Soul web surfers will, I’m sure, have come across the site www.soulandjazz.com . As we pointed out in our news pages the site has no connection with us here @SJF – still the world’s biggest and brightest independent soul music site, by the way.
www.soulandjazz.com was conceived as a download site and as is often the way with ventures like this, those original aims change, shift and grow organically. Though the site still offers masses of downloads, their head boy, Brian Hurst, also hosts world-wide syndicated radio shows and also promotes new material. The logical extension of all this is this new 12 track compilation – which clearly is just the first in what we presume will be a series.
It’s been put together by Mr. Hurst himself and it’s meant to reflect the breadth of music that his download service and radio shows offer. However most (if not all) of the tracks come from albums which Brian is busy and enthusiastically promoting which begs the question – are they there on merit or just there to be marketed? Well, the good news is that each and every cut would be good enough to grace any soul or jazz compilation and there’s enough variety to please everybody.My standouts would be Avery Sunshine’s breezy ‘I Got Sunshine’ and Nothende’s crisp ‘Dance To This’. For jazzers there’s a lovely vibes break on Victoria Ursova’s ‘Sunny Day’ while Chicago’s Milton Suggs shows real potential on ‘Hope’. Want something a little different? Try ‘Wah’ from Randy Skinner. It’s a strange and heady brew – mind you what would you expect from someone who learnt his licks playing with the whole Parliament crew.
To find out more about this engaging and varied collection go to www.soulandjazz.com
(BB) 4/5
