The Blackbyrds & Charles Earland - At The Movies (Prestige - 2001)

This economic package gathers in fact two classicblaxploitation soundtracks: Cornbread, Earl And Me, signed by The Blackbyrds and produced by Donald Byrd himself and The Dynamite Brothers, signed by Charles Earland. The latter one will satisfy the listener looking for the traditionnal blaxploitation OST experience: wah-wah guitars, crazy organs, funky breaks and tracks with cool names like Weedhopper, Razor J., Snake or Kungfusion. On Cornbread, Earl And Me, The Blackbyrds take their jazz funk road with a nice break to sample every 10 seconds and for you hip hop head the classic breakbeat of Wilford's Gone, sampled among others by Gangstarr on Say Your Prayers and Compton's Most Wanted on Straight Check N' Em. For you information, The Dynamite Brothers soundtrack has been largely used as well.

 Download - The Blackbyrds & Charles Earland - At The Movies

Scandinavian Funk Experience (Nascente - 2011)

I have already written how much the Nascente worldwide funk bargain price compilations serie is brilliant. It explores with originality and good scene the funk scene of country often ignored and always find a way to exhume pure nuggets. Richard Masip digged deep in the EMI North European 60's and 70's scene and succeed to make one of the best volume so far. Who knew that Finland, Denmark, Norway or Sweden had a  musical scene as hot as their porn flicks. Among the highlights, you can find Charles Williams, an American singer expatriated in Finland, who signs with Standing In The Way a stellar soul song. Doris sultry voice on the psychedelic You never Come Closer or on the deep soul influenced Don't is able to melt the ice while Ralph Lundsten infectious Horroscope breakbeat will infest your mind and deserves definitely its slot in any decent DJ playing list.

Download => Scandinavian Funk Experience

Jack Costanzo And Gerrie Woo - Latin Percussion With Soul (Tico - 1968)

Well, let's see what Red Schwartz says in the original cover notes, faithfully reproduced for this Vampisoul 2003 reissue, about this little latin soul burner we got here: "Jack Costanzo was Peggy Lee's main man bongo and conga drummer for many years, until he decided to attempt a career of his own (...). He worked for a year building a musical book, building an act until he was sure to make his big band impact onto the musical world. He needed (...) a female vocalist with style, with delivery, with looks, and he found one. Miss Gerrie Woo (...) was chosen to be part of the Jack Costanzo Band". The record was signed by Tico, and like everything that has the Tico label, be prepare to sweat and move your ass on this shit. The few covers, Green Onions, Words, Some Kind - A Wonderful, Jive Samba, are excellent and the original material is killing you hardly. with those latin mambo and descarga percussions .

Download =>Jack Costanzo & Gerry Woo - Latin Percussion With Soul

Philippe Sarde - Flic Ou Voyou (MCA - 1979) / Le Guignolo (MCA - 1980)

Jean-Paul Belmondo... Nobody knows him outside French boundaries but the guy used to be French most popular actor, specialized in action movies and comedies that met a huge success throughout the 70's and 80's and were largely played on French TV, especially the sunday evening. Everybody in France aged beyond their 30's grew up with that guy. The movies were not always good, even if Jean-Paul Belmondo has a few masterpieces in his huge filmography (for the details, go to his Wikipedia page: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Belmondo ). Flic Ou Voyou or Le Guignolo are definitely not among his best movies. I enjoyed them while a kid but watched them again recently and I must admit that those two action comedies didn't aged well. But the soundtracks stay absolutely relevant. Both were made by Philippe Sarde and are completely different. For Flic Ou Voyou, Philippe Sarde enroled not less than Chet Baker, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter and Billy Cobham for a jazz soundtrack. The first track, Flic Ou Voyou, is brilliant: it starts like a baroque music track then morphes into jazz. For Le Guignolo, Philippe Sarde made the choice of orchestrated music inspired by traditionnal French operetta. Both soundtracks were reedited as a double package by Universal in 2000. And it's always a huge pleasure to give away Universal music for free.

Download => Philippe Sarde - Flic Ou Voyou - Le Guignolo

Norman Connors - Take It To The Limit (Arista - 1980)/Norman Connors - Mr. C (Arista - 1981)

I discovered Norman Connors work thanks to an article in Waxpoetics. I bougth on vinyl Romantic Journey, You Are My Starship, This is Your Life and decided to collect his entire discography. I've found Take It To The Limit and Mr. C on this budget two albums on one CD re-issue. In the sleeve notes, Ralph Tee charaterized those two albums as his personnal Norman Connors favourites. I would share that opinion for Take It To The Limit, a wonderful disco soul record with only scorchers and no fillers that matches Salsoul or Roy Ayers best releases of the time. I'll be a bit more reserved about Mr. C, that makes the funk speak and is still a winner but less good than the other albums aforementioned.

