Organic Grooves 568 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.

It's tempting for "Blues In Orbit" to be overlooked when Duke Ellington's best albums are discussed, but truly it's an undisputed gem. There are 14 tracks, none of them is longer than 4:50 and it is all good stuff. There are some familiar favorites such as "In A Mellotone" and "C Jam Blues" as well as less often heard gems like "Blues In Blueprint and "Sweet And Pungent". It is also in stereo, and the arrangements are superb.
The featured performers include Ellington stalwarts Johnnie Hodges, Ray Nance, Harry Carney and Jimmy Hamilton, as well as the less familiar Booty Wood and Matthew Gee. Johnnie, in particular is well showcased here, taking the lead not only in slow pieces like "Brown Penny" and "Sentimental Lady", but also in the rousing "Smada".
The full Analogue Productions reissue treatment is at work on this smashing LP — famed mastering engineer Bernie Grundman handled the remastering from the original analog tapes. The lacquers were plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings, maker of the world's finest-sounding LPs. Lastly we've stashed each super-silent 200-gram disc in a premium Stoughton Printing gatefold jacket.
All of the takes were recorded during after midnight sessions recorded over two nights starting on December 2, 1959 in New York at Columbia Record's studio on East 30th Street. Each night Duke's late dinner arrived at 2 a.m. — a sizzling steak, a pot of coffee with lemons in it, portions of American cheese, and grapefruits. After dinner, and a breather for the band, the sessions finished around dawn in a swinging fashion.
If you're just getting into jazz, this album is highly recommended as a great way to initiate your collection. The sound is incredible, with packaging to match. Another audiophile home run.

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.

Monk's Dream is the first album jazz musician Thelonious Monk released on Columbia Records. Jazz scholars and enthusiasts alike also heralded this combo as the best Monk had been involved with for several years.

180g audiophile vinyl.

The only one of tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks’ albums as a leader to be released during his too-brief lifetime, 1960’s True Blue is a hard bop masterpiece featuring Brooks’ distinctive compositions performed by an exceptional quintet with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Art Taylor on drums.



Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition: Stereo, mastered from a digital source by Kevin Gray, manufactured at Optimal (180 g), padded inner sleeves.

In 1963, tenor saxophonist Harold Vick made his sole album as a leader for Blue Note, the underrated soul jazz gem „Steppin’ Out“. The record finds its groove from the first downbeat and stays firmly in the pocket throughout this set featuring Blue Mitchell, Grant Green, John Patton, and Ben Dixon.



Blue Note Tone Poet Edition: Stereo, 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



Harold Vick (tenor saxophone); Big John Patton (organ);

Grant Green (guitar); Ben Dixon (drums); Blue Mitchell (trumpet)

"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."