Ella Fitzgerald - Things Ain't What They Used To Be

Year : 1971
Label : Reprise Records
Genre : Jazz, Latin Jazz
Style : Funk/Soul, Vocal, Big Band

A similar project to Ella in 1969 when a big band encounter Pop Culture from the sixties. Jazz, Soul, Bossa Nova and Funk. Arranged & conducted by Gerald Wilson and his orchestra with notable musicians as Joe Sample (organ & keyboards), J.J. Johnson (trombone).

01. Sunny
02. Mas Que Nada
03. A Man And A Woman
04. Days Of Wine And Roses
05. Black Coffee
06. Tuxedo Junction
07. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
08. Don't Dream Of Anybody But Me
09. Things Ain't What They Used To Be
10. Willow Weep For Me
11. Manteca
12. Just When We're Falling In Love

Reuben Wilson - Love Bug

Year : 1969
Label : Blue Note
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz

The second album for Blue Note by Reuben Wilson featuring Lee Morgan, George Coleman Grant Green & Idris Muhammad. Titles include covers pop (I'm Gonna Make You Love Me,  I Say a Little Prayer) & jazz standard (Stormy) played in Soul Jazz style and four Wilson' Originals. Produced by Francis Wolf and recorded at studio Rudy Van Gelder.

Reuben Wilson_organ
Grant Green_guitar
Idris Muhammad_drums
Lee Morgan_trumpet
George Coleman _tenor saxophone

01. Hot Rod
02. I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
03. I Say a Little Prayer
04. Love Bug
05. Stormy
06. Back Out

Jimmy McGriff - Electric Funk

Year : 1969
Label : Blue Note
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz, Funk/Soul

The grooviest album of one organ master recorded in association with Horace Ott, featuring Stanley Turrentine, Blue Mitchell and studio drummer Bernard Purdie. One of the most Jazz album sampled which include huge grooves Back on The Track and cover pop Spinning Wheel. Tracks 1 to 3, 7 & 9 composed by Horace Ott, 4 to 6 by Jimmy McGriff. Produced by Sonny Lester, all tracks arranged by Horace Ott.

Jimmy McGriff_organ

Horace Ott_electric piano

Bernard Purdie_drums

Blue Mitchell_trumpet

Stanley Turrentine_tenor saxophone

01. Back On The Track
02. Chris Cross
03. Miss Poopie
04. The Bird Wave
05. Spear For Moondog, Part 1
06. Spear For Moondog, Part 2
07. Tight Times
08. Spinning Wheel (D.C. Thomas)
09. Funky Junk

Takeo Yamashita - Lupin The 3rd (Original BGM Collection)

Year : 1980
Label : Nippon Columbia
Genre : Jazz, Stage & Screen
Style : Jazz Funk,

The original score of the first Lupin The 3rd TV serie broadcast from 1971 to 1972, composed by pianist Takeo Yamashita and revisited by himself. Based on the original master tapes, the album includes new recordings featuring flutist Minoru Muraoka and singer Charlie Kosei, frontman of japanese short-lived psychedelic rock band "The Helpful Soul". Titles include the classic opening and ending themes starring Charlie Kosei, killer grooves "Afro Rock Theme", "Disco Plays Lupin", "Rock Theme No.1", scat songs "Afro 'Lupin '68'", "Nice Guy Lupin-Two Beat", "Scat Theme" and brazilian tunes "Samba Crazy", "Medium/Slow Samba". All tracks composed by Takeo Yamashita.

MUSICIANS : Charlie Kosei - vocal - Takeo Yamashita - keyboards - Minoru Muraoka - shakuhachi - Susumu Hashimoto & Shigeki Ikeno - synthesizer, electric piano - Yuji Karaki & Youichi Tamura - guitar - Ken Sato - bass - Taketoshi Igarashi - drums - Yoshiro Hiroshi - vocal, scat

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Kimiko Kasai - Butterfly

Year : 1979
Label : CBS
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Funk

Japanese jazz songstress Kimiko Kasai meets Herbie Hancock (keyboards, vocoder) in joint project featuring members from the first incarnation of The Headhunters. The band is formed by bassist Paul Jackson, drummer Alphonse Mouzon, percussionist Bill Summers, saxophonist Benny Maupin and Webster Lewis in addition on keyboards. "Butterfly" consists of six compositions by Herbie Hancock, including two songs from his "Sunlight" album released previously (I Thought It Was You, Sunlight), "Tell Me A Bedtime Story" from "Fat Albert Rotunda" (1969), his jazz standard "Maiden Voyage" and the cover song "As" composed by Stevie Wonder. All tracks produced, mixed and recorded by David Robinson & Herbie Hancock at CBS studio in Tokyo.