 Download => Norman Connors - Take It To The Limit/Mr.C

La Guêpe - Volume 2 (Pulp Flavor Recordings - 1999)

This excellent compilation gathers 17 French library tracks recorded during the 70'sunder the influence of soul, jazz and funk. Breaks heads will consequently find plenty to sample in that groovy banquet. among Roger Roger, Jacky Giordano, Bernard Estardy, Janko Nilovic or even Philippe Sarde works. The tracklisting is a who's who of French library maestro. There are some curiosities as well, like my personnal favorite, Afro-Disiac, an hypnotic afro track made by Uele Kalabubu & Sa Tribu and that can be found on the LP Afroground, a pretty rare but good piece of wax I'll probably post one day. Pulp Flavor Recordings was created by the same guys that were later behind the excellent labels Dare -Dare and Vadim Music that closed last spring. A pretty damn shame if you ask me. So, one of your only last chance to get your dusty hands on their music if you don't want to dig is on this blog.

 Download => La Guêpe - Volume 2

Janko Nilovic & Dave Sucky - Vocal Impressions (Montparnasse 2000 - 1971)

To start that new season of first choice musical nuggets from my record collection, there's is nothing better than this nice Janko Nilovic library LP, recorded for Montparnasse 2000 in 1971. If you speak French and want to learn more about Janko Nilovic, I advise you to read this interview realised in 2004 for the website Scopia: http://scopia.perso.neuf.fr/portrait_nilovic.html That's where I learned that the vocals on this album were made by Janko himself and Graziella Nadrigal. The overall result, between West Coast pop, jazz and bossa is absolutely nice. I haven't posted the original LP but the Vadim Music 2006 CD reedition.

Download =>Janko Nilovic & Dave Sucky - Vocal Impressions

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

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

Willie Bobo - Juicy (Verve - 1967)

What attracted me first to Juicy was its cover that looked good: an orange and a pretty lady dancing on its skin. And the music that goes with it is damn nice too. Willie Bobo and his band play latinized cover of R&B hits of the time (Knock On Wood, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy or Ain't Too Proud To Beg). But the timbales palyer is at his best when he and his pals play his own repertoire on La Descarga Del Bobo and Shing-A-Ling Baby. This album certainly won't change your life but it will give you some pretty good times and make you in a party mood which is as well what this kind of music is made for. The CD version I ripped comes with 4 alternative takes of Juicy, Music To Watch Girls By, Dis-Advantages and Shing-A-Ling Baby that don't have any real interest.

Download => Willie Bobo - Juicy

La Formule Du Baron (CBS - 1969)

 All right all right, this one is not a that much hidden French deviant groove gem. It has been already pretty much blogged about and is famous all around the world among beat diggers, break fanatics, rare groove connoisseurs, euro groove fanatics. Bernard Estardy, to compose it, used his studio as a proper instrument and it's probably while La Formule Du Baron sounds that much unbelievably cool, still up to date and good. Some would still today sell a testicule or a kidney for that sound and that level of inspiration. The funniest thing is that Bernard Estardy, seconded here by Etienne Roda Gil, is well known to have churn out and produced thousands of cheesy pop songs for French worst and most famous singers. Nearly 99% of his work is absolute unlistenable garbage (the guy is well known to be featured on literaly hundreds records) while  the 1% left is pure genius. So enjoy his genius side and let's forget all the rest. In fact, The reputation of La Formule Du Baron is so high that even if it has been often reedited, this record is still complicated to find for a decent price whether on CD or vinyl. 

Download => La Formule Du Baron

Pucho And His Latin Soul Brothers - Yaina (Right-On Records - 1971)

Yaina is a Latin classic. In fact, it's Harold Jazzbo Alexander flute trickeries that largely steal the show and make the real worth of this instrumental album and make it fall into the " classics" category. It starts with an excellent  jazz funk Rolling Stones cover, You Can't get Always What You Want, that was not on the first original release of album but is on this 1996 Ubiquity reedition.  Then you can find the eerie anti war Cease The Bombing and burn up the dance floor with Chitterlings Con Carne, its cries at the beginning  and the flute that answers to the guitar. Those are the three stronger cuts of the album but the rest of it stays very solid.

Download => Pucho And His Latin Soul Brothers - Yaina

Can You Dig It? The Music And Politics Of Black Action Film 1968 - 75 (Soul Jazz Records - 2009)

Among all the compilation made about Blaxploitation movie, Can You Dig It? is probably the most complete and ambitious. Complete because among the 34 titles of this double CD you will be able to find the main and most interesting titles of the era (nothing important has been forgotten). Ambitious beacuse it is sold with a 96 pages real book with a rich iconography that make it by itself a necessary purchase even if you probably already possess under one form or another the majority of the titles. Coffy, Shaft In Africa, Trouble Man, Willie Dynamite, Across 110th Street, The Mack, Black Caesar, Superfly, Foxy Brown, Three Tough Guys, Shaft, Truck Turner, Hell Up In Harlem, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, They Call Me Mister Tibbs are soundtracks mandatory in any record collection and you will find their most emblematic songs in here. I personnaly anyways dicover less known titles like Gene Page's Blacula, Dennis Coffey's Theme From Black Belt Jones, Joe Simon's Theme From Cleopatra Jones and one of my favorite song of that era, Gordon Staples' Strung Out from the Mean Johnny Barrows soundtrack. I won't post any YouTube video with this short text as you probably already know what it's all about.

