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It happens at times that a stone cold classic from a bygone era gets rediscovered. But how often does that rediscovery happen when the band is still around? And how often does it lead to a new album? That’s the surprising circumstance behind the Staples Jr. Singers’ long-awaited second album, Searching (out June 14).
Originally released in 1968 on the budget Saga label, The Soul of The Matter has become a genuine cult favourite of the British late-sixties soul-pop underground. Long overlooked and pressed in modest quantities, the album quietly built a reputation among collectors as one of those rare low-budget releases where the artistry far outweighed the resources behind it.
Recorded in New York in 1967, Silk & Soul is Nina Simone’s second album for RCA. The album features "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", which would become a Civil Rights anthem, "It Be’s That Way Sometimes", written by her brother Sam Waymon, and "The Turning Point", a song that seems to be about a child making a new friend, but turns out to question the origins of racism
Charles Stepney gained worldwide success as the producer for Earth Wind & Fire and Deniece Williams but the producer and arranger’s earlier work at Chess is now regarded as some of the most original ever laid to tape, and in the past 20 years has become a primary influence on scores of producers and arrangers, with his records being sought after by DJs and collectors. Despite a couple of attempts, his most important work has never been compiled on one volume until now. This compilation gathers up his most famous productions for the likes of Rotary Connection - and their singer Minnie Riperton, Ramsey Lewis, Terry Callier, Marlena Shaw and the Dells.
Known for their shared love of black American music, the Beatles' versions of songs by the likes of the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Arthur Alexander, Barrett Strong, the Isley Brothers and more provided an entry point into soul for many young Brits in the early 1960s. As their fame spread across the Atlantic ocean, it was inevitable that their music would start to impact on the musical worlds of soul and jazz in the shape of multiple covers of their hit singles and album tracks.
In 1963, Sam Cooke, the true inventor and King of Soul, recorded the album Night Beat, which was bluesier and moodier than anything we had heard from Cooke before. If Sam Cooke had lived longer, we might have had more music of this rare quality.
As it stands, we must make do with the treasures he left behind
In 1965 in the face of social unrest, legendary Memphis label Stax Records put on two pulsating shows at the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles, featuring Rufus Thomas, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, William Bell, Carla Thomas, Wilson Picket and more. 60 years later the recordings, newly mastered by Joe Tarantino, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl, have been collected with a bonus set of performances recorded at Club Paradise, Memphis to form Stax Revue – Live In ’65!.
Glenn Fallows and Mark Treffel released their first album, 'The Globeflower Master Volume 1', on Mr Bongo in September 2021.
With its lush, warm and timeless productions paying homage to classic 60s and 70s soundtrack composers, it was very well received and struck a chord with the scene's connoisseurs.