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Wax Tailor - Tales Of The Forgotten Melodies

Year : 2005
Label : Lab'oratoire/Under Cover
Genre : Electronic, Hip Hop
Style : Trip-Hop, Downtempo, Jazzy Hip-Hop

Debut album by French independant Hip-Hop producer and cinema soundtrack lover J.C. Le Saoût released on his own label "Lab'oratoire". "Tales Of The Forgotten Melodies" mixes Downtempo and Trip-Hop including jazz & cinematographic samples. It features special guests, cello player Marina Quaisse on "Hypnosis Theme" & "Behind The Disguise", the american Hip-Hop band "The Others" on "Where My Heart's At" & "Walk The Line", and songstress Charlotte Savary on "Our Dance". Voices samples on "Hypnosis Theme" were extracted from "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" and "Alice" movies directed by Woody Allen. All cuts & beats by Wax Tailor.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Mecca And The Soul Brother

Year : 1992
Label : Elektra
Genre : Hip-Hop
Style : Funk/Soul, Jazz Rap

Debut album from iconic old school Hip-Hop duo featuring DJ Pete Rock & MC CL Smooth including their massive rap hit "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)"."Mecca And The Soul Brother" is a big classic of rap that features in the Hip-Hop best album record list of all time, including amazing collaborations with keyboardist Nevelle Hodge (Lots Of Lovin), rappers Grand Puba from Brand Nubian (Skinz) and Heavy D from Heavy D. & The Boyz (The Basement). Pete Rock uses various samples extracted as well as from Jazz (Grant Green, Lou Donaldson) to Funk/Soul (Kool & The Gang, James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone), making of this album a great inspirations source for many rap artists nowadays.

Insight - The Blast Radius

Year : 2004
Label : Brick Records
Genre : Hip-Hop
Style : Conscious, Abstract, Jazzy Hip-Hop

After "The Maysun Project" released in 2002 and before "Targeting Zone" (2007), the DJ, MC and producer Andre Toddman aka Insight from Boston, presents us the same good recipe including fast and insane flow. Titles include featurings with Dagha ("The Method Of Madness" & "Visual Audio"), Edan (Unexplained Phenomena), A.G. & Edo.G (Strategy) and DJ Real from Martiangang (Daily Routine). All cuts, beats & lyrics, all tracks produced, composed and mixed by Insight. "Visual Audio" is credited as Midnight Shipment aka Insight, Dagha & Demitrius Barry.

Grant Green - Visions

Year : 1971

Label : Blue Note

Genre : Jazz

Syle : Fusion

Great crossover jazz album from Grant Green Sextet featuring, as always, his sideman Idris Muhammad, Emanuel Riggins, Chuck Rainey, Billy Wooten, Ray Armando plus additional musician, Harold Cardwell, who plays drums & percussions on Blues for Abraham. Titles include Mozart Symphony #40 in G Minor, K550, Hancock's standard "Cantaloupe Woman", pop & soul covers We've Only Just Begun & Never Can Say Goodbye. 

Grant Green_guitar
Idris Muhammad_drums
Emmanuel Riggins_electric piano
Chuck Rainey_bass
Billy Wooten_vibes
Ray Armando_congas

01. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
02. Maybe Tomorrow
03. Mozart Symphony #40 in G Minor, K550, 1st Movement
04. Love On A Two-Way Street
05. Cantaloupe Woman
06. We've Only Just Begun
07. Never Can Say Goodbye
08. Blues for Abraham

Jimmy Takeuchi - R&B Drumming

Year : 1969
Label : Union
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Rock, Funk/Soul

"R&B Drumming" is a Funk/Soul covers album including the greatest hits of Soul music released on legendary labels such as Stax or Motown by Otis Redding (The Dock Of The Bay, Respect), The Supremes (Love Child, You Keep Me Hanging On), James Brown (I Got The Feelin'). Professional drummer since 1948, Jimmy Takeuchi started in the Nobuo Hara's Sharps & Flats big band under the Wasaburo Takeuchi name. In the late 1950s, he played in a big combo including two others iconic drummers George Kawaguchi & Hideo Shiraki, joined the Yuzuru Sera's Modern Playing Made and the Kazuo Yashiro Trio in the late sixties, and later played with Hidehiko Matsumoto, Shoji Suzuki, Sadao Watanabe and Teddy Wilson. 

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Akira Ishikawa Trio & R&B All Stars - Soul Session Jazz Goes R&B

Year : 1969

Label : Philips
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz, Funk/Soul

"Soul Session" is a crossover jazz album recorded by the Akira Ishikawa Trio featuring bassist Masaoki Terakawa and pianist Masahiko Sato, themselves supported by the R&B All Stars including Kiyoshi Sugimoto and Hiromasa Suzuki. Akira Ishikawa takes over some famous massive hits of the western pop music (I Say A Little Prayer, Day Tripper), Funk and R&B standards coming from the kings & queens of Soul such as Otis Redding (...The Dock Of The Bay), Eddie Floyd (Knock On Wood), Sam&Dave (Hold On, I'm Comin') or Aretha Franklin (Chain Of Fools). "Day Tripper", "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" & "Sunny" are exclusively performed by the Akira Ishikawa Trio. All tracks arranged by Hiromasa Suzuki, Masahiko Sato & Kunihiko Murai.

   

MUSICIANS : Akira Ishikawa - drums - Masaoki Terakawa - bass - Masahiko Sato - piano, electric piano - Hiromasa Suzuki - electric piano - Kiyoshi Sugimoto - guitar - Hiroshi Suzuki - trombone - Tetsuo Fushimi & Koji Hatori - trumpet

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