Download CD1 => Can You Dig It? 1 
Download CD2 => Can You Dig It? 2

Buster Williams - Crystal Reflections (Muse - 1976)

Buckwild used twice the Vibrations sample: on Artifact's What Goes On ? and on Big L Put It On. Even if is featured on Buster Williams album, Crystal Reflections, Vibrations has Roy Ayers written all over it. Roy Ayers actually composed it and played vibes and arp string ensemble on it.  Roy Ayers holds the vibes as well on the album first track, Prism. Those two songs are the highlights of this album, otherwise rather minimalist. All the other tracks are duo between bassist Buster Williams and Roy Ayers, Kenny Barron or Jimmy Rowles on vibes or piano. The ugly cover is not the album original cover but the one used for the 32 Jazz 1998 CD reissue.

Download => Buster Williams - Crystal Reflections

Quincy Jones - Walking In Space (CTI - 1969)

Walking In Space is considered like one of Quincy Jones best albums. When he moved into studio in june the 18th and 19th of 1969, he was surounded by killers: Ray Brown on bass, Eric Gale on guitar, Grady Tate on drums, Bob James on electric piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Toots Thielemans on harmonica, Hubert Maws on flute and tenor sax, Jerome Richardson on soprano sax, Roland Kirk on tenor sax and reeds. Hilda Harris, Marilyn Jackson, Valerie Simpson and Maretha Stewart were used for vocals. Rudy Van Gelder served like engineer while Quincy shared the arrangement duties with Bob James. Quincy had already back then completed his solid jazz reputation by a Hollywood stint that made him one of the go to Hollywood musician when it was about making a soundtrack. You mix those jazz masters with soundtracks like melodies, blues and gospel influences and you have Walking In Space.

Download => Quincy Jones - Walking In Space

Quincy Jones - In The Heat Of The Night/They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (MGM - 1997)

This long CD allows you to possess Quincy Jones two best soundtracks both featuring the character of detective Virgil Tibbs played by Sidney Poitier. Composed in respectively 1967 and 1970, In The Heat Of The Night and They Me Mister Tibbs! are heavy on jazz, blues and soul and don't have all the nervous tic of later blaxploitation soundtracks. Purists will certainly disdain this CD, because tracks are melted with dialogue snippets that are not on both original records. But what the hell, purists certainly already have those records on vinyl.

Download =>Quincy Jones - In The Heat Of The Night/They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

Neil Norman - Star Wars b/w Re-Entry (Vogue - 1977)

 Neil Norman and easy listening master Les Baxter produced several records under the name of Greatest Science Fiction Hits at the end of the 70's and the begining of the 80's. Thoses records were melting sci-fi soundtracks covers and original material, all made in a disco synth pop style. Star Wars was released on Greatest Science Fiction Hits Vol. 1 LP and as a 7" in France with on the B side Re-Entry. Re-Entry is the strongest track a little groovy gem. Starting with a traditional sci-fi synth sound, it then explodes in a blaxploitation style track with funky breaks, a massive bassline, a wah wah guitar and then morphs again into jazz rock. Warning: the sound on the version I got and I have posted is not very good.

01 Star Wars

02 Re-Entry

Download => Neil Norman - Star Wars b/w Re-Entry

Kid Creole - Going Places - The August Darnell Years 1976-1983 (Strut - 2008)

Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I completely ignored August Darnell existed until I saw him in the news in the mid 80's. He was touring in the south of France with the Coconuts and that deserved him a two minutes story. I found his music sounded cheesy and his stage antics were just not funny at all. 20 years later, thanks largely to DFA and James Murphy, the punk funk revival allowed me to digg into Ze Records discography and I really discovered August Darnell work. That guy is just a genius: mixing up every New York street sounds (disco, punk, funk, jazz, salsa etc.) into a big shaker and making of it something unique, intelligent, funny and really really good.  He occupied different positions (artist or just producer) in bands or solo acts like Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band, Christina, Gichy Dan's but you can recognize his hand at the first seconds on each record. This Strut released compilation is a perfect introduction to his work.

Download =>  Kid Creole - Going Places - The August Darnell Years 1976-1983

Attila Zoller/Lee Konitz/Albert Mangelsdorf - Zo-Ko-Ma (MPS - 1968)

MPS(for Musik Produktion Schwartzwald) can be a tricky label for break hunters like myself. Most of its releases are made for true jazz heads and are sometimes a bit annoying for common ears, especially when it ventures into free jazz territory. A similar experience happened to me when I read an article about Mainstream Records in Waxpoetics and discovered that Mainstream Records was anything but mainstream. But sometimes you find that magical moment on a record, the magical moment you're digging for and that makes you want to write a post about it. I found that magical moment with the 4th tracks of Zo-Ko-Ma, At Twighlite. It begins with a perfect guitar loop and when the alto sax and the trombone come over the guitar, things go sweet and smooth with a pretty cool laidback but arty feeling. The other Zo-Ko-Ma tracks are good as well but it definitely deserves to be possessed for At Twighlite alone.

Download=>Attila Zoller/Lee Konitz/Albert Mangelsdorff - Zo-Ko-Ma