MACEO PARKER: Soul Food – Cooking with Maceo (The Funk Garage)
Earlier this year the independent Mascot label group announced they were setting up a new subsidiary label specialising in funk and soul… the Funk Garage. Intriguingly we were told that a certain Bootsy Collins...
ROMINA JOHNSON: Heartbeat (J&J)
It was the back end of last year that ROMINA JOHNSON released a new single… ‘More’ … which we were told was from an “upcoming” album. Well in these tricky times, release schedules have...
THE STAPLE SINGERS: ‘Let’s Do It Again’ (Omnivore)
The union between gospel-soul group The Staple Singers, and Stax Records, which began in 1968, was undoubtedly a musical marriage made in heaven. Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton’s famous Memphis label oversaw the Chicago...
CHRIS ‘BIG DOG’ DAVIS; Focus (Shanachie)
Eagle-eyed soul and jazz sleeve note browsers will immediately recognize the name Chris Davis – nicknamed ‘Big Dog’ – for reasons which have never been fully explained! Over the years the keyboardist and producer...
CHRIS JASPER; For the Love Of You (Gold City Music)
CHRIS JASPER will rightly always be associated with the Isley Brothers at the height of their popularity. Remember though that Chris has also enjoyed huge success with Isley-Jasper-Isley and all right minded soul fans...
LENNY WILLIAMS: Fine (Bridle Ridge Records)
It was I think August 2018 when the soul world got excited by the news of an upcoming Lenny Williams’ album. Anything from the one time Tower Of Power lead singer and purveyor of...
MARVIN GAYE; A Stubborn Kind Of Fellow (Jasmine Records)
Few soul icons have had their back catalogues reissued and re-annotated as much as MARVIN GAYE has. Oddly, given his status, Gaye’s early work (and I mean really early… pre ‘Stubborn Kind Of Fellow’)...
KIM WATERS: The Shakedown (Shanachie)
Sax man Kim Waters has been at the top of his game for almost 30 years and despite the current crisis he’s just released this, his 24th album as leader. Indeed he sees it...
BINKY WOMACK; The Last Valentino (BW)
Binky Womack is the scion of a legendary soul clan (the clue’s in the name!). Specifically, he’s Curtis Womack’s son and, naturally, the nephew of Bobby Womack. With music in his DNA, he runs...
