music

An early and rare recording of the Chameleons playing a gig at the gallery club, in their home town of Manchester on the 18th December 1982.

For years, keyboardist Javier Santiago has ping-ponged across the country, searching for his sound in New York and California but he has always stayed true to his soulful roots in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For his Ropeadope Records debut, Phoenix, Santiago offers an album full of snow-dusted funk and a refreshing approach to jazzified-fusion.

Reggae from Libya, recorded at Ahmed Ben Ali's home studio in Benghazi in 2008.

Maurice “Mobetta” Brown boasts a signature sound that stems from the soulfulness of his trumpet playing and, in many cases, his memorable melodies.

Champion Sound is the only studio album by the duo Jaylib. Half of the songs are produced by Madlib and feature J Dilla on vocals, and the other half are produced by J Dilla and feature Madlib on vocals.

This Sound Defects album is the soundtrack for a film that is yet to exist. In fact, Witzig was originally hoping to work with a friend to create a short animated video to coincide with his album's release, something with a biker vs. Rambo theme. Although the short film never came to fruition, the album features album art and track names ("Johnny Law," "Jean Jacket John") that depict the leather-clad world of motorcycle maintenance.

Also recorded in 1972 although not released at the time was Konkan Dance, an unofficial sequel to Dream Sequence that further explored the unchartered possibilities of an Indian music-jazz fusion.

Fantastic collection of rare German jazz by Fitz Gore & The Talismen, featuring a previously unreleased version of "Summertime". Limited to 500 numbered copies and housed in a tip-on cover.

Anonymous British funk studio outfit Ultrafunk was spearheaded by Blues & Soul magazine proprietor John Abbey, who ran a fashionable record shop and label called Contempo in London's West End during the 1970s; he conceived of the group as the UK counterpart to US studio bands like MFSB. Arranger Gerry Shury, who had worked with Barry White and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, drafted guitarist Chris Rae and bassist Frank McDonald (who often composed library music together) and future Rubettes drummer John Richardson to form the group, in situ.

In the '60s the jazz pianist Bill Evans would occasionally record an orchestral "easy listening" session to pay the bills, with predictably mediocre results. But FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, while certainly easy on the ears, is also one of Evans' most intriguing "lost" records. The novelty is that Evans plays both Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano simultaneously in real time, trading off themes and improvs with deliberative taste and, of course, rare skill.