A fourth LP of spiritual jazz by this feted nine-piece from Australia.
‘A stunning work, full of integrity and class… Essential’ (Echoes).
‘Wonderful record, full of some great Kamasi/Donald Byrd/even Art Blakey moments.’ (The Guardian).

Landmark Detroit jazz. Trumpeter Charles Moore was the founder of the Detroit Artist Workshop; he and pianist Kenny Cox would go on to found the highly influential Strata Records. The pair split the compositions here. The second of the Quintet’s two Blue Notes, AllMusic likens this 1969 session to Andrew Hill’s Grass Roots, Jackie McLean’s Jacknife, and Grachan Moncur’s Evolution.

A brawny, no-piano, three-horn quintet — Dave Liebman, Joe Farrell, Frank Foster — including bassist Gene Perla. Questing, widescreen post-bop from 1971.

Originally released in 1975. Featuring guest musicians Ken Boothe, Delroy Washington, Bob Davis, Gene Rondo, and former members of the Cimarons. .. and a sprinkling of Black Ark magic.

Aka the Clem Bushay All Stars, including Candy McKenzie, Dennis Bovell, Janet Kay, Jimmy Mack, Junior English, Moon Rocks and Zabandis…
From 1977.

Aka Counceltation — pimped with a new sleeve and title straight out of the treacherous Hefner-Jazz nexus — featuring a hefty West Coast lineup: Jack Sheldon, Curtis Counce, Harold Land, Carl Perkins and Frank Butler.
Easy swinging and elastic, limpid and lyrical, with brilliant playing all round. Perkins is always a pleasure; Land another HJ legend, lethal in ballads; Butler bosses, as per.

Choca with unrelentingly hard and heavy salsa bangers, school of Willie Colon, this 1973 album is the fifth full-length salsa LP led by Julio Ernesto Estrada Rincón, aka Fruko, and the second credited to Fruko Y Sus Tesos. The singers are Joe Arroyo and Wilson ‘Saoko’ Manyoma; besides salsa, the rhythms are mozambique, conga, bomba, and jala jala.
The stone-cold-killer descarga Salsa Na Ma is here. Phew-wee. Raging dancefloor fire.

A heartfelt tribute to Sun Ra.
Trumpet, drums, and the great man’s favoured Rocksichord; and up-and-coming Cuban bassist Ledian Mola, who adds vocals inspired by Cuban folklore.
Another winner from 577.

Bassist Dezron Douglas and harpist Brandee Younger doing over Alice and John Coltrane, The Stylistics, The Jackson 5, Pharoah Sanders, Kate Bush, Sting, and The Carpenters.
Douglas has worked with Pharoah Sanders and David Murray, amongst other jazz notables; Younger with Charlie Haden, Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill… Both are featured on Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings.
‘It’s an uplifting suite of real, soulful comfort music — a spiritual salve.’

Rough, tough salsa brava from 1972.
The soaring, soulful vocals of Edulfamid Molina Díaz front an augmented, more aggressive brass section —introducing another trumpet and two trombones to the lineup— swaggering through a dazzling range of rhythms including guaguancó, bomba, plena, oriza, bolero, cha-cha-chá, descarga, and Latin soul.
Warmly recommended.

In his dazzling, rubadub flow, with intricate rhyming, lavish word-play and off-the-wall allusiveness, his genial socialism and jubilant, green-fingered vegetarianism, his knockabout sense of humour and all-round irrepressible good vibes, Ranger is the peerless heir to U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone… and the most diplomatic of envoys for the new dancehall styles just around the corner. He’s undervalued because of a perceived lack of gravitas, but he’s one of the all-time great deejays, and this is his best work.
Have a listen to the musical shock attack Automatic: over Take A Ride, no less, he bundles the Last Poets into a breakneck stream of consciousness, with walk-ons for Marcus Garvey, Bag O Wire, and Garvey’s secretary Mother Muschett; Dovecot Memorial Park and Madison Square; a bad boy who doesn’t know Ranger’s dad is a cop; succinct advice like ‘natty don’t play card inna Babylon yard’; a big baboon in the light of the moon, a broken chair, a felt hat, an anchor you can’t conchor…
“Everybody was wondering why I sounded different. And the reason I sounded different was through I did grow in England and I have the English accent and when I speak you can hear every word I am saying clearly. It was a plus for me. And then through I liked to write poetry and write songs, you know I’m a writer, I stick to the topic from start to finish.”
And the musical rhythms are a preposterous fish-tea tidal wave of Studio One classics (plus a Shank I Sheck): Take A Ride/Truths & Rights, Real Rock/Armageddon Time, One Step Beyond, Hot Milk, Throw Me Corn, Never Let Go, Full Up, Please Be True, Things A Come Up To Bump.

So let the good time roll, with Sir Coxsone at the control. When Ranger talk, the dance it have fe cork.
Deliriously enjoyable. Terrific cover art, too.
Very highly recommended. Five ribbits, five bims, five flash-its, five oinks.