Allen Toussaint - The Lost Sessions (Fuel Records - 2011)

Forget Memphis, Muscle Shoals or Detroit: some of the best soul music recorded in the 60's was coming from New Orleans and was essentially due to the genius of one man: Allen Toussaint. When he went out of the military in 1965, he launched several record labels with the help of Marshall Sehorn, Sansu, Dessu and Tou-Sea while still recording for other labels like New York Amy Records. Then at the peak of his inspiration, he penned scorchers and hits for the likes of Aaron Neville (Hercules and its massive bassline), Lee Dorsey (Get Out Of My Life, Woman and its break sampled a thousand times) and less well known acts like Benny Spellman, The Rubaiyats (a band composed of himself and Willie Harper) or Willie West. Allen Toussaint is featured 3 times as well on this compilation with two excellent instrumentals, the Burt Bacarach sound alike Hands Christianderson and Gotta Travel On and with his own a rendition of the biggest hits he made for Lee Dorsey, Working In The Coal Mine. The trouble with The Lost Sessions is that any other music will sound lame once you listened to it. It's probably an after effect effect of the voodoo they put in their music.

 Download => Allen Toussaint - The Lost Sessions

Cal Tjader - Soul Burst (Verve - 1966)

Don't expect to rock any dancefloor with this album, despite its name. Like every Caj Tjader release of the 60's, Soul Burst is a sure shot but there is more jazz than soul in it, even if there is some of the usual Latin spices. Chick Corea came by to give a hand on piano. Cal Tjader penned the last song and picked  up in a rather large repertoire for the rest: Cuba (Descarga Cubana), Brazil (It Didn't End, a Joao Donato song), Latin jazz classics (Manteca), Broadway (The Bilbao Song, My Ship), the West Indies (Curaçao). Even if there is less to sample than on Agua Dulce, for example, it's still a good album to enjoy a fresh drink with a nice lady during a warm spring evening.

 Download => Cal Tjader - Soul Burst

The Bullwackie's All Stars - Creation Dub (City Line - 1977)

After a stint for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle, Lloyd Barnes emigrated to New York where he created his Wackie's House Of Music record shop, a music studio and several reggae labels and sublabels. Quickly, from his american headquarters, LLoyd Barnes released some of the finest reggae music ever recorded. It's not a surprise that his catalogue was reedited by Basic Channel, a German label run by guys (Moritz von Ostwald and Mark Ernestus)  for which music is definitely not a joke. Creation Dub is credited to The Bullwackie's All Stars, one of the many configuration of Wackies in-house studio band. Most of the songs are dubbed version of riddims already used by others for Wackies and covers (I Want Get Next To You, rebaptized Next To Jah, Leaving Rome, rebaptized Creation Dub). Deep, heavy and spiritual shit.

 Download =>Creation Dub

Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri - El Sonido Nuevo (The New Soul Sound) (Verve - 1966)

When two masters of latin jazz decide to make music together, the result of their collaboration can only be a great album. Both were featured in the 49th issue of Waxpoetics and Duncan Reid described how both artists met: "In 1965, during a trip to New York City, Cal Tjader took in a concert by Eddie Palmieri (...). After the show, Tjader approached Palmieri and suggested they recorded together". El Sonido Nuevo was their first LP. It was then followed by Bamboléate. Palmieri took the arrangement duties and Rudy Van Gelder was behind the boards as engineer. El Sonido Nuevo is a latin scorcher as good as any record with the logo Fania on it. I ripped the CD reedition which holds the four titles of the original album  and 6 bonus tracks issued from two other Cal Tjader albums, Breeze From The East and Along Comes Cal but which do not feature Eddie Palimieri.

 Download => Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri - El Sonido Nuevo (The New Soul Sound)

Montparnasse 2000 Classics (Pulp Flavor Recordings - 2003)

Guys at Pulp Flavor (aka Dare Dare , aka Vadim Music) gathered 14 nuggets from famous French library label Montparnasse 2000. You probably already know that the term library in the case of Montparnasse 2000 was synonymous of scorching tunes, that give you plenty of occasions to sample a breaks or rock any party. Every single song is a sure winner and make of Montparnasse 2000 Classics a must-have, the time you can find and collect the complete albums. I still have a personnal little preference that goes for the last track, Xenos Cosmos, a psyche jazzy orchestral infectious number by Janko Nilovic.

 Download => Montparnasse 2000 Classics