Why bother with the rough blueprint when you could witness the entire electromagnetic spectrum in its full glory?

Born Booker T. Washington White, Bukka’s trajectory as a blues performer follows a familiar template for his
time. Born in Mississippi, maybe in Houston, MS – maybe in Aberdeen, MS – maybe in 1902, maybe in 1909
or even 1906 he recorded throughout the 1930s. Bukka even recorded while incarcerated in the Mississippi
State Penitentiary aka Parchman Farm. Asked about his time at Parchman White commented “Well, I mostly
played guitar.”
During the 1940s and 50s as Blues moved from the Delta to Chicago, from rural to urban, Bukka’s career went
dormant. And then, like many of his time, his talent was “rediscovered” in the early 60s, in no small part thanks
to a brilliant guitarist in his own right, John Fahey. Performances and all new recordings happened throughout
the 60s, building interest in Bukka White’s Delta roots. This compilation of White’s best early material was first
issued in 1969 (1970 in the US), collecting Bukka’s 78s recorded for Vocalion and Okeh. His influence on rock
performers of that day cannot be understated. He opened for rock bands he’d inspired at venues like The
Fillmore, played his instrument in such a fashion that some said it’s like he was trying to destroy that guitar, his
most famous guitar, a 1933 National Duolian, was even known as “Hard Rock.” And then there’s the fact that
his song “Shake‘em On Down” was so influential on Led Zeppelin that they, “borrowed” from the song for both
“Hats Off To Roy Harper” and “Custard Pie.”
Bukka White was many things, a strong influence on his cousin B.B. King, a cotton picker, a mule driver, a hobo,
a player in the old Negro Leagues, a boxer, a preacher, a convict, a factory laborer and, as celebrated here,
one of America’s blues pioneers.