The first volume was a must, and on we go, from Hayes’ final 45 of 1972 through to 1976 — by which time Stax was defunct, and he was on his own Hot Buttered Soul label via ABC Records.
Including eight US R&B chart hits including the much-sampled Hung Up On My Baby and Chocolate Chip, Hayes’ biggest hit of this period Joy, and the ever-popular 1976 instrumental Disco Connection, which finally gave Hayes’ his second UK Top 20 hit after Shaft.

‘This fifth LP in the series opens with a banger: Street Dance by Bonnie Jean, in the style of Shirley Ellis’ The Nitty Gritty, with Darlene Love & The Blossoms clearly audible on background vocals. The Hollywood-based Doré imprint is also the source of You Really Never Know Till It’s Over by The Vel-Vetts, One Way Street by The Swans, a soulful update of The Teddy Bears’ To Know Him Is To Love Him by the Darlings, and He’s Groovy — featuring lead vocals by Sheilah Page, formerly of groups such as the Bermudas, Becky & The Lollipops, The Majorettes, Joanne & the Triangles and Beverly & the Motor Scooters — by The Front Page & Her.
‘Other highlights include The Sweethearts’ Supremes-influenced No More Tears, the sophisticated slowie Lonely Girl by The Lovettes (that’s them on the front sleeve), My Heart Tells Me So by The Del-Phis (an early incarnation of Martha & The Vandellas), Brenda Holloway’s lovely pre-Motown Constant Love, and the Fran-Cettes’ terrific interpretation of Heart For Sale.’

Music by Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell; songs performed by Edwin Starr.
With Easin’ In.

Leroy Burgess & The Fantastic Aleem Brothers.

Vintage funk and sweet soul by children, drawn from obscure 45s — fresh and irresistible, praps our favrit Numero so far.

Her 1982 collaboration with Roy Ayers — classic disco boogie. One side is a full vocal; the other a flute-led instrumental, beefed up for the dancefloor by Ayers, at the mixing desk .

“We started with a cosmic idea that we were taught from a very young age – that the stars and planets make a sound, that deep in outer space there is audible harmony.”
Book Of Sound is the brilliant, richly resonant exploration of these interstellar low ways. By turns urgent and contemplative, funky and reflective; varied in its textures, but entirely of one piece. Underpinned by cosmology, held in place by meditation, swirling with notions of history, science, theology, ancestry — this is a heady conceptual brew. But the music speaks loudest: ‘the sound of surprise’, magnificently retrieving Spiritual Jazz from the knacker’s yard.
It’s a deeply Chicagoan record. “It’s got the vibe of the lake,’ continues trombonist Cid, “the vibe of the prairies opening up to the west.” Also the Sun Ra albums recorded there in the 1950s, and — of course, being the dad of all seven ensemblists — Phil Cohran’s wonderful albums from the 1960s.
“You know, it’s tough trying to satisfy everybody with our music. It’s hard enough satisfying ourselves, let alone the jazz scene, the hip hop guys, what have you. With this album we just dropped all that as a consideration, and tuned into deeper principles.”

Tear-up bad-boy brass-band scorchers. Just like dad crossed Sun Ra with Kool And The Gang, this crashes funkdafied New Orleans street jazz into hip hop. With Flea, Damon, Tony Allen, Malcolm from The Heliocentrics.